Emmett Lightway, 16, District 3 Male

I waded throughout the cold, muddy pond, pushing past the green and mucky weeds floating on the surface of the water. There had to be more frogs around here than the number I had seen so far. I needed at least five if I wanted to pass the biology assignment on how animals adapt to being outside of their habitat, and I wanted to pass. I wasn't the star student of that class for nothing.

I kept looking, seeing one frog peacefully croak on the top of a lily pad. I held my breath with excitement and waited for one, two, three, four, five, before I leaped at it, splashing into the pond and grabbing a hold of the frog's slimy leg. It croaked and tried to squirm out of my hand, its vocal sac - wait, make that he, only males had the large vocal sac - expanding rapidly as he tried to get away from me. I held firm to the frog, depositing it into the glass jar with the three other ones I had managed to find around the pond in the last hour. One more, and I'd have enough data to finally start my homework!

And then I'd be able to sleep…

I lunged at another frog, just missing it and losing the glass jar in the pond. I gasped and dove under the water for it, grabbing it as it bobbed back up to the surface. The frogs looked somewhat frightened - as frogs would feel if they were bashed around in a glass jar - and I wiped my brow in relief. I didn't want to spend another hour here. The weird weeds floating on the top told me that it probably wasn't too sanitary to look around here for my assignment.

I saw another frog croaking peacefully near the side of the pond and crept closer, making sure to not trip over any of the roots on the side of the pond. The ripped toenail I had gotten last month proved that it wasn't a good idea to not look at the ground when I was searching for animals.

I suddenly fell on top of it, my hands grabbing a hold of the stomach. I made sure not to crush the panicking frog and dropped it into the glass jar, clasping the top of the jar onto the jar. I could finally get out of these weeds and go home!

And take a shower. I stank horribly.

I waded out of the pond and grabbed my shoes, walking towards my house. I didn't want to wreck these shoes after Mom had bought them only a month ago. I'd just have to go barefoot, just like how the kids in the rural districts did. Well, at least what I thought I knew. Even our teachers didn't seem to know much about their customs other than the bare minimum. Maybe that was the reason we only had to write a paragraph about them when we did the customary report on Panem, while the Capitol and District Three got a page. It was good for us, though. Even if we searched in the libraries around Three, we'd still only find a few old books that didn't tell us anything other than Panem used to be horrible and now it was perfect.

If it was perfect, we'd be able to travel to those districts and see for ourselves.

I laughed at my rebellious thought and kept walking, purposely ignoring the people who stopped and stared as weeds kept dripping off of my jeans. I wouldn't be able to talk to them if I wanted to anyway. My tongue always got flustered whenever I talked to others. It took two weeks before I was accustomed enough to my teachers in order to answer questions.

I jogged through the last street before my house, cringing slightly as my bare feet hit the sharp pebbles lining the sides of the streets. It probably hadn't been the best idea to walk barefoot the whole way, but it was better than ruining my shoes. I should have remembered to bring my boots, but that was the way of life. Whenever I needed something, it would disappear into thin air, and whenever I needed clutter to go away, it started to pile up in front of my very eyes.

I walked up the driveway to our small house, opening the door and walking inside. The shower was running inside, and I frowned slightly. I'd have to wait a bit longer before I'd be able to get all of this… gunk off of me.

I walked towards my bedroom and opened up the jar of frogs, placing them all into the large plastic container that I had taken yesterday to fill with sand and patches of water. I checked to see if the small camera I had set up was running and then stepped away. It would monitor how the frogs would react to being placed in this new environment, and then I'd finally be able to finish the assignment.

"Emmett! Are you ready for the reapings in an hour?" Mom emerged from her bedroom with her hair shiny and wet and a new set of clothes on, carefully applying lipstick as she walked towards me. "They're at 11:00. It's 10:00, right?"

I looked down at my watch and gasped, pointing at the wall. "Did you remember to reset the clock to the right time when we had the power outage last night?"

Mom gasped, pointing to my room and rushing down the stairs, her makeup forgotten. "It's 10:45? We're going to have to sprint to make it Emmett! No, you don't have time to change. Throw on shoes and run! We don't need that fine today!"

I sprinted alongside Mom, running towards the town square over a mile away. At least no one was here to watch more gunk fall off of me as we frantically tried to get to the reapings on time. They were all at the town square.

And if we didn't, I'd have to take out some tesserae to help make up for our tardiness. Ugh, why did the power plant have to rewire some lines yesterday?

Hi! It's me again, and I'm here with possibly our last reaping! What did you think of Emmett? Thanks to iridescenteverdeen for him! I hope you enjoyed him, because we're heading into the Capitol soon ;) Well, enjoy your summer if you have it already, and good luck for anyone going through exams! Mine are coming up soon, and I'm desperately trying to study for them.

Sponsor list as always.

RoadieMcRoadface: 25 Points

Iridescenteverdeen: 20 Points

Goldie031: 45 Points

LongingForRomeo: 20 Points

Jailynne: 10 Points

Sponsor System

Small food item (Apples, crackers, etc.): 40 Points

Large food item (Anything!): 60 Points

Medicine (Poison cure, fever medicine, aspirin, etc.): 55 Points

First Aid (Bandages, healing cream, etc.): 70 Points

Small Weapons (Knives, poison, etc.): 70 Points

Large Weapons (Sword, spear, etc.): 100 Points

Well, see you with our next chapter! Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ