Author's Notes:

Thank you to Katrace for Keaton, Hello83433 for Aruana and jds2416 for Matilda, the D4 escort! I hope you guys like it, please leave a review!

District 4 Male: Keaton Bishop POV

It's reaping day. I don't hear any noise makers going off. Makes sense, not many people from District 4 are that into the Hunger Games. Yeah, we are considered a career district, but people don't volunteer that often. I'm going to volunteer this year.

Why, well honestly I couldn't tell you why. It's really confusing and I just don't understand myself most of the time. I hang with the "cool kids," but I'm not cool. I'm a hot dork. Seriously, I have a pretty girlfriend and truth is I don't know if I even like her. I'm just so confused. I try to be someone I'm not, but thing is I don't know who I am. If somebody told me to jump off a bridge heck, I probably would. Like why am I volunteering? I have only trained for the past three years. Most kids that volunteer train their whole lives for this!

As I've said earlier, I'm hot. It will be easy to get sponsors and I'm bad ass with a sword or trident. I can kill easily, I think. Well, to say the least, I've never been in a situation where I've had to kill a living person.

There is a knock at my door. My mom peeks her head in to my room.

"Hi honey, how are you? It's your big day today!"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't sound too excited. Anything wrong that you want to talk about?"

"No, just a little nerves I guess."

"Ok, well breakfast is on the table. You better eat before it gets cold."

"Yes mom. I'll be down in a couple minutes."

Both my parents are alive. You might be wondering why I brought that up, but most of my friends only have one parent. They are caring and loving, nothing special. My dad is a fisherman and my mom helps out at the community home. We aren't wealthy, but we aren't just scraping by living paycheck to paycheck. I'm an only child. It's pretty tough, because you want to please them so bad. You're the only one they have. You are their only Golden Child.

I throw on a black t-shirt, and start heading down the stairs. My parents have never been the beating type, I've never been a trouble maker. It works out perfectly.

"Your father left early, he said that he wanted to get a little fishing done before the reapings start."

"Oh, that's fine, I was going to head over to Uri's anyway."

My mom pretending to be hurt as she replies, "Uh, you don't want to hang out with me? I see I'm just not cool enough for you."

"It's actually the opposite, you're to cool for me."

"Oh, I like the sound of that much better," she says with a playful grin.

That's the thing, I don't want to leave my family. I love them so much. Then again, if I win, i could hang out with them all the time. My dad would only have to go fishing for fun. We would have plenty of money, it would be perfect.

I finish scraping off my plate of eggs and bacon, dump my dishes in the sink and head out the door. That's the nice thing, you almost never have to even use a jacket in district 4. Only sometimes in the winter.

I walk briskly over, I'm a little late, but they won't care that much. When I get there, the door is already unlocked. I open the door and see Uri, Conner, and Maya. Maya is my girlfriend. The pretty one I mentioned earlier.

She walks over to me and plans a kiss on my lips. I grin, maybe I do like her. Conner pretends to cover his eyes saying, "Yo, get a room!"

Maya glares, "Oh shut up, we all saw you make out with Kena at the party on Friday."

Conner starts to blush, and it starts to get awkward. I look at Maya. With my eyes, I gesture towards the door. She gets the message and says, "As much as I love seeing Conner turn red as a tomato, I think I'd better go. Coming Keaton?"

"Yeah, let's go."

As soon as we walk out she looks at me, her violet eyes are killer.

"So what did you want to tell me something?"

"Yeah, this might sound weird, but I want you to be the first one I see in the waiting room, before my parents."

"Uh, ok, why?"

I lie. "Well, rumor is the first person that visits you gets the most time."

"Oh, well in that case, you know I'll be there." She gives me a very flirty look, and my heart skips a beat.

When we get there and both get our finger pricked, I head off in to the boy's section, while Maya heads to the girl section.

After a couple minutes are escort walks out. Matilda Blanketly she is wearing 12 inch neon pumps, that she struggles to walk in. Her skins is neon yellow when I first see her, and forest green, the next second. I consciously blink again, this time she's teal! Her hair also changes color this time, when the wind blows. Wow, Capitol technology is pretty cool. Matilda finally plays the video. The escorts always look so interested in the video, why? It's the same thing every single year.

When it's over, she turns to the crowd and says, "Well let's see who our lucky female tribute of district 4 will be!" She clanks her heels all the way over to the bowl. Carefully she picks out a slip. Clank, clank, clank all the way back to the microphone.

"Aruana Silverside!"

I hear a scream and turn to look, a young girl has grabbed onto what I assume is the reaped Aruana. Peacekeepers are trying to pry the young girl off. My heart aches for both of them, neither wanting this.

"Well, now for the boys!"

The escort does a terrible job trying to stay composed. She is already flustered and rushing.

Clank,clank goes her heals to the boy's bowl.

"Now for our boy tribute!" I hate how they always finish their sentences with exclamation marks!

"Riverside Tr-"

"I volunteer," I say with as much strength as I can muster.

Ooh, she coos with pleasure.

"What is your name son?"

"Keaton Bishop."

"Shake hands you two, don't be shy!"

I look at her, as I shake her hand. She stares down at her shoes, trying to conceal her tears, but I still see them slip down her cheek.

We are then ushered into the Justice Building. The peacekeepers herd me into a little room. As soon as they leave, Maya walks in.

"Hi," I say way too casually, I'm going into the Hunger Games like it's no big deal. Maya silently curls up next to me on the couch. I feel her wet cheek on my shoulder. Guilt and pain shoot through me and jab my heart. Before long, the peacekeepers come in and tell her to leave. She kisses so so hard, it hurts, before leaving.

Next my parents, they aren't giving away any emotion. It makes me feel uneasy. Then the start to hug me and tell me how much they love me. Great, I'm a monster, destroying everything and everyone I love.

Next to come in is Conner. We slap had, and give a half hug. He feels so warm, and safe. What am I saying? Then there is silence. Conner is the first one to break it.

"Listen, if you make it back, I don't care what you had to have done in the arena, you will still mean so much more to me."

Then I do it, I lean in and kiss him full on the lips. It's warm and comforting, different then with Maya, but just as beautiful. Before he can do or say anything, the peacekeeper comes in and takes him out.

As I board the train, I smile. I might not ever understand myself, but right now, I just might have a clue.

District 4's Female Tribute: Aruana Silverside POV

I finish combing out my sister Betta's hair. She smiles at me, and I can't help but smile back. I have always been protective of her and my family. I got a job as a fisherman when I was 13, and I've been working there since. It has been tough, and, well, stinky, but as they say, you do for family.

"Hey, are you coming with me and mom, or are you going with your friends?"

"Mom, wanted to come a little bit later, so I'll take you."

An hour ago I kind of wanted to go with my friends, but I would feel bad for Betta. My friends are super nice and really wealthy and they help me and my family as much as they can.

"Alright Betta, let's go downstairs and have some breakfast."

"Ok, Aruana."

"Yeah."

"Do you think that I'm going to be reaped?"

I'm not going to lie to Betta, she's 14 and not an idiot.

"Everyone has a chance of being reaped, your name is only in there three times. I wouldn't sweat it."

Even if she was reaped, I would volunteer for her. I've been training on the off hours I have when I'm not working or helping my parents with errands.

As a fisherman, I go out every morning and fish all the way until sunset. If my parents are really in need of money to buy food and other necessary necessities, I take the caught fish over to my "boss" that night. He sells the fish to the market or if it's a tropical kind of fish that wanders into our waters, he sells them to the Capitol so that they can make fashion things out of its gills. He pays fairly well on the spot cash which is nice. The neighborhood is a different story, it's safe if I go in the middle of the day, but at night, it's creepy. My friend Shad lives less then ten minutes away, so usually he comes with me. Once he was sick, and my parents were in deep need of money, so we could have dinner that night. I went alone and had a little run in with a gang. How I made it out is a story I don't feel like telling.

"Aruana, earth to Aruana."

I turn to look having not noticed Betta, she's now waving her fish greased hand in my face.

"Gross, get that smelly hand out of my face Betta."

"Well, you weren't even listening to me," she says matter-of-factly.

Being a fisherwoman (as I choose to call it) is tiring, and I don't even like to eat fish anymore, the smell nauseates me. I feel like I'm about to throw up.

I look over at Betta, she stopped eating, so I think we could start heading out now. The readings start at around noon, and it's already 11:30. We had better leave soon or we'll be late.

"Come on Betta, let's go."

"Alright, I'm coming. Don't rush me."

As soon as we walk out the door, I'm hit by the sea breeze, that's more than just a breeze. Still, I love the feel of it, built reminds me that I'm home.

We race each other to the reapings, I win easily. Betta is still young, but she is pretty fast for her age. Panting and out of breath, we still manage to "check in." We giggle afterward, the female peacekeeper was giving us some weird looks as we were barely able to speak. We were so out of breath.

I give Betta a quick hug before she goes to the 14 section and I make my way towards the 17 year old section. I mentally kick myself for not telling her that everything would be alright, but the truth is I don't feel too sure. A massive knot in my stomach is building.

The escort makes her way to the stage wearing an outfit that I figured out changes color every time you blink. It's kind of cool, but a big waste of money, although the Capitol has plenty of it. Her hair changes color every time the wind blows. In District 4, that hair will be frequently changing colors. Maybe that's why she got it.

She talks about how wonderful the District has been doing, and other stuff that nobody in District 4 cares about.

Finally after what seems like forever, she plays the video. 20 minutes later, I am as uninspired as I was before she played it.

Now, I wait, worried that either Betts or myself will be reaped. Matilda tells us that she always looks forward to seeing that video every year. Gag me.

"Our lucky female tribute from District 4 is... Aruana Silverside!" I feel like I've been punched in the gut. The breath is sucked out of me. Betts screams and runs to grabs me. Her scrawny little arms are quite strong wrapped around me. It takes two peacekeepers to pull her off me. It takes everything inside of me to not break down. I manage to make it to the stage before the first tear falls. Then the next and the next. I try to brush them off, but they silently keep coming down.

I miss the boy's reaping, I just see a guy walk up the steps. I'm told be the escort to shake his hand. I do so, not having the courage to look him in the eye.

We are ushered into separate rooms. I wait for my family to come, which they do. Betta sits on my lap. She used to love to do that when she was younger. We all cry and hug. It's a mess, and I'm a wreck. When they leave, my friends come in. Angle, Zingel, Bonnie, and Shad. They reassure me, telling me that they will care for my family if anything were to happen to me. Then they start boosting up my confidence, telling me I can do this. They are right, I can do this. I can.

The Peacekeepers come, and take them out, then the drag me into the waiting train. Right before the door closes, I get one last quick blow of the wind. District 4 is my home, I know that I'll be back.

Author's Notes:

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