Mediza's POV

I was pacing back in forth in my shared room, with my younger sister. She was sleeping soundly. I couldn't understand why she wasn't awake. Why she wasn't anxious. It didn't make since to me at all. I was terrified of today's reaping. I decided to take my mind of some things I should go milk Betty. Betty is our cow, hence the whole cattle district. Anyway I slide on some shorts, and my large, over sized boots and head into the kitchen to get a bucket. I see my father sitting down.

"Papa?" I asked sweetly, he looks up at me with classy eyes.

"Hello Mediza." He says with a restrained smile.

"Papa what's the matter?" I ask strolling toward him.

"Nothing…. Just you know today." He says motion his around, I nod understanding what he means. "Where you going Meds?" he asks using my nickname.

"To milk Betty." He smiles in response to this.

"Do you need some help?" I shake my head, and head back into the kitchen area. I grab a bucket and head into the backyard. I had never seen my father so upset. I hope they don't pick me, or Kare. That would be horrible. As I desperately try to avoid the cow pies in my backyard, I think about that one tribute from District 4 again, Daka. I wonder what he's doing right now. I wondered if he was sweet, or a cold blooded killer who only volunteered for the games to slaughter everyone. I hoped it wasn't the latter, but I'm pretty sure it is. I see Betty eating a piece of grass. She's getting huge, I think to myself. If she gets any bigger Papa might have to shoot her for her meat. I groan and I kneel down on the grass right beside her. I grabbed a hold onto her utters, and started to lightly squeeze her milk into the bucket.

….

I get back inside after completely milking Betty, and staying inside as long as possible. My mother is pacing back in forth, just like I had done before in my bedroom. She was biting her nails, a nervous habit, I had noticed she had over the years.

"I put something out for you Mediza.. you too Kare." I nod, and grab Kare lightly pulling her into our shared room. Spread out on our bed was two dresses, one light green, and another bright red!

"That one is yours." Kare says pointing to the red one. "It's bigger than the green one. No one in District 10 ever has colors like this red.

"I'll stand out." I grumble to myself. Kare puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"You already do pretty girl, now c'mon we've got to get ready." She said perkily. I shake my head but, comply. Slowly I start to unbutton my blouse so I can place on this outrageous red dress on.

….

Everything is quite during line up, no one dares to talk. Of course I get stared at by the crowd because of this stupid dress. Don't get me wrong it's pretty, but outrageous. I hold Kare's hand. We walk up to the peacekeepers. They ask for my hand to draw blood, Kare lets go of my hand so I can give it to them. After taking some blood from my finger they print it on a piece of paper. Then tell me to move throughout the crowd. I do as I'm told, and keep moving. I find myself standing next to two girls from my class. I never really knew them or payed attention to them until now. One was blonde with green eyes, like mine and the other was a brunette with dark brown eyes. Both of them were pretty. Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by our announcer. Oh dear God! I thought to myself, if my outfit was outrageous than hers was out of this world. It was a multicolor, almost rainbow skirt, with a purple blouse, and red and pink jacket. She wore light blue stilettos and her hair was a grey with light pink streaks. I thought I was going to die of laughter. I bit my lip to hold back the giggles. One of the girls next to me stomped on my foot.

"Shhhhhh!" She hissed at me, and I bit my lip harder so that I wouldn't laugh. Suddenly the video came on about the capitol and I unknowingly drowned it out. I had just gone completely blank, I didn't even hear a word… until I heard the announcer's voice.

"LADIES!" She screamed and my head turned toward her. She was beaming up at the crowd. She scraped her nails along the glass bowl, picking out a card. I looked at the back of the card praying that it didn't hold words of my family and friends. In those moments I forgot that I could still be picked, but I shouldn't have.

"Mediza Lin." She squeaked into the microphone. I gasped in shock, and the two girls let out a breathe in relief. I couldn't move, I just stood there waiting to wake up. The brunette grabbed me by the arm and yanked me in front of the crowd. A peacekeeper came up to me instantly and walked me up to the stage. Tear were starting to well up my eyes. The announcer, I still didn't know her name, she walked me over to the edge of the stage.

"Congratulations." She whispered to me and shook my hand before going back to the bowl. I silently cried hoping that the camera was turned to her announcement of the boy tribute. I didn't hear who it was, I didn't hear anything. Everything about the rest of the day was a total and complete blur.

….

Daka's POV

I was sitting on board the train, driving to the capitol. I was watching the TV it was the day of District 10's reaping. I was watching with Flutter. She was watching it intently like it actually mattered. You saw, tons of children lining up all in dull colors, dull faces. Nothing about District 10 was beautiful or even nice looking.

"Ladies!", the capitol announcer screamed. I rolled my eyes as they closed up on her horrible looking nails. She grabbed a hold of a letter, and opened it up wide to read it. She looked pleased with herself as she called out,

"Mediza Lin!" Everyone quickly looked for Mediza, but she didn't show up as soon as she was supposed to. Finally some other girl pushed her to the front of the crowd. I suddenly inched myself as close as I could get to the television. She was gorgeous, stunning, breath taking. She was wearing a silk red dress, making her stand out more than she already did. She had this amass of beautiful curly hair, that fell down passed her shoulders, she had mesmerizing green eyes and clear, perfect skin. Everything about her was stunning. She started to cascade up the stairs, and you could see her visibly shaking. The announcer moved her over to one side of the stage, where they closed up to her. She was crying silently. My heart broke to see her cry. She shouldn't have been picked. She was skinny, way too skinny. She was fragile, easily broken.

"She'll be the first to go." Flutter said, smirking to herself. I flipped the coffee table over out of rage. How could she say that? How could anyone be so heartless. Then it dawned on me, everyone else must be thinking the same thing. Everyone else must be thinking that this beautiful girl from District 10 is weak and an easy kill. As I stomped back to my room, I realized what I now had to do, I couldn't kill someone for entertainment, No that's something I could never do, but if anyone tried to touch a hair on her head…. I don't know what I'd do. It was then that I realized that I had to help her. Whatever happened to me didn't matter, but she was the one that needed to go home, and I am determined to make sure that happens.

Hey guys! So what did you think of this chapter? I think it was better than the last, but hey what do I know? Give me some feedback. Tell me whether you liked it or not! I would really like to know how you feel about it so far. Next chapter should be up by tomorrow.