Dawn Rhodes, District Ten Female (Age 15)

I yawned, resting my chin in my palm and my elbow on the fence. I hadn't slept well that night, since today was Reaping day. That was bad enough, but I had to do the early-early morning shift guarding the chicken coops from predators.

They usually came hunting from four to five AM so it was quite the job, scaring off foxes and raccoons while very, very sleepy. But I was good at it, so at least I was paid a decent salary.

The sunrise was bold red and cast a lovely glow across the fields and barns. My shift ended at dawn. My name being Dawn was a complete coincidence.

I didn't see Kailee coming out to take my place, however, so I had to stay put until she was here. Maybe I could tell someone about her being late and get a little extra money, or maybe not.

It was an uneventful morning. All I saw was a couple of rats scurrying towards one of the coops, but they'd only be after the leftover chicken feed. Nothing serious. They weren't hard to scare off either, I just had to chase them away without worrying about making too much noise.

I decided to check around all the coops one last time, just to be safe. There were three I was in charge of guarding and they were average sized, easy to manage. Even though the dark made it a little more difficult.

No animals were in sight. At all. That was unusual. Was I missing something?

The sun rose some more, painting the sky orange and pink. I could look at it for hours but it would only last for about twenty minutes, and I had more important things to do with those twenty minutes.

I stretched out my arms and began to walk down the road back to my house. My shift ended so if Kailee wasn't going to do her job it wasn't my fault.

I opened the door to my house and took my dusty shoes off at the front. Bessie, my older sister, was eating an apple in the kitchen, even though she appeared to be mostly asleep. My guess was she wanted to get up early as possible so she got more time to prepare for the Reapings. Typical. But, as an eighteen-year-old, she could be far worse.

"G'morning Dawn." She mumbled, resting her head on the table.

"Good morning." I whispered. It was still around six thirty am, so I knew better than to wake up my parents.

I sat down on my bed and quickly fell asleep. That was the best way to spend the most stressful morning of the year.

Thrash Goodbourne, District Ten Male (Age 18)

I grit my teeth as I raised my knife. The calf's legs were all tied together and it was staring at me helplessly. I didn't think it knew it was about to die, but someone in the Capitol requested calf meat so nobody had a choice.

It wasn't right but you had to do what you had to do.

Just a stab to the heart, without damaging the rest of its body too much. Just a stab, just a stab. Let the knife kill it quickly.

I was supposed to be used to this. Was there something wrong with me?

It wasn't the time to think about morals.

I thrust the knife right into the calf's middle and watched as it fell limp. Blood gushed out of the wound, so much I felt bad for the slaughterhouse cleaners. Its eyes glazed over and it lay there pitifully. Poor thing, I thought as I pulled the blade out.

The calf was heavy, and quite literally dead weight. I lifted it up by the legs and carried it to the butcher down the road, straining my muscles on the way. It left a rose-colored trail on the dirt.

I walked through the open door and placed the animal on the big, wide table. Finn, the butcher, nodded at me as he sharpened his knives. He was surrounded by various chunks of meat and a fair amount of blood. "Well done, boy. Now run along, Reapings start in half an hour." He said through his scraggly beard.

I looked at the old wooden clock and saw he was right. I was bewildered- wasn't it just eight am an hour ago? Probably a silly mistake on my part.

"Alright, thank you sir. Good day." I ran out and back to my family's little cottage, right down the street. I took the opportunity to do extra work whenever I could since we weren't very well off. Having seven kids in the family meant you could do more work, but it also meant there were more mouths to feed.

My home was chaos as soon as I opened the door. Dahlia was convinced she'd be Reaped, although that was ridiculous. She only took two tesserae, the least out of everyone, and was crying into Mom's dress. It wasn't abnormal, every twelve-year-old had that fear.

Eliot and Tomas were arguing about something or other, Jay was yelling at Lila for stealing her necklace, and ten-year-old Caleb just seemed very confused about all this. I was honestly too preoccupied to care.

I sighed and climbed the stairs to my tiny room. My mom, bless her heart, had laid out a gray sweatshirt and dress pants for me to wear. I changed and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't consider myself too attractive, but this outfit was nice.

Before I knew it, it was time for my last Reaping until my main concern would shift from myself to my little brothers and sisters.

Dawn Rhodes, District Ten Female (Age 15)

My thumb stung from the blood extraction. My wound, if you could even call it that, was pretty much invisible, but the needle must've struck a nerve and caused more pain than it should have.

I tucked my hands into my pockets and looked around. I was taller than most of the girls so I had a good view of the crowd although I was technically part of it. District Ten was large in population size, with thousands of kids eligible to be Reaped. They ranged from tiny-twelve year-olds with their hair in pigtails to huge, muscular eighteen-year-olds who could maybe beat a Career in a fight.

I'd styled my black, curly hair into a braid for the occasion and wore a pale yellow dress that shone beautifully against my dark skin. My family was on the richer side of the District where we could afford a nice outfit for important days.

Unfortunately, not everyone was this lucky. A couple of poor girls in rags were staring at my dress. I looked away from them, it was uncomfortable.

Our two Victors were named Calius and Lordan. They'd won the sixth and fifteenth games, both because they were strong from farming. Their stories were similar and both brought brief amounts of fame to District Ten. Our glory was always short-lived.

I liked to pretend our escort was named Gabriel because he'd play the part of an angel, guiding the tributes and protecting them as they came close to death. But it was more likely he was called Gabriel because he was convinced he looked like an angel. His silver hair was slicked back and his goatee was flecked with white. He spent most of his time admiring his highly-modified facial features with his pocket mirror.

Indeed, he just had to check his reflection one last time before standing up and tapping the microphone. Everyone, including the kids who were talking amongst themselves, turned towards him.

"Welcome, citizens, to the District Ten Reaping!"

He smiled as the square applauded politely.

"We shall select our two tributes to represent District Ten in the Twentieth Annual Hunger Games. Twenty years ago, the Capitol decided once a year, each District would send two children from age twelve to eighteen to fight to the death in an arena,"

Until one lone Victor remained. I knew. The Capitol was one of the only things I was impatient with.

"Ladies first!" He bared his teeth.

I was fine, my name was in the bowl four times. I decided the bright blue sky was more worth my time and gazed up at it. The clouds were fluffy and pretty. Gabriel called out,

"Dawn Rhodes!"

What?

That couldn't be right.

What the hell? I looked around, confused. I felt like my heart was about to burst out of my ribcage. My eyes fluttered and all of a sudden my head felt very light.

I stumbled up to the podium in a daze, nearly tripping over my own feet. This couldn't be happening. There was no chance of me getting Reaped. Ten thousand slips of paper must have been in the bowl, they surely didn't choose one of the four with my name on them.

"H-hi." I mumbled, staring out at the crowd. Someone might volunteer, right? Bessie or Kailee? Oh no, my parents were probably in tears.

I didn't understand any of this.

Thrash Goodbourne, District Ten Male (Age 18)

Dawn was the only normal-looking person on the podium, even though judging by her appearance she was of relatively high status. If she even had a job it probably wouldn't help her in the arena. She looked petrified with wide eyes and visibly shallow breaths. I was worried she would faint as she went up. I wished I could help her, nobody deserved to suffer a dread like that.

I had seven little siblings, four of whom were over twelve and took tesserae. And there were also my friends. I wouldn't admit it out loud with my dying breath but I was afraid. The odds were never in our favor.

Gabriel looked her up and down, seeming disappointed. He was likely expecting a big, tough farm kid. Still, he managed a smile and announced, "Time to pick the boy."

My name was in the bowl twenty-four times, I thought, watching Gabriel shuffle the slips around. Twenty-four wasn't a whole lot, I'd be fine.

He held up one paper to the light and his shrill voice rang, "Thrash Goodbourne!"

My hands shook and I heard nothing. Just my blood rushing in my ears. Everything seemed far away.

I snapped out of it and blinked. I was the tribute.

I stood taller and put my shoulders back in an attempt to seem bigger and tougher, and walked to the podium. Everyone was quiet as I made my way up the stairs and gave the crowd a solemn but intimidating look.

"Well, well, you're a tough looking guy, aren't you?" Gabriel laughed, his dark eyes sparkling. "You're Thrash Goodbourne?"

"Yes." My deep voice boomed. This felt so unnatural.

"Excellent." He said, turning back towards the square. "Now, give it up for our two tributes, Dawn Rhodes and Thrash Goodbourne!"

The crowd cheered. They weren't too enthusiastic. If I were there I wouldn't be either.

Dawn outstretched her hand and I shook it. She looked how I felt- a scared mess of thoughts.

I had a hard time processing all this, but one thing rang clearly in my mind.

I wasn't going to die in the Games. And if I did, I wouldn't go down without a fight.

AN: I'm baaaaack! Sorry I didn't update for a lil while, I think I was in a weird dissociative mood all weekend? I don't know. But anyways, here is your chapter! Thank you to yyvonnee and my irl friend (not the one who made Cerise and Sable) for submitting Thrash and Dawn! I think they both have a good chance of making it decently far but who knows? Thank y'all for reading and reviewing. It really makes me happy there are people out there who read my stuff and enjoy it, like holy heck! You guys are actually spending some of your time on something I wrote! Anyways, I'll stop rambling and get on with the questions.

1. Who did you like more, Thrash or Dawn?

2. Survival predictions?