"Sweetie, you have been in there for over an hour and a half! Please eat something before the reaping!" Sheen Lux's mother, with whom he was very close, was calling to him from downstairs in the kitchen. Sheen was just putting the finishing touches on his hair, adding one more dollop of hair gel to spike it perfectly. If it were anyone other than his mom, he would yell at them right now, asking them why they don't understand the importance of presentable, perfectly styled hair? He looked at himself one more time in the mirror, throwing his hands out in front of him to look like guns. Some might call him conceited and too obsessed with his hair, but those are the same people who haven't had a haircut since they were six. "SHEEN!" He heard his mother call. He abruptly dropped the comb he was about to work through his hair.

"Sorry, Mommy!" he yelled, picking the comb up off of the floor to rinse it and stuff it in his black dress pants. He ran downstairs and smiled at the simple plate which held mixed fruit, whole-wheat toast, at least ten strips of bacon and 10 links of sausage, accompanied with a full glass of orange juice. He sat across from his mother and started stuffing down his meal devilishly.

"Take human sized bites, will ya?" his father asked, staring at him as if he had three heads.

"Rob, let him eat. This might be his last good meal before -" her voice cracked and tears started falling from her eyes. It had just hit her. Her baby boy might die this year. This might be the last time she will ever see him alive. "Oh my gosh, my baby!" She had to move her old, deep red dinner cloth to her eyes to catch her tears.

"Susan, calm down. He's been trained with the best." Rob said, smiling and looking down at himself, proud of his ability to train a little boy into a skilled hunter. Okay, maybe Sheen was a bit of a momma's boy who cared a little bit too much about his hair, but no one could doubt his survival skills.

Sheen pointed a fork to his father and nodded in agreement, downing a large mouthful of meat. "Hey are you gonna finish that?" he asked, pointing his fork at his mothers two strips of bacon, mouth still full. His mother looked down at her plate and shook her head, pushing her meal forward. He picked up one strip of bacon and gladly opened his mouth to eat it, but suddenly screamed out and threw it back on his mothers plate. He ran over to hug his mother, seemingly fearing for his life.

"What's wrong, baby?" His mother asked, rubbing Sheen's back and inspecting the strip of bacon. "Oh... sweetie, it's just a tiny bit of scrambled egg. It's nothing to be scared of. I promise."

"Birds lay eggs!" He said, staring at her in disbelief. Wasn't it obvious?

"Yes, they do, but... Sheen, it was eleven years ago."

"I don't care if it was 100 years ago, MOM!" Sheen yelled sternly, in a tone he never thought he could use with his mom.

"They might have birds in the arena." Susan tried to calm him down, but she was also being cautious and real, explaining all the possibilities the Capitol could throw at him, since nobody knew exactly to expect. All they knew is that 23 tributes were going to die. Nobody knew how or when, but they knew 23 teenagers were going to die.

"NO! They WON'T HAVE BIRDS IN THE ARENA!" He yelled, pushing a chair down to the ground. "They WON'T. The Capitol can't be THAT mean!"

"Son! Calm down! It was a bird! You NEED to let it go! And DON'T take it out on your mother, he didn't do ANYTHING wrong!" His father yelled sternly, getting up and smacking his hands on the table.

Sheen looked from his concerned mother to his angry father and back to his concerned mother, tears forming up in his eyes. He didn't want to admit that he was acting like a monster, and he definitely didn't want to admit he was throwing a temper tantrum. It was their fault. Not his. Theirs. They don't understand anything! I'm glad I am leaving!

Sheen ran upstairs and ran into his room, ripping his red suede shirt off of his back to inspect the scars. Sure, there were a bunch of scars on his back from his training, but he was focused on the three large scars that traveled from his neck down his right arm. The bird was ruthless. First, it grabbed onto his hair. If that wasn't traumatic enough, its claws traveled down through his arm, just inches away from his bone. As it was traveling down his arm, its beak was holding a chunk of his newly cut golden blonde hair. It spit it out to the ground, as if it was worthless, and dug his beak into Sheens arms. He had a huge bald spot in the middle of his head for days, had to wear an arm cast for what seemed like an eternity, and the post traumatic stress disorder was too much to handle. Ever since then he's been really obsessed with having perfect hair and even more obsessed with his fear of birds. He sighed, allowing his left hand to travel down his right arm, cringing as if it still hurt, but it didn't.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Sheen, honey, can I talk to you?" It was his mommy's voice. He needed to apologize for his behavior anyway.

He grabbed his red suede shirt and began to button it up again. "Yeah, come on in." He said, buttoning up the last button."Sweetie, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said. "Just a bit of post traumatic stress disorder I guess." He said, taking his comb out of his back pocket and working it through his hair.

"Sheen," Susan started, gently guiding his hand to the couch in his room. "Are you sure you want to volunteer?"

"Yeah, mom! Don't worry, I will be fine."

"But what if they have... Birds in the arena?"

"I killed a bird once, I can do it again." He explained to his mom, smiling. It was his favorite memory.

"You're only seventeen. You have a full life ahead of you."

"Don't say it like that, don't say only. I have been training for a good fight for seventeen years. True, I didn't know that my 17 years of survival and hunting skills would be used for this particular purpose, I still practiced different techniques of fighting, hunting, and surviving for seventeen years!

""Well, if you're sure..." Susan got up, and started crying. "You look very nice, and we should probably go. The peacekeepers will notice if we're late."

Later, at the Reaping

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first annual Hunger Games Reaping Ceremony!" A young woman, probably around twenty, said a little too excitedly. "I am Pinky Silverscreen!" Sheen noticed the lime green highlights that were traveling down her purple, ankle- length hair. She was wearing a hot pink mini dress with a black spiked belt around her stomach. Her legs were covered by lime green leggings and she was wearing sparkled, bright red boots that traveled to her kneecap. Her eyes were surrounded with shiny orange eyeshadow and she was wearing fake eyelashes that had to be at least 4 inches long. "Before we begin, I would like to play a video clip that President Green himself has made and ordered to show at every district." She smiled and her teeth were blindingly white, except for one in the front which was a horrible yellow color. She grabbed a remote from the stand and played a video on a huge monitor.

Sheen tried to pay attention, but he was aware of everything that had happened. Why were they showing video clips? Everybody was aware of what happened.

After the thirty minute video and a fifteen minute introduction which explained that every tribute could take one token to remind them of home and that someone could volunteer for a tribute, and other things along those lines, Pinky finally made her way to two giant clear circles that were full of names. Sheen smiled and cleared his throat. "PICK A GUY FIRST!" he ordered from the back. Everybody turned around to see who the rude person was, but nobody knew it was him except for the few people around him. Pinky raised her eyebrow, thinking that was extremely rude, and made her way over to the guys bowl.

She cleared her throat. "The first male tribute to represent District 1 in the First Annual Hunger Games is... SHEEN LUX."

"I VOLUNTEER!" He screamed before anybody, even him, could react to the name that was called. "Oh, wait, did she say Sheen LUX?" Everybody was silent. One person coughed to break the silence. One person gave him a slight shove. He looked up at the expectant Pinky and smiled. "YEAH BUDDY!" He cheered. What an honor, and now it's not as if he is taking the honor away from anyone. He jogged up to the stage, giving people high fives on his way up. "I LOVE YOU MOM!" He screamed, jogging up the stairs to the stage.

"Well, Sheen Lux, you seem awfully excited to be up here. Why aren't you nervous?" Pinky asked, holding the microphone up to Sheen's mouth. She seemed a bit angry at his enthusiasm, but tried to cover it up with a fake personality and smile.

"Because I know I can win!" He said into the microphone. "EVERYBODY! Remember the tribute with the awesome hair because he will come back with FAME AND FORTUNE!" He snatched the microphone from Pinky's hand. "DISTRICT 1 I FIGHT FOR YOU! I PROMISE I WILL COME BACK WITH A POTION TO GET RID OF ALL BIRDS FOREVER! WHEN I SAY SHEEN, YOU SAY LUX. SHEEN!"

Nobody said anything.

"Luuux" He said weakly into the microphone.

Pinky snatched the microphone from his grip. "That's enough!" She said. "Now on to the ladies..."