Let's welcome to the stage our next tributes! It's time to see District Four's worthy candidates. For the ladies, we have the lovely Mariana Hurley-Bellus and Cove Scupper, who were created by POMForever. For our boys, we have Adrian Tang and Ayu Kuang, who were submitted by Starasphodel672. These are some really great characters, but so far I think Cove is my favorite this chapter. Thanks you guys for your tributes, keep up the support!

District Four Reapings: Secrets

Sick of all the insincere

I'm gonna give all my secrets away

- Secrets, OneRepublic

Ayu Kuang, aged 10

Ayu pumped his arms, gliding through the water with exceeding proficiency. He had gotten up very early to get some laps in at the lake before he had to go home and get ready for the reaping.

Lots of people told him that he needed to relax, be a ten-year-old for a while longer. Ayu never listened to them, because they just didn't get it. Sports and being athletic was pretty much everything in his school. If he didn't want to be humiliated by the other guys in his fifth-grade class, he needed to stay in shape.

Finally drifting to a stop at the pier, he looked up at his companion. Serene was super cool, with a blue streak in her brown hair and a no-nonsense attitude. She held a stopwatch they'd borrowed from her older brother, and was smiling proudly.

"You beat that last score!" she said, facing the timer so he could see it. The numbers were at 4:38, which was a whole fifteen seconds faster than his previous one. "From the pier to the buoy and back. Nice job."

"Thanks," he acknowledged, holding onto the deck next to her. "What time is it? Do we need to get going?"

"Pretty soon," she said, pulling out a pocket watch. "It's 12:15 right now. You can do one more lap if you want. Better chance against the competition, eh?"

Ayu considered it for a moment but decided against it. "Nah, help me up. Let's head back. Besides, the only people who will be competing will be the ones in the alliance, and they won't do anything to me if I prove myself

Serene had a dubious expression but reached her hand out to haul him onto the deck, but he instead pulled on her hands, pulling her into the water. With a shriek, she fell in and came up gasping.

"Ayu Kuang, you are the most wretched boy I know!" she exclaimed, but her face betrayed the fact that she found this very amusing.

"Yeah, yeah," he laughed, grinning. "Let's go, we'll be late."

Pulling themselves up on the deck, they sat and dripped water for a minute.

"Hey, Ayu?" Serene's tone was a question, and Ayu was surprised by it. "Why are you going to volunteer?"

They had talked about this several times before, of course. Ever since the Quell had been mentioned, he had decided that he would enter and become the youngest victor ever. Lots of his friends supported this decision, but Serene had doubts. She thought he'd get himself killed, or do things that would make him different. She had never been this direct about asking him why.

"I dunno," he shrugged. "I want to prove that a kid can win if they're smart about it, and then I'll stay alive and get back and you'll feel silly about thinking I'll get killed."

"No, I'm serious about that, Ayu!" She was getting upset now, and Ayu didn't know what to do about it. "You're only ten. Even if you're the best ten year old in the games, there are going to be plenty of people out in the arena who will be smarter or bigger than you, not just careers. I think you should rethink this, and it's not too late!"

Ayu was annoyed at her now. "Serene, what do you want me to say? I'm the most popular kid in the class. If the guys think I backed out of this, they'll mock me. I can't back out. You don't understand how us guys think. My reputation is everything."

Serene muttered something he didn't quite catch under her breath. It sounded like, "And now it's gonna get you killed." She looked like she wanted to say something else, but went against it. "You'd better hope you win, Ayu. If you don't, I'll just bring you back so I can kill you myself, just for being so stupid."

"Yeah, sure," he laughed, the tension of the moment quickly diffusing at Serene's joke. He was glad for it; he hated when they were in an argument. She would never change his mind, though.

He, Ayu Kuang, was going to volunteer in this year's Hunger Games.

Mariana Hurley-Bellus, aged 18

It is a great honor to be chosen by the Academy heads to be the Hunger Games volunteer, but all Mariana wanted to do was head over to the Seaton's place and watch some stupid movie on the television. Unfortunately, that would not be possible this year. Mariana Hurley-Bellus had been chosen for the position of Volunteer of the 125th Hunger Games, and so she would have to be shoved into the nation's spotlight for the next few weeks, until she either killed the final tribute and came back to the salty air and rushing waves of District Four, or someone killed her, and she came back in a wooden box. It had been a surprise when she had been selected since she had only gone to the training sessions on Sunday afternoons and Thursday mornings, but it wasn't a huge stretch. She was pretty good with her specific skills and very rarely was one of the other girls able to beat her in practice.

Mariana looked up at the sun, high up in the sky, and knew it was now time to head for shore. It was reaping day, and it would not do to be late, especially because she was the star of the show. Manning the wheel all the way to shore, Mariana expertly maneuvered the mid-sized craft to shore. Usually, River Hurley-Bellus, Mariana's mother, as well as a couple other members of the small crew, would be on the deck of the Prydein helping Mariana to land and tie off their boat after the long day of fishing.

The Prydein was a small fishing boat, nothing near the size of many of the barges that sailed District Four's waters, but Mariana wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else. Prydein was her home, and it's small crew were her "aunts", "uncles," and "cousins". It had four decks, three of which were below and contained the ships galley, cargo hold, and small cabins for the Hurley-Belluss and as well as the nineteen other members of the crew and their families. River ran her ship firmly but fairly, and Mariana, as first mate, did her best to set the example.

Today, her mother had decided to head below an hour earlier, to help Storm get ready. The rest of the crew had either decided to get a couple extra hours of sleep or were helping their own children get ready for the reaping

Storm was every bit as familiar with Prydein's workings as any senior crew member was, but the ten year old preferred to stay below, reading books on biology and marine wildlife, and helping their stepfather with the ship's accounts or helping with minor repairs. He was often heard saying that he wanted to be a marine biologist, but no one actually thought he would. Just because District Four was primarily a district that did anything to do with the surrounding waters, most of the residents livelihood came from fishing, not from studying the fish. Mariana loved reading about different fish, but never dreamed of making a career out of it.

"Mariana, ready to get back to the landlubber realm?" a joking voice called from the entrance to the lower decks. Mariana quickly released the ropes for the anchors, turning to face the intruder. It was Mo Coen, second mate aboard the Prydein. Mo, as almost everyone called her(she was Jewish, and her name, she had told Mariana, meant "from the water" in Hebrew, which she thought was quite on the nose for her profession), was a kind woman. Where River and Mariana were known to be abrasive with their words at times, Mariana didn't think that Mo had ever said a harsh word to anyone. Unlike many of the other crew members, who mostly only stayed on for a few months (none stayed much longer than a year) before they would move on, Mo had been second mate on Prydein for as long as Mariana could remember. When her mother had been busy above decks when she was a little girl, it was Mo who had helped patch skinned knees and such other child doings.

Mo had a mischievous side that very few saw often. Mariana still remembered the time on her twelfth birthday when she had laid in wait outside the below-decks entrance with a bucket of freezing cold water, which she then proceeded to dump over her head, cackling as Mariana began to chase her around the top deck. On the other hand, she was also a great person to confide in when she needed advice or was upset. After her first boyfriend broke up with her two years ago, it had been Mo who found her huddled in her cabin, sobbing uncontrollably, and simply held her while the tears flowed.

"Sure, it's time we gave them a taste of what Prydein is made of, aye?" Mariana grinned widely. It was always good to joke with Mo. "Gotta show everyone in the Capitol District Four is still a powerful district."

Smiling wryly, Mo approached and leaned against the deck railing next to Mariana. "I still don't know if it's a good idea for you to volunteer for this Games. I don't think you have it in you to kill a little seven-year-old."

Mariana had already decided that she wouldn't go after any of the kids who weren't normally eligible for the games. She considered that the cowards way to winning, and whatever she was, Mariana Hurley-Bellus was not a coward. If one of them attacked her, though, that was their own fault for being idiotic and trying to beat a girl many years their senior

"I told you, I'm not going to go after any of them intentionally," Mariana reminded her. "You don't have to worry about me, I'll be fine. I can handle myself in the Capitol, I haven't had any snaps in six months."

Mariana lowered the ladder to the pier for anyone who was about to head onshore for the reaping and headed for the door below-decks to get ready for the reaping. As she passed Mo, Mariana couldn't help noticing the look of concern the older woman wore. She didn't know how, but she knew that the concern was not directed at her, but at anyone who ended up pushing Mariana too far and making her snap anytime in the arena.

Mariana could control herself. She had to.

Adrian Tang, Aged 18

The waves crashed violently around the beach, the exact kind of day the Tang family loved. Adrian was on the beach, watching his father diving and retrieving clams from the water bed.

"That was a really big one, Dad!" Adrian called, noticing a larger than average clam his father had just picked up and brought to the beach.

The waves seemed to get even more violent, and they were beginning to make Adrian uneasy. These were surging waves, unlike Adrian had never seen before.

"The waves are really mounting up, aren't they, son?" Adrian's father said, examining the waves as they continued crashing in front of them.

"Yeah, maybe we should go home?" Adrian questioned. These waves were not safe to be in anymore. "This doesn't feel safe anymore."

"Sure, I'll just go check the buoys really quick, then we'll leave." With that, Adrian's father dove back into the crashing surf, making his way to the buoys about twenty yards further into the ocean.

Adrian stood at the end of the beach, watching closely as his father swam closer to the bright orange buoys. He saw as the high waves crashed around his father, watched as his father disappeared behind the rise of one and was gone when it crashed back down.

"DAD!" Adrian yelled, but he knew his father couldn't hear him that far away. The waves were too loud. As fast as he could, he ran towards the rescue boats at the shores. "Man underwater!" he exclaimed to them. "Near the buoys!"

The rescue boats had found nothing and by the time they returned, Adrian knew the search had been fruitless.

His father was dead, drowned in the swelling waves.

Those were the memories running through Adrian Tang's mind as he waited at the square to sign in. It was time for the reaping, and Adrian was to be the male volunteer for District Four. That had been yesterday, though. His mind was far away from the tedious lines of children and teenagers waiting to get their fingers pricked, to be admitted to the square, and to find out their fate. He knew that he could no longer volunteer. His family could not handle two losses in less than a day, so whatever honor and prestige it would have offered the family should he win, he could not do it. The risk was too great.

Adrian couldn't get the images out of his mind of what had happened the previous day. The images of crashing waves and shouts were loud in his mind, even as the line they were in shuffled forward.

"Adrian," the fifteen-year-old said in a sing-song tone. This brought him out of the memories, and he looked around. Embarrassed, he realized he was now next to have his finger jabbed with the barb-like needle.

"Sorry," he muttered as he gave the check-in lady his hand.

Getting it over with, he and Namia proceeded through the crowd. Before they left, she grabbed his wrist and whispered to him fiercely.

"Adrian Tang, get a grip. Yeah, Dad's death was sad, but he wouldn't want you to wallow in memories of it. I'm serious, and you know this. He never wanted to keep us from living our lives and being happy, and that extends past his death."

When she was quiet, Adrian took a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. Namia could be a force, and she used it well. Unable to say anything, he just nodded. She gave him a searching look, before gauging he would be okay and situating herself with some friends in the fifteen-year-olds crowd.

Adrian didn't speak to anyone as he made his way to the front of the crowd, where the oldest potential tributes were situated. He didn't want to give away how nerve-wracking the reapings always were to him.

He and Delia had gotten there earlier than they needed to be, and soon, Adrian felt two presences stand on either side of him. One of them grabbed his hand, the other simply stood there. Turning to either side, he saw his best friend Sean Koire, and his twin sister Leandra. She and Adrian had began dating the previous fall. Sean had taken it quite well, giving him the "Brother speech" that if he hurt Leandra, it would be his last act.

There was no need for any of them to say anything. They were so close, they could say everything simply with their body language and expressions. Today, even that wasn't needed, because nervous energy flowed between them all.

Finally, everyone in the crowd grew silent as the mayor, Genio Freedman the escort, and the nine living victors of District Four came onto the stage. Four glass bowls were already waiting there, and Adrian couldn't help his racing heart.

"Welcome to the 125th Hunger Games reaping!" Genio called through the square. "May the odds be ever in your favor!"

The proceedings continued, with the presentation of the previous victors, the video, and the reading of the Treaty. Genio then returned to the podium, ready to choose the four tributes.

The first bowl was the younger male tribute. Genio dug around in the bowl and chose the fated child.

"Storm Bellus!" she called through the crowd. A kid from the ten-year-olds began to come onstage. His eyes were wide with terror and surprise

He didn't make it halfway before someone was calling out, "I volunteer!" A boy from the same section came through the crowd, a confident smile on his face. Arriving on the stage, he introduced himself. "I'm Ayu Kuang, I'm ten years old, and I'm going to be a victor!"

No one was very impressed by his bravado, and he stood aside for the older male tribute to be drawn. Adrian waited along with everyone else to hear the tribute that would shortly yield a volunteer. Genio grabbed a slip and ripped the seal, saying the words that ruined Adrian.

"The older male tribute is Adrian Tang!"

Adrian heard it but was surprised. How had it been his name? Then he controlled himself. He was a tribute now. No one would volunteer for an eighteen-year-old, so he had to act calm and self-assured. As he made his way up to the stage and stood beside Ayu Kuang, he thought he did pretty well.

It was the girls next, and they went smoothly. A thirteen-year-old girl was reaped and was quickly replaced by an older girl. You couldn't tell because she looked almost as young as the girl she replaced. She couldn't have been more than three or four inches taller than five feet, with curly sandy blonde hair that reached her shoulders.

"My name is Mariana Hurley-Bellus," she said when asked her name, and then retreated to stand beside Adrian.

There was no volunteer for the younger girls. A young redheaded girl, announced as Cove Scupper, slowly walked up the stairs, her cheeks flushed bright red, which threw her freckles into sharper relief.

The ceremony was over once they all shook hands, and they were escorted into the Justice Building. Adrian was glad the district's attention was off him for the time being.

Cove Scupper, aged 10

After being escorted into the room where she would say goodbye to anyone who decided to come, Cove sat down in one of the armchairs and began to examine everything in the room. She wanted to remember every detail of the room where she would probably see her family for the last time. Her mom and dad owned a shop in town where they repaired fishing boat equipment. If you had a torn net, broken lifeboat oars, or anything else ship related, you went to the Scuppers shop. They made a decent living, so they very rarely went hungry unlike many people in the District.

Cove was very good at the family business, and so she knew that she could probably make it past the bloodbath killings at the very least. She had only begun training at the academy last month, so she didn't know very much about how to use weapons or anything. She could use the nets fairly well, and she hoped that if she set traps around wherever she decided to hide out.

Cove only expected to see a few people during this time. Her parents would definitely come, and so would a couple of her friends. No one else knew her well enough to actually care now that she wouldn't come back.

Nothing ever gave Cove much to worry about. She was a smart girl who knew that there was nothing to be scared of in the dark, heights never bothered her(she had walked across the thin ledge beside the diving boards at the school pool), and she was more likely to put a spider in her terrarium than to scream and squash it. She sometimes was afraid when a big dog came near her and she wasn't aware. Now was different, though. Until this point, she had never been faced with life and death situations. Cove was quickly realizing that she was afraid to die, at least before she'd lived a decent life.

What a time to learn…

After a few minutes of waiting, Cove almost began to think no one was actually going to come and looked down at the floor rather than the door. She studied the small scar from the dog that bit her when she was five, waiting for the chance to leave.

She heard footsteps from outside and looked up to see the door open as it admitted her parents. They stood close to the door, tentatively looking at her, as if afraid of what they might see, or possibly worrying that this would be the last time that they saw her.

"Cove," her mother said the words so quietly, they were barely audible from where she stood.

Cove never considered herself a crybaby, but she couldn't help herself as she jumped up from the seat and ran across the room, sobbing as she embraced her mother tightly.

"Mom, they're going to kill me, aren't they?" she asked through choked up syllables. "I don't want to die."

The look in her mother's eyes was devastating. There was nothing she could do for her daughter when it truly mattered. Her father embraced them both, and Cove felt herself calm down a little bit.

"We aren't going to lie and tell you winning will be a cinch," her father said, looking into his daughter's eyes. "But, if you stay with Mariana and the other careers, at least for awhile, and leave with her when things get hairy, you can make it to finals with Mariana."

Cove knew this would be her best bet, and smiled gratefully at her father's appreciated his comfort, even if they all knew she would never win, not in a thousand years, or if hell froze over.

Her mother took something dangling out of her pocket, holding it out to her daughter. Cove examined the necklace in her hands. It was a beautiful shell made of pale blue sea glass, with a worn leather cord to tie it around her neck.

"It's beautiful, Mom," Cove smiled at her as she tied it firmly around her neck. "Thanks. I promise I'll do my best to come back with Mariana."

Their time slowly ran out, and they left with wishes of luck and orders to enjoy the capitol for the time they were there. Alone once again, Cove studied the necklace while she waited. It really was a work of great craftsmanship. The swirls and divots on the shell were incredibly detailed.

The door creaked open once again, and three people entered the room. She knew them very well. Storm Bellus, Nerida Brooks, and Davy Bowline were her best friends in school They often went swimming together, and a couple times snuck into the often mostly vacant movie theater together to watch old movies.

"Hey, Cove," Nerida began, a cautious smile on her face. "How're you holding up?"

"I'm doing as well as the situation calls for, Neri," Cove answered. "I mean, I'm about to go to the Capitol to be paraded around for the week, and then I'm sent to the arena, where forty-six other people are going to be trying to kill me."

"Perky, as ever," Davy smirked, laughing at her morbid words.

"Storm, did you go see your sister?" Cove asked him. He knew this had to be hard, with his best friend and sister both being sent to the arena to be hunted and killed.

"Yeah, she's doing okay. You know how she is, always all stoic. I asked her to help you out, so you both can come back. Gave her one of those bracelets you and Neri showed us how to make last month. Remember them?"

Cove nodded slowly. Truly, she was quite surprised that the boy remembered that.

"We're betting on you both coming back in one piece," Neri warned, shaking a finger at her friend. "I'm serious. All our savings are going to sending you sponsor stuff."

"Well, I'd hate to think you wasted your money for nothing," Cove grinned. "I'm going to do my best to get back. I would never leave you guys in peace to just sit around and be boring."

"They almost didn't let us in since they thought we weren't related, but we told them we were your cousins and they let us in," Davy said. "I was surprised they bought it."

The time was almost done for them as well, and they were escorted out. Cove returned to the comfortable armchair to await the escort to the train. She was now ready to get on with this ordeal.

And thus ends my two-month hiatus. I'm so sorry it's been so long, but as I said in the UPDATE chapter, I've been swamped in college and just getting out of the post-holiday funk. I'm back now, though, so now the story will continue. Look for District Five in about a week.

Once again, big shoutout to anyone who made characters for this, as well as my lovely Beta, SadieAnnabethMellark!

Here are your chapterly questions.

Who is your favorite in this chapter: Ayu, Mariana, Adrian, or Cove?

Who was your favorite from District Three? I remembered to ask District Two last time when I'd forgotten but forgot Three.

Ayu seems to value his reputation greatly. Will his ego suffer when he has to vie for popularity against tributes who are more popular or charismatic?

Mariana seems to know that she is a bit of a hot fuse, but will her knowledge be able to help her control it in a world full of triggers?

Adrian's memories seem to hold him more than the real world. Will he be able to stay out of his memories long enough to win the Games?

Cove seems like a girl to just brush off problems that come her way, but will it be enough when she's faced with the arena?