A/N: Yay! Speeds finally picking up! Can't wait to write more!

Also- The song lyrics from the last chapter are written by one of my friends, Paige, who writes some of the most amazing songs you will ever listen to. She had previously written it for my real book, and I will surely use it, but when I read it, it screamed "Hunger Games" to me. So reviews to Paige and her song would be nice to hear. I'm sure we'd both like to hear your thoughts and comments on it.

Disclaimer: I'm still not Suzanne Collins... How much do you think it'd take to buy the trilogy off her?...

~District Seven Reapings~

Shay Auburn's P.O.V.

Multi-colored leaves crunch under my boots while I walk through the woods.

I can hear the creek from down-hill babbling on and on.

I can see nothing, but pure green pines from my view.

I can smell some of the ripe blackberry bushes nearby.

But all at the same time, everything I sense somehow leads me to more nothing.

Faster than I can react, I'm pushed to the ground and my face meets the bark once beneath my feet.

I look up to see- Ren. I've known him for years now. We've had the same passion for years- trees.

"You're not supposed to be working on Saturday Shay." Ren says getting of me.

I laugh a little and brush off the orange pines off my jacket. "It's not even Saturday. And... and why the heck did you jump on me?"

Ren taps my nose like I'm five. "But it is- Reapings." He opens his mouth to speak again but I beat him to it.

"Then where's that fancy suit you were talking about earlier?" I say poking his shoulders and chest, trying to make my point clearer.

"Nah. It can wait."

I smirk. "Let me guess. You accidentally got ripped or torn right after you got it."

Ren's smile fades into a frown. "No." I can just barely hear him whisper the rest of his sentence. "I got some tree sap on it."

"Why'd you work in your suit?" I laugh.

"I wasn't working in my suit." He says a little louder. "I threw it on my bed and when I got home there was a small thing of sap on it." He shrugs and slopes down onto a tree.

I roll my eyes and lean against the neighboring tree.

Heather walks onto the path I was on just a moment ago.

"Careful Heather! Psychos seem to jump out of trees randomly." I tell her.

Ren throws his working gloves at me.

Heather keeps walking though without emotion.

She carefully heaves herself up the tree across from us. In seconds, she's at least thirty feet into the air.

"Uh, Shay?" I look at Ren still on the ground. "What's Feather doing?"

Feather. I remember Ren had trouble pronouncing words when he was younger. He always called my sister "Feather", and I guess it's stuck since then.

Ren's never came up with a name for me. Whenever I think about it, a warm feeling swarms in my body.

When I tell Ben, he says I'm just jealous. But why would I be?

Jealous plus me, equals why?

It's why I never talk to Ben about my feelings. Why I don't talk to anyone about my feelings.

I look back up at Heather who's made it to the tip of the tree.

"Don't know Ren." I say with my arms crossed.

Heather waves down at us like she wants us to come up. "Shay! Ren! Come check this out!"

I follow after Ren who sturdily makes his way up the tree.

I'm right under his feet until my fingers slip a little.

It's only then when I realize that the branches are starting to get icy from the cold.

Slowly I make my way to a fork in a tree, so I can slip my old gloves on.

My book bag is worn out from all the years it's gone through.

I remember when I was little and Heather got her first book bag for school. I had always wanted one because I was tired of carrying my things in my shirt, in a pile, while I walked around the house.

Ben broke down when I was four and finally bought me one from Mr. Sanchez from District Seven's Black market.

Mr. Sanchez's items always get beaten up easily through the years, so it's no wonder mine looks like it came from the garbage. (Which I'm starting to think it was.)

I can hear a faint "Click", when I open the flap to my book bag. I shuffle around the items inside until I find the gloves.

I don't notice I've grabbed both until one limply falls to the ground below me.

Cursing under my breath I begin to climb down with my only glove and my beaten book bag.

The glove has snagged on a branch about five branches down.

My only concern is that the branch is thin and probably won't hold my weight.

Maybe if I could use a thicker branch nearby I'd be able to reach it.

Slowly I hop onto a nearby branch and stretch my arm towards the stranded object.

Under me, my feet slip and I grab the thin branch.

I keep my eyes open, yet squint looking for a branch I can grab onto.

"Left, down." I mutter to myself looking directly at a branch.

A voice breaks through the silence. "Heave. Up." Ren lifts me onto the branch he's sitting on.

I cough a little. "Thanks."

"We need to get you a harness of your own. Or at least a helmet." He says patting my head and getting up and onto the branch across from me.

Ren is lucky and gets to work on chopping down the trees in the east so he gets to work with all the fancy supplies they give out before he works. Sometimes Mr. Mattson will ask me to bring food to the lumber-jacks while they work and if not busy with anything.

Because I'm a girl, I only work part-time in the forests. I'm assigned to the west-side of the district so I don't see Heather or Ren much. Ben doesn't even get to talk because he works almost every hour of the day, only to come home at nine with small amounts of food so he can sleep and get ready for the next day.

I jump when I Heather's face suddenly becomes inches from mine. "Hey, Shay. Come check this out."

She swings back upwards so she isn't upside-down and starts climbing towards the top of the tree again.

I follow Heather up the tree while Ren comes up behind me.

The sight I'm seeing is amazing.

~District Seven Reapings~

Ren Kirro's P.O.V.

Shay's eyes widen when she sees the smoke coming out of the chimney of my house.

"Are you sure you didn't set it before you left?" Shay turns to me.

I shake my head. "He must be getting better."

I had been sure I hadn't set the fire before I left. Dad must have pulled himself together.

"Heather? How'd you know?" Shay asks her in confusion.

"The town's people were talking about as I walked by the market. Another Misses got a case of the Meopola disease and the news has spread everywhere." Heather says taking a sip out of her water jug.

Meopola. The disease that made my life a living hell...

I swallow hard. "Did you ever find out who it was?" I lean against the tree and grab a couple pines to chew on.

I'm so used to eating this crap it's started to bring on a punching taste.

We all stay silent for a long time.

"Shay. We need to get ready for the reapings. It's a long walk back and we'll need to get a head start." Feath- I mean Heather says.

I watch the two climb down the tree and wander away from the woods.

I should be going about now too. It's going to be around a thirty minute walk any ways.

I run my fingers through my forest of blonde hair and make my way down the tree.

No one is here in the woods with me so it's entirely quiet.

I keep my ears open for any motion in the distance. Dangerous animals, or even worse, peacekeepers could do worse than just an injury.

Anybody found in the trees when it's not working hours, will be put in stalks for at least twenty-four hours while the Merchants turn their backs and walk past you with their heads still held high.

It's sick the way they can do this to us. Bribing us to work with food while we starve in our homes.

I pull out a knife from my belt and hold it by my side- just in case.

As I walk into town people start crowding around the stage in the Square.

I can't help but think that two kids will be shipped off on this one day. And it will all start here.

XxXxXxXxXx

The Town is just as crowded as it was before earlier.

I take my spot over by the other fourteen year olds, riffling through the crowd.

Shay is in her old blue dress. My favorite one. The one that fits her body so well, even after seven years.

The seven years of horrors she went through. These of which easily matched the eight years I went through myself with my mother's death.

I remember standing beside the last four of the Auburn family, including their now deceased mother, right here in this spot.

It was only a coincidence that the funerals fell onto the same date. Faith- I guess you could call it.

I recall every tear Shay had shed just for her father's death. But in the long run, she kept her head held high and buried the memories deep inside her.

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction." My dad's voice echoes in my head. It's all he practically said before he went into a bad metal state.

And instantly when the two of us met, I knew what my father had meant by this.

Shay turns to me for the slightest second then looks away. She sees me staring at her also.

Casually, I stick my hands in the back of my jean pockets and rock on my heels. Then I watch the mayor finish his speech that I've completely blanked out.

Just out of the corner of my eye, I see Shay looking at me questionably.

It takes her quite some time to look away.

Candy Button makes her way up to the cherry wood podium and sticks her hand into the circular glass bowl. While doing so she says, "Ladies first!"

She's obviously just trying to get it done and over with.

"Heather Auburn." Candy says confidently with a small smile on her face.

It takes a pile of strength for making sure my eyes don't even widen.

I get a quick glance of Shay running towards the stage, her hand raised high in the air.

Shaking my head and biting my lip I feel like I've been devoured into a dark hole of nothingness.

"I volunteer! I wish to take Heather Auburn's place as tribute!" Shay finally screams to Candy.

"Crap, damn it." I mutter quietly so nobody around me can hear my words.

Candy holds the microphone up to Shay's mouth. "And your name is?"

"Shay. Shay Auburn." She says with her voice stiff.

Candy smiles sweetly. "Well then. Take a seat and we'll move onto our male tribune." The smile on her lips covers most of the fact that she works for murderers.

Shay takes her seat while Heather walks back to her roped off area, as tears slide down her face.

I hardly have time to notice Candy's tanned hand dipping into the glass bowl again. "Is there a Ren Kirro?"

This is when I look somewhere besides Shay in the white fabricated chair.

My face, emotionless as it seems, feels like it's been dipped in concrete.

I stare straight forward and only in that direction.

People make a clear pathway for me.

And even though I can't see them, I can tell that I'm passing by all the people who've never cared to stop and think about who they're looking at and that death may be there future.

The crowd is utterly silent letting even more violent thoughts enter my mind. And it's all about Shay.