A/N: Good-bye Reapings, hello Capitol!

Sorry it kind of took longer than I expected. I'm switching to a schedule so you guys will hopefully get faster updates.

Next up are the trains. They should be up soon.

And because my 1st chapter is now out of date and I'm too lazy to do all the work and fix it, I'm just going to come out and tell you the news: Interviews are being split into four chapters now.

You have to remember that they'll equal around three minutes total, so they may be longer than most other interviews you see.

If you DON'T feel like reading all 24, which I understand, character names will be in bold, italics, etc. Basically anything that tells you straight-out- "Your character's interview is right here."

Disclaimer: Not SC and don't own THG.

Enjoy.

~District Twelve Reapings~

Nirvana Filmore's P.O.V.

Sunlight beams through the open window in front of me.

My palms lay flat against the woven covers underneath me.

To my right is a small side table, where I watch a clock make the noise but not the movement.

I sit upright and put my hand to my head.

I have an bad headache today. No worse than usual though.

The stale carpet at my feet crunches as I walk over it.

Besides the headache, at this point, the carpet is the worse of the day.

The carpet's softness it still has beneath its crunch makes me feel like I'm eating something fuzzy.

Like one of Frida's stuffed animals.

Mother and Aunt Adriana talk in the kitchen eating some bread fresh from the bakery.

I don't know if she's asking for more money again. It's very probable that she is. It bugs me that she does this.

It's almost as bad as all the girls who go to Cray to get earn money.

It's sick.

Anthony walks in silently and clatters the tea pots as he puts them away.

He's so different now.

Ever since he left to stay with Aunt Adriana to get out of the Seam, he's been so quiet.

Nothing like the fun loving freak I used to know.

Frida runs in with her old bunny that she got before mom quit her job.

"When are we leaving?" She asks standing on her Tipp toes to talk to mom.

"Right about now." I hear her whisper.

Aunt Adriana stands up tall and hugs mom around the neck. "See you next week I guess Gladass."

She turns to me and thinks for a while. "Well it was fun having you."

"Yeah. Fun." I say and walk to my old, beaten backpack.

I throw one strap over my shoulder and call for Frida.

"Coming Sissy." She says running with the rabbit's paw clutched away in her hand.

I hate watching all the merchants stare at us as we pass by.

"It's sprinkling." Frida says trying to start a conversation.

I nod without a second thought. But once I look up, I realize she's right.

Raindrops patter off the well built roofs as the rain gets thicker.

As we go on the dirt path, the water gets quieter. Only because the houses get weaker.

We are finally in the Seam.

The place where nobody even takes that chance to give you a second thought.

However, the starving people lying against the curbs seem to give you quite a stare down if you don't plop a coin into their cup.

When we reach the place made of crimson red bricks, I know we've reached the house.

Destry stands by the dead apple tree planted way back when.

I bite the inside of my lower lip because I'm still in my t-shirt and jeans.

Nothing compared to his fancy self.

"You're late." He says throwing his dad's old watch on the ground. "Winnie is probably already finished."

"With what?" Frida asks a small smile on her lips and the curiosity in her chilling grey eyes.

The same as mine in a completely different way. Anthony is the only one who shares my black eyed feature.

"Nothing." I say and gently play-shove her by the head. "Go get dressed."

She runs off into the house in a rush, her scarf blowing like a cape behind her.

Mom bumps into my shoulder as she walks past me and after Frida.

I'm not sure how I feel right now. I've felt it many times with my mom.

"Ready?" Destry says walking nearer to me.

I nod then look up at him. He's grown a foot over the winter. Destry is the only one I know that can mock me with his towering.

"Any tessarae?" I ask looking at the ground while walking to the town with him.

Destry looks at me and gives me a stern look. "What do you think?"

I roll my eyes and for once show that smile I haven't used in a while.

"Twenty-one."

I raise an eyebrow. He's bumped up by eight tessarae. "Should be fun for you this year."

The rest of our walk is filled with conversations on different levels.

Sometimes it's about the family. Occasionally the Capitol. And we even mention something about the expensive dress shop Mr. and Mrs. Keyes opened up six days ago.

We reach Winnie in front of the Candy Shop around noon.

The shop is almost closing because of the reapings in a couple minutes so we shorten the plan up by a few minutes without discussion.

We've done it a few times. Three or four maybe.

I'm sure we could do it easy by now.

When I walk inside, the smell of sweetness swirls around my nose.

The door dings again when Destry and Winnie walk in.

Almost instantly Winnie walks up to the counter and starts talking to Chauncey Hanson, son of the owner to the shop.

I follow Destry to one of the walls on the far left covered half in boxes of chocolates and small samples of Mrs. Winston's famous blackberry pie.

"Winnie likes the one with the cherries right?" Destry whispers to me tapping his fingers along rows of boxes.

"The caramels." I say back in a hushed voice. "The cherries are for me."

After we've gathered small favorites, we head off to the front counter again.

Destry and I set down the two boxes in unison and hand him a short amount of money.

On cue, Mr. Hanson comes down the stairs. "Chauncey. Time to head off. Finish this order and get your coat."

"We better get going." Says Winnie before he can count the money.

Winnie and I grab the boxes and start to walk off with Destry close behind us.

Chauncey. The boy who's been held back two grades for getting of task.

"I have to go grab my dress." I say idiotically.

"You forgot it again?" Asks Winnie whining in her squeaky voice.

I notice that almost everyone has formed a moving blob of a crowd to get to the town.

Shit. Shit. Shit…

I start to sprint towards the house.

It's hard to imagine a thirty minute walk back to the house, but it's exactly how long it took for me and Destry.

The cobblestone fades into the dirt path and I know I'm almost there.

My legs numb and in deep pain, feel like they'll brake under my fair amount of weight.

The bloody color of brick fills my eyesight.

I'm almost there.

And in less then a minute I am.

I open and slam the door quickly then run into the second and last room in the house.

The four beds close together each are perfectly made.

I see the old dress from last year hanging on the closet door.

Then the clock on mom's bedside table.

I'm five minutes in late.

~District Twelve Reapings~

Light River's P.O.V.

"Let me see. Let me see." Lissa yells frantically grabbing the map from Dark.

Honestly I have no idea why she's here. Her mom must have dropped her off with Dark before I woke up.

"I don't see your house." She says her hands on her hip furiously.

"It's the little splotch in the very corner." He says pathetically searching through pans in the cupboard only a few feet from the small counter.

I blink twice then look at Lissa who keeps searching for the house.

She finally turns to the couch I'm lying on tiredly.

With a quick gasp she almost looks like she's going to scream of joy. "You're up! Up! Up! Up!"

While she talks next to my face, black puffs of coal dust swarm around my face from her breath.

I was suppose to start in the fall but the recent mine accident last week had other thoughts.

I scratch the back of my neck and pull myself upward away from the dust choking me in its violent way.

Dark tosses me a rag from the counter and by the looks of it, I think he's gesturing to my face.

Sure enough, when I wipe my face, black streaks are left upon the rag.

"We have twenty minutes on the clock." Dark assures me when I get up and stretch out my arms.

Lissa with a startled jump exclaims, "I'll go get your clothes ready!"

She runs to the small dresser across the room and pulls out the first drawer.

My eyes meet Dark's and I raise an eyebrow.

He sighs then turns around toward the little panicked girl in the corner.

"Lissa your mom's probably worried. We better get you back before the games start." He says, a pinch of irritation in his voice.

I watch the two walk off, surprisingly I'm left untouched by Lissa as she leaves the house.

I linger towards the drawer with clothes sitting everywhere.

Lissa really did end up picking out some old clothes. Old.

Old as in they would be way to overgrown by now.

My hand reaches for the second drawer which happens to be my brother's. I grab a pair of his jeans, somewhat similar to the smaller ones I've slung over my shoulder.

Before I walk away from the dresser to change I grab a shirt out from under the bottom of all the folded clothes.

XxXxXxXxXx

"Colten from science died yesterday apparently." Dark says casually.

"Nothing new here. How'd it happen?" I say hooking my thumbs in my back pockets.

He lets out a long breath first. "Kitchen fire. So big the peacekeepers had to come along and put it out."

I bite the inside of my left cheek.

"What do you think it feels like to be dead?" He asks stepping out of someone's way as they pass by.

I give him an unclear glance in confusion.

Dark shrugs scratches his arm a couple times. I can see him staring at something across the street.

The brown hair gives it all away.

"How long has it been now?" I ask cracking a grin.

"A while." He says still looking. "She's different then all the others."

I nod slowly and look up at the cloudy sky. The rains been pounding on us all morning.

I wonder how much the roof at home can take until it gives up.

"Light." Dark says punching my arm. "You still alive in there? I asked you a question."

"Didn't hear." I say searching the huge crowd around us trying to see whoever is yelling in the back.

"I asked you if you had your eye on someone." He says agitated at the yelling behind us.

I take my time to think for a while. "Nope. It's either a snobby merchant or starving Seam kid. Take your pick."

Dark sighs seeing the truth in my words. There really isn't anything worth living for in Panem.

The Hunger Games? The starvation we live through?

If the Capitol were to visit the Hob for a trade, nothing would be sold but grief.

xXxXxXxXx

Dark and I walk through the huge huddled up group at the stage.

We start at the twelve year olds. Their worried faces and shivering bodies.

Thirteen. Fourteen.

Fifteen. The year that we last saw our parents.

Sixteen. Seventeen.

Eighteen. Present hell.

It's only now that I noticed I've placed myself between two random kids, misplacing my brother.

Mayor Undersee walks onto the stage properly and reads a long speech off of the dark days, the defeated district 13, the disasters, and everything that would set the younger kids in the bowl into a bias of panic towards the games.

The mayor introduces Effie Trinket who walks onto the stage her peach colored wig tied in fancy ways you'd never imagine.

I have to take a moment to look at the contrast between Effie's skin and hair. They look exactly the same practically.

"And you're female tribune is- Nirvana Filmore!" Effie screams into the microphone.

No claps, no cheers, nothing of inspiration.

After a while and no answer murmurs coat over the audience.

"Nirvana?" Effie asks completely in a questioning daze.

Finally after a minute or so, a girl who breathes heavily makes her way onto the stage.

She looks too tired to even be saddened a bit.

Filmore looks nothing like a Seam girl. Or a merchant either.

While our chaperone lets us "settle down", I see my brother off to one side.

When I start to move my feet slowly towards him, I realize that I've stepped into some type of goop.

After I look, it's obvious it's caramel from the Hanson's shop.

Well this just adds more to the day doesn't it.

"And now for the boy tribute." Trinket says starting to get in her bad mood but still holding up the preppy attitude.

"Light Rivers."

When I hear my name called, see the card held by her long polished nails, I know what's happened.

I move quickly through the route the other kids have made for me.

I don't bother to use the stairs. May as well show off at least some of my muscles for sponsors before the games start.

Instead I use one arm to swing myself onto the stage like a propeller.

The thought reminds me of Colten, Dark's old lab partner in science.

I steadily sit in one of the fancy chairs set up on stage.

Come to think of it, maybe Colten and I will even be given nearby graves.

"Will the two tributes shake hands." Effie says in an official tone.

Nirvana is the first to stand but she hesitates when holding her hand out.

Like she doesn't trust me enough.

Once I'm up, I shake he hand like it's no big deal. Which was partially, in fact, true.

Without a doubt, the handshake was just some dumb way to try and set up tension for tributes.

But the thing that ticked me off was this: "Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor!"

A/N: Because either you were lazy or you just skipped it or you have problems, LOTS of you skipped the "Opening Ceremonies" bit on your forms. So I spent all yesterday writing the train chapter and coming up with outfits. If you'd like to be informed what your tribute will be wearing, contact me, (by PM or review) and inform me of your choice.

Be sure to sumbit scenarios before NEXT FRIDAY. By then, it's all up to me.

And congrats to Toth Attaway! You've won the first drawing. As prize you get the next chapter!

So- Happy Hunger Games and May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor!

-Fifi

P.S. Is it just me or am I starting to sound like a teacher giving out homework?...