Chapter 3! Thank you so much to everyone who read, reviewed, or favorited! Now the reaping for District 3...

District 3

"Annabeth Chase."

She blinked. Was that her name? It sounded like it, and everyone was staring at her. Yeah, it was definitely her name. She realized there must be cameras on her, so she straightened her shoulders and walked up to the stage, facing the crowd. She looked into the crowd to see if her father, or stepmother, or stepbrothers were there, but she didn't see them. She wasn't surprised. Her father never cared about her. In fact, he was hardly ever home. Her stepmother was no good either. She wondered if she would ever even realize she was gone. If she did though, she would probably be happy. 'One less mouth to feed', she'd say. Annabeth could almost hear her stepmom's voice in her head, saying those exact words. That woman loved any excuse to say that Annabeth was only a burden in the family, and she loved to pretend that Annabeth didn't work eight to twelve hours, seven days a week to help make money for the family. Annabeth had even dropped out of school to work. She hated it, but it was necessary. Annabeth tried to say her horrible stepmom's behavior was because she just didn't like children, but she treated her own two sons like kings. Annabeth thinks the real reason that her stepmother hates her is because she can't stand the fact that her husband had loved another woman enough to have her. In fact, she knows that's the reason. Annabeth's parents would still probably be happy together had they not been sixteen when Annabeth was born, and her mother got chosen for the Hunger Games a year later. Her mother had died in the games, and it seemed like Annabeth was following the very same fate.

While she was thinking about all this, she almost missed the male tribute's name being called.

"Leo Valdez!" the escort shouted.

Leo took no time in marching his scrawny self up to the stage, grabbing the microphone and saying,

"Cool, I love suffering!"

The escort grabbed the microphone back and said,

"Glad we have such an enthusiastic tribute this year." She said this with a grin Leo was pretty sure was made of plastic surgery. Heck, now that he thought of it, the people from the capital probably got their brains remade with plastic surgery too. That would explain some of their decisions.

"I was being sarcastic, but sure, let's go with enthusiastic," Leo said more quietly this time, so only the other tribute could hear him. He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw her roll her eyes.

"How can you be so okay with this?" the girl, Annabeth, said.

"No one in this district likes me anyway. Not since the fire. Everyone thought it was me that killed my mom, but it wasn't. it was a peacekeeper that started that fire, but no one believed me. It doesn't matter now anyways. My mom was the only family I had left. I'll see her again soon. Maybe this is a blessing; I think the death is the only way out of this place. But I don't just want to die. I'm going out with an explosion; I'm going to be remembered. It's why I got to do stuff like that," he said, pointing at the microphone. "They'll remember that."

In that minute, they looked at each other; both having no plans of winning, both knowing they stood no chance, but they also both knew that they were rooting for the other.

Thank you for reading! Once again, I'll post more once there are some reviews.