Quick apology: I'm so so sorry, everyone! I have just been struggling with some stuff, so I really haven't had time to do this, but I am very proud of this chapter, so enjoy it! I promise to make more time for writing.

Hello everybody! How are you all? Welcome back to my SYOT! I finally have all my slots taken! This is a big milestone for me, so...celebration! Hooray! Sorry to everyone who wanted to submit and didn't get to. I'm planning to start a new SYOT as soon as I finish this one, so get in there quick! And now, back to the story; District 3! This one is very different from the other two, and I can't wait for these tributes to show off their skills.

Thanks to MoonlightSalsa and TheOneToWatch for reviewing

TW: Mentions of child abuse

Chapter 4: District 3: Just in Case

Twila Hyrulea's POV

"Twiiiiilaaaaaa...Ready or not, here I cooome!"

"NO! GO AWAY!"

"TWIIIIILAAAAAAA, IIIII'M COOOMING!"

"GO AWAY! PLEASE GO AWAY!"

"TWIIIIIIILAAAAAA! WHERE AAAAAARRE YOUUUUUUUU?"

"NO! PLEASE! PLEASE GO AWAY!"

"NOT 'TIL I FIIIIIIIIIIIIIND YOUUUUUUUUUU!"

I am trapped. This alley is a dead end. I can hear him coming. I quickly scan the alley. A wooden staff lies moldy and manky on the floor. A dumpster fills the entire place with an unappealing stench. A pile of broken chairs, good for climbing but unstable, is next to me. I have decided. I snatch the staff off the floor and duck into the dumpster.

"TWIIIIIIIIIILAAAAAAAA? ARE YOU IN HEEEEEE-AAAAAAAAEEEEA!"

There is the sound of scuffling, then a scream. Then a yell of pain. Then the sound of something breaking.

I push the dumpster open and gasp at what I see. My twin sister, Ceres, is standing there, broken chair in hand, smashing it repeatedly into my assailant's head. He whimpers and scuffles off.

Ceres turns to me and smiles kindly. "You OK?"

I crawl out of the dumpster and look at her. She looks like a better version of me, with her gorgeous white-blonde hair opposed to my ratty blonde. Her round, smiley face opposed to my pointed chin and permanent scowl. Her shouty, loud disposition, muscly build and huge circle of friends, as opposed to my more bookish personality, weak, bony body, and few good friends. Apart from that, we look almost exactly alike, with our full lips, huge green eyes, and slightly short stature.

I do not envy her, though. In fact, she is my best friend. Her, Calculata, Codey, and Stylus. They are my best friends. My only friends. But I am happy that she is always there for me.

I flop out of the dumpster and groan in pain. The knife wounds from my assailant are bleeding, and I take a few steps before I collapse on the floor. Ceres rushes to my side. "I'll take you to the apothecary," she says. "Maybe they can heal you."

She lifts me up and puts my arm over her shoulder. I try to hobble as best I can, but eventually Ceres is just dragging me across the scorching ground.

"Oh, my word!" says Intelliga, our neighborhood's healer, as we enter the room. "What happened here?"

She forces me onto her table and pours some cold water onto my back. I hear a yelp and Codey runs into the room.

Codey. My boyfriend. My beautiful, gorgeous boyfriend. Codey rushes over to me and yells frantically at Ceres, "What happened to her?"

Ceres murmurs, "She got hurt."

Codey looks at her with a desperate, teary gaze. His mother rests her hand on his shoulder, then goes back over to me. Codey's sister Dahlia rushes into the room, as if alerted by her brother's cries.

I yelp in pain, wounds aching. Intelliga seems to remember that I am lying on her table, bleeding out from a stab wound, and presses a bandage against my scars and ties it tightly around my waist.

Dahlia takes my left hand and Codey takes the right. They lift me up and dump me onto an armchair. I wince but lean forward as they gently push me down. Dahlia dips her hand into a pot of what looks to be dressing and Codey works off my shirt. I initially resist but then Dahlia begins to massage the goop into my back.

The goop makes my wounds tingle and cool, then there is an odd jolt and I pass out.

Sam Xavier's POV

"Get the hell back here!"

I let out a loud laugh of triumph. Lyre and Bobs are falling behind. "Wait for us," pants Bobs. His maroon hair flying behind him, he puts on a burst of speed and overtakes me. Lyre disappears around the bend behind us.

I look ahead. Bobs is looking back at me with a grin that makes me feel furious. I see him race ahead and then I realize he is going blurry. It's happening again. Bobs disappears out of sight and Lyre appears beside me. Her long white ponytail, dyed blue at the tips, seems to be floating.

"Sam... Sam, are you okay?" Her voice begins to fade. Her face begins to get shinier. "Saam..." her voice is completely indecipherable, echoing through everything. Then the shininess wins, and everything goes dark.

xxx

I am being stared at. I am aware of a tiny, ratty, 16-year-old girl with a bandage around her back and an annoyingly pointed expression.

I rub the sleep out of my eyes and stare back at her. She blinks and scrunches her face. There is the sound of stomping and three people step into the room. I recognize them as Intelliga, our neighborhood's healer, and the two with her are probably her children, as they share her olive skin and straight black hair.

The boy, who is clearly older, goes over to the girl and takes her hand. I see the girl visibly relax. The girl, meanwhile, goes over to me and places her hand on my forehead. "He's fine." she says to her mother.

"Then get him out of my operating room! I have this poor girl bleeding out from a stab wound on reaping day, and this weakling passed out on his school cross-country run."

The girl practically drags me off the table and escorts me out of the door. She shakes her hair and closes the door in my face. "Bye," she says.

"Rude," I mutter. I turn out to the waiting room and see Lyre and Bobs waiting for me. Lyre stands up and awkwardly takes my hand. "Are you okay?"

"Come on, we have to go. It's reaping day, and you're still wearing sweaty running clothes." offers Bobs unhelpfully

On the way home, I find an abandoned briefcase full of scrap metal, and that makes me feel better.

When I get home, everyone is rushing. By everyone, I mean my father. He buzzes round, placing dishes haphazardly into the dishwasher, folding clothes and tossing them in cupboards, and brushing the floor with a damp mop.

Lars Xavier is the most amazing person on the planet, and he just so happens to be my father. He is hardworking, and kind, and he-

"Sam, what the hell?"

A picture lies shattered on the floor. I pick it up and desperately try to wipe glass shards off the floor. I see what the picture is, and my apology catches in my throat. It is them.

My mother and father had the proverbial whirlwind romance. They met at their high school graduation and were engaged and married within a month. Then came the day. That awful day. A stumble. Screaming. Then a long fall onto a short buzzsaw.

I still remember the funeral. A short, round man, reading out an even shorter obituary. Then they buried the urn that contained the pieces of my mother. Then a few slices of cake. The entire ceremony had barely taken an hour, as that's all we could afford. Then back to work as usual.

Back to work. Just like always. Just in case.

District 3 Justice Building

Twila Hyrulea's POV

Names, names, names. My back is still pounding with pain, so I focus on names. Ceres, my twin sister. Insta, my little sister. Beta, my little brother. Dysc, my big brother. Minerva, my mother. Kwartz, my father. Calculata, my friend. Stylus, my friend. Codey, my boyfriend. Intelliga, my future mother-in-law. Dahlia, my future sister-in-law. Porphyrios Ursus, this ridiculous bigot trotting about onstage, clapping and laughing at the Capitol propaganda video.

"Alrighty then, District 3! Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"

Porphyrios taps on the microphone and the feedback squeals in all our ears.

"Okay, D3!" says Porphyrios. He does that a lot. Shortens our already short name as if he can't even be bothered to respect the kids that he is chaperoning off to die. "How about we switch things around and go boys first this time, just for a change! Ooh, how exciting!"

He digs his fingers into the bowl and scrabbles around for a name. "Sam Xavier!"

"NoOOoOooOoooOo...!" A girl in the 18s section is screaming and rushing for the front. A little shuffling later, a boy out of the very back of the males, a fit-looking boy, I must admit, pops out.

I assess him as a possible tribute. He looks strong; his muscles are big. He's kinda cute, too, in a scruffy sort of way. He has ashen skin and curly brown hair. He stands at about 5'11, so not tiny.

I look back to Porphyrios. His long nails are scrambling around in the girls' bowl. He pulls out a name and reads out: "Tweela Hyruhlayah! Do we have a Tweela Hyruhlayah!" The mayor whispers something in his ear, and then he says those fatal words.

"Twila Hyrulea."

"NOOOOOOO!"

Ceres is next to me, and she is screaming, and suddenly Calculata is screaming and I can hear that Stylus is screaming and Codey is screaming and Dahlia is screaming and Insta is screaming and everyone and everything is screaming and I collapse to the floor because I can't take any more screaming and then I am being hauled to my feet.

Without another word, I am on the stage in front of everyone. I cannot help it; the tears start flowing and Porphyrios has my hand in his hand and he's forcing it into Sam's hand. My district partner looks at me with a funny combination of hilarity, like he wants to burst into laughter, and anxiety, like he wants to burst into tears.

I manage to choke out, "Happy death day!" and then the tears stop, and the laughter starts. It is loud, and panicky, and hysterical, and Sam blinks at me for a second then laughs, and his laughter sounds like mine. The laughter gets louder, and then the tributes collapse against each other, and it isn't just two more nameless tributes, because it's me and Sam. The world disappears and then it is only the laughing, and the laughing is only laughing to stop the screaming and the screaming is closing in and everything is laughing and screaming and we're laughing and screaming and we're all going to die and that is hilarious and terrifying and ohmygodeverythingispanictheworldisendingandwe'reallgoingtodiegoodbyeworldthisisitsayyourprayers and flashBANG everything goes dark.

Alrighty, then! I am very proud of this chapter because of the contrast between the games being an honor and a death sentence. I channeled my inner chaotic, hard-to-read Suzanne Collins sections for the ending. Do you like the characters? I am kind of disappointed that I had to end every segment of this story with the character passing out, but our District 3s are very pass-y out-y people.

Sorry again for the wait! I promise to drop D4 sooner, much sooner. Expect it hopefully in the next day or two (or maybe three). Or at least I'll try. I can't really write until I have a District 4 female (cough cough hurry up Pocketwatch Ripper cough cough). Easter sure does give you a lot of time to write (when I'm not passed out on my bed from chocolate overdose. I goddam love Easter).

To The Pocketwatch Ripper and TheOneToWatch, I'm still waiting on your reserved tributes!

Love you all! See you in the next one! Please drop a review, let me know what you think.

-Luke