SIENNA MULBERRY, 16

A few weeks earlier…

Early this morning, I leave my two-story home and head to the local orphanage. I try to go there at least once or twice a week to spend time with the kids. Compared to most of District 12, I've had a better life. Both of my parents are still alive, as are my siblings, who helped take care of me as a kid. Their compassion has always inspired me, so once I was old enough, I decided to pay it forward and help others, too.

Once I reach the orphanage, a bunch of the kids rush up to me and hug my legs. They are so many of them that I nearly fall to the floor.

"SIENNA!" One young girl, Mollie, says to me. "Look, I lost a tooth!" She reaches into her pocket and shows me her tooth.

"Look at you go!" I say back to her.

The other kids fight for my attention. They want me to read stories to them, tell them about my life in the "wealthier" part of the district, and some even want to braid my hair. I let them do whatever they want (within reason). Anything to make them smile. Hell, most days, I even help the people working there and serve their meals, too. That happens again today.

Finally, it's almost night time, meaning I have to head back home.

"You'll come back soon, right?" Mollie and a few other of the kids ask me.

"Of course! I wouldn't miss my days here for anything!" I smile back at them, and they all hug me once again before I leave to go back home, where my parents ask me all about my day.

"It's a wonderful thing you do for those kids," mom says to me. "I'm sure it means a lot to them."

The day of the reaping….

There would only be one thing that would stop me from going to the orphanage. And thanks to Chip, it just came true.

I'm heading to the Hunger Games.

IVER LANGLEY, 14

A few weeks earlier…

My brother Rob wakes me up early to teach me more about weapons. Ever since he was 12, he became obsessed with the possibility that one of us could get reaped for the games. Since no one from 12 ever wins (well, except Haymitch), he wanted to be extra prepared, learning everything he could about weapons, and then passing on his knowledge to me and our other brother, Ty. No one knows about our secret training sessions, not even our parents. I think they'd freak out if they knew, and mom would tell us to stop fighting each other.

"Okay, show me what you could do with a sword," Rob says to us, giving us a wood version of the weapon. Ty and I have a fake fight, each landing a few hits on the other, but nothing that would prove fatal (hopefully). We also practice with small knives that Rob definitely stole from the family butchery, some hand-to-hand combat, where I end up punching Ty in the face— whoops! He wasn't paying attention!

After fighting each other for a few hours, we get ourselves ready to go to work at the butchery. When mom asks what happened to Ty's face, he panics and claims that he bumped his head against his bedpost earlier. Rob and I look at each other with bug-eyes, but mom believes the lie and tends to him.

We stay at the butchery for a while, doing anything our dad asks of us: cutting up the food, hanging up the produce, dealing with the customers at the front. I get to use some of the larger knives (a recent development for me), except Rob still has to supervise to make sure I don't injure myself. I've been watching my family do this my entire life. Do they seriously not trust me with this?

Towards the end of the night, some of my classmates swing by the butchery, asking if I want to hang out with them in the forest. It sounds tempting, but I decide to go next time, so they wave goodbye and leave.

"Why don't you go with them?" Dad asks me. "We're pretty much done here."

I shrug. "I don't know those kids super well. Don't want to feel left out. Besides, I don't mind hanging out here."

He sighs. "Promise me that next time, you'll be more social."

I nod and assure him of that.

Unfortunately, it appears as though I may never have that chance.

During the reaping, Chip swirls his hand around in the bowl for far too long. Fed up, someone from the crowd screams "JUST PICK SOMEONE ALREADY!" Making Chip jump and put his hand on a piece of paper. He unfolds it and calls out a name. "IVER LANGLEY!"

Guess I'll never get to go to the forest after all.