A Strange Sense of Deja Vu: The 76th Hunger Games

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not Suzanne Collins. Y'see, she can publish books. I on the other hand am just a kid of a certain age.

Okay… enjoy!

The top of my lip sweats. My palms itch. I'm staring at the twelve-year-old section. I'm actually staring at someone in the twelve-year-old section. Karma. This is her first reaping and I think I'm going to pass out. She on the other hand looks perfectly fine, but I'm in the thirteen-year-old section, so it's hard to tell.

She's looking at a group of girls who are whispering to each other in disgust. They're disgusted by her, but she shares the same look on her face. When they turn around, she points her finger into her mouth and pretends to gag.

Man, I love her.

"Ladies first!" Effie Trinket squeals and plunges her hand into the girl's sphere. I'm sweating buckets and mustering "Not Karma. Anyone but Karma." to myself. Well, let me tell you, the next words that come out of Effie's mouth almost make me laugh at the irony. Then I remember what this means.

"Karma Bentee! Karma!" Effie yells.

"What?" Karma says back, making it clear that she wasn't listening. "Who said my name?" she raises her well-used fist.

"Yoo-hoo!" Effie sings. "You've just been selected as the female tribute!"

"Oh. Well great!" she says sarcastically. "I just can't wait to die." I know she's trying to sound strong, but I hear her voice wavering slightly. She walks up to the stage, her hands on her stomach as if she's about to vomit. I think I might too.

"Let's give a round of applause everyone!" Effie squeals. All of District Twelve claps slowly, hesitating at first. Effie pouts. "Yes… now on to our male tribute!"

She dramatically plunges her hand into the ball and reads: "Augustine Powers!"

Oh. No. suddenly my mind goes back to two months ago. Back when Karma got into one of her many famous fights. Two sixteen year olds- one of the being Augustine- were picking on Karma, tugging her hair and spitting on her.

"Hey!" She'd yelled. "You'd better watch it unless you want be to rearrange both of your faces… actually, that might actually help you both get a date, so I'd be doing you two a favor."

"Oh, yeah?" the other one said cracking his knuckles, "Looks like this little girl is full of some hot-air."

"Let's knock some of it out, shall we?" Augustine said. His friend nodded and they got closer to Karma.

Well, by the time she was done with them, listing all their injuries would take a week. It's be easier to just say she broke their faces, escaping with just a small cut on her cheek. Her ring on her right hand helped her with that, and she hasn't taken it off since.

I snap back out of my flashback when I she Augustine walk onstage, still sporting two black eyes. The look on his face was unmistakable. You're first, it said. My mouth knew what to do before I did and before I knew it, I was flailing my arms around screaming "Wait! I volunteer!" I run to the stage and push Augustine off muttering "Get off." to him. When he falls on his face, he curses.

"My name is Casey! Casey Lankan!" I scream into the microphone.

"Wow." Effie says. "First Miss Katniss Everdeen and now you… Casey. District 12 really starting to understand these Games."

Karma is staring at me like I'm crazy, and I don't like it. After Effie acknowledges us one more time, the Peacekeepers take me to a room where my friends and family have one hour to say goodbye. First comes my friend, Edwin.