Sectionals

Chapter One

My hands tightened around the bow; my legs spread open at shoulders width apart. I carefully aimed the arrow at the messy black spot on the cloth hanging from a tree and released the arrow, watching as it flew right through the circle. I grinned as I collected the arrow, returning it to the sheath on my back. "Rachel!" The voice made me jump and I turned to see my neighbour Hiram watching me with a sad smile. "You better go home... They're announcing it in an hour." I nodded, the 75th Hunger Games - a quarter quell – was being announced tonight, though I knew it wouldn't matter if I went home or not, my mother wouldn't notice. My mother rarely got out of bed anymore, and when she did she was drunk. Her mother certainly would be drunk tonight. Her sister had been a tribute in the 50th Hunger Games in which twice the amount of tributes were sent into the arena. My mother had only been nine at the time and her sister was thirteen, she hadn't stood a chance. I forced myself to smile at Hiram and opened my mouth to ask if I could stay with them, but the ageing man shook his head and spoke first. "I know what you're going to say Rachel, but you can't stay here, you know me and Leroy love you to pieces but you're mother needs you right now." The sympathy in his voice made me want to shoot an arrow at him but he'd done too much for me for me to even voice this idea.

I couldn't remember her mother ever looking after her when she was young, it had always been my two neighbours who fed me, clothed me and prepared me for the games. They'd done all of this and never asked for anything in return from my mother. That had been why I chose to be known as Rachel Berry rather than Rachel Corcoran, they were more like parents to me than my biological parents were. I didn't even know who my father was. I handed him the sheath and the bow silently and wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me into a hug. "Give your mom a hug from me." He whispered and pulled away. I nodded and a sad smile, but I knew just as well as he did that I wouldn't be hugging my mother tonight.

I waved him goodbye, and climbed over the fence to my own garden. Compared to the Berry's garden, ours was a mess, my mother hadn't tended to it in years and the grass was overgrown, and weeds scattered the whole of the area. I entered my house through the back door, it was identical to our neighbours on the outside but as you enter you can see many differences, the walls and floors are covered with grime and dirt and the doorways were covered in spider webs. It was disgusting, but there was only so much that I could do along with school, feeding my mother and training for the games. "Mom!" I called out, walking through to the living room. There was no sign of her in there, but an empty bottle of whisky told me that she'd been in there at some point. I heard a groan from upstairs and a loud thud and I rushed up to find my mother lying near the top of the stairs. I grabbed her by the waist, pulling her up, which was very difficult because of the height and weight difference. "C'mon, the announcement is starting soon." I said quietly, helping her down the stairs. I heard her sob and say my dead auntie's name. "I know... I know."

It took most of the hour before the announcement to get my mother cleaned up and force her to drink water, by the time the announcement started I'd just managed to get her sat down and silenced though tears still streamed down her face. I took a seat next to her, squeezing her hand with mine as we watched President Snow talk about the previous Quarter Quells. "On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it." I couldn't even imagine how hard that must have been for them, I certainly wouldn't have participated in the decisions of who was being sent to their deaths. "On the fiftieth anniversary." I heard my mother whimper at the mention of the games that killed her sister. "As a reminder that two rebels died for every Capitol citizen, each district was required to send twice as many tributes." I held my breath as the little boy held out the open box to President Snow. The president removed the envelope marked with a 75. He removed a small square piece of paper and read. "And now we honour our third Quarter Quell." He paused. "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that the power of the Capitol has no limits, each district will send six girls and six boys into an arena and the last boy and girl will be sent into another arena to fight the victors of two other districts. The winners will face off with the rest of the victors to find a true victor." I gasped and looked at my mother, doing the math in my head. Five hundred and three children would die... and she could be one of them.

A/N: I know I've been gone a while, but I haven't had the time to write anything. So here's my comeback, a good ol' glee/hunger games crossover. I may finish Nine Months of Summer and write a sequel to La Vida de Desastre, but I make no promises.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but I did come up with the idea of of Sectional, Regional and National Hunger Games.