A/N: This is a story in conjunction with but not in order of my Story of the Games series. It's the precursor, and there will be several stories after this which will be alternate tellings of several of the Story of the Games stories. There will be OCs present in those stories present in this and subsequent stories. You don't have to read both to understand any of it, but it would be clearer that way. If you would like to read both, the first story of the series is The 66th Games: Finnick's Story. This is effectively the companion series, as it were. This story will be told from the POVs of Haymitch and Maysilee. The first chapter is Haymitch.

-C

I woke up on a blanket outside. I normally didn't sleep outside, but Salli's parents and my parents were a bit lax with us on reaping days, and I didn't want to sleep without her. We only had a couple of them left, and then I would ask her to marry me, get a job in the mines, and ignore that I had ever been eligible for the Hunger Games. That was the plan. It would work out perfectly.

The main problem was that I was only sixteen. I had two more reaping days after that one, as did Salli. And as we had learned, this reaping day would be extra special.

It was the second Quarter Quell, the 50th Hunger Games, and the twist was that twice as many tributes would be offered up as usual. The odds were even less in my favor than usual, as they were in Salli's.

We'd been going steady for nearly a year, and everyone just assumed that we would get married, as did we. There had really never been anyone else for me but Salli.

She had had her pick of boys, of course, Seam and Town, but somehow she chose me and I wasn't so dumb as to complain. I knew a good thing when I saw it.

Honestly, that was certainly a lot of what she saw in me. I was smart, which, as her mother said, made me a "good catch." Apparently I was "going places," even if those places were simply the head of my mining group, which was only marginally better pay than if I were just a coal miner like every other man in the Seam. Apparently it was better, her parents told me, that she get a coal miner who's "going places" than a Town boy with no brains or ambition to speak of. Those were two things I had never been lacking in, and when I assured them of this, they gave me an indulgent laugh and passed me more bread.

We had tesserae taken out, of course. My name was in a couple dozen times, and Salli's was in about half as many, because it was just her and her parents. I had a couple of siblings to think about too, but Archibald and Io would need to take tesserae when they were old enough, too. Even with me bringing in extra wages, I would be marrying Salli, taking on her costs, and Archie was a growing boy. Food would be even more important in the years to come, if that was imaginable.

I ran my fingers through Salli's dark hair as she continued to sleep. We had hours until I had to get her back to her house to clean up for the reaping. I figured I could afford to let her enjoy a bit more time sleeping, peaceful, not thinking about the coming events of the day.

After about a half hour of me admiring her olive skin, silky dark hair, and sweet lavender scent, she began to stir, and I started kissing her neck, waking her ever more with gentle strokes of my lips.

She sighed.

"That's nice, Haymitch," she whispered, wrapping her little arms around my neck as I worked the kisses up to her face and smiled down at her.

She didn't have the usual gray eyes of the Seam. Hers were a sort of greenish blue, sparkling and dazzling. I kissed her nose and she giggled.

"Good morning, beautiful," I said softly. "Ready for the big day?"

I could have hit myself for saying it when a frown spread over her face, but she would have remembered sooner or later that it was a reaping day. She sighed.

"This is going to be an awful year," she pouted, hugging me tightly. "Four instead of two. We'll know all of them, I just know it."

"Maybe they'll all be from the Town," I teased, tickling her a little in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Maybe they'll be people we've seen but never actually talked to."

"I don't know if that makes it better or worse," she moaned.

I sighed, hugging her.

District Twelve was a small district, relatively, and we almost always knew the kids who went off to the Games. Most were from the Seam, as the Town children hardly ever had to take tesserae and so the odds were in their favor. Two years ago, it had even been Salli's cousin. That was when I fell for her, watching the most beautiful girl in the District cry every day stirred something in me and I knew I wanted to protect her from everything that caused her pain.

We spent the morning being lazy, but that afternoon I delivered her back to her house, knowing it took girls longer to make themselves feel pretty. She always looked pretty to me, even when she insisted she was completely unsuitable.

I made my way back to my house, where Io and Archie were trying to help my mother decide what I was going to wear for reaping day. I never really cared much about my clothes. They didn't seem to matter much, in the grand scheme of things, and other people were always better at that, anyway, so I let them choose. It made them feel better, somehow, anyway, and why would I deny my family of that?

"What have we got this year?" I asked, tickling Io a bit as I looked at the shirt and pants they'd laid out for me.

Io was eight, and I could still remember the day she was born. My father named her, said he'd seen it in a book he'd read a long time ago and thought ever since that it would be a beautiful name for a girl.

It was better than Haymitch and Archibald, anyway.

She was a sweet little thing, too sensitive for the Seam, and so we often teased her that she was adopted, until my mother insisted that we stop because she was crying about it every night, terrified that she didn't actually belong with us.

As I said, sensitive.

I had actually felt quite bad for teasing her once I knew it had bothered her so much. Io was probably the sweetest little girl anyone had ever met, and she hated reaping days because she was always afraid I was going to die. When she was old enough to understand that the grain that made her bread made me more likely to be drawn, she tried not eating in hopes that I would be less likely to be drawn, but I assured her that starving herself wouldn't keep me safe and finally convinced her to start eating again.

"Do you like it, Haymitch?" she asked, her voice a little bit silly sounding because she'd lost one of the bottom front teeth, along with the gap between her two front teeth. If there had been an 's' in the sentence, I would have heard a comical whistle, which she was very embarrassed about, so we were careful not to laugh or tease, despite how funny it was.

"Absolutely, Io," I said earnestly, tickling her once more to earn a giggle. "You'd better get dressed though. I want you to look extra pretty today, all right? There will be more cameras than usual."

"They won't be looking at me," she said sadly sticking out her tongue. "They'll be focused on the people up for reaping."

"Still," I said, forcing a laugh and ushering her away. "I've got to change!"

I took a bath as Archie got dressed and then changed, letting my mother comb my hair.

It calmed my mother, I knew, for her to comb my hair on reaping day. It made her feel like she had some control over the events of the day, even though we all knew that no one but the Capitol had any measure of control.

"How's Salli?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"She's upset," I admitted. "She's always upset on reaping day."

"Of course," my mother sighed. "Such a sweet girl. I hope it's not her."

"Me too."

That was the extent of our conversing that day. There was no point saying that we hoped it wasn't me. It wouldn't do any good and the unsaid words lingered on the air anyway.

"Better get going," I said, looking at the clock. "Don't want to be late."

Attending the reaping was required, and if I didn't show up, I would be killed. My mother nodded, setting the comb down and kissing my cheek as I straightened my collar and made my way toward the town square, where Salli was already standing with her friends, smiling nervously at me as I got in line to sign in. She looked beautiful, of course, and she was visibly shaking as she stood there, clutching the hand of her best friend, Peggie.

Peggie and her older sister, Prissy, were both eligible for reaping, but this was Prissy's last year of eligibility. They were nearly done with the anxiety of reaping days in their family, whereas the anxiety in my family had barely begun. I couldn't help but be jealous, even though my jealousy was pointless. I couldn't begrudge them their coming peace of mind. They'd had six years of absolute agony already, and would have two more.

The Capitol escort, whatever her name was (She wasn't important, I'd decided long ago, because we just seemed to have a new one every three years or so. Nobody wanted to stay with District Twelve) had gotten up on stage with our single victor, Aina More, the winner of the 22nd Games, and our mayor.

I signed in, stood with the other sixteen-year-old boys, greeted them gruffly, and waited as the people on stage went through the ceremonial requirements of the day, reading the speeches probably written by the Capitol, telling us why we had the Games and what an important service they played for the world of Panem. I sighed, waiting for it all to be over.

"Lovely," the Capitol woman said with a smile as the mayor finished explaining the new rules of the Quarter Quell and why we were having twice as many children go, but the Capitol's excuses for killing even more children didn't concern me. "Ladies first."

I made fists, squeezing my hands so tightly so that my nails actually dug into my hands. If they called Salli's name, I would have completely lost it.

But the first name was Prissy. She made her way up to the stage and I could see Salli trying to soothe Peggie, who was an absolute mess.

"Maysilee Donner."

I didn't know Maysilee, but I knew she was my age…a Town girl, hugging her pretty blonde friend and twin sister as she made her way toward the stage, rather braver than I would have imagined for a Town girl.

I barely took notice. Salli was safe again. Whatever else happened couldn't possibly compare to the relief I felt at that knowledge.

A boy named Tomi, also from the Seam, also my age, was called up, and I realized he was standing only a few people over from me. I had done projects with Tomi in school, growing up. I had seen several schoolmates die over the years, but this was the first one I had actually had class with, someone I had actually known.

"Finally," the woman said in her sickening Capitol accent, spreading open the final slip of paper, "Haymitch Abernathy."

I clenched my fists again, not allowing myself to look at Salli, knowing she would be crying, knowing that seeing her cry would break me down completely as I held my chin up and marched up to the stage.

The thought of me being drawn had hardly occurred to me that day; I had been so worried about Salli that I had forgotten about myself.

Aina sized us up and congratulated us and we were led off to the Justice Building where we were put in separate buildings and forced to wait for the visitors we would receive, three minutes each group.

My family was first, of course. Little Io ran straight for me, sobbing uncontrollably, much like my mother was doing behind her. Archie and my father were sturdy, stoic, and it was a strange thing for Archie, but I think he realized that Io and our mother would need him to be strong while I was away.

"Shh," I soothed Io, petting her gently. "It's going to be all right, Io, you'll see. You're going to go home and eat that delicious stew you helped make, and you're going to remember that I'm going to win, just for you, all right? I'm going to win, and we'll be rich, and I'll make sure you have the prettiest dresses in District Twelve, all right?"

She nodded lamely, sniffling against my shirt, her little hands clutching at the fabric with surprising strength.

"It's going to be all right," I repeated. "It's going to be all right."

I cuddled Io for a few moments, I shook my father and brother's hands, and I kissed my mother on the cheek and the Peacekeepers led them back out of the door. Very soon after, Salli came in, curling up on my lap, weeping onto my shoulder as I petted her hair, like a larger version of Io, clinging to me for comfort and support as I pretend to be all right.

"It's going to be fine, Salli," I whispered, kissing her cheek. "I'm going to win. I'm going to win and come back and marry you and we're going to have a big house and lots of money and everything's going to be fine. I'm 'going places,' remember?"

She gave a watery laugh as she kissed me, but we didn't say anything else for the remaining portion of the three minutes she was allotted. I just held her as she tried to calm herself, tried to get a grip on her tears.

"I love you, Haymitch," she whispered as she kissed me goodbye. "I hope you win."

I didn't know what to say, so the words slipped out of my mouth without me really thinking about them.

"Me too."

She was gone before I could kiss her again, before I could tell her how much I wanted her to not walk away. I had just pretended that it didn't matter, that I was going to win no matter what, but I didn't want to go to the Capitol. I wanted to go back home, to eat the stew Io had picked because it was my favorite, to curl up with Salli and talk about how we were going to spend the rest of our summer days. Instead, I walked out to the train with the other three tributes, feeling a bit sick to my stomach.

We settled down for dinner on the train, the four of us and Aina, who was already helping herself to the dinner, as well as our escort who was named Charity. Tomi was shifting awkwardly in his seat and Prissy still had tears in her eyes, probably from saying goodbye to her sister, but Maysilee was sitting rather bravely and steadily, meeting my gray eyes with her blue ones, Town eyes meeting Seam eyes, and I knew in that moment that Maysilee Donner would be a contender in these Games if she made it past the bloodbath.

"Well," Aina said casually, "it's very good to meet you all. I hope none of you take this personally, but as there are four of you, one of me, and there can only be one victor, I will play favorites. It's the nature of the beast. If you were from a district with more mentors available, you would all receive equal attention, but that's not going to be the case, so you'd better get used to it. I will help all of you, certainly, but I can't help all of you equally and that's just the truth of it."

Prissy looked very nervous about this, and Tomi seemed surprised, but Maysilee and I did not outwardly react. To me, it made perfect sense, and I had really more or less expected it. We were the only district this year with a single mentor. Several had only managed to scrounge up three, but we literally had only one victor in the history of the Games.

I looked over at Maysilee. She was a pretty girl, certainly. The fact that she was from the Town could have made her soft, but it seemed to only make her determined. From what I could remember of her, she would be the one to win Aina's favor. People worked with me because they had to, either because I was the smartest one or because the teacher assigned me as head of the group, or out of a favor to Salli who loved making me the leader. But people flocked around Maysilee because she was a nice person, because she made people feel good about themselves, because she was one of those leaders who led by lowering themselves, not by self-elevation. She would be the type of girl who could make the Seam girls not be jealous of her because it was hard to had someone so nice, whether she had more to eat or not.

Yes, Maysilee Donner would be my competition for a prayer at an advocate, and I was already losing the fight.