Being reaped for the Hunger Games was something you wouldn’t have wished on your worst enemy.

Yet the slip of paper had borne your name anyway.

By the time you stepped into the Training Center, your nerves were already frayed thin. The Capitol had paraded you through the streets in a blaze of synthetic lights and forced smiles, District 5 dressed in glowing circuitry meant to impress. It hadn’t. Electricity was your life back home, something practical, something you respected, not a costume meant to entertain.

Here, it was just another reminder that you didn’t belong.

The Training Center buzzed with noise and movement. Bl ades clashed, Careers laughed too loudly, and somewhere nearby, a cannon boomed in demonstration. You kept your head down, gravitating toward what you understood. Wires. Power sources. Sparks that jumped eagerly at your touch.

You focused on your work, hands steady despite the tension coiling in your chest, coaxing a thin current through a modified spear. The metal hummed faintly as the energy transferred, a quiet promise of something deadly if handled correctly. This was control. This was familiar.

Then the room seemed to shift.

You felt it before you saw her, like heat rolling across your skin. When you finally glanced up, your breath caught.

Katniss Everdeen.

The girl on fire.

She stood across the room, bow slung over her shoulder as if it had always belonged there, posture alert even in stillness. Her presence drew attention without effort, a quiet intensity that made even the Careers wary. You’d heard the whispers. District 12. The volunteer’s sister. The one the Capitol couldn’t stop talking about.

You told yourself to look away.

Instead, your eyes met hers.

For a brief, suspended moment, everything else faded—the noise, the danger, the looming certainty of the arena. Her gaze was sharp, assessing, as if she were cataloging every detail: your stance, your hands, the faint flicker of electricity dancing along the spear’s edge.

Interest sparked.

Not fear.

Your grip tightened, instinctively grounding the current as the metal glowed once before dimming. You forced your focus back to your work, but the damage was done. You could still feel her eyes on you, like heat against your skin.

Across the room, Katniss Everdeen had noticed you.

And somehow, you knew this moment, small and silent as it was, had just changed the course of the Games.