*All right, first chapter is a go! Who can spot the huge reference in this chapter? 😉*

***

Leonardo squinted at his hands, his deep blue eyes narrowed with concentration. His eye ridges were furrowed as he tried to slide the next bead onto the piece of string he was holding. So far, he'd managed to string two sky-blue beads onto one piece of string, and was currently trying to add a third to his little project. The blue-masked turtle huffed with frustration as the bead dropped from his large hand, hitting the ground and rolling away rapidly.

"Dang it," he muttered.

I'm worse as making bracelets than I thought.

Which was quite ironic, considering he lived in District 1, the district known for its jewelry and other luxury items.

If I don't know how to make jewelry, then how am I supposed to become a jewler, like Father wants me to?

He thought of his father, Splinter, and instantly feels a pang of guilt. His father was an expert jewler, working in one of the biggest jewelry industries in the entire city. He expected his son to follow in his footsteps, but so far, Leonardo has shown nothing–except that he sucks a making jewelry.

An amused chuckle sounded from somewhere nearby.

"Trying to make another bracelet, Leonardo?"

Leonardo looked up to see another mutant–a familiar one, at that–striding toward him. She was an iguana, with scaly skin the color of spring leaves and a soft yellow underbelly. Her dark hair was tied up in a thick ponytail, her long tail swishing behind her. Her caramel-brown eyes glimmered with amusement, and Leo could just see the soft spikes running down her back as she approached.

"Hello, Mona," he greeted her, standing up.

"Hola, Leo," responded the lizard woman, in that thick accent of hers. She raised a thick-clawed hand, revealing the bead that had rolled away. "I assume this is yours?"

"Yes," the turtle mutant blushed a little.

"Always trying to make your jewelry. Que lindo. Do you need help?"

"Um...yes, please."

Leonardo handed her his bracelet-in-progress and his remaining beads, and Mona set to work. Quickly and expertly, she threaded each bead, then secured the bracelet by tying its loose ends together. In seconds, Leonardo was holding a brand new bracelet with sparkling, bright blue beads.

"Thank you, Mona," he said, looking down at his new piece of jewelry with wonder.

"De nada," replied the iguana mutant with a small smile.

Her voice was surprisingly hollow, and Leonardo studied her carefully. He instantly realized the troubled gleam in his friend's eyes–they looked hollow, glittering with worry.

"Hey, are you all right?" he asked, furrowing his eye ridges in concern.

"I'm perfecto, Leonardo," replied Mona, but her tone was uncertain.

"No, you're not," Leo insisted. "Tell me, what's wrong?"

Mona sighed, wrapping her scaly tail around her legs. She always did this when she felt worried or upset. Leo had come to know that after four years of being friends with her.

"The Reaping," Mona whispered. "It's tomorrow. I'm worried."

Leonardo nodded, suddenly understanding her fear. The last thing he wanted was for his name to be called on Reaping Day, for him to be taken to the Capitol of he city and forced to fight in the dreaded Hunger Games. So far, he'd made it all fifteen years of his life without being chosen. But come tomorrow, things could very well be a different story.

"Um...let's not think about that," he told Mona, trying his best to sound positive. "C'mon, the sun's starting to set. Do you to stay at my house for dinner tonight?"

"That would be nice."

"Then let's go."

***

The sun has begun to set in District 2, coloring the sky with deep shades of orange, pink, and red. Near the outskirts of her village, a dark-skinned Latina girl sat with her back against the wall of her house, her knees tucked to her chest. Her short black hair, with blonde highlights, blew gently against her face in the soft evening breeze. Her dark brown eyes were bleary Witt exhaustion from a long day of work–building a brick wall to separate her village from the next one over was tiring.

She gazed at that brick wall now, only a few feet away from her. It was about halfway done, with every bricklayer in the village pitching in to build it. Beyond the unfinished wall, the houses of the next village were visible.

Come on, Maddie, she urged herself. Go inside. Get some rest.

But she wasn't ready to go inside yet. She loved it outside, especially on a beautiful evening like today's. And she wasn't about to go into a house with her parents, either. If they saw her, they'd go preaching on about the same things over and over again.

"Madison, you know homosexuality is a sin!" her mother would always say, sounding disgusted.

"Please, change your mind now. It's not too late to choose the right path," her father would always insist.

Thinking of it now, it made Maddie's hands clench with anger, squeezing her legs.

I don't care if it's a sin, she thought. It's who I am.

Because of this, she tended to avoid her parents as much as possible. She got dressed, ate breakfast, and left for work before they were even awake. She stayed away from their workplaces all day, and she waited until they were asleep to get back to her house, eat dinner, and go to sleep.

I don't think they've actually seen me at all this week.

Soft footsteps sounded from somewhere in front of her, snapping Maddie out of her thoughts. She turned her head to see a cat mutant with light brown fur examining the partly-finished wall. Her dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, and even from a few feet away, Maddie could see that she had very defined muscle packed beneath that fur of hers.

Never seen her around before. Is she from another village?

The Latina opened her mouth to call out to the mutant, but before noise could even leave her lips, the cat-girl had disappeared behind the wall.

***

"Sir, sir! Sir..."

Donatello sat at the cluttered desk in his office, staring at his computer screen. As usual, his email was full of emails from confused Capitol and district residents, unsure how to work their electronic devices. Currently, he had a phone pressed to his non-visible ear, going back and forth with a customer,

"Did you turn the computer on?...Okay, have you plugged it in?"

Mumbling from the other end of the phone ensued.

"Yes, that would help...No, I'm not playing hard to get! I'm trying to tell you, Sir, this isn't that kind of phone line!"

An angry warbling shouted over the phone.

"I'm not your enemy, I'm just Donnie, your friendly IT tech support," the purple-masked turtle sighed. "Here to help you 24 hours a day, sir....oh, I'm sorry! Ma'am!

A long beeping sounded as the person on the other end hung up.

Donatello groaned, dropping the phone on his desk and laying his head in his hands. Every day since he turned thirteen, he's been working as a tech support manager for District 3, and the job wasn't much fun.

There's gotta be more to life than listening to people yell at you over the phone, he thought. Is this the kind of torture that Tributes in the Games have to go through?

Thinking of the upcoming Reaping, he shuddered, goosebumps appearing on his olive-green skin.

"My, that went well," a new voice spoke.

Donatello's head shot up as a distinctly feminine figure appeared in the doorway of his office. A tall cyborg girl, with circuit patterns etched into her skin, bright blue eyes, and long, pure-white hair. She was wearing a white dress top and a short matching shirt, proper work attire. Her blue eyes flashed almost robotically, the blue stripe beneath her bottom lip seeming to stretch as she smiled at him.

"Very funny, Sarina," Donatello, despite his mood at the moment, felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lip.

"We're being let off of work early," Sarina informed him. "So we can prepare for the Reaping tomorrow. You want to go build something with me? I've got some spare parts in my office, and I need something to do to take my mind off the stress."

"You bet," Donatello told her with a grin.

***

As the sun slipped below the horizon, the people of District Four began to retire to their homes for the night. Children and adults alike put up their fishing poles and retreated to their houses to relax, feasting on the seaweed-tinted bread and fish known to the district.

In a pond by the outskirts of the district, a shorter, muscular lizard mutant backstroked through the water. Her upper half was adorned with forest-green scales, her lower parts and tail fading to a dark chocolate-brown. A long, chestnut-brown stripe ran smoothly from the back of her neck to the end of her tail, and a jagged scar draped over her right shoulder. The lizard girl swam with no difficulty, each movement strong as she pushed herself through the water. Her wild black hair swished up against her back beneath the surface, and her long tail lashed occasionally to keep her balanced.

"Penelope!"

At the sound of her name, the lizard mutant stopped swimming, splashing a little as she turned herself in standing position. Standing at the bank of the pond was a human girl, much taller than she was. She had copper-colored skin, with striking green eyes and thick black eyebrows. Her long mane of untamable chocolate-brown curls, quite similar to Penelope's, blew in the wind. She wore a simple tank top and shorts. Beside her stood a huge, furry dog, panting–a St. Bernard, to be exact.

"There you are," said the girl. "Timothy and I were looking all over for you. Tim gave up after a while and went home, but I kept looking."

Penelope laughed, her blue-gray eyes twinkling in the evening light.

"Typical Timothy," she sighed. "Well, you found me now, and I'm here. Why don't you come take a dip?"

"I'm sure my dad won't mind if I stay a few minutes," Hazel said. "Well, then again, he probably will. Right, Winston?"

She looked down at her dog, scratching him between the ears affectionately. In response, the St. Bernard licked her hand, coating it in slobber. Hazel smirked, taking a few steps back. Then she darted forward, bare feet slapping on the grass, and leaped up, curling herself into a ball in midair.

"Cannon ball!" she whooped before landing with a splash in the water.

She popped up from beneath the surface a moment later, splashing Penelope with water. The lizard mutant smirked before raising her tail, then bringing it back down, splashing hard. A tidal wave of water washed over Hazel, sending her flying back in a burst of bubbles and giggles. On the bank, Winston barked excitedly, as if he wanted to join in as well. His deep, loud barking mixed with the laughing of the two teenage girls, creating a symphony that seemed to play for miles.