Chapter One: Reasons

I have my reasons for volunteering – good ones, too. I'm not the type to do stuff just for the hell of it, despite what some people think. Anyone who says otherwise isn't worth my time.

There are two people that are quite possibly going to kill me for this, though, if the other tributes don't manage to do it first.

Emerald – I call her Em. It's just easier, and she doesn't seem to mind. My little sister has never understood why I want to volunteer for the Hunger Games, but I don't expect her to. She's twelve, and has never faced the risk – for lack of a better word – of the reaping until now. She hasn't experienced the rush of adrenaline that shoots through the veins of everyone in the square as our mindless escort, Juna Gyde, reads out the names of District One's next competitors. Actually, that's almost never the case. I can't remember a single year when any tribute from One actually had their name pulled from the reaping ball. When I first told her about my plan to volunteer, a few years back, she looked at me like I was completely insane and asked, "Why would you want to travel to some strange place and fight to the death when you could do so much better here?"

I couldn't explain it.

Diamond… I waited to tell my best friend until about a year ago, which was a huge mistake. When I finally manage to stutter the dreaded words, "Di… I-I'm volunteering for the G-Games next s-summer," she slapped me so hard my eye swelled shut, and she didn't speak to me for weeks. And when she finally came around, she continued to try to talk me out of volunteering until… well, this morning.

"Marvel," she whispers pleadingly. "You don't have to do this."

I sigh. "Yeah, I do. I know it must be hard to understand, but… I have my reasons. Please, trust me on this, all right? There's nothing here for me right now."

Oops. That… was not a smart thing to say. I watch in horror and, I'll admit, maybe fear as her face screws up in anger. "What about me?" she shouts, transitioning from beseeching to furious so fast it's mind boggling. "What about me, Marvel? You're going to just leave me here, with no one else – don't look at me like that, you know it's true! You're going to let me just deal with everything if you die?" She says this unflinchingly. "What about me? And more importantly, what about Em?"

I wince. "Em will be fine! She's not a baby, she can take care of herself, and you already said it was okay for her to come live with you for a few weeks – "

"That's not the point!" she screams. "You're missing the point completely! What if you die? Do you think she'll just be okay with that? You're her brother, doesn't that mean anything? You're supposed to be there for her, and you're leaving, and I don't know why – and – God, Marvel, why are y-you so… so s-stupid?" Diamond is crying brokenly, now, and I instinctively wrap my arms around her. It takes all the strength I have not to change my plans.

But I know I can't.

That's what Em and Di don't understand – I'm doing this for them, so that they can have better lives, and I know that sounds ridiculous but it's the truth. My parents died when I was twelve, in a fire. Em was six, and I know she hardly remembers them.

Dad was the overseer of a lot of gem production – he was a major big shot, I think they actually asked him to move to the Capitol at one point. That's what Mom said, anyway. She stayed at home with Em and me. Mom was the best – she loved us, which is the important thing, and she was always… well, there. Until she wasn't. Until neither of them were.

Sometimes, when Em thinks I'm asleep, I hear her crying, and I'd bet anything it's over them. And I have to listen to my little sister sobbing her heart out over the parents she barely remembers.

That's why I have to volunteer. Em deserves better than that. I want her to be able to live in a nice house, not our small apartment – yes, even in District One not everyone is rich – and have good food to eat, not the mediocre stuff we buy off the miniscule Hunger Games Trainee salary I make. I want her to have friends, lots of them, instead of avoiding everyone at school because she's afraid of getting hurt like she was with our parents.

I want her to be happy.

And Di… she deserves to have everything. She wasn't kidding when she claimed to have no one left – some rare disease killed her parents when she was just a baby, and she was brought up in an orphanage. When she was thirteen the Peacekeepers who ran the place decided to let Diamond get an apartment of her own, and… well, that's how we met. She moved in right next door to me and Em – we were granted our apartment after the fire by some Peacekeepers after I was deemed responsible enough.

"Marvel!" Emerald squeals. "There's someone moving in!"

I sigh. This isn't the first time eight-year-old Em has invented an imaginary friend to move in next door, and every time I've been fooled into thinking we were actually getting new neighbors. That fact makes me a bit… irascible now.

"Sure, Em," I say sarcastically. "Let me guess, she's exactly your age, looks like your favorite doll, and wants to be best friends, right?"

Em gives me her best pouting face. "No. She's tall, almost as tall as you, she has light hair, and she's carrying in a box from the pile by her door right now!"

My eyes widen – she seems to be actually telling the truth this time – and I wrench the door open forcefully.

She wasn't lying – there's a girl who looks like she's just a bit younger than me standing next to the door by ours. There's a small pile of boxes a couple feet away, and the girl is having difficulty opening the door while holding onto a box she can barely fit her arms around.

"Need some help?" I ask politely. The girl whips around to face me, eyes wide. She stands still for a moment, her expression sharp, but after carefully assessing me and apparently deciding I look harmless enough, her gaze softens.

"Please," she says gratefully. I grin and take the box from her, allowing her to open the door.

"Where do you want this?" I ask. She shrugs.

"Oh, wherever," she says dismissively. "I'll set everything up later."

I nod and set the box down near the door. Then turn to face the girl and hold out my hand.

"I'm Marvel," I tell her. "I live right next door with my little sister, Emerald." She smiles sweetly and shakes my hand.

"I'm Diamond."

I smile. "I take it you're new?"

Diamond snorted. "What gave it away?"

I had a feeling we'd be good friends.

Yep, that's Di for you – sweet but sarcastic, funny, and a kind person in general. I know she detests the Hunger Games, so she felt all the more betrayed when I told her I was going to volunteer.

It's not my fault! I feel like screaming. There's nothing else for me to do – and it's not like I won't be back in a couple of weeks!

That's the thing, though. I don't think she believes I'll come back at all. It's ridiculous – I've been training for this since I was thirteen, and I'm eighteen now. There's no way I can lose.

It's all for them, I swear it is. When I win and come home, we can leave our tiny apartment and move into Victor's Village. Di can come live with us – we wouldn't just leave her, of course. We'll be rich – good thing, too, because I only earn a small amount of money by training for the Games, and that's just so that they can keep me healthy, or not dead, anyway. Em will be thrilled with having a new sort of life, and I can't wait for her to have everything she's ever wanted. And Di… well, the same thing goes for her.

I've given many second thoughts to volunteering over the past few years. But… then I look at my sister and my best friend, and I know that it'll all be worth it in the end.

Those two are my reasons for volunteering. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them... and dying is no exception.

Hey, everyone! No, you're not dreaming... I'm back. It's a new year, so here's a new fic for you. I'm really excited about writing The Hunger Games from Marvel's point of view, since I made him into such an easy-to-hate character in Winning is Everything. It's going to be a lot of fun to create his personality, I've got a lot of it planned out and I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks.

On an important note, I'm not going to be updating this fic as often as I did for Winning is Everything. For one thing, it's been really hard for me to find time to work on They Call Me Stupid since I'm in school now, unlike when I wrote the majority of my other story. In addition to that, I've only gotten three chapters written so far, which doesn't give me much of a cushion to fall back on. Also, I've found that, while writing Clove's character came very naturally to me, Marvel is a lot harder. The words don't come as easily. So updates will probably be about once a week.

I think that's everything, so, as always, REVIEW, and I'll post the next chapter sometime next week. :)

~What the Quell