I had always wondered what it would take to kill someone, to take a blade and stab it through someones heart. I didn't wonder about these things, because I wanted to do them, but because it was highly probably that one day, that might just be exactly what I'm doing. I'm Susan Bones, my family calls me Suzybee and my best friend calls me Bones, you may as well call me as good as dead.

I was born and raised in District Twelve, the poorest of all the districts, not to mention the least populated. Which is why its no surprise to me that during this years reaping, my name was called out, the odds of course are never in anyone's favor. But I was not prepared for what came next, it was the anniversary of the hungers, so this year as a treat, I scoff, all the names were entered into one bowl, meaning you could possibly end up with two boys as tributes or, in our case, two girls. But best friends matched up against each other in a fight to the death? The odds, surely were not in our favor. Katie Bell, my best friend, since birth was now my opponent.

On the other hand, I can't help but think we were the best duo you could pick. Katie and I weren't your usual run of the mill girls, we were survivors, hunters. We could handle any weapon you put in our hands. Katie specialized with knives and I specialized with my bow, though I'd be lying if I said, Katie didn't blow me away with her skills, she was the eldest of the two of us, after all. Not to mention, we had a lack of family, I had no parents at all, no siblings, just an Aunt who honestly didn't look to upset about me being swept off to my death.

So if I never came back at all, I wouldn't be hurting anyone, except for the people who rely on us. Katie and I never sold our game, saving that for our families and our friends. We were a bit of Robin Hoods though, and though it may be horrible of us to steal, but it was hard to see tributes eating like kings and queens, while you watched people starve to death. Sometimes, I swear, the tributes let us take the food, one time it was just sitting neatly outside in a huge bowl, I had never felt so moved in my life. Maybe our past tributes weren't as bad as I thought and I had better start to love them, because they're the difference between me living and dying now.

Katie and I agreed to do our training by our own rules, we knew we were talented, we knew we had the skills, all we needed to do was keep their attention. Because even if we were sure we were going to die in that arena, we weren't going out without a fight. To do that, we would need sponsors, usually the Career tributes, get most of those, but to be honest, they weren't very likable. Katie and I on the other hand, would be likable, because we show what you need to win this game.

Commitment, courage, discipline, leadership, luck, perseverance, strength, heart, knowledge, trust, ingenuity, teamwork, friendship, and karma. We understood and learned the meaning of all of these from an extremely young age. The career tributes, may know how to fight, but they way they were raised, surviving is the hardest thing for them to do once they get inside the arena, the kill, thats the easy part. While they're fighting off infections Katie and I will be nearby, plucking them off as they take out the easy kills for us. Not to mention, my usually quite bubbly personality, wins people over, Katie on the other hand is well… don't make her mad.

So when we arrived in the training just a few hours ago, something really made her mad, something neither of us had expected. That there would be a third person in the room that we would surely have to kill. He was a career tribute, but Katie and I knew him well. His name was Malcolm Baddock, we all had been friends as a child, but Malcolms family was allowed to move districts, while Katie and I stayed in District Twelve. We were mortified, our plan had to not get to know a soul in this room, so when it came down to it, they were just deer for us to hunt, but this brought doubt into my heart. Could we kill Malcolm? He certainly looked like he could kill us, he was twice our size, if not bigger. So I couldn't help, but exchange a worried look with Katie when his eyes narrowed on us, but for now it was time to train, this discussion would wait until later tonight.

A lot of our training required watching for weaknesses, we had split the other tributes down the middle. Each of us keeping a mental record of who throws with what arm, who specializes in one combat, but fails at another. Of course, most of these kids will already be dead once the blood bath begins, so we concentrate mainly on the career tributes. They weren't smart to be flaunting their skills in front of everyone, by now we knew what they specialized in, it were things Katie and I were equally as good at. We might actually come out of this thing alive. Well one of us at least, probably Katie. We decided if we were the last two standing, then we would wait for them to kill one of us off, but until then, we had each others backs, through thick and thin.

We didn't concentrate on the skill training that we already had, instead, we learned knew skills. So if we were matched up against it in combat, we stood a fighting chance. Our mentors were on our side about most of our decisions, including this one. Of course, they didn't know we had already made thorough plans on how to win this thing. We had seen it before on the hunger games, Katniss destroyed the careers source of survival, soon after that they started dying off. We made sure to watch the games closely every year, so if we were ever picked, we would know exactly the best ways to survive.

During the blood bath, we would get what we would need, Katie was in charge of weapons, I was in charge of survival. After that we stalk our prey, watching quietly, to see how easily we could get them all to kill off each other before we would have to do it for them. We would then destroy their source of survival, once we learned their patterns, because we are to never split up. There would be no distractions, once they've gone hunting, is when we would strike. This would only happen once a fair amount of people had been killed off, the less blood on our hands, the better. This is when we would truly make our debut, the careers would have no idea what hit them and the sponsors would turn in our favor.

We were clever, but we weren't cocky. We knew there was still a slim chance of either of us going home, even with our plan. The Capitol might just pick us off without giving us a fair chance to begin with, just because they could. But now that we had a plan, we needed to focus on what we could do now to get sponsors. And that meant, getting Katie to put on a girly smile, which was near to impossible. But she would do it, because she knew our lives were on the line, because I was fifteen, she would do it for me. So even if I fell before her, she would carry on without me, she would win it for me.

To Be Continued…