"Why are you here?"

"I want to be."

"That's a good answer; you'll make a lot of friends that way."

I can't help but be surprised by his response, he wasn't being sarcastic, but he surely wasn't being completely honest. It was the perfect answer, not just good. I've been watching these games for seven years and I know that at this moment, for someone with all the characteristics I have, that answer is the one that will bring me to the top, I sure hope my mentor knows it too.

"That's exactly what I plan on doing, sir," I say and he nods nonchalantly. I can't help but be a little disappointed with this response as well and decide I'm not going to say anything more about my strategy, especially when Kristen's here.

Kristen's crying right now, she held up for pretty long; only started crying after she was already on stage and no one ended up volunteering for her. From what I've observed that's a lot longer than it takes to bring most girls to tears. In fact she might not have even started crying had it not been for my volunteering for the boy's position before her. It must have gotten her hopes up a little to see someone from our District volunteering. Trying to hold back crying is admirable, but her chances of getting sponsors and winning the games are still going to be pretty low, being a girl and all.

Now, I have nothing against girls, actually I broke up with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago when I'd decided that I was going to volunteer since I didn't want her to worry about me while I was in the arena. Typically I would end a relationship gently, you know, hold her hands and offer to be friends with her and stuff, but this time I cut it off real badly on purpose, for her own good. It would be a whole lot easier for her to handle anything going sour for me in the games if she hated me than if she still had feelings for me, or if we were still dating. Girls are great; they just haven't had the best record in the games.

Okay, so that may be a bit of an understatement considering they haven't had any record in the games. This is the eighth year the games have been running and so far there's never been a girl who's won. They've come close, final two even, but it's just so happened that none of them have ever come out on top. The whole situation works out well for me; boys are always heavy hitters for sponsors now, especially if they show promise.

Dredd, District Six's mentor speaks to both Kristen and I this time. "I assume you're both used to riding on trains?"

I nod and Kristen mirrors me, sniffling into the napkin that was placed on her lap upon our being seated. The entire train rustles gently back and forth, the high quality cargo making a soft tinkling sound as it comes into contact with another piece of china or silverware.

Our District is crosshatched with train tracks, mainly because it's where all of the trains from Panem come for service. We also drive trains, lay train tracks, and – oh that's right - make trains.

We're very proud of our trains. Literally, just look at our District seal; it's all anyone thinks we do.

If you looked up District Six in a textbook, they'd tell you that we also manufacture cars, hovercrafts and other transportation devices, but I don't think they make anyone in the Capitol do much textbook-reading. Plus, no one seems to think that anyone in the whole flipping District is a doctor or owns a grocery store. Just because a lot of us specialize in machines doesn't mean we are them. Does anybody care that we have the best dental records in Panem? Nope.

That's why I want to win the Games. I can grow up to be one of our District's 10 000 third-generation train conductors, but being a victor; yeah, that's a little less common.

Dredd checks his watch and then motions to one of the servants in the room. In a flash, the TV on the wall comes on, alive with the familiar Hunger Games' intro-tune playing. I can't help but tap my foot to the beat.

Dredd drums his fingers on the table and looks across to me. He raises a playful eyebrow. "Excited Everett?"

"You have no idea."

A long intro of lame banter ruins my mood a tad; I hope our year isn't remembered for the terrible comedy. When the screen finally starts switching to the contestants, I lean in with interest.

First up is District One, the renowned village of cobblestones and polished steel, a few steps short of pixie dust and glitter. As I had suspected, they show the same scenery footage that they've shown for the past three years, so I have a few more seconds of waiting to do. At last the two tributes are chosen and I'm given a close up look at them.

Neither are volunteers - not surprising, but somewhat disappointing. The girl is named Yarra, she's mature-looking and pretty, but it's the boy that I'm really interested in. Out of the crowd comes 'Preston', my soon to be opponent, or even ally if everything goes to plan. For being reaped randomly out of the entire District, he seems pretty promising; good build, little emotion, deep voice, and not too shaky.

I make a mental note of him, definitely a person of interest.

District Two's boy is named Ayler, there's no way he's as old as Preston, but he does volunteer, a sure sign of confidence. A group of friends give him wolf whistles and seem pleased when the cameras focus on them for a few seconds, painting their faces onto the Jumbotrons.

He makes it onto my list as well.

Trawl, the boy from District Three is mature and fit, on the list he goes.

The boy from District Four, a tall, handsome volunteer is certainly going to catch a lot of attention. Whenever there's a really attractive boy picked, he proves to get a ton of sponsors, so he'd be good to have around. On the other hand, I don't really want to end up getting compared to the almost perfect, blonde-headed human specimen that he is. Conflicted, I put him on my list anyways, since I told myself I wouldn't ignore anyone who volunteered.

I complete my list with the boys from Districts Eight, Nine, and Ten. I feel a bit reluctant adding District Eight to the group, mostly because I can't tell if his larger-than-average (or at least larger-than-me) build is muscular or not. Unfortunately, they seem to be having mic troubles and never actually announce his name.

The boy from Nine, Jarratt, and William from Ten are both very promising physically and seem to be in a good state of mind.

The girls from Nine and Ten aren't that bad to look at either. Ten's got a fantastic body, but her hair's a bit unfortunate. Nine on the other hand is a head-to-toe knockout. In fact, I had spotted her out of the crowd before they even started the draw when a camera focused on her for a few seconds. To make matters even better, she was a volunteer. That takes guts, especially for a girl. Too bad when I devised my ultimate Hunger Games strategy it didn't have any space for girls.

I can't help but wonder why she volunteered. I mean, my life was hardly perfect back home; I don't feel like I'm going to be losing much of a future if I end up dying young.

Wow, when I put it that way it sounds really pathetic.

There's not a whole lot going for me in the world; I'll admit that I'm not super good-looking, my family doesn't have a ton of money, and there's no room for job progression in District Six. Pretty much the only way you can be somebody at home is to win the games.

Now, the girl from Nine on the other hand, she could have been someone. The Capitol will never admit it, but everyone knows they send out scouts into the Districts to bring back people like her to act in movies and on shows in the Capitol. As a matter of fact, it's somewhat amazing that she hadn't already been scouted.

I kick myself over losing track of my personal rule not to get side-tracked by girls and think back over the list of guys I've made note of in my head. Preston, Ayler, Trawl, and Jason consecutively from One, Two, Three, and Four, mystery boy from Eight, Jarratt (Nine) and William (Ten).

If everything goes according to my plan, I'll be able to team up with them and we'll have a mighty fine chance of making it to the final few tributes. If I were to win, I would want to be known for taking out a lot of strong boys before being crowned champ, so bringing a strong alliance to the finals is my best bet of accomplishing that.

The fifth champion of the games won because he let everyone else take out the biggest competitors for him and then came in at the last minute to get rid of a couple scrawny Outer-District kids. If I win, I will prove that I can plan and execute it all by myself; I'm not going to let someone else do the work for me.

When I get to the Capitol I'm going to pick my right-hand man, recruit the rest, and fill them in on our plans. If they don't want to join us, that's okay, but we're sure as heck not going to show any mercy. There's no place for mercy in the middle of a bloodbath.

Servants bring food to the table and I mull over who I think will be the best leader to have close by my side.

Ideally, whoever I pick as my counterpart has to be:

a) Willing to join me and stay by my side

b) Preferably a volunteer, so I can make sure he's not gonna go all soft on me

c) Not too big to make me look small, but still somewhat strong

d) Attractive, for sponsors' sake, but not too good looking

e) Not a psychopath

Assuming everyone on my list wants to join, Jason and Ayler were the only other two volunteers, but Jason's far too good looking to have running things by my side. He's tall, husky, tanned, I'll quite literally pale in comparison to him. Ayler definitely looks to be younger than everyone else, but maybe that'll just make it easier for me to control him.

I'll try out Ayler first and see how it goes.

The train screeches as we pull to a stop in one of the Districts. We've already been on here for a couple hours, but I'm sure we weren't the first District to get on the train. I can see out the windows as our train car pulls past a station where an impressive crowd of people and paparazzi are standing. Judging by the fact that we pull past the station, we're probably picking up the tributes from District Seven or Eight.

"Why are we stopping?" Kristen asks Dredd and Guaret, our Capitol representative.

Dredd finishes chewing what he's got in his mouth before he replies. "Picking up the tributes from District Nine."

Damn, District Nine. At least my guess was close.

"We've just got to pick up Districts Five, Three, and One, and then we'll arrive at the Capitol," Guaret adds.

I sit up, intrigued. "So that means that some of the tributes are already on board? Can we go see them?"

Guaret never mentioned Districts Two or Four, so the train must have already picked up Jason and Ayler before they got us. Maybe I won't have to wait until we get to the Capitol to start building my team.

Kristen and Guaret both look perplexedly at me and to my embarrassment I start blushing. I shouldn't have come across that eager; I'll give my plans away.

"No," Dredd answers, thankfully emotionless. "You're not allowed to see anyone."

He probably thinks I want to fight with them, or more likely he just thinks the shock of the games has driven me nuts. The joke will be on him when I replace him as mentor after I win. I bet If Kristen played her cards right, even she could win. The problem is that none of the mentors know how to spot their tributes' strengths and weaknesses. Luckily for me, I've watched enough of the games that I'm pretty sure I can get along fine without too much outside mentoring from Dredd.

That's the thing about the games, they're great if you know what you're doing, but I couldn't imagine being one of those poor kids who just gets chosen randomly. Well, that's not exactly true, I can imagine it; I just really don't want to. I can't blame the kids who jump off the pedestal onto the landmines, they've gotta know that they don't have a chance.

I have to stop and remind myself that I should be grateful for most of the Districts having poor mentors; otherwise the Hunger Games would just be a test of physical ability. Discrepancies keep things fair in a sense, the fact that there are no discrepancies at school means that every competition turns into a popularity contest. No one's allowed to really express themselves, cross the boundaries, bend the rules. In the games, there are no rules. As long as you can bend the minds of the people you're playing with, you can give yourself a fighting chance; sculpt your surroundings to what works best for you.

I can hardly sit still; the thought of being able to share my plans that I've spent years concocting is intoxicating. Thanks to our lovely District's trains, we arrive to the Capitol as the sun starts to set; tomorrow's the opening ceremonies, when I'll finally get a chance to meet everybody.

"Try to look like you know where you're going," Dredd directs us before our train car rolls up to the Capitol's main station where we'll be getting off. "There's going to be a huge crowd of press out there and all they've gotten footage of in the past seven years has been a bunch of confused looking kids. People are gonna be looking for confidence."

Fortunate that Kristen's stopped crying.

First, thanks for opening this ^_^

Second, if you're the person who gets a new book and immediately flips to the last page, there's nothing I can do to stop you from doing that here, but I can highly suggest against it! There are mysteries, character developments, and plot twists ahead that may be hard to understand without the rest of the story under your belt and I, as an author want you to understand them completely.

I'm indebted to you because you opened this in the first place, but my biggest request is now on the plate

Thanks again :)

Watch for the eagle!