"Fate is giving us a second chance."

(Jinx's POV)

"DISTRICT 6 CHARIOT IS A GO," says the booming voice.

The time to show the Capitol what we're made of is here. As our chariot exits the garage, I see a mass of people cheering in the stands. Thousands of them. Ryleigh and I start waving and being really animated as our chariot travels down the pathway so as to be noticed and remembered.

Ryleigh's dress is obviously attracting attention because I notice the cheering gets louder as we pass by the crowd. I have never noticed how good looking she really is up until now. The silver glitter above her eyes twinkles in the torchlights. And her costume was absolutely stunning. With the way she's dressed, she's comparable to a Goddess. Her hand accidentally touches mine for a split second, but we both pull away and I redirect my attention to the crowd.

The pathway is extremely long so it takes about 2 minutes just to reach the halfway point, and at that time I notice that there isn't anyone in the chariot ahead of us. A second later, I see the girl from District 5 stand up and yank her brother by the arm who is sitting curled up in a ball in the chariot. I start waving again and I glance behind our chariot to see the two tributes dressed as trees from District 7. In the wind, the girl's short brown hair moves more than she does. She is standing there as stiff as a board in fear. Conversely, the boy is yelling, screaming, and doing everything possible to grab attention. He thinks he's acting smart, but he's just making himself look like a dumbass.

I turn my attention forward and I can see that 1 and 2's chariots have already arrived in the semi-circle around the high balcony from which President Snow will make his speech.

After another minute District 12's chariot has taken its spot and President Snow begins to speak. I don't care to listen, because I'm checking out the other tributes. Because of the way that the chariots are arranged, we are placed next to District 9's chariot and for the first time, I got a close look at the girl. When I saw her in the reaping video, she looked like the definition of a murderer, but here... she doesn't show any of that. She is of darker complexion and...I have to say...blessed with extremely good looks.

She catches me looking at her. She quickly turns her head towards me, and that's when I jerk my head forward. Out of my peripheral vision, I can tell she's looking at me. She grins, trying to be flirtatious I guess. I look back at her, and give her a little smile back.

Suddenly I hear, "May the odds be ever in your favor," spoken by President Snow. Our chariots lurched forward as another huge door opens below Snow's balcony. That's the debriefing room for the parade, where the tributes can socialize for awhile.

As we enter the room, our mentors Cassandra and Nova help us down from the chariot and Nova says, "Great job you two! You made a good impression out there!"

"It helped that you guys were in-between tributes that were boring and uneventful," Cassandra adds. "Go and hang out around here for awhile, make some friends with some valuable tributes, find out who would be a valuable alliance member. Grab some food while we're here because dinner isn't served in the hotel tonight"

I nod and I say to Ryleigh, "We have to go say something to the Tributes from 5."

"Yeah. We do."

As we walk up to the girl from 5 I tap her on the shoulder, "Hello."

"Oh. Hi." she says as her brother hides behind her.

Ryleigh spoke, "We just want to apologize for what happened to you and your brother. It's horrible."

I continue, "It is. And we just wanted to say that we can relate to you and your brother. Both of us had family members taken from us by the games."

"You're not alone in this, and if you ever need anything at all, you can come to us. Okay?" Ryleigh comforts her.

"Thank you," the girl says, "By the way my name is Tempest. Tempest Faraday. And this is my brother Ike."

"Nice to meet you guys," I smile, "I'm Jinx."

"And I'm Ryleigh. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too!" Tempest smiles, "And to be perfectly honest, I was kinda shocked when you came up to talk to me, I saw Ryleigh talking with a career so I assumed...Plus you two volunteered so I thought you had no business talking to me. "

"No, no," I disagree. "We have no intentions of aligning ourselves with them. They wouldn't want tributes from some intermediate district," I glance at Ryleigh.

"Oh. Okay. My mentor is calling us, so we'd better go. Night!"

"Yeah. Long day of training tomorrow."

"Night Tempest," Ryleigh and I say casually.

"Night!"

As I turn away I whisper to Ryleigh, "I would invite her to join our alliance, but I don't know if she is okay with our goal. Besides, I feel as though her little brother would hold us back. I don't want to have to look after him."

"I feel the same exact way. But, what if this was meant to be."

'What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean... What if it was meant to be that we ended up in the same games as a sibling duo. What if our purpose is to protect them and keep them together as long as possible. To keep one of them alive 'till the end," she pauses. "Don't you see?! Fate is giving us a second chance. We have to protect Ike like he's our brother."

I've never thought of it that way.

"Okay I'm in," I say eagerly. "Tomorrow at training, we'll invite them to join our alliance."

"Sounds like a plan." She agrees. "Now. Let's grab some food and get back up to our suite. We have a big day tomorrow."

It took awhile to get even get back to the building that we started in, let alone get back to our room. After walking through the underground passageway under all the action, walking back to the lobby, and taking the elevator back up to our room, it's 11 o'clock.

I change out of my parade-wear, put on a pair of sweats, and I head straight to bed to get some rest for the big day ahead of me. Training. Tomorrow will be the day that Ryleigh and I show everyone that we are the biggest threat they've ever seen.

Author's note: Sorry about the short chapter. I didn't plan correctly and as a result, I got an awkward chapter between Prep and Training(Chapter 5). Although short, I still hope you enjoyed getting to know some more of the tributes. Most of the remaining tributes that haven't been introduced, will be in these next few chapters. Thanks for reading!