Thank you for the reviews; they mean a lot to me! And for a question about chapter seven: Yes, in the section marked 'Clove II' I did use the dialogue from the book. I do not own the Hunger Games.

Clove I

It's a really stupid idea to push me out of bed, as Marvel finds out.

Yes, at the moment I am attacking him. He should have seen it coming; does he know me? No, not really, no one really knows me. But he's seen my score in training, he's seen me throw knives, he's seen my fight with Daphne, he has seen what I do.

I kick Marvel in the chest, stunning him for a second, and punch him in the face. I hook my foot around his ankle and pull him to the ground, then kick him in the chest again. There, I think. That should show him.

He springs up and yells indignantly, "What was that for?!"

"You don't get it by now?" I shout back. "Well, would you push Cato out of bed? Same deal!"

Marvel glares at me but backs off. He at least knows when someone else is winning.

"You're on guard duty," I snarl at him, readying one of my knives as I stalk in the direction of the forest. Cato, Glimmer, Marina, and Lover Boy follow me, but Cato soon gets in front. He's officially the leader, but I tend to give out more orders.

A few minutes in, I am tensing up and gripping my knife too tightly because Lover Boy's loud footsteps are driving me insane. I angrily swipe the knife at him, making a shallow cut on his face. Lover Boy backs off, hands in the air.

"We're trying to hunt here," I growl. "If you want to stay alive, you're gonna help us find Fire Girl."

All of us Careers are in bad moods today. Not catching anybody yesterday, not the thief, not Fire Girl. I'm lashing out at everyone. Marvel shoved me out of bed. Cato destroyed all of the trees that we train on last night. Glimmer has retreated into angry silence. Marina searched for tributes as long as she could keep her eyes open last night.

I turn away from Lover Boy, glaring at everything in front of me. I don't even try to loosen my features. I scour everything that I see for signs of human life—but find nothing.

Nothing. It may be just and hour or two after dawn, but there's no excitement so far. There has to be something to keep the audience hooked.

Finch I

I wake with a burning thirst, a stomach rumbling like thunder, and fingers and toes just beginning to warm up. I find the sun well up in the sky. I slept for nearly twenty-four hours! And I can already make a list of three stupid things I've done.

One, I didn't eat anything at all before I went to sleep. Two, I forgot to take my blanket out of the pack to keep warm. Three, I did not tie my backpack in. Luckily I used it as a pillow, so it is still up here.

I sit up and unzip the backpack, drag a pepperoni stick out. I eat half of it before I realize I should save my food.

And now that I have purifier, I can get some water. I untie the rope from around myself and shove it into the green backpack. Swiftly climbing down the ladder tree, I make it to the ground with little difficulty. Some strength renewed from sleep, I think I can make it to the lake.

I focus all of my energy on not making a trail that the Careers could pick up. Stealthily stepping over dead branches, avoiding small ground plants that can be easily crushed.

Once I am in sight of the lake, I take great care to skirt around the lake, even though the Careers—most of them at least—will be out hunting tributes. At the opposite side of the lake as the Career camp, I risk coming out onto the shore. My water bottle is already uncapped, and I dart to the water line and hold it underwater. I wait for the bubbles to stop; that shows that the bottle is full. I pull it back up into the air and cap it, then bolt into the cover of the woods.

I'm several hundred yards in when I deem it safe enough to stop. I sit down with my back against a tree and unscrew the lid of the water bottle. I dig a container of water purifying solution out of my backpack and put three drops of it into the water. I think I'm supposed to wait for fifteen to twenty minutes, and I count the seconds in my head.

Eighteen fifty-six, eighteen fifty-seven, eighteen fifty-eight, eighteen fifty-nine, nineteen minutes! Nineteen should be long enough, that's on the upper end between fifteen and twenty. I bring the canteen to my lips and desperately gulp some of the water before I remember not to drink it all at once.

I take it slowly from there, and eventually empty the bottle. I take it back to the lake two or three more times before I am hydrated again. One more time I fill the flask, then stow it in my backpack and I creep off in search of food.

Hey, those nuts and pepperoni sticks won't last forever.

Clove II

"Broken branch!" Marina hisses. "See, there!" She points. I see it. Pine branch, covered in lichen, and snapped clean down the middle—clearly from careless feet. We're in front of Cato and Lover Boy, so they couldn't have done it.

"And there," I say, pointing. "Branches cut down; looks like they've been hacked at. Knife." Knife because if it were a machete or sword, the branch would have been severed in a clean cut. This is notched with multiple cuts through the branch, giving us many clues about the tribute. His or her only weapon is a knife most likely, either not all that smart or just not knowing about leaving trails, and probably not very strong.

District Two trainees learn to track tributes from an early age and pick up clues about their strengths and weaknesses. I've been learning how to do this for a long time, but when I catch Glimmer staring at me, I know she's impressed. District Two has a better training system, and this confirms it.

"Lover Boy," Cato orders, "stay here. Can't have you making noise to alert the others." His words don't sound threatening by themselves, but his tone of voice thinly veils a threat.

"Glimmer, make sure he doesn't run off," I add.

For once, Cato manages to be decently quiet. But once we see the boy from District Three, all that is forgotten. We're about twenty feet away when Cato charges the boy.

He's upon the smaller tribute within seconds, pinning him against a tree and showing the short, heavy blade of his sword.

Marina and I emerge from the trees, enclosing the small boy—he can't be over thirteen or fourteen, and small for his age.

"Wait!" Three yelps. "I can—I can protect your supplies!"

Cato doesn't lower his sword, but does ask, "How?" Because he knows that we shouldn't leave one of our own back at camp, we should all be out tracking. It's a waste of time to guard the supplies—what is this boy talking about?

"The mines," Three gets out. "The ones around the plates. I can dig them up—reactivate them. We can plant them around your supplies, but leave a path so we can get to them. Anyone who tries to steal them will be blown up."

"The plan sounds good—" Marina says.

"—but if you mess up, you'll pay for it with your life," Cato finishes.

Finch II

Farther into the forest, I hear the burbling of a creek. A creek? I think at first. Why's there a creek? The Gamemakers wouldn't do that; it would lessen chance of fighting over water.

But then it dawns on me that the lake has to be fed with a stream of some sort, and that this is better for me—I won't have to take the risk of being spotted at the lake. Maybe I should set up a camp of sorts here, near water. I wouldn't have to trek all the way back here multiple times each day for water, the stream would be right next to me! This day is just full of luck for me.

Of course, this means that the Gamemakers will be up to something soon. Can't have a tribute getting it too easy. Then again, they let the Careers train. But, they're problems for each other.

A few feet away, I spot a patch of dandelions. One of the only plants that I know I can trust to be edible, I pull several of the blooms off of their stems and eat about four or five.

Oh, wow, those things are bitter. Seriously, how can something natural be that bitter? I resist the urge to spit the flowers out and make myself swallow them. I force myself to consume the stems and leaves of the plants I picked, despite the bitterness. My sense about knowing to get food when I can overrides the horrible taste.

What are the Gamemakers planning? I have food, water, and no injuries so far. It's not like them to leave me as unscathed as this. Maybe they're just busy with something else, I think. Maybe there's a really good fight going on somewhere. With Careers like those ones from Two, there should be something good. And all the Capitol people love Twelve—one of the star-crossed lovers, the Girl on Fire, the one who scored an eleven in training.

Ah yes, shelter. The weather can't stay warm for the whole time I'm in the arena.

I learned many types of shelters while in training, but the majority of them were set in varieties of biomes. Swamp, jungle, tundra, desert, and prairie also went along with temperate forests, so there are actually few shelters that I know how to build from the woods that I am in.

The debris hut is the one that I remember the best, though I can't quite make it rainproof. Then again, I've only tried it once in training. I was mostly focused on the edible plants—yet I still am nervous about eating anything. Well, besides the dandelions.

I set about collecting sticks and branches for the skeleton of the shelter. There are actually tons of dead pine branches just lying around on the ground. I leave them in a pile in the clearing, and next I gather branches with the needles still on. There are a few dead ones that are on the pine needle covered ground, but most I have to rip live from trees. I attempt to get up into the trees I tear the branches from, so the Careers don't spot the broken limbs.

Sadly there are no ferns in this type of woods, but the ground is practically made of pine needles, and a dead fir tree that had fallen nearby provides a source for large pieces of bark.

Once I had stripped the bark from the fallen fir, I consider building my debris hut up against it. That way I will only have to build one side, and also I will not have to worry about it balancing properly. And with all the materials I have collected, it will be twice as thick. It might even be rainproof.

Yes, that's what I will do. I lay the thick sticks I have selected for the skeleton against the log, and then rest the branches that are still needle-covered on top of them.

As a difference from the shady forest, the blazing sun is beating down on me in this clearing. The log may just be the edge of the clearing, but it's still burning hot. I take off the black jacket and tie it around my waist as I place handfuls of dead pine needles on top of my in-progress debris hut.

In reply to a loud growl of hunger, I finish the pepperoni stick that I started this morning. It only quiets my stomach for about thirty seconds, and I allow myself a pack of nuts.

Then I resort to dandelions again. It's a good thing that there are a lot of them.

Clove III

Back at our camp, the rest of the Careers and I supervise Lover Boy and Three, whose name I believe is Dem, dig up the mines. Cato joins in to speed up the process, and so do Marina and I. Marvel is a bit more hesitant, being from One, but he helps by loosening the dirt up with his spear. I just can't believe that Glimmer is actually a Career, because she actually refuses to help because she doesn't want to trip and fall on a rock or something foolish like that. It's ridiculous. I might just kill her myself.

I move on from my third mine to one that is surrounded by dirt loosened up by Marvel. Surprisingly, there are shovels in our pile of supplies. Five of them, as Cato, Marina, Dem, Lover Boy and I are the only ones using them. Marvel doesn't need one; he's using one of his many spears anyway, and it's just another excuse for Glimmer to be lazy, useless, and pathetic. She claims she's watching the supplies, but I catch her using a wide sword blade as a mirror. Really, how idiotic and vain is that? We're in the Hunger Games!

I strike the ground hard, and heave up a great big heap of dry soil. I dump it onto the growing pile next to the hole and drive the shovel back into the earth. I am beginning to understand why Cato and Marina like to stab their swords into the ground.

Five minutes later, I'm taking my jacket off and gulping down some water—the day is hot, and we're toiling in the direct sunlight, on the dirt plain. Marina is right with me emptying half of her water bottle within seconds. What I really want is shade, but we have to get those mines out of the ground. Especially since watching tributes dig in the dirt must be boring—the Gamemakers will be up to something any time now, and we must finish our defense plan before whatever trick they're up to. Maybe Dem taking the risk of assisting us is good enough for the time being, but that twist won't last for long.

I get back to the hole I'm working on. Over half of the mines are dug up; they are not buried very deep. And according to Dem, it does not matter if we hit the mines hard with our shovels—they are very durable when not activated.

Then next strike I make clangs against metal, and within two minutes I have the mine out of the ground. I think that there are about seven or eight left to dig out before we plant them around our supplies and Dem reactivates them.

I can hear clinks of metal as Glimmer tries to find the best sword to use for a mirror. The irritating noises and her unbelievable vanity soon drive me crazy.

"Glimmer!" I finally yell. "Get over here and dig!"

"But I don't have a shovel!" she complains, but it's a poor excuse.

"Then get a stick or use your hands!" I shout back. "Enough of standing around and being lazy! Quit looking at yourself and start being useful before I knife you!"

"Lazy!" Glimmer exclaims indignantly. "I'm not lazy!" She dashes to the edge of the woods and quickly locates a thick, stout stick. Soon she's digging along with the rest of us.

She says that she did it because she doesn't want to be looked on as lazy, but I think it was the knife threat. Knife threats from me always work well.

Finch III

I place the last few pieces of bark on top of my shelter, then take the blanket out of my backpack and stick it in there. The debris hut is a good deal larger than the one I made in training, and I am able to fit into it along with my pack.

I crawl out of the shelter and drink half of my purified water. Now, what else should I do? What did I learn in training? I have food, water, and shelter. The air is good. I can't risk a fire. Scout the area for tributes, yes, that's a good idea.

I leave the backpack in the shelter when I exit the clearing to look out for danger. Avoiding branches and easily crushed plants as I always do now, I go in semicircles of varying radius around my riverside camp.

I find no tributes or mutts in the area, and the sky is beginning to darken. It will soon be night, and I hurry back to camp.

There, I consume one pepperoni stick and many of the bitter dandelions. Hopefully I will grow used to them and the bitterness won't bother me so much. Actually, I believe that I heard the edible plants trainer mention that dandelions are better cooked, but I can't risk building a fire. I don't have the supplies to make a fire anyway.

I go backwards on my hands and knees into the debris hut, but I lie awake for quite a while.

Not like up in the tree where I felt safe, down on the ground I feel more exposed to the Careers. What if they find my shelter and come kill me? It's not like it's camouflaged. Actually, it most likely sticks out if anything. Although I could have fallen out of the tree to my death at any second, it was much more hidden.

I wrap the blanket around me more and try to let sleep claim me. My weariness must override my paranoia because I somehow slip into unconsciousness.

Clove IV

Done! I think as the hole for the last deactivated mine is filled in. Dem has wires connected to the twenty-four mines so he can activate them without them being set off by the dirt we fill in the holes with. Each of us besides Lover Boy, even Dem, have a map on a clear path to get to the supplies without being blown sky-high. Dem does something with the wires and there is a fizzling sound for a few seconds, then it goes quiet.

"Well?" Cato demands. "Are they activated?"

Dem just nods and backs away from the supply pile.

I stow the map in my pack, which also contains a good deal of extra food and water, as all of us—well, not Dem—stalk to the piney forest. Dem is staying behind with a spear, just in case the mines were just a trick.

A knife is ready in my hands, and we keep hunting until Marvel decides it must be close to midnight.

"Let's just stay out here for the night," I suggest. "We won't have to go all the way back to camp, and what'd be so bad about it anyway?"

"Clove is right," Marina says. "We should just stay out here. Also, the rest of the tributes will be expecting us to be at camp. Might give them a little surprise in the morning."

The other four agree—a bit of hesitation from Glimmer, though—and we settle down as soon as we find a spot big enough for all six of us. I close my eyes and the exhaustion of digging all day catches up to me, pulling me into sleep.

I think you can tell that I don't like Marvel, Peeta, and Glimmer all that much by now. Keep up the reviews—I think we can do better than nine!