Cassie Jones, 13, Daughter of Apollo

The sun is low in the sky, hiding behind the icy clouds. The private training sessions start in a matter of minutes.

We are sent to a special waiting room after lunch, they only gave us half a day for training today. As usual, we all have no idea where they sent us. Although, I'm guessing that it has to be in the same area as the training center, we're surrounded by the same oak forest. Giant windows fill the walls on all four sides of the room and the floor is made of dark oak wood. The seating is comfortable and we're provided with some refreshments for the wait.

The door on the far side of the room open and Gaea steps out and greets with a cold smile. Everyone goes silent as soon as the door opened.

"Demigods," she begins, "It is time to put your skills to a test, to find the odds of your survival. Through this door, will be a new training center, but this time you will be watched and judged. The higher score you earn, the higher the chance of you winning sponsors."

"Arianna Wilcox, please come forward, you will be first" she announces. The scared little daughter of Zeus stands up, takes a deep breathe, and follows Gaea into the other room.

Once the door shuts behind her, the whole room erupts with conversation. The son of hermes, Marco, was slouched on the chair next to mine staring up at the ceiling.

"What are you planning on doing," he asks lazily to make conversation.

"Honestly, I don't give a shit about this whole private training session thing, it won't effect how I do in the games and I don't need sponsors. I can win these games without the help of anyone else," I respond to Marco.

"Yah, I was thinking something similar, we'll just wait for the games to figure this whole thing out."

"I'm not talking about no thoughts on strategy, that's what we should be talking about right now, I just find these training sessions pointless. Did you really expect me to run into those games blindly? Seriously, I not stupid." I blurt out frustratedly, what's he thinking?

"Oh, well what were you thinking?" he asks a bit dully, almost as if he was about to fall asleep.

"We're going to go straight to the cornucopia. Can you run ahead before anyone else to get supplies?"

Marco shrugs and I respond impatiently, "You have superspeed don't you!?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

I lost it, any patience I had with him is gone.

"First of all, stop being so careless. I don't know if this is an act or not, but you need to cut this crap out. If you think for one fucking second that you can get through these games with this attitude, you're dead wrong." He sits up a little straighter and actually has eye contact after my little outburst. "Now, as I was saying, you'll run ahead and get the supplies that we need, when you get back will run for cover and try to find a place for the night. If we run into any other tributes, don't hesitate to attack, do you hear me?"

"Yep, got it. Run ahead, take cover, no hesitation."

"Good."

While I am constantly getting in arguments with Marco and I still doubt whether or not he's going to pull it together, I think I feel good about the games. I shouldn't lose unless he messes something up.

Arianna 'Aria' Wilcox, 14, Daughter of Zeus

"Ariana Wilcox," My name flutters around the room, marking the start of the sessions.

I wish I wasn't the first to go. Ellie said to think positive, told me I was going to do great. That it doesn't really matter about how I do, it won't effect how I do in the games.

But still. I can't help but worry.

I follow Gaea threw the dark wooden door and into the new training area. The new center is a smaller version of the one we've trained at the last three days. Meant for a single person. It's shaped as a circle and a dome is placed above as the roof. The dome is made entirely of glass, letting in all natural light. There isn't an outside like the old one. I expect everything can be seen from a seating section carved into a column meant to keep the dome from tumbling down.

An audience is carefully watching my every move in the seating section. They have the same cold eyes as Gaea, she makes her way up to them from a hidden door.

Butterflies fly around me, but I force myself to stand tall. I need to do well, I need to show my allies my worth.

The goddess takes a seat, "Begin," she orders sharply.

I try to calm myself, I breathe slowly and ty to relax. I look around the room find the knife range at the other side of the center.

I pick up a knife similar to the ones I've been using the last few days and through it at the target It barely hits the target, fear shoots through me. I need to do better! I pick up a second one and try again, a little closer, but just by a hair. I try a few more, I get better by each knife, but only one ever reaches the middle and that's after over ten tries.

What am I going to do! I'm doing awful, absolutely awful. My alliance will abandon me!

An idea surges through me like a light bulb flicking on. What if I can get my power to manifest, I can show them my power. I need it to be unleashed! It's the only way.

I step away from the knife range, and walk to the center of the room and take a deep breathe. I reach inside myself trying to find the source of my power. Trying to draw it out.

Nothing happens.

I dig deeper. I need my power to come, I need to show the judges and prove to everyone that I'm not weak.

Suddenly, I feel my power, I feel it surging through me. I feel alive. Winds start picking up in the center, winds that I can control. The day before I had no rule over them, I felt dizzy and scared, but this time I know I can do whatever what with it. The winds obey me. I finally understand why so many people stop at nothing to feel this way. I bet I could get one of the highest training scores of the day, I would blow the judges away with my power.

But I don't.

I might have finally beat my power but it has also brought me to a realization. I let the light wind die down immediately. If I were to unleash my full power and get a high score, everyone would target me immediately, hunt me down. That's the last thing I need, I want to be seen as a weak opponent, I realize. No one targets someone weak, they ignore them.

My alliance trusts me to not be a threat, they expect me to me useless and someone they could easily kill when they need too. That's why they allowed me to join their alliance, they were planning to keep in a eye on me. They are expecting me to follow them around like a puppy maybe aiding them a little when they're hurt. And when only a few people are left they can easily take me down.

If I were to get a high score, they would know that I wasn't someone they could take advantage of. Someone they better kill early on. Better for them to think that I don't have what it takes to win, and show them later in the games that I could be crowned victor.

I don't want to kill anyone, I hate hurting people in any way. That's why I have never trained before, but if I am to win, I will have work against my fear. I decide that I will use my allies to do most killing for me.

I now know the game I am playing. I need to fool everyone that I'm scared and weak in order to win.

I turn to look at Gaea, I fake a worried look to create an illusion that I'm disappointed with my performance and I wish I had done better. She signals the door, silently telling me to leave, she has the same bored expression she had when I started but I thought saw a hint of amusement.

I'm happy I finally have a strategy. However, I do feel a sting of sadness when I walk through the door back into the waiting area and see Ellie waiting there with a hopeful smile on his face. He's been nothing but kind to me, I don't think he fully realizes that we will be fighting to the death in two days. I might have to betray him later on, I hope it doesn't come to that.

Although, I should have expected I'd have to do something like this from the beginning. I mean, it's a game of survival, a game fighting to the death.

It's the Demigod Games.

Lucy Bellerose, 16, Daughter of Aphrodite

I may not have been able to fool Finn, but I know everyone else is under my spell.

When the games were first announced, I was completely lost, really. I did believed I had a chance at winning, but there were also my doubts. Sure I had skilled, but compared to that daughter of Hermes or Ares, I had no chance. I needed to whip up a disguise, and I did. It was actually pretty easy. At someone's first look at me, the first thing they think is, well, nothing, they ignore me. They don't know me from camp and view me as a silly little Aphrodite girl. So I enhanced there blind image of me. I acted so bubbly and stupid like that sea daughter - Sarah. Then I brought in my charm speak, that really helped create my illusion.

And it worked on everyone. Everyone but Finn. He saw right through me, he knew that I had some talent that I was shielding away.

I was shocked when he offered me an alliance. I mean Finn doesn't seem like the kind of guy you trust real fast, he's really distant and hardly smiles.

But there was something beyond his sarcastic, rude self. I didn't even notice it until he pointed it right out at me. He probably didn't mean to, but when he talked about how he wanted a chance to prove his worth just as he assumed I did. I knew he was hurting inside. Just like I had.

I originally did not want an alliance, while I could fool anyone who allied with me, it would just be easier to go through the games forgotten and thought as not a threat. I stayed away from them and they stayed away from me. Well, they did laugh a little behind my backs, thinking I was too air headed to notice, but really, I was secretly laughing at them.

Everything is going well so far. Finn surprised me with an alliance, it seems to be just what I needed and every other person here thinks I'm an idiot. All I have to do now is to earn a low training score and keep everyone from suspecting anything from me until the games begin.

When my name is finally called, I elegantly stride to the door feeling great.

Astrid Dizznee, 12, Daughter of Hephaestus

The training sessions are a lot longer than I expected them to be. Only four people have gone in so far and am hour already passed. At this rate, I'll be in here for another five hours.

However, I'm not wasting all this valuable time. My allies, Cadence and Emilia sit across from me. I lean over to them, eager to talk to them.

"We need to use this extra time to our advantage," I whisper, "We need to find our strategy."

"Yeah, we have a few hours until our sessions, let's decide how we're going to win this thing," adds Cadence eagerly.

"Have you had any ideas come up so far," asks Emilia.

"Well, I think we should consider the fact that we're some of the youngest kids here," says Cadence, "We could possibly work this to our advantage."

"What, how?"

"Like just let people ignore us."

"Maybe, I think we could work off that. But we shouldn't just rely off that single idea, we really need a solid plan on what we're going to do. I think I have one, but it would include not going to the cornucopia," I say.

"Not going to the cornucopia? But how will we survive in the wild? Don't we need supplies?" questions Emilia, her eyes big with alarm.

"It's just an idea, but do we really need extra tools and food when we probably know enough about gathering food and stuff to survive on our owns, don't you think?" I reason.

"I suppose we do, what's the idea?"

"Like you said about people already viewing us as young and inexperienced, they're not going to go hunt us down immediately. So I think we should try to stay away from everyone. Just steer clear from everyone and all the fights." I explain, "We can just wait it out until everyone has killed off each other for the most part and only a few people are left. It's not like someone's going to just hunt us down, they'll be looking for the bigger threats."

"So just stay hidden and watch everyone from a far?"

I nod, "What do you think?"

"I like it," says Cadence with a smile, "It's great idea!"

Emilia nods in agreement.

The sound of the door opening causes everyone to immediately glance at the entryway. Finn walks out with his usual cold and proud expression on his face. Gaea follows and announces the next demigod, "Emilia Rune."

"That's me," Emilia says weakly.

"Good luck," I say to her before she disappears through the wooden door, leaving me Cadence and I hours with nothing to do but wait.

A/N: I don't think I could ever apologize enough for this THREE MONTH LONG gap of not updating. I feel absolutely horrible. Honestly, I've felt less motivated with this story lately, I kind of want to write my own ideas. However, that doesn't mean I will stop writing this story. I promised that I would finish this story and I will.

The last three months I've been extremely busy with school. I just started my first year of high school and it's been so much more work than I thought it would be! On top of that, I have a sport that has practices six days a week. I'm not kidding. Although, since the fall season has just finished, practices are shorter and they're only five days a week now.

A couple things I need to mention about this story is I'm changing a few things. First of all, not everyone will be getting a letter to their loved one. Only if the letter has important plot or character information, will they get one. So no one from this chapter got one because they would pretty much all be talking about how they miss whoever they are sending the letter to and that they will try there hardest or something.

I also should mention that I'm writing the games differently. Instead of having a lot more chapters similar to these which will probably take another couple months to write them all, I'm making things go faster. I'm changing the POV from 1st person to 3rd person and there will be no individual POVs. The games will be split into two parts; two long chapters. It'll be much easier to do it this way.

Now onto the good news, the next four chapters are already written! I wanted to wait to post the rest of all the pregame chapters around the same time so there wouldn't be any waits between them. I will post the next one tomorrow and the others the days following.

However, the game chapters might take a little while, so prepare for a long wait. (Just not nearly as long.)

So what do you think of these changes? PM me if you're confused about any of them. Thank you and again, EXTREMELY sorry for the wait.