The tributes gather inside the dining room for our private sessions. We each have only fifteen minutes to show the Gamemakers what we can do. In District Four, the Academy helps us prepare by giving us tests to give us a feel for what it will be. I have an entire strategy all planned out.

Mara is called first and she walks out of the room. That leaves twenty three still standing. Most of them sit in silence and look around nervously. The Careers are focused and determined. I'm sure they are rehearsing what they need to do. I sit next to Toren, who has his brow furrowed.

"What are you going to do?" I ask Toren.

He pauses a moment. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I had a plan in mind. I guess I'll just improvise. There are certainly enough weapons for me to play with."

I think back to how he has struggled with archery the past three days. Archery is supposed his best weapon. I am starting to doubt how well he might perform.

My attention rattles when I see Sheen leave the room. Twenty two more.

"You?" Toren asks politely.

"Just knives. I'm debating about whether or not to demonstrate some survival skills." I say.

"Do it. It will make you seem more versatile." Toren advises.

"But what though? Plant finding will be a little anticlimactic after weaponry." I counter.

"How quickly can you make a fire?"

"Not under 15 minutes."

"Well, maybe just try snares. They will make you seem able to find food and other tributes as well."

"Okay, I'll do that." I say. The time passes quickly. Sasha rises to go, and then Thorn, who leaves confidently. Jasmine is next, and she looks equal parts terrified and prepared. Then the miniscule District 3 boy goes. And then, my name is called.

I stand up and slowly make my way to the dining room doorway. "Good luck." says Toren. I turn my head to acknowledge him and then push through the doors into the Training Center.

The gym is the same as before, but it looks different now, with no people. The stations and the weapons are alive with possibilities.

Toren suggested snares, and I agreed with him. I had an idea about how to tie in snares with the knife throwing, but I don't know if I can accomplish it in 15 minutes. I get to work.

I walk quickly over to the snares and begin tying knots. Okay, loop it around here, tie this together, string in another one. A bead of sweat rolls down my forehead as I try to remember how it goes. I finish it and move on to the next one. No time to check my progress.

As I work, I look over my shoulder and observe the Gamemakers who are observing me. Or, supposed to be observing me. They are just eating and drinking. I'm not too concerned, because I'm just doing preparation at this point.

I finish the three traps and place them in the right place. Then, I take three dummies and anchor them right in front of the snares. I walk over to the weapons rack and take an entire row of throwing knives. After a brief moment's concentration, I take a small ax with me.

I place myself in the center of the accuracy simulation and lay my weapons down on a table next to me. I turn to the Gamemakers.

"Annie Cresta. District Four." I announce loudly. They all turn to me. Head Gamemaker Maximus waves away an Avox serving food and stares at me intently. He prepares a note sheet and starts writing things down.

Okay this is it. All eyes on me. Most important moment before the Games begin. I swallow a quelled burst of nerves and initiate the simulation before I let them get the better of me. The targets take a few seconds to warm up and then they start to move. I grip the first knife in my hand until my knuckles turn white.

Then the targets start rolling out. They move in sporadic directions and take evasive measures. My nerves stop instantly. My left hand feeds my right knife after knife. I throw with a deadly accuracy. I fall into a pattern of throwing. Throwing and hitting targets. Since the targets are around me in three hundred sixty degrees, I am constantly moving and swerving and pivoting to get them. I almost never miss.

The simulation ends. Only four of the original hundred targets still remain. With the targets down. I take two of the knives in either hand and whip them both at my dummies at the same time. They both hit them in the chest: an instant kill. To further to casualty, the dummies fall backward into my snares. The ropes hook them up by their ankles instantly. To finish, I grip the ax in my right hand and whip it as fast as I can at the third dummy. It scrapes the arm, which is far from a kill shot.

Hmm. A miss, but a close one. A sour way to end an almost perfect run.

I turn around to the Gamemakers and bow. I wait for their dismissal.

Gamemaker Maximus confers with some other Gamemakers for a moment. "Tribute. Will you demonstrate your strength please?"

"Um...what?" I have never heard of the Gamemakers asking for something like this.

"Your strength. Please go to the weights and demonstrate your strength." He points to the weight lifting station.

And if I refuse? I bite my tongue to keep that comment from slipping out. This isn't fair. I've never practiced strength before; I've had no need to.

I slowly walk over to the weight machines and try to stop myself from panicking. Breathe in. Breathe out. This is something normal. Nothing to worry about.

I arrive at the weights and take a moment to pick one out. 10 pounds. Seems reasonable. I lift it with my hands an awkwardly do a few squats. Okay...what else? I take some heavy sacks of sand and heave one on my shoulder. Instantly I feel the pressure of it bearing on me. I step forward and shove it off my shoulder. It thuds to the ground about two feet away. I sign in exhaustion.

For all of my effort, I still didn't demonstrate much strength. I look around for another thing to do when I hear the Gamemaker's voice behind me: "That will be all; thank you."

I turn to them and bow deeply. I exit the room, but not before looking behind me. The Gamemakers are talking. They don't look happy.

I emerge into the elevator and press the button for Four. I pace as the elevator ascends.

Inside my quarters, Scylla and Jet are waiting. I tell them what happened. I skip the part where I had to lift weights. They tell me I have the night off until the training scores.

When i finally get to my quarters I allow myself some rest to determine what happened. Is it common for Gamemakers to specifically ask for a skill? I've never heard of it before. But, then again, I've never been a tribute before. I don't know exactly how this goes.

Toren enters my room as I'm mulling it over. "How did it go?" he asks.

"Pretty good. You?"

He shrugs. "Decent."

"I tried your snares idea. I think it payed off." I say.

"Good. Hey, Jet just told me we can do whatever we want until dinner. Want to do something?" Toren comes over and sits on the bed.

"Okay...? What can we do?" I say.

"Well for starters, we can use the TV to watch some Capitol channels. Not that bad propaganda we get in Four. This is the good stuff." He grabs the remote and presses some buttons.
My window is replaced by channels and channels or programming. "Any preferences?"

I shake my head. It's nice to lose myself in something other than the Hunger Games for a brief spell.

Then the Hunger Games channel comes on.

Caesar is in the midst of predicting the scores for the tributes. "Now you see here, this Sheen. He's big and tough. I'm betting on a high one for him, perhaps the highest for the Careers. District One tributes are typically both very good so I'm expect-"

I groan. "Toren, can you change it? Please?"

I can tell he wants to see this, but he changes the channel after a second. The image of the Capitol man is replaced by a fashion show. not exactly my style, but I couldn't care less at this point.

"Thanks."

For the next hour or so, I watch the ridiculous trending clothes of the Capitol. Not quality entertainment or anything. But I need a small break from the stress of the Games. Deciding which tributes to kill, who to avoid, who are my allies, who are my enemies...it's just too much sometimes.

After watching this for a little while, I can tell Toren is starting to get bored. I take the remote and click it off. "So, how did your training session go?"

"I think you already asked me that."

"You weren't very specific." I pointed out.

He laughs. "I guess I wasn't. Well, I started with spears, then archery, a logic puzzle, and then I started a fire. That was a mistake."

"The puzzle or the fire?"

"The fire. I couldn't do it. I tried for about five minutes until they told me to stop."

"Did they ask you to do anything in particular?" I ask.

He looks puzzled. "No. Why?"

"Not weight-lifting or anything?"

"No. But I made sure to demonstrate my strength by choosing the heaviest spears. Why?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. I'm just wondering if they care that much about it."

He swings his legs out from under him so he is sitting on the bed. "I doubt it. I mean, you insane with those daggers. Even Mara was scared at one point."

He can tell I don't look convinced, so he continues, "Don't worry. You'll do fine. I know it." He smiles and me and suddenly, I feel better.

"Okay?" He says.

"Okay."

At that exact moment, Jet walks in and knocks on the open door. "Time for dinner. The scores come in about half an hour."

Toren and I rush to the dining room to eat. Scylla is already lounging in the living room. Apparently she didn't wait for us.

I'm not really that hungry, but I still need to eat. Once I chug down some water and some bread, I feel a little better. I'm not a bundle of nerves anymore. Toren really helped me.

After we eat, we join Scylla in the living room. The TV is on, showing Caesar Flickerman. He's still predicting the scores. We still have about ten minutes to wait. I just want to know, for it to be over. Thankfully, he is just finishing discussing the District 12 tributes, since they were last.

I tune him to listen to what Scylla has to say. "A good score is between an eight and an eleven. Twelve is almost impossible, and to be realistic, you won't get it. But what matters is how you compare to the other tributes. If either of you is in the top two or three, then you'll be good."

Toren says, "What about the other Careers?"

"What about them?" Jet says.

"Well, how much better than them would be good?"

Jet says, "The best or second best typically get the best sponsors. But also remember this, you are all in an alliance. If you get a bad score, you will still get sponsors because you have the other mentors helping out as well."

Scylla says, "But still, getting a good score is very important for the home stretch of the Games when food begins to run out."

This is all very reassuring and all, but I am relieved when someone hands Caesar a piece of paper with the scores written on it. He stops commenting and gets ready to read.

This is it.

Caesar speaks very slowly and dramatically. "As you know, the tributes were rated on a score of one to twelve with twelve being the highest and one-"

Yeah, yeah yeah. Whatever. Get to the scores.

He finishes up his spiel and gets right to it. "District One." Pictures of Mara and Sheen pop up on the screen.

"Sheen from District One received a...nine."

Nine. Nine's good. Too good. I might, just might, be able to top that.

"Mara from District One received an...eleven." Caesar mulls over the word rather impressed.

I bite my tongue to stop myself from swearing. No way can I top that. I knew it was coming: Mara is exceptional competition. But it's hard to swallow.

I start to feel better once Sasha and Thorn's scores are announced. They both got 8s. I can beat Eights. If I can tie Sheen for a nine, I have good odds. A nine is not unreasonable. I mean, my accuracy was amazing in the session.

Then the District Three tributes roll out. Jasmine gets a six and the small boy, whose name is Dominic, gets a two. Wow, a two. Well, what do you expect? He's only twelve.

Then, District Four comes around. Toren and my face pop up and Caesar prepares to read the scores. I hug my knees to my chest in anticipation.

Caesar says, "Toren, from District Four, received a score of...10."
Jet and Scylla don't cheer or anything. Jet flashes a quick smile and looks impressed, while Scylla merely writes something down in her notebook. Toren looks pleased. Really, really pleased.

He can tell I'm nervous, so he reaches out a hand to me. "You'll do great." he mouths at me. He pats me on the arm.

Even though he has no idea how I did, I still feel better. I stare into Caesar and try to predict my score. I'll be happy with anything above an 9. Then I'll have the third highest. Or maybe a nine. Yes, I'll gladly take a nine. Then, I will tie with Sheen for the third highest. Not too bad.

And then, even if I get a bad score, it won't matter much, because I'll still be in an alliance. But Scylla said that will make the end game tough. And it will be embarrassing to have a bad score. I'll take anything, as long as it's not the lowest score for the Careers.

"Annie Cresta, from District Four,"

Caesar! Hurry up! I need to know! I just need to know!

Caesar continues, "Annie, from Four, with a score of...-"


TO BE CONTINUED!

Comment with what score do you think she got.