Amelia furrowed her brows in concentration. What was it the trainer had said? Apply a base coat? It was so hard to focus with the intimidating clashing sounds of weapons perfectly handled.

Fingers fumbling in the camo cream, she did her best to follow the instructions only to find her skin itching uncomfortably. Great. So if she did live long enough to find any camo cream at the Cornucopia, she would break out in a rash. Not helpful.

"May I help you with that?"

Amelia-Jane looked up to meet the eyes of Rose Windgarden Lullia Flower Blossom, which shone like two round gold coins in the snow.

"Thanks." Gently, Rose Windgarden Lullia Flower Blossom's fingers wafted over Amelia's face, deftly blending the cream into her skin until her face was barely discernible from the tree trunk behind. Of course.

"There you are." Rose Windgarden Lullia (breathe!) Flower Blossom held a mirror up and Amelia gasped at her reflection. How did she do it?

Answer: She. Is. A . Mary. Sue.

"Do you want to be allies? You can join me and Crystal; and I think that Magenta and Belle are joining too." asked Rose Windgarden Lullia Flower Blossom kindly, because really nobody else actually wanted Amelia Jane as an ally.

Astonishingly, Amelia shook her head. "I'm sorry, I really I am, I'd love to be allies- but you see, I'm allied with Diamond, and she's a Career so- so she'll keep me safe."

Scrap that last bit. Nobody except Diamond wanted Amelia as an ally.

Nicky looked up and down at her fellow tributes and she had to admit that, sceptical as she was, she was impressed. Everybody was so darn good-looking! Where to start? Who should she go for first? Obviously not the twelve year olds. There was just something wrong with that. And besides, all the mini ones would probably go and conviniently get themselves killed in the bloodbath, her district partner Amelia among them. (Poor Amelia. She would never be able to compete against Nicola Vixen Anesthatia on any level.)

The fire-starting station caught her eye, mainly from the bright sparks that signalled that yet again, Lindley from District Seven had managed to start a fire using only charred cloth.

The heat, the fire, the proximity to each other... maybe this was a good place to flirt. And she could make his district partner jealous, as she knew she could effortlessly match Lindley at this station. Saffron, on the other hand, was pathetically useless, as she couldn't even start a fire with matches: it took several goes to even create a spark, and half of the time she snapped the match in half by bending it too far. Nicky snorted with laughter when Saffy finally achieved a flame, only to scream at its proximity to her fingers and drop it, knocking the fire out. Her eyes welled with tears as Lindley berated her.

Lindley looked up at Nicky and raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, hi. Your name's Nicola, right?"

Oh oh. He did not just call her Nicola. Her name was Nicky. NICKY!NI-CKY!WHY DID PEOPLE CALL HER NICOLA?!

She took a deep breath in an attempt to assuage her rising temper; and did her best to stop herself screaming at him and snapping his neck. Naturally, being a Sue, all that meditation had made her a master of self-control, so she merely shrugged and wandered off without a word.

OK. Maybe somewhere else.

She was naturally drawn to the archery station, the Mary-Sue's weapon of choice (apart from the katana, if they were ninjas). Much more elegant than throwing knives, less gruesome than an axe and less brutal than a sword. And of course, displays of muscles...

She glided over to the shelf of bows and did eeny meeny miney mo, because she was so equally talented with a bow of any material.

Ash Handsome (gird your stomachs everyone, Sue flirting time!) drew back the bowstring and released an arrow with a manly grunt, doing an epic punch up in the air when it hit the target.

Nicky raised an eyebrow, flirtatiously unimpressed.

"Really? A bow and arrow is a girly weapon."

Ash mirrored her expression and strolled over to her.

"Well, my allies won't be complaining when I take out a tribute with it,"

"This one will." She winked at him.

"Oh yeah? And why?"

"Well, it's hardly entertaining. How many muscles does it take to pull a string?"

"Just 'cause I don't use my muscles, doesn't mean they aren't there." He winked back at her and flexed his arms in a Herculean pose.

"Hmm.. leaves a lot to be desired."

'S ENOUGH. THIS IS GETTING CLOSE TO CENSORABLE!

Nicky batted her eyelashes and straightened her back to allow her ample bust to speak for itself.

"Allies?" she pouted.

"Sure. You can join me and Annabeth."

Nicky's eyes flicked over to where Annabeth was practicing with a crossbow. Not that she needed practice, obviously. She was very good-looking too. Nicky found that she was looking forward to the Games quite a bit more than she should...

NICKY'S PLAN

1) Get Ash to fall in love with me

2) Get Annabeth to fall in love with me (I'm so fantastically beautiful that I will obviously turn her lesbian)

What- no! Just no!Don't try and mess with a person's sexual preference! Leave them alone!

3) Annabeth and Ash will fight each other over me

4) One of them will die (probably Annabeth)

5) The winner of their duel will be so tired that killing them will be a piece of cake to me.

6) Repeat steps 1-6 with some more tributes from another alliance, who will competely believe my lie that we were ambushed by Careers and poor Annabeth and Ash got killed. I will have their sympathy, and then their love.

Mary-Sue leapt from rope to rope, climbing the netting and swinging from bar to bar. She scanned the gym below, looking for a friendly face, looking for an ally. Careers wise, Diamond and Katrue seemed to be trying to outdo each other in the size of their alliance, and so far Katrue was winning. Diamond seemed to be happy with whoever would join her, whereas Katrue was more choosy, thus making her company more coveted. But Mary-Sue wanted a friend, not a commander.

As she slid down a rope and her little feet patted the ground lightly, she saw Fabbie Glorious from District 11 turn around.

Need I say more.

At last, she had found her knight in shining armour. Brave, honourable Fabbie.

They began to run towards each other in slow mo, and I'll bet that there was some cheesy song crooning in the background.

"Allies?"

He went down on one knee melodramatically, clasping his hand on his heart.

"Of course! Dawn's joined the Careers but I would never do that, they're just all so mean!"

Mean? Understatement of the century!

OK... Alliance time.

Diamond/Pollyanna/Amelia-Jane (Leader: Diamond)

Arbella (loner)

The Careers: Katrue/Rihanna/Dawn/Delia/Damien (Leader: Katrue)

Crystal/Magenta/Rose/Belle (Leader: Rose Windgarden Lullia Flower Blossom)

Melody (loner)

Annabeth/Ash/Nicola (Leader: They all think they're the leader)

Tallyu (loner)

Chase/Saffron/Lindley, (Leader: Saffron)

Maya (loner),

Mary-Sue/Fabbie (Leader: n/a.)