Blake Armani

I'd been worried about this moment ever since I got home. For someone like me, mentoring was quite the dilemna. I had Jayden's life partially in my hands. I could be the difference between life and death. But hers wasn't the only life in the balance. I wasn't mentoring someone trying to get home. I was mentoring a Career- someone just like me.

"The important thing is to get you home. So don't get carried away, all right? It's okay to survive, but you don't have to go looking for kills," I said.

"Yeah, of course," Jayden said. "What do you think I am, a monster?"

Avariella Hanson

"Excited to be here?" I asked Chrome.

She shrugged. "It's all right. It wasn't my first choice. Oh, sorry. I shouldn't be rude," she said.

"I didn't like it after the first time either," I said. "Seems like a lot of Careers end up changing their minds."

"That's a good sign. It means a lot of them won," Chrome said.

"So why are you here then, anyway?" I asked.

"Parents. You know how it is," she said.

"Yeah, I know."

Acee Hal

My Tribute was a vampire. Lovely.

Shane Donegal

"Hey, we match!" Gator said, waving his fake arm and pointing at my three fake fingers. "Gator got mine."

"Did you get him back?" I asked. It was so surreal it seemed the natural thing to ask.

"I wasn't trying to kill him. I was just trying to move him away from town. He had other ideas," Gator said. "But about the Games... any ideas?"

"You're not... like other Careers, are you?" I asked.

"No, not really, but I think I should still stick with them. Better allies than enemies," he said.

It was nice to have someone who didn't think I was "soft" or a "disgrace to Careers everywhere". It was going to be very interesting to mentor Gator.

Erwin Jackson

I knew before I even met Acer that I wasn't going to like him. First, he was a volunteer. I had no respect for people who volunteered for this. I only ever warmed up to Sky because she was so sorry about it. She was the best-case scenario: a damaged, sorrowful penitent. Usually, things turned out so much worse.

"So... I volunteered. Kind of crazy, huh?" Acer asked, obviously aware of my feelings on the matter. He got exactly what he expected.

Toby Cash

The boy seemed to be enjoying himself. He was looking out the windows at the land rushing by. I looked out with him, since it was very pretty. It looked like one of my friend's paintings- all swirls and curves and pretty colors.

Sequoia Wilson

A rich girl from Seven. I never thought I'd see the day. Other than me, that was, and I was only rich because I won.

"Have you made a strategy yet?" I asked Jodie.

"I already know some survival stuff and I've used an axe, so I was planning to divide my training time between those and get better," she said.

"That's a good plan. That's pretty much what I end up telling most of my mentees. There's two parts to winning. There's staying alive, and there's not dying. They seem like the same thing, but you already know what I mean. There's offense and defense. It's good to know both."

Tillo Peters

Oh, a rich girl. That's nice. She probably used all her money to help poor people and feed starving kids and work to make Eight a better place. Or maybe she stayed in her house and ate her fancy food and ignored everyone else entirely, like all the other rich people I'd met.

"Couldn't buy your way out of this one?" I asked.

"Of course not. What kind of question is that?" Cavender asked.

"Pity," I said. Cavender's face shifted as she moved toward anger.

"Sorry I'm rich, okay? Money can't save me in the Arena, either. You might be able to, unless you want to keep being a bitter sourpuss," she said.

"You sure you want to live?" I asked.

"Yeah, maybe someday I can be just like you," she said sourly. Wouldn't that just be the best karma? Ending up as bitter as me.

Chimera Ilium

"Lately, Nine has not been doing very well. I hope we can change things this year. If one of you wins, I can go back to being a just plain escort. And you will not die. So I think we can agree this is the best plan," I said. Jeanie and Nassor shared a confused glance. Sometimes District people don't understand very well.

"I think you're right. I shall do my very best to win," Jeanie said.

"I second that," Nassor said.

"Ah, good. Then everything is in order," I said.

Calvary Warsaw

"What's it like in the Capitol?" Ethel asked.

"Really big. Really fancy. Really loud," I said.

"Are the streets really made of gold?" she asked.

"No, they're just black. They're pretty smooth though," I said.

"Do people really have pink hair and blue skin and three eyes?" she asked.

"I've seen pink hair and blue skin. Never three eyes," I said. Ethel showed me a notebook she'd found somewhere on the train.

"I'm going to write everything down I see there. That way I can write a story about it," she said.

Yeah, good luck with that, I thought. "Cool. I bet it will be great," I said.

Frankie Disney

Jayson and I were like film negatives of each other. I was wiry, he was buffer than a bulldog. I was calm, he was bouncing off the walls. I was quiet, he was... not. It was like something from a Capitol sitcom.

"Hey, it's the Emotionless Victor! It's neat to meet you. I'm Jayson, the emotional Tribute," he said.

"Pleasant to meet you," I said as I took the hand he offered.

"You don't have to hang around with me if you don't want. You have lots of good advice and I'd be happy to hear it, but I'm pretty extroverted. You might get annoyed, since you're... you," Jayson said. He didn't have to worry about that, since I was incapable of getting annoyed without copious chemical assistance. But it was nice of him to ask.

Nubu Sanders

Oh my god.

What happened to that boy? Laicao was crouched on the table shoving food into his mouth and growling whenever I got too close. Two Avoxes were huddled nervously behind the door in case he attacked me.

"Laicao?" I asked. Laicao hopped forward at the noise and glared at me.

"It's okay. Go ahead and eat," I said. The Avoxes looked terrified, but I was more horrified than anything else. Things like this weren't supposed to happen, even in Twelve. I had tried to find some information on Laicao before I met him, but there weren't any records. Nobody cared enough about the boy to even record whether he was alive or dead. No wonder he was a savage. No one cared enough to treat him like a human.