Merry Christmas!

Delaney Rogers-Stone- District Ten female

The crossbow bolt thudded into the target, much closer to the middle than I expected. It wasn't a bullseye or anything, but it was better than what you'd think for someone who had practiced as much as I had.

I think that's about as good as I'm going to get, I thought. If I shot again, it probably wouldn't be as good, and then my last shot would be bad. Not that it made a difference, but I was superstitious enough to want to end on a high note. Training time was almost over anyway. I set the bow back onto the table and left to go exploring.

The Games Center was full of stores and activities and all sorts of things. Mostly they were frequented by Capitolites visiting to "experience the Games" and stare at the Tributes. All the merchants saw their opportunity, though. Any Tribute who wandered in was immediately pointed out, fawned over, and offered free stuff, since the exposure was worth any stuff we could buy.

I passed by the fancier stores and found a cosy room with shelves and chests lined with little knick-knacks and ornaments. I didn't need more dust-collectors, but I thought I might find something cute for Annalise.

A little orange-and-white cat caught my eye. It was holding a golden plaque with a foreign letter on it, and it had one paw in the air. I picked it up and held it.

"You like it?" the storekeeper asked.

"Why are they holding up a paw?" I asked, looking at the shelf of similar cats of different sizes and materials, all holding up one paw or the other.

"It's a lucky cat," the storekeeper said. "That one invites in fortune. The ones with the other paw invite in money."

"I think I need this one more," I said. It did no good to have money if I didn't win the Games, and if I did, I wouldn't need it.

I wrote a letter to go along with the cat, tucking it into the little box the storekeeper had packaged it in. I gave it to Calvary to give to Annalise. I didn't want to wait until I won the Games… assuming I won. This way, whatever happened, Annalise would still get it. If good fortune didn't end up blowing my way, maybe it would find her.

Carmelle Wheeler- District Six female

The short knife I held was for scraping bark and whittling tinder, not stabbing people. I knew I wasn't going to learn to fight in a week. Everyone always said more people died from the elements than from other Tributes, and that was what I'd seen in all the Games I'd watched. I needed to know how to build a fire and track animals, not use a sword or a spear.

As I practiced, I kept an eye on the other Tributes. I knew I wanted an alliance, and I was watching to see where I might fit in. The Careers were out, of course. Shelby, Ambrosia, and some others were together, but they weren't my first choice. I felt horrible having to consider it, but they really weren't that strong, and I needed to put survival before companionship. The other choices were Jerrimiah's alliance and Toshiba's. Either one looked okay. It unsettled me how it was more or less a toss-up which one I'd end up joining. It would very likely determine if I lived or died, and I had no idea which choice was which.

It was Toshiba I approached first. I'd heard him talking about an "anti-Career" alliance, which had turned me off at first. I hated the Careers as much as anyone else, but I didn't want to take them on. But it seemed Toshiba meant more that his alliance was anti-Career as in it was the opposite of the Careers- defensive instead of offensive, and things like that.

"Hey," I said, catching Toshiba's attention.

"Yes? What do you want?" he asked, and I leaned back away from him. I hadn't expected him to be so short with me. He was almost glaring at me, like I was wasting his time.

"I'm interested in your alliance," I said, though I wasn't sure I was anymore, if he was going to be like that.

"Why should we let you in?" he asked.

Fine, forget it, I thought, but I stopped myself. I had to be honest with myself. My biggest misgiving about an alliance was that I made friends very easily, and I made friends hard. I'd have a hard time leaving allies behind or even not attacking someone who attacked them, and that wasn't the way to win. Allying with someone so hard to befriend might be the best thing for me. And it was good Toshiba was so selective. It meant a stronger alliance.

"I have survival skills I can demonstrate if you need," I said, gearing up the old political spiel. "In Six, I was on the student council. I know that sounds useless, but one of our highest priorities was convincing the school officials to give us funds. I can get us sponsors. I've also trained in taekwondo since I was five. Interested?"

Toshiba raised an eyebrow. "All right, I guess that's good enough. So far it's you, me, and Delaney."

"I saw she was working with the crossbows and you were making traps. That's why I was interested," I said. This was a two-way street, and I wanted to make that clear. I wasn't the only one who had to meet standards. They wanted to know if I was worth their time, and I'd already checked to see they were worth mine. I didn't like being hard, but Toshiba had to know I could give as good as I got.

Toshiba Boltwire- District Three male

I tossed another weight over the side of the Games building, watching its trajectory. Instead of stopping, hovering, and returning, it curved without slowing and accelerated as it came back up. That indicated a magnetic field instead of a pure force field. It was more complicated than that, since it also returned things with no metal in them, but I only needed to know the basic type of field. That determined whether the return trajectory was linear or parabolic, and that determined how I would aim any projectiles I intended to bounce off it.

The Capitol made the force field as an ultimate show of control, telling us that we couldn't even choose our own deaths. It was admirable in its sheer audacity and effectiveness, and I felt guilty using it for my own ends. I was always told to respect authority and my elders, and here I was perverting Capitol tech. But survival was the priority, and all's fair in war.

Based on the rubber ball I'd chucked and hit myself with, the speed of thrown items stayed more or less constant. That backed up the hypothesis I'd formed from two years ago, when the Two girl killed herself with the axe she'd thrown at Haymitch. Of course I'd have to check in the Arena before I tried anything, since I suspected they would have altered the fields. They were pretty mad that he used their forcefield against him, even if it seemed to be mostly accidental. He tried to make it look like that, anyway, but no one believed him.

It occurred to me that I might be overspecializing, spending so much time studying one potential weapon. But I'd done other things as well. I made some traps and worked a little on tracking. And I had my prior knowledge in electronics, and then there were my allies. Delaney was our fighter, with her surprising aptitude for the crossbow. Carmelle would provide survival essentials and really prove her worth if she got as many sponsors as she promised.

I hadn't told my allies the real purpose of my alliance. The goal was to oppose the Careers, as suicidal as that sounded. I wanted to show them they weren't any better than the rest of us, and make a statement to anyone who would stand against us. If Carmelle could get someone to send us a crossbow and Delaney could use it, we could pick them off from afar. And if I could get just a few supplies, I could blow them away just like Sky all those years ago. It wasn't some petty grudge match. They were huge and immediate threats to our lives. We would face them, whether or not we wanted to. The best defense is a good offense.