Icarus Aguilar

The Career pack wasn't so great this year. Ember was mad at me for saying we shouldn't let Shui into the pack, and she was upset at the others for agreeing. Blake looked strong but she didn't trust me. She stayed around and I didn't think she actively wanted to attack me, but her body language got tense whenever I got near. She wasn't as bad as Alex at least. She straight up hated me and didn't hide it. She was always trying to pull Blake away and plot with her. Not all men were as dumb as she thought we were. I could tell they were talking about me.

Steve was worst of all. As soon as they opened the training room, he set out to torment anyone smaller than him. He pretended to throw weapons at the littler kids. He yelled in their ears as they tried to memorize plants. He wrote their names on the dummies and kept eye contact as he disemboweled them. We got students like him in One sometimes. Usually they were filtered out before they could volunteer. We didn't care that they were sadistic. It was just that students as psychotic and aggressive as he was usually ended up taking themselves down in the Arena. We wanted Victors, not killers.

I almost stopped him when I saw Lisette run away crying and hide behind one of the attendants. But before I got to her, I knew there was nothing I could do. I couldn't stop a monster like that. He didn't even think of me as a person. My words meant nothing to him. He was going to go on killing no matter what, and I had to think strategically. Anyone he killed was someone who wasn't in my way. They were going to die anyway. I'd do it myself if I had to. They were a distraction, and I couldn't afford it.

I wasn't here to help anyone else. I knew that much, even if I wasn't sure exactly what I was here for. I could tell what my allies were here for. Blake wanted to make up for not fighting back in the past. Ember wanted to carry on her family's honor. Alex blamed all her problems on men and wanted to eliminate them. It was harder when I looked inside my own head. I wanted to be the best, but that was a vague goal. I needed something better. If I didn't find something soon, I'd be in the Arena without a plan or a purpose. I'd never find it if that happened.

Blake Armani

I could do this. I proved it when they picked me to volunteer. I showed everyone I wasn't an easy target or a fragile bird. My past wasn't my present, and I wasn't who I used to be. It used to torment me when I was training. I'd fight all day and my classmates dreaded being paired up with me. Then I'd go home and I couldn't raise a finger when my boyfriend hit and kicked and threw me around the room. I felt like a sham. All that talk about volunteering and I couldn't fight off one untrained bully.

I never did stop him. It was my brother that took him out in an alley and ended his reign once and for all. He set me free that day, but it never stopped haunting me. I should have done it myself. Every time I beat my sparring partner or sent my weapon into a dummy's heart, I imagined it was him. The better I got, the more I proved I was strong enough. He loved having an academy student as his victim. He called me a coward and said even the Academy couldn't make anything of me. After he died, my own inner voice took over his taunts. If I won this, I'd shut it up forever.

The Career pack was ideal for me this year. Shui wasn't even a volunteer, so he wasn't with us. Steve was too unstable to join even if he wanted to. That meant it was me, Ember, Alex, and Icarus. Only one man to be afraid of, and we outnumbered him. As far as guys went, he wasn't even that bad. He moved slowly around me and he tried to stay separate. I suspected he knew about my past, and it embarrassed me. I was glad he never mentioned it.

I never felt more invincible than when I was practicing with my weapon. I loved how it slipped over my hand and felt like part of me. I knew I wouldn't have to fight anyone for it at the Bloodbath, because it was dangerous for anyone who wasn't an expert with it. I felt like a tiger when I slid the leather glove onto my hand. The blades curved like cat's claws and left animalistic marks on the dummy as I hit it. No one would come near me when I looked like this. He never would have had the courage to try anything if I'd brought these home. He was as much a coward as I was. I never wanted to take it off.

Ember Steiner

It was weird always having my dad with me as I trained. It was even weirder how the others treated him. They all thought he was such a big deal. They followed him around and asked questions. Icarus asked him for an autograph. To me, he was just Dad. He knew all about the Games and he was a Victor, but he was also the guy that bought me a second ice cream cone when I dropped mine when I was six.

Sometimes I wished he hadn't been a Victor. It meant we were rich and famous and everything, but it was a lot of pressure. Shui could ignore it, since he always did his own thing. I was more susceptible to peer pressure, and as soon as the others realized I was their best hope of a legacy victory, they doubled down on me. There were only two ways for a Victor's child to live up to expectations. I either had to win or marry a Victor. The first option never fit with me, so this was the only thing that was left. If Dad hadn't been a Victor, I never would have had to worry about it. I was proud of him, but sometimes I wondered what life would be like if things were different.

Dad said I wasn't supposed to spend time with Shui in the training room, but I couldn't help it. We'd been together forever. It was weird to ignore him. As the other Careers mobbed him, I snuck away and found Shui at the plants station. He was getting them all wrong.

"Hey. How you doing?" I asked.

"How do you think?" he asked, pointing at the red lights over the plants he'd gotten wrong. He looked at something across the room and got a dopey, starry-eyed look.

"OMG! It's the hottest guy ever!" he said. I looked over and my face went red.

"Shut up," I said. It was the hottest guy ever, but Shui was just teasing me. Jerky McJerkface himself was in the room, telling Icarus something about the Games. It didn't matter what he was saying. He was so hot he could have made drying paint seem interesting.

"You should go kiss him. He looks lonely," Shui said.

"I wish he did the crowning," I said dreamily. Then I could see him even closer. He'd be so proud of me for winning.

"Ember and Jerky sitting in a tree..." Shui started. Didn't I wish, but it could never be. He was old enough to be my father. It didn't make him any less gorgeous, though.

Alex Laguna Kraft

I was not allying with any boys. I didn't like having Icarus as close as he was, but we weren't allies. Ember and Blake were cool, and we could be allies. Ideally, I could convince them to kill Icarus and then the alliance would be perfect. Otherwise I'd have to kill him myself. They probably wouldn't mind, but if they were too confused and didn't see that it was good, I'd leave them and ally with the outlying ladies. Blake and Ember would come to their senses eventually.

I sensed a kindred spirit in Blake. She always stepped away whenever a boy came near, and she was jumpier when they were around. I knew what that meant, because I'd been through the same thing. I came out of it angry, but it had the same effect on her that it had on most girls. She was traumatized. She was strong enough to get past it and keep going, but it affected her. It broke my heart to see it.

I waited until after lunch, when I could catch her alone. We got done earlier than the others, and I walked with her back to the training room.

"Could you help me with something?" I asked her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Steven has it in for me. You've seen the way he looks at me," I said. She stiffened as she remembered similar looks. "As soon as the gong sounds, he's going straight for me. I'm going right back at him, but here's the thing. I'm not perfect. He might kill me, and if he does, he'll go after all the other girls next. I don't want them to go through that. Will you help me fight him?"

"We're allies. And I know what it's like to have someone after me," she said.

"Someone hurt you," I said. I slowed down so we could talk more.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"Because they did it to me to. And one of them is still trying. We have to support each other," I said.

"I should have been able to stop him alone," she said quietly.

"You shouldn't have had to stop him," I said. "But this time we both will."

Alex might make a separate alliance, but her form said she'd try to get the Career girls to split off, so for now she's trying that.

It's been a long time since I mentioned Jerky McJerkface. Way back when I first started SYOTs, I skipped some years between every story so I could fill in Career Victors and keep the ratios right. Now that I have a lot of readers, I haven't been doing it since I want room for everyone to have a Victor. Jerky is a Victor from Two. He won the 26th Games and his story is in 75 Victors. He was made as a filler Victor to represent all the jerky Careers that won, since I didn't want to write their stories and no one would want to read him. That's why he never got a real name. I got busted when Ember's form said she had a crush on him. I should give him a real name, but it's kind of funnier to leave her with a crush on Jerky McJerkface.