Sinsya Powers, 14
District Three Female

As far as she could tell, Sinsya was sitting pretty at this point in the Events. She had fooled Alexei into giving her a bunch of points, which certainly helped, and there hadn't been an overly challenging challenge for her thus far. Granted, she hadn't run into a Career district challenge yet, but with this many points at the beginning, she had a feeling that she'd end up doing fairly well in the Events overall.

"Competitors!" called Violet. "Please return to your houses, as this is where you will begin the next challenge. If you have not done so already, please change into the new outfit provided in your bedrooms. We will begin the challenge in approximately fifteen minutes."

Already in her home, Sinsya went into her bedroom to find a maroon athletic top and a pair of yellow leggings waiting for her. (Thank goodness she was not on her period.) This indicated very clearly that they'd be doing a more physical challenge, or at least something that wasn't doable in a dress shirt and slacks. But what could the challenge possibly be that was also related to District Three?

Rather than stress out about the challenge and what it could possibly be, Sinsya decided to pull out the Calculus textbook she'd requested from the Capitol to bring as a token and do some easy integral problems. Some people would have used the time between competitions to spend time with their friends. But Sinsya had always had a greater affinity for her studies. See, math was straightforward. People were not.

"Competitors!" called Violet again. "It's time to begin our afternoon challenge. As you may have guessed, this is a more physically-based challenge. Now, you may be asking yourselves, how can a physical challenge relate to the technology district? Well, allow me to tell you.

"This afternoon, you're going to be going on a scavenger hunt around the Arena looking for five plastic balls in your particular color. These balls can be found in a number of children's ball pits around the Arena. You will bring one ball back at a time and put it in the little canister that you can find next to your back door on the outside of your house. I will repeat, you may only bring back one ball at a time.

"In order to find your balls in the various ball pits around the Arena, you'll be using your geocachers! Yes, the same ones that you built this morning. Some of you had your geocachers fixed if your screen was cracked or if it was not wired completely properly. The geocachers are automatically programmed to find the closest ball to your current position. However, if you would like to, you may use the arrows buttons on your keypad go for another of them if you'd like. When the geocacher realizes that one of your balls is right next to it, it will direct you back to your house, forcing you to bring the first ball back to your canister before it will turn on to help you find another one. Any questions? Just shout them out, I can hear you.

"If a ball that you must bring back is in a ball pit, there will be no other balls of your specific color to throw you off. Any others?

"Your geocachers will not tell you how far you are from the ball in question, but they will tell you what direction you need to move in. The faster it beeps, the closer you are to it. Also, it will not automatically shift between balls. It will start with the one closest to it, but it will stick with it unless that ball goes in the canister or you change it manually.

"Oh yeah, that would be a good thing to mention. Please exit through the back door of your house. You will find your geocacher on your right. If not, it's on your left. There are two spare sets of batteries in there as well, just in case it is to run out.

"No, I will not tell you if all of the ball pits in which you have balls are relatively equidistant for all of the competitors. Anything else?

"Excellent. The challenge will begin when the horn goes off. Good luck!"

OK, so this challenge definitely merited the workout gear, Sinsya reasoned. But it wasn't nearly as physical as it could be. And while Sinsya wasn't nearly as physically well-trained as the other competitors, she had a feeling that some of them, maybe Silas or Myranda, would just start running, and not do this in a strategic way. But Sinsya had an idea about how to do this intelligently, not just as a free-for-all.

When the horn sounded, Sinsya stepped outside of her house and picked up her geocacher. But instead of running, Sinsya fiddled with her watch until she got to its timer function. One by one, she went through the five balls she had to find, listening to the amount of time between beeps of the geocacher. Once she figured out the order of their distance, she elected to go for the farthest one first. Then, she'd be going shorter and shorter distances until the end, hopefully preserving her stamina. Plan in place, Sinsya confidently set out to accomplish her task.

Winsley Vwystrom, 13
District One Male

This was not Winsley's challenge.

Since beginning his dance training, Wins's mobility had certainly improved. But he still wasn't fast, especially as he also didn't have the best stamina in the world. That was what happened when one spent a significant portion of childhood learning to walk in the first place. The other problem was that these prosthetics didn't move like normal feet. They didn't have any toe-heel action; instead, they kind of clomped on the floor, almost like he was marching with them instead of walking. This meant that they didn't give him any boosts, either, like a person with legs would get from pushing off of the ball of their foot.

It would be better if he had running prosthetics. Those things were so cool! They could make him bounce and actually help give him speed. But he didn't have enough money for a second pair of prosthetics, really, especially because he'd have to keep getting new pairs as he grew. (He'd actually taken a slightly older pair with him to the Capitol in the interest of keeping his newest ones safe.) Wins also couldn't process how, even if he had told the Capitol that he wanted a second pair, they would have them made and (more importantly) fitted to him in a week. At home, it could take months to make and fit a pair. Plus, it could be considered an advantage to him to have two sets of legs, one of which was specifically made for challenges like this.

All in all, there was nothing that Wins could do at this point other than make do with his legs as they were. He took a few steps in one direction, then listened to the beeps of the geocacher. When he saw that they were getting faster, Wins began to jog that way. But when he picked up speed and began almost full-on running, he stepped on a rock, causing him to lose his balance and land right on the point where his prosthetic latched on. Something jabbed into his skin, causing Wins to yelp in pain.

"OK, so no running," Wins said, picking himself up and dusting himself off. He continued to make his way along, more slowly this time, until he found the first ball pit.

He found the first ball pit!

Now came the difficult part: getting the ball out of the pit. Winsley would not be able to kneel down without hurting his knee again, and if he sat, it would be very difficult to get up. He would just have to wait until another competitor came by; Wins assumed that there were not… what was twenty-eight times five? Over a hundred ball pits in the Arena. (Although he wouldn't put that past the Gamemakers.) He knew he wasn't going to win the challenge anyway; it would be better for him to wait for someone else to come along and help him out.

If Chloe came by, she'd definitely help.

After a while, Winsley spotted a familiar shade of red in the distance. "Hi Silas!" he called out, waving to them.

"Winsley!" They called out in response, picking up their pace to get to him. "What's up?"

"I can't bend down to pick up the ball in the ball pit."

"Oh, because of your prosthetics."

Winsley nodded. "Can you find it for me?"

"Sure," smiled Silas. "I actually think I have one in here too. Give me a moment." Carefully, as if they'd already done so once before, Silas began to dig through the balls in the pit before pulling out Winsley's pink gold ball and their own one. "Here you go." Then, Silas caught view of Wins's leg. "Oh, no, Wins, I think you're bleeding! What happened?"

"I fell on my prosthetic while running."

Silas took a deep breath. "OK, how about this. That was my third find. Let's go back to the houses together, and then if you're willing to wait for me to find my last two, I'll help you with your other four so you don't have to move as much. Does that sound good?"

Wins nodded. "I knew I wasn't going to win anyway. This way, I might not come in last."

"OK. Here, let me carry you back. And on the way, let's talk a bit about your training."

Wins had no idea what Silas meant about training. But he was very happy to have an ally in this competition.

Alder Howe, 12
District Twelve Male

This was absolutely going to be Alder's challenge. Literally all it involved was running. And Alder was very good at running.

As soon as the gong sounded, Alder took off through the back door of his house. After spending the past day doing all of these boring challenges where he had to sit still, getting permission to run around in all of this open space was the best thing ever. The young boy tore through the trees like the Tasmanian devil, ready to bulldoze over every competitor in his path. This was the most open space he'd ever had to run in! Alder was unbelievably happy.

After a fairly significant amount of running, Alder suddenly felt himself getting short of breath. Maybe it was the air in Twelve that was still quite congested, but he wasn't able to run quite as much as he thought he was. Alder stopped, panting, suddenly aware of the fact that he was, in fact, competing in a challenge. And that he did not have the geocacher he needed to compete in it. Meaning that he had no idea where he was.

Alder turned around, trying to figure out how to retrace his steps. But the trees all looked the same! Growing up in Twelve, he wasn't really used to trees, except in the woods where he was never able to go. So this? This was a lot for him.

Panicking, Alder began walking again, fully aware of his elevated heart rate. The best thing to do when you get lost is keep walking, right? That's what Mom always said. No. That didn't sound right. Maybe he should go back to where he got lost. But when he tried to find his way back, he remembered why he was lost in the first place. Lots of trees. Alder was trapped in a dark, and probably very expensive, forest, with nowhere to go and no mommy and no daddy and no friends and…

This was definitely a time to panic.

As Alder ran around, panicking, he suddenly ran into a large body in a grey shirt. Looking up, he found himself looking right into the eyes of Ventus. Carefully, he took a few steps back.

"Do you need help, Alder?" Ventus asked kindly.

"Yes. I'm lost."

"Lost? How did you get lost?"

"I got excited to run and forgot to take my geocacher."

Ventus smiled sadly. "Well, I can't help you until I find another ball, so if you want to tag along with me, you can. And then I'll help you back. Does that sound good?"

Alder nodded. Carefully, he followed Ventus through the woods as the older boy in turn followed his geocacher. As they made their way through, they found themselves running into Aviel.

"Ventus, it seems as though you have a little follower."

"Well, he forgot to grab his geocacher, so he's going to stick with me and then I'll help him get back to our houses."

Aviel nodded. "That's quite nice of you."

"Thanks."

And Aviel was off.

Alder continued to follow Ventus until the boy from Six found a ball, which took quite a while, and then the two returned to the main area. "Now, don't forget the geocacher this time, Alder," urged Ventus.

"I won't. Thanks for your help, Mr. Ventus!"

"No problem, Alder."

Going back to his little house, Alder finally grabbed the geocacher he needed, then made his way out again. To his surprise, his geocacher was beeping fairly quickly! That must mean that there was a ball pretty close, which was really lucky for him, considering how far behind he'd been set. Alder glanced down at the geocacher, and being careful to follow the arrow directly, took off. After a few seconds of running, however, he found himself out of breath again. Alder decided, against what he perceived to be his better judgment, to walk instead of run now. That was probably his best bet.

Alder kept himself moving, following the ball that his geocacher was tracking. See, he had forgotten that he could switch to following another ball. And he didn't realize that it was odd that the speed of the beeping on his geocacher hadn't changed. In fact, Alder was hypnotized by it. He just kept automatically walking forward, following the arrow on the geocacher, allowing himself to almost fall asleep thanks to the rhythmic beeping.

Finally, though, the beeping picked up! Alder, too, picked up his pace, until he finally stumbled upon a ball pit. He must have one in here; after all, that geocacher was beeping furiously!

But there were so many yellow balls in it. How was he supposed to know which one was the right one?

Liana Klepper, 16
District Nine Female

Liana wasn't going crazy about this challenge. All things considered, it was probably better if she didn't win. She knew that it was equally likely that she'd be picked as it was for anyone else, but there was a part of her that was fully aware of how this looked for her family. Admittedly, she didn't necessarily want to be aware of it, but that was the position she'd found herself in as Garnet's niece. And she couldn't not be grateful for the comfortable life she'd been able to live since her adoption. It was that comfortable upbringing that made Liana confident about not winning. If she didn't, some other outer district kid would get a better life for being Victor. She didn't really need the wealth, after all.

Plus, not quite trying so hard in everything was going against the rules, in a way. She was always looking for those little ways to rebel against her parents' standards. This way, she could break the rules, have a good reason for it, and not seem ungrateful. It was a win-win.

(Admittedly, the possibility existed that she was doing better than she anticipated. She had no concept of the scores, after all.)

Liana had actually enjoyed this little running challenge. She didn't have great stamina, sure, but she did enjoy getting to spend some time out in the woods and doing something that didn't require her brain. It was a nice shift. She was also lucky that it actually hadn't been so difficult for her to find the ball pits with her balls in them, allowing this challenge to be a bit more of a leisurely jog than a full-on sprint.

Liana made her way back to the main challenge area with her third ball. She decided that this was a good time to take a break and get a drink. "Violet, can I have a bottle of water, please?" she called. A moment later, a parachute came down, depositing a chilled bottle of water into Liana's hands. She sat on her back stoop and carefully drank, letting the cold water wash down her throat. She might not have done all that much running, but that which she'd done had worn her out.

Suddenly, Liana caught sight of her. A girl in a bright blue top and a ginger braid, running across the forest a few yards away. She was toned, she was tanned, she was gorgeous. Liana was instantly attracted to this woman. How had she not noticed her before?

It took Liana a few moments to get over the initial shock of the woman's attractiveness to figure out who it was: Myranda Lidano, from Two. Liana then realized why she hadn't noticed her before: the day of the Reaping had been after the craziest day ever of inter-District travel, back and forth to the Capitol, so Liana was barely conscious of her own position for that day, let alone the names of the other competitors. Myranda then mostly stuck with other Careers during training and was so far away from her in the interviews that it hadn't made much of a difference. But now, just the simple glimpse of the girl from Two was enough to make Liana go absolutely nuts internally.

Now the question was whether or not to pursue her sexually. Liana did have a very close friend at home, after all. But the two were not technically girlfriends yet, and Liana wasn't sure if she wanted to risk wrecking what she perceived to be their best friendship for a relationship. And Liana wasn't physically attracted to Luster the same way that she had become to Myranda, even in just that instant.

The other question was how this would look to her mother and family. She was a representative of the Capitol, after all, more than Lyric or Silas were. Liana needed to be a positive role model, whatever that was.

But she was also still a teenager. And she had feelings that she felt a need to pursue. Her mother certainly couldn't fault her for that. Dania Klepper had been in the same position once. Not that Liana knew all that much about it; her mother was notoriously cagey on that subject. But it was the one way that Liana might be able to get her to be on her side.

All of the other possible concerns – Myranda's sexuality, whether or not she had a girlfriend, etc. – flew out the window for Liana. All that she wanted was to have sex with that girl.

And god damn it, she was going to get it.

Whoof! I think this is the fastest chapter I've ever written, MMAM and IDIDE combined. What do you all think? Will Sinsya's plan work? What happened with Alder? Did Aviel do anything to him? Thoughts on the other sections?

Don't forget to fill out the check-in from the last chapter if you haven't already. I'm looking to really push this story along in the next month or so, and while we have like 22 Events chapters left, if this chapter is any indication, we'll be moving pretty quickly through it.

Blog post will be up tomorrow as well.

I'll see you all next time in a new district! Any guesses?

-goldie031