Jayla Dean- Tatsuya Hikaru

She was stronger and smarter than me. That's the way it goes in the Arena sometimes. Sometimes it's just who's luckier. Other than the getting Reaped thing, I'd had a pretty lucky life.

Melissa Hedley- Philip Kozlov

I lasted longer than Melissa? Life is weird. There must not have been a crossbow in the Cornucopia. I hadn't even noticed. It was just me now. I wanted to be helpful to my District, but they seemed far away and remote now. Mostly I just wanted to be useful to my allies.

Alistair Bruce- District Nine male

Most people were probably looking for the kitchen, but I was too chicken. I needed supplies, though, since I had also been too chicken to run into the Bloodbath. As soon as the Games started, I ran for the stairs, and I was lucky enough to beat Fable. I'd been lurking on the first class deck ever since, hoping the Careers would think no one was dumb enough to stay there. Joke was on them- I was dumb enough.

The first class cabins had super nice beds, but I wasn't using mine. I was curled up in the cabinet under the sink, behind a bunch of towels I'd shoved to the front to make it look like the cabinet was full of towels. It wasn't easy to get into quickly, though- if the Careers came suddenly, I'd probably have to hide under the bed and hope for the best. I, for one, had always been too afraid to look under the bed when I was little. They probably felt the same way.

There was one other advantage of a first class cabin. I had a suspicion that there was probably something useful in the room, and the second day in the Arena, I ventured out to look. There was a cabinet set against the wall on the other side of the room. There was a box on top of it, which I opened.

"Yuck."

The box was full of cigars. I shut it and pushed it to the back of the cabinet. I opened the door under the cabinet and found something much better.

"Yum."

Inside the cabinet there was a bar of chocolate and a tin of nuts. There were a whole bunch of bottles in the doorway, but they were all full of disgusting alcohol. I took one anyway, since I might be able to throw it in someone's eyes. What I really wanted was the chocolate and nuts. That, along with the tap water in the room's sink, would keep me going probably as long as I needed.

Hades Rodriguez- District Seven male

The only chance for someone as small as me was to never be seen. There were a million hiding places in this Arena, but I thought I'd found the best of all. For the first day of the Games, I'd hidden under a staircase with a mop and some rags. After everyone was settled and the Careers had gone deeper into the ship to look for people, I snuck to the kitchen. Most of the food was gone or destroyed, since Fable and Jessie had already been there. I found some potatoes that fell under a stove, and there was always more water in the taps. The obvious idea would be to leave in case the Careers checked back, but I had a better idea.

There was a tiny little door set into the wall of the kitchen. I opened it and saw a tiny little box, just barely bigger than me. I knew exactly what it was. We had something similar to it in the Peacekeeper headquarters, and we used it to send packages between the floors. It was a dumbwaiter. My mom never let me play it in, but I'd always wanted to. It was time for me to do exactly what my mother told me not to do.

It was a tight squeeze inside the box. My knees were squished against my chest and my head was cocked, but it was worth it. The rope was between the box and the wall so someone could pull the box up and down. I could reach it from inside, meaning I could go between the floors whenever I wanted. I pulled the box between the top and middle decks so that anyone who opened the door would see an empty shaft. Then it was just me and my box.

I'd been hoping for an exotic Arena with lots of animals. As easy as it was to hide in the ship, I was disappointed there wouldn't be any wildlife. There weren't even any lobsters in the kitchen.

It didn't take long to get bored. In the Arena, there was a lot of waiting around between bursts of panic. I pulled myself to the bottom of the door between floors so a crack of light came into the box. I wanted to go out and explore, but it wasn't worth dying over. I nibbled a potato out of sheer boredom, then wiggled around to try to get more comfortable. With nothing else to do, I retreated into mind games.

Once upon a time, there was a tiger named... Fido. Not just any tiger, though. He was blue with black stripes...

Amphilia Fortuna- District Four

I was glad I allied with Jasmine. She didn't talk much, so I didn't have to pretend we were best friends and would never hurt each other ever. She knew how things were, and she didn't expect more or act innocent. She was as willing to kill as I was- maybe even more. She didn't relish it, but she knew it had to be done. It made me feel less guilty about the way I was. I didn't feel like I had to defend myself.

Jasmine also used traps, which were easy to make in this Arena. We started simple. Down the hall, there was a broom closet full of cleaning supplies and whatnot. Some of them came in glass bottles. We smashed the bottles and scattered the glass on the floor around the staircases. The Careers would be wearing shoes, but the glass would still make noise if they came down, giving us time to get away. We also strung up cans from the railings for even more racket. If we wanted to get away, there was another staircase leading down. If the Careers somehow came from that direction, it wouldn't matter if we made noise going up, since they'd already know we were there.

Even though I volunteered so Wrasse couldn't kill people, almost all the people she would have killed would die anyway. It seemed useless until I held up a string to hang a can and remembered something she'd said. Back in the Academy, she talked about catching fish and stringing them up above the water so they flopped and gasped. She said she wondered if people did the same. People were still going to die, but no one would die like that. I would probably die, but I was willing to pay that price. In this Arena, strings would hold cans, not people.

No deaths this time! The action IS going fast, though. It's been two full days at this point. The Bloodbath was at night, so it's harder to keep track.