A/N: Glad to know you're all sufficiently terrified XD

I discontinued sponsoring. Tributes may still receive gifts, but they'll be chosen at my discretion.

And guys. Like, specifically guys. And girls who are into girls. But mostly fuckboys. It's getting to be really hot out, at least in the northnern hemisphere. Girls are going to wear shorts and skirts and tank tops. Yes, some girls even chose to exercise in public in a sports bra. This doesn't give you permission to make comments about their bodies or their appearances. People dress for the weather. Girls are not just there for you to look at. That's all! On with the chapter!

Happy 50th chapter :)


Elizabeth Jett (18) POV

District 6 female

Bleary eyed, I wake up. At first, I'm unsure of my surroundings. With Fenton, I'm used to being dead in the middle of a meadow, so why now am I leaned up a metal structure sitting on sand with a boy sitting next to me that is definitely not Fenton? A quick check in my mind confirms that this is the boy from District 1, since the boy from 11 died yesterday. He looks like he should have been keeping watch, but he's slumped against the Cornucopia, snoring lightly.

I stand up gingerly, only to find that my hands and feet are bound. Fantastic. What do they want with me? I would try to run away, but the Cornucopia to our spot in the meadow is miles. With the restricted use of my hands and feet, the Careers could catch me easily.

Making sure the boy in still dead to the world, I hobble around the Cornucopia, looking for the other two Careers. I find the two of them sleeping with their heads together inside the Cornucopia. Their stead breathing echoes through the Cornucopia and I know they're asleep, and probably will be for a while now. A glance at the misty gray sky, with the sun not risen yet leads me to believe it's only around 5 am.

I root around the Cornucopia until I find what I'm looking for; a knife. I try cutting the binds on my hands and feet with it, but no no avail. The way I'm tied up impairs my grip on the dagger, and every time I try cutting the ropes, it slips out of my hands. Damn Careers. Instead, I opt to slide the short knife in my jacket pocket. I also stumble across a filled water bottle, and I take a few long sips from it, feeling my throat come back to life.

Quickly, I put the bottle down and return to my spot at the Cornucopia. The Careers don't need to know that I have a knife, or that I'm hydrated. I close my eyes and try to control my breathing, so it looks like I've been sleeping until they wake up. I pass the time by making lists in my head. It's dumb, really, but it keeps me thinking. First, I try to name as many colors as I possibly can. Then I think about what I'd spend my money on if I win. That one was particularly fun. By the time I've started thinking about all of the comebacks I should have used, the Careers have woken up.

I open my eyes a fraction of the way, just enough for me to be able to see what's going on, while still looking like I'm sleeping or out cold. The girls come tromping out of the Cornucopia loudly, their shoes clanking against the metal, voices raised to near shouting. This jostles the boy from one into sitting up straight, faced slightly towards me, so it looks like he's been awake the entire time.

"Ambrose, why don't you go to sleep?" the brunette girl asks. "You've been awake the whole night."

"I'll be okay," the boy from one says. Ambrose. "I'm fine on a little sleep. One of you'll just have to take watch tonight."

"I'll do it," the blonde girl says. "Jasmin needs her sleep."

"Thanks, guys, I appreciate it," Jasmin says.

So the boy from one is Ambrose. The brown haired girl is Jasmin. The blonde girl is still nameless. I want to say that Jasmin is from District 2, and the other girl is from District 4, because District 4 has a significantly larger blonde population compared to District 2, what with all that time in the sun.

"Someone should wake her up," Ambrose says.

The blonde girl takes a few small steps towards me, and nudges me slightly with the toe of her shoe. Part of me doesn't want to open my eyes, but I know if I don't, it could get a lot more painful than a nudge to the side. I open my eyes and glare up at them.

"Look who decided to join us," the brunette simpers. "It's the Sleeping Beauty."

"What do you want?" I ask gruffly. "You clearly don't want to kill me, or else you already would have."

"We want answers," the blonde girl says.

"Alright," I say, hesitantly. "But before I answer your questions, can you just tell me your names and districts? You're really hard to keep track of."

"Fine," the blonde says. "I'm Star Fire, District 4."

"Jasmin Kentwell, District 2."

"Ambrose Chap, District 1."

"Great, thanks," I say.

"Excuse me," Star says, impatiently.

"What?" I ask.

"You didn't introduce yourself," she says, haughtily.

"You took me from my ally and you don't even know who I am?" I ask, sarcastically. "Right. Elizabeth Jett, from District 6."

"What was your ally's name and district?" Jasmin demands.

"Fenton Henderson, from 10," I say.

"What was his training score?" Star asks.

Keep him underestimated.

"Six," I say, simply.

"Did you have other allies?" Ambrose asks.

"We had four others, but they're dead," I say.

"Who were they?" Ambrose asks.

"James from 5, Ivy from 7, Noah from 8 and Felan from 9," I say, without thinking.

"I killed the girl from 7," Star says. "Why wasn't she with you?"

"By the time James and Felan had died, me and Fenton left Ivy and Noah on their own," I clarify.

"Why?" Ambrose asks, regarding me as if I'm stupid. "Don't you know there's power in numbers?"

Do I tell them about the boy from 2? If they knew that Fenton killed him, surely they'd go after him, seeing him as a threat. I couldn't keep myself from getting taken, but I can still try to keep him safe, can't I?

"We just weren't feeling the alliance anymore," I say, calmly. "We just didn't mesh, you know?"

"Why'd you stay with Fenton and not the others?" Star asks.

I can feel my heart beating in my throat. Don't. Don't. Don't.

"He had a crush on me," I say, quickly. "I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't share his feelings."

"Adorable," Jasmin says flatly.

"What exactly did you need to know?" I ask. "I don't want to waste our time."

"Why did you volunteer?" Ambrose asks. "That's the big one. We know you're Maverick's sister, but what's the rest of the story?"

I briefly consider telling them the truth. After all, what good can come from lying? However, they can probably find a way to turn my story around on me and use it to their advantage. I could even spin this so it seems like I'm more dangerous than I actually am. Maybe if they feel threatened by me, I can increase my chances of escaping when they don't expect it. Once I decide to lie about my motives, the rest comes naturally.

"Ever since I was little, I haven't been quite right in the head," I lie. "When my brother got back from his time in the arena, he'd tell me all these horror stories about how awful the Games were, and how he wished he never came out alive. But his stories didn't scare me; they intrigued me. At the age of 15, I know I wanted to volunteer."

"So you're a..." Jasmin trails off.

"A sociopath," I confirm. "Yes."

Ambrose and Star share a worried glance, and my heart nearly jumps out of my chest. They're buying it! They're actually buying this!

Game on.


Star Fire (17) POV

District 4 female

A sociopath. Why did it have to be a sociopath? We could have just grabbed the boy from 10 instead, but no, I just had to have the girl. Idiot.

"I'm gonna go for a walk," Jasmin says, with a crack in her voice.

"I'll go with you," Ambrose says, too quickly.

"Sure, leave me with her," I mutter, glaring at the group as a whole.

"Yeah, we're going to go hunting," Ambrose says.

"We have plenty of food, and we don't need to capture another tribute," I say with a pout. "Are you going hunting for tributes or food?"

Ambrose and Jasmin glance at each other nervously. Jasmin widens her eyes, and Ambrose smirks. Since when do they have an unspoken communication? Only me and Jasmin are supposed to have an unspoken communication.

"Coming, mom!" Jasmin calls.

Before I can react, the two run off, without bothering to grab supplies or weapons, other than the knife tucked securely in Jasmin's belt. Part of me wishes they'd get in some sort of trouble where they'd need supplies, but I know that our alliance needs to survive as long as possible, so I retract my wish mentally.

Once Ambrose and Jasmin are a safe distance away, Elizabeth turns to me.

"Whose idea was it to take me and not Fenton?" she asks, a slight tremor in her voice.

I briefly consider lying to her, but what's the use, really? It's not like she can do anything about it, so why bother giving her anything but the full truth?

"When Ambrose spotted you guys, I pretended not to notice," I begin, picking away the remainder of the pale pink nail polish from the interviews. "I didn't want to take either of you, because I didn't see the point. Ambrose insisted though, and that's when you saw us. I knew that I would rather this happen than a fight, because I wasn't exactly prepared for that, you know? So even though the plan was Ambrose's idea, it was my idea to take you, since you saw us, and you were probably the bigger threat."

"Oh," she says sheepishly. "Well thanks. He didn't deserve to get captured by you guys."

"What do you mean?" I ask, with a slight scrunch of my eyebrows.

"He's so... Nice," she begins. "Genuine. He wouldn't last a day with you guys."

Elizabeth's eyes take a faraway look, and a hint of color appears on her cheeks. It all falls together, and I smile. Suddenly, it's hysterical and I start to giggle.

"What?" she asks. I can't answer her, because I'm too consumed in my laughter. "Star, what?"

"You lied," I managed. "Fenton didn't have feelings for you. You had feelings for him."

"Okay, fine," she says. "Is something hilarious?"

"It's not funny that you like him or anything," I promise. "It's just cute, because I can totally see it. You two always sitting together at lunch, or brushing hands in training. I can just picture it."

"Okay, the first part was because we ate with our entire alliance," she clarifies. "And I'm pretty sure you just made up that second part."

"Maybe I did," I say. "But picture it!"

"Trust me, I have," she murmurs.

We both end up laughing together, out of the sheer ridiculousness of it all, and before long, I try snapping myself out of it, and failing. Because I've already gotten too close with Jasmin. I can't find another friend in Elizabeth.


Fenton Henderson (17) POV

District 10 male

As soon as I open my eyes, my head starts pounding, and the world spins. I find it really difficult to make out specific objects, so all I really see is shapes. I try standing up, and throw up immediately. The dizziness gets worse, and I ease myself down, away from the puddle of vomit in disgust. I don't want to be anywhere near it, but I can't gather the strength to move away from it. Birds are singing, and I find it unbearably loud.

I put my head in my hands and think. What the hell is wrong with me? A concussion would make sense, but I didn't get hit in the head... Did I? I try ticking off some things I should probably know about myself. I'm easily able to remember that my name is Fenton Henderson, I'm 17 from District 10, and I was reaped for the Hunger Games, which is where I am now. After that, it starts to get fuzzy.

I know I have parents, three brothers and a sister, and that two of the brothers are twins. As for their names, I'm at a loss. I'm fairly confident that one of the twins' names is Chase, but I can't for the life of me remember the other one. My older brother is Kevin- no, Devin. My sister is either Abby or Maddy. I have no idea about my parents or my friends.

And what about the Games? I should probably try to remember something about my competition, or what I can do. I vaguely remember being pleased with my training score, but now overly so, so it could have been anywhere from a 6 to an 8. I remember a lot of allies, and seeing one of them die. I distantly remember killing someone big, but it could have easily been a dream.

However, I vividly remember a girl. My ally. I can see her face, her blonde hair glinting in the sun, bright green eyes glittering with excitement, a playful smile on her lips. She's beautiful, really, in an effortless way that shows that she has no idea.

Suddenly, it comes crashing down on me like a ton of bricks. I can't remember much of anything else, but I remember this girl vividly.

Elizabeth.

I remember everything about her. I remember pretending to be asleep, watching her sit around a fire with her and a few other people telling a story of how she killed a mutt. I don't remember what the mutt was, or how she killed it, but I remember the firelight dancing in her eyes, the faint moonlight casting a shadowy glow over her skin.

I remember running away from a larger alliance with her, because of a strange feeling we both had. We thought someone was watching us, and we were right. A guy, I think a Career, jumped out at us, and we worked together to bring him down. I delivered the final blow, my knife in his neck. I shudder at the thought.

I remember her kissing me, and I remember it well. I remember in detail the feeling of her lips on mine, and trying hard to fight the feelings eating away at my common sense. I worked hard to convince myself and her that we couldn't be together, not with so few people left in the games.

She's in trouble. Someone took her. The Careers. So screw repressing feelings for her. I have to find her, get her out of whatever mess she's in and tell her how I feel before one or both of us dies.

Because as much as I hate to admit it, I've fallen for her.


Thorburn Baxwell POV

President of Panem

I thought my days of doing homework were done when I graduated. Apparently not, although I can't complain since it's work I picked for myself. A job only I can be trusted with. The presidential library is full of books and documents from before the Dark Days. Horrid as their government and society were, they did have some decent ideas.

Within ten minutes, I find myself completely lost in the works of Karl Marx, Niccolo Machiavelli and George Orwell. I find no better way to come up with new ideas to better the government than reviewing past totalitarian states. So for the day, I sit at my desk, alternating between The Communist Manifesto and The Prince, with a copy of Animal Farm tucked away for later tonight.

As I flip through the writings, I find myself wondering how things had gone wrong in these seemingly perfect societies. In a government where the leader had absolute control, all the people have to do is cooperate. However, since humans are inherently stupid, they revolt, and the peace is disrupted. That's the problem with man; they think they can govern themselves.

Since I've finished the first two writings, I put them in a shipping box and give it to an Avox with the order to deliver it to Alicia Schripe's floor of the training center. It's my hope now that she'll learn to step aside and let people like me take charge. That girl doesn't know her own strength, and it's time she learned.


A/N: Ah, the ship you've all been waiting for. It's CANON.

And just to clear things up, because I know at least one of you read it wrong, Elizabeth isn't a sociopath, she's messing with them.

Questions!

1) What are your thoughts on Elizabeth's string of lies?

2) Where should the Careers go from here?

3) How are you feeling about Fenton's thing for Elizabeth?

4) What are your overall thoughts on Baxwell?

Word of the day: Uppercunt- A swift punch to the vagina.

-Make the say special!