Pandora Eurydice Zachery, 16, District Five


Pandora had certainly expected that, within the Selection house, rumors would spread. That was natural with so many girls in such a small space. And they had; people talked about other girls' outfits, how they were interacting with Garnet – almost anything that could be talked about was being talked about! But two particular rumors that had been spreading around the Selection house had caught Pandora's attention. And today, she intended to get to the bottom of them, especially because their source, Melvina, was notoriously inconsistent in the truth of the many things she spread.

After getting dressed and ready, Pandora rummaged through her suitcase from home and pulled out her personal chess set. Unlike in standard chess sets, the pieces were in her two favorite colors, yellow and navy blue, and the board's checkerboard pattern matched as well. She brought it with her to the common area and sat down at a table, waiting for what would inevitably happen.

Moments later, the first rumor Pandora had heard was confirmed. Well, maybe rumor is too strong of a word. More like a piece of information that had been circulated to me, she thought, as Khara Imperium approached her.

"Hey, Pandora! I didn't know you play chess!"

"Yeah. I heard that you were pretty good at the game and I wanted to challenge you."

"Well, bring it on."

Pandora intelligently decided to just play the first game and not try to push anything. The girls were about evenly matched, though each clearly had her preferred strategy that differed from that of the other girl. In the end, Khara won the first game, but Pandora immediately demanded a rematch. As they played through the second game, Pandora began to interrogate her district partner; now was as good a time as any to get some answers. Having spent nearly a month with Khara by this point, Pandora knew that her district partner had a tendency to talk a bit too much, and she planned to use that quality to her advantage.

"So, Khara," Pandora asked, carefully moving one of her pawns, "do you like Garnet?"

"I'm not sure," Khara said. "I mean, he's nice and all, and I certainly appreciate that he picked me. But if we're going with love? No, I don't think I love him."

"Do you like anyone?"

The slightly younger girl sighed. "I… I can't tell. I always thought I was straight, but lately I've been feeling… something else."

"What something else?" Pandora urged her friend on.

"I think I love a girl. It just feels so unnatural to love a girl, you know? Like all my life I've seen boys who liked boys and girls who liked girls, but I just never thought I would."

"Which girl?"

Khara made a foolish chess move. "Phoebe."

"Checkmate."


Bonnie Clearwater, 17, District Four


Bonnie knew that the day would be different from the moment she woke up. After all, it wasn't every day that a purple envelope sat on one's night table. Bonnie carefully slid it open and read the piece of card stock inside.

Being involved in the President's family means having one's priorities straight. Please be dressed and in the common room, ready for an audience with Garnet, by 9:30.

A pit immediately formed in Bonnie's stomach. Every other girl who'd had an audience with the President's son had been sent home that very day. On the other hand, though, the wording of the letter implied that there was something bigger going on. And that was, admittedly, kind of nerve-racking in its own right. Bonnie still wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to marry Garnet, but she was certainly becoming less frustrated with the idea of just being his friend. And a part of her really wanted to further explore those emotions; getting sent home certainly wouldn't help her do that.

Bonnie looked at her wardrobe. She had the feeling that she didn't need to go too fancy this time around, but a skirt would probably be a good idea. Bonnie selected a casual, flowy teal blouse and a green pencil skirt, then slid her feet into a simple pair of black flats. She brushed her long, golden-brown hair, then slid in a headband to match her top. Applying minimal makeup, just enough to make her purpley-blue eyes pop, she couldn't help but feel like she was getting ready for another Reaping. She gave herself one last look-over in the mirror, then made her way to the common room for breakfast.

When she arrived, Bonnie instantly registered that she likely wasn't going home. After all, it seemed that everyone was getting ready for an audience. Nobody was really that much fancier than she was, except Melvina, whose dress was just a step less fancy than the one she wore for the Victory Ball. The girls milled around anxiously, just waiting for confirmation about what they'd be doing.

At 9:30, everyone was down in the common room and ready to go. Violet came in carrying her clipboard, and everyone instinctively turned their attention to her.

"Good morning, ladies," Violet began, "and welcome to your first evaluation. Each evaluation task will be different, and a way for Garnet to learn about the type of leader you'll be for our country. Today, your task will center around your personal priorities.

"In a moment, I'll call you in one by one to Private Room F. When you walk in, you'll find ten flags. Each of you will choose three of them and rank them in order of importance to you. It's that simple. There is no right answer, and there is not necessarily a wrong answer; however, Garnet may do his next round of eliminations based on this test. Please do not think about the kind of answers someone else might want to see; we are only concerned in this test with who you are. Does everyone understand? Excellent. Let's go. For this challenge, we'll be doing it in alphabetical order by first name, so Bellona, you're first."

Bellona stood up and followed Violet out of the common room. After just a few minutes, she came back and said, "Bonnie, you're up."

Bonnie walked outside and made her way to the room. When she entered, she found a table with ten flags, and a board with room for three of them. She took a deep breath; Bonnie couldn't bring herself to believe that a test… evaluation task… whatever the heck this was would have no direct impact on her future with Garnet.

The best approach, Bonnie thought, was to read each flag first and pick up the ones that jumped out to her. Then, she'd prioritize and organize them.

The first two flags Bonnie was able to rule out were The Districts and The Country. Bonnie wasn't super concerned with the bigger picture; for her, personal successes were more important than national. Those she picked up and put under the table. She also ruled out Your Well-Being and The Capitol, because neither of those seemed super important to her. Now she was left with six flags: Your Passion, Your Friends, Your Family, Your Legacy, Your District, and The Games.

Immediately, Bonnie knew that The Games had to be up there on her list. After all, she'd be spending her whole life training children to bring honor to District Four. That also put Your District on the list; as a trainer, the honor of Four was so crucial. That left her with one spot left on her board. Everything left was important to her. So how could she pick one?

Bonnie figured that Your Passion, at least for her, was included in Your District and The Games. So she threw that one under the table. She also didn't have any very close friends, so that one could be ruled out too. That left her with Your Family and Your Legacy.

Bonnie took a second to look at her flags, then decided to trust her gut. As much as her family was important to her, her legacy as a trainer was so important; the most trusted trainers and the ones to whom people looked up most were those whose legacies were cemented by bringing home tributes from the Games. So the third flag had to be Your Legacy.

Now she just had to decide the order. Bonnie thought about it for a moment, then put Your Legacy on top, followed by Your District and The Games. She surveyed her board one more time, announced, "I've finished!" and left the room.

"Thank you, Bonnie," said Violet, meeting the girl from Four with a strong poker face. "Please send Cayman in, and don't tell any of the other girls anything about what you did or saw." Bonnie obliged, returning to the common room to mull in thought over what she'd chosen to do.


Dania Kesten, 17, District Nine


After Cayman left, Dania turned to Danira. "I go next, right?"

"I think so."

Dania was a little bit nervous about what the priority flags could be. Before the Games, there was no doubt as to what they would be: her family, her girlfriend, and her studies. But now, without Kylis, she'd have to totally think them through again. Not to mention that she couldn't write down her priorities for Garnet to read; rather, she had to choose from what the Capitol thought a District girl's priorities might be. And that was dicey.

Dania had been proud of herself for how she'd managed to get over Kylis's death. Her girlfriend's presence would never leave her, and she wasn't entirely sure if she'd be able to love again, but at least she wasn't crying every night like she was after the Games. So that was progress. It was hard for her to fathom that it had been ten days since she learned that Kylis would be gone for good, and last night was the first night that she hadn't cried a little bit before going to sleep.

Her life would never be the same without Kylis. As much as she wanted to believe differently, Dania knew that post-Kylis life would be challenging at best, unlivable at worst. A small part of her wondered if that was because of the sudden way in which Dania was taken from her. It was certainly unlikely that the two would have actually made it to marriage – relationships in Nine between kids of Reaping age rarely lasted much past it – but it would have at least been comforting for Dania to get real closure. (Dania failed to remember that she'd had that opportunity before the interviews, to end their relationship on amicable terms, but that was before the possibility of death became as real as it was.)

"Dania!"

The girl from Nine was shaken out of her thoughts by Danira, who pointed her to the door. Dania walked over to Private Room F, knowing full-well the impact her choices might have.

Instantly, Dania ruled out the flags reading The Games and The Capitol. She obviously couldn't support either thing that took her girlfriend away from her. She also ruled out Your Friends, because Dania didn't really have any significant relationships other than Kylis. And Kylis was more than a friend.

After some more consideration, Dania also ruled out some of the other big picture flags, namely Your District, The Districts, and The Country. For her, she couldn't prioritize larger issues over her personal, smaller ones; that realization led her to pick out the Your Well-Being flag as one of her three.

The only three flags on which she hadn't made a decision were Your Passion, Your Family, and Your Legacy. Dania thought for a moment on which two to include; all three of them were certainly valuable to her. If Kylis had still been alive, Your Family would have definitely made it, as it was the closest to acknowledging the way that Dania really felt about her girlfriend. But without Kylis, she had to think about it a little more deeply.

Eventually, she chose to rule out Your Family. It wasn't that her parents weren't important to her; they did have a generally positive and supportive relationship after all. But, she realized that, if she wasn't even willing to tell her family about Kylis, there was no way that Dania could prioritize them about Your Passion and Your Legacy.

Ordering the flags was easy. Dania put Your Passion first, as without Kylis, nothing drove her more than her desire to study hard enough to get out of Nine. Then came Your Well-Being, and then Your Legacy; after all, if one didn't live a healthy life, both physically and mentally, there was no way to fully secure one's legacy.

As Dania took one last glance at the flags she chose, she knew that the Dania of a month ago wouldn't have put those flags up in that order, maybe not at all in favor of others. But she was a changed girl now.

And maybe the shift in her priorities wasn't totally a bad thing.


Singer Brocade, 17, District Eight


It frustrated Singer to no end that they'd chosen to go alphabetically by first name for this task instead of last name.

If they'd gone by last name, which was the logical thing to do because everyone did it, Singer would have gone second, right after Delilah. Instead, she had to go last. She had to wait for thirteen other girls to go before her, none of whom could tell her what they'd done in the room. So she couldn't even plan ahead for her turn; Singer just had to wait and see what would happen. And Singer didn't like waiting without being able to plan.

After what seemed like 87 billion years, it was finally Singer's turn to go into the room. She efficiently scanned the flag, analyzed the options, and quickly made her decision. The three flags would be Your Passion, followed by Your Family (as she wanted to start a family) and then Your Well-Being. Without even a second thought, Singer left the room.


Violet came into Garnet's room with a stack of papers and a flash drive. "Here you go; a separate paper for each girl with her flags in order."

"Do you have the video footage of each one?"

"On this flash drive right here."

"Excellent. Thank you, Violet."

"Just out of curiosity, why did you want the video footage?"

Garnet paused for a second, not wanting to reveal too much. "I wanted to see how quickly they did what I wanted them to do. And whether or not they had to put thought into it."


So there we have it, another chapter and our first task! What did you think? Who in this chapter do you think did what Garnet wanted, and who didn't? What was the aim of the task? Some of this will become more clear next chapter. (Those who are following IDIDE may have a better idea of this.) Also, did anyone catch my double entendre?

Speaking of IDIDE, keep submitting! I'm beginning to piece together a preliminary tribute list, but all slots are still open.

I know these updates are super infrequent, but thanks for being patient with me in and around my job corralling nine-year-old girls. I'm super excited to bring this story to the endgame; things are going to get crazy from here!

-goldie031