Beau Lewis, District 10 Male, 18 -

Beau woke up to his mentor, Cooper, shaking him awake.

"Huh?" Beau muttered, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.

"Sorry for waking you up so early. Vanilla made me," Cooper said apologetically.

"That's okay," Beau assured him. "Why did she make you do it? I thought she liked shaking people awake?"

"She's busy waking up Maine," Cooper smirked. "Man, that girl can sleep!"

Beau laughed and rolled out of bed. He was dressed in a set of green flannel pajamas he had found in the closet. They were very cozy, even though Vanilla had repeatedly told him that they were hideous and green "wasn't his color".

Beau and Cooper walked out toward the dining room, passing Maine's room along the way. Inside, Beau could hear Vanilla yelling at Maine to wake up.

Beau had already begun loading his plate with food by the time Maine arrived in the dining room, Vanilla trailing behind her, looking frustrated.

"Good morning," Beau nodded to both of them, sitting down at the table. He had loaded his plate with all of the meats he could find - growing up in District 10, he had grown quite the carnivorous appetite.

Vanilla and Maine both got dishes as well and sat on either side of him.

"You don't have any meat?" Beau observed, looking down at Maine's plate. Maine looked exhausted, her hair a rat's nest and purple bags under her eyes.

"No," Maine mumbled, resting her head on her hand.

"What, are you sick of it after living in District 10?" Beau joked. Maine shook her head.

"I'm a vegetarian," she explained.

"Really? A vegetarian from District 10? That's ironic."

"Yeah, I've heard that before," she smiled.

"You guys are allied, right?" Cooper asked from across the table. Beau and Maine exchanged a glance - they actually hadn't discussed the topic of allying, even though they were friendly with each other.

"Not officially," Beau said. "Maine, would you like to ally?"

"Yes, I would," Maine smiled.

Kurt Aladance, District 12 Male, 17 -

Kurt had wandered around the training gym all morning, searching for an unoccupied station to practice at. Finally, the edible plants station opened up and he took a seat there.

Kurt was given a list of edible plants to memorize, and then when he had read it over a few times, he handed the list back to the instructor, who then handed him an electronic quiz where he had to identify whether something was edible or poisonous.

Kurt was confident at first, but as soon as he began to answer the question, he realized he knew practically nothing.

By the time he finished the quiz, his confidence had plummetted. He clicked to see the score - 58%.

Kurt groaned. His score was roughly the same as it would have been if he guessed randomly. The instructor looked at him sympathetically.

"Would you like to try again?" he offered.

"I guess," Kurt shrugged.

He was handed the list again and looked it over again. There were images, which helped, but the list was long and difficult to remember. It suddenly became hard to focus when he glanced up and saw a Career striding toward him.

The District 4 female. Kurt gasped and looked down, hoping she'd ignore him. No such luck.

The girl from District 4 sat down directly beside him at the plant identification station and requested the list. Out of the corner of his eye, Kurt watched her observe the list. To his relief, she didn't seem to care about him.

Then she started talking to him.

Brooke Cascade, District 4 Female, 17 -

"Hello. You're the boy from District 12, right?" Brooke asked.

"Yes…" he said nervously. He looked at her fearfully, his brown eyes widen.

"I'm Brooke Cascade, from District 4," she said, flipping her long blonde hair out of the way. "What's your name?"

"K-Kurt. Kurt Aladance," he stuttered.

"Are you smart?" Brooke asked him. He watched her with fear, not understanding where the exchange was going. Brooke knew, but she didn't dare give anything away. Otherwise, this wouldn't be as fun.

"I-I guess. A little bit…" Kurt muttered insecurely.

"Good," Brooke said. "Because my alliance is filled with idiots. You'd think that people who trained in weapons for the Hunger Games would also focus on survival knowledge, but apparently not. That's why they set me over here - apparently, none of them have a clue about edible plants."

Kurt nodded, listening to her speak.

"We only have people with strength in our alliances. I think we need someone with intelligence," Brooke finished. Kurt still looked confused. "As one of the smartest tributes this year, would you like to join the Career pack?"

Kurt looked flabbergasted. His mouth fluttered open and close as he tried to comprehend what Brooke had just asked.

"M-me?" he asked for clarification. Brooke nodded. "Are - are you serious?"

"Nope!" Brooke grinned, then skipped away, throwing the list of edible plants back at the instructor.

She watched the boy's hurt face and cackled. She had felt pretty bad ever since getting rejected as the leader of the Career pack, but… this helped. Now that she had hurt someone else, she could finally return to training without any annoying, nagging doubts in her mind.

Brooke headed for the spears.

Sawyer Cashiel, District 5 Male, 17 -

Sawyer could feel his death approaching fast. It was like a hand was constricting around his insides, tightening more and more as the Games approached. Why had he ever begged people to vote him in? He didn't want to die… at least not in the Hunger Games. It was so brutal.

Sawyer's problem was that he didn't want to live, but he also didn't want to go through the pain of dying. Unfortunately, they went hand in hand. As much as Sawyer wanted his life to end, he couldn't stand the thought of a spear plunging into his heart or getting his brain bashed in. He just wanted… to stop breathing.

"Hello," a girl said behind him.

Sawyer looked up, surprised anyone would converse with him. He had been sitting alone at the traps station for hours now, just reflecting on his imminent death. No one had come to join him, and after a while, the instructor stopped trying to teach him.

But now, the girl from District 12 stood behind him actually speaking to him.

"Hi," Sawyer said.

"I'm Gaia. What's your name?" the girl asked, sitting next to him.

"Sawyer. I'm from District 5."

The girl began building a simple snare, looking much more interested in the conversation than the trap.

"Why were you voted in?" she asked.

Sawyer hesitated. He didn't want to admit his stupid choice, but he couldn't think of a lie. And besides, he didn't really want to lie to her.

"I asked people to," he muttered under his breath, staring at his shoes in shame.

"Really?" she asked. "You want to die?"

"Not anymore," he shrugged.

"That's a predicament. I was voted in because I vandalized a bunch of merchant shops. Anyway, do you want to be allies?"

"Really?" Sawyer gasped. "You want to ally with me?"

"Yeah, why not?" Gaia shrugged.

"Uh… okay!" Sawyer grinned.

Maybe he didn't have to die after all.

Zara Benedict, District 11 Female, 17 -

Zara was building a hut when the boy from District 10 walked over. She glanced up at him, unsure of whether he was coming for her or to practice his shelter-building.

"Hi, I'm Beau," he said, squatting down in front of her.

"Zara," she answered, setting down the logs she had been trying to use to construct a hut.

"This may seem premature, but my District partner and I were wondering if you'd like to join our alliance?" Beau asked.

Zara was taken aback. She hadn't been specifically searching for an alliance but decided she wouldn't pass up the opportunity if one came along. And here one was!

"Um, okay?" she agreed, and Beau's face split into a smile.

"Great," he said. Turning around, he called to his District partner, "Maine, she said yes!"

Maine, who must have been the girl from District 10, came bounding over. She also squatted down in front of Zara.

"Hey! I'm Maine," she said.

"Zara," she repeated.

"What are you building?"

"A shelter…"

"Ooh, maybe we should help!" Beau suggested. "After all, we might need to construct one in the Hunger Games. What shelter are you building."

"Well, I was just trying to construct a simple hut, but it likely wouldn't be big enough for all of us. Perhaps we should work on a bigger shelter," Zara said, scrapping her old shelter.

She rifled through the list of shelters until she found one that fit three people and didn't look too difficult.

"How about this lean-to?" she asked. "It's not the most supportive, but it's easy to build and will fit all of us."

"Great!" Maine said, and they got to work.

Victoria Ribbons, District 6 Female, 14 -

Vicky and Pine had spent the day trying to find a convenient weapon that fit them, but unfortunately, did not succeed in that endeavor.

They were practicing at the archery station, as they had for the past half hour, when a pair of Careers came over.

Vicky and Pine exchanged a nervous look. They knew that the Careers were bullies who would try to force them out of the station, but they didn't want to leave! Pine had finally found a weapon he was good with, and he wanted to practice with it some more. Vicky's archery skills weren't superb, but she was glad her ally was getting practice.

The girl from District 2, Beatrix, and Vicky's district partner, Max (who had joined the Career group yesterday) stormed over to the station.

Vicky and Max didn't get along well. Max was a bully, and he had no qualms about picking on his younger, smaller District partner. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

"What do you want, Max?" Vicky sighed, ignoring the threatening girl from Two standing beside him.

"I want to practice with a bow and arrow," he said, crossing his arms.

"Your aim is terrible," Vicky reminded him.

"So's yours," Max shrugged. Vicky glares at him.

"We were here first, so we're not moving -"

Vicky was cut off when Beatrix ran up and snatched up a random bow. She quickly notched an arrow and released it at the target. It immediately sunk into the bulls-eye.

Pine and Vicky gaped at her. She smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Now, I recommend you move, or in the arena, the bulls-eye will be your head!" Beatrix threatened.

Despite herself, Vicky nodded. Vicky and Pine set down their bows carefully for the older Careers and scampered away. Vicky hated being pushed around, but living was nice and she'd be pushed around if it meant she got to live.

Don't forget to review! We only have a few alliances left, unfortunately, so your tribute might not get one if they don't have one already.

Alina/Beatrix/Orcus/Brooke/Max

Brea/Laurence

Sawyer/Gaia

Vicky/Pine

Maine/Beau/Zara

Bella/Bran

- Logan