Noel Patterson, 18
District Two

Noel was not having a good time.

It wasn't so much that the banquet wasn't fun. In another circumstance, such as, you know, the Games, a ball like this might be a lot of fun, getting to talk to Capitolites about the glory of the Capitol and the Games and all that. Instead, here they were, stuck in the Events. And even worse, they were stuck in the Events with Sigmund Roost.

Sigmund. Fucking. Roost.

It was because of the Roosts that Noel was here. If Jade had never fallen in love with that Penelope girl, and he hadn't gotten her knocked up somehow, Jade would never have dropped out of training, which would have prevented Noel's social tailspin, kept their anger in check, and ensured that they would be the volunteer for the Games, bringing honor and glory to Two. Instead, Noel was here, watching all of these Capitolites and so-called competitors mill about the room and somehow glorify the Capitol through this inferior challenge, if one could even call it that. There was nothing challenging about running around and finding clothing in a mall, and did it really matter if the heart necklace was an aquamarine or a blue topaz? No. No it did not.

Everything was just a load of bullshit.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the banquet was over. Noel could finally get some peace and quiet and not have to deal with any of this stupidity for at least a full day. Or at least, so they thought.

"Good evening, everyone. I hope you enjoyed your time at the Opening Banquet. We'd like to ask all of the competitors and mentors to please make their way up the grand staircase, where you'll be guided into a room to go over the rules of the Events and for color selection. Stylists and those escorts who are not also acting as mentors, please go to the double doors opposite the grand staircase to be transported back to the Training Center to prepare for the arrival of your competitors. Everyone else, please begin to make your way out of one of the other exits. Have a lovely night, and get home safe."

Noel rolled their eyes. They didn't even want to deal with the Events; why did they have to sit through a long presentation about the rules and regulations of a thing they didn't even want to participate in? They knew the answer, of course. Despite Noel's deep displeasure with being a part of the Events, they still wanted to win, because they were a competitive person. The last thing Noel wanted to do was lose to some puny Outer District shrimp, least of all to Sigmund. And if Noel was going to try to win, they figured they would at least try to do so within the rules. Stories of what happened to Aviel after the First Events ran rampant in Two; if Noel did what Aviel did, it would probably be an even greater social tailspin than he'd dealt with after the whole Jade mess. They had to win with the honor and dignity that District Two was known for, not in the dishonorable way that only an Outer District competitor could come up with. So, begrudgingly, they followed the rest of the competitors to the grand staircase, just barely ready to sit through color selection.

When they arrived, Noel scanned the room to find their seat at the big round table in the center of the room. They quickly found their seat, which was in between Mack and the boy from One, who was absent-mindedly running his hand over a particular spot on the back of his head and murmuring, "My rat tail." Rolling his eyes, Noel yanked their chair out from under the table and plopped down in it with a big sigh, picking up the tablet that was sitting in front of him and beginning to fiddle with it. After a few more minutes, the rest of the competitors and their mentors filtered in, the competitors sitting next to their district partners with the older competitor to the left of the younger, and each mentor sitting behind their competitor. Once everyone was set, Violet entered the room along with a person that Noel didn't recognize. The two took their seats between Titania and Atticus Peregrine. After sorting out some papers, Violet began.

"Good evening everybody. I hope you had an enjoyable time at the Banquet tonight. We have two things to discuss tonight, going through the structure of the Events themselves first and then the color selection process. I want to introduce you all to Soorim Callahan, who is acting as Head Gamemaker for these Events as the Gamemaker on the Events team from Thirteen. Soorim will be taking the lead in this meeting and explaining the process of these Events, but feel free to also approach me if you have any questions as we've been working together in preparation. I'll be taking over again when it becomes time for color selection in a bit. Soorim?"

"Thank you, Violet. Hi, everybody. As Violet said, my name is Soorim, and I've had a lot of fun working to prepare these Events for you all! We've been working rather hard to prepare these Events for you and we're excited for you to get to participate in them. We know that you're all probably overwhelmed and tired, so we're just going to review the broad strokes of the Events now, and as these issues become relevant once the Events begin, we'll go into more specifics on each competition or element of the Events. And some things you'll simply find out in due course. Now, you should have been told by your mentors this morning on the train the overall structure of the next few days. If you have not, feel free to either stay back or ask your mentors after we go through the Events themselves and do the color selection process. Your mentors should also be keeping you updated on the pre-Events schedule day to day so feel free to ask them if you have questions.

"Now, onto the Events themselves. The Events this year have one key, significant difference from the Events last year: every night of the Events, there will be one elimination. This means that the Events will be thirteen days long rather than fourteen days, as by the end of the thirteenth day, there will only be one pair left. Most days, there will be two competitions, and each day's competitions will connect directly to one of the district values one of your districts was assigned. Everybody will compete in the first competition of the day, which will be in the morning. Then, the winners of the first competition will select one team to participate in the evening elimination challenge. The other competitors in the elimination challenge will be the least popular team among the Capitolites. Those two teams will go head to head in the second competition of the day. Winners stay in, losers return to the Capitol and are out. Does this make sense to everyone? What are people's questions?"

The girl from Six raised her hand. "Will people that have the represented value be at an advantage on that day of competition?"

"No, people who have the represented value will not be placed at an advantage. Anything else?"

The woman sitting behind the girl from Three raised her hand. "Will we know which order the competitions will come in?"

"No," Soorim replied. "Any other questions? Good. As more information becomes relevant or important, it will be conveyed to you. I'll turn it back over to Violet for color selection."

"Thank you, Soorim. Now, because you are competing in pairs this year, your district colors will be used for a significant proportion of the competitions. However, there may also be some competitions where you will be competing individually, and for those, we'll be using your individual colors.

"If you turn over your tablets, you'll see a number. This represents the order you'll be picking in. This year, you'll be choosing your colors in order of how your mentors placed in the Events last year. So Mack, as your mentor, Chloe, won last year, you will get to choose first this year. If you are not being mentored by a competitor from last year's Events, you've been placed in the opposite spot as your district partner's mentor was. I think the best example of this is District Twelve. Mina is being mentored by Sharen, so Mina will pick in Sharen's slot, which is 24th. Even though Alder is not mentoring Cam, she will be taking Alder's slot, which was 18th. Does everyone understand?

"Excellent. Now, just like last year, we are looking for colors that are different from each other, so that we can all easily differentiate whose is whose. Because we are relying on district colors a bit more this year, they don't need to be quite as different as we needed last year, but we're still looking for the colors to be distinguishable from each other. On your tablet, you'll select a color and send it over to mine to be checked. We'll tweak it if we need to, and then once your color is approved, we'll move on to the next competitor. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves in a quiet tone when it's not your turn, but pay attention to the names I call, and please have a few color options picked out so we can move quickly.

"If there are no questions, let's begin with Mack!"

"So, I can basically pick whatever I want, right?"

"Yes, yes you can," replied Violet.

Noel watched his district partner play around on his tablet until settling on a bright purple color. "I like this one," Mack smiled.

"Looks good to me! Next up, Atticus. Peregrine. Atticus P."

As the color selection process continued, Noel found themself tuning out, instead taking the time to scout out his competition a little bit. Most of the competitors were either sitting quietly, playing around on their tablets to choose their own colors, or talking quietly with their district partners. A few of them were even beginning to converse with competitors from other districts. But Noel's attention was drawn to the girl from One. She was the only person they saw who wasn't also excited, or even a little bit happy, to be in the Capitol, a deep scowl plastered on her face. It seemed as though she was upset and bored, like there were hundreds of other places she would rather be. Just like…

"Noel!"

Noel snapped to attention. "Yes?"

"Your turn."

"Oh." Noel turned on his tablet and looked at the color wheel displayed on the screen. "Has anyone chosen red yet?"

"What kind of red?"

"A bright red. Like the kind of red you think of when you think of red."

"Ah. Like this one?" Violet beamed a specific red color over to Noel's tablet. "It's basically primary red."

Noel shrugged. "Sure."

"Awesome. Pax Altomare?"

The boy from One broke off of his conversation with… seemingly himself and began the process of picking his color. Noel tried to get back on their train of thought from before they picked their color, but before he could, he found himself listening in to a conversation between his district partner and the girl from Four.

"What's the biggest dare you would do?" asked Mack.

"Honestly, there's very little I wouldn't do."

"Even something that would affect your chances of winning the Games?"

"Hm, I don't know. A part of me wouldn't want to hurt Augustus's chances. But at the same time, I never met a dare I didn't like.

A twinkle formed in Mack's eye, as if he was working on testing the waters. "What if I were to dare you to… pick a color for color selection?"

The girl leaned back in her chair and folded her arms into her chest. "I'm picking 23rd. Dare. Me."

Mack leaned in towards the girl. "Poop brown."

"You're on."

Noel rolled their eyes and crossed his legs. Of all the things for his district partner to focus on, why would Mack be focusing on the color selection colors? It was more useful to work on scouting out the competition, or something like that. They needed to know how to eliminate their competitors, not how to make friends with their competitors.

Suddenly, a thought crossed Noel's mind. If the first-place team got to choose who would be in the elimination challenge…

And if certain teams were known for being stronger than others…

And if someone else was clearly not thrilled about being in the Capitol for the Events, and that person was from a Career district…

An idea began to form in Noel's mind. A very familiar way to play the game, and a way to guarantee that he had control of at least half of every elimination.

Finally, another chapter! Sorry for the delay, friends - school has been a lot this semester. But we're so close to the end of the semester (I have less than a week) at which point we're back to stockpiling!

I feel like I say this every chapter but I really think we've hit the point at which the Events are gonna pick up! What do you all think Noel is planning? Will it work? Also, what questions do you have about the Events?

I decided this time around not to show all of the colors in this chapter, but if you look at the cover of the story (when the site decides to update it) you'll see the colors there; the competitors' names are in their color and the background is their district color. Lauren will also be adding the colors to the blog (idide2 . weebly . com)! So you'll get to see all the colors in all their glory.

We've also made it to the second check-in point! For this check-in, it's going to be the same deal as the last time: same link, same procedure, just a different word. Let's use... purple (thanks Dreamer XD)!

The story is just picking up now! I'll see you hopefully next week with another chapter!

-goldie031