Oksana Devlin, 14
District Seven

"And finally, Berk."

"Somehow, nobody has primary blue, right?"

"I think you're right."

"I'll take that, then."

"Amazing. And with that, we've completed the color selection process! Well done, everyone. At this point, it's time to head back to the Training Center for the night. We'll be sending you back in paired limousines, so Capitol with One, Two with Three, et cetera. Please follow me towards the garage and I will lead you to your cars."

A pit formed in Oksana's stomach as she stood up and followed the crowd of people moving towards the cars. She had subconsciously known that this moment was coming, but nothing prepared her for the wave of emotion, of sadness, terror and heartbreak that washed over her as she came to terms with the fact that she was about to go to the place that her brother took his last real breaths.

Breaths in the Arena weren't real breaths.

As she kept walking, she couldn't help but feel as though she was being pushed along by the rest of the horde, not so much moving on her own accord. She was operating on autopilot, trying her best to fend off the tears that threatened to cloud her vision and the sobs that were about to overwhelm her body. The more time that she spent walking in Avery's footsteps, the more that she felt that crushing and overwhelming guilt and sadness. This place, this physical place had taken her brother away from her, and there was nothing that she could do about it but there was also nothing that she wanted more in life. Her protector, her lifesaver had been ripped away from her, and it tore at her in ways that she couldn't describe.

Even winning the Events couldn't bring Avery back. Why even try?

The school of competitors and mentors kept moving along, eventually emerging into a large, underground garage. Oksana followed her mentors and district partner down the line, trying to find the car meant for them and the District Six team. As they walked, she couldn't help but notice the little specks of gold glitter on the ground. They were probably from some Capitolite's costume that had been tracked in when the escorts came here to drive to the Training Center. Oksana still couldn't comprehend how these outfits were so extravagant, so expensive, so opulent when so many people in the districts were starving. Even if things in the districts were slowly getting better, they still weren't great.

At least, Oksana admitted, the light caught the glitter in a really pretty way. Oksana liked pretty lights.

When they finally found their car, the District Seven team filed in and took their seats. Oksana and Darcy sat in silence, waiting for everyone to get settled so that they could get to the Training Center. A part of Oksana wanted everyone to hurry up so that she could just get tonight over with, while the other part wanted everyone to take as much time as they could so she would never have to deal with the reality that would inevitably crush her when she entered her room that night.

A few moments after Oksana and Darcy got into the car, the team from Six made it to the car and piled in. Once everyone was seated and seatbelts were buckled, the car began to move. Oksana was hoping for a nice, calm, quiet car ride. Nothing too intense, just some time to sit and steel herself for what she was going to have to deal with for the next few days.

"Hi, you're Oksana, right?"

Oksana took a deep breath. "Yes."

"I'm Ella, one of the competitors from Six. It's nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too," Oksana replied curtly, not wanting to be impolite to a fellow competitor but not exactly interested in any form of actual conversation. Fortunately, silence fell over the car for a moment, the only sound coming from the rolling of the tires on the smooth roads of the Capitol. Oksana had almost never been in a car before this, so she found the sound actually somewhat soothing.

"I'm… I'm sorry about your brother."

Oksana took a deep breath as her nerves shot up. That wasn't exactly the way to lead a conversation, and it certainly wasn't a conversation Oksana wanted to have right now, in the car. Trying her best to keep calm and not explode, she curtly replied, "Thank you."

"I know how hard it can be to grapple with losing a family member. I had something similar happen to me."

"OK."

"My mom was placed on a statute about a year and a half ago that expired just in time for me to be considered for the Events. I'm lucky that I didn't have any other siblings to lose, and that I didn't lose my life, but I almost lost her."

"You mean she almost lost you."

"Oh. Yeah, that. Anyway." Oksana had a feeling that Ella was done beating around the bush and braced herself for impact. "I really want to use these Events as a platform to show what's wrong with the statutes system. You lost your brother because of a system that was designed to hurt not those who actually committed crimes but those whom their actions affect, many of whom are totally innocent. We need to do something to fix the system."

Oksana felt a giant bubble of rage moving from the pit of her stomach up and up and up until it exploded out of her mouth. "But you don't really get it!" she exclaimed, still desperately fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over at any moment. "Your life was at risk because of the statute, but you didn't lose your big brother. No changes that anyone could possibly make could ever bring Avery back! He's gone. Forever."

Fortunately for Ella, the car pulled into the Training Center at that moment. As soon as the door opened and her seatbelt unbuckled, Oksana flew out of the car and into the elevators of the Training Center, rapidly pressing the "7" button in hopes of making the door close faster. The moment the doors opened again, she ran to the room with a circle in the color she'd just chosen on the door, flung herself on her bed, and finally let out all of the tears that had been building up in her eyes and in her heart. Ella didn't understand, she could never understand. Nobody could ever understand the pain that Oksana felt.

It was an hour later when Oksana, finally out of tears to cry, fell into a long and thankfully dreamless sleep.

Sharen Cantiano, 17
District Twelve Mentor
Competitor in the First Events

"Well, wasn't that a lovely night?" chirped Evelynne as the elevator opened on the District Twelve floor.

"It was," gushed Mina, whose eyes were wide open, trying to take in everything around her, a usual reaction for competitors seeing their floor in the Training Center for the first time. "Everything is so lavish and lovely here. It's hard to believe that this is real."

"Nice," murmured Cam, who was struggling to keep her eyes open, a natural reaction for a twelve-year-old at that time of night. "Sleep."

"Yes, Cam, you can go to sleep. We'll tell you about your options for tomorrow in the morning. Asha, can you take her to your room?"

"I'll go with her," Mina offered. "I can figure out my way around the floor, and I want to explore."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. I'll come back out when I'm done."

"Here, I'll go with you two," offered Evelynne. "I'll help you get settled in and show you around your rooms. They can be a bit overwhelming. I'll catch up with you two after, but you should get started on your chat."

"Thank you, Evelynne. Good night, Mina and Cam!"

"Night, Asha," Cam replied quietly, shuffling along behind Mina, barely able to keep her eyes open.

Once the girls were out of sight, Sharen and Asha took seats around the table to strategize for the Events now that they'd seen their competitors' competition. Getting sponsors had been slightly less of an uphill battle now that Twelve's industry was directly touching the lives of Capitolites; it was a frequent ploy to try to convince a wealthy mother whose child was treated for cancer in Twelve to sponsor the Twelve tributes. They were particularly successful when the Twelve tributes were not criminals, especially because the tributes from the Career districts were almost never criminals and almost always the most patriotic and therefore naturally drew the lion's share of sponsors. With the Events, where the two competitors were both totally innocent, Twelve had rather good prospects. The trick was figuring out how to help them do their best to further increase the odds of their competitors getting sponsors.

Or at least, Asha was ready to figure out how to best sell their competitors. Sharen had other plans for the night, and she didn't want to spend any more time than she had to in this conversation. Plus, she had an idea that she knew was going to work for the two competitors, because it was the obvious solution. Why waste time trying to come up with anything else?

"So, what's our plan?" asked Asha.

Sharen shrugged. "I don't know why we're thinking so hard about this. Mina and Cam are going to sell themselves."

"What do you mean?" asked Asha.

"Look. Mina is a kind and caring girl, who is doing the best job of taking care of Cam. And you can see in her eyes just how much Cam cares about Mina. This story basically writes itself. Little girl from a rough childhood gets a second chance at life, mature older girl who literally moved out of Two because of how big her heart is has taken the younger girl under her wing. No story will better pull on the Capitol's heartstrings than this! It's as cute as Chloe and Wins were last year but with Mina actually able to pull off a win, and they can both win together which is even better."

The other two women thought for a moment. "I mean, that's not a bad angle," Asha replied, "but we have to make sure that it's something that both of them are comfortable with. And, what that angle does is restrict Cam to just being 'the kid.' It worked for Chloe, but sometimes people who are 'just the kid' end up being overlooked because they can't win."

"But these aren't the Games," Sharen insisted. "They're the Events. Chloe won last year because the question of who can or cannot win is different. And if the Capitolites like our team, they'll vote for us. It's the sentimental vote."

Asha shook her head. "The problem is that people are really looking for people who can win. Many Capitolites place bets and they want to place bets on teams that will be successful. If Mina and Cam end up in an elimination challenge, the odds of them losing are really high."

"But if they're well-liked enough, they won't be in the elimination challenge, both because people will vote for them so they won't be the least popular and because the other teams won't put them in the elimination challenge. If they can play this well enough, they can skate by under the radar for a very long time."

"I think that's leaving a bit much to chance," admitted Asha. "I also think that relegating women to just a mother-daughter relationship decreases their potential to appear as strong, powerful, independent women. We need to find a way to build them up, to show girls that they don't have to just care for others or be cared for. You, of all people, should understand this."

"That makes a lot of sense. And, I think that we also need to find an angle that will sell. And sweet sells."

Asha sighed. "I still think that we can do so much more than sweet. But, it's not a bad angle if we can't figure out anything else. We just have to make sure that we're not putting the weight on Mina to care for Cam. Abuse is… it's horrible, and we have to make sure that Cam is getting adequate support. And as great of a kid as Mina may be, she's just a kid, not a qualified therapist."

Sharen was getting antsy. This was supposed to be a quick and easy conversation because the angle that Sharen suggested was the obvious angle for the pair! Sharen had to find a way to wrap this up. She had other business she had to attend to that night.

Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. "We can go to other floors basically whenever we want because we're mentors, right?"

"Yes…"

"Why don't I go talk to Mallory? She's, unfortunately, had some experience with this issue, so maybe she can give me some advice on how to help Cam."

"That might work," Asha said. "Just be careful not to trigger Mallory, OK? Be delicate with her."

"I got it, I got it, I got it. I'll see you later." Sharen walked somewhat briskly towards the elevator, not wanting to seem like she wanted to get the hell out of there. She was going to go talk to Mallory… eventually. For now, though, she had a bigger case to solve.

She was going to get to the bottom of where Aviel was.

Mettius Dunebreaker, 15
The Capitol

"Hey, Silas, can I go check out the roof?" Mettius asked eir mentor. "I've heard it's really pretty."

"Now?" replied Silas, who did not know sign language but was trying to be as deliberate as possible with their words so Mettius could read their lips.

"Yeah. It's just one floor up, you'll know where I am."

Silas looked at Lyric and Amos for guidance. "Nobody said they couldn't be out late, right?" The rest of the team shook their heads. "Well, I suppose. Just be careful, all right?"

Mettius gave Silas a thumbs up, then made a beeline for the stairs that led up to the roof. To an extent, Mettius was telling the truth; ey had heard nice things about the gardens on the roof of the Training Center. But Mettius was more excited to meet Xayah up there. Ey wasn't necessarily interested in a relationship with Xayah; while ey considered themselves panromantic, ey was also asexual, so that wasn't exactly a factor. Mettius was just happy to have found someone with whom ey could easily communicate, without having to work to explain or teach sign language to them. It took a weight off of eir shoulders, removing the first barrier to forming a relationship with another person.

It was hard for Mettius to make friends when ey was deaf, especially because most other people didn't sign.

"When did you learn you were deaf?" signed Xayah.

"I've never known a world where I wasn't deaf," Mettius explained. "I was born with very little hearing, just some sounds that are really high-pitched and some that are really low-pitched."

"How did you make friends when you were younger?"

"It was really hard for me," admitted Mettius. "Most hearing kids didn't know sign language, and I couldn't speak, so I grew up without many friends."

"Did you try to learn how to speak to meet more people?"

"I mean, a little bit, but I didn't learn much of anything," Mettius replied, then demonstrated his vocal capacity with some strained and choppy syllables that maybe sounded like pieces of words. "At least, not anything coherent. It was just not really feasible, and I didn't want to worry about it."

Xayah brought her hand to her throat. "Did you ever try to get hearing aids or something like that? Some way to at least learn how to speak somehow."

"I've gotten fitted for them a few times. But it didn't ever really feel worth it to me. And plus, I feel like I can do more as someone who is proud of their deafness."

"What do you mean?"

"I wish that there was a better place for deaf people in society so those who were hearing impaired didn't feel like they had to wear hearing aids or learn to read lips or whatever to conform to hearing society. And a part of me gets really frustrated when deaf people stop fighting for their rights by getting hearing aids or getting their hearing fixed in some way. People shouldn't have to do those things!"

Xayah thought for a moment. "But aren't there things that naturally make sound that are kind of hard to change? Like, you know, hearing cars or tractors coming. My parents told me about this whole thing that happened around when President Emerald really took power where they changed around the rules of how it is determined who worked where in the fields and for how long to place people who were hard of hearing out of the direct range of tractors so they wouldn't get run over because they couldn't hear the tractors coming."

"You're right, there are some things that prove challenging, like cars and tractors. I feel like with the technology the Capitol has there must be something where moving vehicles could make the ground vibrate or whatnot. Technology is such a valuable thing to make use of, and I bet we could do so much to make society a better place for deaf people."

Mettius could tell that Xayah had another point to make and was choosing not to make it. "Do you do any work to help deaf people?"

"I've been doing advocacy work in school for a long time, trying to make it more inclusive of different kinds of people. That can be difficult in my school, because my school markets to Capitol kids who are either visually impaired or hard of hearing, but it isn't impossible because the ratio of traditionally abled children to children with disabilities is about two to one. So I do a lot of work to make everyone aware of the different types of people that we have at school, particularly helping those in the deaf community advocate for their rights within the school system."

"That's really cool. I appreciate the work that you do."

"How about you? How did you learn that you were deaf?"

"I'm actually not deaf," Xayah explained. "I'm mute. I had an accident a few years back where I was hit by a tractor, and as a result, I lost my ability to speak."

"That's really sad."

"Yeah. It was really hard at the beginning, especially because I used to sing. But I knew that I couldn't give up on life. It was important to me to find a way to continue living my life to the fullest, so I did."

"Do you ever miss your voice?"

Xayah paused. "I… I don't know, to be honest. Like, yes, of course, I miss it. I used to sing, so it was my lifeblood and livelihood, really. But there's never been an opportunity for me to have it back. So I try not to spend too much time dwelling on what I had and prefer to work to make my life now as good as it can be."

Suddenly, Xayah's ears perked up. "I hear someone coming," she signed, then turned around to look at the doorway. Sure enough, a moment later, Silas emerged. They assessed the situation, raised their eyebrows, then beckoned to Mettius. Mettius got up, signed a quick goodbye and see you later to Xayah, and headed back to the stairs to follow Silas down to his floor.

When they got back, Silus led Mettius into eir room. "You didn't tell me you were going to meet another competitor!"

"I'm not interested in her in a romantic way, I don't think, and certainly not a sexual way. It's just so rare for me to meet someone else who also signs."

"I get it, just tell me next time, OK?"

"OK."

"Now, you need to get some sleep. It's getting late, and tomorrow is an important day for socializing. You need to form relationships with the other competitors. We'll have some time to talk about strategies for that in the morning, but be ready, all right?"

"All right. Good night, Silas."

"Good night, Mettius." Silas left the room and closed the door, leaving a very satisfied Mettius to get ready for bed.

It was nice to have a friend.

Hi everyone! I'm back with another chapter! What did you think? Did people pick up on the fact that Mettius is deaf? What is Sharen planning with Aviel, and will anything help? Will Oksana ever not be sad?

Here's some very good news: I already have the next chapter written! My plan at the moment is to keep updating every other week, as an attempt to extend my stockpile into next semester. At the rate I've been going, I think we'll hit the Events around late March/early April, but don't hold me to that ;).

I'll see everyone in the next chapter!

-goldie031