Lacey Leeman

12 years old

District 11 Female

Lacey had been so focused on trying not to fall over during yoga the previous day that she had forgotten to socialise with anyone but her district partner. Henry and Lacey had been having fun together and their laughter was as loud as district 10 and 7's had been. However, it didn't change the fact that Henry was still being mentored separately. Lacey knew what that meant and knew that she was going to have to talk to other tributes. She didn't mind that though, in fact she was excited to try and get to know as many of the tributes as she could.

Luckily the tributes had to participate in mandatory exercises for the first part of the day so everyone would be around the same place, making it easier to socialise.

In order to speak to as many tributes as possible Lacey woke up early and only had an energy bar for breakfast. She gave a quick wave to her mentors and district partner and took the lift down to the main training centre.

It was the first time she had seen it and it truly was amazing. Everything was gleaming and looked so appealing. However, it was the plant station that drew her eye. She couldn't wait to get the chance to use the station. Perhaps it would introduce her to even more amazing plants than they had in district 11. Lacey hoped that she could bring home a collection of plants from the arena. But that depended on the type of arena. And if she made it out alive of course.

Lacey also noticed how quiet it was. She looked around and realised she was the first tribute there. Then she looked at the time and realised she was a half hour early. The lack of tributes there disappointed the young girl but the approving looks from the gamemakers above lifted her spirit a bit.

Suddenly the gears in the lift started moving and a few moments later the doors opened revealing the girl from district 9. Verity was wearing the same training outfit as Lacey except she had a red bandana around her neck. Lacey thought it was cute but odd – she had never seen someone wear a bandana like that before.

Verity also seemed amazed at the training centre and smiled awkwardly at Lacey when she realised they were the only two tributes there yet. Lacey walked towards the older girl and stuck out her hand in greeting.

"I really love the bandana around your neck. I've never seen anyone wear it like that."

The girl from 9 took a few seconds to reply and warily glanced towards the gamemakers before she answered. "Thanks, it's a family tradition to wear bandanas like this."

"Well it's cute."

The two made small talk for a while as more tributes came down – some making their presence more known than others.

Lacey found out that Verity was a triplet which was really cool. But unfortunately they couldn't read each other's minds like Lacey had hoped.

The time went by pretty quickly and soon the lead instructor was explaining the schedule of the day and the rules. Lacey perked up when she found out a climbing course was one of the mandatory exercises. She loved to climb and she thought she was quite good at it too. Maybe it would help some of the other tributes realise she would be a beneficial ally.

Lacey noticed that Verity wasn't the most talkative person and probably wasn't looking for an ally in Lacey so she left the girl to her own devices. But she was glad to have made another friend.

The first activity was an agility course. Lacey was never the most agile or the fastest runner among her friends but she hoped that she would still be decent.

Whilst they were lining up for the course she noticed that the boy from 1 was put behind her. Obviously she knew she would never be able to join the career alliance but she wanted to make another friend. And perhaps she could even learn a few things off of Extravagance.

"Hi!"

"Oh, hey sweetie." Extravagance looked a bit taken aback to begin with, as if he was surprised that Lacey had had the guts to speak to him.

"I loved your outfit yesterday."

The boy from one beamed at the statement and did a twirl to show off his even more extravagant outfit he was currently wearing.

Out of the corner of her eye Lacey saw Extravagance's district partner approaching and decided to give her a wave. To Lacey's surprise Tangent waved back and even gave her a hug when she got closer. Even Extravagance looked confused but ultimately just shrugged his shoulders.

"You're not what I expected for a girl from one you know. They're always blonde and dumb."

"Well that's because I'm not like other girls from one."

The two tributes from one had looked intimidating from the outset but as she spoke to them while they were waiting for their turn to complete the agility course, Lacey found that they weren't as frightening as she had thought.

Tangent had noticed when she glanced nervously towards the agility course. And the girl from one nudged her on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry you'll be fine. Just go really slow and be light on your feet."

"I don't understand. I thought agility was the ability to change direction at speed. Surely I'll fail the agility course if I go slowly."

"Oh right. I must've gotten it mixed up."

"Not so different from the dumb blondes now is she." Extravagance muttered under his breath which earned him a glare from his district partner.

When it was her go, Lacey waved goodbye and completed the course. She did better than a lot of the other tributes; probably due to her small size and great amounts of energy. Extravagance had given her a thumbs up before he completed the course in the fastest time yet.

The last mandatory activity was the climbing course. Lacey was so excited. This would definitely help her be noticed by the other tributes and hopefully find her some allies.

She was the second tribute to do the course and it was quite easy. Lacey wish it could have lasted longer; she already missed climbing the trees of district 11.

The boy from 3 was the first to complete the course. He hadn't done badly but wasn't amazing either. While the girl from 12 was preparing to do the climb Lacey figured that she should attempt to make a new friend in Duplo.

"Hi! I'm Lacey." She introduced.

"Go away. I don't want to ally with a little kid."

The reply had hurt Lacey since she hadn't even asked for an alliance but she decided to forgive and forget. There was no point holding grudges in normal life and especially not in the Games.

"That's fine. I'm just trying to make friends."

Duplo laughed at her. Lacey didn't realise she had said anything funny so hesitantly laughed along.

"There are no friends in the Hunger Games."

"Well I've got some already." The girl beamed.

The boy from 3 just rolled his eyes and looked bored of her.

"Okay then. Just remember that friends won't help you win. Popularity does." Duplo then went on to brag about his popularity in district 3 and boasted about how he was going to be the most popular in the Capitol too.

"But what about the careers?" She asked.

His immediate reaction was to send a death glare in the direction of some of the careers.

"Fuck those guys. They can't be that good if they wouldn't accept me into their alliance."

Lacey didn't quite know how to reply, and she always had a reply. She had seen the skills of the careers and worried that Duplo had seriously underestimated them. Suddenly she heard Duplo groan as two girls approached them.

"Bloody hell Margit. How many times have I told you to leave. Me. Alone."

The girl, Margit didn't even look phased by her district partner's mean words and attitude. She still had a smile on her face and kept approaching them.

Duplo whispered to Lacey, "She's had this massive crush on me for ages and always follows me. It so weird. And annoying."

Lacey had no clue why anyone would have a crush on Duplo because he wasn't very nice to people. However, Lacey still saw him as a new friend.

"Hi Duplo." Margit smiled. However, the younger girl that was with her didn't look too pleased to be near the boy.

"Actually we're here to talk to Lacey."

She was shocked that they were here for her. It was a great opportunity for her to make new friends so she couldn't screw it up.

"I'm Evanna and this is Margit as I'm sure you heard."

"Nice to meet you!"

"We saw you on the agility and climbing courses. You were really good! And we were wondering if you wanted to join our alliance."

"Yeah it was really impressive. And the offer's always open to you as well Duplo." Margit smiled. But Evanna whispered in her ear, not so quietly, that Duplo didn't deserve to be in the alliance.

"Margit. For the last time, I don't want to be in your stupid alliance." Again, the girl didn't look phased by his harsh tone.

Lacey was confused as to why Evanna was the leader of the two. She was only 15 and quite short. Why wasn't the tall 17 year old the leader?

Nonetheless, Lacey was ecstatic that they wanted to be her allies and her friend.

"I would love to!" She beamed.

Suddenly the bell for lunch went off and the three of them started walking towards the canteen. However, as she was following the girls Duplo nudged her and whispered to her,

"Have fun with Miss Cuckoo and Miss irrelevant."

Ripley West the III

18 years old

District 4 Female

The food selection at lunch wasn't as impressive as it was at breakfast and dinner on the district 4 floor since there was only two main meal choices: pizza or tomato pasta.

The pizza looked delicious to Ripley, however Hudson had suggested that they should all opt for the pasta as it had the most nutritional gain. Ripley cursed herself for even thinking about choosing the pizza. How could she even begin to see herself on par with the boys if she couldn't even make her simple decisions intelligent?

The careers briefly discussed each tribute and who had looked dangerous on certain courses. There had been a few surprises so far and some tributes seemed to be ones to look out for but Ripley wouldn't mention that to the group.

"I think now mandatory training is over we'll see who our biggest threats are." Aelia said and Ripley vigorously nodded along when all of her allies began to.

"I know she's a kid but the girl from 11, Lacey I think could be one to watch out for. She was pretty good on the agility course and probably second to all of us on the climbing course." Tangent said with her mouth full of food.

"And she's smarter than you." Extravagance laughed, earning himself a glare and an elbow in the ribs from his district partner.

"What about you Ripley? Any early threats you've noticed?" Tarquin asked her.

Since yoga training the previous day Tarquin had been trying to talk to her more and get her to open up. At first she could barely speak to the guy, feeling so inferior to him but now Ripley was starting to get more comfortable talking to him. But not in front of the group. She didn't quite know how to speak in the moment and could feel herself turning bright red and stuttering tremendously.

Eventually she managed to form a coherent sentence, "I think we should watch out for Jester. He's already known by the Capitol and didn't seem to do too badly on the different courses."

"Great point!" Tarquin smiled and the rest of Ripley's allies agreed, putting her mind at ease for a little bit.

When lunch finished the tributes were given freedom of the whole training complex, which Ripley was excited for. Ripley would be able to show off the one skill she knew she was the best at.

"I think we should go to the weapons area first. Try and intimidate the other tributes and show off our skills." Tangent suggested. Ripley assumed that was what they were going to do anyway – assert their dominance.

"Nah shit Sherlock." Extravagance mocked, earning a chuckle from the rest of the group.

Ripley didn't understand the district one's partnership, nor the district two's. One minute Extravagance and Tangent seemed to get on like a house on fire and then the next minute the boy from one can't stop mocking and digging his district partner out, while she looks like she's about to have a hissy fit.

With the district 2 pair they just seemed to flat out hate each other. They were rarely seen together. Aelia spent most of her time with Hudson and Tarquin seemed to spend a lot of time with Ripley.

Ripley and Hudson weren't exactly best buds and only spoke occasionally but they seemed to be the most functional pair in the alliance.

When they reached the weapons area they all stood there for a minute in awe. Ripley had never seen anything like it. Sure they had amazing weaponry zone at the training centre in Four but nothing like this.

The careers realised that they hadn't exactly talked about everyone's preferred weapons but it worked out that everyone's was different. Extravagance went straight to the swords, Tarquin to the spears and Hudson to the axes. Aelia went to marvel the bows, Tangent went to find the blowdarts and Ripley set her sights on the brass knuckles.

She had really missed fighting in the few days without her martial arts sessions and those brass knuckles were calling her name.

However, the others began warming up with their weapons and they were lethal. Ripley gulped as she saw Extravagance slice a dummy's head off and Tarquin pierce the heart. She was never going to be able to compete with the boys. Her heart started to race when Aelia could hit every moving target in a lethal area and Tangent fire her blowdarts at an unbelievable pace. Ripley was never going to be able to compete with the girls either.

There was no other tribute at the weapons area and after seeing the display of her allies the rest of the tributes wanted to get as far away as possible from the weapons area.

"Your turn Ripley."

"You've got it don't worry." Tarquin reassured her. She hated the fact that she needed to be reassured.

As she slipped on the brass knuckles Ripley felt a wave of confidence come over her. She requested the most experienced trainer and slipped in a mouth guard, just in case.

Ripley didn't even hesitate and began to attack, feeling comfortable immediately. She began with a rear leg push kick, knocking the trainer backwards but he quickly regained himself. He fought back almost straight away with an elbow hit to the jaw.

That move was illegal in the trade of martial arts but Ripley understood that there was no rules in the hunger games. And if he wanted to play dirty then two could play at that game.

She tightened her fists to feel the brass knuckles around her fingers and began landing uppercut after uppercut, leaving her opponent no room to dodge or fight back. Her jabs drew a lot of blood and she was sure she heard the crack of bone after she struck his jaw.

When Ripley was satisfied with the amount of blood she saw she finished with a double leg takedown, pinning the trainer down for 10 seconds and then she was pulled off of him. The trainers knew that if she kept going she would have killed the guy and they couldn't let that happen.

"Good job." The injured trainer mumbled. Ripley just smirked.

Then Ripley heard her allies giving her a round of applause. She could feel her face heating up again but there was a small smile on her face. Tarquin nudged her played and nodded behind her.

Ripley turned around to see all the other tributes pale faced staring at her in fear. The adrenaline of fighting was still running through her veins which gave her the confidence to playfully take a bow. None of them would look her in the eyes.

The confidence and adrenaline in her began to run low but the buzz from fighting was still there and wasn't going for a long time.

"That was so cool. Where'd you learn to fight like that? Not even anyone in our district could fight like that." Aelia asked.

"Uh, my dad, cousins, uncles, aunts. It runs through the family. They taught me everything they knew."

"Well I'd say together we make an unstoppable team. They should be scared."

"Shut up Tangent. Your skills are the least impressive here." Extravagance smirked, only half joking.

Tangent stormed off to the circuit station after that. She looked to be quite skilled at manipulating circuits; who knew when that could come in handy.

For the remainder of the day the careers, bar Tangent, stayed on the weapons station practising their secondary and tertiary weapons. That was mainly knives, a sword or a bow and arrow.

Ripley's secondary weapon was a trident and then knives. She wasn't the strongest with them but she knew she was strong enough to kill with them.

Training was over before she knew it and Ripley and Hudson were in the elevator up to their floor. She was a little tired but there wasn't a lot of time to rest before the games.

They ate dinner while discussing the events of the day. Their mentors Mollie and Netta seemed somewhat surprised that Ripley had had the confidence to show off her skills like that. They were proud of her which brought a smile to Ripley's face.

"You guys can have some cake for dessert if you want, you've earned it."

"I'm fine with strawberries thanks."

"I'd rather some strawberries."

Hudson and Ripley said at the same time. They chuckled and ate their strawberries with sugar.

Maybe Ripley could actually win this thing. Maybe she could actually beat the boys she was up against.

A.N: Hey guys, I hope everyone's safe and doing well in regards to the virus. But the schools shutting means I have more time to write and hopefully get to the games!

Is there a way for me to help you guys remember these characters or keep you updated? Cos I know sometimes there are long periods between my updates XD

Anyways, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, catching up with the careers again. Do you think they'll be a functional group? And what do you think of the new alliance that's formed? How comes Evanna is the leader?

Origami cuties – Nicole and Hector

Fun Fun Fun Careers – Aelia, Tarquin, Hudson, Ripley, Extravagance and Tangent

Drunk Memes – Davis and Lorraine

What's a tree? – Jester, Crane and Perona

We just want friends – Lacey, Margit and Evanna

QOTC: Which character from the original Hunger Games series is Suzanne Collins following in her new HG novel?