Tesla Nichols, District Five

"Now remember not to take all of this too seriously." Magnus said, "Engle. How about you tell them what score you got?"

Tesla was laying on the couch, curled up next to Magnus as he stroked her hair. It wasn't the same as being near her parents, but Magnus was someone she knew. Every year he came to District Five for the reaping, and this put him in close contact with Tesla's father. It was nice to have someone familiar on this strange and frightening situation she found herself in.

Engle Harrison, victor of the 89th Hunger games and Demetri's mentor, smiled grimly. "I got a two." He answered, "a lot of things happen in the arena. Scores can help but they aren't the only thing that matters."

That did comfort Tesla a bit. She knew that she was going to get a low score, though she wasn't sure how low. She had panicked, and it had led to a disappointing session. She knew that she didn't have as many advantages as other people who were older or from different backgrounds. But it felt a little disappointing that she hadn't been able to show the gamemakers anything of worth. She did have advantages, even if there weren't many of them. But she hadn't managed to get out of her own head long enough to prove that.

At the same time, she wondered if she would panic during the hunger games. Could she really do any better when her life was on the line?

The TV adjusted the volume on it's own and the Panem national anthem blared as Kallia Haversham appeared, smiling at the audience. Her silver eyes glinted as she held up an envelope.

"The moment you've been waiting for is here everyone! I hold in my hand the scores for the tribute's final gamemaker sessions. You've seen them all in the parade, but now we get to find out what our fine Hunger Games staff thinks of this year's batch."

She opened the envelope and Tesla covered her eyes. Unfortunately she could still hear.

"Diamond Stark, eight. Titania Topaz, ten. Dash Grester, ten. Zella Waneta, eight. Ashlar Granodum, eleven."

Tesla was rather surprised. She had seen the tributes from Three, and they had clearly trained. But she hadn't expected either of them to get an eleven. In fact she had highly suspected Titania would get the highest score.

"Elixane Marcus, ten."

There were some gasps around the room and Tesla opened her eyes for a brief second. Marcus seemed shocked. While her mentor Ithaca merely sat there with a small smile.

"Impressive." She said.

Kallia Haversham continued on. "Seaward Waters, nine. Cordelia Corver, ten."

That meant district Five was up next. Tesla closed her eyes again.

"Demetri Donovan, six."

"Good job Demetri." Engle said. Demetri looked down in embarrassment but Tesla could tell he was smiling.

"Tesla Nichols, one."

She started to cry. Marcus took her into his arms, trying to comfort her. Trying to remind her of Engle. But Engle had gotten a two at least. It wasn't the lowest score possible.

She was so sick of crying.

Tanner Kelly, District Seven

"Raleigh West, six. Astra Porter, five." Kallia said, and Tanner felt the knots in his stomach tighten. He hadn't realized just how stressful it would be waiting for these scores. There was no way to know what the other tributes had done. So there was no way to try and guess his own score.

He had the feeling that his wouldn't be particularly good. He had forgotten to introduce himself and spent about half of his sparring session on the ground. But he had finished strong. About halfway through Tanner had realized how much bigger and better trained the peacekeeper was. It reminded him of his brother. One thing he had always excelled at was fighting when he was outclassed.

But for all he knew, the boy from Five had shot arrows while standing on his head and still only gotten a six. There was no way to know.

"Tanner Kelly." Kallia stopped and reread the list of scores. That made him nauseous. Whatever that meant, it probably wasn't good.

Except then Kallia grinned widely, as if she had won the Hunger Games herself. "Tanner Kelly, twelve."

For a moment Tanner felt like the world had stopped spinning and gravity had ceased to exist. He couldn't have heard her right, could he? Yet everyone around him seemed just as shocked. He could hear loud cheers from the studio audience coming out of the television.

"What did you do?" Their escort Callista asked.

"Honestly I mostly got my butt kicked." He said, "though I did throw the guy at the end. But I don't know how that earned me a twelve."

Callista stared at him, and Tanner didn't know how but somehow the woman looked even more shocked.

"Tanner Kelly you beautiful idiot, are you telling me you threw a peacekeeper?"

"Well. Yes." He said, "but careers do that all the time don't they?"

"Peacekeepers come from career districts." Callista explained, "they go half strength, maybe three quarters so that those tributes get better scores. But the last time an outer district sparred a peacekeeper he had to miss interviews while Dax fixed his shattered ribs. That was very dangerous. "

Tanner felt a sudden chill as he processed what his escort was saying. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Everyone knows."

"Do you really mean everyone or just everyone in the Capitol? "

Callista fell silent at that. Serena May however smiled at him, and gave the sign equivalent of applause to him.

"Serena May Lenovius, six." Kallia continued.

"Good job." Tanner said, "so what did you do?"

Serena May signed something, but he could only pick up the word for 'house'. So probably something to do with shelters. Tanner had spent enough time with her, writing to each other and attempting to learn sign language, to know how passionate the girl was about architecture. He had the feeling that if she had done something with buildings it had been quite impressive.

"Well, if Ruben gets over a five, I think we'll have a really good shot, sponsor wise."

Serena May nodded in agreement, and they turned back to the TV so they could discover Ruben's score.

"Lucien Narciso, Five. Arachne Weber, three."

Lucien Narciso, District Eight

Arachne screamed as the vase Lucien was holding hit the wall and shattered into countless tiny pieces. He did feel a little bad about scaring her. He hadn't really meant anything by it. He just wanted to do anything to keep the simmering rage from swallowing him whole.

"It's not fair!" he shouted, "I deserved so much better than a five."

A five. The Gamemakers had given him a five. Even though he had shown them just how dangerous he would be in the arena. Even though he had displayed his near perfect balance, his patience, his ability to move silently. They had dared to give him a five.

The only thing he could think of was that they didn't get it. He had thought they would, being Capitolites. But the more time went on, the more Lucien's adoration of the Capitol began to wane. It was not that the people he had talked to back in District Eight had been wrong, exactly. He had seen the beautiful buildings, the striking fashion, the glitz and the glamour. But there was something underneath it that was cold and cruel. Lucien was thoughtless sometimes, and his ambition could be self centered. But he didn't think he was particularly cruel. He had always thought that in the Capitol there would be people who understood him, but they were even more alien to him than those back in Eight.

Well, Lucien supposed that just meant that there truly was no one else in the world like him.

Arachne knelt down to pick up the pieces of the broken vase, and he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt.

"You don't have to do that." He said, "It was my fault."

"It was." Arachne agreed, and Lucien was taken aback by it. The girl had always been so quiet. So shy. "You're being childish."

It was incredibly annoying to hear a thirteen year old tell him he was behaving like a child. "You don't know what you're talking about."

Arachne ignored him and placed the shards into one of her scarves as Kallia continued to read out the scores.

"Rust Waxy, four. Nettie Sue Monroe, four."

"Five is really good for a non career." Arachne said. She was quiet again, barely above a whisper. But Lucien had always had fairly good hearing, "Especially if you didn't fight. The Capitol loves you. A five is good enough to get lots of sponsors."

She walked over to the trash can, dumping the glass shards into it. Lucien looked at her scarf for a moment. It was well made, sturdy and beautiful. They had chosen not to ally with each other, but Lucien knew that her survival skills were better than his. Arachne was younger and smaller, but was more qualified than him to be in a death match. Yet she had scored a three. According to the Capitol, everything about this girl and her life meant almost nothing.

"Ruben Ashven, six. Carlotta Pierce, four."

"It's not fair." Lucien said once more, but this time it wasn't about his own injustice. The realization that everyone here was being treated just as callous as he was finally sunk in. The girl before him was so young, perhaps the age of the girls he had left an autograph with before he left. She didn't deserve to die. Yet here she was, resigned to it, picking up the remnants of Lucien's own rage.

"Issa Williams, three. Violet Beckingridge seven."

"No. It isn't." Arachne said, staring sadly at the television screen, "But in my experience life's not really fair."

"Mattock Coccia, four. Amber Weitz, five."

Lucien felt powerless, which was not something he was particularly used to. It reminded him of when he was a child, before he was beautiful. When no one ever took him seriously and would call him names behind his back. When his parents looked at him sadly, afraid that he was too useless to survive in Eight. His looks had saved him back then. Since the Capitol adored him, his looks could quite possibly save him now too.

But for some reason, that didn't give him the comfort it usually did. In fact it made him angry, because he realized that if he survived, twenty three other children with far more to offer would be dead.

If he survived, it wouldn't be fair.

AN: I have nothing to say, just used to these I guess. We got our scores out! Hopefully people don't take these too personally. So we only have three more chapters until go time. Are you excited? I'm excited. Thank you so much for reading, everybody.