Lily Simmons, 14

Princeton's #2 Female Pick

Lily couldn't take it.

She felt like she was a little kid that had a monster creeping under her bed. Or a bird that was caged for the first time. There was a feeling of anxiety she couldn't shake, and the longer she tried to, the more compressed her chest felt.

She dashed up to her room and slammed the door open. She quickly closed it and fell to the ground clutching her chest as she attempted to take a deep breath. The harder it was to breathe, the more she wanted to disappear.

She longed for a place that was full of happiness and rainbows, and away from the world of crippling anxiety that she's lived in for years. She's dreamed of a day where she didn't have to hide this.

But mostly she dreamed of a day where she knew where it came from.

Well, that's not true; Lily knew precisely where it came from. Every time she saw her brother Axton, something felt off. To Lily, the question wasn't where it came from, but more of why it's happening.

There was a connection there that Lily couldn't comprehend. It wasn't as if the two siblings talked often. She tended to stick with Elizabeth and Hadrian from House Hazel, and Axton stuck with Jupiter and Cerise. However, Lily found it hard to believe that Axton didn't feel the same connection that she felt.

She knew it wasn't romantic. Lily had never looked at the boy and felt an attraction. No, it wasn't anything romantic, but something more profound. Something bigger than she could piece together right now.

She always felt like a piece of her was missing, and maybe that had to do with Axton, or perhaps it was all in Lily's head. But somewhere out there in the vast big world was her missing piece just waiting to be explored, and she hoped that with all of the hustle and bustle of the games that will be coming in four years, that after she wins, she will be able to find it.

But what if you can't, Lily?

Her anxiety plagued at her brain, and the more she tried to cast it aside, the more it dug it's long and dangerous claws into her mind. Lily was a bright girl, and the more she thought about this anxiety and what her world was like, the more she began to personify it.

Because to anxiety, it was always the protagonist. Why Lily saw it as the bane of her existence, the epic enemy of her hero lifestyle, the anxiety saw itself as the opposite. Lily was sure that when it came to the anxiety, it was the main character. It was the hero, and it was fighting Lily off as if she was the antagonist.

Anxiety was living and breathing and just wanted to survive.

But so did Lily.

"One...breath," she managed to choke out in between gasps. She continued to process each breath with a number. It gave her something to focus on rather than the boulder that resided on her chest. "Two...breath," she managed to say with a slower gasp.

Lily never took the training seriously. Not that she wasn't skilled, but the scoring system seemed trivial. She saw it year after year, the career that got the highest score in training didn't always win. Most of them died.

So when she was in the middle of the pack year after year, it wasn't something that upset her. Several things could go wrong for a tribute like Napoleon, Cortana, or Kitana. Any amount of bad luck could mess up. In the games, it took one split second for your whole world to come crashing down. It didn't matter if you had a one next to your name, or a twelve. When you get into the arena, stats don't matter.

All that matters is do you want to win.

"Three breaths…" she managed to say. This time with her breaths slowing down. The war with her mind might be ongoing, but for now, Lily was winning the battle. "Four breaths...five breaths…"

Laughter from the hall danced inside her room as her brothers came storming down the hall. Lily held her breath in hopes they didn't come into her room at this moment and see what she has so desperately been hiding since she was a kid.

"Six breaths...seven breaths.." Lily counted. With each increasing number was another breath that calmed her nerves and gave her a bit more peace of mind than she had moments prior. Just as soon as the laughter came, it went, and Lily rolled over onto her back. She saw the stars that she decorated her ceiling with to give her a sense of adventure when she saw them at night time and closed her eyes.

Maybe, one day, there will be peace. Lily thought.

The anxiety disappeared away from Lily. Right now, she was just a girl laying on the floor of her bedroom, looking up at the ceiling and thanking God that the boulder on her chest seemed to slip away. At least for the moment.

Sagar Dewpont, 18

Princeton's #1 Male Pick

Sagar Dewpont was not a man you wanted to piss off.

Chances are if you're one of the few unlucky people that have upset him in the past, he can tell you exactly what happened, what you did that upset, and how you didn't handle the situation correctly, even if it was a long time ago.

He was a man that felt passionately, and even though he was good at holding grudges, there were a few people that slipped through the cracks and allowed for him to oversee their flaws. Most of those people are his siblings that he grew up with.

"I cannot believe he just walked down the hall without a shirt on!" Cerise said with an eye-roll. "What kind of douchebag does that kind of shit?"

Valerian and Rudi's night-time escapade had been the talk of the house. The day before the games and the drama was at a boiling point. Their father had already made a call to their Aunt Hazel, but even Sagar knew that Rudi's punishment wasn't going to come from an adult in their life.

Rudi would have to pay in the games. Because tomorrow that's where they'll be.

"Yeah, he's an ass," said Lily as she took a bite of the sandwich she just made.

Sagar sat on the counter of the kitchen and listened to his sister's bicker. He thought back to his sister crying as she walked down the hall, and once again, his blood started to boil. How is it that someone can just grow up with someone and use them like that?

Rudi would pay for what he did to his sister. Sagar just hoped her was the first one to get to him when the gong sounded.

"You know, out of all the things you could do the last night of true freedom, you'd think that she'd do something that wouldn't be so toxic," Jupiter commented, sitting on the couch. "I mean, she's made the same mistake for years now. We all watched her do it."

"That doesn't mean she deserves to be treated that way," Sagar interrupted his brother. "No one and I mean no one deserves that."

Sagar knew that, though a bit clumsy in the delivery, that his brother was correct. With the interviews finished, and the final scores locked in, and the rankings of the games in place, this week was their time. Anything they wanted, anything they could think of doing was at their disposal. While he understood to an extent Valerian's attachment to Rudi, it still left him uneasy that a potential ally for tomorrow made such a reckless choice.

It was only during this week that Sagar realized he didn't know what he wanted. He had wanted for nothing at a child. The parents encouraged the children to go after their desires to do things like play soccer or learn a particular skill. "We want to give you kids something to be good at other than training," they would tell them.

But Sagar was a creature of habit. He gave his everything into the things that he was supposed to do, and training was all he focused on for eighteen years. So when they locked the doors and told them to go live a normal life, Sagar was confused.

That was his normal.

Sagar didn't know if he would win the games. In his mind, he did not doubt that he had the capabilities of doing so, but with the mutts, and the Capitol's opinion, he had a slow thought that the winner might already be decided.

He watched Game of Life week after week. Every weekday was a new episode, and you could tell the tributes that were getting the most attention were the bigger than life personalities. All of which Sagar was not. The boy could talk for hours, but at the end of the day he was no Valerian, he was no Kitana, he was no Napoleon.

He was just himself. And the hard truth that himself wasn't good enough to be one of the central few on the television show used to bother him when he was younger, but now he welcomed it. He still had his secrets intact. He was recognized way fewer times than some of his siblings or cousins, but there's a tradeoff.

When it came to sponsoring, Sagar knew that the sponsors were going to go to someone they felt they knew. These games were so inventive, and they allowed the Capitol to grow into a person right in front of their eyes. They had their front runners, the ones that brought the drama, and the ones that drove a story.

Because that's what their lives were, a story. To the producers, they were all just individual segments of speech and visuals being pasted together to form one big creation.

"Yeah," Cerise said as she grabbed Lily's sandwich and taking a bite. "No one deserves to be treated like that."

"Enjoy your last day of normal life," said Sagar as he hopped down from the counter and began to walk out of the kitchen. "Tomorrow's problems will still be there when you're done." He walked down the hall and to his bedroom, where he closed the door behind him. He sat on his bed and began to look around at the room surrounding him.

Sleep is something I can never get enough of. He thought as he laid down and closed his eyes. What better way to not worry about tomorrow than to be sleeping in peace.

Well! Here are Princeton's first two! I know I went out of order, but I didn't want Lily and Axton in the same chapter because I felt that things could get confusing. So here is Sagar and Lily!

Let me know what you think of them!

Also, we have two intros left (freaking what?), and I'm excited to remind you guys that I do indeed have a tribute in this game. If you're one of the first three tributes to guess which is mine, I'll have a special prize for your baby (I mean tribute) when it comes time for the bloodbath.

Get sleuthing, homies.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Caleb