Valerian Mercury, 14

Princeton's #1 Female Pick

Valerian's nerves were shot as she watched Rudi train at the sword section. A butterfly would move around in her stomach with each jab he sent toward the trainers, and it wasn't long before her cheeks were turning red from her starring.

Valerian loved to watch people train in for the Hunger Games, and maybe that was because Valerian herself loved the Hunger Games. She loved the idea of being in the games. To have complete control over someone's life. To look someone in the eye and know that in a second, you could snatch their world away from them.

It was an attractive quality to Valerian.

And it was one she saw in Rudi.

"Oh my gosh, just go say hi," said Cerise annoyed as she scribbled down notes about her training from the morning session. "It's a two-letter, one-syllable word, what's the worst that could happen?"

"I could choke on it!" said Valerian anxiously.

"Maybe she should wait until after the training day ends," said Lily as she popped a grape into her mouth. "That way, if things go badly, she only has to run away and go home."

Valerian tuned her sisters out as she watched the boy of her dreams take down the head trainer and throw his arm up in Victory. His brothers surrounded him and clapped him on the back in a job well done, and Valerian took a step forward.

Good job, one more. She thought as she tried to convince her foot to move again, but it was as if it was glued to the floor. She watched as he grabbed a towel off the bleacher and ran it over his sweaty torso.

"He's a boy, not a hunk of meat," said Cerise as she pushed her sister toward her. "You might want to lick his abs, but you have to want to get to know someone before all of that," Cerise chuckled as she shoved her sister right in front of Rudi and ran away. Valerian stared at him wide-eyed as she turned and smiled at her, taking a sip of his water bottle.

"Hey there," he said to her.

"H-hi," said Valerian, instantly hating herself for choking on the word. It's a two letter one-syllable word; she mocked her sister in her head as Rudi began to look confused at her. Valerian saw the conversation tanking and didn't know what to say. Think Val, think.

"Can I help you with something?" she blurted out to Rudi. Once again, an instant self-loathing fell over the girl. What kind of question was that?! He wasn't doing anything!

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" he said with a chuckle as he sat down on the bench. He threw his towel around his neck, and Valerian couldn't help but let her eyes wander around his body. "You came to see me, remember?"

"Right," said Valerian shaking her head. "Yeah, uh, I was just wanting to, uh," SHITSHITSHIT what the hell are you doing, Valerian?! "I was just wondering if you would maybe want to grab lunch tomorrow off-campus? That burger place across the street is awesome."

Rudi raised an eyebrow as he looked Valerian up and down as she talked. He smiled to himself and bit his lower lip, and Valerian felt her heart skip a beat. Why am I like this?! She thought as she stared at him.

"Sure," said Rudi abruptly, breaking her thought process.

Valerian snapped back into reality and blinked hard, focusing on the word that just came out of the boy's mouth. "Wait, seriously?" she asked him.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Rudi asked her with a scrunched expression on his face. "You're hot."

Valerian had been called many names over her fourteen years of life. Psycho, blood-guzzler, Stabby Mercury, were just a few of the nicknames she acquired over the years for her blood-lusting behavior and desire to take on anyone in the arena.

None of them ever phased her.

However, when Rudi called her hot, something about the way the word flew off, his lips made Valerian just want to faint. There was an awakening going on inside of her that she couldn't quite grasp, but it was very out of character for her.

"You are too," she managed to choke out without her voice breaking.

Rudi smiled as he reached up and grabbed her hand. He leaned close to her ear and pushed her hair behind it. "I know a place we can go and be alone for a little bit if you're interested," he whispered into her ear. His breath sent shivers down Valerian's spine as she clung to every word the boy said. "I might be off base, but you seem like you're feeling me as much as I'm feeling you right now."

"Show me the way," she whispered back.

He grabbed her by the hand and led her to out of the gym.

Axton Simmons, 18

Princeton's #2 Male Pick

"Can you tell us about what happened?" the interviewer asked Axton.

Axton loved going into the diary room to talk to the producers of the show. It was his time to shine and to put himself out there. He loves going back on the episodes and seeing how many times they use his footage from these sessions to narrate what's happening.

"Dude, it was crazy!" Axton said. "I was at the club, and the bouncer tried to stop me, and it was weird because he's never tried to stop me before," Axton paused a moment like he was thinking about how weird it was that he was stopped at the club when he just wanted to make for a dramatic story. "I had just seen Ruben, Hadrian, Rudi, and Arturo walk in, and I was going to go catch up with them and maybe try and find a girl to dance with."

"That was great," the ProducerProducer said, cutting him off, "But is there any way you can sit up a bit straighter? Also, I need you to redo the line where you mentioned the tribute's by names and make it shorter. We don't know who we are going to try and squeeze in with clips of that night, so I need you to sell it vague,"

"No problem," said Axton with a nod. He wiggled his back to sit up as straight it could get against the end of the chair. He put his hands at the side because most of the time, when the producers showed their sessions, it was only their chest and up, and then cleared his throat. "You ready?" he asked the ProducerProducer.

The ProducerProducer held up a thumb, and Axton smiled at the camera. "I had just seen some of my boys walking into the club, and I was going to catch up with them, and maybe find a honey to dance with."

"Perfect!" said the ProducerProducer as he chef kissed his hand. "Axton, you always deliver kid. Tina show him the video," he said, snapping his fingers. Axton sat back and waited for Tina as she slowly brought over a tablet with a video on it. "TODAY TINA!" screamed the ProducerProducer as he threw his fedora at her. "We have a deadline!"

"Sorry, Dan!" said Tina as she pressed play on the video.

Axton watched as Ruben and Darcy fought in the hallway. He watched her walk away, watched Ruben grab her, and then saw the two of them making out for a few moments only for Darcy to pull away and walk off. Ruben then punched the wall and stormed out of the club, and the camera followed him walking down the street.

"Did you see this incident?" the ProducerProducer asked. Axton could tell that he needed some narration, and Darcy and Ruben were not willing to cooperate.

"Yeah," Axton lied, knowing good and well he didn't see it. But if he pretended he did, he'd get more screentime. Plus, how hard was that scene to figure out? Darcy and Ruben like each other, they break up because they go into the games at the end of the week. Pretty easy narration. "Yeah, man, it was not what I would expect to take place in a club."

"Talk about it, but also don't let the country know they broke up. They can figure that out on their own, but they've been Panem's sweethearts for almost five years now. I'm not giving the audience a broken heart on the final week of airing." said the ProducerProducer as he gave Axton a five-second countdown on his hand and then gave him a thumbs up.

Axton wasn't sure how comfortable he felt lying about Darcy and Ruben's relationship. He might be willing to fudge the truth a bit, but he's never blatantly lied to the audience before. Not to mention what happens if Darcy or Ruben sees it? It's not the best idea to piss someone off right before you go into a deathmatch.

"What if they see me lying?"

"This isn't airing until the night before the games," said the ProducerProducer. "You'll be getting ready to go into the tubes. I doubt that you'll be wanting to watch the reality show, and if so, just say we messed with the sound bites."

"Okay…" said Axton, uncomfortable with the situation. This is the shittiest thing you've ever done for more airtime, Axton. He thought as he took a deep breath and tried to come up with a compelling story in his head. But you need a strong fanbase when you come out of the games.

"The weirdest part of the night was seeing Ruben and Darcy in the hall, though," Axton said as he began to weave his story. "I watched them disappear to have a little make-out session in the hallway. I thought for sure I was going to witness a quickie in the hallway, but...I shouldn't say," he said, teasing the ProducerProducer. He looked Dan dead in the eye, and the brightest of smiles appeared on the Producer's face.

"What happened?" Dan asked

Axton could already see the moment where the closed captioning with the word Producer would appear on the screen during this transaction. By doing what he just did, he's all but sealed his chances of getting the airtime he wanted so badly.

"Well, earlier in the night, I saw Darcy dancing with another guy. When Ruben saw her at the club, she tried to act all innocent, but she told him in the hallway. And what happened next? Well, it wasn't pretty."

This was going to be Axton's episode.

WE ONLY HAVE ONE MORE INTRODUCTION! Can I get a YEE YEE?! I'm so pumped, and I can't believe that once again, we have almost gotten through this so quickly! What do you think of Axton? What do you feel about Valerian?!

We hear from Cerise and Jupiter next chapter, and then BANG WE ARE IN PRE-GAMES!

Congratulations to the following people for getting my tribute correct on their guesses. I had about seven of you contact me with your guesses, but these were the three to get it right! Your prize will be PM'd to you once we get closer to the bloodbath!

Congrats: Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived, FoxFox12, and Ripple237 for guessing my tribute was Rana Celeste! She was a tribute from one of my first OG stories, but I deleted them a long time ago because they were literally just dialogue.

Why any of you continued to submit to me, I'll NEVER know.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Caleb