Surprise, bet you didn't think you'd see me so soon!

Cerise Ramirez, 12

Princeton's #3 Female Pick

"Cerise, are you crazy?!" whispered Valerian harshly as she climbed onto the ledge to get to the garden ladder on the side of the house Cerise was currently scaling. "You are going to get both of us killed!"

Cerise had been dared to sneak out of the house and meet Janet at Cupid at the ravine. She couldn't very well ignore such a blatant challenge. Cerise was not a girl that liked to be proven wrong.

"We are going to be fine," whispered Cerise as she graciously found the ground with her foot. She wasn't one hundred percent sure that she was going to make it down the ladder, but Valerian is a lot smaller than Cerise, so if she can make it down, Valerian definitely can.

"Nanny Jacob is going to be doing rounds soon," whispered Valerian as she dropped down to the ground next to her sister. "If we get caught out here do you know how mad dad is going to be-"

As her sister was talking, Cerise heard a whisper and a giggle coming from the front lawn of the house. She covered her sister's mouth with her hands and held a finger to her lips. She looked around the corner, surprised. Who the heck is up at 3 in the morning?! She thought as she let her eyes adjust to the bright moonlight.

"EW!" Cerise groaned as she covered her mouth with her hand.

In the driveway of their house, inside of her Aunt Shelby's car, was her dad and Shelby making out. Cerise wished she had bleach that she could pour onto her eyeballs to cleanse her vision of what she just saw.

"What is it?" asked Valerian as she peered around the corner. "WHAT?!" she said, falling back to the wall of the house. "A little warning, maybe, Cerise?!"

"Oh my gosh, I'm going to need years of therapy to unsee that," said Cerise. "How are they even-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Valerian said, covering her ears. "I want to figure out how we are going to sneak past their secret late-night tryst and get to the ravine.

The tribute's house was a massive piece of landed gated with a tall stone and iron fence all the way around. All four of the mansions were located on the very outskirts of the Capitol. The only way out of one of the gated homes was to go down the long concrete driveway.

The only issue was, Cerise's Dad was sucking face in it right now.

"Okay, maybe we can just like sneak past the car?" asked Cerise questionably. She knew it was a stupid suggestion, but she refused to let Janet and Cupid play her for a fool. "Or maybe we will get lucky, and Janet and Cupid will get caught?"

Valerian peaked around the side of the house again and excitedly jumped up and down. 'Wait! Answered prayers!" she said as Cerise got up and peered around the corner. Princeton and Shelby were getting out of the car and sneaking back to the front door of Princeton's house. He held up his finger as they both giggled and told her to hush flirtatiously as they disappeared behind the tall wooden door.

"At least we know he isn't lonely," said Valerian as Cerise rolled her eyes and led her sister from around the corner. They dashed for the front gate of the property and didn't stop until they were face to face with the cold dark iron bars.

"Okay, so I'll give you a boost, and you can pull me over!" Cerise said as she got down on her knee and got her hands positioned to lift her sister.

Valerian looked at her sister questionably as she stood on top of her hand and was hoisted to the top of the fence. She let out a tiny yelp, and Cerise bit her lower lip in anxiety as Valerian almost lost her balance. After waiting a few seconds and a few deep breaths, Valerian reached down to help Cerise get to the top.

"I can't believe this worked!" Cerise said as she grabbed her sister's hands and used the bar to hoist herself to the top of the fence. "This could have been so awkward having to explain to dad that we saw him and Shelby."

"Thank you for reminding me of something I had almost forgotten," said Valerian begrudgingly as she looked down at the ground from atop of the fence. "So, how do we get down?"

"Maybe like this?" Cerise said as she wrapped her hands around two of the iron spikes that lined the fence. She threw her body over to one side and balanced herself by pressing her feet onto the bars with all her might as she held onto the spikes. She then let go of the spikes and fell to the ground like a frog.

"That was badass!" said Valerian as she copied her sister and landed to the ground. "Let's get to the ravine-"

The lights in front of the fence came on, and the gates began to open as Nanny Jacob's face appeared on the camera that allowed people from the house to talk to those trying to get in. "Nice work, girls. I'm impressed truly. However, you have five minutes to get yourself back in the house, and back in bed, before I go and interrupt your dad and Shelby. Something tells me they won't be too pleased."

"Yes sir," the girls whined as they walked back through the gate and started their way back down the long driveway.

"At least you tried!" said Valerian. "They'll know you weren't lying when we are grounded for six years."

"Yeah, we are going to get bullied tomorrow," said Cerise accepting her fate as she walked up to the door and saw Nanny Jacob's scolding expression upon opening it.

Jupiter Aeneas, 4

Princeton's #3 Male Pick

Jupiter loved playing with his friends at the daycare. It was something he looked forward to the few times a week he got to do so. He would be able to play blocks, or Captain ship, but his favorite game to play was army solider.

He loved to do his push-ups on the ground and salute to his friends when he was given an order, but his favorite thing to do as a soldier was the obstacle courses. When Jupiter did those, he felt like he was training for a super cool sport. He imagined fighting off people as he dove into the pop-up tunnel. He believed the glory of winning a battle when he somersaulted on the colorful puzzle mat flooring.

Jupiter was the best soldier when they played.

And he wouldn't let anyone forget it.

"Okay, so you pretend that you're the bad guy, and I'm going to try and stop you!" said Jupiter as he held up his muscles on his arm. He smiled at his brother Axton as the two boys ran around the playroom, firing fake bullets at each other.

"You'll never catch me, slowpoke!" screamed Axton as he giggled, running up the wooden indoor slide. Jupiter narrowed his eyes as he chased his brother up the wooden slide. He carefully climbed the giant wooden steps that were way too big for his little legs. When he got to the top, Axton turned and laid on his belly and waved at his brother as he slid down the slide.

"Wow!" said Jupiter as he jumped up and down at the top of the slide. "Dad said, you can't slide like that! You have to look with your eyes where your feet are going!"

"I'm the bad guy, Jup!" said Axton giggling as he got up awkwardly from the bottom of the slide. "Bad guys don't follow the rules, silly! Don't tell dad, though, okay?" He took off, running toward the girls playing babydolls on the opposite side of the room, and Jupiter laughed as he sat on his bottom and slid down the slide. He held his hands up and screamed in excitement.

"I'm gonna get you, Mr. Bad Guy!" said Jupiter as he ran awkwardly over to the babydoll section. "Excuse me, good mam," said Jupiter as he ran directly through the middle of the girls. "I have a bad guy that I have to stop!"

"Jupiter, you stepped on Baby Lily's hand!" screamed Lily as she began to cry, but Jupiter's sights were not on his sister and the babydoll, but on the bad guy that was climbing inside of the hammock and crouching down in the middle.

"Jupiter, you're mean!" said Clarke as she stood up and stepped in his way. "You hurt Lily's feelings, and I don't like it. Say sorry!"

"I don't have time!" said Jupiter as he watched his brother poke his head out of the hammock and chuckle at him. "Axton is the bad guy, and I am going to lose out on him coming to the good side! Do you want to let the bad guy win?!"

"But you're the bad guy, Jupiter!" said Clarke putting her hands on her hips. "You just stepped on Lily's baby's hand, and if you were a nice guy, you would have said sorry!"

This made Jupiter stop dead in his tracks. How dare she tell him that he was the bad guy! He was a good soldier, after all! He wanted to save the daycare and protect them from evil bad guys! It was what he trained for!

"I am very sorry I stepped on baby Lily's hand," said Jupiter as he bent down and took the baby from Lily and kissed her hand. "There, that's what daddy does when we have an owwie, and it always helps us! Is she okay now?"

Lily took the baby out of Jupiter's hands and held the baby to her ear. She nodded her head like the doll was talking to her and then looked at Jupiter with pursed lips. "She said fine, but you better not do it again."

"I promise!" said Jupiter as he took off running again. When he got to the hammock, he peered over the cloth excitedly to see that Axton had fallen asleep in the hammock. He stomped his foot in frustration and walked back to the girls and took a seat.

"That bad guy took a nap," he said, frustrated.

"Well, maybe you can help me with my baby," said Clarke as she handed it to him. "I need to go to the store to get food for everyone, so you're in charge of making sure he doesn't throw a fit. You can be the daddy."

"Okay," said Jupiter as he held the baby at his side by the arm. "Come on baby, let's go train for the soldier school!"

WE ARE OFFICIALLY DONE WITH THE INTRODUCTIONS.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading. This project was so scary for me starting because I had never written in the third person. While I have a lot of work to do, I have been proud of this project!

We have a Princeton update I'll probably post tomorrow, but then we are officially in the Pre-Games of this story! They'll take place at the beginning of their free week you've seen a bit of in the chapters. I can't wait to show you all that we have in store!

Hope to hear from you soon,

Caleb