April Salinger, 18
District Eleven
"Good morning, Xayah," April said as she left her room. Xayah gave a little wave back, then turned back to the desk she was sitting at. "Are you working on the drawing for the outfit?" Xayah nodded. "Ooh, can I see?"
Xayah picked up the piece of paper she was working with and held it out to April, who took it and studied it for a moment. It was a simple drawing, just a few stripes of color added to the skirt's A-line silhouette. "I like it!" April said. "I have some experience with painting from back home so maybe after we finish sketching our ideas I can paint it all pretty." Xayah responded with a bright smile and an enthusiastic nod. "Awesome. Let me know when you've got it done."
Then, without missing a beat, Xayah made the motion of picking up a fork and knife and cutting something on a plate. "Yeah I…" she began, but was suddenly possessed by an urge not to lie. "No, I haven't had anything to eat yet." Xayah gave April a look, not unlike that of a mother preparing to reprimand her child. "Yeah, yeah." With a smirk, Xayah stood up and went into the little kitchen they had, soon returning to the sitting area with two plates. She handed one to April, then sat on the couch with the other and began to eat.
It was still a little bit awkward for April to eat in front of people. When she felt like she was being forced to eat, it made her a lot less motivated. But there was something about Xayah, about her warm and sunny disposition, her natural optimism, her patience and understanding and kindness that made April almost more comfortable around her than any therapist April had ever had. Being told that "if you didn't eat you would die in the Games" was not helpful. Being told that you were doing your best and that people cared about you was much more helpful. When April just couldn't do it, Xayah wasn't disappointed; instead, she was encouraging, there to tell April that everything would be OK and that she was doing her best. And Xayah cared about April. April could just feel it.
After they ate, Xayah made the sign of a letter C to April. "C? C for what? Challenge? I don't know when the challenge will be. Oh. No. Not challenge. What other words start with C? Common space? Competition? I guess that's the same as challenge. Oh. Capitol. Capitol!" Xayah smiled. "What about the Capitol? Uhh… is today's challenge the Capitol? No, I don't think so. House. You're making the shape of a house. Oh. You want to go over to the Capitol team's house? For what? You're putting your hands together. Are you praying? You want to pray to the Capitol. No. Do you want to clap for the Capitol team. Also no. I am a little confused."
Getting flustered, Xayah went over to the desk and grabbed a piece of paper, then sat back down on the couch and wrote, "I want to go thank the Capitol team for their help yesterday."
"Oh, right," April said, her face flushing. "We talked about that yesterday, didn't we?" Xayah pinched her pointer finger and her thumb together. "A little bit. Yeah that's probably why I forgot, because we only talked about it for a moment and we couldn't really leave the house. Well, we can go over now, if you'd like." Xayah nodded eagerly, her smile returning to her face.
The two girls put their shoes on and went over to the Capitol pair's house. April gave their door a careful knock, which was swiftly responded to by Titania, who opened the door carefully so as not to show the girls from Eleven who was inside the house (or, perhaps, to make sure the people inside the house could not see who was at the door). "Oh, hello there!" she said, sneakily holding up a finger to her face.
"Hi," said April, shyly and, catching Titania's drift, a little bit quietly. "We just wanted to say thank you for your help yesterday with the challenge. I don't know who else would have given us a bracelet and I really appreciate it."
"It was our pleasure," Titania replied, her voice dropping a little bit. "We're a little busy right now but we would love to hang out later on, OK? Let's try to set a time if we can."
"That sounds good." April was a hair confused, but she figured it probably had something to do with the alliance that the boy from One had talked about in his interview. "Let's pick a time?"
"Sure thing! We'll talk at the challenge."
At that exact moment, Violet Emerald's voice boomed across the Arena. "Competitors! The time has come for today's challenge. Please make your way to Competition Zone Two."
"Quick, start walking. I'll hold them here for a bit," Titania urged. "I don't want to put your fates in jeopardy." As Titania closed the door, April could hear her call out, "I need to go put my hair up. Can you guys wait for me for a sec?"
Walking fairly quickly, April and Xayah arrived at the competition zone, where they found… well, nothing. It was basically a big empty space, with a few benches scattered around the playing area. April and Xayah took their seats on the benches as they waited for the rest of the competitors to come.
A few moments later, April understood why Titania had been so quick to shoo her away. All four Career teams entered at the same time, walking with a swagger that telegraphed to the other teams that they meant business. April could understand why they might be a bit more on edge today than they had been so far; three days into the Events and none of the challenges had been won by Careers. While that was better for literally everyone else, it was almost definitely just making the Careers more and more desperate for a victory. And once they won, it was going to just be a landslide for all the teams in their way.
April was patiently waiting for Violet's voice to echo through the Arena, heralding the start of the new challenge. But today was a little different, as the image of Violet that the competitors were used to seeing on their television screens was projected into the sky. "Hello competitors!" she announced. "Welcome to today's challenge! Today, we will be highlighting our newest district, District Thirteen, and their value of Discipline. In order to keep our military and Peacekeeper forces running smoothly, it is important for each of the brave men and women serving our country, as well as for the military as a whole, to run on a tight, disciplined schedule. Today, you will have a chance to practice the discipline that each person in Thirteen must exercise on a daily basis.
"One of the most important things that a soldier learns to do is be disciplined in following their commander's instructions, doing exactly what their overseeing officers tell them to do. In that vein, your objective in today's challenge is very simple: do as I tell you. The catch is you can only do what I say if I say, 'Violet says' first. So if I say 'Violet says, touch your head,' you would all touch your head. But if I say 'touch your head,' you would not touch your head, because I didn't say 'Violet says.' If you do not follow my instructions correctly, or if you do something when you are not supposed to (or fail to do something when you are supposed to), you will be eliminated. The last competitor standing will win for their district. Does that make sense?"
April looked around. She was pretty sure she understood it, but it seemed as though a decent chunk of the competitors did not, given that they were staring blankly at the sky.
"Would it help to do a practice round?" Violet asked. A chorus of yeses and pleases followed. "Great! Everybody find your own place to stand around the ring and face me, and then we'll get started."
As the competitors began to spread out, April couldn't help but go out of her way to avoid where the Careers were standing. The eight of them had formed a pack, with enough space between them to not hit each other but close enough together that nobody else felt comfortable being anywhere near them. April could only hope that the challenge would be won by anyone other than a Career; if a Career team won, who knew if she would be safe?
Nova Ward-Yamamoto, 12
District Nine
"Everybody find your own place to stand around the ring and face me, and then we'll get started."
The competitors began to chatter amongst themselves, forming pairs or packs as they tried to figure out the best place to stand. While standing in one place or another, or in front of or behind any particular competitor, probably didn't give that much of an advantage, in a challenge like this, any little thing one could do to up one's odds was important. And yet, this was the first challenge where Nova really felt relaxed coming into it. The previous day was just stressful because it forced Nova and Berk to make a choice that they really didn't want to make all that much. And the two challenges before that required certain physical attributes that neither Nova nor Berk really had. But this challenge? This would be easy! In fact, it was little different from the schoolyard games that Nova had played as a child. Sure, this wasn't exactly identical to Follow the Leader or Peacekeeper Chief, but it had the same premise: one had to be sharp enough to listen to exactly the words that came out of Violet's mouth.
Nova slid over next to Berk and dropped her voice to a whisper. "What are you thinking?" she asked.
"I think the back of the group," Berk responded. "No matter how good we feel about how we are going to do at the challenge, getting to see what everyone else does will give us a tiny little bit of extra information that will help us in the long run."
"I like the way you think. I'll grab Twelve?"
"Yeah."
Nova and Berk began to sneak around to the back of the pack, trying not to draw the attention of the other competitors who might have the same idea. On the way, Nova snuck around towards where the pair from Twelve were standing and tapped Mina on the shoulder. "Come with us," she whispered, leading her friends to the place where Berk was waiting. As she walked, Nova's eyes landed on the pack of Careers that had staked out their spot at the front of the group. Specifically, she noticed the sneaky look that Mettius gave Titania, as well as the little nod that Titania gave em back. This couldn't be an easy challenge for Mettius, given that ey was deaf, but if they had him read Violet's words off of a screen, it would give em a clear advantage over everyone else. It was impressive that ey had so quickly and smoothly found a way around what could have been a very bad situation; that or the Capitol had given them a heads up so they could plan. Plus, even if Mettius failed quickly, Titania would still be there to pick up the slack for her team and hopefully win the challenge.
That is, if she could beat Berk and Nova.
"Hi guys!" Cam said. "This seems like it's going to be fun."
"I agree," Berk grinned. "Feels like the kind of thing we can do well at."
"Absolutely."
"All right, competitors, let's do a practice round! Violet says put your hands on your hips." All of the competitors obliged. "Violet says put your hands on your heads. Put your hands on your hips."
This was the first point where Nova could really get a sense of what she was working with. Somewhere between half and two-thirds of the competitors left their hands on their heads. Another handful began to lift their hands off of their heads but quickly realized their mistake, returning their hands to their heads before they could get far. The remaining few competitors fully took their hands off of their heads and moved them to their hips, practically none of them realizing their mistake.
"So if this was a real round, anyone who just put their hands on their hips would be out; I might have told you to put your hands on your hips, but I did not say 'Violet says.' Does that make a little more sense?" This time, most of the competitors nodded their heads. "Good. Are there any other questions? Amazing. I wish you all the best of luck. The competition will begin in three… two… one. Violet says put your hands on your hips.
"Violet says put your hands on your head.
"Violet says pat your head with your left hand.
"Violet says take your right hand and put it on your stomach.
"Stop patting your head."
Swiftly, Nova recognized the missing statement from Violet's sentence, and kept on patting her head just like nothing happened. But a few competitors weren't quite as lucky. "Marshall, Alder, and Mettius. Unfortunately, you three are out. Please take your seats on the benches."
Dejectedly, the three boys began to wander off of the challenge area towards the benches. At that moment, out of the corner of her eye, Nova caught sight of both Sigmund and Ella lowering their left hands from their heads. That was a surprising miscalculation in Nova's eyes, especially from two rather intelligent competitors. Swiftly, Violet's voice swept back in: "I did not say that you could sop patting your heads yet. Sigmund, Ella, you two are out."
"Damn it!" Sigmund muttered under his breath as he and Ella went over to the benches.
"Hey, we did the best we could," Ella replied.
This was great news for Nova. Sigmund and Ella were two of the smarter competitors, so for them to be out this early boded really well for the rest of the competitors. Sure, there were other people who might be just as determined to win as Berk and Nova, but even the Careers might not be quite as perceptive, quite as open to childhood games as the youngsters were. So even if everyone else got fed up with the challenge, Berk and Nova were fully prepared to ride it out, no matter how long it took.
"Violet says put your right hand on your nose.
"Violet says put your right hand on your right ear.
"Violet says put your right hand on your left ear."
Admittedly, there was a chance that this challenge was going to take a very, very long time.
Noel Patterson, 18
District Two
"Violet says, freeze where you are!"
This was the dumbest challenge Noel could possibly think of.
Well, that was a lie. The absolute dumbest challenge Noel could think of was the previous day's challenge. Figuring out who would go into the elimination challenge based on whether or not they got a stupid piece of string? Absolute numbskullery. Why every challenge couldn't be like the hanging onto the wooden pole one Noel didn't know; honestly, even if they were like that stupid bucket challenge, they wouldn't be half bad. But shit like this was just downright stupid. Who wanted to spend time moving their arms around in stupid patterns for hours? It was dumb and meaningless and really just the worst possible challenge.
Was there a world in which Noel dropped out of the challenge? Maybe. They definitely did not want to be doing this. The problem was they really needed to win. Out of the three challenges that had already passed, somehow two of them had been won by Outer District scum, with the only worthy pair to win being the pair from Thirteen. And sure, there were other people in his alliance that could be worthy. But Noel fundamentally didn't trust them. Well, that wasn't entirely true. They trusted them more than they trusted other people, but that didn't mean he trusted his allies all that much. Really, he had a feeling that they were simply incapable of doing anything useful.
"Oh!" gasped Pax Altomare, from somewhere on Noel's left. Noel turned their head slightly, only to find the moron's eyes tracking something. He broke out of the position he was in and began to follow the butterfly, desperately trying to catch it like he was one of the children from Nine (who, incidentally, were doing far better at the challenge than a good number of the older kids, probably just because it didn't take an ounce of physical strength).
"I'm sorry, Pax Altomare," Violet said, "but you've been eliminated. Please take a seat on the bench."
"Dear lord," Noel muttered under their breath, watching as Pax slinked away, further proving that there was no way in hell that Noel was going to wait for any other person in their alliance to win. They were simply going to have to win themselves.
"All right, everyone, we are at the halfway point of the competition! Things are only going to get harder from here, so pay very careful attention.
"Violet says touch your nose Violet says touch your ears Violet says touch your toes touch your ears touch your toes Violet says touch our head." Suddenly there was a loud THUNK. Noel looked up and saw the taller kid from Five on the floor, his feet somehow tangled up with each other. "I'm sorry, Herman, you've been eliminated. Please take a seat on the bench."
Noel sighed. How the fuck did the Five team think this was the person to represent them in the Events? Just two days before, he'd tripped over himself walking from his pole to the benches. And now he could barely even follow simple instructions without falling over? The Outer Districts were truly an embarrassment to the country. They really didn't deserve to compete in the Events.
The challenge dragged on and on. And to Violet's credit, it did get harder; she began to stack instructions one on top of each other, throwing "Violet says" in on about half of the instructions in each monologue. It certainly took a bit of brainpower to follow along with what Violet was saying, and Violet did trip up a lot more of the competitors than Noel expected was possible. It got especially complicated when Violet started asking the competitors to do more things. One particularly bad one came at the final seven, when "Violet said" to get into groups of three. The kiddos from Nine quickly grouped up, but their faces fell when they realized that they were in a group of two. In the meantime, Noel had grabbed onto Titania and the last remaining Pax to form a group of three. Panicking, Mack latched on to the youngsters, leaving the boy from Eight alone to his own devices and eliminating him from the challenge.
That was the last straw for Noel. Why did Mack choose to fraternize with those children? Yes, there was already a group of three made out of the other Careers. But there was still no reason to voluntarily interact with Outer District vermin. If Noel had any trust left that Mack would do what they wanted him to do, it was now gone, evaporated like morning's mist.
From this point forward, Noel had to take matters into their own hands. It was the only way they could guarantee they could win. And if they were here instead of in the Games, they were going to win.
After thirty more agonizing minutes of Simon Says, it was finally down to two competitors: Noel and the boy from Nine. "Congratulations, Noel and Berk," Violet announced. "This last round is going to work a little bit differently. I will give you a longer paragraph of instructions. Once I stop talking, you'll execute each action that you think I told you to do in order, one after another. If you get them all correct, you will stay in the game, but if you miss one action, you'll be eliminated. If you both mess up, the person who successfully completed the most actions will win the challenge." Do you both understand?" The two nodded. "Incredible. We will begin momentarily.
"Violet says touch your nose. Violet says put your hands on your hips. Violet says take three steps forward and then spin around three times to the right. Spin around three times to the right. Take your left hand and put it on your right knee. Violet says take your right hand and put it on your left knee. Violet says put your hands on your head. Violet says put your hands on your head. Violet says put your hands on your hips. Take three steps back Violet says take three steps forward…"
Violet's voice droned on and on, giving the competitors instruction after instruction. It was honestly getting a little bit hard to keep track of all the things that she was saying. But by repeating the instructions in order over and over in his head, Noel was able to filter out the things that Violet did not say to do. Finally, after what must have been fifty individual instructions, Violet said, "Violet says, begin."
Keeping a close eye on the boy, Noel touched their nose, then put their hands on their hips, then took three steps forward, then spun around three times. But as Noel stopped spinning, Berk continued, spinning six times instead of three. In that moment, Noel felt themself relax; it didn't matter what else they did, because they'd already done better than Berk.
After Noel finished what they thought was the correct sequence of actions, they put their hands to the side and looked expectantly at Violet. It seemed like an eternity passed before Violet said, "I'm sorry, Berk, but you have been eliminated. Congratulations, Noel, you have won the challenge for District Two! The challenge has now concluded. Please return to your houses and I will notify you when it is time for the elimination ceremony."
A few of the Outer District competitors tried to go congratulate Noel, but they were not interested. They immediately grabbed Mack's hand and began to drag him back to their house. "Wait, where are we going?" Mack asked. "Shouldn't we consult with people?"
"No. We're sending in the pair from Ten and then as a backup the pair from Eight."
"Why?
"Tens are the strongest Outer District team left, and given that they lasted the longest today, Eights are the smartest."
"But Nine lasted longer–"
Noel shut Mack down, ignoring the dejected look on his district partner's face. "I'm not worried about the pipsqueaks from Nine. They're too small to do anything useful, same with the one from Twelve and the other can't carry the team. Fives are too clumsy and Elevens are too frail."
"Fine. But why not Six? They're smart too. Knowledge and all that."
"I want to take on Six myself," Noel said, anger beginning to cloud their face.
"Why?"
"My life was ruined by Sigmund. I want to be the one to make him pay."
Marshall Kane, 16
District Ten
As the elimination ceremony concluded, Marshall and Alder stood up and exchanged a sad look. It was hard to be optimistic when you were going into the elimination challenge for the second week in a row. And it didn't matter whether they were in the challenge because they weren't popular with the Capitol audience or because another team had selected them to enter the challenge. Whichever was the case, it meant that the boys from Ten were simply not liked. And nobody wanted to know that they were disliked. Even if you got not-so-good vibes from someone, it was better to pretend they maybe liked you than to know outright that they didn't want to interact with you.
Really, this shouldn't have upset Marshall as much as it did. After all, it wasn't like Marshall was friendly to other people for their sake; a lot, if not all, of his actions were for his own sake. He just wanted to get the serotonin boost from helping someone else out, so how the other person felt really should not have had any impact on Marshall. And yet, being told basically outright that he was unpopular, unliked, not on the same level as every other team just made his heart hurt. Had he not done enough to make friends?
No, that couldn't be the case; if he hadn't done enough, he and Alder wouldn't have ended up in the alliance that they had. And that was perhaps the worst part of the situation they were in. The previous elimination challenge pitted the boys from Ten against the boys from Thirteen, which was fine; obviously they didn't want to be in the challenge because they didn't want to be eliminated, but if they were going to go up against anyone, it was better for it to be a team they didn't really know. This time, the boys from Ten were pitted against another member of their alliance, the pair from Eight. No matter what happened, their alliance was down a member. And that was not an ideal situation in the slightest; with the team from Seven gone too, it would put them at three teams to the Careers' four.
This really just sucked.
Marshall and Alder retraced the path they'd taken just a day before, walking towards the Elimination Challenge Arena. When they arrived, they took a moment to greet Paisley and Jack, exchanging silent, somber hugs before looking at the set-up for the challenge, which looked like it was going to be a doozie. In the middle of the Arena was a tower of thin wooden bricks, stacked in rows of three all the way up to Marshall's chest. Every row of three blocks was rotated ninety degrees from the ones that came before and after it. On each of the four sides of the tower of blocks, a couple of feet away, a circle had been painted on the ground; two, those north and south of the tower, were pink, and the other two were purple.
"Those are probably where we're supposed to stand," Jack suggested, the first words any of the four competitors had said to each other since they arrived. "Best of luck to you guys."
"You too."
"Good afternoon, competitors, and welcome to today's elimination challenge. This morning, we focused on mental discipline, highlighting how our soldiers have to be able to follow specific instructions given to them. Now we're also going to focus on the physical discipline that our brave soldiers must have. Of course, for our soldiers, their physical discipline comes in the form of intense strength training workouts, which would not be fair of us to ask you to do. Rather than focusing on strength today, we want to test your ability to control your body's movements.
"As you can see, in front of you is a tower of blocks. One by one, you will approach the tower and attempt to pull a block out from any row of the tower except the top three rows; you'll know which blocks you cannot pull out because they will light up red." As she said that, the blocks in the top rows began to glow with a soft red light. "Once you've pulled a block out, you will place it on top of the tower, rotating each row ninety degrees from the one before, then go back to your circle. If the tower falls, the team of person who last touched the tower or any of its blocks will be eliminated. You're more than welcome to walk around the tower and to touch any number of blocks you would like to, but once you start pulling one out, you must finish pulling it out even if it will cause the tower to fall. Are there any questions?
"Amazing. Now, the person who will go first is the person who did the best in this morning's challenge, which was Jacobus. After Jacobus will be Alder, then Paisley, and then Marshall. Whenever you're ready, Jack, you may begin."
Marshall watched carefully as Jack approached the tower. To be fair, he didn't fully understand the challenge, but he figured that by watching the other competitors, especially Jack, who was one of the cleverer people in the Events, he'd be able to figure out what to do. Confidently, Jack strode up to the tower, slid a block out from the middle of the sixth row, and placed it on the top of the tower, at which point it immediately turned red. Then, Alder took his turn, grabbing one of the blocks from the outside of a much lower row and placing it carefully next to Jack's. After Paisley took her turn, causing the bottom red row of blocks to turn back to a natural wooden color, Marshall approached the tower. He took a moment to analyze its current status before picking a block at random. Marshall was expecting to be met with some resistance, but to his surprise, the block slid out rather easily. He delicately placed the block perpendicular to the three that the other competitors had placed on the top row, then returned to his circle.
The next twenty minutes or so of the challenge passed by rather uneventfully, with the four competitors removing and restacking block after block until the tower was nearly up to Marshall's neck. As the challenge progressed, it became clearer and clearer why this was a challenge about discipline. With each block that was removed from the lower half of the tower, it was becoming more and more wobbly, and the competitors had to be more and more delicate with their motions. Marshall was trying to come up with a strategy for how to pick which block to pull out, but he really had no answers; he couldn't quite figure out how Jack and Paisley were so confident each time they went to pull out a block. He figured that the two of them were communicating somehow, but he couldn't quite figure out how they were doing it. Marshall just had to hope that, as unlikely as it was, one of them would make the tiny little mistake that would cause the tower to fall.
And then, just like that, it happened.
Marshall watched with bated breath as Alder approached the tower. The older boy looked at the tower for a moment before beginning to pull out one of the blocks. As soon as he began to move it, however, the tower began to wobble precariously. "Alder, wait!" Marshall exclaimed, unable to hold it in any longer (even though nobody had said that the competitors couldn't talk).
"I already began to move it," replied Alder. "There's nothing I can do."
And there was nothing Marshall could do as Alder pulled the block out, causing the tower to come tumbling down with an admittedly satisfying crash.
"Congratulations, Paisley and Jacobus. The two of you will remain in the Events for one more day. Please return to your house now, and I will see you tomorrow."
The four teens looked at each other sadly. "Well, best of luck to you guys," Alder said sadly.
"It was a pleasure competing against you," Marshall echoed.
"You as well," replied Jack. "Thanks for being such great allies and friends."
As Marshall and Jack embraced, the boy from Ten couldn't help but feel sad; after all, he and Alder no longer had a chance to win the Games. But there was, admittedly, a tiny flicker of happiness in his chest.
After all, who wouldn't want to be called a good friend?
Full Placement List:
1st: Two
2nd: Nine
3rd: Capitol
4th: One
5th: Eight
6th: Five
7th: Eleven
8th: Four
9th: Twelve
10th: Six
11th: Ten
Alder Eliter and Marshall Kane:
One of the byproducts of the overall arc I'm looking at with this story (not to mention that I'm trying to do an overall arc for the story), combined with basically cutting out half of the chapters of the story, is that some of the characters kind of fell through the cracks, hence why I'm discussing them together here. I think with any SYOT it's inevitable that some subset of the characters will get the short end of the stick, simply because of the sheer number of characters, but I think it was pretty clear here with these two that there just wasn't much of a place for them in the larger plot of the story. I truly loved getting to write each of them, as they each provided such interesting twists on the idea of friendship, but unfortunately, their journey in the Events ends here. Thanks so much to Reader Castellan for Marshall and santiago . poncini 20 for Alder!
~.~.~
And here we have another chapter! What did you guys think of the challenge? Was Noel's logic of who to send into the elimination challenge sound? It's clear that they have a plan; will it work?
This is the last I have stockpiled for now, so I'm hoping to maybe keep up biweekly updates from here depending on how things go. But I do go back to school tomorrow so no promises, unfortunately. I think I'm hoping to do a new OTWT chapter first and then come back here.
I hope everyone is staying safe and sane and washing their hands and all that. These are scary times, so I'm sending everyone my best.
I'll see you all soon!
-goldie031
