"Well, it was lovely to talk to you, Paisley. You've provided very valuable information for us."

"It's my pleasure," replied Paisley nervously. "You promise none of this will get back to my parents?"

"We have intelligence everywhere. It's easy enough to pin it on someone else's slip up, or other investigation, or a myriad of other things."

"But they're gonna pin it on me no matter what happens. That's what the rebels do."

"Well, we can protect you if that happens. We won't be acting on this information right away, so we might just send you back to Eight as a double agent. We can also detain you when we detain them and keep you separate from them, to frame it as someone else tipping us off about you."

"Those ideas could work. Whatever you think is best. I just… I don't want to face the brunt of my parents' anger."

"We'll do our best to protect you from them," Ruby reassured Paisley. "Now, why don't you go rejoin the others? I'll update you if we have more information soon."

"Thank you, Madam President."

Paisley stood up and gave a little curtsy, then straightened out her skirt and turned to make her way out of the office. She was more than happy to be of service to President Emerald; after all, Paisley saw the good that she was trying to do and wanted to prevent Eight's rebels from stopping the progress that had been made. But she was definitely nervous about the possible repercussions of her parents finding out that she was not, in fact, loyal to the rebel cause. Sure, once she moved out it wouldn't matter, but Paisley was only sixteen, far too young to be on her own.

Although, now that Paisley had told Ruby everything she knew about the rebels, she would probably be moving out one way or another. More likely than not, her life after the Events would be permanently different than it was before the Events. Ever since she truly learned what the Capitol's end goal was, she knew that their aims were ones she could support, not ones that she wanted to prevent from coming to fruition. It frustrated her that the rebels couldn't see that the Capitol was actually doing good things, that they weren't the tyrannical entity that they'd been under Coriolanus Snow. But now that the moment came to truly break from the rebels, to come into her own and do what she felt was right, she couldn't help but be afraid.

At least Paisley had a week before she really had to worry about it. For now, she could just enjoy what might well be her last true weeks of childhood.

Leaving the small conference room that had been constructed on the roof of the training center, Paisley caught the elevator and rode it down to the basement, where a lounge had been constructed for the competitors in the room where training would normally be held for the Games. From what the other competitors had said, it had literally been constructed within the larger gymnasium, as temporary walls were erected in a square around the elevators and a temporary ceiling installed on top. But if she hadn't been told, Paisley wouldn't have noticed.

"Oh, hi, Paisley!" Jack exclaimed, waving his district partner over to a seat between him and Herman. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Paisley fibbed, sticking to the lie of why she couldn't come down earlier. "Much better."

"That's good!"

"Apparently the newly eliminated team is going to be joining us soon," Herman interjected. "Everyone else has been told to come down here."

"Yeah, I heard," Paisley fibbed again. "I wonder who it could be."

"Honestly, I'd be happy with anybody other than Sigmund and Ella. I'd love to see a Career team," Jack admitted, "but I'm not too optimistic. They are the strongest teams, after all, and they do have the steadiest alliance at this point."

"But anything is possible!"

"That is true."

The three alliance-mates made idle chatter as the rest of the competitors filtered into the lounge. A few moments after everyone arrived, the elevator dinged again, heralding the arrival of the newest team. To Paisley's surprise, the doors opened to reveal the team from Four. "Whoa. I wouldn't have pegged them as the first Career team to go," Paisley whispered to Jack as Herman stood up to greet the new arrivals.

"I know. They were stronger than One and Two for sure."

"I wonder what happened."

"Well, they sent us back with video footage of what happened to us, so I think we're about to find out."

After greeting the rest of the competitors in her typically boisterous fashion, Marilyn plugged a little device into the television, causing it to come to life with the footage from the day's competitions.

First, the screen played a montage of the competitors in their houses, as Violet revealed the challenge to the competitors. "Today, we will be honoring District One and their value of Commitment," she explained. "For the artisans who live in One, it is commitment to their craft that enables them to make the gorgeous jewelry, fancy clothing, and other luxury items that the district has become known for over the years. We also honor the commitment of those who moved with their jobs from Eight to One during the redistricting, who were so skilled at their work and so committed to it that they were willing to upend their lives and move districts.

"Today's challenge should not come as a surprise to most of you. For the past few days, you have been given the opportunity to design an article of clothing for a challenge later this week. Today is that challenge! We hope that you were committed enough to work on your clothing over the course of the week, because you will only have one hour to choose which outfit you will be using. Those outfits will then be judged by an elite panel of judges, and we will reveal the results to you later today. Good luck!"

The competitors, still in their houses, began to bustle around, pulling out their drawings and frantically scribbling on them to finish off the last details of their outfits. It was clear from the camera work that some of the teams, such as the teams from Nine and Six, had already been putting some thought into their outfits, while others, such as the pairs from One and Two, had hardly started. By the end of the hour, at least all of the competitors had some sort of design on paper, but some had far less of a concrete design than others.

After displaying the sketches of each team's design, the scene shifted to footage of a long catwalk that had been erected in the middle of the courtyard. The competitors were seated on either side of the catwalk, so that they could have a front row seat to see all of the outfits their opponents had designed. They watched as a variety of Capitol models appeared, each wearing one of the teams' outfits. As the models walked, a panel of three stylists acting as judges, seated at the end of the catwalk, took notes on the outfits they saw. Once all of the outfits had been presented, the judges took some time to deliberate and compare notes, before announcing to the competitors the finish order and awarding the Capitol team their second straight win.

"Wow, Sigmund and Ella came in second," Jack whispered to Paisley. "I didn't expect them to be so high in a challenge like this."

"Yeah. How did a couple of kids from Six get so good at fashion design?"

"We would have done pretty well, I bet," Herman insisted. "Bow ties are an automatic win."

"I don't know if the judges like bow ties as much as you, Herman."

"I don't know if anybody likes bow ties as much as Herman does," concluded Paisley.

As the camera panned over the aftermath of the challenge, the competitors lingering for a moment before returning to their houses, it caught a glimpse of Noel and Titania whispering for a moment. Though it did not pick up what exactly the competitors were saying, it seemed to be a rather heated conversation between them. Eventually, Titania relented, nodded to Noel, and turned around, indicating to Mettius that it was time to go back to their house.

Next, a quick clip of the results ceremony played, the subtitles revealing to the competitors that Mettius and Titania had elected to send the pair from Twelve into the elimination challenge (an unsurprising decision after the previous day), and that they'd be facing the pair from Four. "Hm, that's kinda surprising. Do you really think the team from Four is that unpopular?" Paisley asked Jack.

"It's possible they're just rotating through a selection of teams and that it's not daily," Jack mused. "Or, more interestingly, perhaps people are voting for who they want to see in the elimination challenge. If they knew that the Careers were targeting the team from Twelve, and that so many of the remaining challenges were based on the Career districts' values and therefore the Careers would likely do well, maybe people voted for the team from Four for the sake of this showdown. Mina and Marilyn did seem to be getting close before we left, and it would be good for the drama."

"That's not very nice."

"No it is not."

The screen shifted again to the Elimination Challenge Arena, which had been set up with four booths arranged in a square, the pair from Four set across from each other and the pair from Twelve set across from each other. Once each competitor took a seat at their booth, Violet explained the challenge.

"The question is simple: what would you be willing to do to stay in the Events? In each round, I will present you with a scenario or a task and you will individually write down whether or not you would be willing to do that thing. So for example, would you be willing to wear the same outfit for all of the remaining challenges? Or would you be willing to dye your hair any color you choose? If both members of the team say yes, your team moves on, but if even one person says no, you will be eliminated. But be warned: anything that you and your teammate say yes to, you will have to do. You will be able to discuss with each other through the text communication devices in your booths, as well as by writing to each other on your whiteboard, but you will ultimately be making your own decisions. Does this make sense?" The competitors nodded.

"Now, for the first task. Would you be willing to wake up 15 minutes earlier than everyone else for the rest of the Events? You have two minutes to discuss." Before the camera could even pan around to the competitors, all four had entered their answers. "If everyone would please reveal what they've picked." A bright green light turned on behind each of the competitors. "And you have all chosen yes, so you all stay in. Next question. Would you be willing to assign yourself a curfew of immediately after the results ceremony?"

This was clearly a more difficult question, as was reflected on the faces of the competitors, who seemed much deeper in thought. It took nearly the full two minutes for the last of the competitors to enter their answer. "If everyone would please reveal what they've picked."

To Paisley's surprise, the lights behind the competitors from Four turned a bright red instead of green. "They chose no?" she exclaimed.

"We figured that Noel would get madder if we couldn't go to our Pack meetings," Marilyn explained weakly, "and we were hoping that the team from Twelve would say no for the same reason."

"And you are not worrying about them retaliating if they find out?" asked one of the Atticuses.

"How could they?" asked Augustus, as the figures of the competitors on screen left their booths and went to hug each other. "The only way they could know is if the pair from Twelve told them. And we're fairly confident that that won't happen."

Paisley watched as the competitors embraced, Marilyn lingering for quite a while in Mina's embrace as Atticus conversed with Cam. Then, as the teams pulled apart, the screen faded to black.

"There's something else going on there," Paisley whispered to Jack as the competitors began to chatter amongst themselves.

"You think?" replied Jack.

"Yeah. Noel is a win at all costs type; they would understand. I don't understand why that would have been a thought that even crossed their minds, unless…"

"You think they threw the challenge?"

"I think it's a decent bet."

"But why?"

"Well, I think Marilyn likes Mina."

"But Twelve could just as easily go up for elimination again tomorrow."

Paisley nodded. "That's just the risk Four chose to take. I hope for their sake it pays off."

Full Placement List:

1st: Capitol

2nd: Six

3rd: Twelve

4th: Eleven

5th: Nine

6th: Four

7th: One

8th: Two

Augustus Nero:

What a lovely character! I think Augustus fell victim to something that a few of the other kids in this fic did which is that his story was overshadowed by his partner's. This is bound to happen when the kids are paired up but I am sorry that I didn't get to explore Augustus's development a little more, especially with what this fic has turned into. Thank you so much to Mistycharming for Augustus!

March Porcher:

So I have grown a lot in the last year or so and I think one of the things I realized through that growth was that I might not be the best suited author to tell March's story. I think that contributed a lot to the change in the fic because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't creating a negative portrayal or anything of the like, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't factor into my decisions on changing the format of the story. I do appreciate the time I got to write March, and I hope someday they can find a place in the hands of a more appropriate author! Thank you so much to CelticGames4 for March!

~.~.~

And here we have the third of three formats! In case you don't know I'm a big fan of Survivor and Big Brother and the Ponderosa/"joining the jury house" segments are some of my favorites, so when I was developing formats I knew this was one I wanted to work with. It also gives me the ability to wrap up a few of the other arcs that I had going so that's always a plus. I hope you guys enjoyed getting another peek back into Paisley! And what do you think happened in the challenge?

So we've now gotten to check out all of the formats! There are five more fun format chapters left (at this point - I might change it idk) so knowing which districts haven't gone yet and which formats we have, any guesses as to what district we might see in what format?

Thanks y'all for sticking with me so far! I'll see you next week with another chapter!

-goldie031