I feel like I forgot someone. I'm sure someone will let me know if I did.

Lester Browning- District Three male (16)

A lot of people don't want to try something new because they might be bad at it. Sure, but they might be good at it and they'll never know if they don't try. I never put much faith in talent anyway. Sure I was born more flexible than average but I didn't just come out of the crib doing scorpions and turning my head around 180 degrees. That was practice and hard work. There were plenty of people born with my flexibility who didn't do anything with it until they hit puberty and it faded away.

If I wanted to help my alliance survive deep into the Games I needed to look ahead. We didn't have much time to train but if I stayed with it and focused I could learn a lot and that might be all I needed. I didn't need to hit someone in the eye with my slingshot. I only needed to hit them in the head.

It could have been any weapon, really. When I was looking around the training room I saw the slingshot and thought "Hmm, that looks pretty cool". There was no use wasting a precious training day milling around and trying to decide which weapon was the best. Better to pick one and get to work. It seemed like a good pick, too. The slingshot was light and easy to make out of whatever I had lying around. It would be better to have a pre-made one, sure, but what was great about the slingshot was it worked as much out of annoyance as it did on damage. A well-made slingshot shot by a well-trained fighter could kill someone or at least easily put an eye out. But if you weren't that skilled or were using a cobbled-together slingshot... it still really hurt to get pelted with rocks. Most people would leave to try for an easier target. And best of all, rocks were never in short supply.

All of my allies were elsewhere. Tabitha had managed to rope Skada over to the insect station with her and was trying to convince her to eat a bug. Richard was skulking around the Careers trying to get some intel- something I'd told him was a terrible idea and I was sure would end badly. Elle, oddly enough, had taken a shine to the maces and flails. It was an entirely bizarre image to think of our sweet friend Elle just straight-up smashing a guy's face in. It was nice to be on my own for a while. I loved my circus family but I just wasn't by nature a people person. I always had a great time with Tabitha but afterwards I needed to sit on my bed for a while and just read or stare out the window or sit and do nothing. It was surreal to me how Tabitha actually sought out people when she was drained. She was like a people-charged battery.

My shot went wild and the pellet bounced off the ground. I looked down at the perfectly round metal ball with discontent. In the Arena I wouldn't have nice neat little slingshot pellets. The rocks would be all different sizes and weights and shapes. I nipped out into the hall and wandered around until I found a potted plant with decorative rocks all around its base. I grabbed a handful and went back to training. The different sizes and weights tripped me up right away and I only hit the target twice out of my next eleven shots. I wasn't discouraged, though. I was basically starting all over again. I just had to keep at it and build myself back up.

Skada Socket- District Five female (15)

Training was good and all but I wasn't disappointed when time ran out and the doors were closed for the night. Sure we couldn't train anymore but neither could anyone else so it all evened out anyway. And once training was over the fun could start.

The all-you-can-eat ice cream shop in the food court had ninety-nine flavors. If I got really really small scoops I could try every single one. Except the black licorice one. Ew.

"What if you tried to leave and the waiter came out like 'Uh-uh, it's all you can eat and you can definitely eat more'," Tabitha said somberly from behind a bowl filled almost entirely with little fruit pearl things and only tiny dregs of ice cream.

"I'd eat him," Richard said.

"They'd have no one to blame but themselves. They said it was all you can eat," I said. "Hey huge subject change but you think we all got Reaped on purpose or was it just a coincidence?"

"They didn't reap the whole circus so it was probably a coincidence," Richard said. I was a little concerned on behalf of the business owners, since a huge part of Richard's skillset was having an iron stomach.

"I dunno, that's a really big coincidence," Lester said.

"Ack, brainfreeze," Elle interrupted, holding a hand to her head.

"Push your tongue on the roof of your mouth as hard as you can," Tabitha advised.

"Where'd you learn that?" Lester asked.

"I'm a smart feller," Tabitha said.

"I think probably they were mad at the circus for something," Irina said.

"I wonder why," Tabitha said, giving me a look that would have been accusing if not for the bombastic overacting. "Maybe because someone likes to read?"

It was the closest any of us could say to the niggling guilt I'd had since Reaping day. It wasn't like I was some daring rebel who was a constant thorn in the Capitol's side. Plenty of people smuggled books. I picked one of the more dangerous ones, sure, but plenty of people smuggled those, too. I looked down at my ice cream with a sudden lack of appetite.

"Don't worry," Tabitha said, shifting easily into soft reassurance. "We all thought about that but they didn't take Amaranth and you hung out with her all the time. And Juniper and Irina were both volunteers so they don't count. Really it was just five of us, which is still a really funny coincidence but it's not as bad as seven."

"You really think so?" I asked.

"I wouldn't be eating ice cream with you if I thought you got me Reaped," Richard pointed out. "I'd still eat the ice cream, but not with you."

Richard Franklin- District Five male (18)

For hours now I'd watched the Careers. They were definitely aware of it, since they were trained fighters and were always hyper-vigilant. It wasn't hard to miss a weird fat kid following them around and staring at them. I wasn't trying to blend in anyway. I wanted them to notice me and get bothered. Not that I was trying to make enemies. Definitely not in general and definitely not the Careers. I just had something I wanted to learn from them.

I'd taken a few punches in my life. My parents gave me up for adoption. Maybe I was a really ugly baby or maybe they were addicts or something. I'd never know and that was another gut-punch I'd carry with my all my life. A philosopher type might say that was why I went into the cannonball act. Actually it was just because I had freakishly strong abs before I even did much training. We all have our blessings. Anyway, I'd taken a few punches. But never from a Career.

It was dinnertime when I made my move. The more adventurous Tributes could wander the Games building and pick from dozens of exotic and fancy Capitolite eateries staffed by vendors more than happy to let a Tribute bring flocks of customers who wanted to gawk. The Careers, out of dullness and a regimented life or out of practicality since it was the closest, were in the designated Tribute cafeteria. I sidled right up to them without any attempt to be sneaky.

"Hey. What's up?" I asked with a pleasant smile. They looked up from their chicken breasts and boiled kale and weird preplanned athletic meals like an Avox had tried to strike up a conversation.

"Um, hi?" Talise said, her confusion and distaste for me dripping from her tone.

"Can we help you?" Malcolm asked sarcastically.

"I was just seeing what you all were up to," I said, circling around the table to the other side where Alice was eating her food like I wasn't even there and Juniper was trying to pretend he'd never seen me before even though we'd worked together for years. Unfortunately, Juniper was my target today. It was nothing against him, he was just the only one overcompensating and trying to fit in.

"Ooh, this looks good," I said, snatching a carrot off Juniper's plate.

"What the-" Juniper started. He might have finished but I didn't hear him since I was falling onto my butt. He'd swiveled around and punched me in the nose without even standing up. I got to my feet unsteadily.

"Thanks," I said, a little slurred since my face was stiff and numb. I walked away as the Careers stared after me in astonishment. When people think about fighting they always think about hurting the other person. But the thing about a fight is the other guy is fighting, too. To win a fight you need to know how to punch. You also need to know how to take one.

Elle Phant- District Eight female (17)

It was great having a few days in the Capitol. It was the trip of a lifetime to be able to see all we'd seen and do all we'd done. But still it hung over my head that all of this had a price. A candle that burns twice as bright burns half as fast. For something like this we were almost certainly giving up our entire lives.

All of us sat in the Eight lounge, in a place entirely different than we'd ever known but still looking so much the same. Tabitha with her legs hooked over the side and top of the couch sitting almost upside-down. Lester off in his own chair but still a quiet part of our group. Skada fiddling with the refreshments dumbwaiter. Richard doing some sit-ups. I wished we could freeze time and stay like this forever.

"I think we need to plan ahead." I waited for a pause in the conversation to say it. Richard sat up at my voice and Tabitha looked over, both surprised since I hadn't said much since we gathered, even though I was the one who gathered us.

"I was thinking during the Bloodbath I'd go in farthest since I'm the biggest," Richard said. A dark blue bruise marked his cheek from a plan he still insisted was "successful".

"No," I said softly. "Farther ahead."

"Oh, you mean in case we die," Tabitha said. She put a gentle lightheartedness in her matter-of-fact tone. It was all the trappings of a joke without having an actual joke.

"I guess we have to, don't we?" Skada said, having moved across the room to a couch when I spoke.

"I brought this," I said, holding up the notebook on my lap. "We can just take a few notes."

"If I die then use all my money for something funny," Tabitha said.

"Gonna buy a gravestone and spell your name wrong," Lester said.

"Perfect!" Tabitha said.

"If I die then everyone pretend you didn't know me," Skada said, and looked away as everyone protested.

"Uhh, you can have my stuff if you want or otherwise give it to orphans I guess," Richard offered.

"The Academy has you write a legal will," Irina said with a sadness I wasn't used to from her. "Kinda messed-up, really."

"If I go I guess you all can split up my stuff or give it away," I said. I didn't have much anyway aside from my bedding and a bracelet I found in the stands after one of our shows.

"Me, too," Lester said. "Except give my squirting water flower to Tabitha."

"Wow, you're gonna will me something I gave to you in the first place?" Tabitha asked. "I'd say something but I don't want to speak ill of the dead."

Tabitha Sparks- District Three female (15)

When I saw a group of kids staring at my rainbow hair at first I pretended I didn't see them. I couldn't just jump into a clown routine. I needed to think through which would be the funniest for this group and what personalizations I should add. Clowning wasn't just an art. It was also a science.

When I had the plan together I turned around and looked at the kids. When they saw me looking I mimed throwing a lasso around the closest one and pulling her closer. She smiled and came over, the rest of her friends following.

"Hey," I said to the first girl. "You want a free shake?"

The girl looked at me suspiciously, trying to figure out where exactly I had a shake concealed on my person. I looked back at her innocently.

"Sure," she said. I did a funky little dance, shaking my arms and legs.

"There you go. And it's free," I said. Her face crinkled a little as she tried not to smile. Behind her her friends didn't bother hiding their giggles.

"Can you juggle?" A little boy asked, his eyes shining.

"Hmm, let's find out," I said. I didn't have most of my tricks on my but I did have a few of my handkerchiefs stuffed in my pockets. I palmed one and put two pinched fingers by my fist to make it "appear". I pulled it out and unfurled it.

ALL OF THE ABOVE, it read.

"Whoops!" I said. I shoved it back in my hand and took out another one. YES, it read. I slipped another handkerchief from my pocket and started to juggle them. They were so light they fell slowly and it was easy to keep slipping more from my pockets and adding them to the mix.

"How do you do that?" another little boy asked.

"I guess they put them together in factories," I said innocently.

"No, the juggling!" the boy giggled.

"I'm not good at juggling, I'm just really bad at dropping things," I said.

"What else is in there?" the first girl asked as I was packing the handkerchiefs in my pockets. I bent over and pretended to look inside.

"Hmmm," I said. "I think... I think I might have some sponsors in there. What do you think?"