Behold our first alliance!


Oberon Murdoch, District Nine male (17)

On my first day training I focused on evasion. In past years I'd noticed a lot of the Careers weren't good at climbing things. I guess that's what happens when you live in a city with no trees. Unfortunately it's also what happens if you live on a plain with mostly grain fields. I was thankful for the safety harness but after a few hours it got easier. I hadn't thought about how much upper body strength it took, though. I'd have to hit the pull-up bars for the rest of the training days and try to get as good as I could.

Knowing edible plants also meant I could avoid other people. I wouldn't have to get food at the Cornucopia or steal from other alliances. I had no idea what the Arena would be, so I tried to learn two plants from every biome I could thing of. The only thing to worry about would be if it was an indoor Arena. Usually they had food hidden around anyway and indoor Arenas weren't that common.

For the last our of training there was one more thing I had to do. In all my life there were few lessons I'd learned more personally than the hard truth that I had to prepare for the worst. I could train for months and I still wouldn't be as strong as the Careers. I could learn all the right skills and end up in the wrong Arena. Or I could just plain get unlucky in a fight. I didn't have the luxury of thinking that surely I would win and everything would turn out right. My life wasn't just about me anymore. I had to make plans for what would happen if I wasn't around.

I didn't know anything about Maizie. From my fleeting peeks throughout the day she looked like someone most people would easily befriend. She was outgoing and cheerful- the kind of person who would make any social gathering light up. For me she would be exhausting. I'd seen too much to be so lighthearted and I just wasn't really a talker. We wouldn't be allies but I did hope the best for her, for a very selfish reason.

"Oh, hey, Maizie," I said after slowly drifting closer to her and pretending it was natural. I took in a breath and cut to the chase. "I have kind of a weird question for you."

"Yeah? What's up?" she asked with a welcoming smile.

"If you win... I have a little sister," I started. Maizie gave a soft little "oh" with a sympathetic expression. "Could you just... just make sure she has food and a place to stay? I have friends who want to help but we're all poor and mostly homeless."

"Yeah, no problem," Maizie said, cutting off the rest of my impassioned plea. "What's her name?"

"Here," I said, handing her the piece of paper I had in my pocket. It had Regan's name, a picture I'd printed out, our last address and the names of some of my contacts who'd be taking care of her. My chest was tight as I handed it over. If this paper ever got used it meant I would never see Regan again. That seemed worse to me than the dying part.

"Thanks!" Maizie took the paper. She winked. "Better hope you win, though, because if I do, I'm gonna spoil her."


RJ MacCready, District Six male (16)

Most people would have said it was silly to learn first aid. While it's possible to do some things on yourself, most first aid is meant for other people. And why would anyone help anyone else in the Hunger Games? I guess I knew it was illogical but I just couldn't give it up. If I saw someone who was hurt I wanted to help. Maybe it was my last little bit of personal freedom. The Capitol could choose how I died but they couldn't choose how I lived. They couldn't make me a bad person. I had to choose that for myself and I refused to. I was almost certainly going to die anyway. If I abandoned all my morals for a chance to stay alive it would almost certainly be for nothing and I would have lost the only valuable thing I had.

I didn't notice at first that another boy was at the first aid station. He was so quiet and seemed almost skittishly private. I felt like I was interrupting him just by being close to him and was almost shocked when he looked up at me.

"You're from Six, right?" he asked, more like a way to start a conversation than because he actually didn't know.

"Yeah. I'm RJ, but most people call me MacCready," I said. "Or just Mac."

"I'm Oberon, from Nine," the boy said. He seemed to steel himself. "Are you looking for allies? Because I am."

"Oh, I thought you were with your District partner," I said. I'd seen them talking a few hours ago.

"Oh. No, that was something else," the boy said. He debated whether to continue and did so. "I was asking her to send some help for my little sister if I died. We're orphans."

It clearly wasn't planned but that changed everything. I'd been on the fence about allies, unsure if I would find anyone I was willing to spend probably my last days with. But if Oberon was spending his training time trying to set up care for the sister he'd been parenting for who knows how long, that was the kind of person I wanted to ally with. Of course it was possible he was lying, but he'd left himself wide open to me just asking Maizie if that was really what they were talking about. And he just didn't seem like he was lying. It seemed like a liar would fish for sympathy more or add extra details to try to sound more honest. Also I just didn't really want to think he was lying. I wanted to believe that we were all in a bad position but that we were still doing our best. Maybe it would get me killed but I was probably going to die anyway. In the end it doesn't really matter how other people behave. We can only control our own actions. If I thought I was helping someone and it turned out they were lying about everything, I still tried to help and that counted for something.

"I am looking for allies," I said. "Did you want any more or just the two of us?"

"I was thinking about asking the girl from Eight. She looks really athletic," Oberon said.

"She does look strong," I agreed. "All right, let's see what she's like."


Kjole Schmeicel, District Eight female (16)

Three wasn't much of a team but we'd have to make do. Oberon was definitely a defender- all cagey and conservative and used to having a lot of things come at him. RJ didn't seem like he'd be very into sports. A few times he'd mentioned things like wanting to work together or wishing we all weren't so divided in Panem. He seemed like he'd prefer to be a cheerleader but he'd cheer for both teams.

The really funny thing was that all three of us were introverts. We'd all gotten together for dinner to talk strategy and get to know each other but I got the feeling all three of us were counting down the minutes until we'd stayed long enough to be polite and we could slip away to be alone.

"This is really good," Oberon said about the ridiculously fancy plate of pasta he was eating. At home spaghetti was something we ate because it was so cheap we could buy enough for my massive family. This was nothing like the dried stuff we took out of a box and boiled. It was freshly made to order and smothered in a sauce with ingredients that probably cost more than my parents made in a month. But here it was just normal. It didn't take a genius to see how unfair that was.

"You guys think the Arena will be outside?" I asked. I hoped it was. I would get so cramped stuck indoors for weeks. I liked hiding in my room to read for a while but not for that long. I needed to see the sun and the open air. It wasn't healthy for people to not see the sun. It made you depressed.

"I think it probably will be," RJ said. "There are so many possibilities outside. I think it makes for better TV too, since you can get all sorts of different shots."

"You're probably a fast runner, right?" Oberon asked. "Just checking to see what we should do at the Bloodbath."

"At first I thought I should run but I think if I have two strong allies maybe I should grab some stuff," I said. "You two can run in too or you can watch if anyone's coming for me."

"I don't want to go in, since I'm not very fast," Oberon said.

"I don't want to either, since I'm a coward," RJ said jokingly. "But I can definitely watch your back."

"Of course it depends on what we see when we get there," I said. How do even make plans for something you don't know anything about? Not to relate everything back to sports, but it was like showing up for a meet and you didn't even know what game you were playing. And in this game it's not just a trophy you lose.