One last training chapter and then I'll do interviews and sessions!

Maizie Rye, District Nine female (16)

No one wants to hear about other people's problems. What do people LIKE hearing about? Jokes!

"So, do you have any sisters?" I asked my mentor Flora.

"Why yes, how did you guess?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe Cora or Nora?"

Flora's face scrunched up in confusion. "Why?" she asked.

"Because they..." I started, but didn't have the heart to make fun of someone as nice as Flora. As the old ladies in Nine would say, she didn't have the sense God gave a goose. But as the old ladies in Nine would also say, bless her heart. "I dunno, just a guess."

"No, their names are Delilah and Terpsichord." Flora said.

"Oh. Those are nice names." I lied. Delilah was all right, anyway... I'd have made a joke about Terpsichord being the musical one in the family but I didn't want to leave Flora behind again.

"So, what do you usually tell people going into the Games?" I asked.

Flora drew herself up proudly. "I give very good advice. I always tell them it's very important to go into the Cornucopia and get supplies, since most people die of natural causes, and not from other Tributes."

"Nice. Does that work a lot?" I asked. I wasn't even trying to be sarcastic. Sure, Nine had never had a winner, but maybe at least we usually lasted a long time.

"No, most of my Tributes die in the Bloodbath." Flora said.

I hid my smile. I was trying to hang out with Flora and maybe tell a few jokes but she kept beating me to the funny stuff. And she wasn't even TRYING to.

"YOU'RE not going to die in the Bloodbath, right?" Flora asked. "It's so sad watching that over and over again."

"I'll do my best." I promised. I DID intend to go in just a little bit to grab some supplies, but not ALL the way in. Leave that to the Careers and the people who could run really fast or were really lucky or something. But then I wouldn't say anyone who got raeped for the Games was lucky.

"So how did you come to be an escort, anyway?" I asked.

"It's very prestigious. I had to get five references and go through three interviews just to be considered." Flora said.

"Is there like a degree for that, or what?" I asked.

"I went to Miss Aggie's, one of the finest finishing schools in the Capitol. I learned how to make conversation and arrange flowers and negotiate funds and all sorts of things to help people like you." Flora said. It was endearing how excited she was to talk about it. She seemed to sincerely care more about being able to assist Tributes than she did about bragging about her accomplishments.

"Did you pick Nine, or was it just assigned?" I asked.

"You're going to laugh." Flora started, with a sigh. "Capitolites are so dumb and ditzy, right?" she sighed again. "I thought it was textiles. Go ahead and laugh. I couldn't count to eight right."

Somehow I felt obligated to defend my poor escort. "Well if so many numbers didn't look so similar, we wouldn't have this problem. Like six is just an upside-down nine? So lazy."

"You know sometimes I get Tributes who can't even READ? I'm not much of a reader myself, though, so I don't judge them. I suppose you're very busy in Nine grinding wheat into oatmeal."

"Yes, that's very hard," I said solemnly.

"Why don't you just leave it whole? That would save time." Flora asked.

"It has these little furry things on the end. They taste gross." I said.

"Someone in Three should invent new wheat that doesn't do that. I'll tell Tellie so she can tell her friends that after the Games are over." Flora said. I assumed Tellie was the Three mentor. It was nice that she was friends with Flora even though Flora was... well, doing her best. Or maybe Flora just thought they were friends...

"It must be very scary going into the Arena. I think about that every time I get new Tributes." Flora said.

"Oh, it's not so bad." I said, though my heart was poudning just at the word. I scanned my mind for a distraction and picked out the simplest joke I could think of, something even Flora could get. "Hey, wanna hear something really funny? What's white and silly?"

"What?" Flora asked.

"A windowsill!" I said.

Flora put her hand to her chest as she laughed. I didn't know rich people really did that. And she gave a real rich-lady laugh, too- sort of "ho ho ho", just like the movies.

"Oh, I just have to tell Tellie!" Flora said. She tapped on her wristwatch and scanned through holographic face projections until she found who she was looking for.

"Tellie, I just heard the funniest joke! What's white and windowsilly- oh, darn it!"

Bess Carver, District Ten female (17)

Maybe I couldn't win the Hunger Games. Maybe I couldn't change Panem and make it so things like this didn't happen. I sure could throw heavy stuff around, though. I'd take what I could get.

It was cool seeing people from all over Panem. I'd never seen an Asian person in real life. We had them in Ten, I just hadn't seen any in my area. We didn't have big cities, just mostly small towns arranged around a big Capitol-owned farm, so plenty of people went their whole lives seeing the same hundred people. I'd also never seen a person with orange skin and silver eyes. Capitolites had all the money in the world, and they used it to make themselves look downright silly. Then again, if I had that kind of money, I'd probably give myself bunny ears. How cool would that be?

People were all over in the training room. Soleil was halfway up the climbing wall. I was lucky enough to have one or two trees near where I lived, but I wasn't too good at climbing. I was really good at the part where you pulled yourself up into the branches. It was just, the branches weren't too good at holding me. Muscle weighs a lot. My grandmother would always say "you'll break your neck!" I never had yet, but it probably wasn't a good idea to risk it. Oberon was at the knife station. I really didn't want to fight, especially not with knives. I'd seen some farm accidents. A long time ago, I knew a little boy named Sodder. All the time during hay season, little kids ran around with the blunt knives we used to cut haytwine. Well, he tripped and fell just right, and it went right into his eye. We think he would have lived if it hadn't gotten infected. I still thought about that now and then. People know knives are dangerous but I think most of them haven't really seen it.

The Careers were at the archery station, cheering on Nailah and Allure. Nailah was doing a lot better. Allure wasn't bad, it was just Nailah seemed better. She was wearing really tight black leggings, I noticed. They looked really good on her. I felt like a creep looking so I looked away, but I kept looking back every now and then. Just to see what the competition was up to, I told myself. But I was lying and I knew it. I just wanted to look at Nailah. It wasn't my fault she was so pretty. I wondered if she felt pretty. It must be nice to look in a mirror and see a beautiful face every morning. I considered myself pretty enough, but I was nothing that special.

My District partner was at the plants station. I watched as he went through the test. He got every one right and it didn't even seem hard.

"Wow, you know a lot about plants." I said after he was done.

He shrugged. "I just have a really good memory." He said.

"That must be nice in school." I said. I'd never been much of a student myself. I was more cut out for field work.

"I hardly think straight A's will help me now," he said sheepishly. "I always wanted to be a scientist."

"Oh, you ARE really smart." I said. A plan started to come together in my head. "You know, I just happen to be pretty strong." I stood up straight and flexed my arm, smiling at the thick muscle standing out. "But not too smart, to be honest. And you're really smart but... well probably strong, too, but maybe not as strong as me. But if you put us together you get one perfect person!"

Omar smiled. "I'd almost think you were asking to be allies." he said.

"Well I'm not asking you to supper." I said.

"I'd shake your hand but I'm afraid you'd break it." Omar said.

I put out my thumb and pinkie and gently took Omar's hand. "There, all safe." I said.

"So what have you been training on? I've been doing swords and plants." Omar said afterward.

"Mostly throwing weights around. I'm good at that."

Ceto Preston, Dsitrict Four female (18)

The rest of the Careers and I sat in the One lounge, gathered around a table with a couple of pizzas in the middle. It wouldn't do for us to just charge into the Bloodbath willy-nilly. We needed a plan, which was why I'd called the meeting. Allure insisted we meet in the One lounge since it was the "prettiest". I wasn't sure how she came to that conclusion, since she'd never been in the Four or Two lounges.

"Be right back," Dionysus said after a few minutes of sitting around and nervously drumming on his legs. He ducked into his room and came back with a bottle.

"I thought you gave that up," Allure sniffed when he opened it.

"Relax. It's just a beer. These things are practically water." He said. If you asked me, beer tasted like someone else had already drank it. Why any Career would want to consume something that ruined your sharpness and senses was beyond me. I think we all suspected Dionysus would be the first to go.

"Anyone heard any rumors about what the Arena will be?" Nero asked.

"Not me," Anthony said.

"I don't think they told Extravagance." Allure said.

"Talaysa said she heard it's 'going to be hot'." Nailah surprised me by piping up. She'd barely spoken since the Careers got together. It wasn't exactly that she seemed scared or overwhelmed. She just didn't seem like much of a talker. I never gave it much thought. I was here to kill, not make friends.

"Hot? Like what kind of hot?" Dionysus asked. I wrinkled my nose at his breath, even though I couldn't really smell any alcohol. I just didn't like the idea.

"Maybe a rainforest?" Anthony suggested.

"I hope it's not a volcano," Allure said. "Then we'd be all sweaty and gross and thirsty all the time." I half-expected her to toss her hair, but she didn't. Sometimes I got the feeling Allure wasn't as shallow as she looked. It would be a good con, a One girl acting like she only cared about looks. Then coming out in the Arena and showing what she's really made of...

"Hot could mean so many things." Nailah said quietly.

"Maybe it's a METAPHOR or something." Nero said.

"Like a modeling agency. That would be perfect for you." Dionysus cracked at Allure.

"It WOULD be, since they wouldn't let YOU in." she said.

"We should plan for the Bloodbath. Who does everyone want to go after?" I asked.

"I'll take Connor and Gigi." Anthony said, then grinned. "Just kidding."

"The girl from Ten is really strong. We should take her out." Nero said.

"I have a bow, so I can pick off the fast runners." Nailah offered.

"We should definitely be organized about this." I said. "We should take out the biggest threats in a logical fashion and set ourselves up for success."

"WE'RE the biggest threats." Dionysus mused. "Has there ever been a Career breakup in the Bloodbath?"

"What a weird thing to ask." Nailah said.

Dionysus shrugged. "Expect the unexpected."

I thought over past Games I'd watched to prepare. So many times, it seemed like the Bloodbath was just chaos. People were running everywhere, and the Careers just killed whoever was closest. Not this time. We were going to be smart about this. We'd take out the ones who posed a threat to us and then it would just be a matter of cleaning out the rest of the Arena. And me, I could tie up my own loose ends. With luck, I could get both of the Fives, but if I had to pick one, I wanted Connor. He was stronger than Gigi. Gigi would die eventually anyway- hopefully not before I got to her- but Connor would be tougher. Not that it mattered, when he was going up against someone like me. I trained my whole life to give those two what they deserved.

The Careers won't actually get the Arena right. I just thought it was a funny in-joke.