I had two POVs left so I went ahead and rolled them into private sessions!

Cheyanne Talor, District Three female- 17

I wasn't sure what the Gamemakers expected. We were a bunch of random kids who had been in the Capitol for like three days and they wanted us to show them how we could kill people. Most people could train for years and still not want to kill people. Especially other kids. So I sat on the bench outside the private session room worrying and stressing about what I was going to do.

Why do they have to be so ominous about it? The chamber outside the private session room was completely bare except for the benches we all sat on, on either side of the room, facing each other. I was sitting next to Preji, of course, and across from Porsche. I had nothing to say to Preji, and Porsche and I were akwardly meeting eyes every few minutes and looking away and soon as we did. What were we gonna say to each other? "Good luck showing them you can murder me?" Most of us weren't talking at all. Mostly it was just the Careers, who of course looked like this was just another day for them.

I wonder how that works. In the Academy, did they have private sessions all the time, or periodically to assess who would be chosen? It reminded me again of how unfair it was that they got years to prepare for this. Wasn't it enough the Capitol made us kill each other? They had to take away our slim chance for survival by adding trained killers in to stack the odds. It was amazing there were any non-Career Victors from after the academies were started. But anyway, did they have duels or tests before they even got here? They probably already knew what the private session room looked like and had rehearsed their routines down to the second. This was just a dress rehearsal for them.

"Cheyanne Talor." The voice from inside the room had such a thick Capitol accent at first I wasn't sure the man had said my name. But there was no one around with a similar name, so I got up and went inside, feeling like everyone was staring at me since I was the only one moving. I got inside the room and saw a bunch of Gamemaker high up in a recessed room. They were munching on party food as they halfheartedly watched me.

"Uh, hi," I said. "I'm gonna do some spears if that's okay."

"That's okay!" one Gamemaker blurted, and immediately blushed when everyone else stared at her.

I picked up a spear, feeling very self-conscious just alone in the middle of a big mostly empty room. I tried to block them out as I hefted the spear. I threw it and, to my surprise, it thudded pretty far into the center of the target. I'd picked spears precisely because they were longer and therefore made me closer to the target- work smarter, not harder- but there still wasn't much time to train in the little pre-Games period we had.

I threw another spear, trying to do it exactly the same way. It landed pretty close to the first spear and I noticed some of the Gamemakers were watching with more interest.

Hmm, don't want to mess it up now. I thought. I'd made two good shots and really didn't have any guarantee I could keep it up. Better to leave on a high note. I looked around the room for something easy and low-risk I could show off for until the clock ran out.

Ooh, shelter materials. I spied a pile of branches and rocks and things and set about making a little shelter. I didn't go for anything fancy- just a couple of pine branches leaned against a rock to make a tiny hidey-hole. I wasn't sure how warm it would be in a cold Arena, but at the same time, I didn't think the Gamemakers would know either. I crawled into my shelter and halfheartedly fussed around the edges for the last few seconds until I ran out of time.

As I walked out I strained my ears to listen to what the Gamemakers were saying. Some of them were distracted by the food but I heard a few numbers swirling around. The one I heard most often was eight, which I was happy about. That was a pretty good score for an outlier, but not so high the Careers would all be staring at me.

Everyone stared at me again as I walked out of the room. I tried to act normal as I walked past the benches at out the other side. I wasn't shy, not really, it was just that no one really liked having twenty-three people all looking at them. I'd gotten a pretty good score and I was happy to fade back into the background.

Porsche Romeo, District Six female- 17

I walked into the private session room. More accurately, I LIMPED into the private session room, since I'd been informed my cane was an "advantage". Apparently being able to walk is an advantage. An advantage I was the only one who would be deprived of, since everyone else could walk without a cane. But what can you do? Capitolites are gonna be Capitolites.

"All right, I'm here and I'm ready to fight. Who wants to fight?" I asked.

"We have many sparring partners of various levels." A man called from the nook where a dozen or so Capitolites were lurking.

"What are the levels?" I asked. Seemed like a pretty important piece of information to include but then most people think the things they personally know are common sense.

"We have beginner, novice, intermediate, expert, and master." the man called.

"Uhhhh, lemme have a novice." I said. A chamber in the wall opened and a man stepped out. It was probably just me having a dirty mind but it kind of reminded me of some sort of on-demand companionship thing. That seemed like something the Capitol would have.

I was glad to see the man was pretty slender and not any taller than I was. He was still probably stronger, since, you know, he wasn't crippled, but at least he wasn't so tall he could just pick me up and walk off with me. I dropped into what I imagined a fighting stance probably looked like. I wasn't very familiar with fighting stances. I was more familiar with getting-beat-up stances. But that's my secret weapon: I'm super used to getting beat up so it doesn't shock me or make me freeze up. For me it's just another day.

Since I was probably going to lose anyway, I got things started right away and came out punching. The sparring partner easily evaded my punch and countered with his own punch that hit me square in the nose.

"Ow," I said as I took a step back. Not losing any time, I leaned back in and aimed another punch. When the man brought up his hand to counter I went all in and simply tackled his midsection. He fell backwards onto the floor, me on top of him, and hit the ground with a rush of breath. I had time to punch him in the jaw before he shoved me off of him.

"Ow," I said again when I hit the ground hard, my back aching from the floor and my breastbone aching from his shove. I scooted backwards on my butt and clambered to my feet before the man could come over and pin me.

"Oh, you're coming back for more?" I asked, as though I was the one beating him up and not the other way around. "Pretty brave." I heard one of the Gamemakers laugh and graciously ignored her. I knew exactly what I was doing, thank you very much. Let's see her do any better.

I limped over to the edible plants table and leaned against it, breathing heavily. As the man came up behind me, assuming I was trying to catch my breath, I whirled around suddenly.

"Bowl!" I screamed, whipping a bowl of leaves at him like a frisbee. It bounced off his face with a little thunk and he shook his head in annoyance and slight pain. I tried to capitalize on the element of surprise by running at him, but since I only had one fully functional leg he figured it out quite a bit before I reached him.

As the man threw me to his side and onto the ground, I had an idea. As I hit the ground I screeched as loud as I could.

"Agggh, I think my arm is broken!" I wailed.

"Oh my goodness are you okay?" the man cried as he ran to help me.

"AHA!" I screamed, kicking him right in the crotch. I hopped to my feet and scuttled across the room as he was still rolling around in pain. "Fight's over fight's over I win!" I announced to the Gamemakers.

One of them looked down at me and sniffed. "Do you really think that will work in the Arena?" he asked.

"I dunno, man. What else can I do?"

Letitia Ticker, Capitolite- Private Sessions Secretary

As the secretary it was my job to write down a few of our notes to pass on to the bookkeepers and some of our more high-profile sponsors. Most of our picks were unanimous but sometimes I wrote down two names when we couldn't agree.

HIGHEST ODDS: Nero Inculta. His skills with his throwing knives and other weapons were excellent and his personality is ideal for a Career alliance.

LOWEST ODDS: Archibald Pell. He is the youngest Tribute in a largely older group and his survival skills, while not poor, simply will not be enough.

MOST LIKELY NON-CAREER: Connor Merlyn. His past in school sports has left him highly athletic and he possesses both the intelligence and the tenacity needed to win the Games.

LEAST LIKELY CAREER: Dionysus Bacchus. His staff- or "thyrsus", as he insisted- skills are only mediocre by Career standards and his allies are already growing discontent with him.

FUNNIEST SESSION: Ceto Preston/Desiree Redwood. Ceto thought her weapons skills would be more impressive if she wore a bikini. We all look pretty here, we're Capitolites? Desiree just flirted with all of us. And TACEY gave her her NUMBER because she's a FLIRT AND I KNOW SHE'S READING THIS TACEY WHY DID YOU BREAK UP WITH ME
HIGHEST SCORE: Allure Beldam, for being both excellent with her rapier and also effortlessly beautiful
LOWEST SCORE: Martin Jackman. Mad sympathy, though, since if he had like twenty more seconds he would have gotten that fire started.