Rainbow is also in the evil ex alliance and I forgot her oops. She IS an ex and she wasn't an ideal partner so she kinda counts, though she's hardly in the same league as the others except Timber.

Rainbow Luca, District Ten female (14)

"Yeah, it's a great alliance!" Timber was telling me as he showed me to their table. "Dahlia's really cool and super nice. Romeo's kind of scary but that's probably just because he had a hard life."

Timber was still talking when I caught sight of the table. There was only one girl, so that must have been Dahlia. Romeo was sitting next to her, and then next to him was-

You.

Anjou looked over just as I stopped in surprise. He saw me and got a weirdly panicked look on his face. He looked at me for a second and then hastily averted his eyes.

"Hey everyone, this is Rainbow," Timber said.

"Hey," Dahlia said boredly. Romeo nodded at me.

"Something wrong?" Timber asked when he saw how Anjou was fidgeting and clearly trying to think of a reason to leave.

"Oh, it's just we used to be a couple," I said as I sat down.

"What?!" Romeo said.

"What?" Dahlia asked him, perplexed at his reaction.

"Isn't she like fourteen?" Romeo asked.

"Some people mature faster than others," Dahlia shrugged.

"Ew," Timber said, looking from me to Anjou.

"Well, let's just say there's a reason we broke up," I said. As I sat down, Anjou jumped off and ran away.

Later that night there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find Calvary with an envelope she'd clearly opened. "Here you go," she said, handing it to me like it smelled bad.

Hello Rainbow,

Sorry to bother you but I just wanted to say I'll leave the alliance and not give you trouble. I was looking back and we definitely shouldn't have been together. Well more accurately I shouldn't have gone after you. I didn't think about you being thirteen. Damn that's a terrible excuse isn't it- 'I like them young but I didn't think about it like that' Ugh sorry I shouldn't ramble. Anyway don't worry I'm not gonna be weird but if it's okay if I see you in trouble in the Arena I want to come help because goodness knows that's the least I can do.

I read the letter and thought for a while. It probably meant something that about the nicest thing a boyfriend ever did for me came from the guy who dated a thirteen-year-old when he was seventeen. Wow, my life really is a mess. Maybe Anjou wasn't the only one who needed to do some soul-searching. His stuff was a little worse than mine, though.

Hello Anjou,

It's okay, you can stay in the alliance. Safety in numbers, you know? Romance will hardly be on our mind in the Arena. I guess we both made some mistakes but maybe we'll learn something from it. Just don't look for any girlfriends in the other Tributes, okay?

Amaranth Harvey, District Nine female (12)

Traps are kinda like pranks, except most people use them to kill people. I wasn't really sure about that. If I could work it out the way I hoped, I wanted my traps to be non-lethal. I was hoping I could trap the Careers and give them a little humble pie that they'd gotten trapped by a little girl, and they couldn't eat humble pie if they were dead. So the plan was I'd trap them and then I could run away like "ha ha!" as they floundered around all embarrassed. Probably it wouldn't work out that nicely but a girl could dream.

The only problem with traps was how much work they took. The assistant, a nice older man named Gaius, was explaining how a punji stick trap worked and all I could think about was how long it would take to dig a hole that big. Maybe I could make a tiny punji pit and it would just stick your feet instead of your whole body.

Lucky for me, the trap I was most excited about was the simplest. Everyone has seen a cartoon where someone steps in a loop of rope and gets yanked upside-down dangling from a tree. It was definitely the funniest trap and just about anyone could make it. All you needed was a tree and a rope. Once you had that, you basically had the trap. I wasn't sure it would work as neatly in real life but if nothing else at least it would slow someone down so I could run away.

While I was working I kept an eye on everyone else in the room. I wasn't trying to be that brooding loner who thinks he's the only one who watches other people, I was just curious. It was cool to see Galvan and Beth racing in the pool or how Theta got frustrated trying a bunch of different weapons and ended up grabbing a baseball bat and going ham on a dummy.

I knew something was up as soon as I saw Majesty standing next to Jack. In an instant my suspicion fired up into pure rage when I saw Majesty was torturing him. He was brushing a feather against Jack every few seconds as Jack slapped at it in panic and begged him to tell him what he was doing. Then Majesty would lean in and whisper something, pulling back when Jack tried to feel for who was there.

I threw down my rope and ran over. "Hey!" I screamed so hard my face hurt, making everyone around turn to look. "Stop it! What is wrong with you?!"

Majesty looked at me with some sort of expression that he probably thought would creep me out. "You know what color your insides are?" he asked, all creepy-like.

"Yeah. Mostly pinkish, duh! Is that supposed to be scary?" I asked.

Majesty's expression shifted to something a lot closer to scary. He stared at me with cold lizard eyes and stood speechless for some time. I could see the wheels turning in his head about what he wanted to do to me.

"Oh, go ahead. Make your creepy plans about killing me," I said, turning to look at everyone staring at us. "Mr. Big Manly Man here is planning to kill a little girl, so everyone make sure to clap for him." I took Jack's hand and started walking away as Charming came up behind Majesty and started scolding him about making the alliance look bad or something.

Probably I shouldn't have said it, but once I yelled at Majesty I was pretty much all-in anyway. It wasn't that I didn't think he could kill me, since he 100% could, but it was just a matter of I was probably going to die anyway and I'd laugh a little knowing I embarrassed a Career in front of everyone. If I was lucky Majesty would have bigger fish to fry and would put logic over revenge in the Bloodbath. Long shot, but you can get a way with a lot when you're too little to be a problem.

Jack Schnapps, District Nine male (13)

No one would expect someone like me to ever go near the Careers on purpose, especially after what had just gone down. But after a day apart to let that blow over, I sought out Joseph at the axe station. I'd been listening to them over the last few days to find out which one was most approachable and it seemed to be him.

"Is that Joseph?" I asked, even though I recognized him by his Two accent.

"Yeah?" he said. "Oh, Jack?" I heard the confusion in his voice.

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "I have a really weird favor to ask."

"A favor from a Career?" Joseph didn't sound disdainful, just curious.

"I know, right? But can't hurt to ask. Worst you can do is kill me," I said. Joseph laughed kind of nervously, like he already felt guilty about me dying.

"Sure, go head," he said.

"I don't plan to win the Games. I know how it is," I said.

"Yeah, I mean..." Joseph didn't finish the inevitable.

"That aside, okay, this is really heavy, but..." I pulled up my sleeve.

"Yo, you should be more careful," Joseph said about the line of bruises.

"It was my dad," I said.

"Oh my god," Joseph gasped. "I'm sorry."

"Wish he was," I joked darkly. "But great news, it gets way worse. He bet on me for the Games. He bet on me to die."

"I don't even... oh my goodness..." Joseph stuttered.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. He and by brother both bet on me to die, either in twentieth or twenty-second place. That's where the favor comes in."

"Oh," Joseph said knowingly.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm not asking for you all to let me off because I'm blind. We both know it doesn't work that way. I'm just asking for your help pissing them off. During the Bloodbath, when the Games start I'll sit down on my podium. If you want to do me a favor, just don't come for me until after you get the others. That should be enough to ruin both their bets. I'll take whatever you all can give and when it's my time, you'll know where to find me."

"That is just so messed up," Joseph said after a second of horrified silence. "Not your plan, just... everything else."

"That's life, I guess," I said. "To be honest I was kind of a rotten person before this so I can't say it's not deserved. Don't go thinking all blind people are angels."

"It's still messed up," Joseph said. "But yeah, you got my promise, at least. I'll see what I can do with the other Careers. Laken should be all for it- he's all about fighting with equals and not just killing kids. Marley's super into dead bodies so she'll be busy with the other Bloodbath kills. I can probably convince Charming, since she's so uppity and wouldn't want to make an embarrassing kill like that. The only wild card is Majesty but I'll do what I can."

"Thanks," I said. "You're a real upstanding guy, as far as Careers go."

"No problem," Joseph said. "I think you have enough problems."

"It's all right," I shrugged. "Everyone dies eventually. I'm not saying I deserve it, but I'm kinda glad it wasn't some poor kid who never hurt anyone."

"Take care of yourself," Joseph said as I walked away.

"Thanks," I said. "You too."

OUT OF UNIVERSE NOTE: Just clarifying that yes, this is not a question of Rainbow and Anjou "both making some mistakes". That's her opinion since she's a naive kid who wants to give an abuser the benefit of the doubt but it is definitely not the truth. Also her POV came out short and she had a different one requested in her form that would be really cool so if anyone remembers, like two chapters before the Games remind me because I want her to be one of the last night POVs.