Leah Rockwell, 18 years old

Two months before the reapings

Hermes is up to his old tricks again.

This is supposed to be our date, our time together, yet he's making googly-eyes at the leggy blonde waitress from the other side of the cafe.

This is so typical of him, yet I can't help but feel betrayed when he does stuff like this. He'll eye up, chat up and butter up any attractive girl he sees, whether he's involved in a relationship or not. Words cannot describe how utterly annoying it is to have him act like this.

Honestly!

Like, yeah, that waitress isn't bad-looking, but she doesn't compare to me. For starters, she's older than me, and it shows. At least a good year or two older. I can see it on her face.

And secondly, she's acting like such a slut. I understand that that dinky little dress and frilly apron is part of the uniform, but none of the other waitresses' dresses are as short as her. None of them bend over as far as she does, everything under that dress on full display. None of them sway their hips like she does while walking, none of them use sultry tones when talking with the attractive male customers.

She's so shameless.

And Hermes is drinking it all right up.

I snap my fingers in front of his face to get his attention. He whirls around immediately with a look of guilt. Ah, so he knows he's been caught. Here comes the apology.

"Sorry, Leah," he says, jutting out his bottom lip slightly like he always does while trying to look apologetic. "I got distracted."

"I know," I sigh. I rest my chin in one hand and use my other hand to swirl the metal straw around my glass of iced coffee. I make sure to appear bored and displeased. And that I have a slightly sad glimmer in my eyes.

Hermes picks up on it. He lays his hand on top of the one holding the straw and gives it a squeeze. "Look, tell you what: I'll make it up to you. How about we go hit the Cardturner after I'm finished with training for the day, eh? I can pay, if you want."

I smile. "Sure. That sounds great!" I make sure to keep my tone optimistic and polite, looking forward to our new plans.

Inwardly, however, I'm cackling. He's so easy to play with, he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and it's a cinch to manipulate him into doing what I want.

The Cardturner is a hip and modern new club that opened two weeks ago. A couple of my friends have already been there and they raved about it to me. All decked out in LED lights, great drinks, even greater service, and loud trendy music with bass lines so hard you can feel them pulse through your veins.

(Not to mention that there will most certainly be beautiful girls there, meaning that Hermes will ogle them, I can catch him in the act and pretend to be upset, and he'll be apologetic and take me somewhere else amazing to make it up for it.)

It's also the only club in the District (that I'm aware of, at least) that lets in people under the age of 21, even though that's actually illegal.

It won't stop the bouncers from letting you in if you give them a wad of cash, however. My friends mentioned to me how they both had to spend half their salaries for the month just to get in.

That won't be a problem for me and Hermes, though. Hermes' family is filthy rich. If he can afford to train for the Games, he can afford to get us into that club.

Speaking of which…

We have ten minutes until Hermes has to go back to the Academy. If he's going to take a shot at winning the Games, it would be extremely bad form if he were to turn up late. Especially since Magnus Carver himself is taking a class today. You'd be a fool not to want to learn under our first Victor.

But I'm confident that Hermes will be Victor Number Four, which will put us one Victor above those prissy brats over in District One.

Not to mention it means I… I mean, we will be set for life.

I can already taste the gourmet food our chef will prepare for us, smell the sweetest perfumes, feel the fabric of the most stylish clothes money can buy. Me, in an Estelle Autumna dress, with Hermes on my arm in a respectable Hanson Charmer suit, the scents of peppermint and magnolias following us wherever we go.

I sip the last of my iced coffee as I smile. Yes, that's the life for me.