Unless I missed the form, I'm still waiting on the Three male, so here's Four.
Angelo Tempest POV
Everything hurt, even the soles of my feet. I should have expected it from the Academy. Even the best pupils lost sometimes, and somehow it never made them think about what would happen if it had been real. I wasn't the best, and it was harder for me to ignore thoughts like that. I joined the Academy partially so I could be strong enough to fight off the bullies. Instead I traded them for stronger ones, and the originals didn't leave me alone anyway.
It was only appropriate that I lived above an apothecary, since I got myself busted up every other day. I knew more about mecidine than made any sense for a hopeful Career. With my fighting ability, it would come in handy, even if the others teased me about it. I opened the door and tiptoed inside, only relaxing when I saw my father working on some medications and knew it was useless to keep quiet. He turned at the noise and saw what had happened to me.
"Oh my god, who did this? Are you all right?" he asked as he rushed over and started examining my wounds. I tried to back away and slip past him, but he wouldn't let me. Even if he hadn't been my father, he would still be a doctor. He opened a drawer and pulled out a roll of bandages.
"It's nothing. Just roughhousing at the Academy. No pain, no gain," I said. I opened a cabinet full of pill bottles and took one out. I'd taken so many painkillers in the recent past that I recognized the bottle. I opened it and shook three of the tiny pills into my hand. I put the bottle back and was about to take the pills when my father, who had just cut off a length of bandage, looked up and leaped across the room at me, knocking me sideways into the counter.
"Don't!" he yelled, and he grabbed my hand.
"What? It's just three," I said. I opened my hand to show him. He took out the bottle and pointed at the label.
"That's epinephrine. It'll kill you in ten minutes," he said. I dropped the pills and yanked my hand back.
"Why the heck do you keep it with the medicines?" I asked.
"It is a medicine. In cardiac arrest, it stimulates the heart and restores its pulse. You take three of those with a healthy heart and it'll shoot your blood pressure fatally high," he said.
"That's... kind of cool," I said. Now that my brush with death was over, I was intrigued by the thought of medicine being both lifesaving and deadly. "Do we have any other medicines like that?"
"That's a weird thing for a doctor's son to ask," my father said. "You planning to kill someone?"
Maybe someday, I thought. Not the bullies- that would be satisfying, but it was more than I was ready to do. But someday, in the Arena, it would be all that kept me alive. The others would think I was a healer, not a killer. They didn't know I'd be both.
Careen Ellis POV
I was going to miss Four. It was the prettiest part of Panem. I loved how the ocean and the sky were two complementing shades of blue, and how the sky was still as the ocean moved. There was nothing prettier in the world than a Four sunset. The sky flowed into a rainbow and the colors reflected off the water beneath it. The Capitol didn't have anything like that.
I looked forward to sharing my last morning at home with Aiden. I met him when my boat broke down and he picked me up as I was swimming back to shore. We'd been together ever since. We met before the sun rose for a pre-volunteering swim and whatever else happened after. My twin sister Coral came along, and we splashed in the cool water as we waited for Aiden. We were just starting to wonder when he was coming when he burst from the water behind us.
"Surprise!" he said.
"How far did you have to swim underwater to sneak up like that?" Coral teased.
"Across the ocean. I came all the way from the other side," he said.
"What's it like over there?" I asked.
"Boring," he said. "But not as boring as it will be without you."
"I'll be back soon," I said. It wasn't like they had to be scared.
"You'd better be. I know you'll do great, but I'll still worry. So win as fast as you can," Coral said.
"Maybe I'll set the record," I said.
"It always has to be a challenge for you. Isn't it enough to beat everyone else in Panem?" Aiden asked.
"Good enough is okay, but better is... better," I said. Every few years, our chosen volunteer backed out, but that was never an option for me. I loved a challenge, whether it was diving twenty feet to retrieve a fallen fishing rod or eating more shrimp than my sister.
"You'll be so bored after this. There will be no challenges left," Aiden said.
"Maybe they'll let me volunteer twice," I said. "Like the Resurrection Games."
"This is so cheesy," Coral said after a lull in the conversation, "but we're really proud of you. No matter what."
"'We're so proud of Careen. She died in the Bloodbath'," I joked. "But don't worry. That definitely won't happen."
"Of course it won't. You're coming back. Who would I prowl the seas with at two in the morning if you don't?" Aiden said.
The sun was starting to come up, and we waded into the shallows to watch it from shore.
"Look at that," I said, and I pointed. A tall, thin triangle sliced through the water ten feet past where we'd just been swimming. It was a thresher shark, and I hoped it would jump for us. I'd seen them leap ten feet into the air for no reason, and it always thrilled me.
"Okay then, good thing we're not there anymore," Aiden said. Coral sprinted the last few steps through the knee-high water. Sharks could go in much shallower water than many careless people ever expected.
The sunrise was even prettier with the shark stirring up the water. Maybe I wouldn't volunteer twice after all. I wasn't sure I wanted to leave again.