Chapter Twenty-Six: The Ones We Leave Behind

Technically Still Reaping Day

Clara Ridley, District One Female

This place is breathtaking.

I've been inside here once before- to say goodbye to last year's chosen female, Scarlett. We weren't close friends or anything, but she was nice to train alongside. We learned a lot from each other, and all in all, I was happy she was there.

She didn't make it back home, unfortunately. But all the tips she passed on to me remained. Trust me, if anyone else thinks they can win these Games, they've got another thing coming.

However, I have to survive ten minutes with my parents in this enclosed space first. I figured the probability of them- or at least my father- going ballistic was pretty high once they got in the room, and once they enter, I realize that I'm probably going to be right. My mom just looks worried, clutching Alvar just a little too tightly as she walks in, but I can practically see the steam coming off my dad's face.

As soon as he gets close enough, he leans in to get as close to my face as possible before whispering, "Young lady, you better be able to explain yourself. Right. This. Instant."

"First off, personal space," I say, causing Dad to take maybe half a step back. Secondly, I have a bit of a secret to tell you."

Mom actually summons up the courage to speak for once. "I'm listening."

"Remember when you told me that the exercise place a few blocks away was one of the few places I was allowed to go on my own?"

They nod.

"Yeah. About that, I never went there. I was actually going to the Hunger Games Training Center to prepare for this. I have been for about six years at this point."

Mom looks away. However, Dad's face goes such a deep shade of red I'm legitimately worried that he might explode. About fifty feet away, another set of parents and two kids (presumably Nascar's family) have started giving us really weird looks. I don't blame them. My father may be an insane, hyper-controlling nut job, but he goes to some effort to rein it in whenever he leaves the house. There have been many private instances of something like this, but this will be his first public one (and hopefully his last).

"You have no idea how hard I'm restraining myself so I don't slap you into next week," he growls. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?"

I keep my mouth firmly closed, any response here runs the risk of making everything worse. If it gets really bad, the Peacekeepers standing watch can help break it up.

"YOUR MOTHER AND I HAVE SLAVED AWAY FOR THE PAST EIGHTEEN YEARS OF YOUR LIFE, TRYING TO TURN YOU INTO A PRODUCTIVE AND HAPPY HUMAN BEING, AND YOU GO AND FLUSH IT ALL DOWN THE TOILET LIKE THAT!? YOU ARE A HORRIBLE, DISRESPECTFUL EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING, YOU KNOW THAT!?"

"Fraser-" Mom tries to say something, but it gets ignored. Everyone in the room is staring at Dad right now. I'm not sure whether to be embarrassed or relieved.

"EVERYTHING WE DID, EVERY CHOICE WE MADE, WAS FOR YOUR BENEFIT, AND YOURS ALONE. AND YOU TREAT US LIKE THIS!?"

He'd probably have a lot more to say, but the Peacekeepers in the room have finally had enough. Swift and silent, two march up, one grabbing each of Dad's arms. Even as he's being dragged out, he's still going on.

"IF AND WHEN YOU EVER GET HOME, I WILL GROUND YOU UNTIL-"

His rant is cut off by the door slamming shut. The room is relatively silent once again.

Mom looks small and frail, even without Dad by her side. "Look, sweetie, he's just worried about you-"

"And he communicates that he's worried by screaming in my face? Mom, you don't have to dance around it; he has anger issues. Just go out and say it. And I already said this, but don't call me sweetie. I'm eighteen!"

"Clara, relax. I'm just really nervous about you leaving. You might never come back. And why were you lying to us for all these years?"

"Because you would have shut it down, just like everything else I enjoyed in my life. This was the only thing I had that was private. It wasn't getting constant scrutiny from one of you because it was too dangerous. It was the one thing I had to myself, and that no one else interrupted! I wanted some freedom in my life, and this is where I found it!"

I expect her to say something, or at least tear into me like Dad did. However, she does neither. Instead, she closes her eyes and lets the tears fall, not even bothering to hide them. She makes her move for the exit, not saying anything as she slips out the door.

Her exit is followed by Diamond and Myland's entrances. Diamond is wearing a grin stretching from ear to ear, whereas Myland is trying to look that happy, but failing miserably. He can barely keep his smile from wavering.

"We wanted to wait until after they left, but good luck," Diamond says.

"Please make it home," Myland adds. "We've been together for so long… I'm not sure if I'll be the same if you don't come back."

"Don't worry. I'll make it home. And I will see you guys again."

At that, a girl I haven't really seen before comes over. Something about her looks familiar, but I can't place it.

"Oh, just wanted to say hello. I'm Dolores, and I'll probably be here next year," she says. "I came in to say goodbye to Nascar-" she gestures over towards where he's sitting, where a small crowd of teenagers has gathered- "and wanted to see who he was going up against."

"Oh. Well, okay then," Diamond says. "This is really awkward."

One of the Peacekeepers who's still in the room tells us "You have one minute of Goodbyes remaining. Be sure to finish up whatever you need to."

In an even more bizarre turn of events, two more people suddenly enter the room. I recognize these two right away- they're the victors who will be our mentors. My mentor, Frosting, is practically vibrating in place, she has so much repressed energy, while Nascar's mentor, Polaris, is balancing a large tray of something on one hand while clutching a stack of papers with the other. As I look closer, I realize the tray is covered with vibrantly colored cupcakes.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but before you go, does anyone want a cupcake? Frosting made them. They taste good, but all of us victors are sick of eating them by now, including me."

Nobody makes a move at first. They just return to their conversations, which makes sense.

"Goodbye, Clara," says Diamond.

"Please don't die, Clara," says Myland.

"Good luck to both of you," Dolores practically shouts. After that, the Peacekeepers start escorting everyone out of the room. However, the cupcakes manage to attract everyone's attention again, and before we know it, there's only three of them left and the room is mostly empty again.

Frosting says, "Eh, why not?" and proceeds to pop one of the remaining three into her mouth. Nascar gets up, takes the tray, and eats one of the last two.

On the way to the waiting train, Nascar carries the tray with him, one lonely cupcake still waiting on top. Nascar is gesturing towards me, and I take that as a sign that I should probably eat it.

Without thinking, I unwrap the thing and take a bite out of it. The burst of sugar is incredible. Frosting clearly knows how to make good cupcakes, although I'm not too surprised. Her parents owned a cupcake shop back when she volunteered into the games, so she had to have some idea of how the thing was made. However, who I got it from makes me remember something…

"Hey," I say to Nascar.

"What?"

"I've been away from my parents for less than an hour and I've essentially taken candy from a stranger. Is it just me, or is that really ironic?"

He says nothing. I take that as a sign to shut up and focus on the impending Games.

After all, he has to die if I'm going to win this thing.

Aryion Hylus, District Seven Male

I'm perched on the couch, wondering if this will be the smartest or stupidest decision I've ever made.

On one hand, I'm going to the Capitol for a week. I'll be made to feel like I matter. Everyone's going to see that I actually mean something. And I'll get to be on television, even if it might not be for long.

To counter that, I'm probably going to die. But don't we all die at some point? My death will just be earlier than normal.

That isn't stopping Gerald for telling me what a moron I am. Whatever. I've been yelled at enough times that I can sort of zone out while it's happening. It's become a lifesaver these past few months.

Once he's all yelled out, he manages to walk out without exploding, a positive if I've ever seen one. I'm not expecting anyone else to come, but it turns out that the door is wider than I thought, meaning a couple of people have sprung for rolling Fletcher's cot into the room.

His first words are "Aryion, what were you thinking? Do you have a death wish or something?"

"Not really. I just want to get out of here, and this seems like my ticket to do that."

"Dude, seriously. Do you have some sort of mental disorder that I've just never noticed? Who the hell volunteers into a death match like the Hunger Games for no reason?"

"Apparently, I do," I reply.

"Ugh. That's one of the things I never got about you," he says. "You don't exactly seem to have a reason for doing a lot of things! Seriously, though: why?"

"Fletcher, please. I've been bounced between orphanages for three years at this point. Dad's still dead. I have no idea where Mom is at this point, but even if I didn't; she couldn't take care of me. I broke your arm, and I got snapped at. Honestly, what the heck do I have to live for at this point?"

He points to himself, getting me to shrug. "Okay, then. I guess there's one reason I could have stayed. But there were quite a few more telling me to go. Sorry, dude."

Fletcher goes quiet. Then, without a word, he heads out the door, closing it behind him.

Alexa, my District partner, doesn't have any friends here either, meaning the place is empty, even though we still have five minutes left to talk to whoever we need to. I'm essentially alone again, just like I usually am.

A Peacekeeper sticks his head in the door. "Is anyone else coming? If not, we can head out," he says.

I just nod. I'm ready to see the Capitol.

"I don't think anyone else is coming," Alexa says. "I'm fine with that, to be honest."

"Works for me," the Peacekeeper says as he begins to usher us out of the room and towards the train. Towards the Capitol.

If this is where I'm going to spend my last days, I honestly don't mind.

Rhaemyr North, District Three Male

During the "family only" section of goodbyes, my side of the room is empty.

Even though I've been practically raised with my guild, they're still not actual family members, and thus, will have to wait for the second half in order to get in. So for now, I'm sitting on one side of the couch, while my District Partner- Sotia, I think- is saying goodbye to her family.

I don't exactly take notes, but I still realize that she's keeping a remarkably straight face. It's like this is a normal day for her. Her siblings, two girls whose ages are probably in the single digits, don't agree. Both are crying hard, while Sotia keeps brushing them off and telling them that she'll be fine and that there's nothing to worry about.

I'm not sure if she's lying through her teeth or hiding a skill I don't know about, but either way, I should probably watch my back around her before the arena.

Eventually, her sisters are all cried out and wander out of the room, while her father stays a little longer and says a few more things. After a brief conversation, ending with "Please come back, I can't lose another family member," he goes to sit down on a chair in the far corner of the room for a few minutes.

Finally, finally, finally, they allow the rest of the guild in to talk to me. Even Frenzy managed to make the trip. Hopefully there's no cameras in the room, but we have to be careful with what we say so that they're not locked up, if and when I ever see them again.

Matrix speaks first. "So, that's your name. Never thought I'd hear it."

"Ditto. I also never thought I'd be Reaped, but look where that got me."

A couple of them laugh, but it sounds forced. I don't blame them.

Frenzy goes next. "Well, I guess this had a pretty good shot at happening eventually. We had about the same chance of it being me sitting on the couch and you standing up saying goodbye. Not much we can do."

"You guys got any advice for me before they shoo you all out of here?"

Frenzy cracks a rare smile. "Not much. Just do what you're best at, and you'll probably be fine. Until the end, at least. Who knows? Everyone who enters has a shot."

"Some less than others," I say, and then immediately regret. The last thing I need is to drag down the mood when we're already pretty black on the spectrum of emotions.

Discord, of all people, says one last thing. "For all we know, the Careers could use someone like you. Try to get on their good side. They've taken outsiders in before."

"I can definitely do that."

Stryker finally says something. "If you guys are done, would you mind leaving the two of us alone for one minute? I have a few things I want to tell him in private."

Everyone backs off, and exits the room. Even though they're probably listening from just beyond the doorway, this is about as private as we can get in a place like this.

She leans in close, probably so the cameras in here (if they exist) can't pick up what she says. "First off, if you win, your spot will still be open if you want to come back."

"Stryker, if I win, I won't need my spot. Hell, none of you will! I've seen those houses in the Victor's Village before, there's more than enough room for all of us. We could be one weird, awkward family in there, and it would probably work."

She frowns for a second, but doesn't pursue the issue. "Well, okay then. Second, don't worry about leaving us behind. You'll be gone, but you won't be forgotten."

I smile. That's one of the main reasons I love being here: everyone here is genuinely a nice person, and we stick together, even when we're not in the same place.

"And one last thing."

She leans in so close that her lips are practically touching my face. I'm not sure whether to be flattered or creeped out.

"My name is Alice."

My jaw drops.

Stryker- or Alice- I'm not sure what I should call her anymore- steps away from me on that note. Just like usual, she vanishes without a trace.

Despite everything, I smile. Even in the worst of times, I can still trust her.

Unfortunately for me, the Games are not going to work the same way. There, it'll be every man for himself.

Let's just hope I can succeed at this, without the kids that raised me.

Catarina Lynn, District Five Female

The room feels so packed, I almost can't breathe.

Mom, plus all six of my siblings, have crowded in here to say their goodbyes. I'm full-on crying now, not even bothering to try and hide it. I know this is probably getting filmed and broadcast to the nation later on, but screw them, I don't care.

Minnie just looks kind of confused, but everyone else is crying as well. They know this is it. I might not be the weakest tribute to ever be sent in, but I can't fight. And I can't take down any of the monsters that call themselves Careers, either. I've seen enough Games on television to know that.

"Catarina," Carter says, "It's going to be a lot tougher keeping things together back home without you. I can barely do it with you! Why did this have to happen? Why?"

"Because… oh, forget it, I have no idea," I respond. "And that means Myra's going to have to step up a little earlier than I would have liked. She turns ten this month, though: she can probably handle it."

Mom still looks exhausted, even though she was given the day off from work. "We'll be cheering you on the whole time," Mom says. "Don't give up, we'll be supporting you every step of the way."

Jake smiles, and then opens his hands, revealing his lifetime savings: a couple of coins and a piece of orange money that I'm pretty confident came from one of the board games at his friend's house. "I can send you the big gray thing!"

My crying begins to slow down a little, as does everyone else's. "Oh, you mean a sponsor parachute?" The gesture is nice, but I'm pretty confident that won't be enough to send me anything. At least he's optimistic.

"If we pool everything together, we might be able to send in something," Myra says. "Sure, probably not much, but at least it's better than not helping at all."

"We can count it up when we get home," Rush adds.

"Aw, you guys always do stuff like that for me," I say. I don't bother telling them that it's probably not going to mean anything, that the odds of me dying are astronomically high, that this will probably be the last time they see me in person, and not on some screen while the entire nation looks on.

They know that already. Adding more negative emotions to the mix is not going to help.

Squirrel moves close and hugs me, impressively tight for a six-year-old. "I'll miss you, Catarina."

The tears start falling fast. Great, now I'm crying again. And at this point, I'm not sure if I'll ever stop. I squeeze him back, saying, "I'll miss you too."

"We all will," Carter says.

After that, the Peacekeepers in the room usher them all out as sobbing wracks their bodies. The room becomes empty once again, and it feels like the weight of the world has just been dropped on my narrow shoulders. Even though the boy next to me has at least sixty pounds and five inches on me, he looks the exact same way.

"Ready to die?" The kid- I'm assuming this is Spark- says this with so much bitterness in his voice that I'm not sure if he meant that as a question or a statement.

"No," I say. "I'm not dying, I'm not dying, I'm not dying…"

"Saying it over and over again isn't helping. There's stuff we can do to help us get through this, but just saying crap repeatedly isn't it."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, picking up skills from the stations we're going to, bulking up a little, getting some allies…"

"All those sound great," I say. Only problem is we're probably going to have to wait until tomorrow to start most of it."

"Why don't we start a little early?"

Lucky for me, I'm not too shabby at picking up subtext when it's laid down. "Are you saying you want to ally with me?"

"I don't know yet, since we've been with each other for, like, three minutes," Spark says. "But why don't we try and stick together for the first day of training and see where that gets us?"

"No problems with that," I reply. I mean, why not? Having an ally is a pretty big deal, especially this early. And going in with someone I know might make this ordeal more bearable.

I try to push back the thought that he has to die if I'm going to live.

Lacey Loveless, District Eight Female

The doors to the outside world have opened, and my parents- or at least the walking carcasses who used to be my parents- have been allowed in. Both have looks of utter terror and disbelief on their faces. Neither seem quite ready to let me go yet.

Dad only has a single word for me. "Why?"

Mom fares a little better, at least forming a coherent sentence. "Why did you do this to us, Lacey? Was it something we did?"

"Mom, Dad, I didn't do this to spite you," I say. "I did this for me. I can't live the way I've been living for the rest of my life."

They don't seem to understand. Mom at least has an idea of where I'm coming from, but Dad is utterly clueless. "Meaning?"

"Meaning I can't live and still feel nothing. If I don't feel anything, I might as well be a robot. And at least they can do some really cool tasks if they put their, well, intelligence to it. I've always felt like I'm a human with all the fun sucked out of it. This is a chance to change that."

Mom's eyes bug out, and her hands clench into fists, turning crimson while the rest of her goes stark white. "You want to change that by getting yourself killed? How is that supposed to help?"

"I'm not getting killed. I'm going to be the one going home."

Dad's not impressed, although I don't blame him. "Sweetie, everyone says that in their goodbyes. Saying it doesn't make it true."

"Saying it might not, but doing things to help definitely will," I say. "You might not have known this, but I've gotten pretty proficient with a knife in the past six months." When their mouths begin to hang open, I add, "I've been training in an alley whenever I had spare time. In terms of how ready everyone's going to be for the Games, I'm pretty well off."

Oh, dear. I'm not sure whether they're going to burst into tears or start screaming at me. I'm pretty confident that if I cut their faces symmetrically in half, you wouldn't be able to tell that the halves were ever connected.

"Lacey, why couldn't you tell us that? Then we could have talked you out of this," Mom says.

"Exactly. That's why I didn't tell you. I'm not easy to talk out of things, but when you guys are at the helm…" I shudder for a second. "Yeah, let's just move on."

Mom and Dad have tears in their eyes now. The situation must be crushing them. Yet still, I feel hollow and empty.

"Please come home, Lacey. I don't know what we'll do when you're gone," Mom says before the Peacekeepers usher her and Dad out.

I silently hope that that's the end of it, but of course that can't happen. A few seconds later, I'm sharing the room with two other boys- presumably Romeo's friends- and a very pissed Taffeta.

"Lacey. What the fuck? Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK? Are you clinically insane and I just never noticed or something?

"Taffeta," I say back, trying to work past her glaring and venom, "You and I both know I'm already most of the way there. I'm sorry for not telling you about this earlier, the last time we met. I've been ready to do this for quite some time."

"Ready to do what? Commit suicide? Because that's basically what this is," Taffeta hisses. Her eyes narrow to slits, and she keeps inching her face closer and closer to mine like she's trying to possess me.

"Ready to be normal. I just want to be able to feel things like everyone else does. If this doesn't make me feel anything, nothing will."

Taffeta's not buying it. "Lacey, if you just wanted to feel something, you could have just told me that! I could have figured out something to do other than get you killed. Seriously, if you don't win, who the hell are you going to benefit by going into this mess? Because whoever they are, I don't see them."

As if to specifically defy her, the door swings open once more, and Taffeta is suddenly sharing the tight space with a smaller girl wearing a faded blue dress and a hair ribbon that probably used to be pink, but now is nothing more than a frayed, nearly white thing entangled in her dirty brown hair.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever you guys were doing," the girl interjects, "but I just wanted to say thank you."

Taffeta stares at the girl like she'd just told her that she was an escaped rebel trying to hide from the Peacekeepers in plain sight. "Why?"

"I'm Button Nishum. You know, the girl your friend- or sister- or whatever- saved. Meaning I actually get a chance at life. I don't know why you volunteered, but I'm supporting you for as long as I can."

She exits almost as quickly as she entered, leaving me with Taffeta again. "Ignore her. So you helped one person out. What's that going to matter when you inevitably die?"

"Because I'm not going to die. I'm going to be home soon, and then we'll be back together again. You'll never have to worry about this again."

Taffeta stares at me, blank. "Lacey, if there's one thing I've learned from being friends with you for three years, it's that you were never afraid to tell secrets, since embarrassment seemed to be a foreign concept to you. But this? This is a pretty damn big secret you conveniently 'forgot' to tell me about."

"Taffeta, I-"

"Lacey, you might come home, but whether or not we'll still be friends when you get back is definitely something I'll need to think about."

Before I can say anything to try and defend myself, she leaves the room as well, leaving it empty except for Romeo's friends, who soon follow her lead. And then it's just us.

I sigh. In less than ten minutes, I lost the trust of the one person I thought had it. I should be bawling my eyes out at this point like some scared little girl. However, my mind is still blank. Still empty.

And something tells me that if I still can't feel anything after that, the chances are pretty high that I never will.

Vick Even, District Four Male

Thankfully, the door is extra wide, so my mother can get wheeled in on some sort of cot to say goodbye.

If I wasn't able to see her one last time before I go out to try and save both her life and mine, I might have lost it, in front of a trained and probably deadly Career. And I really need to make a good first impression for her. If she's anything like her sister, I'll be dead in the first three minutes if I show any kind of weakness now.

"Vick, why?" These are the first words that come out of Mom's mouth.

"Honestly, I have a question, too: why not? I mean, look at the options. If I win the Games, I'll be able to save your life, and we'll be able to have at least a few more good years with each other. If I don't, I won't be able to save you, but that won't matter, since I'll be dead. And if the prognoses you've been getting are indicators, you'll be joining me soon enough. I just don't want to sit around and watch you slowly die, knowing there was something I could have done to help you."

"Vick, you're too young for this! You have a life ahead of you! Why would you throw it away just on the chance that you'd be able to get me treated in the Capitol?"

"Mom, I'm sorry, but I've been living with you for seventeen years. You've done everything you could to help me when it mattered. You're the reason I learned how to swim, you're the reason I didn't drown in that kiddie pool when I was three, you're the reason that I got put in the hospital when I got that really bad case of the flu that could have killed me, hell, you're the reason I'm standing here in the first place! Why can't I do something to try and make up that deficit?"

"Because that deficit just isn't worth your life."

Those words echo around my head, bouncing off the sides and pounding themselves into my brain, over and over and over again. All of a sudden, I start second-guessing myself, as well as everything I've done that brought me up to this point. Is this really going to be worth it?

"Mom, I'm sorry you feel that way," I say, more quietly this time, "but there's nothing I can do to change it now."

Mom stares at me for a solid five second before the first tears begin to slip from her eyes. As they begin to wind down her face, she moves closer to me and squeezes me as tightly as possible. Which, even with all the horrible therapies she's had to suffer through, is still pretty tight.

"I'll see you soon, Vick," she says, as the medical staff who brought her in usher her back out, wheeling the cot back out the door before it closes behind them.

Then, I watch Sienna's family, for a time- her parents seem a combination of worried and determined, while her Victor sister shows nothing but pride and certainty of another victory. They're blocking my view of Sienna herself, so I have no idea what she's thinking right now, but I'm assuming she looks exactly like her sister.

Then, they depart, and the door swings open again to reveal Aqua, her eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot. Every step she takes looks like it hurts, and I'm pretty confident that she's so fragile a strong breeze could knock her down.

Her first words match my Mom's exactly. "Vick, why?"

"It's for Mom. If I win, she can get treated."

"But what about if you lose?"

"Then at least we'll see each other again soon."

Aqua's rate of crying accelerates even more. "Vick, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself if you don't get back. How could you do this to me and not tell me?"

"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, Aqua. I didn't have time to tell you beforehand, even though I wanted to. I hope you can forgive me."

It takes a few seconds, but she eventually says, "I can forgive, even if I won't forget. I'll be watching every step of the way, Vick. Please win for me so I can be normal again."

I smile. "I can handle that, Aqua."

"You better," she says before she leaves the room, leaving me and Sienna alone, except for a young woman a little older that Sienna, clearly wishing her luck.

However, in a surprise move, the door flies open one last time, and I'm suddenly face to face with a boy I've never seen before. He's definitely a Career Academy Trainee- at least four inches taller and fifty pounds heavier, rippling with muscle. His curly red hair shoots out all over the place, and I'm pretty confident his eyes could cut me in half with their gaze, they're so bright.

I hear a gasp from across the room. When I turn to find the source, I realize it came from Sienna, who's sitting stock-still, not moving a muscle, while staring at him.

"I'm Ripple," he introduces himself. I'm confused for a few seconds more, but then I put together the dots.

"You were supposed to be her District Partner?"

"Yes, of course."

Great. Now I feel horrible for stealing this guy's spot for selfish, selfish reasons.

"And I wanted to say thank you, for beating me to the punch."

Sienna still hasn't moved. I'm pretty confident I haven't either, not in the last ten seconds, at least.

"Now, I don't come off as a coward for not volunteering: I'm just someone unlucky. In all honesty, the Games terrified me. I only started because I was homeless at the time and the Career Academy had dorms to sleep in if I signed up."

He continues on, not breaking for a second. "I trained and trained and trained, mostly because there was nothing better to do there. I got really good, even though I wasn't trying to be. I never wanted to be the best tribute, and get sent out there to almost certainly die. But now, I don't have to live with all the guilt that comes with letting our District down like that."

He turns to Sienna. "Sorry for not telling you about all that earlier. Knowing your sister, though, you'll probably be fine. Good luck to the both of you. I hope you make our District proud once again!" On that note, he exits, leaving the room empty except for the shell-shocked pair of us, and the young lady talking to Sienna earlier.

Now I feel a little better about getting the spot.

I just hope I'll feel the same way in a week, once I'm standing on my pedestal, ready to fight to the death or die trying.

Author's Notes:

-Sorry if the focus was a little uneven. I just found it easier to fill space for some tributes than others.

-School just started up where I live, and college applications are coming soon, meaning from this point for the next few months, updates are going to be much slower. I'll write whenever I have free time, but I'm just not going to have a lot of it.

-Next chapter (whenever it comes out) will feature Galadia, Sienna, Zari, Alexa, Marius, and Maxxer (again, not necessarily in that order). I'll see you again, whenever that comes out.