-Nautica, D8M-

Jessamine Di' Whatever-The-Fuck-Her-Name-Is is a crazy bitch. She's also a creepy-ass bitch. She has a weird squeaky disgusting voice and a giggle that's even fucking worse. I could win her over if I wanted, she's so fucking self-obsessed all the damn time and really if I wanted to compliment her till she passed out from fanning herself and laughing, I could. But that'd be too disgusting, really. Her giggle is even more annoying than her normal voice.

She sits now and talks about some shit she learned "in escorting school!" I can't help but think about all the shit that we could accomplish if only we weren't left to die in the damn Games and forced to crime to survive. Trying to rob things from other people that have nothing. While these people get surgery so they can look like fucking dolls that I could smash off the edge of a table and shatter in half. What the fuck!?

She keeps talking about all her stupid fucking accomplishments, why she was so qualified for the job, blah blah blah. I watch the screen, flashbacks from the Games past, while Bubblegum Man and the stupid fucking Golden Girl talk and talk and fucking talk. All I care about right now is training scores.

My mentor is Jute Silk, a man that is too happy-go-lucky for my taste. He was a slums kid, but he wasn't a true slums kid. Slums kids are desperate to get their fingers on something, some kind of money, anything to keep on living. He goes around and acts like he's some kind of saint because he gave my best friend Ralph a nice suit coat and gave me a tie last year. Great, Jute Silk, thanks for giving me nice clothes so I can look handsome while I'm walking towards my death. Thanks. You're great. Meanwhile people are starving.

He glances worriedly at Felicity. He's incredibly uncomfortable around her, and I think that he's rooting for her more than he is for his own tribute because she's pregnant, just like his wife is at home. He thinks he's so fucking great. He really wanted to mentor the girl, but Carissa Kempton, one of District 8's oldest living Victors, insisted on taking her because she's more experienced. Save the pregnant bitch, sure. I need their advice and they've been focused on her. So what if she's pregnant? Some people have stuff to return to that's just as important as a baby that's not even been born yet.

Jute really did try to help me. His advice to me was just to keep on telling myself I'm going to make it, then nothing will stop me. Not much about getting sponsors and that shit, but I guess that's what tomorrow's going to be like.

Carissa, who won the 30th Games a long time ago, takes a seat on the back of the couch after we'd all eaten dinner together. The old lady looks kind of crazy sitting there, and Jessamine squeaks in a way that sounds like a hiccup as she quickly goes over and starts to protest.

"Ms. Kempton! Please! You'll surely break a hip if you do that!"

"I've done it every other year," she says simply. Jute goes over, and soon the pregnant bitch follows and I go last.

"Ms. Kempton!" Jessamine practically idolizes the stupid Victors. She loves to chastise us like we're fucking babies, but when it comes to the Victors, she can't even tell them to sit on the couch the right way without getting all worked up. "Please! You'll ruin the furniture!"

"Too late." The old lady shifts ever-so-slightly on the back of the couch where she sits but ultimately doesn't move.

"Please!"

"I'm already here, though. Now, won't you just sit?"

"They're going to start soon!" outbursts Felicity, quickly sitting down. "We need to see how I scored!"

"Oh yes! I'm sure you both did lovely. Come on now, Nautica."

Felicity sits, but soon gets up and moves after not being able to get comfortable. She sprawls out on the couch, half laying on Carissa's feet, who kicks out lightly to make room, causing Felicity to curl up some more so she's not touching the old mentor at all. Carissa looks pretty fucking smug up there, Jessamine giving her and the precious couch nervous looks. I don't want to sit next to Jute or Jessamine, so I sit on the floor back against the couch.

"The couch!" Jessamine despairs at seeing Carissa's feet, still in shoes, sitting on the cushion.

"For Christ's sake, woman, if you love the couch so much why don't you make love to it!?" I outburst, annoyed at her.

The others look stunned.

"I would never-!"

"Yeah yeah, because then you'd get it dirty when you-"

Felicity cuts me off before I can say anything too perverted, bringing the attention back to her as always. "My baby's kicking! It kicked today before my private session, it was so cute! Cyra from 3 was just dying to feel it so I wore down and let her!"

The mentors exchange a look and I mock-gag. Honest to God, this girl is nuts.

"Oh, I'd like to feel if the baby kicks again!" Jessamine says.

"Of course you would," I say, rolling my eyes at them in disgust. "I wouldn't put it below you."

"It's getting so big," Felicity says.

"You really shouldn't call your unborn child an it," says Carissa from the top of the couch.

Felicity doesn't look bothered, though. "We don't know what it is."

"You can use a gender-neutral pronoun like they, then," Carissa says, gently chastising like a grandmother would, if I had any idea what actual grandmothers did. "But children are not to be reduced to the same status as objects. This is your baby, after all." She speaks firmly and directly. I wish this grandma was my mentor, and not fucking Jute Silk who keeps trying to make me laugh and be genuine and that shit. I can't be genuine now. This is a fight to the death!

Felicity pouts, but the conversation ends when the Capitolites segue into the announcing of training scores.

"Well, it's surely a lovely night in the Capitol, is it not?" Bubblegum Man asks, a stupid smile on his face.

"Oh, definitely," replies Golden Girl, "Which makes the unveiling of training scores that much more exciting! Everyone raise your glasses, let's take a look at our tributes and their scores right now!"

Bubblegum Man clears his throat before announcing the first name.

"Callum Ainsworth, District One. Score of… Eight." I'm surprised he pulled it off. It certainly took a lot of work. I wonder if the Gamemakers took into consideration that if he got a shitty score he'd be kicked out of the Career pack.

"Iridesce Eurian, District One. Score of… Nine." I knew the District 1 bitch was going to score high. She's absolutely ruthless, and trained well. Compared to most of these guys, and the other so-called Careers, she must've looked extremely impressive.

"Vidarr Yggdraval, District Two. Score of… Eight." I wonder how the bastard scored so high even though he was reaped. Guess it's Career District privilege.

"Margaret Blackstone, District Two. Score of… Eight." No shocker there. She wasn't too shabby with those fencing fights I'd seen.

"Ductor Romilly, District Three. Score of… Four." Huh. I have no idea what that little deaf kid could've done to score anything above a three.

"Cyra Hensley, District Three. Score of… Five." Hm… Really, no shocker there. She's not very trained with weapons.

"Collin Glaucus, District Four. Score of… Eight." Blaine seems surprised. The boy from Four must've done something really showy or cool to deserve that. Maybe something that proved how ready he is to kill. He's so stoic and quiet, and he never smiles. He'll be some competition.

"Serafina Anya Lecter, District Four. Score of… Six." I thought the volunteer from Four would scored better. I wonder what she did. She's so damn carefree, maybe she messed around. Maybe she just sucks with weapons. She doesn't seem like a killer, that's for sure.

"Hamilton Rayce, District Five. Score of… Five." Just like his allies. I wonder how he managed that. He must've gotten over whatever panic he was having and pulled his shit together somehow.

"Cory Baker, District Five. Score of… Four." Ouch. Outscored by her own tiny weak District partner. I wonder what's happening in the Five compartment right now. Probably some fear and chaos, especially because that Abner mentor guy's not exactly stable.

"Amari Cooper, District Six. Score of… Four." Another ouchie there. I haven't really seen him doing much, really, just playing hanky panky with that girl from District 9, the little spineless one who spends her time hiding with her bunny. So pathetic.

"Billie West, District Six. Score of… Six." Not too shabby for a girl from Six of all places. And especially one with a disability. She's just plain bitchy, though, I've seen her swatting away people who just wanted to help her the whole fucking time. Whatever.

"Kendal Beck, District Seven. Score of… Seven." I look up at that one. Sevens are right below Career status. I wonder what the hell that squishy cute kid did to get a fucking Seven. I watched him trying to learn weapons, he wasn't great.

"Briella Delani, District Seven. Score of… Eight." Of course. Career girl is pretty damn strong. She said she's worked chopping down trees her whole damn life. If only every District kid could have the chance to build muscle like that.

I start to feel ever-so-slightly nervous. I could definitely make it without the Careers, after all, I'm good at fighting and experienced, and I know how to get people to like me.

"Nautica Martinez, District Eight." But still… "Score of…" Does he linger on it longer than he did the others?! I swear to God! "Eight." Phew.

I breathe a small sigh of relief as Jessamine squeaks, her voice coming out like she's choking on soap and bubbles are floating out of her damn mouth, "That's so great, Nautica!"

"Felicity Johnson, District Eight."

"They're talking about me now!" she screeches, causing the others to look up. "Score of… Five." She makes a noise of disgust, whining so loudly I can't even hear him say Kade's name, and just see the number 8 rotating around his head. Jessamine tends to her, and takes her to get some water while the mentors and I watch the rest of the scores in silence.

"Karima Highland, District Nine. Score of… Three." Figured as much. Tiny girl, and she had an ugly bloody spot on her lip from a fall from the top of the agility station. I snort, but only a little bit, covering it in coughs because I know the mentors would scold me.

"Raoul Keaton, District Ten. Score of… Four." Two in a row. Though not surprising, it's still an ouch kind of moment.

"Rachel Turner, District Ten. Score of… Eight." She's a volunteer, so it's not a big shock. Why would anyone volunteer if they didn't want to win?

"Edgard Lowell, District Eleven. Score of… Five." Alright, Not too bad for the kid from Eleven, who seems to constantly be in confusion or doubting himself. We'll see what he does.

"Martina Réyes, District Eleven. Score of… Four." I thought someone who spent so much time alone would have had a higher score, but I can't really say. Maybe she's playing weak. Maybe she just sucks. Maybe she has another plan in mind. Who the hell knows?

"Leo Aslan, District Twelve. Score of…" Blaine blinks at the paper, squinting at it, as if not believing what he sees. "Er… Score of…" He leans over to a producer, while Saxon looks confused. He looks stunned as he comes back to the camera and clears his throat. "One."

The shock hits us all and washes across like a wave. I gape at it for a second as everything pauses, Blaine quickly recovering by muttering, "So shocking…"

"And, uh, Wren Ponderosa. With a score here of five." He doesn't even pause. He's still in shock.

Saxon is the first to fully recover, giving the cameras a charming smile. "Well, what an interesting and unexpected turn of events we have here! Please, stay tuned to see what the tributes can do tomorrow night during their interviews!" She smiles as the anthem plays and the program ends.

We all sit in a tense, awkward silence.

"Oh, would you look at the time!? Off to bed now, Nautica, Felicity's already gone!" squeaks Jessamine.

"Hey, Nautica." I look up as Jute Silk comes over, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "Good job. Really, that's a phenomenal score! Nothing will get in your way back home now." He offers a smile, and I just give a slight scoff.

"Right. Well, good night." I go back to my compartment, relieved to get ready for bed.

~.~.

-Diesel, co-Head Gamemaker.-

I had just dropped off the final training scores when I see two figures running towards me at full speed. I jump in surprise at it. The first thing I notice is that my niece's once-light-pink hair is now magenta.

"Woah there!" I say, laughing as I'm almost plowed over.

"Uncle Diesel!" Padme squeaks happily, "Look at my hair!"

"It's very nice! Wow! Did your mother give you permission to do that?"

She bounces on her feet happily. "Oh, yes! She was glad I wanted to! See, it looks just like Iridesce's did!"

"Yes, I see that!" The color is matched almost exactly. It doesn't suit my niece quite as well as it did the District 1 female, but she loves it so who am I to rain on her parade?

"See mine?!" Marley asks, beaming at me. She reaches up to take the hat with cat ears on it off of her hair, and I realize that her once shin-length hair has all been chopped off. For a second I would've mistaken her for Kendal from 7. "Doesn't it look just like his?!" she asks cheerfully.

"Wow, it sure does!" I notice color in it, too, brown and green.

"And it's colored just like Riella's! Isn't it great!?"

"Yes, it really is, wow!" Marley puts the hat back on her head, beaming up at me.

I smile back down at them. "Who else is trending at school?" I ask them.

"Everyone's talking about Iridesce! And the Seven tributes too! Oh, and the girl from District 8! A lot of people like her, I think 'cause she's pregnant. Oh, and a lot of people think that the boy from 10 is cute!" Marley giggles, causing Padme to bump her, giggling as well.

"Yeah? That's cool."

"What's the Arena gonna be Uncle Diesel?!" Padme asks, her eyes wide, blue like her mother's (which always drove me crazy with jealousy).

"Ah-ah-ah. Can't tell you. You'll have to wait and find out!"

The girls both pout.

"What brings you here?" I ask them.

"Uncle Viridian said he needed a break from our noisiness, so he let us go here."

"Your uncle Viridian is babysitting you? How's that going for you?"

"It's not that bad!" Marley says, giggling.

"He took us to see the symphony!" Padme says excitedly. "I want to be the principal violinist of the symphony someday! Uncle Viridian told me I could do it!"

"I know you can do it," I say, ruffling my niece's now deep magenta hair. I've heard her play that cursed violin before, and my ears have bled from the scratchy, squeaky thing, but she can do whatever she wants to, because she's a Bundren, and Bundrens not only work hard, we also have amazing luck. And, added bonus, we're good at getting lucky. If you know what I mean.

Suddenly, I see the lazy, slow stride of Viridian himself. He looks pretty tired, his hair, as dark and deep green as his eyes (and his name) sticking up everywhere.

"Hey Viridian," I say. "I didn't think I'd see you here."

"I needed a couple minutes," he says, adjusting the glasses on his face. "How are the Games going?"

"Fine," I say. "They're going to be great!" Damn, he's so pretty. He's so damn pretty. If only he'd stop unintentionally escaping my advances. He always gets away like a damn tweety bird. Someday I'll get him in my bed, though. I know it.

"So…" I'm about to ask him about Joltee, if what that asshole said about sleeping with Viridian is really true or if he was just messing with me, but then I remember that my nieces are in the room and quickly stop the thought. "I heard you took them to see the symphony? How was that?"

"It was fine." His expression changes slightly. "I… Should probably get back home to practice some more, though… If I want to be a part of it, I'll have to work."

"What? Come on, Viridian, you're the best damn pianist I've ever seen!" There's no reason he couldn't be in the symphony now.

"I don't want to try out until I'm sure I'm ready." That's like him. He's a perfectionist, always nitpicking. Especially about music. Not even just his own. It's crazy weird. He has perfect pitch, so he can just hear something and tell you that you're flat or sharp or whatever the hell else. It's really kind of amazing. But also annoying. It's probably a good thing he's never heard Padme play the violin, because she's still not very good at it, and he'd probably tell her that and crush her dreams.

But he's especially hard on himself. The guy will play something fucking amazing and he'll get upset because he says it sucked. Music is his fixation, he lives and breathes it, that's what he does all the time. He's autistic, so the world confuses him, and so do people, but his piano (and his cats, who like me way too much) is the place he feels the most at home. I can respect that, I guess. If only he didn't have such a nice ass.

"Of course. Well, hopefully you'll be ready soon. We have some scoring things to discuss, so I'll have to be on my way."

Padme and Marley hug me goodbye, and I hug them back. "You two be good for Uncle Viridian."

Viridan just massages his temples as the girls rush out the way they came.

"See you later," I say, waving and giving him a smile.

"So long, Diesel." He turns around and walks away.

.

"A one!? Why a one!?" Blaine and Saxon have Santana and I cornered.

"Why didn't you give us some warning? I probably looked like an idiot!"

"He carved Gamemakers into a dummy and destroyed it," Santana says. "This isn't a game anymore. He's going to be dead tomorrow. First thing. Dangerous people like this must be eliminated. He thinks he's edgy and cool, but he's signed his own death sentence."

"I thought he might've been a fine Victor, as well," I sigh disdainfully. Oh well. If he's going to pretend to kill us, he's going to pay the ultimate price. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he realized that this was all his fault. We rule with an iron fist, we don't mess around. After all, it's our lives on the line.

"Vidarr was reaped! How did he get such a high score!?" Blaine asks. I have to admit, I was so impressed by all the tributes that I probably over-scored a lot of them. The prude was much more rational about hers, but we averaged them so some of them may be on the high side. Oh well, I figure, it is what it is.

"He impressed us," Santana says simply. He certainly did. I still laugh a little bit. That cocky, cheeky bastard. He has to die, of course, if I want to live, because of what he did, but I have to say that he's done everything I would've wanted in a Victor.

"And Collin?" Blaine interrogates. The boy from 4 is quiet and unimpressive, really, but he certainly was impressive to me. I scored him high, and Santana gave him an impressive score as well. He's Career material, but given the state of things this year, it doesn't really surprise me that he chose not to go with them.

"He was pretty violent. I respect that," I shrug, giving him the simple answer.

"Alright… But… What about Kendal? You can't tell me that kid did something to deserve a seven!" Saxon puts her hands on her hips, glancing at me.

"Oh, but he did." I grin a bit.

Now that's a sly, cheeky bastard.

Oh, don't get me wrong, his private session was nothing but unimpressive. He just did that stupid berry test and some knot-tying, the mantra of the inexperienced. Actually, I scored the kid higher, I gave him a solid 9, but the prude insisted we lower it. The way the kid came and faced me when that 11 boy was shitting himself is to me the most admirable thing you could do. Plus, yesterday Cobra applied to move Districts for next year. It seems they were finally able to stand up for themselves and escape the mentors that bullied them. I asked around, and it appears that the kid stood up for Cobra and lost his mentor because of it. And, what can I say? I think that's the most courageous thing he ever could've done. So, I think he has a chance. So I scored him high.

Plus, he reminds me of Ike, just a little bit. I have my reasons.

"I can't tell you about it, though."

Santana rolls her eyes. "He wasn't that impressive."

"Oh well. It's all over now," I say cheerfully.

Santana sighs heavily.

I smile and give them all a last nod. "Well, I'm going to be off to bed. Long day tomorrow preparing for interviews. You'll be up, Blaine," I say, patting the boy on the back. He gives a small smile and nods, swallowing nervously. "See you then!"

I leave and head home, still smiling and lingering on the scores and the excitement of the big reveal of our Arena.

A/N: Ah, yes, another update! I stayed up way too late doing this, I have early church tomorrow morning. Whoops. #worth it

Anyways, here we have training scores! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope all the scores are justifiable. I feel so weird scoring tributes, lol. I hope they were all satisfactory!

Hope you liked seeing Diesel's POV and some justification for the more surprising scores. As always, let me know what you wanna see more or less of, if anything.

Chapter Question: Please be honest and constructive so I know for future endeavors: Did you like seeing all 24 points of view twice, or do you feel like this took too much time? Did seeing each tribute twice help you to know them better or like them more? I know I would love to see my tribute twice and the others as well, but that's me. I want to know what you think for next time!

Thanks! That's all I've got to say. Just interviews and then we're finally ready for the Arena!