I'm sorry this took so long! I got super busy. On the bright side, there's only one chapter after this until the Games begin! Remember, please review!

I was completely terrified. I grasped at the cloth on my legs, gnawing on my lip as I rocked back and forth in my chair. Ty kept trying to talk to me, but I couldn't focus on anything he had to say. He didn't have much time to talk to me, anyway; he was called back soon enough.

Training had passed in a blur that week, and only two other people 'survived' the maze after me. I had learned a lot, but I was worried I would forget everything when I went into the arena the day after tomorrow. But that didn't matter now, what mattered now was today. Today? Today was the day we got judged by our abilities and were given a number. And if I screwed up today, I wouldn't be able to get the sponsors I needed.

Mom had told me what it was like when she was tested the first time, and when she had gotten so angry she had shot an arrow at them. I figured that today would be much the same; I should be given a set amount of time to do whatever was required, and then I would be given a number based off of that. Unfortunately, even our mentors didn't know what to expect; everything was very secretive.

When Ty left, no one was there to talk to me. Dianna had already left to get examined, and then Ty left, leaving me with Ash, Thomas, and Thray. Ash and the District 13 kids were playing, so they didn't talk to me. Thomas and Thray weren't much for talking, not then anyway, so I didn't have to worry about that.

I ran my thumbs around each other, staring at a point in the distance that I couldn't see. I didn't know what I was going to do; how could I possibly impress the judges? They weren't game makers to me anymore, they were judges... they would judge who was good enough, who would live and who would die; all under the illusion that we ourselves would pick who survived.

But it was just an illusion.

Thomas left, and then Thray. Soon, it was just Allie, John, Ash, and the kids from District 13 sitting back there with me. Then Allie left. She didn't even give us a second glance over her shoulder, and walked forth to the edge of the room and disappeared. Then it was Ash's turn; he got to his feet and walked away, saying good-bye to his friends and shooting me a forelorn glance as he left. In the silence that followed his departure, I chewed on my bottom lip, staring at the floor.

"Good luck," John's voice whispered beside me. I looked up, surprised, and saw him watching me with tired, defeated eyes. My name was uttered over the speakers and I glanced up, getting to my feet.

"Thanks," I whispered, flickering my eyes towards him. "You too." I walked towards the huge double doors. They appeared heavy-set and foreboding, but they opened the second my fingers grazed the cold metal. The training centre opened up before me and I blinked, stepping forward into the onslaught of fluorescent lights. I blinked up at the judges lined up behind the barrier some ten feet above me.

They were all cold and disinterested, and boring. All but one. The man in the center watched me with beady eyes down his long nose, and I squared my shoulders defiantly. He stippled his long fingers in front of his face, and the other judges got quiet.

"Primrose Everdeen Mallark," he said, a voice low and gruff. "Second female tribute of District Twelve... Daughter of Katniss Everdeen."

"Aye," I replied, shifting my weight onto my heels to see them better.

"Very well," he said, as though suddenly bored. "What would you like to show us?"

I took a deep breath. Now was the moment. Now, I had to decide. "The maze," I said. It was the only thing I had been truly good at; I knew all the loop holes, I knew that if I just got a gun I was safe. I would be able to do brilliantly in the maze, even though I wasn't skilled at much else.

"Not available," the man said, drawling out the last syllable. "It takes too long. You've only got five minutes."

My heart hammered up into my throat and nervous adrenaline flooded my veins. My hands started shaking slightly and my mind raced. What else was there? What else was I good at? Nothing... nothing... nothing... I tried to ignore the little voice in my head, but I couldn't.

The man was obviously waiting for me to say something. "Ms. Mallark?" he said, snide.

"Um... archery," I breathed. My mom thought I was good at that, but I knew I was nothing compared to her.

"Very well," he said, clicking a pen ominously. "Your time begins now."

I walked towards the bows hanging off to the side, but I was shaking too hard. I stumbled, the rubber on the soles of my shoes catching on the floor. Laughter erupted from the judges' stand behind me and my face flushed, but I managed to catch myself before making an embarrassing face plant. I continued walking without looking behind me, and took a bow from the rack along with a quiver.

I slung the quiver over my shoulder and spun, knocking an arrow. If I wanted to regain my composure and make them forget about that stumble, I had to impress them – now. I loosed an arrow, fixed on the center of a target some hundred meters away. The arrow flew, but the second it left the bow I knew it wasn't going to fly true. It went almost twenty centimetres wide from the target.

My heart, which had been in my throat moments before, now sank down to my stomach. The laughter erupted from the judge's table again, but this time it didn't dwindle down nearly so fast.

I fired again and again, walking closer to the target, getting desperate. It wasn't hitting where I wanted it to, and there was no method to the madness; every time it changed. Some times it would go a few centimeters to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes up or sometimes down. It was not the kind of bow I had used before, and there was something very wrong about this one. Almost like it was rigged.

I threw the bow to the side in a fit of exasperation and spun towards a nearby table. I wasn't nervous, now; I was angry. The table had an array of knives on it, which I picked up and started throwing. I didn't hit the target a single time; the weights in all of the daggers were wrong.

A small buzzer went off overhead, and the man announced, "The last two minutes will be a combat portion." I looked up to see a small door under the judges' stand open. Out of the shadows a man the size of a mountain lumbered, and I swallowed. He was easily a foot and a half taller than I was, and his shoulders were twice as wide as mine. I grabbed another knife, preparing myself to fight, but he moved with astonishing speed and knocked it out of my hand.

I dropped to the ground to try and grab it, but it skittered away across the ground. The judges started laughing again, and I looked up to see the lumbering trainer staring down at me. He reached one meaty fist down and grabbed the front of my shirt, hauling me to my feet. I thought that he was going to be civil and say "new round" or something along those lines, but instead he didn't even let go of the front of my shirt. He shoved, hard, sending me flying backwards. I didn't stop sliding until I hit the wall, crumpling to the ground in front of it.

I scrambled to my feet, back to the wall and looking for something I could use to fend him off. I saw one of the fallen throwing knives and lunged for it, but he intercepted me by slamming his shoulder into my stomach. I was flying through the air again but this time his arms were coiled around me, sending me up and over his shoulder.

I yelled and kicked, but he held me over his shoulder like I was nothing. I slammed my fists into his back, squirming and trying my best to get out of his grasp, but there wasn't much I could do. He didn't even flinch at the contact of my fists against his skin.

"A damsel in distress." The man with the beady eyes snickered to his fellow judges and my face heated again. I forced myself to stop squirming and think logically. I went limp over his shoulder, and then reached one hand up towards the giant's ear, yanking on it. I heard a slight rip and something warm ran over my fingers, and I let go in disgust. A bellow came from the chest under me and I fell to the floor, doing my best to clear the giant's step. His hand was clasped to the side of his face, and I could just see a partially torn ear hanging from the side of his skull.

"Sorry!" I said. I knew the man was just doing his job, but the man didn't take my apology for anything; he ran at me again. His pain made him clumsy, though, and I dodged to the side. He bellowed at me, turning and pawing at the ground like an angry bull.

"One minute," the beady-eyed judge drawled, sounding bored once more.

I danced out of the way as the giant ran by again, grimacing as blood dripped onto my face from the open wound on the side of his head. I wiped it off my face with disgust, staring at the red smudges on my fingers.

"You know what?" I said, suddenly straightening out of my defensive pose. I threw my arms to my side, as though opening myself up in surrender. "Enough."

The judges looked down at me curiously, but the giant stopped readily enough. The aggressive expression disappeared off of his face immediately and he straightened, clutching at his ear with bloody hands. His eyes were watering, and I worried for a minute that he might start crying.

"Firstly..." I said, spinning to look at the judges face-on. The anger surged up inside of me. "Fuck you."

The judges looked shocked and taken aback, but I didn't stop there.

"You send us in here without giving us a hint of what to expect? Then to add insult to injury, you sabotage my only chances for getting a sponsor?" I marched up towards the window, wagging a finger at them. The anger was turning my vision red, but I didn't care. "Yeah, fuck you. You think I didn't notice that the arrows were weighted so they wouldn't fire straight? You think I didn't notice that the daggers were weighted wrong? And then you send out this gigantic man, who I'm sure is very friendly, to beat up a sixteen year old girl two days before she has to fight for her life?"

I waited for a minute, expecting the judges to say something. They didn't.

"And then, you throw me into a situation where I have to hurt this guy. He's gonna have a scar for years because of that, just because you were too stuck up to let me do the maze like any other human being. No one gets hurt in the maze. So. Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck that, fuck this, fuck the WHOLE GAMES."

The man stared down his long nose at me, closing his jaw slowly. He worked at his mouth for a while, and then said, "You certainly are your mother's daughter. You have her fire."

"No," I said, flicking my words out as though they were a whip with which I could scar his face. "I'm not. I'm Primrose Everdeen Mallark... But if you want my mother? I can be my mother. Enjoy your games, gentlemen. And may the odds be ever in your favor."

I spun on my heel and left, slamming through the double doors on the far side of the training center and leaving the whispering judges far behind me.