I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be eating more meat or bread or vegetables in a situation like this, so I load everything onto my plate. Setting up tents and suspended sleeping bags has given me a decent appetite, so I'm sure I can handle it.

The District 3 girl doesn't get quite as much, mostly because I don't want to drop anything.

Holding the loaded plates close so my arms won't tire, I try to keep my drink from sloshing out as I grip the rim between two fingers.

"Apollo! Trucy!"

At the second-closest table to the buffet, Clay stands on top of the bench waving an arm. The table rattles, but not enough to move his plate.

He sits down once he's sure we've found him, and I sit at his right. Trucy stays at my other side.

Setting the plates down, I turn to him. "Is she going to sit next to you or across form you? Your district partner, I mean."

"Oh? Across, probably." He leans back a bit, his hands behind his head. "What happened with her?"

I slide her plate over and sit up. "She threw a guard at me."

Clay's eyes widen. "Geez! What did you do to her?"

"N-nothing!" I grab my fork. "She was mad at the other guy, not me."

He laughs. "Ah, okay." He slides his knife across a piece of fish. "So how did your morning go, apart from being a ballistics target?"

"All right, I guess." I take a few drinks from my cup. "The shelter stand would have been better alone, but—"

"What?" Trucy gasps, her hand flying to her mouth.

I snap my gaze to her. "No, no, I meant without that District 7 guy. You're fine."

She sighs in relief. "Okay. But wait! He did help us, you know."

"Yeah..." I chomp on a hunk of potato. The sauce is tangier than I expected, but it's far from bad. I'll take this over our finest tesserae bread any day.

"Hey. You." The girl's voice is quiet but sharp.

No one is in front of me yet, so I turn to see a tribute with long, brown hair standing behind Trucy and me. She's frowning pretty hard, but I can't tell which of us she's upset with.

"Can you hide me for a second?"

"Hide you? Like, make you disappear?" Trucy fists her hands. "Is there already a stage set up, or do I need to bring my own stuff? I had to leave most of my things at home, of course, but I'm a professional magician. I can work around it."

The other tribute narrows her eyes. "Just let me sit between you and Mr. D5 for a minute, okay?"

I can see the disappointment in Trucy's eyes. "Okay?" She scoots over, sliding her plate and drink along with her.

The brunette sits between us, sets her plate some distance in front of her, and puts her head down on the table. She pauses, whips the red-tinted sunglasses off the top of her head, and puts her hands in her lap.

Her hair is long enough to cover the 7 on her back, but it's splayed out thin now. Trucy pulls it all over the number and gets a grunt of thanks for her efforts.

I exchange a glance with my district partner, then Clay, but neither seems to have any idea of what's going on. Slowly, I resume my meal, and the other two follow suit.

I've finished my first roll before Klavier walks by, the girl from 10 trailing him. He pauses at our table and smiles down at us.

"You wouldn't happen to know where my district partner is, would you?"

I'm certain he's onto us. I shake my head, anyway.

"Maybe she went to the bathroom?" Clay tries.

"Well, I won't be able to check there." Klavier snaps a few times. "I'll just sit down, and if Fräulein Scientist sees fit to join me, she may." He chuckles before moving on to the next table.

It's another minute before "Fräulein Scientist" resurfaces. With a sputtering sigh, she checks the other table and puts her lenses back on. Rubbing her forehead, she mutters, "Well, it kind of worked. Maybe he can at least go an hour without bugging me. Maybe." She grabs some kind of dark breadstick on her plate and starts chewing.

"Not too fond of him?" Clay starts, food obstructing his words.

She only pauses in her munching for a second. "No." She finishes another one before sighing and standing up. "Sorry for barging in. You can go back to your own business now."

I scoot enough to let her out, but Clay holds out an arm to bar her from going much farther.

"We're only saving one seat. You're welcome to stay at our table."

She twists a lock of her hair before letting her arm drop. "All right, sure."

Pulling his hand back, Clay squishes against the table as she goes around him. "Any particular reason he calls you a scientist?"

She sets her plate and cup down and folds her arms, smirking. "Because I am a scientist. Still in training, albeit."

"Oh, cool!" Clay fists one hand. "I study some astronomy myself."

"Yeah?" She sits down and stabs at her salad. "I prefer forensics, but I won't complain at finding another member of the scientific community." She adjusts her glasses and smiles. "So how much do you know about astronomy?"

The two of them get into a discussion of stars and nuclear fusion before they lose me completely. We're more interested in fission in District 5... And even then, the schools don't go into as much depth as they could. Just enough to make sure we don't blow anything up with our one and only nuclear-based plant.

I glance at Trucy sideways. "Did she ever give us her name?"

Trucy folds her arms and looks up. "Wasn't it Ema?"

"Must be."

I get through two-thirds of my plate before losing momentum. On one hand, I don't want to be tired and nauseous for the second half of training. On the other, I should probably put on a little buffer weight for the Games, and this is delicious. I'm sure I can keep going.

Taking a deep breath, I look around the other tables. Several other tributes, mostly female, are at the same table as Klavier. He's predominantly interested in conversing with the wavy-haired girl from 6. She doesn't seem particularly concerned about talking to a Gavin.

At the table closest to the buffet line, the pair from 11 sit across from each other. I can't see many tributes beyond them, especially when the girl has her wide-brimmed hat on.

"Naw, man!" her district partner says hoarsely. "He's a great choice! Lot less competition, too!"

The girl grips her fingers. "W-well—" her voice is a lot harder to hear—"I don't really know him; I just think he's handsome..."

"I can call him over here right now! And if he's not good enough, I can fight him off LIKE A MAN!"

"What?" gasps his district partner. "No! Don't tell him anything!"

My view is suddenly blocked by a passing figure, and it only takes one flick of the ponytail to tell me it's the girl from 3. She hurries between the tables around to the plate across from Clay.

"Hey!" Setting down a cup of water and a plate with all of one orange on it, she presses her palms against the table.

"Hey!" Trucy echoes.

"Ah, Athena." Clay turns away from Ema for a minute. "Made it out unscathed?"

Hands on her hips, she grins. "Yeah, pretty much." She swings her legs over the bench and smiles at me. "Thanks a ton for saving me some food. The table was down to some pretty poor pickings. No orange juice left, either." She nibbles on a plain roll experimentally.

"No problem." I slouch. "Try to be more careful the next time you throw guards around, all right?"

She chortles. "Yeah. Sorry about that."

"I'm fine now." I glance at Clay to find him eating his dessert and chatting with Ema again. I'm not interrupting him too much, I guess. "So, it's Athena?"

"Yup. Athena Cykes." She swallows a bit of stewed chicken. "Apollo and... Tracy?"

"Trucy." She's still smiling. I guess she gets that a lot.

"Ah, all right. Nice to meet you both!"

"You, too." I try to get in a few more bites, but it's not happening. Instead I lean back, throwing my napkin and forearms to the table in defeat. "You certainly left a unique first impression on me, though."

"Ha!" She flashes a peace sign. "You just get to see me as a warrior from the start!"

I sip some water. "A warrior that trips on the stairs."

She coughs on her carrots, which is a miracle when they're that tiny. After downing some of her own drink, she grimaces and slumps with her arms on the table. "What a great way to introduce myself to Panem, huh?" She wipes some sweat off her forehead and sighs.

Trucy leans forward. "At least it was memorable! And you got to prove right from the start you could pick yourself up after a downfall!"

With more of a smile, Athena tosses her roll to her gloved hand. "Good point." She snickers, glancing back at me. "In that case, I did a lot better than you. I've already heard other guys calling you 'The Surprised Boy.' "

I can feel my hair spikes going limp. "Are you serious?"

Trucy taps her lip. "I think I've heard that, too."

Ugh... It's going to be hard to rebuild an image after that. Especially when I seem to be surrounded by pretty surprising people.

"Don't worry!" Trucy smiles at me. "You looked great in the chariot ride! I'm sure people will remember your name the right way because of that."

I let out a breath. "Thanks."

Speaking of the chariot rides...

"Athena? I'm just curious, but... Were you doing all right during the chariot rides? You seemed like you were in pain."

"Oh?" She pulls back, eyes wide. "No, I..." She settles down, stacking some green beans onto her fork. "The crowd was just kind of loud."

Frowning a little, Trucy watches her chew. ""Really? It didn't seem that loud to me. There's a little bit of distance between the chariots and the audience, after all."

Athena swallows. "There were still tons of people shouting. It was loud enough to make my ears hurt, at least."

Trucy stares at her for another minute before tugging on my sleeve. Grabbing the table for balance, I turn my head towards her.

"What?"

"Polly," she whispers. "Don't you think it's strange that she keeps touching her neck?"

"What?" I glance at Athena, but she has one hand on the table and one around a fork.

"Okay, here." Trucy pauses to make sure she has my attention. "This time, you ask her. And focus."

I give her a look, but I can feel Athena watching me.

"You guys?" She takes a gulp of water before frowning. "Is there something you'd like to tell the rest of the class?"

"Oh, uh—" I push my bangs back and rub my scalp for a second. "Actually..."

I can't deny that Trucy's being a little strange. But now that she mentions it... I may have noticed something, when Athena said it was just loud. Maybe it is a little weird to pursue, but I'm already The Surprised Boy. What have I got to lose?

Pressing my finger to my forehead, I watch Athena. "Weren't you wearing a bit of headgear, too? I feel like it would be hard to hear the spectators through that, especially enough to hurt your ears."

"For goodness' sake!" She fists her hands, bringing her elbows back a little. "What's the big deal? So the crowd's a little L·O·U·D—"

What's this weird vibe I'm getting?! All at the same time, my bracelet throbs, my peripheral vision goes into a haze, and I'm only focusing on Athena's face.

...Touching her neck, was it?

Breath caught in my throat, I slide my gaze to her neck with some effort.

Whoa! What's going on? This sensation... it's coming into focus. There! That twitch! It's so clear! She's touching her neck—no, actually...

Gotcha!

"—is it really that important?" she finishes.

"Right. On another subject..." I rest my bracelet hand on the table. "What's that necklace you're wearing?"

"Oh?" She smiles. "This is Widget. He can read my emotions and change color according to them. He can even blurt out what I'm really thinking." She makes a face. "Which can be a problem from time to time."

"Read your emotions?" I press on my forehead. "How does it do that?"

She goes back to smiling. Ready to brag, I guess. "The programming is pretty complicated, but, basically, he analyzes the tone of my voice."

"Impressive, right?" buzzes a high-pitched voice that must be Widget's.

Voice... Hearing...

Aha!

"Athena." I look her in the eye. "You have a similar ability, don't you?"

"What?!" Her hands fly to the sides of her face. "I..."

"You touched your necklace every time you mentioned how loud the crowd was. Subconsciously, you were thinking of Widget and how he detects emotions through sounds when you mentioned the reason your ears hurt. It wasn't because the onlookers were noisy. It was because they were so excited. So many of them, with so much emotion in all of their voices—that's what made you want to cover your ears!"

She stays frozen for a minute before letting her arms drop. My vision goes back to normal, although I still blink a few times to be sure I haven't changed it permanently.

What... was that?

"You..." Athena grips her elbow, looking down. "You're right. I'm not even comfortable being around twenty-four tributes. The chariot ride... It was so overwhelming I..."

Clay grips the inside edge of the bench. "She fainted for a little bit. Thankfully, our costumes were really stiff, and she came back to during the president's speech. I barely had to support her."

Athena smiles. "Thanks again for that. I've left enough bad impressions already."

He gives her a thumbs-up. "No problem. I'm glad I could help."

Athena nods at him before turning back to Trucy and me. "It might not be the easiest to manipulate in the arena, but it's still a weakness. Don't tell the others, okay?" She slumps, nearly sliding onto the table face-first. "That is, if anyone didn't hear you shouting just now."

"Oh." Flushing, I hunch my shoulders. "Sorry. I kind of got overexcited..."

Clay sighs a bit too loudly to be serious and pats me on the back.

"We won't tell anyone." Ema plays with her hair, some of which has become a loose bun while I wasn't watching. "Your confession sounds a little sketchy, scientifically speaking... But I have no need to spread rumors either way."

"My lips are sealed, too!" Trucy tips her hat, apparently "shaking on it" in her own way.

Grinning, Athena puts her hands on her hips. "Thanks, guys."