My door opens a little and the light shines in my eyes. I squint and look. "sorry to wake you" holden whispers walking in. he turns the lights on and I block my eyes. We came to a building called the tribute apartment.

He kneels beside my bed with a phone in his hand, "it's Haul" he says.

I take the phone, "hello" I say. "Rye" he says. "oh my god I miss you!" I say to him. "I miss you too baby. I saw the chariot rides, you looked amazing" he says softly. "your not upset about all the flirting I did" I say upset with myself. "no. I told you to use whatever strategy you needed. I don't care what you do. Just make it back." He says.

"snow said he was only talking to you when he said that we wouldn't get reaped" I say. "Hmm" is all he says. "he also said that if I win, he won't bother us anymore. Me, you or the baby" I say. "what baby" he asks and my eyes grow wide. This is the second time I did this! Holden's eyes are wide as well. "rye" he asks, "what baby".

"I never got to tell you…I'm pregnant" I say. "what!" He yells. "wha- but- you cant go in with a baby" he says. "he doesn't care" I cry. "why didn't you tell me!" he says. "I just found out today" I say wiping my eyes. "I wasn't going to tell you because I didn't want you to worry even more. Im sorry" I keep crying. "I don't know what I'm going to do, im going to die in there Haul. They're going to kill me". The other line is quiet, "you have to try" he says back, "no, I can't. I can't do it". The next thing he says is what calms me down.

" Do it for Basil" he says and if I were with him now he'd probably touch my stomach.

I sniffle, "I'd do anything for Basil". "put my brother on please" he says and I hand the phone to Holden. "hello" he says and after a few seconds he sits next to me on my bed and holds me gently. He gives the phone back and i put it to my ear, "hello" I say. "baby get some sleep okay. Practice with the weapons you cant use that are similar to knives. Axes and swords. Work on those alright." "alright" I say back. "I love you" I cry, "I love you too. I'll try and talk to you again tomorrow" he says. I nod, even though he cant see me and hang up.

I cover my face with my hands and cry. Holden rubs the back of my head, "don't worry, it's gonna be alright" he says. "no it's not!" I say sitting up. "you say that but it's not. Im going to die in there, me and the baby" I say. Holden doesn't reply. He wraps his arms around me and holds me until I fall asleep.

In the morning Lane knocks on my door, "Rye, wake up!" she sings. I sit up and wipe my eyes, "im up" I say. "We have training today. Hurry hurry!" and I hear her walk off. I get out of bed and go into the bathroom.

I look in the mirror and see I look a mess. My eyes are red and my cheeks are flushed. I wash my face and rub my eyes. I head into the shower. There are buttons, labled for any soaps, shampoos and conditioners. I don't bother to wash my hair. I get out of the shower and I'm dried off my fans. I walk out of the bathroom and find an outfit. A black, yellow, and gray t-shirt with the number nine on the back, and black work out pants. I pull them on, the shirt is tight, the pants are loose.

No shoes I guess. I put my hair into a ponytail and walk out of the room. I head to the dining room and sit down. I fill my plate with potatoes and fish, I'm not in the mood for any eggs or bacon. I fill my glass with water and eat silently. Frent joins us a few minutes later, his hair is damp and brushed back a little. I never noticed the sideburns. He's dressed in the same outfit as me.

"You two have training today, any particular weapons your planning to use" he asks us putting a fork into his mouth. "I think I'll try hand to hand combat" Frent says. "I'll probably work on some battle axes". "okay, but don't just settle on those you only have two day. Circulate, try different things, learn about survival". We nod.

After breakfast Lane takes us down to the training center in the basement. "good luck you two!" she says and we walk off the elevator. We walk through the doors and into the gym. Everyone is just arriving, each district has a different color from red to orange and purple, blue, green, brown, and so on.

We all circle around our trainer and she explains the rules. No fighting first of all. There is to be no threatening with weapons, and the tributes need to patiently wait their turn to use a station. She talks to us like were five. When she's done explaining everyone heads to the station of their choice.

I head over to the battle axe station and the man there teaches me how to hold it, how to swing, how to chuck. It takes about an hour to almost get it right and he lets me practice on dummies. I chop the body parts off and pierce the heads. It's funny because I'm not doing it purposely. The axe is really heavy.

Afterwards I head over to wrestling where I find Frent. I stand in line two people behind him. He goes and I'm impressed. He puts raff from district 3 in a headlock after being pinned to the ground. Raff taps the mat and the trainer breaks them apart. Soon it's my turn, me against the boy from two, Skene. The trainers don't care about mixing the genders since in the arena anyone can kill anybody.

"can I go against a girl" I ask the trainer. "why, you scared" Skene asks. "im smaller and possibly weaker than you. It wouldn't be fair" I say getting into position. "it's not about fairness. The strongest always win" he says flexing his arm muscles. I roll my eyes, "fine, lets do this." I say. He smiles. The trainer blows her whistle and skene runs for me. I run too. He raises his leg to kick me but i drop to my knees and slide right under his leg.

I get to my feet and turn around. He's just realizing what happened. He turns around and runs again. I try and escape to the side but run into the matted wall. He runs and I hold my hands out to block but he takes my hands and tries to pin them to the wall.

Soon my arms get tired and he pins them like he wanted to. I yell a bit because he's crushing my hands. He's in my face, "you think your all bad, nine. Huh" he says. I fall to the side and he lands ontop of me, his knee hitting my hip. "ah!" I cry. The trainer blows her whistle and pulls Skene off of me. She moves my clothes a little to check my hip. "that's going to bruise. Go back to your floor and put some ice on it" she says.

I shake my head, "no. im fine" I say and get up. I walk off of the mat holding my hip. I look over at skene and see he's laughing with the boys from 1 and 4 Lartius and Struve. I go over to them, "you thinks it's funny to hit on girls" I scold. They all nod. "hmm, no wonder your all probably single" I say. Skene just shrugs, "it just shows how weak you are when you fight a girl instead of someone whose the same size as you". "im not weak" he says. "you sure, why don't you go against the boy from my district, see how strong you are then" I say gesturing to Frent who's back in line for wrestling.

Skene angrily heads back into line behind frent and the two boys and I watch. Frent and skene take a few mintues blocking each others punches and dodging kicks. Frent runs and tackles Skene to the floor and gets him into a headlock like he did with raff. He obviously cant get up so he taps out. I smile at that.

The trainer blows her whistle and pulls frent off of him. I walk over to frent and smile at him. Skene rubs his neck and walks off the mat. I start to giggle since I don't want to laugh, "thank you. That showed him" I say and throw my arm over his shoulder. "you have to teach me how to do that" I say and we walk off.

At noon the mentors come down with lunch for us. Holden brings us sandwiches and water. We sit on the floor eating. I sit uncomfortably on my right left side. "what's wrong" he asks. "I'm a little sore" I say gesturing to my left hip. He leans in and whispers, "does it have something to do with your pregnancy". I shake my head, "it has something to do with that bastard from 2" I say looking over to Skene.

"what'd he do" he asks. "he freaking crushed my hip with his knee" I say back with an attitude. "let me see" he says. I pull my shirt up a little to show the bruise on my side. He groans and has me pull my shirt back down. "you wanna go put some ice on it" he offers. I shake my head. "alright" he says.

When we finish eating he takes the tray he brought the food on back upstairs. "I'll see you guys for dinner" he says.

Frent and I go back to training. I practice rock climbing and sword fighting while frent stays in the weight lifting section and archery station.

"alright, on your mark, get set, go!" the trainer blows her whistle and I race up the wall against Columbae from district 7. We're both slow, and struggle to the top but eventually I make it and get down before her. The trainer blows her whistle, "24 seconds" she says. Columbae comes down. "46 seconds".

"yes" I whisper to myself. I head to the side and get a drink from the water fountain. I feel a hand rub up against my butt. I freeze. Just relax, pretend your into it.

I get up and turn around to face the boy from 8, Jardine. "hey" he says smiling. "hi. You mid telling me why your touching me" I say. He shrugs and pulls me closer. He rubs my butt and says, "I liked watching you climb" he says. "oh really" I reply and smile. "yeah, and I was wondering if I could get a closer look". Major pervert. "you really want to" I whisper into his ear. He nods, "yeah.

"okay" I say and take him by his shirt and pull him into the utility closet where they stash the old and extra weapons. Maybe this could be my strategy, getting the boys to like me, then killing them when they have their backs turned. I close the door and lock it.

He stares at me and I pull down my pants and underwear. I turn around and lean against the wall so he has a full view. In my heart im telling myself not to. It's considered cheating. But my brain is saying, it's the only way to make it home. So I let him toy around with me, and take a short round of anal sex. It hurt, it really hurt. Afterwards I'm even more sore than before. I pull my pants up and say, "Satisfied", I use my seductive voice.

He's been blushing this whole time. He nods and bushes his hair back. I nod and say, "bye". He waves and I leave out.

I go back into the gym and look at the tributes, they're all distracted. I quickly go over to the battle axe station again. I have to say, I'm really getting the hang of it. After a couple of minutes Lartius comes over to me. I look up at him, "here to beat on girls tough guy" I say turning my back to him to chuck my axe. It lands right in the dummies shoulder.

He makes a sizzling sound with his teeth and flinches. "no. actually I was just talking to Jardine and he told me some very interesting things". "really. Like how he doesn't make himself feel proud by hurting women". "how long are you going to stay on that" he asks annoyed. I smile, "as long as I can manage". He sighs and rolls his eyes. "so is what Jardine said true" he asks. "depends on what he said" I say back and pick up a new axe.

"he said you two had sex in the utility closet just now. "hmm, does anal sex count as regular sex" I ask and chuck the axe again. This time I miss and it goes into the wall. I groan and go to retrieve them. "yea I guess" he says. I nod a little. "so what do you want" I ask. "what are you willing to give me" he asks. I drop the axes and walk towards the closet and signal for him to follow.

We go into the closet and I shut and lock the door. "breast and ass" I say. "what about pussy" he asks. "off limits" I reply. "alright" he says. He reaches for my shirt and pulls it above my head. He does the same with my bra. "girls back home have breast like these" he says cupping them with his hands and pinching the nipples. "im the only one in my district" I say.

I bring his head down to my chest and he sucks and bites my nipples for about ten minutes until he stands up straight. "Done" I ask and he nods. I pull my bra and shirt back on and leave the room, with him following after me.

The boys all stare at me and I now jardine told them. I sigh and prepare myself for anymore questions. I don't even get to finish training because by the time training is over at eight, I have been with every boy, except for Frent, who somehow doesn't know what's going on.

I have to take my ponytail out because they've given me hickeys and bruises on my neck, possibly all over. The last was Skene, who needed some convincing from the boys to walk over and ask me.

Before anything I talked to him and he apologized to me for hurting me before. I acted like I needed convincing, and I was shocked to see how desperate he was. I can't wait to see their faces when they find my knife in their back.

Frent and I ride the elevator to our floor and when we get off Holden and Lane greet us. I keep my head low but look at them occasionally so they don't ask what's the matter. "go ahead and wash up you two" holden says. We nod. I put my hands over my hair to cover my neck as I walk. "Rye, are you okay" he asks as I'm walking towards the stairs. "uh, yeah im okay" I say not turning to look at him. "does your hip still hurt", "no im fine" I say. "why are you holding your neck like that" he asks walking closer. "im just a little tired Holden can I just go to my room" I ask.

He doesn't answer at first, he just looks me up and down, "sure" he says. "thank you" I reply softly. I begin to turn around but he grabs my arm and spins me around. I see his eyes widen as my hair swirls around as well. He takes my face and moves my hair. "where'd you get these!" he says looking all over my neck. They trail down my shoulders and chest. "what happened to you!" he demands.

"can we please speak in private" I ask. "sure" sure he says and we walk into a different room. "what's going on" he demands. "nothing" I lie. He scowls and folds his arms. "okay then how do you explain all of this" he says gesturing to my neck.

I don't say anything, "fine. Frent! Can you come here please!" he shouts. "no, no he doesn't need to know!" I whisper. "if you wont tell me then he will" he says. "no!" I say trying to cover his mouth, "frent!". "yeah" he answers walking into the room.

"what is all this about" he asks pushing my hair back so he can see the hickeys and bruises on my neck. He shrugs, "I don't know. I've never seen them" he replies. "see" I say back. "you need to tell me" he says. I sigh and hang my head, "I had sex in the utility closet". "you're already pregnant! You're in a relationship! What the hell is wrong with you!". "I have to !" I say back checking out the door to see if anyone heard what he said.

"why do you have to". "it's a strategy I thought of. I get the boys to like me so they wont hunt me down in the arena and I can kill them" I keep it simple. "that's pretty smart" frent says nodding. "okay, and which boy exactly did you try and trick". "all of them" I say shyly.

"Rye, you can't do that!" he yells. "I know! I know! I don't want to but I have to!". "you don't have to!" he yells back. "Frent you can go" he says and he walks out. He glares at me angrily, "now what would happen if I told Haul" he threatens. "no he said to get a strategy and use it. He doesn't care what it is and this is the only way for me to be able to survive. I won't be able to get home unless I win" I say.

"Okay well sex isn't the answer. You are pregnant, with my brothers child. I don't need him getting even more upset than he already is because his 'fiancée' decides to be stupid" he says. "it's not like…what Haul and I do, it's anal" I say. He grimaces his face, "eww Rye!"

"sex doesn't harm the baby" I say, "but I refuse to let those boys touch me that way" I say to him and bow my head. "im doing this for Haul. I want to get back home, and have this baby. I want to marry him. Snow said that if I win this he'll leave us alone and I'm willing to do anything for that." I whisper. "I just want to go back home" I say.

"I know you do" he says hugging me, "and I promised I'd help you, Frent promised too. We're going to get you back home. You will win this" he says. No im not. Im weak, and helpless. I always reduce to sex when it comes to survival. Why! I guess those girls at school were right. I am just a horny little slut.