The capitol was amazing, it was huge, bright and colourful. Rosemary had been bowled over by how loud and real it all was. Her bedroom had been amazing too, her bed was softer than the heather mattress she had back home, and the window gave a majestic view of the city, despite the fact she was only on the first floor. After breakfast, Rosemary would have her training with all the other tributes. She'd watched the reapings on the train, and she'd seen some pretty scary kids. The two kids from District Two looked pretty scary, as did the boy from One. She soothed herself by reminding herself they were all career districts too and she'd most likely be in an alliance with them. But the girl from Eight had given her the chills...She'd looked straight at her, straight into her soul it seemed. Rosemary shuddered.

"Rose? Time for breakfast!" sang Aengus from outside Rosemary's door. Rosemary rolled her eyes and opened the door moodily.

"Coming!" said Rosemary.

The breakfast table was just as covered in food as it had been when they arrived last night. Rosemary looked at it all greedily; her diet in Four was mostly seafood, with bread. She heaped croissants, bacon and toast onto her plate in no particular order, she grabbed anything that presented itself. Shiloh was doing the same across the table.

"So Finnick, what's my plan of action?" He asked, when he'd finished the particular piece of sausage he'd been eating.

"Well" Finnick said thoughtfully. "I always say scare the others off, use your strengths" Tess nodded from across the table.

"Yeah, you too Rosemary. And I suggest you and Shiloh keep together, find the other careers too." Tess paused for a second. "I think that's Stacey and Silver from One, and Corey and Roxana from Two."

"Get to know them, especially weaknesses, watch the stations they're not good at, or avoid" Finnick added. Rosemary looked about awkwardly, feeling as if she should be taking notes.

"Well then! If we're all finished, shall I take you down?" Aengus asked as he rose from the table. Shiloh got up from the table too, still chewing on an apple. Rosemary followed their lead and stood too.

"No thanks. We can find our way there ourselves" Shiloh left the room before Aengus could stop him and Rosemary hurried after him quickly, not pausing to look back at Aengus.

The doors opened for them and they walked in. There was only a few other people there, so Rosemary figured they must be early.

"What do we do?" Rosemary asked as she walked forward with Shiloh. He pointed.

"Spear first, we're from Four right? We've got it owned."

"Yeah, OK. But I'm better with daggers and swords."

"Whatever. You can use a spear though, right?"

"Of course" They walked to the spear station, much to the instructors delight.

By time they were done, the training hall was full. Rosemary hadn't been paying much attention before, but now she was scanning the room for the other careers. She spotted the pair from two having a go at the bow and arrow and pointed them out to Shiloh.

"Corey!" he called out to them "Roxana!" The boy and girl turned their heads sharply to see who was calling. Shiloh waved his hands in the air.

Roxana walked towards them with Corey. She knew them, they were from District Four. Rosie and...Something.

"Rosemary and Shiloh" Corey whispered, as he watched her frown.

"Hi" Roxana said to Rosemary. Corey nodded to Shiloh.

"Have you seen Silver or Stacey?" Corey asked.

"Oh yeah, Stacey's about and so's Silver. They don't look very..." Shiloh didn't know how to put it.

"Yeah, I know what you mean" said Corey.

"Might as well find them though, I'm assuming that they're still careers"

As they all walked off in search of Silver and Stacey, some long pointed fingernails grabbed Corey's sleeve. When he turned, he saw it was the scary girl from Eight.

"Oh, uh. Hey" he said.

"You're Corey right? From District Two?" She asked. Corey nodded.

"I want to join your alliance. The careers. I've been training my entire life for this." Corey didn't see a way out.

"Oh, yeah. Sure. We're looking for Stacey and Silver." Jade smiled. Part one of her plan was working just fine.

Cole was on the edible plants station. The only other one there was the girl, Dove. She was a bit weird, with her white hair and stuff, but Cole didn't have a problem with her. To him, she was just another poor kid stuck in these twisted games.

"Hey," Cole said in an attempt to start a conversation. "Er, so how come you don't talk so much?" Dove looked down a the ground.

"There is no point in saying anything...The Capitol will just take it all anyway..." Dove continued the work and Cole looked away. Okaay. That was awkward. Clearly this Dove girl was a real sad 'un.

"So...You good with berries and fruit and stuff?"

"No"

"Oh" Another awkward pause. "So what are you good at?"

"I'd rather not say"

"Oh yeah. Of course. Sure thing"

Jazz kept on sneaking looks at the emo girl she was sharing a station with. Ebony or something. Jazz was trying to learn how to work a knife. She'd thought she had it, until Ebony came along. Ebony was amazing at it. The dummy she'd been practising on was in a heap on the floor with the stuffing falling out.

"What're you looking at?" Ebony demanded when she caught Jazz looking at her for about the sixth time.

"Uh, oh, nothing. Just...you're really good with that knife"

"Yeah. I know. I'm amazing and you're not, so what?" Jazz was taken aback.

"Well...nothing. That's it."

"Keep your eyes to yourself in future" Ebony said sharply, then threw the dagger straight into the heart of the dummy Jazz was practising with. Ebony strode over to collect the dagger.

Her eyes locked on the couple kissing in the corner,

"Get a room!" She screamed at them, she pointed her finger at them and the entire hall went silent as they watched the dark haired boy and redhead girl separate themselves from each other. Jazz heard Ebony snigger lightly. The redhead made her way over to Ebony.

"Shut up, you little bitch. Too bad you can't love" She hissed.

"Who needs love when you can make fun like this?" Ebony laughed and ran to another station. Jazz smiled sweetly at the redhead.

"I'd just ignore her" Jazz advised. The redhead nodded.

"Already on it"

Eliana had been watching Jarsen all morning, and he hadn't noticed. He was talking to the girl with the frizzy red hair. Eliana had got enough of his characteristics to know that he was probably trying to charm information about herself and the male tribute from her District out of her. Eliana smiled in the knowledge that he probably wouldn't have much luck, she'd seen her passionately kissing her district partner only minutes ago. Jarsen was out of luck.

She found herself walking towards him.

"You won't get anything out of her. Did you miss Ebony pointing her and her boyfriend out earlier?" Jarsen's face swept red.

"'Get anything out of her'? So I can't talk to people now, then?"

"Don't try that. I'm not stupid. You want information on her. Or more likely, her muscle packed boyfriend." Jarsen returned her steely gaze. So maybe she'd seen through him, but that wouldn't make him lose it. But she was good, no doubting it. Maybe he ought to switch tactics.

"Whatever. I saw you at the spear station, you were good. Think you could teach me something?" Jarsen lowered his voice slightly. Eliana narrowed her eyes at him.

"No thanks." She reached inside her jacket, presumably to an inside pocket. "And I found this over there as well. I saw you with it earlier so I thought it must be yours" Eliana produced a long, sleek peacock tail. Jarsen was momentarily shocked. He snatched the feather out of her hand and put it inside his own jacket.

"You stole my feather!" he accused.

"No! I told you, I found it over there. You must've left it there when you were over there fifteen minutes ago." Eliana gave the barest hint of a smile, letting Jarsen know that she saw through his flirting. Jarsen was speechless, he considered his options.

"Do you want to make an alliance?" He offered.

"Thought you'd never ask." Eliana smiled.

Tane was over the moon, he had been for almost 24 hours now. Ever since Brita had kissed him and let him know that she really did like him back. He knew that she was laughing at his utter joy, but he didn't care.

"What're you smiling about?" Someone asked friendlily. He turned to beam at at girl, who was about six inches shorter than him with auburn hair.

"Not much. My best friend" Tane jerked his thumb in the direction of Brita. "Kissed me." Allie smiled at him.

"That sounds like more than 'Not much'. Good for you, it's nice to see someone smiling. This place needs more love" Tane snorted.

"I think those two from Six do all the loving this place can handle! You got someone nice back in your district?" Allie shook her head.

"Nah, plenty of cute boys here though. Trouble is, the cute ones are the annoying ones"

"So there is someone nice? C'mon, spill the beans. I can't stand being all happy by myself!" Allie blushed.

"He might look good, but I don't trust him. Never mind." Allie walked away, mildly embarrassed, before Tane could ask any more questions. She'd nearly told him she thought - well, she didn't think that. Not really. Or did she?

Blade was going around with Daisy. They were almost having a laugh. They'd started at the easy ones, knot tying and edible plants and stuff. They were working on the weapons now, but it was obvious that Daisy couldn't hold nor dodge a weapon for toffee. Blade realised that if he was planning on helping Daisy it would be much harder than he'd thought. If anyone attacked her she'd be defenceless. And it wasn't just that, there were plenty of people about who were watching just how weak she was. She'd be the one they headed for first. The full responsibility of looking after Daisy hit him in the stomach. The best she could do was hide and wait it out until everyone else was dead, and that wasn't going to work very well.

The careers had found Silver, and he was feeling good. Now he was a part of the most feared alliance in the games and he had just another advantage to winning. The group was made up of two other boys, from two and four, who both looked skilled and strong enough to be careers. The girl from two didn't look much at first glance, but he'd learnt she was dangerous at the first station they visited. The girl from four, however, didn't seemed to be particularly good at anything. She must be useful for something. Silver figured she must be hiding her talents. That made him instantly suspicious, she could be dangerous. But the one he truly scared of was the girl from eight, jade. She managed to sneak her way in and there was no doubt she was the scariest. Silver liked her.

Eliana and Jarsen had been going around the same stations together since they'd made their alliance. Eliana was beginning to get an idea of how Jarsen worked. He was working to help himself, for the most part. Although he'd shared quite a bit of information with Eliana after they'd made the alliance. They'd gone round the knot tying station and the edible plants first. She'd been watching Jarsen's face when the instructor was talking to them and she had no doubt he'd remember everything he'd been told when it came to the games.

They were now at the station for the bow and arrow's. Eliana was doing alright, she often hit near the middle of the target, even if it wasn't exactly straight.

"You shake to much" Jarsen told her bluntly. "You need to hold still, make sure you know where you're firing, then let go fast" Eliana rolled her eyes to try and give the impression that she didn't want his help, but she noted what he'd said and next time she almost hit the bulls-eye. Jarsen noticed and smiled at her. Eliana smiled back at him and tried again.

Cole decided that now was the time to make alliances. He scanned the room looking for anyone who seemed to have a fighting chance at winning. He wasn't just looking for that in an alliance, he wanted someone who was decent. Take the emo girl for example. He'd seen how skilled she was with the knife, and she was quite strong and fast too, but he doubted he could stand being around her for more than a minute.

He was also watching Allie, enough to know she was on the look-out for alliances too. But when he looked back at her she was staring decisively at the bow and arrow station. Cole followed her gaze to see who she was looking at. The district twelve tributes must've made an alliance and they were helping each other with the archery. Cole saw Allie begin walking at a brisk pace towards them, and Cole started to walk too. They reached the station at the same time.

"Eliana, is it?" Allie asked before Cole could open his mouth. "I'm Allie, from Eleven. Would you like to consider an alliance?" Allie watched for Eliana's reaction with a business-like manner. Districts Eleven and Twelve had been good friends for about ten years now. Since Rue and Katniss...

"Well..." Eliana said, clearly thinking about it. Her district partner had come over and was listening. They were all largely ignoring Cole and he felt awkward standing there.

"I promise you won't regret it. Let me show you" Allie smiled, and Cole wondered if he saw a hint of nervousness there. Allie bent and picked up a bow lying on the floor with an arrow already strung. She fiddled with the string and arrow for a while, then lifted it and pulled her hand back to her jaw and the arrow shot from the bow and hit the bulls-eye. Allie sighed, as if she was relieved it had hit the target. Eliana exchanged glances with her district partner before saying,

"Alright then. You're in" Allie smiled warmly and introduced herself to the boy from District Twelve, whose name appeared to be Jarsen.

"Er, um. No chance I could join?" Cole asked as they began to walk away. He knew he sounded a bit desperate, but if you don't ask you don't get, right? "I'm good with an arrow too, and knives, I -" Jarsen interrupted him

"I know, I saw you earlier. You might as well" Cole did a quick triumph grin and walked off with them too.