I apologize for the lateness; as it is with most authors school starting has slowed me down. But I was also doing some planning for this story, which makes me very excited for the games to begin, which will hopefully mean faster updates. Thank you, rosereddreams95, for submitting Lecity!

Lecity Harcrodden: District 5, age 14

When your days are numbered, a week flies by very fast.

It was already the final day of training. We only had a h

alf day before it would be time for the evaluations. I was crouched at the shelter station, where I spent most of my time, stuffing moss into the gaps of my lean-to's walls.

The alliances had formed fast. Almost immediately after training had begun, four boys had banded together, filling the room with noisy banter. The careers were a given, but I was surprised to see the boy from Eight among them.

On the second day of training three younger tributes joined forces, calling themselves The NET, for Nine, Eleven, Ten. In my opinion, they should have been called WAS, putting together Wolf, Ardelia, and Sparrow, since a group without someone older was as good as dead.

I had thought that was it; for days nobody else had approached one another. But at the end of the sixth day three more tributes had tentatively come together: Culata from Eight, Truen from Ten, and my own district partner, Bryan. The trio was fairly quiet, but I could tell they were sticking together because they knew they wouldn't survive on their own.

I was the only one at the shelter station—people tended to avoid me— but I could hear the conversation from the camouflage area, where the NET were making no efforts to blend in to the artificial environment. They instead were engaging in an oh-so-important debate about whose mutations were the "coolest".

"I mean, come on!" Wolf was saying. "Who has ever heard of Animation before? It's unique, therefore cool."

"Biokinesis is unique!" Sparrow objected.

"But nobody can even spell it," the Nine boy pointed out.

"Who cares? I'm powerful! I can control plant life, animals, and less intelligent intelligent humans such as yourself." Sparrow gestured to Wolf, who sat up a bit taller.

"Hey! I am wounded." He dramatically out a hand to his chest. "You should learn to respect your elders!"

"Elders? We're both fourteen!" the Eleven girl argued.

"Well, I'm older than Ardelia..."

"When's your guys' birthdays?" the mentioned twelve year-old questioned.

"Seven-seven," Wolf answered. "July seventh."

Sparrow smirked. "June twenty-sixth! So there, youngster!"

"Oh, come on! That's not even a month!" he protested.

"I'm still older, therefore my powers are the best!"

"Are we forgetting someone?" Ardelia spoke up, looking like she was about to lean on the wall before pushing her hand straight through it.

"Sure, you can run through walls," said Wolf, "but Animation is still the coolest!"

I tuned out of the bickering with a sigh. Alright, I was a little bit jealous. All these kids had amazing powers, while I just looked freakish. How did I even qualify? I wished I hadn't. Then I could go home, as unwelcoming as it was. Anything was better than participating in a death match.

I twisted around to watch two of the Boys sparring with long sticks. The Four boy—Danan—was pretty skilled, swiftly knocking the stick out of the Six boy's hands. I struggled to remember the name of the boy as he took a long swig of water. Bradley? Shawn?

Brooklyn De'Shawn.

The name flooded back to my brain, and satisfied, I turned back to my shelter. I always tried to keep tabs on names and districts. Better to know the competition.

The sound of someone approaching cause me to turn around, and I spotted Ashton Noir from Twelve coming my way. Bracing myself for some wonderful human interaction, I returned my attention to my lean-to.

He sat down next to me, shifting to find a comfortable position on the cement. "So, building a shelter?"

Naturally, I didn't respond.

"Yeah, me too." He grabbed some sticks and attempted to turn them into something useful. "I see you here a lot... This a hobby or something?" He chuckled a bit before his precarious stack came tumbling down. "Wanna maybe show me how it's done?"

I didn't answer. I never did. What could I, Lecity Harcrodden, possibly have to say that was worth listening to?

Ashton cleared his throat. "Any, uh, shelter pointers?"

I gritted my teeth. I wasn't going to say anything. I never would. But I had a feeling this guy wasn't about to leave. Giving a tiny sigh, I grabbed a handful of sticks and got him started on a simple structure.

"Hey, thanks!" He seemed impressed that I had actually acknowledged his existence.

Don't worry, Ashton, that's all you get.

"I'm Ashton." I know. "And you are...?" He leaned in expectantly, but I had no good reason to speak to him, so I didn't. Sure, I'd talk at the interviews because I would have to, but I definitely wasn't what you would call the conversational type.

"Ashton! You coming?" called one of the Twelve boy's allies as he grabbed a bow.

"Yep!" He glanced at me with a friendly smile. "See ya later!"

I sighed in relief as he walked away. Why didn't people get that I just wanted to be left alone?

In my frustration I slapped some moss on the roof a bit too hard, and the shelter caved in on itself. Down with it went my hopes. The whole death match thing looming over my head like a rain cloud finally came down on me; the raindrops of reality forcing me to emerge from my state of numb denial.

Tears pooled in my eyes and I did my best to hold them back as the single truth echoed in my head.

I'm going to die.

I'm aware this isn't my best chapter. In my defence, I was pretty uninspired but I just wanted to get it out before I was really late. On the bright side, only four more chapters until the games start! I love reviews! What do you think of Lecity? The alliances that have formed. My mediocre writing in this chapter? Thanks for reading, and please bring me to 50 reviews so I feel mildly successful!