I wake up to Priscilla whispering, "Nate… Nate…"

I sit up and wipe my eyes. I can see her breath and hear the shivering in her voice, "I-it's y-your t-turn to k-k-keep w-w-watch…" she gets out, quietly. I nod and sit myself upright, trying as best as I can to stay wrapped up in the sleeping bag.

Cutter suddenly sits up, too. "Do you guys mind if I keep watch?" he asks quietly.

"It's Ok, Cutter," I say quietly, "We won't hurt you."

"I know, it's just… I can't sleep, anyways, so…"

"Neither can I."

Priscilla yawns and curls up in her sleeping bag. She's asleep in a second.

"You can go back to sleep. If you want you can hold onto my bow, just to make sure." He holds it out to me.

I don't want to take any risks. I take it, even though I don't intend to go to sleep any time soon. Cutter sits some distance off from me, and I lay down and pretend to go back to sleep, even though I'm nowhere close to it in real life.

I open one eye slowly and in the darkness I see Cutter holding onto a flashlight, between his knees. He shines the dim light on an object in his hands. When I look a little closer, I can see what it is. It's his token. A necklace, that part's obvious, but I can't really see the charm.

Cutter runs the chain through his fingers and takes a shaky sigh. I don't know if it's because of the cold, or because of tears. I sure hope it's the first one. When he puts the charm in his palm, I get a look at it. It's a silver heart. I don't know why it's so important, but I have a feeling he wouldn't hesitate to shoot if I took it from him. His green eyes glance down at Priscilla, who's out cold. Then they flicker over to me. I close my eyes and hope I can convince him I'm sleeping.

"Nate?" he asks, in a whisper.

I don't give up the act quite yet. I curl up deeper in the sleeping bag and pretend like I'm fast asleep. He sighs again, and after another pause, I open one eye again. He shuts off the light and sniffles quietly to himself. I see him disappear in his sleeping bag and feel tempted to go talk to him.

Before I can even move, though, he's back up and looks like himself again. Guess he remembered that we're all on TV. After that, he stays awake, looking around, and he appears to be miserable. I close my eyes, too. I think I can fall asleep again. Suddenly he shakes me gently. My eyes fly open again, "Wha?!"

"I'm tired. Do you mind going on watch?"

I shift around and sit up, yawning. "Nah, I don't mind."

He forces a smile, "Thanks." Then he whispers in my ear, sounding a lot more genuine but also a lot sadder, "Also, Nate, you're terrible at pretending to sleep."

I dunno where Cutter and I stand, but I hope that we're at least a little better than before. He seems to trust us again, somewhat, considering he let me stay up and keep watch while he slept.

The next morning, I try to let the other two sleep in, just a little, because I know how long of a night it was for all of us. Surprisingly to me, Cutter is the first one awake, and he actually flashes me one of those Cutter smiles, just like he did when we first met during the chariot rides.

He sits up and cringes. I think waking up hurts, like it does for me. After all, we are both still injured. My side's been killing me for the past couple of days, and if it gets any muddier, well, I might actually start to get really concerned. Cutter yawns and starts off a, "Good morning," but I cut him off at the first syllable with a "Sh!" and a point down at Priscilla, who is still sleeping.

Cutter smiles slightly and nods, before whispering, "Good morning." I smile and nod, and together we roll up our sleeping bags. I hand Cutter our water bottle and whisper, "Be careful. Don't get abducted."

He gives a nod, taking the canteens and walking off. I stay behind with Priscilla. Suddenly, I hear beeping in the sky, and when I look up, HALLELULIAH!

It's a sponsor parachute! I grab it as soon as it lowers to my height, and open it up quickly. Inside is a container of some sort that looks medical. This time there are two slips of paper inside. I look at the first and it says, Keep doing what you're doing, Cupcake. You might have to share this time. –Platinum

I put that one in my pocket and look at the other one.

Keep up the good work, kiddos. I tried to fight for all of you today. Hopefully it's easier. Use this very wisely. –Platinum

I understand what he did now. I guess he realized too, just like me, that maybe it should be less obvious that I'm the mentor's-pet. If I'm right, (which God, I sure hope I am…) then this is one that I can show the others, while still holding on to the others. Ah, yes, this'll surely restore everything Cutter and I had before, which is definitely a good thing. I sit back down and wait for Cutter to come back.

When I hear his footsteps, I look up and he definitely looks a lot more like himself. Priscilla wakes up just then and blinks sleepily. "Nate? Cutter?" She wipes her eyes, and notices that both of us are awake and waiting. There's a pause. "Morning sleepyhead," I say with a smile.

"What the fuck?"

"We decided to let you sleep," Cutter says, looking amused, "Now get up and let's go."

"God," Priscilla groans, "You sound like my escort." We all laugh.

Cutter pulls the sleeping bag out from under her like it was nothing and says, "Come come come! It's time to wake up!" in his best Capitol accent. I grin and Priscilla manages a sleepy giggle, standing up, stretching and yawning. She stretches her arm but immediately pulls it back down because of that cut on her shoulder.

"Guys, that reminds me! We got a sponsor gift!" I hold up the canister of cream and the piece of paper. Cutter is quick to take the paper first and read it, while I open up the container and put a generous dab on my side. It stings and I cringe, but soon the burning pain dissipates into nothing and hopefully it'll turn to relief later. Prisicilla puts it on her shoulder and provides a quiet yelp, before she slowly smiles from the relief. Cutter takes it last and soon he's smiling again, too. Then Priscilla rolls up her sleeping bag and we get ready to keep going again.

We leave one more sleeping bag behind for Melanie and continue on our trek back to the Cornucopia.

"The stream looked… Better today," Cutter says.

"Are you sure?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"To me," he says, "Yeah. It's actually flowing again, a little!"

"That's great news!" Priscilla says happily.

"That's suspicious," I correct her.

"True… Maybe they're just going to give us this one," Priscilla says.

"Maybe that's how Platinum, uh, fought for us," Cutter suggests.

"That's true…" Boy, I sure hope he's right. I can't wait to check it out for myself.

We walk through the morning, all of us in better spirits but nobody doing any talking. I keep the lead, but Cutter and Priscilla are usually right next to me all morning long. As we walk, the sky doesn't lighten up any; in fact, it just gets darker.

Finally, my stomach growls for lunchtime, even though it's getting dark.

"Alright, what gives!?" I say, "Why the hell's it getting darker!?"

Cutter bites his lip, "Maybe-"

Priscilla suddenly giggles. We both look at her.

"What?"

She grins, "Guys-"

Suddenly Cutter laughs, too.

"Alright, I don't get it. What the hell's so funny about our impending doom in the darkness?"

"It's-"

Plop.

It's rain, that's what it is.

Soon the rain becomes heavy enough that all of us can see it.

"What do we do?" I ask. The other think.

"I think we're close to the Cornucopia," Cutter says, "Why don't we eat and walk?"

He opens his backpack and suddenly the skies part and we all get soaked with rainwater.

"Ew, our food got all soggy!" Cutter says.

"That's Ok," Priscilla says, and I nod. We all take some soggy bread and soggy jerky before keeping on walking through the rain. By the time we're all done with lunch, the temperature is T-shirt weather, which is amazing compared to yesterday when Cutter and I were shirtless from the time we got up. Priscilla is the first to take off her jacket. She ties it around her waist and skips ahead of us.

I copy her and Cutter copies me, and we take off after her, stepping in the soon-to-be mud puddles and trying to find any kind of shelter from the rain.

Up ahead, I hear Priscilla squeal with glee, "Guys! I found it!"

She's right. When I look off into the distance, I can see the shape of the Cornucopia.

Cutter grins, "Let's go!" He takes off in a sprint and I follow him. It doesn't take long for him to catch up to Priscilla, and for the first time, I'm in the back. I meet the other two at the Cornucopia and we all grab the supplies that were sitting outside and climb in the mouth, hiding in the hood.

Priscilla gasps with breathless laughter, and Cutter grins at us, "I've never played in the rain before," he says. "I'm glad I got a chance to."

"Never?!" Priscilla asks, looking shocked.

Cutter shakes his head, and water flicks everywhere.

"I'm glad that you got to play with us, then," she says with a smile.

Surprisingly, this hurts me more than you'd think. I should be happy, right? Embrace the time I have to be happy with these two because two of us will be dead in a week.

But it's just that last part that makes me so upset.

The rain pounds on the metal and I'm suddenly glad that we found shelter for ourselves and our supplies. I wonder how the other tributes are going to manage in this rain.

I remember sitting at the windowsill with Elijah, watching the rain pour down. The sound always put us to sleep, no matter how wet we were from playing outside. Even the sound of it hitting the Cornucopia now, though it is loud, still makes me fairly sleepy. I yawn and curl up in the Cornucopia.

"I'm napping," I yawn.

The others smile and nod, and then I let my eyes get heavy and go to sleep.

When I wake up, Priscilla and Cutter aren't where I left them. The outside is sunny and nice, and I see supplies lied out to dry. I get up and walk outside to where the others are finishing laying out everything that got wet.

"Hey," Cutter says to Priscilla, "It's awake." She laughs and I have to smile, just a little. It's soon replaced by a yawn.

"You're right on time for dinner, too," Priscilla says with a smile. We have a light dinner, finishing up our supply of crackers, and then we make an effort to dry out our sleeping bags, but it doesn't do much.

As the sun sets, Cutter says excitedly, "Guys, let's check out the stream! I'll bet it's flowing great now!"

I nod and we all three go there. Sure enough, the water is a lot more plentiful than it has been, and the water flows so much it makes a sound! The water's clean, too. Nice and clear. Priscilla collects the water and I go wandering, looking to see if the rest of the stream is as well-off as my part. Cutter and Priscilla follow me, not asking questions, which is odd to me.

I kneel down to a part of the stream that's flowing just a teeny tiny bit less than everything else I've seen, my allies kneeling next to me. We hear footsteps, suddenly. We look up and Flounder is running toward us, scythe in hand. I think all three of us forgot what the Hunger Games is, and the other two look fairly terrified, as I jump up with my sword.

I don't have to do the honors, though, because, before we know it, a hand goes over his eyes, one over his mouth, and he disappears. My heart-rate picks up and my body shakes a little bit because I know what that means. Cutter and Priscilla look shocked and terrified.

"Let's go back," I whisper weakly. I walk to the Cornucopia and they follow.

As we walk, the only noises we hear are Flounder's screams.

They're extremely prolonged, this time, going until the sun is completely set. They end abruptly, right before we hear a loud cannon, symbolizing that he's finally been put out of his misery.

The Capitol anthem plays and the seal flashes in the sky immediately after, and the only face up there today is his. I can tell it's a big wake-up call to Cutter and Priscilla, and the two of them barely talk at all before we silently agree that Cutter takes watch and Priscilla and I are trying to sleep, even though all I'm hearing still is Flounder's screams.