A/N: The hiatus is over! Yayyyy!

But one thing: Remember how the last chapter ended with Aqua and Parker going to see President Snow? Well, I wasn't sure where I was going with that, I kinda figured it would come to me at some point, but it never did. So let's just forget that ever happened, yes? So here's the next chapter!

Chapter Twenty-Nine:

We don't need anybody,

When we're down we don't really find it hard to get around

The last three days, Vesta, Fletcher, and the other tributes went through their training.

And, thanks to omniscient Fletcher, I know every single little thing about every tribute in the 81st Hunger Games. There was no chance of me remembering anything he said, so he wrote everything down for me. Wonderful.

I skim through the pages, reading a few things about each tribute. Crystal- Nice but conceited. Typical of a girl from One. Garnet- Funny, considerate. Doesn't really make you think of a Career… Vesta- Mean. Surprise, surprise. Fletcher- Awesome. A blank stare falls over my face. Kiyoko- Quiet, smart. Nobody cares, Fletcher. But what I do care about are the notes in the back of the notebook he gave me, it has all of the alliances written in it. There's the Careers; Crystal Shimmers, Garnet Shynes, Vesta Reddira, Fletcher Byrde, Oceanus Blue, and…Wing Spherings? Okay, it's not that surprising, and I'm glad Fletcher has her on his side. And Coral Clear isn't with them, which is also good; they wouldn't want her slowing them down. Coral, though, was in an alliance with Rosaline Bishop from Five, Carr Gibson from Six, and Jasmine Asantha from Eleven. A truly weak alliance that won't help any of them do anything but starve, that is if more than one of them make it past the Bloodbath. Annaliese Mayer and Thomas Weiss, both from Eight, are allies. The rest are on their own.

I sigh and place the notebook on a small round table next to the couch I'm sitting on. I remember sitting in this exact same spot last year on this very day, a few hours later though. It was at that moment that I realized that only one person in my alliance would come out alive, if one even were to survive. I have to smirk at the thought, thanks to the torture of Primrose Everdeen. Take that, Katniss. I need to find and kill her before the Games are over. That would be nice…

I hear a door close down the hall of District Two's quarters and turn my head around to see who it is. It's no surprise when I see Parker walking down the hallway; he's the only other person here, I think Emberlynn is with the stylists or something.

"Hey," he says and sits down on the other side of the bright scarlet couch.

"Hi," I respond.

"This is much different than what I was expecting," he says, exasperated.

"Oh my god yes, we combined couldn't have possibly been as awful as Fletcher." I let out a defeated sigh. "How's Vesta?"

"She's fine by herself. She thinks she's a lot smarter than she actually is. I can't say I like her very much though." Parker shrugs.

"That's funny, 'cause Fletcher is a lot smarter than you'd think. I think he's really good at reading people, you know what I mean?" Parker nods. I throw him the notebook. "He wrote a list of every tribute's qualities and figured out the alliances."

Parker smiles, reading something in the notebook. "Vesta; mean, Fletcher; awesome. Yep, really good at reading people."

I snicker. "Well, other than that. But my god he's annoying. If I weren't trying to keep him alive, I'd have strangled the breath outta him days ago."

"I would've too," Parker agrees, "even though I'm not the one mentoring him."

"Have you gotten any sponsors yet?"

"Yeah, a few. I think it was only because I was the new victor or something. It definitely wasn't because of Vesta; people don't really seem to like her from just watching the Reapings for whatever reason."

"Well lucky for me, Fletcher made me take him with me. I threatened to drop a knife from the sky on his head during the Games, but since he didn't believe I would do it and came anyway, I guess I'll have to do it." And I'll feel no remorse for doing it, he deserves it. "I think I got a sponsor though. They said they liked his 'enthusiasm'."

"Nice. There was this one Capitol guy that—" Parker is interrupted by Fletcher bursting through the door to our floor, Emberlynn at his heels.

"I did amazingly! I bet I'll get a twelve!" Fletcher ostentatiously announces.

"Yep, okay, sure," I say, eager for him to leave, but sadly, I have to wait for the training scores to be broadcasted.

Vesta walks through the still open doorway and loudly slams the door shut. She sits at the dining table, far away from the television, but also far away from Fletcher, who sits in between Parker and I. And no, there really isn't that much space. He unreservedly grabs the remote and turns on the screen. Caesar Flickerman's disturbing face immediately pops up on the monitor. After a few moments, he starts talking.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the 81st Annual Hunger Games! These twenty-four brand-new tributes have been working hard at perfecting their newfound skills for three days now, and today, they got to show the Gamemakers what they'd got!" Blah, blah, blah, everyone knows this already. "Without any further stalling, it's time to announce the scores!" A picture of Crystal Shimmers appears next to Caesar's face. "First is Crystal Shimmers with a score of eight!"

"Oh, come one Crystal!" Fletcher yells at the screen.

"She can't hear you!" Vesta yells from across the room.

"Garnet Shynes, with a score of ten!" A number ten floats over the boy from District One's face.

"Vesta Reddira, also with a score of ten!"

"Good job, Vesta!" Parker congratulates. She doesn't respond.

"Fletcher Byrde with…well would you look at this, another ten!" Fletcher whoops in triumph while Vesta curses and locks herself in her room.

"Kiyoko Mori… Six!" Not that good, but better than I'd expected.

"Andrew Darwin… Five!" Pretty bad.

"Coral Clear… Six!" About what I thought it would be.

"Oceanus Blue… Ten!" The Careers seem talented this year. I hope one of them will be the reason Fletcher dies so I can't take the blame for it.

"Rosaline Bishop… Seven!" That's unusually good for someone who probably hasn't been training.

"Charlie Milfay… Five!" Nothing to worry about there.

"Wing Spherings… Ten!" I've gotta admit, that's extremely good, considering she hasn't been trained.

"Carr Gibson… Four!" Terrible, just terrible.

"Lumber Mason… Nine!" If I had to guess, he's most likely going to end up being like Chuck, made strong from cutting down trees.

"Mahogany Woods… Eight!" Assuming that she is actually Chuck's sister, she would be someone to worry about as well.

"Annaliese Mayer… Five!" Not very good.

"Thomas Weiss… Six!" Better, but still not good.

"Dominique Carase… Six!" Nothing to worry about.

"Jonah Willys… Three!" Great job Jonah, you might be the worst tribute here!

"Lilith Zink… Seven!" I'm surprised, but the nutjobs do usually have some skill.

"Alisondro Tomas… Four!" It scares me how bad some of these scores are.

"Jasmine Asantha… Four!" At least she's twelve, not fifteen.

"Grayson Grane… Seven!" It would be surprising if he weren't eighteen.

"Kaitriona Menosei… Eight!" Surprising, considering she's from Twelve.

"Calem Hav… Six!" Not very good, but not extremely bad.

Huh, nobody got an eleven… I must be special.

"Well, there you are everyone! May the odds be ever in your favor, tributes, and to everyone out there, have a happy Hunger Games!" Caesar Flickerman ends.

A notebook suddenly appears in front of my face. I grab Fletcher's hand and dig my nails into his skin until he drops the notebook, and then continue for a few seconds more.

"OW!" he screeches with a pained look on his face. It makes me grin. "Your nails are sharp!"

"That was intentional," I tell him with a voice that sounds like I'm talking to a small child. He runs back to his room. I'm satisfied with that.

I turn to Parker. "I like mentoring more now."

Oh, no, you tell me how I need to be

That ain't up to anybody else but me

We don't care what you think

'Find My Own Way' by May Jailer

Any surprising scores?

Do you think your tribute (if you have one) got the correct score?

Thoughts on Fletcher and Vesta?

Who do you think will win, who do you think will be a Bloodbath death?

ALSO: I was bored one day recently, so I decided to make futures for the characters of this story! This includes marriage, children, etc. PM me if you want to know anything about it, it's doubtful any of it will come up in this story unless I have a ten-years-later epilogue or something.