Hey, so, I'm an epic failure. Just putting it out there. I suck at updating. But I'm going to try so much harder to update my stories now.

Reyna's POV

HIM? Octavian?! Of all people, it had to be him. The idiot from next door.

The whole time that we were on stage, he kept smiling at me with that stupid grin as if to say 'Yeah, I volunteered for you.' I wanted to punch his teeth out.

Where does he get off having this stupid schoolboy crush on me? Where? I didn't do anything to deserve this. Anything. Or maybe I did, but I am so so so freaking sorry for whatever it was. What on Earth did I do to deserve him trailing after me like a lost puppy dog?

And when we were waiting for our visitors, that grin didn't leave his face. Not once. He just kept grinning and grinning and grinning.

So, here he is, sitting far too close to me, grinning.

"Hey, Reyna," he said for the fifth time.

"Hey, Octavian," I said through gritted teeth.

"Are you angry at me?"

"No, why would you think that?"

"Because you seem like you are."

"I'm not."

"Are you sure."

"Yes."

"I don't think you are."

That pushed me over the edge.

"All right, Octavian, you want to go into this, let's go into this. I am angry at you. Why? Because you are so ungodly infuriating! Why did you even volunteer? Did you think I'd need the extra help? Did you think I wouldn't be able to handle it? Well, let me tell you something: I can handle it. I can take it. I don't need you at all."

Octavian stared at me. He looked at bit…wounded. A pang of guilty clenched my stomach, but I ignored it. All I said was true…wasn't it?

"I'm sorry, Reyna," he said. "I-I didn't know."

He turned away. That same pang of guilt came back to me. Maybe I shouldn't have been so harsh. No, I should have been. I needed to be. But why did I feel like this?

Octavian's POV

I couldn't believe she just said those things to me. How had I never noticed how much she hated me…how much she loathed me? It was obvious now, but I had been blind before. And now I was going to die, die for a girl who didn't care about me anyway. Was it worth it?

Aphrodite was going crazy about the preparation. We were to be transported to the Capitol right away. I didn't really care. We started the trek, and all I did was wallow in self-pity. The trainers thought I was pretty useless. They were probably right. They obviously favored Reyna, she actually responded to their efforts. Me, I just sat there like a slug, not wanting to do anything. Why should I? It wasn't worth the effort.

The only thing I did take relative interest in was when the trainers and Aphrodite discussed the tributes from the other districts. Usually, you could predict how the tributes would do based on their district. That didn't seem to be the case this year. There seemed to be a pretty good balance of talents from each district. These Games were going to be pretty unpredictable.

I didn't like to admit it, but I was nervous. I had gone into this thinking only, well, thinking only of Reyna. And maybe a little bit of my own arrogance. But now that the other tributes had been analyzed, I started to feel less and less like this was a straight shot home. It wasn't. There was good competition, and no one could even begin to predict what would become of the 24 souls that were to go into these Games.

Okay, I really hope these chapters will eventually get longer. Again, if there are any relationships, alliances/friendships, or rivalries that you would like to see, PM me and I'll see what I can do.