Mentor Profile

Melissa Sayer

Age: 81

District: 6

Hunger Games: 12th, aged 18

Mentored By: None

Kills in the Arena: 5

Preferred Weapons: Bow, Knife

Tribute: Molly Higgins

Mentoring Record: 40 Games/2 Victors - Molly Higgins (27th Games), Blake Carlton (31st Games)

Along with Mags, Melissa is both one of the oldest living victors and also one of the oldest victors involved in this year's Hunger Games, having turned 81 three months ago. Many among us won't remember Melissa's victory, the first for District 6 in the history of the Games. Forming an uneasy alliance with the boy from District 10 in an arena forged from a ruined city (a unique idea at the time), Melissa managed to fight off more favoured tributes through a combination of good tactical planning and an unwillingness to give up.

Since her Games, so much has happened in Panem as the Hunger Games have slowly grown into the spectacle they are now, and Melissa has been here through all of the building of the rich history we now associate with the Games. Never marrying, in the early years following her victory there was a sense that Melissa spent her time in District 6 alone and misunderstood. With little success for her district in the arena, the spotlight was rarely on her, and Melissa seemed content to slip by under the radar, seen but rarely heard among a crowd of extroverts.

Shortly after the First Quarter Quell, that all changed. In one of the most surprising results in the history of the Games, Molly Higgins tore through the field of the 27th Games, bagging a then-record twelve kills along the way. Suddenly, Melissa wasn't alone anymore, and she found a new sense of purpose, taking Molly under her wing. With another woman from her district to relate to, Melissa experienced an upturn in fortune, appearing more vibrant in those early years after Molly's victory than she ever had before.

This invigorating period for the two female victors of District 6 resulted in another victory just a few years later, when Blake Carlton won the 31st Games. In hindsight, this moment was crucial in understanding the troubles of the victors of District 6.

Having suddenly found someone else of a similar age with the same experiences as her, Molly slowly began to withdraw from Melissa, finding herself more comfortable with Blake. It's been clear to see the indifference Melissa has shown Blake through the years, most notably whenever they mentored together in the Games. Until the introduction of Hope's Rule for the 67th Games, Blake would mentor the male tribute every year, and Melissa and Molly would alternate in mentoring the female tribute. Such was the apparent animosity between Blake and Melissa that District 6 performed distinctly worse in the years where they mentored together, as opposed to the combination of Blake and Molly.

For a long while when Melissa was in her fifties, there were unfounded rumours of a more serious bust-up between the two victors at home in District 6, but nothing has ever been confirmed.

Eventually District 6 had a fourth victor, Ellis Rutherford, who was mentored by Blake in a year he was partnered with Molly. This only expanded the divide between Melissa and the younger victors, such that when first Molly and then Blake began to fall into difficulties with addiction to substances, they were unwilling to listen to Melissa's advice, and Melissa had long since stopped caring by the time the younger victors finally admitted they couldn't shake their demons on their own.

With Ellis acting as an unfortunate mediator, the years have been hard on the tributes of District 6, finally throwing aside years of old grudges with the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell.

Now, for the first time in decades, all of the victors of District 6 appear to be on the same page. Perhaps, for Melissa, this year's Games will be a chance to make amends for all the years that have separated her from the others, and try her hardest to get one of her fellow victors out of the arena alive.

A/N: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)

In my current plan there are around eight or nine more chapters left in this story , so I imagine this fic will be completed somewhere between the 20th and 22nd of August! Suddenly that doesn't seem so far away...

Anyway, I'm planning on starting another, slightly more complex 75 Games story once this one is finished, so there will be that to look forward to once this story is complete :)