Sorry for taking so long with the update you guys! I'm in college and I've just been super busy with a lot of assignments, but I have some downtime and in between I try and write as much as I can get out before my head starts to hurt from all the planning and thinking lol. Thank you for being patient and waiting, here's chapter 4! (And also: MORE CATOOOOO!)

"Morning Kalani." Kai is awake early like I am. He's sitting at the dining table and snacking on fruit. You can't find many sweets in District Four, but there is an abundance of fruit so it's what we all grow up on along with a lot of fish and other seafood.

"Do they have any mangos?" I ask.

Kai smiles, "They have everything." It's nice to see someone smile at me without it seeming forced or having some underlying sadness come with it. Kai is super sweet and a good friend to have with everything that's going on. Last night I had come to a decision; I know that everyone really wanted me to get in good with the careers and so I would, but if the careers wanted me then they would have to take in Kai as well. I was sure they wouldn't mind, after all Kai was strong and fast and had a lot of hidden talents that could really help us in the arena. And when it came down to the final few, Kai and I could split from the careers together, we'd make a great team despite being on our own and against other deadly tributes, but hopefully they'd all kill the worst of each other off before we had to deal with the remaining few.

"Hey, let's talk." I sit next to Kai and begin to tell him my plan. He shakes his head vigorously when I ask him for an alliance and doesn't even let me finish before asking for a partner deal. I immediately say yes and that if there were anyone in that arena that I would want to die fighting side by side with it would absolutely be him. We hug each other after and actually end up sitting in each other's arms for a while. We're only broken apart by the clearing of a throat. It's Finnick.

"Glad you two will at least have each other in there. Don't let them try and tear you apart, they fear district loyalty, it's the one thing they have trouble with: career districts won't hesitate to turn on each other if need be. Let that work in your favor, better they kill each other off first. Just be careful and stick together. And whatever you do don't underestimate all the minor districts, remember that they've produced victors in the past before too."

"I mean yeah, but not as many as the career districts. There's a reason there are so many of them." Kai points out.

"No, Finnick is right." I interrupt before Finn can keep talking. "You can be the strongest and best fighter in that arena, but your brute strength isn't going to do anything if you're stupid and don't realize that the small kid from three has rewired the electricity and set up traps to instantly kill you."

"Exactly," Finnick sighs. "That's how Beetee Latier won his games. Just...watch your backs. One and two may be easy to read, but everyone else isn't always what they seem to be in these games. No one is going to show you their entire hand during training."

"Which is the exact approach we're also taking." I guess. And I'm correct.

Finnick continues on to explain his master plan. Kai is let in on the little "love story" that is Catani that they plan to center everyone's focus around in order to gain sponsors for me. I promise Kai to help him in whatever way I can if it truly does help me.

The rest of breakfast continues on a much lighter note. Soon Mags joins the table and Johanna actually makes her way to our floor for half of the meal. She's not so bad once you get past her rough exterior and sharp attitude. I begin to feel bad again for her tributes, they must feel pretty shitty knowing that their mentor wants nothing to do with helping them. I ask her if she's talked to them at all and my only response is, "I gave them all the information I could, it's up to them at this point whether they can actually keep themselves alive or not." Needless to say I don't bring it up again. Breakfast ends too soon and Finnick sends us off to get ready for the first day of training.

I get dressed slower than usual, even taking the time to put my hair into a french braid that extends into a fishtail, anything to keep me from the inevitable. It's only 20 minutes later that I end up back in the main room where Kai and our mentors, along with one Johanna Mason, are all waiting for me.

"Let's go over some ground rules children," Finnick starts. "Don't go for the weapons right away, careers will already have those stations covered for majority of the time. Remember: they're volatile, but they tend to not be the brightest; they'll probably avoid a lot of the survival stations, which will be crucial when it comes down to it. Probably around half the tributes in that arena will end up dying of natural causes, and you two won't be one of them because I'm gonna make sure you know what you're doing in there."

Surprising, Johanna jumps in with some advice. "Don't show off with your best weapon, try going with some other weapons you're familiar with; it'll be a good idea to get better acquainted with those anyways, after all, it's not a guarantee that you're even gonna get your best weapon in the arena. They all know you're from four, which means you're strong swimmers and you know how to fish and hunt well enough to feed yourselves. You're also probably a lot more experienced with animals than the careers. It'll come in handy this time around, I got some intel on what the arena is gonna be like this year; from what I've heard there's a lot of water."

There's an audible sigh of relief from Finnick, Kai, and me. Water is good, water is definitely familiar, and it's a huge advantage to us. We reach the ground floor only a few seconds later. We're running a little behind schedule, but Finnick says not to worry about it, apparently not everyone likes to show up on time the first day anyways. I guess no one is looking forward to learning how to evade death, or from the careers perspective: create it.

When Kai and I walk into the room we head straight for our assigned spots, standing right on the number 4 circles that are labeled on the floor. Not a few minutes later do the careers walk through the door. It's hard to find any of them intimidating because in reality they're only kids, just like the rest of us. Some here are younger than others, which makes it harder to think about, but we're still all just kids. The careers are no different, they're just been trained and manipulated their entire lives to believe that all of this - these games - were ok, that winning them and murdering the most tributes will somehow bring honor to their districts. I can hate them all I want, but I can't blame them for what they believe, I could only imagine what it must be like to grow up and have someone tell you that this was the right way to live, that this was moral and just. If anything they probably had it worse than the rest of us, they were being bred for this, their entire lives had led up to this exact moment, they had nothing else to live for really.

So no, I felt no intimidation or fear toward them; this is who they were forced to be, if anything, all I really felt was sorry for them.

Kai's hand grips mine and I can only imagine it has something to do with the careers. "It's fine," I reassure him, "It's not like they can do anything to us right now."

"Yeah, right now." Kai whispers. I squeeze his hand and almost don't let go, but when I think about how that might affect Operation Catani I let go. The room is silent as other tributes from the rest of the districts gather into the room until finally it's broken by a woman dressed in all grey. Everyone's attention is immediately on her.

"Alright tributes, listen up. By this time next week you will all be put into an arena and only one of you will be coming out. In order to increase your likelihood of becoming that one person you will taught everything that you need right here in this room."

"Everything?" I interrupt her. I don't know what came over me or why I felt the need to interrupt her, I guess it might've just been the fact that they were acting like they were actually trying to help us survive when in reality they were compliant in sending us to our deaths.

"Excuse me?" The lady in grey as well as many of the other tributes direct their gazes toward me.

"I mean you said you're going to prepare us for everything in that arena. So nature, the mutts, each other, the game makers?" That last one makes her eyes widen. I know the game makers are watching too, they always do, right above us. They have nothing to worry about, they're not the ones who will be learning to fight for their lives alongside other kids who will be looking to end it. "If the game makers decide to produce a giant flooding and half the tributes don't know how to swim, what happens then? I mean I know I'll probably be ok seeing as I come from a district where you can swim before you can even walk, but what about everyone else?"

"We will be teaching-"

"Really? Because you obviously didn't teach it to the tributes of the 70th Hunger Games and when the game makers sabotaged the dam and flooded the arena everyone left except Annie Cresta, a district four tribute, drowned. How are you supposed to prepare us from the unknown without actually letting us in on what the arena is going to be like or what to expect when that would only lead to a more boring games? That's what this is all about anyways: the ratings, the most gory deaths, the shock that comes with us not knowing what's going on and then being thrown a curveball. You're not setting us up for success, you're setting us up for failure and calling one of us getting out of there a success."

"You're out of line Ms…" Grey lady narrows her eyes.

"Kalani Maverick."

"Ms. Maverick." She glares at me. "I assure you, we are going to try our best to keep you alive for as long as possible-" She stops and breathes in.

"Drawing out our deaths then?" I smirk, knowing I've won this argument. "How nice of you."

Lady in grey clears her throat and continues with what she was saying before I rudely interrupted her. "Most of you will die of natural causes, which we will try and teach you how to avoid while in the arena," she turns to me as she says the last part, "Other than that, many of you will be facing each other in there. We encourage you to visit every station that you can while here. Lunch will be served at 12:30 and training will pick up an hour after that until 6 at night, to which you will then be sent back to your rooms. This schedule will be repeated for the next three days. We will call time when lunch is ready, until then happy training."

"And may the odds be ever in your favor." Kai and I say simultaneously. He and I look at each other and laugh. Kai suggests starting at the first survival station and making our way around until after lunch where we would then tackle a few of the weapons stations.

Coincidentally enough, the first station is centered around traps, ropes, and knots, some things that Kai and I, being from a fishing district, excell at. We're sitting down and I'm laughing at Kai, who has chosen to make a noose out of some rope, when two tributes come over to the station. I don't think anything of it until they don't sit down, instead choosing to stand there and stare at us. I look up at them the exact moment the girl decides to speak up.

"What you did was really cool." Finally they sit down. "I mean standing up to one of the trainers, it was really brave of you."

"Yeah well there's not much else they can do to me. I mean they're already trying to kill me, right?"

This makes everyone laugh. "I'm Dana and this is Henry, we're from district 7. Lumber."

My face falls. They're from district 7, Johanna's district. So many questions are spinning around in my head. Do they know about how Johanna has been hanging around with us recently? Do they know that their mentor explicitly stated her opinion on them probably not winning? Do they know she put her money - metaphorically speaking of course - on me winning over them?

"Johanna is your mentor right?" Kai asks. Oh god Kai, why?

"Yeah, she's...interesting."

"What's your district like?" I immediately change the subject.

For the next few hours Kai and I make our way around the survival stations with Dana and Henry. They teach us a lot about different types of plants and whether they're poisonous or not, while we teach them how to make different traps and simple rope tying techniques. Along the way we meet a couple of other tributes, including Arient and Elliot from district 3 and Glover from district 9. We also run into Thresh and Rue for a couple of minutes. Rue speaks excitedly about how funny she thought it was when I talked back to the trainer.

And then lunch is finally called and I'm glad because I'm hungry and bored. I internally shriek when I see one of the plates they're serving.

"They have poke." Kai gasps. We both grab a bowl and sit at a random table.

"What are you gonna work on after lunch?" Kai asks me. I tell him that I'm probably gonna steer clear of spears and tridents, so maybe I'll work with knives. There's also a track and a pool on the opposite side of the training room that no one seems to be heading toward so I decide I might head there either later today or tonight. Kai then tells me his plan for the rest of the day: "I might just stick with you if that's alright, just for the first hour or so, and then I may practice with the spears. I'm ok with them, maybe I can get a little better before the games. I'm a lot better with knives."

"If you help me with knives then I can help you with the spears."

"Deal." Kai's face drops a little as his eyes shift from my face to behind me. "And so marks the beginning of Catani."

I begin to ask him what he means when I sense someone occupy the seat next to me. I know exactly who it is before any words even leave his mouth. "Nice speech back there, pretty ballsy if you ask me."

"Good thing no one asked you." I shove some of the ahi tuna into my mouth and keep my eyes on Kai who looks exceedingly uncomfortable as three of the other four careers take a seat at our table.

"Ok, no need for the sass, baby shark." Fuck, his mentor must've mentioned that. I hate that stupid egg head even more now. "So is district 4 good enough to get into the career pack this year or would it be a waste of our time to have you two try out?"

"I'm sorry, try out? You really think you guys are special enough that other people need to try out to get in but you four are automatically included? What if one of you sucks at fighting or really has no special weaponry skill? Hypothetically speaking of course." I snap at him. This time my eyes find his and - not to be dramatic or anything - but it's like staring out into the ocean; his eyes are terrifyingly beautiful and I instantly hate myself for thinking that.

Kai surprisingly backs me up; however, I'm the only one who understands what he's actually saying. He chuckles, "Haole," it means foreigner but where we're from it's typically used to describe white people and pretty much everyone outside of district 4, "Manaʻo lākou he maikaʻi lākou ma mua o kākou." They think they are better than us.

That makes me laugh, which prompts Cato to ask what he said. Instead of answering him I turn back to Kai. "E ho'āʻo mākou iā lākou he hewa." We will prove them wrong.

Everyone at the table other than me and Kai are confused. I spot Rue from across the room, sitting alongside Thresh. They're not speaking from what I can tell, but that doesn't stop me from standing up - Kai following my lead - and heading over to their table, leaving the careers more baffled than they were before I'm sure. When I take a seat next to Rue - and Kai awkwardly sits next to Thresh - I immediately begin conversation.

"How are doing with everything so far?" I ask Rue. She smiles shyly and tells me all about how she spent a lot of her time at the survival stations.

"I know it's not exactly the coolest thing in there," she tells me, "but it's not like I can throw a knife or wield a sword."

"You know what else isn't cool?" Kai jumps in. Along with him I answer, "Dehydration." We laugh.

Rue is surprised that I knew what he was going to say. "It's kind of like a joke in our district. When you're around a lot of salt and out in the sun all the time you tend to dehydrate easier. Sometimes people will complain on the boats about stupid things and one day this really old fisherman in our district, everyone calls him Fishfry, was listening to this kid complain about how his dad wouldn't let him take the boat out for longer than a few hours and Fishfry made that joke. I guess it's funnier when you know him and how he talks."

"Anyways," Kai continues, "Just because you can't use a weapon doesn't mean you're useless in that arena. You heard what that trainer said, a lot of people are gonna...die…" he chokes out the word, "from natural causes. You knowing how to survive will keep that from happening, and may play a part in a lot of the larger opponents being...disposed of first."

Rue thinks about it for a second and then smiles. And then something truly surprising happens, Thresh speaks.

His accent is heavy and his voice is deep, nothing like Rue's. "I told you. Keep hidden, find food. You could make it longer than many of them." He uses the term 'make it longer' instead of 'make it out' I notice. He doesn't want to give her false hopes about winning, and I can understand that. Rue may have a chance to make it close to the end, but realistically the odds are not in her favor, and that just makes me sad and angry. The gamemakers would never make it easy for people like her to win; they don't want a victor like her, they want someone bigger and stronger and fiercer, someone like Thresh or even Kai, someone like Cato. The career pack would gut Rue the first chance they got in that arena...unless...

I stand up and make my way back to the table the careers still occupy. "Kai and I wanna join the careers. Meet us after lunch near the traps and ropes station, if you know you even where that is," I say sarcastically. "You won't be disappointed."

My plan is clear to me: not only would it benefit me to be in the careers, but if I could divert them from Rue then she could find a way to survive longer than a lot of them. She may just have a chance at winning if I can help her by keeping four of the most murderous tributes as far from her as possible.

As I begin to walk away Cato seems to feel the need to have the final word. "I sure hope we won't be."

You're not the only one.

Do you hate me? I hate me. Not much Cato, I know, I know! I'm trying, but nothing will be half assed, I need the buildup to be as dramatic as I am. Hope you guys enjoyed, leave a comment about what you thought, I live for them! Next chapter: district 4 is full of badasses. I mean come on, they literally live in a district where their main functioning includes using all kinds of weapons every day, they have increased knowledge about sea life and making traps and so many other things. They may not train for the games, but indirectly they're very prepared. Also: if you noticed I gave a little hint about the arena for this story, it will not be like the one in the book because I want my OCs to obviously have an advantage. What can I say? I'm biased. Anywho, I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can get around to it, until then happy hunger games! :)