….

"Kayleen! Today is the first training day!" I hear Kilee's sing-song voice come through my door. Ugh.

"Okay," I call back, and get out of the bed. It was hard. I was exhausted, I had been up all night with nightmares about me being killed, and almost worse, me winning but having to kill Sky, Nik, and Noah. Noah's terrified little face…. Ugh. It was awful.

"Just… focus on today. On now," I tell myself. I take a deep breath, and then put on the clothes left in my dresser. It is a black shirt, stretchy and comfortable, with black pants. They have an orange line running down the outside of the sleeves and pant leg, with the number "12" pinned to the shoulder side.

I fasten my locket around my neck and open it. I smile at the pictures of May and Shayla. But when I see the pictures of my parents, I frown and feel a tear slip out.

Quickly, I make a fist and smash their picture. There. Better.

I walk out to the main room, where Nik is already eating some pancakes. He's wearing the same thing as me. I go over and get some bacon, pancakes, and eggs. Then I sit next to Nik.

He smiles at me and we eat in comfortable silence.

Until Kilee comes.

"Jenik! Kayleen! It's 9:53, the training starts at 10, hurry up!" Kilee wags her finger at us. Weirdo.

I shove my last bite of pancake in my mouth. "Coming!" I say with my mouth full. Her face wrinkles.

"Kayleen, please show some manners," she says haughtily and storms away. "C'mon now, we don't want to be late."

I look back at Jenik and he laughs. We follow Kilee to the elevator, where Summer is waiting for us. She smiles in greeting.

"Kay, Jenik, remember what I said. Survival stations are just as important as weapon stations."

We nod.

"And Jenik, consider a hammer, though. You have a strong build," Summer nods at him and he nods solemnly back.

We arrive on the bottom floor and walk to the training center. The tributes are starting to line up already.

"Oh hurry!" Kilee says quickly and gives us both a little shove. I spot Sky and Noah and wave at them. Sky smiles and waves back.

I stand in the line in front of them, and Jenik stands in front of me. He smiles nervously as Pearl, the trainer lady, stares at us all, sizing us up.

"So you have 3 hours here, today and tomorrow," she starts, gazing over us and stopping her gaze at little Noah. "You are free to go to any station in here, there are survival stations, and weapons station. Don't rule out the survival stations," with that said, she glares at the Career girls. "All right, you may go."

And we disperse. Sky smiles at me gently, Noah stuck to her leg like glue.

"So where are we going first?" Nik asks me.

"Umm… try a survival station, how about all survival today, all weapons tomorrow?" I suggest, and the others nod.

Nik and I head over to the poisonous berries station, while Sky and Noah head to the building fires station. The trainer there looks pleased to see us.

"My name is Talin!" He beams at us. "I work the poisonous berries station, you can see which ones are poisonous, take a test to see how much you know."

"Well can I take the test first? See what I know?" I ask him, and he nods.

"Can I take it too?" Asks Nik. He nods and hands us both a worksheet with pictures and questions. The highest score to get is 100. I get a 96. Jenik gets a 73.

He looks sheepish as he checks his wrong answers on my paper.

"Frankly, I thought I would do worse," he gives me a sheepish smile and I laugh.

Then my chest tightens.

All of you will be dead except one. And you will most likely be among the dead. At least one of us will die. But if I die….I want Jenik to win.

"Kay? You all right?" Asks Nik, snapping me back to reality.

I blink. Hard. "I'm just fine. It's been about 40 minutes, want to try a different station?"

So we head other to Sky and Noah. Noah can barely made a crackle with matches, while Sky has made a blazing fire with only two pieces of flint and damp wood.

I come up behind her just as her fire blazes up at least a foot in the air.

"Impressive," I say, and she shakes.

"Kay! You scared me," she laughs a little.

"That was the point," I grin at her. "And it is."

"Well I've had some experience," she says quietly. "My family isn't exactly rich, you know."

"Neither is mine. We hunt in the woods for food. Me and my older sister," I tell her. That's why I have knowledge of berries and stuff like that.

"We don't make nearly enough money in our lumber business, Dad tries his best but we have 5 mouths to feed, Mom has to take care of us. I'm the third oldest, the middle child, a boy and girl below me, two girls above me. My oldest sister is a….prostitute, we need the money," Sky tells me softly. "But the two oldest, me and my 17 year old sister Nancy, we still take tesserae."

"I'm so sorry Sky," I tell her truthfully. I thought my District, my family, had it bad, but her family is very unfortunate….

"Let's just back to this," Sky says quickly, running her sleeve over her nose.

I nod, not wanting to embarrass her further, and I make a fire with her, while Nik chats with Noah. I think Nik must have a younger brother too, he's never mentioned one but he's so good with Noah…

Sky just poured out her heart. I figure before I die, someone should know besides Shayla, May, and I. What really happened to Cammy. My baby sister.

"I had…a younger sister," I tell Sky. Her eyes widen at the word "had."

"Oh Kay, what happened?" She asks in horror, with deep pity in her eyes.

"Well she was umm… killed. The officials documented it as illness or something, just another starving kid right? No," I say, my voice staying soft but getting a little angry.

Sky's eyes are as wide as they can go now. "When….when did this happen?!"

"About…3-4 years ago," I say in response. "She would have been turning 10 this year. She was…6 when it happened."

"What…who….killed her?" Sky's voice is barely a breath.

"We were walking home, just me and Cammy…" I started and drifted into the memory.

"Cammy!" I scold lightly as we walk home in the rain. "Stop stepping in the puddles, you're running your shoes!"

She just laughs. "But Kaylee, its fun!" She called me Kaylee. Didn't feel like saying the "n" I guess. It was her special name for me.

I roll my eyes a little but laugh at the adorable girl. Her eyes are caramel colored, full of life, her skin is shining and healthy, her hair is a dark brown with light streaks. It falls at her chest like mine does.

"Look at me Kaylee!" She shrieked with joy as she hopped across the street, landing in every puddle.

I had to laugh. "C'mon now Cam-"

I stopped abruptly as I realized where we were. The rich part of town, where they drove cars and hated poor people. They might throw things at us, the stupid "elite" class.

"Cammy, its not safe here, we need to go," I call to her from the other side of the street.

She pouts, but only for a second. "All right, I'm coming!"

She started skipping across the street. But not fast enough….

The car came out of nowhere.

"Cammy!" I screamed and ran out into the street, attempting to, I don't know, block the car. But I was too late…..

The car hit Cammy with so much force she went flying backward, and it didn't even stop…

I ran after her, she had flown right into a building. Her broken body lay in the middle of the rubble she had caused.

"Cammy!" I screamed and ran over to her. I gently picked her up, she was unconscious. "I got you, you're okay!"

Then I ran out into the sidewalk and started running home. When I got close, I screamed "Mommy! Daddy! Shayla!" The people I trusted. They ran out of the house, confused, then they saw Cammy.

We took her to the doctor but the doctor said that she was in a coma, and wouldn't wake up, and in a few hours, her heart would stop working. And that's what happened…

My parents never looked at me the same after that, that's why they trust Shayla more than me, Shayla never put Cammy in danger, Shayla never failed to bring home dinner, Shayla didn't blame me for her death but I had failed to save my sister. And I miss her so so much….

Well isn't that nice? (OBVIOUS SARCASM)

For those of you that guessed that Cammy was her younger sister, good job! You win a cookie. Or some bacon. Your choice.

So I might not post for like a week or so...sorry about that.

I have one other story that I'm already posting, and I posted a one shot that is a story but only if my viewers want it to be, and this week is my last week of school and this weekend I'm going to the beach so I'm busy so I might not have time for writing...

But I'll try and hopefully I'll be able to update next week! Sorry guys!

Kate

P.S. For those of you that also read SNOW THE WINGED GIRL BOOK TWO this news obviously applies to both stories. Again, sorry about that.