It still hasn't set in that I've found a perfect partner - heck, it hasn't set in that I'm going into the Games. The relationship between William and I isn't exactly what I had been imagining, but I'm sure it will improve as we get to know each other. I guess that it's been going fairly well so far though, I have a hard time coming up with anybody that I've connected with as quickly as him.

I decide it's time to give him the full rundown of the plan. "So, as for when we get in the Games, I've got some stuff already planned out."

"Mhmm?" he nods, genuinely interested.

"I want our group of guys to stick around until there's barely anyone left. Depending on how quickly the tributes outside our group go down, I'd say we wait until there are our boys and only two or three other tributes left."

"And then what do we do?"

"We split up; give each other two days of truce to run away, and then it's every man for himself and last man standing wins."

"What happens if we come across another tribute when we're still together as a group?" William asks. I'm a bit surprised that he seems to be completely comfortable with the idea, since he didn't volunteer for the Games. I know that his comfort is definitely a good thing, I can't complain about a smooth-running plan.

"We team up against them," I answer. "It won't exactly be fair, but to be completely honest I don't think many of these people have a chance anyways."

"When we're together as a group, we're going to share resources right? Medicine and food and stuff?"

"Oh for sure. When we split up, we'll divide medicine and food equally, but-"

He cuts me off. "Weapons."

I continue. "Yeah, weapons are the obvious issue. You can't split a sword in half if two people want it. As for weapons, we'll put them all in a pile together and take turns picking who wants what. Who picks first will be decided by the number of kills at the Cornucopia and sponsor gifts while we're in the arena."

"The deaths at the Cornucopia are mostly chance-based, it's so hectic that the kills you get are pretty much decided by the number of tributes you happen to run into," William states without batting an eyelash.

Impressed by his knowledge, it's my turn to ask questions. "You've watched the games closely enough to come up with that?"

"It would be stupid to not know the basics of how things go down," He shrugs.

I don't want to make a big deal of what I consider to be a huge revelation if he doesn't, so I just decide to continue. "Well, back on track; you're right, deaths at the cornucopia can be somewhat random. Just in the case that someone gets really lucky or really unlucky at the bloodbath, we'll also count the number of sponsor gifts towards who gets first pick of the weapons."

"Sounds like a really good plan to me," William says.

I blush with pride. "Thanks. Oh – and of course, if anyone tries to stand up against the group, the group treats them like they would any other random tribute."

He looks me in the eyes. "No mercy."

I nod my head slightly, maintaining the eye contact.

He finishes off his tray of food before talking again. "Well, my friend, you have a deal."

We shake hands, letting the servants take away our empty trays.

"Who did you have in mind for group members?" He asks, glancing around the room.

"Most of the boys; Preston, Ayler, Trawl, Jason, Jarratt, that boy from Eight."

"Dai Lao?"

"Is that his name? I couldn't hear it when they announced it during the reaping."

He nods and points to one of the screens on the wall. I notice for the first time that it shows everyone's name next to our Districts.

"Oh that's convenient."

"Mhmm. I was talking to Dai Lao earlier, he seems alright. I'm sure he'd be willing to join us."

"Really? Wow, that's fantastic," I say, somewhat bewildered. It would be nice to have William help me recruit everybody. "I don't think Preston would have the guts to turn us down, I tried talking to him before the opening ceremonies and he seemed pretty shy. If we showed that we had a big group together, there's no way he'd say no."

"I think you could probably say the same for Ayler."

I look around for Ayler, spotting him flitting around the room, still chasing after girls. "Are you sure?"

Wiliam nods confidently. "Oh yeah, look at the kid. Anyone trying so hard to get to every girl here has got to be as insecure as anything."

I can see his reasoning.

"There's no way we're ever going to get Jarratt to join us," he says matter-of-factly.

Shocked, I switch my gaze to the hulking character sitting by himself on the other side of the room. "What makes you say that?"

He laughs. "I tried asking him for an alliance before I came to you. Turned me down completely."

"So that's that then," I laugh.

"Yep."

"Attention tributes," One of the gamemakers walks into the room. "After lunch each day you'll be split into groups to rotate through the mandatory stations. The groups have been chosen randomly, two girls and two boys each, and will maintain for the duration of training. This is a tradition that has worked successfully since the installment of the Hunger Games and each group's members are not negotiable. Thank you."

William raises an eyebrow to me.

On a board behind the gamemaker, the groups and station rotation schedule appears. I'll be starting out at 'Water Purification' with the District Seven boy, District Nine girl, and District Ten girl.

I'm disappointed, there's no one in my group who I want to be in my team. The boy from District Seven is scrawny and can only be thirteen at most. I suppose I'll probably learn a lot with no distractions from boys I want to join me, but it still would have been nice to have private time with a potential recruit.

William scans the board. "Would you look at that, I'm with Ayler."

"You can talk to him about the plan."

"So long as I can get his attention away from the girls in our group, but you've got Eileen and the other girl that he seems to be paying the most attention to."

I look back up at the board. "Eileen?"

"Eileen, my District partner."

"Oh… right, sorry I haven't been paying much attention to girls."

"Man, it's alright - really," He gestures to Ayler. "I never would have talked to you in the first place if you did."

We laugh collectively and make our way towards our stations.

For the remainder of the day, I just focus on what I'm to be learning. I'm dying to talk to some of the other boys, but there's no chance for me to, so I try my best to simply get over the fact that I can't.

Occasionally I look over for William, who's been talking with Ayler a lot from what I can tell. When we were rotating through our stations once, I caught William's eye and he gave me a thumbs up. Hopefully that means Ayler's game to join us.

William's female counterpart from District Ten, Eileen, ignores me completely, except for the same few brief glances that all of the tributes are making at each other. Her and the gorgeous girl from District Nine, who I found out was named Marie-Lynn, talk a lot, on the other hand. I even catch them snickering together when I get knocked over by the self-defence trainer.

The poor boy from District Seven does very poorly overall at almost everything and cries quite a bit. There are a couple instances that I wish I could help him out, give him some words of encouragement, but I don't think there's anything I could say that could really mend the situation. Plus, going soft won't help me out in the arena.

It's a bit scary having to adjust your mind to be okay with the thought of killing somebody. There's no way to go back now though, I just have to have the winner's mindset and repair any damage after the Games. I'll be rich enough to afford therapy; I wasn't a murderer before I volunteered and for now that still holds true. I'm going to become a killer, but it's not like I want to. Intent is what's important, I would never kill somebody if it didn't fall into the whole 'Hunger Games' set of circumstances.

My head's spinning, I know this isn't healthy. I've done fairly well so far - I should be focusing on that. For a moment I find myself alone in line next to Marie-Lynn and I think I've earned a reward, I deserve a little conversation to get my mind off murder.

I put my hands in my pockets and laugh to myself as if I've thought of something really funny.

Sure enough, Marie-Lynn looks at me. "What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking about how you volunteered for the Games, even though there's never been a female winner, and you're already pretty much smoking everyone training. People must have thought you were nuts for volunteering, but you've definitely got a fighting chance. You might be the biggest competitor here."

Now she laughs. "Well, I'd like to think I volunteered knowing I had some of the skills that you need in the arena rather than just because I'm a really big fan of the Games who thinks I know people well enough to get them to do whatever I want."

I'm completely taken aback, was that an insult? How does she know I'm a fan of the Games, and I don't think I know people enough to get them to do whatever I want, I'm starting an alliance, there's a difference. Has- has she been watching me?

She goes on. "Surprised? 'Has she been watching me?' the District Two meathead had the same look. Don't worry, you're not the only one who thinks it's impossible for a girl to know how to win."

"I don't think it's impos-"

"Don't think it's impossible? Would you ever team up with a girl? Of course not, the Capitol would think you're cah-ray-zy. It's such a radical idea that no one's ever even tried it. Too bad you weren't smart enough to come up with it on your own, huh?"

She sticks her bottom lip out at me in an over-exaggerated frown before the spear throwing instructor calls her name to step forward to throw. Her spear impales the dummy right in the gut and she cheers in delight to Eileen, who joins into the celebration.

What just happened?

Was it just me or did it sound like she wanted to work with me? Thinking back to my conversation at lunch with Everett, she was sitting fairly close to me; she could have heard our plans. If she heard our plans, she'd know I'm smart and that I know how to play the Games.

I wasn't just using a cheap pick-up line when I said she was smoking the rest of us. Looking around the room, she's definitely the most talented person here and working with her would be the sort of unexpected thing that would get me a ton of sponsors.

The only problem is that I can't stop the train already in motion, the forming of my alliance with William.

I don't think I could just add her to the group; she probably wouldn't want to work with all of us if she can handle herself so well on her own. I'm so confused that I almost don't notice when it's my turn to throw and when I make it to the tossing range, my spear just clatters to the ground meters away from any of the targets.

One of the gamemakers speaks from their nook above the center. "Training has now ended for the day, you may return to your quarters."

I turn to look for William, but suddenly someone's right behind me, whispering in my ear. "Relax Everett; I know what you're thinking. Keep forming your little crowd, no one ever said you can't have two alliances."

I feel her hair tease across my collarbone as she turns to leave, just as quickly as she came. I get chills that bring forth Goosebumps on my arms. For a moment I'm frozen with both shock and excitement. Having a secret alliance – it's so incredibly enticing. I'd be an instant hit with not just the Capitol, but everyone watching for sure.

Marie-Lynn's clearly smart enough to know what my answer to her preposition is. I've still got tomorrow with her in my rotation group to work out any kinks, but being a double agent with her is something that I definitely can't turn down.

I can't tell William about this. I can't tell Dredd about this, he'd think I was insane. I'll just have to keep my space from Dredd and trust that once I get into the Games he'll be able to keep up enough to get me sponsors.

Marie-Lynn told me to keep building my boy's alliance, so that I will. I spot William waiting around by one of the elevators with Ayler and make my way over towards them.

Ayler smiles when he sees me coming. "Everett, man, The Mastermind, I like the way you think kid."

I smile and look to William. "I take it that means you got Ayler here to agree to work with us."

"You bet," William says, clearly pleased.

"Fantastic, fantastic," I nod along, feeling buzzed with how perfectly this is all coming together.

Ayler nods again. "I'm all up for the plans, boy this year's going to be one to watch, eh gents?"

"It sure is."

My my, it seems there's been a change of the plans

Have any thoughts on what's happened? I'd love to hear from you in the reviews

Watch for the Eagle!