AUTHOR'S NOTES: We finally catch our glimpse of another trend that developed a little later into the early games-sponsor gifts. We'll surely see many more of these as the games progress, but these really early games are still a bit different, since all of the tributes in them were old enough to be alive before the 'games. In the meantime, we also meet our first wild tribute, a trend that will definitely only get more prominent as the games go on. The more savvy the tributes become with the games, the stronger and more dangerous they will become.
This will also not be the only time a tribute gets a nickname. These will ultimately be pretty rare, but they will happen. Similarly, sometime in the future, you may see another boy or girl with a name we've seen before. This is natural, since it happens in the real world all the time. Don't worry too much about it.
Happy Reading!

The 7th Annual Hunger Games

Seven years into the games, and half of the districts now had a victor. It was only a matter of time before one of them produced another victor. It was theoretically a 50-50 chance, except that some districts had stronger tributes than others, and Districts like 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11—which usually produced some of the most proficient tributes, had also produced victors in the last 6 Hunger Games. Now the 7th Annual Hunger Games was upon them, and the districts were all vying to produce a victor.

Naturally, with Districts 1 and 2 training their tributes, they expected another easy win sooner or later. They might not have been able to win every year, but they could keep the space between victories as small as possible.

District 1 produced powerful tributes by the name of Marco Wainright and the oddly named Fame DeLaRosa, while District 2 produced a volunteer boy named Alvin, and a rather aggressive looking girl named Emily, who, in the training center, quickly got nicknamed 'Scar' for a rather wicked marking spanning across her left eye.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this girl scored a 12, becoming the first person to ever do so. The tributes were improving their skills, but even the careers usually mostly just scored 9s or 10s, with only one or two 11s recorded so far in the first 6 'games.

The bloodbath was mostly Scar (Emily) massacring the other tributes, including the kids from District 3 and District 4, whom the others had suspected might be decent ally material otherwise. But, just like the games and the tributes were changing, so were the arenas. This year would be different.

It was a colder climate this year, much like a tundra. The cornucopia of course, was littered with supplies and things that the tributes might use to keep themselves, warm, and so even the resilient kids from District 11 and District 9 had trouble this year, since they were used to living in warm enough temperatures to allow plants and crops to grow.

One tribute that did give the career pack some trouble this year though was a certain Susan Jackman from District 5. Somehow, she had managed to construct a device that she attached to her back that kept her warm, and so she was able to breeze through the snowy landscape with relative ease, not worrying much about the cold.

She waited it out, which became problematic for the careers. Their cornucopia supplies were dwindling, and so were the number of other tributes they had left to kill. Perhaps out of boredom or bloodlust or whatever else, Scar turned on her companions, tearing Marco apart before the others could react. They managed to injure her somewhat, but she had managed to kill off her own partner and then finish off Fame, before gathering what was left of the warm supplies and trudging out into the desolate tundra to scout out the remaining two tributes, of which Susan was one.

Incidentally, it was Susan's partner who was the remaining tribute, which put the odds of District 5 producing another victor still fairly high in the air. However, he had the misfortune of being Emily's first target instead of Susan, and so he was viciously killed and his supplies taken—which included an odd heating device that was clearly not made in the arena. This had been the first sponsor gift. Capitol citizens could bet on the tributes, and also invest in them. If a certain tribute appealed to the masses, Capitol citizens (and even mentors, to an extent) could purchase "gifts" to send to the tributes to try and tilt the odds in their favor. Such had been what had happened to that District 5 boy, even if he had not made it to the victor's throne.

However, it also meant that Emily was now very warm, and so she managed to recover as she hunted Susan—who was also hunting the scar-faced girl down.

However, Susan was cleverer than she looked. Not only had she built a heating device that had kept her alive and warm so far, but she had also managed to construct some sort of electrical contraption that she had weaponized. Thus, when the encounter with Emily finally came on Day 10, Susan struck quickly, and finally brought the vicious girl down in a blaze of glory, ending the games, with nothing more than a cut on her left eye to signify her fight. Susan had become the 2nd victor from District 5, and the 7th Victor of the Hunger Games.

Susan never underestimated the power and use of a warm outfit after that, although she was also never terribly fond of autumn or winter after her games, even the milder ones that District 5 often got. She never forgot about Emily either—she kept that scar on her eye as a reminder of the games—and how she believed they should never be forgotten…

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)