(Alicia Hills POV)

I've been sitting in this room for almost 10 minutes and was beginning to feel irritated. Where in the hell were Gabby and Mocha? Just as I was about to give up on them they burst through the door.

"I love y'all, I really do but you would think that if I volunteered for one of you, you'd speed up a bit to see me." I snap.

"We know Alicia but the Peacekeepers wanted to talk to us." Said Gabby.

"Why did they want to see you? What the hell did y'all do?"

The two of them looked mildly offended. "We didn't do anything. They were just letting us know we could stay in our house unless you came back dead. Then we'd be sent to the community home until Mocha turned 14. If you come back alive we'd be with you in the Victor's Village."

"Oh ok. Remember to trade with others for food. Don't pick fights because if you do and you lose I'm going to come back and beat you. Our neighbors will look after okay?"

"Okay Alicia. We'll miss you!" I let them hug me; something I usually didn't do since I hate hugs.

"I'll see you soon okay, because I'll be coming back. I promise." Then they are escorted out and all I'm left with are the images of them that will replay in my head while I'm away.

My sisters are the only people in the world I've got left, so I wasn't expecting any more visitors. So when I see the fat ugly face of Serenity I nearly gag on the rabbit I had for lunch.

"What dumbass let you in here?" I really, really am not in the mood for her. Of course she plops her chubby butt on the nearest chair to me and grins.

"I'm here to say goodbye to my favorite employee of course." She smiles again like that would make me like her or something.

"I'm giving you exactly 3 seconds to get out of here and stop breathing my air before I go off on you." I say. She laughs right up until my hand smacks across her face. The ringing silence could be cut with a knife but I don't care. I snatch her up by her collar and drag her to the door. I throw it open wide and toss her at the feet of the Peacekeeper outside my door.

"Next time you feel like letting trash come visit me don't." I look down at the mass of blubber that is Serenity. "And you; I want you to say something else smart to me when I come back."

She mumbled something unintelligible. I feel more anger than I believed to be humanly possible.

"What you say to me? You want me to slap you on the other side of your face too?" She shook her head violently.

"I thought so. Guard I'm ready to be escorted to the train now." The Peacekeeper still looked shocked but he quickly snapped back into action and escorted me to the elevator. I was anything but scared; after all that was my victory that was waiting.

(Damon Yale POV)

Adam was sitting next to me crying his eyes out. Looking at him I didn't know how he was going to make it without me there for the next couple of weeks. Forget the next couple of weeks. What would he do if I don't come back alive again? I couldn't bring those thoughts up to him. Not when the reality of what's just happened has seemed to break him completely.

"Hey Adam look at me. It's going to be okay alright. I'll be back. Just stay in school try and make all the food last. Someone will help you out. This isn't the end."

"Do you promise to win? Do you promise to come back? You could do it you know. You can win."

I didn't want to get his hopes up. I would be facing an arena full of kids who were stronger than me, bigger than me and kids who'd trained forever for this. But this was Adam. I couldn't give him false hope and have no hope myself.

"I'll try my best. I will do everything possible to come back."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

A Peacekeeper escorted him out and then Lea came in and took his place. What would it take to convince this girl that I don't want to be friends I thought exasperatedly. That's when I noticed the tear marks on her face. She couldn't be crying over me, could she?

"Hi Damon." She said in a shaky voice. "How, how are you feeling?"

Since I was probably going to die soon anyway I decided not to deny Lea this conversation. "I'm okay. Been better."

She almost smiles at that. "I'll check on Adam everyday and make sure he's eating, doing his homework, and just okay while you're gone. My mom said she'll save him food from our meals."

That touched me. No one has ever tried to help us before. Even if they had I probably would have rebuffed them. I didn't want help taking care of myself and Adam. That was something I had to learn to do on my own. But I accepted this kindness as a sort of last gift from Lea.

"Thank you Lea." I said quietly. "That means a lot."

"Well that's what friends are for right? Friends help each other." Was the reply I received.

The Peacekeeper was back again. Lea bent down and hugged me again and this time I tentatively hugged her back. This is the closest I've been to anyone besides Adam in a long time. Last person to hug me like this was my mother; and that was a long time ago. Lea let go of me and gave me her brilliant smile again before allowing herself to be steered from my room.

(Alicia Hills POV)

The room that was assigned to me was exquisite. I've never seen so much nice stuff before in my life. I dress in a blue silk shirt and black pants. While I stared at my now luxurious appearance Vienna Lee came to get me. The lady was so damn preppy I could hardly stand it. Who could be that happy all the time? She herded me into the dining car where Jasmine, Usher, and Damon were all sitting. I tried not to stare at Usher, but it was hard not to. He was gorgeous and an excellent mentor as far as I was concerned. Both he and Jasmine smiled at me as I sat down. Damon simply nodded his head at me and went back to eating. He was probably mad about the nasty stare I'd given him after he glared at Vienna and I on the reaping stage. Not that I cared. I didn't want allies and I especially didn't want a scrawny, rude thing like him who didn't seem to like me in the slightest either. Seemingly following my point of view Jasmine begins to ask about our skills and plans for the games.

"So are either of you particularly good at anything that will help you in the arena?" she asked.

"I can fight, you know fist to face pretty well." I said innocently. This got Usher to laugh and if I was light skinned I would have blushed.

"Well that will certainly come in handy in hand to hand combat. What about you?" She turned her attention to Damon.

"I have endurance, and I can climb trees. I'm mediocre with a bow and arrow but I know the basics." He mumbled.

"We can work with that too" Stated Usher "Both of you head on to the viewing room. It's time to watch the reapings."

(Damon Yale POV)

The national anthem blares as District 1 comes on the screen. The houses there look so much better than the best ones in District 8. Filthy lapdogs I think. Their tributes are a strong looking boy and girl, who have probably been training since they were 5 or something. There is a boyfriend and girlfriend from 3. I almost gag when I see the boy kiss the girl in front of the world. Didn't the fools understand that love will get them nowhere? Both tributes from 7 look like they could win. The other careers boy and, most surprisingly the boy from 12 look strong as well. These tributes are everything I believed and feared they would be. Winning would be a challenge, but it was a challenge I was up for.

Oh yes the wonderful Alicia. She's based off of my best friend who I love to pieces. She threatened me with a vow of silence if I didn't get this chapter up. So thank allycat211 for this update as well. It would have been up sooner but we had deaths in the family as well as my mother being rushed to the ER last week. Please hit that review button!