I'm back with another chapter!

But I feel like a bad author cuz it took me so long to write this chapter.

I got quite a few reviews so...

Murphyyy2000: I'm putting training scores in Capitol's View and I'll add in the tribute's reaction but I'm skipping out on training for two reasons:

A) I kinda wanna get a wriggle on

B) that way it'll be more of a surprise in the arena- unless it was your tribute!

Nighttimephoenix: yeah... basically, she is my (A's) best friend. She used to let me and K use her account for submitting tributes before we made our own. She changed her name to make us feel a part of it more.

Also, I didn't really consider the differences between the two tributes but you're right!

DJEkat: Glad you think so! xD

I'm not gonna reply to the other reviews because they are not worthy!

Just kidding, in reality I don't think they need to be replyed to.

By next chapter, I'm publishing the official list of sponsor items. I won't put everything in, and I've decided you can sponsor via review. So if you want to add anything to the list, pop it in reviews and we shall see.

Schedule:

D9 (now)

D3

Goodbyes

Chariots

Capitol's View (got them muddled)

Interviews

The Games

Afterthought

Obituaries

What's more, I've picked the Victor! I think. I'm pretty sure I have. But I could always surprise myself if the opportunity arises for another tribute to kill Them...

Besides, I'm very unpredictable.

A random quote I have decided to share:

'Despite the look on my face, you are still talking.'- Skulduggery Pleasant, the Skeleton Detective

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Prepare to weep, my friends! K has left me/this account. :(

ANNOUNCEMENT TWO:

UnicornAK is discontinuing Time Is Ticking.

When this one is finished I may take it up.

That was probably the longest A/N I've done. Yet.

I kinda wanna keep it going.

Um...

Trying to invent something to say...

Yah, no hope.

Wait...

Nope!

Um

I'm out- for now!

Athena Fields, D9

"Athena!" I hear a voice that sounds strangely like my father's did in my dream last night.

But it can't be him. He died. I saw it happen. They dragged us all out, me and mum and Hays and Leah, and we just watched as they beat him again and again and again and again until he stopped screaming. I think that's when I knew it, but I didn't accept it for weeks, months after that.

That was six years ago. Sometimes I think he's coming back. But when am I that lucky?

My life is far from glamorous. A few weeks after the compensation money we were provided with ran out, I took up a job in the fields. I had little time for friends, and slowly but surely, only Hayley and Isaiah remained. I've chilled out a bit now but they're still my only real friends.

My job is hard- I started off with my father's, which was hard enough, but then I got promoted. I took the job because it paid better, which meant my mum would stop giving her food to Hays and Leah.

As I'm dragging myself out of bed, the voice- and a fuzzy shape that must be its owner- become more and more clear until I correctly identify them as Hays. Of course it was Hays, I think to myself. Hays was inspired when District Twelve almost won the Games a few years back and has been rising early to run and climb and hide since.

Speaking of the Games, the TV was blasting when I went downstairs, showing Caesar Flickerman interviewing the Head Gamemaker, Zinc Crawsnap, last night. Then he reminded everyone that the Games would be starting soon- oh flip, it's the Reaping today!

I wolf down some suspicious meat and then rush upstairs to get ready. Thankfully, I don't have to pick out a dress as Leah, though only 10, has a keen eye for fashion and has laid out a dress and shoes. When I'm ready, I stumble down the stairs in the heels she has produced, only to find Hays holding a box and Leah beckoning me over. I comply, curious.

Big mistake.

Leah quickly applies mascara, lipstick and a horde of other products to my face. Then she pushes me out the door where I am met by Hayley. She laughs outright and I sulk half the way to the town centre. We start chatting soon enough. She plans a sleepover for next week. I blush when she mentions Isaiah might be coming but she doesn't notice.

Neither of us expected me to be standing up on that platform next to a boy with sandy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. I notice a scar on his face and the telltale clothes of the orphanage before I turn away and play to the cameras which are surely trained on us.

I start scheming. I'm handy with a scythe and hours of labour have left me with muscular arms and I may be able to rope in a few sponsors.

The sleepover will have to wait.

Maximus Stalk, D9

My last Reaping. After today, I'll be free from the orphanage.

But the day isn't over.

My breakfast is a small bowl with a bit of cereal and sour milk- but I know better than to complain. The marks on my back and the scar on my face are more than enough to learn my lesson.

After I dress in the standard orphanage uniform and try to ignore the fact it's too tight, I step outside. I regret to admit that I followed the screams to find Ellie. The whole district knows her uncle beats her, but no on does anything about it. After all, who would dare to challenge the Mayor- especially one from the Capitol?

I rap on the door in the pattern Ellie devised. It fools her uncle into thinking a Peacekeeper has come to collect her when in actual fact it's just me.

But today, Ellie is still screaming. So her uncle won't let her go? I sigh. I'll have to go without her.

I trudge to the Reaping. Luckily Ellie makes it in time but I've already entered my section so I can't talk to her.

I plan on talking to her after the Reaping is up.

I start thinking about what to do with my freedom after the girl is Reaped- Athena. I think I know her but I doubt it. I've probably just picked up her name somewhere.

I'm jolted out of my fantasies when my name is called. I had tons of tesserae from being eighteen and from the orphanage, but I didn't think I'd actually get Reaped.

I have to make it back. For Ellie.

District Nine, you've got yourself a fighter.

In the two days it took me to write this, K changed her mind.

Sorry it took so long.

I changed Ellie. I think I ruined Max.

I'm going now.

~CandyRue