Colette Reilly, 13

District 8 Female

"Are these dry enough?" Colette asked, kneeling in the dirt beside Danse and presenting her armful of sticks. The girls were making a small campfire to cook the squirrel Danse caught, and Colette was in charge of finding fuel.

Danse looked them over briefly and nodded, gesturing for Colette to arrange them in the circle of stones they'd set up. Thinking back to her lessons in the training center, Colette created a round tent shape with the smaller twigs and then leaned a few larger ones up on the outside.

Danse lightly pushed Colette out of the way and began rubbing a handmade wooden contraption together, which, after a minute or two, began to spark. Danse blew the sparks onto the fire, and Colette watched in awe as a fire began to blaze to life.

"How did you learn to do that so well?" Colette asked. Danse shrugged one shoulder.

"Mort showed me," she said casually.

"Who's Mort?"

"He's my… mentor." Danse frowned as she struggled to find the word.

"Where are your parents?" Colette asked softly. Then she winced, realizing the sensitivity of the question.

"If you don't mind telling me, that is."

Danse let out a little huff of laughter.

"I never knew my parents," she said flatly. "I was in an orphanage, but it was awful there, so I left. Mort is kind of like my foster dad, but he taught me a lot of things most dads don't teach their kids.

"Like what?"

"Like when to keep my mouth shut," Danse said. "Now, let's cook this squirrel. Dawn is the best time to do it."

As Danse speared the skinned animal on a stick, Colette bit down on the question rising in her mouth. But she couldn't keep it in.

"Why is dawn the best time?"

"Because it's harder to see smoke," Danse said. "No more questions."

"You're not the boss of me," Colette pouted.

"Stop acting like a baby then," Danse grumbled.

"I am not!" she protested. Danse rolled her eyes.

The girls fell into an uncomfortable silence. Colette wanted to argue more, but she'd learned by now that Danse always won arguments.

"Did you have siblings?" she finally asked, too overwhelmed by the silence not to talk. "Like, with Mort?"

"Yeah. Copper and Heidi and Dahlia and a few other newer kids," Danse said. "I was the oldest though. Do you have siblings?"

"No." Colette shook her head. "I have two uncles who lived with me and my parents though. Uncle Joey is my favorite. He let me do his makeup and he'd always have tea parties with me." Danse smiled.

"He sounds nice," she said. Colette nodded.

"He is."

The next bit of silence that followed was more comfortable, and Colette thanked Danse as she offered her the first bite of the squirrel. The meat was stringy, but not bad, and Danse had cooked it quite well. They traded bites until the squirrel was gone, and Colette looked longingly at the warm fire.

"Do we have to put it out now?" she asked. Danse frowned.

"I guess we could cover up the embers…" she said slowly. Colette grinned.

"Let's try it."

Fritz Poco, 18

District 5 Female

Fritz pushed through the wet undergrowth, using one hand to pull her poncho tightly around her. After the storm yesterday, the Gamemakers had reeled back the rain, choosing instead to make it incredibly cold and windy.

She remembered the three faces in the sky, and it brought back her memory of seeing Dieter and Fallon. Her heart broke all over again at the memory of the loss of her friends. Though she was never as close to them as she was with Rosie and Hugo, they were still her friends, and Fritz would do anything for them.

Theo and Thalia too. She'd seen how important friendship was to Thalia, hearing her talk about Lynette and how they relied on only each other. Theo had said he wished he had friends as close as that, and Fritz had wanted to hug him, to tell him they were friends, that she'd be there for him forever.

Only she couldn't. Only one of them could win, and Fritz knew it wasn't going to be her. She wanted to go home so badly, but there was no way she could let her allies die. She would lay down her life for them.

Fritz was disrupted from her thoughts by the sound of a stick breaking. Gasping softly, she moved behind a tree and held still, cursing her red hair for sticking out like a sore thumb. Footsteps approached, and she clenched her fists, ready to attack.

She jumped out from behind the tree, fists at the ready, but hesitated when she saw Alrik. His eyes widened and he drew his hunting knife, but she leaped back.

"Wait!" she cried. "I thought you were a Career!"

Alrik hesitated.

"Does it make a difference?" he asked in a low, rumbling tone. Fritz nodded, eyeing the weapon in his hands. She was getting an idea.

"We have a plan," she said. "My allies and I. We're going to attack the Careers and take over the Cornucopia. You could… you could join us? We need more strong people on our side."

The larger boy watched her for a few moments. Fritz tried to look as non-threatening as possible. Finally, he spoke.

"What is the plan?"

"We'll attack early in the morning," Fritz said. "Adelind from 4 is in on it. She'll be on watch. We'll take them all out while they're still asleep."

"Clever," Alrik said. "Okay."

"'Okay', you're in?" she asked. He nodded, and she couldn't contain her small squeal of excitement, which made Alrik smile a little.

"Thank you," Fritz said, looking him in the eye. He nodded.

Abandoning her original quest for food, Fritz led Alrik back to the small gully where she and her allies had made camp. As they climbed down the side, she heard Theo and Thalia talking animatedly. It made her smile, but it also made her curious. What were they so excited about?

"Hey, I'm back," she said, rounding a large boulder that blocked the view of the rest of the ravine. "And I brought a friend." She felt Alrik move up behind her and wave. Thalia's eyes widened, but Theo was smiling.

"Hey man," he said. "Welcome to the team." Then he looked at Fritz. "We got a sponsor gift."

"Seriously?" she asked. "That's great! What is it?" Smirking, Theo gestured to the item by his feet. Fritz gasped. He had a crossbow.

Regina Soto, 17

District 1 Female

It was getting dark out when Regina and Wyler returned to the Cornucopia. They'd been walking around the rocky area around it, letting her put pressure on her leg and practice walking. It had been going well, which she was grateful for. Her vision of her Games had been very different from her actual experience.

In her head, she was the fierce, confident leader of the Career Pack, organizing and inspiring her allies. In reality, she was hobbling around a pond, being half-carried by a boy who wasn't even trained.

Not that she minded. She appreciated Wyler more than she could explain. He was patient with her, but not pitying, and never once questioned her capabilities. He just met her where she was at.

She hadn't expected Wyler to make her miss Velvet so much. Her fiance was strikingly similar to the boy whose arm was under her shoulders at this very moment. Both were dedicated and intelligent. Velvet was just much more outgoing.

Wyler helped Regina sit down by the smoldering campfire before crouching down to coax the flames back to life.

"Did you have to build fires back home?" she asked. "You're good at it."

Wyler glanced up at her.

"No," he said. "I just like to be good at things. It's what's expected of me."

"Sounds hard," she mused. But he shook his head.

"I want to be talented," he said. "In District 3, it can make or break you. I'd assume it's the same in a Career distinct."

"Actually, it's not too far off," Regina admitted after thinking for a moment. "We work as hard as we can to be chosen for the Games, and then we work as hard as we can to win them. The work doesn't stop."

Wyler nodded slowly.

"It's not ready yet, but I'm working on a project," he finally said after moments of silence.

"Is it what you were sponsored yesterday morning?" she asked. He nodded again.

"I'm building a trap. I don't know how Vizio afforded it, but I have all the materials I need. We can set it up in the pools around the Cornucopia so if anyone tries to sneak up on us, they'll be electrocuted."

"That's incredible," Regina said. Her ally was clearly more intelligent than she could have imagined. Wyler smiled a little in the fire light.

"Thanks," he murmured.

She stretched out her leg, wincing a bit at the pull, and examining the bandage around the wound. No blood was leaking through after her walk, which was good. Sighing, she glanced back over at Wyler, who had brought a handful of thin silver wiring out to fiddle with as he sat beside her. They'd only known him for a few days, but she couldn't imagine losing him. The Hunger Games were going to be a bigger challenge than she ever expected them to be.

Hey everyone! Here's another chapter! I'm currently on vacation with my mom, but I really wanted to write (and it's pouring, so we can't go anywhere). I'm hoping to get Day 5 out in the next couple of days because it's going to be very exciting! But I hope you all enjoy this chapter too, even though it's just a bit of downtime in the arena.

Questions:

1) What do you think of Fritz adding Alrik to the alliance?

2) Thoughts on Theo's sponsor gift?

3) Who do you think will die next?

Current Alliances

Careers:
- Regina
- Mozu
- Blitz
- Wyler
- Adelind
- Sam
- Noah

Adelind's Secret Gang:
- Adelind
- Fritz
- Theo
- Alrik
- Thalia

Small But Mighty:
- Danse
- Colette

Loners:
- Lana
- Saoirse

Have a nice day, be kind to each other, and never stop reading!

- Fiona