District 4 male – Luderick Bellamy, 14


My district partner was not at all what I'd hoped her to be. First, she was not nearly as rich as I was. Of course, she wouldn't be, I was the mayor's son after all, but I'd hoped she'd at least have good rich person manners and make District 4 look good, but she was ruining everything.

As we ate our breakfast together on the fourth floor of the training centre, I noticed once again that her table manners were not nearly as good as mine. They weren't horrible, exactly, but I was worrying about her in the interviews. She'd seemed so angry since the train rides, and what if she said something rude on live TV that reflected badly on District 4? Maybe I'd have to talk with her about it during training.

The worst thing about her though was that she didn't want to be my ally. I know that Salmo told me to try and ally with non-District 4 people, but the thing was, who?

District 4 was normally a Career district, but I had never once set foot in the Career's Academy and had never intended to. So I couldn't join the Careers. I supposed I'd just have to sus everyone out today at training.

But god, I hated this place. So plastic, so fake, so... not District 4. I felt terrified by the idea of having to interact with people from other districts today. Just the thought of that made me feel sick. God, I already hated the two from One. The girl had pushed the boy off the chariot, for god's sake! Who does that?

I looked up at Hazel, who was done eating and clenching her spoon. She looked different now than she did the day before. She wasn't wearing makeup today, yet she still looked pretty. At least she had the good District 4 genes.

"So, you ready for training?" I asked her. Maybe she'd want to ally with me again if I made a good impression, and I could fix her up before the interviews.

She looked at me, narrowing her eyes and running a hand down her long, cinnamon-coloured plait. Fine, then. I suppose she didn't want to make a good impression on our district.

"Alright, well, it's quarter to ten, and you don't want to be late, so come on, let's go," said Guinevere, standing up. I stood up and felt like I was going to be sick already. God, I hadn't even seen the other tributes yet.

We were led down to the training rooms, and I couldn't help the building anxiety inside me as we walked in. There were a few tributes in there already. God, god, god, ew, ew, ew...

I stood with my arms stuck right against my torso as the head trainer gave us a rundown of everything because I was scared that I might accidentally touch one of the other tributes. They all looked absolutely disgusting. How was I supposed to ally with any of them?

I glanced over at the two from Twelve, which was my least favourite district. Thankfully, they'd been showered well, but during the reaping clips, they were both dirty little grots, just like the rest of their disgusting district.

I felt sick about this whole thing already.

We all dispersed through the training room, and I took in a deep breath. Walk in their shoes, and try to relate to them...

I walked over to where we could practice making fishhooks, hoping perhaps someone not too bad would approach me.

And, thankfully, someone did. It was the girl from District 9, walking over to me as if she was on a mission, her messy red hair flowing behind her as she marched over to me.

"Oi," she snapped. "You're small, you're my ally now."

"Um, what?" I said. Please, anyone but her. She looked so dirty, and her teeth... her teeth were so crooked.

"How old are you?"

"I'm 14," I said, crossing my arms. God, I wanted to insult her. But I didn't. I tried to imagine what life must be like for her, living amongst the grains... she probably couldn't swim.

"Good, you're my ally now," she spat at me.

I didn't want to, but, taking in a deep breath, I nodded.


District 6 female – Cindy Trimmers, 18


"The girl from Five is joining us."

"Seriously? She looks mad. Did you see her on the chariots? She's going crazy already."

"I am the leader here," my district partner, George, snapped at me. We were sitting at the breakfast table together before our first day of training, discussing alliances. George and I had both come in wanting to be part of an evil outlier alliance, but George was super insistent on being the leader of it for some reason.

"OK, whatever..." I said, taking a bite of my fancy Capitol breakfast. "So, you want the girl from Five. Who else?"

"It's hard to tell just from the reapings and the chariots, but... maybe the boy from Five, as well, and the boy from Ten."

"Whatever you say," I said, rolling my eyes and looking up at the big clock. It was almost time to go to the training rooms.

I had learned from the train rides and last night that our mentor did not like either of us. Well, he had made a bad impression on me. on the train, I'd changed out of my prison uniform into some clothes which were provided, and of course, they'd been clothes that showed my figure a little. And he'd stared a little too much.

So, I'd kicked him, and now he hated me, and he just hated George because everyone who wasn't George or George's gang hated George.

Hence why I was keeping track of the time because it wasn't like our mentor was going to let us know when it was time to go. He was sleeping, now. And our escort... he hated us, too. They both hated us, but at least we got along with each other.

I got up, and George followed suit. We were both already in our training clothes and completely ready, so were able to just go towards the elevator to go down to the training rooms.

As soon as we were there, I looked around at the other tributes. Some of them didn't look like they should have been voted into these games, such as the girl from Nine, the boy from Eleven, and the girl from Twelve.

As soon as we were allowed to disperse, George and I made our way over to the girl from Five, who had gone straight to the weaponry section.

"Oi," George snapped at her, and she spun around to face us. I had to admit, she was quite intimidating. Her wavy hair was split-dyed with half of it a light blonde and the other half jet-black, and there was loads of eyeliner over her dark eyes.

"What," was her response.

"You want to be part of our alliance?" George asked.

The girl looked him up and down. "And why should I choose to be allied with you?"

"Well... from what I understand from your reaping clip, you are a criminal outlaw, yes?"

She grinned. "I killed ten kids in one night and that landed me in prison."

I raised my eyebrows. "Why?"

"For fun," she grinned.

For fun? At least I had a motive to kill people, whereas this girl was going around killing kids for the fun of it. She'd feel right at home in the arena.

"I'm George, by the way. George Caron. I was in prison as well. I'm starting up an alliance of criminals from the outlier districts. And you are?"

"Carmilla Wilkes," she said.

"So, are you going to join us?" George asked.

"I'll have a think about it. Decide whether or not you guys are worth my time or not."

George rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Come on, Cindy, let's go build up our alliance."

I nodded, and we walked further into the training room to look for the most aggressive, dangerous criminals in the room.

We would be the strongest alliance in the arena.


District 10 male - Janusz Kurczak, 18


I don't think Fllora liked me very much, especially since I had decided to mess with her on the train. At first, I didn't understand why she was even voted into these games. She was nice enough to be able to get through life with ease, but the thing was, she was smart. She could tell when I lied. No one could tell when I lied unless they were downright obvious. But she could tell, somehow.

Maybe Fllora didn't look it, but I genuinely thought she could have some potential in these games, and maybe the district knew this and that was why they voted her as the tribute.

The two of us were astounded at the sheer size of the training centre. We got an entire level to ourselves, and a massive room each. The morning after the chariots, I had my first ever proper shower. Normally my friends and I would just use a small bucket of water to wash ourselves.

After my shower, I got dressed into my training uniform and went out for breakfast, where Fllora and our escort were waiting for me, Fllora already eating.

"You take long showers," said the escort, raising an eyebrow at me, and I shrugged before sitting down at the table across from Fllora. Her dark hair had been tied back into two ponytails, and as she gave me a small smile of acknowledgement, I gave her a wink, which made her roll her eyes.

After breakfast, we made our way to the training rooms, where a few of the tributes were already waiting. Once they'd all arrived, the head trainer gave us a rundown of how the training would work. As he talked to us, I looked around at the other tributes. I was taller than some of them, which was a relief. I hadn't been able to bring anything to the Capitol. No eyeliner, no heels, no hats... I felt completely naked in my boring old training clothes.

At the end of his talk, the Head trainer asked to talk to the two tributes from District 1 privately, and I assumed it was about how the girl had pushed the boy out of the chariot.

OK, I thought to myself as we all dispersed through the training room. Allies, allies, allies...

The problem was, I didn't know what any of the other tributes were like, yet. I wanted to join the strongest alliance in the games, and, based on every other Hunger Games so far, I knew exactly who that was.


"So you think that we're going to let the boy from District 10 join our alliance?"

Dania Khatib, the girl from Two, was really pissing me off. She and her district partner had joined up with the Ones (the Ones were avoiding each other, however), and I had approached them to propose the idea that I joined their alliance.

"Well, you know I'm actually originally from District 2," I said.

"No, you're not," Dania snorted, crossing her arms.

"Prove that I'm not."

"I would know you if you were," she said. "Plus, people don't just move districts. And even if they did, why would you go to district 10 of all places?"

"Would you like me to go and whip out my birth certificate, then?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Look, just piss off, your poor scum," snapped the boy from One, Mark. His district partner, Phoenix gave him a dirty look at this.

"I say we see what he's got," she said. "Just for today. He proves to us that he's good enough, and we decide by the end if he's unofficially part of the Careers or not."

"You're not the boss around here," Mark spat.

"Fine, I say we do that," Dania butt in. "But we're not going to go easy on you."

"Of course not," I said, picking up a knife and twisting it easily around my fingers. I was good with a knife after years of being a criminal outlaw.


I decided that my favourite of the careers was Phoenix. Mark was crazy, Dania was bossy, and Quintus was just weird. When the two of us were alone in the survival section, I asked her what happened with Mark on the chariot, simply because I was curious, but I didn't expect her to go on a full rant about how he had been bothering her and she just lost it, and now her mentor, her escort, Mark, Dania, Quintus, the Head trainer, and all the sponsors didn't like her now.

"Well, if he was provoking you, I don't think you should be getting as much hate," I said to her.

"Thank you!" Phoenix cried. "Like, I understand I shouldn't have pushed him, but he literally punched me! Just out of the blue! Who does that!?"

"Psychopaths," I said, looking over at Mark, who was screaming and beating up one of the mannequins.


District 11 female – May Vickford, 15


There was a book that I enjoyed reading some nights while I was defending the crops, all about surviving the Hunger Games. Most people didn't know about this book, but I found it lying in my parent's bedroom one day. I only read it out of boredom while spending countless nights standing in front of the crops.

Now I was grateful that I had read the book because it meant I had an advantage. The first chapter was about getting through the stage in the Capitol. Other than trying to win sponsorship, the book also suggested gaining a bit of weight. So, the morning before the first day of training, I began stuffing myself with as much of the fancy Capitol food as I could.

After I was finished eating my massive breakfast and we were both completely ready, Buster and I made our way to the elevator to go down to the training rooms. As we stood on the elevator, I began to contemplate alliances.

The book had advised you to find a few allies that you could genuinely trust, but not to build too much of an attachment to. I would spend today analysing everyone, then at the end of the day would approach the people who I wanted to entrust to be my allies.

As soon as we were in the training room, I began to watch them all. The ones from Districts Five and Six all seemed pretty crazy and had all banded together within the first hour. Obviously, the Careers were all going together, except both from District Four didn't seem interested, and for some reason, the boy from Ten was tagging along with them. Those two groups were off-limits for me, I knew that.

By midday, most people had seemed to form some sort of alliance. The only people who were still alone were the girl and the boy from Three, the boy from Seven, and the boy from Twelve. Otherwise, I noticed that the girl from Nine was bossing a small group of tributes around, including the boy from Four, Buster, and the girl from Twelve. I didn't want to join them, I refused to get bossed around by some weird girl.

The girl from Seven had buddied up with the boy from Nine, and the girls from Four, Eight, and Ten had also made a small alliance. My options were between those two groups, as they were the only ones who either weren't alone still, weren't crazy, weren't Careers, or weren't being bossed around.

I continued to practice my survival skills, keeping an eye on both the two possible alliance groups. The girl from Seven and the boy from Nine both seemed extremely nice. Maybe a little... too nice. Whereas the girl from Four had an attitude. She was bold, like me, and so was the girl from Ten. The girl from Eight was a little less maybe, but she still looked cool.

I waited another fifteen minutes, then approached the three of them. I wasn't afraid of talking to random people and being myself, but I did know that this could be a life-or-death situation. I did not want lazy people, just like my co-workers.

"Hi," I said when I was close enough to them that they could tell I was speaking to them. "I'm May Vickford. District 11. I'd love to join your alliance."

The girls all exchanged glances.

"How do we know that we can trust you?" the girl from Eight asked, pushing her glasses up her nose and crossing her arms.

"Well, only one person can win, so with that attitude, what's the point of even making alliances?" I said. "What are your names?"

"I'm Fllora, this is Hazel, and that's Gabrielle," said the girl from Ten.

"Cool, well, I'm used to getting no sleep, so I'm fine to stay alert during the night so you guys can all get a good sleep," I said.

"Yeah, OK, you're in," said Hazel, and I grinned.


OK. I hope the alliances made sense. If they didn't, here's a little rundown of where they stand after one day of training. If you're not happy with your tribute's alliance or any alliance please let me know before I post day 3 of training so I can maybe change it up, alliances can change before the games.

Careers plus one: Phoenix, Mark, Dania, Quintus, (maybe) Janusz

The psychotics: George, Cindy, Carmilla, Ezekiel

Team "kind": Cal, Asiza

Bulga's little kids: Bulga, Luderick, Fox, Buster

The girls with an attitude: Hazel, Gabrielle, Fllora, May

Solo (for now?) – Thia, Jonas, Arnold, Zevran, Patch