Welcome back everyone! Here we are with another chapter :)

Learning New Things

By the time Effie's team arrived in District 11, Matt, Iris, and Daisy had all fallen asleep. Not because of the dagger's influence though—simply because it had gotten to be so late.

As she watched them sleep, Objectiva sighed softly and sadly. "They are so young. Yuri and Lili too. They shouldn't have to be involved in all of this."

Haymitch nodded in agreement. "At least someone tried to stop that boy and his friends from getting involved."

"Can you blame them though?" Johanna asked. "They're little kids, and they were brought up in a place filled with happily ever afters. They think they can stop President Snow just by talking to him." She scoffed. "Like that would be effective."

"But it really could work," said Golias. "If Effie can understand that the Hunger Games are no fun, then I—"

"Sorry Hopeless, but it just doesn't work that way. Not with Snow. Please feel free to hate him for it."

"Hate him?" Golias squeaked, horrified. "I could never hate anyone!"

"Alright, alright," Haymitch cut in, not wanting things between Golias and Johanna to escalate yet again. "The point is, we're all worried about the kids."

"There must be something we can do to protect them to a greater extent while we wait for Nessa, everyone that is with her, and the Peacekeepers to come," Objectiva added. "If something happens to this vehicle and all of us are captured…"

"Yeah, good point," said Haymitch. "Never underestimate the Capitol."

Everyone thought hard, and within fifteen seconds Effie came up with an idea, inspired by her memories of when Golias had shown her just how many things Big Big Friends were capable of. "How about we create a painting we can travel into?" she suggested. "That way one of us can stand guard while the children are inside of it, and the rest of us can stay in here and keep our eyes peeled for everyone."

"Ooh, great idea!" Bongo happily said.

"But uh…who's gonna stand guard?" asked Golias.

"I'll do it," decided Johanna, picking up her pickaxe, "if you lead the Peacekeepers away from me when the time comes and tell me why you think we can go inside a painting."

"Because we can go inside a painting," Golias told her, smiling in excitement. "It's one of the things Big Big Friends can do. But first we'll need some paint, so we can make the painting."

For what felt like the millionth time, Johanna stared at him like he was crazy. "Uh, we can't use paint. That'll take way too long to dry!"

"Why don't we use chalk instead?" Bongo recommended. "Chalk doesn't need time to dry. It already is dry!"

"Chalk?" Johanna, Haymitch, and Effie all asked in confusion. Apparently, chalk wasn't a common drawing material in Panem; not even in the Capitol.

"Oh, you will love it," chimed Objectiva. "'Tis sort of like crayons, only different."

"I know what chalk is," said Effie. "I simply thought people only used it to write on chalkboards."

"Ah. Well," explained Objectiva, "it also tends to be used whenever people wish to draw on pavements and roads. When it is used for that purpose, it can only be erased by water."

Effie gaped at her. "Pavements and roads? People in America draw on pavements and roads?"

"It is not uncivil behaviour, if that is what you believe," said Objectiva. "It is actually quite fun."

"Yeah!" Bongo agreed. "A lot of kids in Brasília draw pictures on the sidewalk with chalk. Even Matt, Yuri, and Lili! It's really fun, but it can also be kind of dirty."

Effie started to say something, but ultimately decided not to and simply nod instead. Drawing on pavements and roads might not seem civil to her, but if it hadn't been for that activity, they might have had a harder time coming up with a way to create a drawing without using paint. It was probably best to just let the seemingly impolite part go and only focus on the fact that, despite it not being a polite thing to do, drawing with chalk was going to help them. All they had to do now was find a good place to draw.

Golias stood before the control panel and looked through the windshield. "Hey, how about behind that house over there?" he asked, using his trunk to point at a very small house in a very malnourished-looking neighbourhood. One where there, thankfully, was no sign of any Peacekeepers or other hovercrafts. As least not as far as anyone could see.

"Looks like a good place to do it in," said Haymitch. He then flew downward and landed the hovercraft, before telling the others, "Since it could take a while to draw your picture, I'll stay in here and take this thing back up into the sky until you're done. Just in case some unwanted hovercrafts try to interrupt you and you'll need some protection."

"Alright," Effie said. "But…be careful, Haymitch."

"Will do, sweetheart. Will do."

With Bongo carrying a sleeping Matt, and Golias placing Iris and Daisy on his head, everyone except for Haymitch left the hovercraft, where there was conveniently, thanks to the powers of either Bongo or Golias, a basket containing several sticks of multicoloured sidewalk chalk and a flashlight waiting for them on the ground. The vehicle was then heard being driven upward, and once the group was certain that it was a safe distance above them, Objectiva asked, "So um…what would you like to draw?"

"Oh! Oh! Let's draw a soccer field!" Bongo excitedly recommended.

"Or a forest!" said Golias, gently placing Iris and Daisy on the ground, which only briefly woke them up. After that, he grabbed the flashlight and turned it on, sighing with relief the moment it lit up. It was dark outside, and he wasn't exactly fond of the dark…

"No, wait! Let's draw a castle!" Bongo told them, changing his mind.

"Ooh, that's a good idea, Bongo," agreed Golias. He then looked at the girls and asked, "Do you wanna draw a castle?"

"Whoa whoa whoa," said Johanna. "Who says I'm going to draw anything?"

"It'll be fun, Johanna," Golias encouraged. "I'm sure you'll like it if you give it a try."

"He does have a point," admitted Effie. "I wasn't exactly very fond of singing at first, but then I gave it a try and…now I actually think it's a fun activity."

Objectiva nodded, noticeably impressed by the escort's words. "'Tis always a good idea to try new things, Johanna. Especially if it's absolutely necessary for a mission…"

"Alright, alright," Johanna grunted, "I'll help you draw that castle. But only because I want these kids to be safe, which means it has to get drawn as fast as possible."

Deciding not to push the having fun part, everyone accepted her response and got to work. Golias drew the castle and then some clouds using the orange chalk and then the white chalk, Bongo drew the sun with the yellow chalk and then the grass that the structure sat on with the green chalk, and Johanna used the blue chalk to draw the sky. Effie and Objectiva, meanwhile, just sat or levitated there and watched, since the former had no hands and didn't want to get chalk in her mouth while the latter was too small to be able to handle the chalk properly.

It was a fun experience for the Big Big Friends, but the same could sadly not be said for Johanna. She didn't groan or gripe about the task at hand, but she did at one point order Golias to stop singing "dadadadada" as he drew. When that happened, the elephant sighed, apologized, and stopped singing. However, as much as he didn't let it show on his face, there was now a temptation (which he resisted of course) building up inside of him to ask a question that he knew would only make things worse if he asked it: "Why does almost everything I do make you upset?" He felt ashamed of this fact, but he just couldn't help it. Somehow, perhaps ever since their argument (the one in which she'd accused him of having a Yuri-o-holic personality), he couldn't bring himself to deny that Johanna seemed to be able to…get on his nerves. And he didn't like it when that happened…

Despite that, however, he and Johanna managed to avoid getting into another dispute for the rest of the drawing process, and within half an hour they along with Bongo were able to finish the drawing. Bongo even used the orange, pink, and yellow chalk to draw a castle guard with a magic wand, so that in case any Peacekeepers got past Johanna and made it into the drawing, they would never find a way into the castle and to them.

"Oh, 'tis perfect," marvelled Objectiva.

"There's only one way to know that for sure," smiled Bongo. He put down the pink chalk, picked up a still-sleeping Matt, and said, "In we go!" Next, he stepped back a little and then bounced forward and into the drawing very very fast, blue water splashing out of the drawing as he entered it.

Johanna gasped in shock. "You really can do it…"

"And that's just the beginning," nodded Effie, taking a few steps back now too. She then speedwalked forward and jumped into the drawing, blue water splashing out behind her.

As Objectiva entered the drawing next, Golias put Iris and Daisy back on his head and also took a few steps back. Johanna didn't though. In fact, she just stood there, frozen in place, a nervous energy beginning to flow through her.

Golias started to charge forward, but stopped when he noticed the fear in her eyes. "Johanna, are…are you okay?"

"I'm fine, okay?" she snapped. But she didn't look fine; and he could tell.

"Are you scared of going inside the drawing?" he asked her.

Johanna scoffed, not wanting to admit the truth. "Me? Scared of something so simple? Are you serious?"

"Well you look scared, and I thought maybe you needed some help going in there."

The woman sighed heavily, realizing she couldn't hide her true feelings. "Okay, maybe I'm a little scared. But that doesn't mean I need your help jumping into a drawing! I mean, really? I'm not incapable of jumping."

"No I know you can jump, but…"

"But what, Hopeless?"

It was Golias's turn to sigh heavily. He just couldn't hold it back. "Can you please stop calling me that?"

"No. You need to earn my trust and respect before I can start referring to you by your real name. And an opportunity like that's not going to come until the Peacekeepers do."

Daisy stirred and yawned. "What's going on?" she mumbled.

"Yeah. Good question."

Startled, Golias and Johanna turned around to find that they, Iris, and Daisy were no longer alone. A young woman with dark skin, thick shoulder-length black hair worn loosely in curls, and simple-looking pyjamas who looked like she was around eighteen years old was standing next to the house they were behind, looking very confused. "Johanna Mason?" she then asked, recognizing the victor of the 71st Hunger Games. "What are you doing here? Why hasn't that mutt tried to hurt you?" Then a look of realization came over her and she said, "Oh my goodness…Thresh Croppez wouldn't happen to be with you, would he?"

"Thresh?" Golias asked. "No, he's with my friend Nessa. But they should be here soon, 'cause they're trying to find the friends and families of everyone she got out of the Hunger Games arena. That way they can all get out of Panem too!"

"They are?" the woman inquired, shocked.

"Yeah," said Golias, smiling kindly. "I'm Golias. What's your name?"

"Pars," answered the woman, slowly calming down as she realized that the talking animal standing before her was no mutt. "I'm Thresh's sister." She then smiled. "Golias, huh? How sweet. Nessa mentioned you in the arena. You um…you came off as quite nice."

"Yes, I am nice!" Golias admitted with pride.

"Yeah. Too nice," muttered Johanna. However, she didn't say those words quietly enough for him to not hear them, and his smile quickly disappeared.

Ignoring what Johanna just said, the woman, Pars, said, "I'll be right back. My grandma's not going to believe two rebels are here." She then turned and went inside the house they were behind.

Once she was gone, Golias looked up at Iris and Daisy, and saw that the latter had fallen asleep again. He then looked at Johanna, hurt. "You really think I'm…too nice?"

"I don't think it, I know it," she replied. "And it makes you sickeningly annoying. What's even worse is that you think your life revolves around your best friend."

"Why would you think that's annoying?" asked Golias. "It's good to be nice, and it's good to think about Yuri a lot."

"Not the way you do it it's not," his awake companion stated. "You can't just be nice all the time, because sometimes you have to get tough so you can prove a point or save yourself. Or other people. And it's one thing to like someone, and another thing to love someone. But thinking your life revolves around someone is a whole other topic. It makes people obsessed with that person, and when people are obsessed, they can get mad. Which, in this case, means unhealthy on the inside. And that's a weakness. Or it can least make other people think you don't care about them as much as you care about the person you think your life revolves around, which also never leads to anything good."

Golias wistfully stared at the ground. Either she was just trying to hurt his feelings again, or she was actually trying to give him some advice. "That might be how you feel about it, but not all of it's not true. I'm not obsessed with Yuri, and I know my other friends know that I care about them. Now…I'm sorry, but can you please stop saying all that stuff? It's really hurting my feelings, and I don't wanna have to keep arguing with you about it."

Before Johanna could respond to that comment, Bongo (now no longer carrying Matt) jumped out of the drawing, landed on his feet next to it, and asked, "What's taking you so long?"

"Oh," the elephant said. "Sorry Bongo. I was going to jump in, but then Johanna got scared, so I—"

Johanna quickly tried to silence him, but it was too late. The one piece of information she'd wanted to keep hidden had been revealed to another member of the team. And of course, it surprised Bongo the moment he heard it. "You're scared, Johanna? I didn't think you were scared of anything!"

"Well, then you don't know enough about me," the woman retorted.

"You know, Johanna," Golias politely said, deciding to try to let their most recent argument go for the sake of the mission, "it's okay to be scared sometimes. I'm scared of the dark. And really really fast rides."

Bongo nodded. "And low ceilings and no floor? Awful awful!"

"Low ceilings?" Johanna asked, bewildered. "What kind of person, or animal, is afraid of low ceilings?"

"Me," said Bongo. "'Cause it's hard to bounce when the ceiling's low. And when there's no floor, you can't bounce."

"All we're saying is, it's not silly to be scared of stuff," clarified Golias. "Being scared doesn't make you a baby."

Johanna stepped back a little, feeling ashamed that she had to be told something that seemed so childish. She felt awkward too—she'd been hard on Golias all day, and it had obviously hurt his feelings. He was getting tired of it, and yet here he was, still being nice to her right after an argument between them and not letting any awkwardness of his own show in the process. Weren't souls in his position supposed to be resenting her and making that clear to her? Yeah, they were. But he wasn't.

She eyed Golias warily. "You really are too nice, aren't you."

"There's nothing wrong with being nice," he told her, trying not to sound weary.

"But we just had another one of those not-so-pleasant moments before Bongo came back. Why aren't you making it obvious?"

Golias sighed. "'Cause I know you…you don't like me, but…" it really made him sad saying those words, "…I want us to be friends. Even if you're mean to me so much. You might get mad at me a lot, but I know you wanna help me. And helping people is what friends do." He then smiled and winked at her.

"Yeah," said Bongo. "And uh, you don't have to go in the drawing if you don't want to, Johanna. You said you were gonna stand guard, and that's something you can do from the outside."

"Oh," Johanna replied, surprised but relieved. "Uh, okay…" Then she saw both Big Big Friends looking at her expectantly, and not sure how to feel, she added, "Thanks…I guess…"

Golias smiled, and then noticed something behind her. "Hey, there's Pars."

Johanna turned around, and sure enough, Pars was coming back to this side of her house, followed by a much older but stable-looking woman with simple-looking pyjamas, dark skin, and short, frizzy black hair with streaks of grey in it. The woman smiled once she saw the group, but was still visibly worried.

"Oh hi, sir," Pars greeted, noticing Bongo. "Are you with them?"

"You betcha," the kangaroo replied. "I'm Bongo, and uh…who are you?"

"Pars Croppez. I'm Thresh's sister."

"Oh yeah! Thresh! Seeder said he was one of the people Nessa got out of the arena."

"He was," said Golias. He then turned to the woman Pars had returned with, and asked, "Is this your grandma, Pars?"

Pars nodded, and the other woman said, "My name is Sage. It's an honor to meet you all."

"You too," said Golias. "Hey, since Nessa's going to come and get you soon anyway, do you wanna help us?"

"Well, what is it you're doing?" Sage inquired.

So, while Golias jumped into the drawing to bring Iris and Daisy into the safe zone, Bongo told Pars and Sage about everything that had happened that they didn't know about. Himself and Objectiva going to get the amulets needed to undo the body swap (he didn't mention the parts about the dagger though) and then reuniting with Golias, Effie, and the others, their sort-of-successful mission to save their captured friends, the advantage the Capitol now had thanks to Golias's encounter with those two Game Makers, the whole situation with Cecelia and the cone snail mutt, and what was currently happening.

When he was finished his explanation, Sage decided, "Well…not to sound cowardly by any means, but perhaps my granddaughter and I can help you look after the kids by joining them inside the drawing you've just made."

"Sure!" Bongo happily agreed. Johanna agreed too, but she didn't do it with a smile on her face.

Two minutes passed, and Golias, Objectiva, and Effie soon came out of the drawing, the former no longer carrying anyone on his head. The latter two were then introduced to Thresh's family as well, and filled in on what'd happened during their absence (though nobody mentioned the parts about Golias and Johanna's conversation that didn't have to do with her being scared). They were both quick to agree to let them assist Johanna from inside the drawing, not wanting the kids to get hurt, and then Bongo showed Sage and Pars how to jump into it. They managed to get inside the drawing on the first try, and then Johanna looked upward and waved, trying to signal to Haymitch that they were ready for him to come back. He undoubtedly received the message instantly, because as soon as she gave the signal, he steered the larger hovercraft downward and extended the ladder downward once the vehicle was close enough to them.

"Take care of yourself, Johanna," Objectiva softly said.

"Oh, I can do that just fine," the woman answered, clutching the handle of her pickaxe tightly, already ready to use it. "It's you guys I'm worried about. Especially you." She looked straight at Golias as she said that last part.

"It'll be okay," Golias reassured her. "If anything happens, our hovercraft will protect us."

"What if they try to use Yuri against you for real?" Johanna asked him in suspicion. "Or Nessa? You're not going to freak out and mess up again, are you?"

Golias stiffened. "I'll…I'll try not to."

"No. Promise me you won't."

"Okay. I promise I won't mess up again, Johanna."

Then Bongo and Objectiva either climbed or flew into the hovercraft, and once they were in, the ladder was retracted. Next, one by one, Golias and Effie were lifted into the vehicle by claw, and the moment they were onboard too, Haymitch steered them back up into the sky.

"As far as I know, we're safe," he told everyone. "But we can't be too careful."

"Yeah," Bongo nodded nervously. "For all we know the Peacekeepers could be right behind us! Even though we're invisible!"

Golias nodded too. "We'd better find Nessa before they do."

So, the group proceeded to do just that—or at least try to, since she and her companions hadn't arrived in District 11. They would soon though; it would just take another half hour.

While everyone else slept, Coyle steered the hijacked hovercraft south, and Mec, Dial, Gale, Paul, and Esther did their best to train for any moments of physical combat against Peacekeepers that might come up in the future. As they did, Appara, Hazelle, and Clara took turns watching Clove, whom nobody trusted to be in charge of the training. Instead Paul led the way in that department, since he was the one who'd had the most training experience with Thresh, Twill, and Patch.

As they flew on, Foxface fell asleep by Nessa's side, sensing it would take a while for her to recover from her realization that Lili's love might not have been genuine. Nessa herself, however, remained wide awake, unable to go to sleep with all the things going through her mind. She wanted to think that if she had to stay trapped in a fake friendship for always, then it would be okay because she'd at least have her genuine friendships with her allies from Panem and Matt and Yuri and Bongo and Golias, but…were those last four friendships true? Or were they fake too? Those four had never really been mean to her, but then again, were real friends supposed to almost always ignore you when you were going through a rough time just to have fun with or cheer up their own best friends? The only times the boys had ever really seemed to notice how she felt was when she was genuinely having fun, or that time they helped her overcome her fear of heights, not realizing she wasn't actually the one who was scared; Lili was.

That particular time had been one of the best times Nessa had ever spent with her male friends from home. It was the first time Golias had ever told Matt and Bongo to stop what they were doing so they wouldn't scare her, even if she hadn't been scared at all (Lili had been, but her refusal to admit it had resulted in her constantly claiming her best friend was the scared one, forcing Nessa to act like that was true for most of their literal journey up a mountain). It was the first time all the boys had really seemed to notice her, to be honest. But Golias…he'd noticed her the most. It was the kind of behaviour she wanted to receive from all of them all the time, instead of only sometimes. But sadly, there were more times when they didn't pay attention to her when she needed it the most than there were times like their journey up the mountain. Yet did that mean they didn't really like her either?

Nessa swallowed hard. That part of the topic had never once come up between her and Foxface, and now she was afraid of what the furtive tribute might say if it did. She wanted it to turn out that the boys truly cared about her, but what if that wasn't the case? What if Foxface said it wasn't the case? There was so much going on inside of her that she was tempted to sing about it, but didn't, knowing it would wake everyone that was asleep and maybe even interrupt the training sessions.

By the time they arrived in District 11, 44 minutes had passed since they'd left the District 12 bakery, and Nessa was mainly just hoping that her male friends from home cared about her for real. Because if they didn't…she had nothing to go back to except fake and fickle friendships. One of which she'd be stuck having to endure for the rest of her life, even with the nice tributes and their families and friends there to help her feel better. Things might get better for the people from Panem that she was helping, but the only positive thing she herself would have to gain from the nation evacuation was them—the first real friends she'd ever had if the boys didn't really care about her. As long as Lili, whom she knew she could never escape from, was in the picture, Nessa just knew that that was how things were going to be.

As she was processing all of this, Coyle put the hovercraft in autopilot and then left the pilot's cabin to wake Rue. When she heard that they'd entered her home district, she leapt to her feet and followed the man back to the wheel, ready to guide him toward her house. They managed to arrive there within three minutes, and then Coyle asked, "Alright…who's going to accompany Rue outside?"

"I'll do it," Paul and Gale both replied in unison.

"So will I," said Esther.

"I'll go too," volunteered Dial.

So that was what happened. Coyle, Appara, and Nessa removed their Peacekeeper uniforms and gave them to Gale, Esther, and Dial, who then put them on. Simultaneously, Rue tied her hair into a thick bun that rested right behind her neck before asking Clove to hand over her Peacekeeper shirt. She obeyed her request, and as the youngest tribute wrapped the shirt around her head like a bonnet as a way of disguising herself, the Career gulped. The Capitol had better catch up to her soon, or else her mission would fail.

The hovercraft's cloaking device and ladder both stalled again when Coyle tried to activate them, this time for a few extra seconds each, which worried him even after they finally responded and did what he wanted. But still, he was able to get his second-eldest son, Gale, Paul, Esther, and Rue out of the hovercraft once they were ready, and despite more glitching, he also managed to retract the ladder and turn the vehicle invisible again when the right time came.

With the Woolweaves each carrying a blaster, the quintet made their way to Rue's front door, where Gale knocked on it very loudly. When ten seconds passed and there was no response, he knocked again, louder this time. Twelve seconds this time, and still no response.

"It's the Peacekeepers," Paul murmured, nervously tightening his grip on his blaster. "They must be onto us."

"Or my parents could just be scared," said Rue. "I stole a lot of crops to feed my family before I got reaped, but I was never caught."

Esther stared at her, impressed. "Now that's rebellion. Nice."

They waited for a few more seconds, and when there was still no response, Gale said, "We're going to have to break in."

"Stand back," instructed Dial. "I'm going to break the door down."

His companions obeyed him, and the young man stepped back a few times, then ran forward and threw himself at the door. Much to his surprise, however, it swung open the moment he touched it, sending him falling to the floor stomach-first.

"Are you okay?" asked Rue, worried.

"I'm fine for the most part," answered Dial. "Can't see anyone in here though."

The rest of the group stepped past him and entered the house. It was dark and downright silent—not a good sign. Luckily, the entrance hall, living room, dining room, and kitchen were all combined into one large (and vacant) room, there were no upstairs or downstairs levels, and there were only two rooms besides this one, one of which was a very small bathroom (the door to the other room was closed). So it would take far less than a minute to search the property.

"Mom? Dad?" Rue called. "It's me. Are you here?"

No answer. If they were here, there was only one place they could be: the bedroom her entire family shared. So, her heart pounding, Rue motioned for her teammates to stand back before walking up to the bedroom alone, hoping her parents were there. However, when she opened the door, she discovered to her dismay that the bedroom was empty except for the furniture…and a small book resting on her parents' bed that she had never seen before. It was lying there, closed but bookmarked by a picture frame Rue had also never seen before. If she squinted, she could just make out her mother in the part of the photo she could see, but that part was only half of the picture.

Curious, Rue turned on the bedroom light, went over, and picked up the book. She opened it to the page the frame was in and studied it closely. Yes, that was her mother alright. In the photo, she was a bit younger and heavily pregnant, and she was trying to smile but failing miserably due to the immense amount of sadness she was apparently feeling. And standing next to her was a woman that Rue had never seen before, but whom she had to admit looked a lot like her mother. Despite the other woman being a lot thinner and her hair not being as thick, and her nose looking kind of different, both women had the same mouth, the same eyes, and the same skin and hair colour. Even the same false happiness.

And then, just as Rue was beginning to wonder who the woman was, how she apparently knew her mother, and why she'd never met her, she noticed the many words written on both of the pages her mother's book opened up to, and one word that particularly caught her attention: "Juniper." Not only that, but every word was written in her mother's handwriting…

Now even more curious, Rue gently put the picture frame on her parents' bed and read what the pages said. She knew once she saw the first two words that she probably wasn't supposed to be reading this book, but she couldn't resist it. She knew her entire house by heart and yet still hadn't discovered this book until now, when it was just sitting here out in the open. Why would her mother take it out of its very clever hiding place and just leave it there like this, considering the book it was?

Dear Diary,

Today was the saddest day of my life. I tried one last time to talk Juniper out of trying to leave Panem, but she stood her ground and I failed. Now she's gone, and all I could do was give her my favourite bouquet of lilies to remember me by. She said the sweetest thing after that: that if she ever had a daughter she'd name her after those flowers. That made me tear up, and after that she told me that if I wanted to go with her, it was still an open invitation. I wanted to say yes. I really did. But my fear of losing my baby if I went with my sister and tried to leave the country kicked in, and I had to say no. So she left alone, but not before we took one last photo together so I would always have something to remember by too.

Rue gasped. Juniper? Leave Panem? Sister? This could only mean one thing: her parents had been lying when they'd said their family didn't have any other relatives in it. They actually did have an aunt: the one and only Juniper Berryharvest. Which meant she herself was the twelve-year-old cousin Lili was looking for. That was just…just…wow. She had a cousin and an aunt, and both of them were rebels! This was so cool! But wait…if she was related to Juniper Berryharvest, then why hadn't she and her family been abused significantly more than the rest of her district, like the Woolweaves had been?

"Rue? Are your parents there?"

The girl jumped as she heard Gale's voice. "Uh, no. They're not," she quickly said, putting the diary back on the bed and leaving the room.

"Those dirty rotten Peacekeepers," Esther muttered. "I'm sure they're the reason why they're not here."

"Easy," said Dial. "I hate those guys just as much as you do, but her parents could just as likely be out looking for their missing non-tribute kids."

"I hope that's what's happening," worried Rue. "I don't want them to have been taken prisoner, or to the square…"

"The district square?" Paul guessed knowingly. "Where whippings happen?" When she said yes, he said, "We can go there next in case that's where they are. But something tells me that—"

WHAM!

Startled and concerned, the group spun around to find three hovercrafts that looked much stronger and enhanced than their own had suddenly appeared directly above the area where they knew their hovercraft was waiting for them. Two of the hovercrafts each had a giant magnet sticking out of them, and based on their respective angles and the loud noise that had just been heard, it was obvious that the magnets had both captured Nessa's team's hovercraft. As for the third stronger hovercraft, it was hovering in front of the other two, a ladder descending from its entrance/exit. There was a giant hologram hovering in front of the rungs, displaying a message that read, SURRENDER, OR BOTH SCIENCE AND MAGIC WILL ATTACK OUR HOSTAGES.

"Hostages?" Rue inquired, feeling very nervous. "Does that mean Nessa's friends, the Twelves' escort, and the victors couldn't save everyone that got captured?"

"I don't know," said Gale. "But we have to do something to save our friends, now."

Esther took one look at the stronger hovercrafts and got an idea. Quickly, she aimed, and then fired several bullets out of her blaster. But it was no use. The vehicles were too strong, and there didn't seem to be any vulnerable spot she could shoot at.

"Esther, easy," Paul advised. "We need as many bullets as possible for the future."

"But like he said, we have to do something!" Esther cried. "For all we know Sonia could be up there!"

Dial frowned. "There's one thing I don't understand though. How did those two hovercrafts know where ours was? It's invisible!"

Though before any of his companions could come up with a theory, a fourth hovercraft that looked more powerful than theirs emerged into view, heading straight for them. Knowing it had to be because Esther's impulsive move had blown their cover, she, her husband, Gale, Dial, and Rue raced back into the latter's house for protection.

Oh NO! What's going to happen next? Stay tuned to find out.