Meilin Seacole, 15

Day Three of Training

9:30 am

"So, what do you wanna work on first?" Day asks. The Five girl maintains a radiant smile on her lips but their folded arms tell a different story, acting as a wall between them and the other three tributes.

It doesn't seem like a natural wall to Meilin; she can only guess what's keeping that wall up - Meridian. Whatever happened between them back in Five needs to be resolved and fast.

How can Meilin expect to convince everyone else not to fight if two of her allies hate each other?

"Maybe we should split up?" Meilin suggests.

"I like that idea!" Day affirms. "Just as long as I'm not paired with Meridian."

Meridian shoots daggers at her.

"No no no… I was thinking since me and Liz figured out the fire thing yesterday." She turns to Liz. "Perhaps you could show Day what we learned together. Meanwhile, me and Meridian could try to build a shelter?"

"Sure," Liz agrees.

"Sounds like a plan!" Day beams.

Liz and Day stroll off to the campfire station, chatting away together; the two of them getting along so well sends a warm feeling through Meilin's chest. Surely the same is possible with Day and Meridian?

The boy from Five begins planting a collection of wooden poles in the ground whilst Meilin attempts to tie some large leaves together with string, albeit not very successfully. It doesn't matter; learning to build a shelter was not the true purpose of her splitting the alliance up like this.

"Meridian, have you got a second?"

Meridian peers over from the wooden pole, which he is currently wrestling with to get it into the ground. "Oh… Urm… yeah, sure."

They plod over with their hands in their pockets to where Meilin is sitting and tying the leaves together.

Meilin takes a deep breath "Ok, so I have an idea, well a plan that I need to tell you about-"

"A plan? What kind of plan?"

"Promise you won't laugh or make fun of me?"

"Ok. I… Errm… yeah."

Meilin raises her eyebrows at him and crosses her arms.

"Ok, I promise. What is it?"

Once Meilin has finished passionately explaining her plan for the second time, she is only met by the unchanging empty expression of Meridian.

"So… what do you think?"

Meridian scratches his head for a second. "I'm not sure Mei… I-I… I always thought people enjoy trampling all over each other, it's what keeps the world turning."

"I don't believe that," Meilin replies sharply. "And I don't think you do either."

Meridian continues scratching their hair awkwardly but then, unexpectedly, a slight smile forms on his lips, and it's the first time Meilin has seen him smile since they met. "Alright… ok, let's give it a go."

"What? Really? Yay! You won't regret this!" She hugs Meridian, and slowly, they return it.

"But if this is gonna work, I need to ask you something," Meilin says as they go back to attempting to put the shelter together.

"Go ahead."

"I don't wanna seem like I'm prying but it's important…"

"What is it?"

Meilin sighs. "You and Day… what happened between you? Why do you… you know… hate each other so much?"

Meridian halts what he's doing, and begins to fiddle awkwardly with his hands. "It's. Urm. She destroyed my father's public image, and now we have bad press… all because of her!" There is particular venom in the last words that leave their mouth, but something is telling Meilin that the anger isn't truly directed at Day.

"And why did she do that?" Meilin presses.

"Because… because I… got their house knocked down…"

"What!?"

"I had to, I-I," Meridian's chest starts heaving, and now Meilin feels she has dug too deep into this rabbit hole, but she can't stop now. She has to get to the bottom of it if she has any chance of getting the Fives to reconcile.

"Why?"

Meridian doesn't say anything at first; their eyes travel deep within themself to search for the answer.

"I hope I'm not going too far here… I just need this alliance to get along if we're gonna have any chance at this," Meilin says.

"Fly High Energy… for the business."

Meilin doesn't even entertain that answer as the true reason, and the no-nonsense expression on her face lets Meridian know this.

Finally, Meridian gives the real answer. "For my father's approval. I have to earn his approval. He gave me everything, it's the least I could do."

Meilin leans in, frowning at them. "Approval? What do you mean "approval"? You mean love? You wanted to earn his love?"

(Back at home, when Meilin was trying to help bullies, she'd often find that they lacked a source of love in their life which caused them to take their anger out on other people.

Meridian is no bully, but she can't think of any other reason why he would be compelled to do what he did.)

"Yeah… ok… love," Meridian mutters.

Finally, she got them to say it. She got blood out of a stone.

"Forgive me, but that doesn't make any sense to me," Meilin says.

Meridian shoots his eyes up from their hands. "What do you mean?"

"Love isn't something that's earned or bought." Meilin shrugs. "In fact, when you think about it, love is the only thing in this world that we value which is still free," she smiles.

Meridian's eyes drift solemnly over to Day, who is laughing along with Liz as they build their fire together. "I guess I never thought of it that way," he murmurs but this time his voice sounds clearer than it ever has.

"Anyway," Meilin changes to a more upbeat tone. "We can end this conversation now, I can tell it's making you a little uncomfortable, I just wanna know if you can shake hands with Day and settle your differences?"

"Yeah, I think I can do that," Meridian nods. "But whether they'll agree to it is another matter."

"Don't worry, they will," Meilin chuckles. "I'm quite convincing."

"That you are," Meridian chuckles back.

Eventually, Meilin and Meridian achieve some semblance of a shelter, and as they are dusting off their hands, Liz and Day rejoin them.

"That's pretty good," Liz points to the shelter with a smile.

"Thank you, we worked hard on it!" Meilin says.

She then sends Meridian a look.

"Oh…" he mutters and shifts his eyes to his district partner. "I'm… urm… sorry for throwing a lamp at you…"

Meilin wants to facepalm. A lamp? That's not what she wanted them to apologise for. What about destroying Day's home?

"Meilin says that we need to like… not be fighting all the time in order for our alliance to work."

Day glances at the petit Three girl, and then back to Meridian. "And she's right." Day extends their hand. "I guess we can agree to a truce."

Meridian hesitantly shakes it, offering a half smile at the same time, but Day doesn't return it.

"That's good enough for me," Meilin chimes.

Day smiles at Meilin. "I like your friend, she's smart," she comments to Meridian.

"Yeah, she's full of bright ideas!" He replies.

Meilin almost blushes to the colour of a fresh cherry from all the compliments - compliments that she's never sure if she fully deserves.

She shrugs. "We all have our strengths, we just have to help each other find them, together," she says, her eyes moving between her allies.

"Even so, I do have another one, another one of my ideas I mean, and Day is the only one that doesn't know it yet."

Day's blue eyes light up. "Oh?"

Getting Day to agree to the plan proved the easiest of the three. Now, Meilin knows that all three of them are good people in their own way - Liz, Day, and Meridian. She can save them, she can save the others too. She's never been more sure of anything in her life. It's as clear as the crystal blue sky on a perfect summer's day.

Auren Demerre, 16

The third and final day of training is already halfway done, they could really give us more time to prepare - Auren thinks to herself. Her eyes move between her different allies sitting around her on the table in the dining room - Reese and Jarvis are munching away on their food, and in the middle of an innocent conversation about Reese's huge sunflowers and how Jarvis has never seen them in Three. Chaney is examining the powdered egg on his spoon as if it were the banquet of some alien species. Lastly, Briar is silently stirring her plate of food with a fork, her eyes adrift in a void, most likely contemplating what is to come.

Auren's not entirely sure why she's here with them, hanging out like they're at the dinner table of her school canteen when they're about to go into a death game. She keeps telling herself it's because, "If danger shows up, then she'll have some people to shove in the way of it." That's what she tells herself, anyway.

Suddenly, Chaney's light, jovial voice cuts through Auren's thoughts. "This powdered egg they give us is so rank," he complains, eyeing it up on his spoon. "Why can't they give us real eggs like from a chicken or a parrot or some shit like that."

Most of the table silently stares at the Nine boy in disbelief, except Reese, who lets out a chuckle.

But Chaney continues to ramble to himself out loud, keeping his eyes on the powdered egg. "It's so disgusting. I reckon they're trying to murder us… with powdered eggs."

"They're sending us to die in the arena in a few days. What the fuck would be the point of killing us now?" Auren shoots back.

"Don't try to debate his logic," Briar mumbles, shaking her head slowly. "You'll only make it worse."

Chaney leans in and points to his head. "Maybe that's just what they want us to believe. Maybe they've been poisoning all the tributes before the games for all these years with eggs, and then just pretending like they kill each other." He shrugs. "I think I might be onto something here."

Auren sighs, deciding to ignore him, and returns to her food - best not to encourage him.

"So," Auren begins under a mouthful of food. "We're goin' into the arena in less than a week, anybody got any bright ideas to get one of us through this shitshow?"

The table is silent until Reese perks up. "Oh," he chirps, reaching under the table, and producing a roughly put-together slingshot. "That's where I come in. If anyone comes near us then worry not, they'll have to go through me!" The excited boy contorts his best mean face and tugs the elastic back on his makeshift weapon, pointing it in various directions. But eventually, he yanks it too hard and it reflects back and hits him in the face! "Ow!"

As Reese is rubbing the new red mark on his cheek, Auren sighs again, shaking her head. "We're fucked."

Over the last few hours of the final training day, Auren convinced her allies to attempt to come up with some sort of individual strategy. To Auren's surprise, Briar was quickly on board with this idea, and for the first time, the Ten girl and the Nine girl found themselves agreeing on something.

For the last half an hour, the pair from Nine have been coming up with a bloodbath strategy together for the alliance, well mostly Briar, Chaney still seems to have his theory about powdered egg on the forefront of his mind. Jarvis has been devising some ways to make molotov cocktails and teaching the others how to do it. Finally, Auren has been turning random objects into improvised weapons that the group can use - including books, plates, pens, and ropes. The only one who has been out of place is Reese; he's spent most of the time wandering between his different allies and asking them unhelpful questions. Auren rubs her face. He's stumbling around like a lost lamb - he'll never last two seconds in the arena.

Having run out of his other allies, Reese comes strolling up to Auren, fiddling with his slingshot.

"What now?" Auren sighs.

"That's really neat!" Reese points to the baseball bat, wrapped with skin-splitting rope.

Auren stares at him blankly, awaiting his point.

"Anyway, I have my slingshot," the boy says, holding it up with a playful smile. "I was just wondering what I'm supposed to be doing next?"

"We're all figuring out what skills we can bring to the alliance and our role in it," Auren answers bluntly. "Oh by the way, what is yours, exactly?" She asks with a rhetorical tone. "Maybe you should just go back to playing your little instrument."

Reese's eyes sink in despair, and he looks about ready to burst into tears. But, he manages to keep his composure and straggles away with his shoulders hunched.

Auren rolls her eyes to the ceiling and returns to crafting her makeshift weapons. She's not here to be nice to people and to make friends; she's here to kill people because she has to in order to survive. If Reese can't take a simple honest comment then how does he expect to fare when someone is charging at him with an axe?

At the very end of the day, Briar gathers everyone around a final obstacle course - climbing ropes up a collection of huge, thick, wooden beams, which extend almost to the ceiling of the training room. Each of the beams has a red flag at the top to collect, and so far, not a single tribute has been able to reach one.

Briar has taken the role of the reserved, but stoically confident leader, which Auren doesn't mind at the moment - as long as the robber doesn't get her killed.

Just as Briar is about to attach the clip on the rope to her waist, a rough hand snatches it from her - it's the tall, imposing boy from Fourteen, and he's not even paying Auren and her alliance a second glance. The boy from Eight and the boy from Six soon appear by his side as well, swooping in like they're his personal bodyguards.

Briar doesn't hesitate to confront the prisoner from Fourteen. "Hey, we were here first," she states, tapping his shoulder.

He turns and gives her a once-over. "I don't think so."

"Well, that's convenient because I wasn't askin' your opinion on it."

The boy gives the group a malicious smirk. "I heard that Nine has only one brain cell between everyone, so I'm sure you'll forget about it in a few moments, now run along before I lose my patience."

Chaney steps in between his district partner and the boy from Fourteen, staring him down. "Yeah, that's right, we stole your district's only brain cell and now we're sharing it between us," he says. "So why don't you take your two little gnomes and get lost?"

The two shorter boys from Eight and Six glance at each other - Eight looks about ready to lash out like a wild animal, meanwhile Six, on the other hand, seems slightly amused at the comment.

"You better watch your mouth, boy," The Fourteen boy retorts. "If you talked like that around Tulrango then you'd get yourself hurt."

"Well, good thing we ain't in Tulrango."

The Nine pair continue to argue with the Fourteen boy, while Auren stands with Reese and Jarvis, not willing to waste her words with more idiots. The pale boy from Six hangs back with his arms crossed, silently observing them. However, the more feisty boy from Eight moves towards Auren and Reese, beginning to smugly circle them like a prowling wolf eying up its prey.

Reese takes a step back, unnerved by the creepy boy.

"You got a problem there, buddy?" Auren questions the tribute from Eight.

"Yeah, I think I'm staring at it," they retort, looking Auren up and down.

Immediately, something snaps inside of Auren and she shoves the boy from Eight hard! He stumbles back a few meters; the only thing that stops them from hitting the floor is the Six boy's arms!

Auren and the Eight boy prepare to lunge at each other again; however, they are held back by their allies and half a dozen trainers, who have swept in to break the two alliances apart.

"You better back the fuck up!" Auren yells.

"Just wait until we get into the arena, I won't forget this," Eight shouts back.

"Why don't you come say that to my face? Bring it on!"

The Fourteen boy pulls himself loose from the trainers and steps towards Auren. "Hey, I remember you now," he says, pointing to her face. "You're from Ten, aren't you? You're Emery's district partner…"

Auren aggressively pushes one of the trainer's hands away. "I don't give a fuck about Emery or you, you deserve each other - a couple of freaks."

With the help of more trainers, the two alliances are dragged to the opposite sides of the room from one another. Auren's gaze meets Reese's, it is one of gratitude, and Auren sends him a subtle nod.

"Well thank you Auren," Briar says sarcastically. "If you're trying to get all the most dangerous tributes to come after us, then you're succeeding."

"Hey, I'm not in the habit of letting people walk all over us. Besides, now if they come after us in the arena, they'll know they'll get a fight." Auren tilts her head. "Which, I'll be more than happy to give them."

"She's kinda got a point," Chaney adds.

"Whatever, I always find it's better to act with your head, not your emotions," Briar says.

Auren knows better than most that if you let people bully you, then it'll only get worse until you're smaller than a mouse. A fist in the jaw is the only language most people understand, and she hopes deep down that Reese will learn that before it's too late for him.

Romulus Ryker, 17

Romulus Ryker hasn't been able to get the boy from Four out of his mind all day. Even now, his hands are curling in anger as he hides behind a weapons stack, attempting to eavesdrop on what Brizio is saying to the rest of the careers.

Romulus peers over the stash of weapons; Brizio is cackling with the careers and Emery, and appears to be mocking someone. It has to be me - Romulus thinks to himself and his fists only curl tighter. Who does Brizio think he is? Romulus will never let anyone trample over him again, he fears no man but his father, and Brizio certainly isn't his father. Nobody can control Romulus's fate, not his family, and certainly not this nobody from District Four. In fact, that is his biggest problem - he knows nothing about Brizio to use as leverage against him. But, that will all change tonight after he's done some digging. Before he can make Brizio pay in the arena, he'll turn the others against him - just like Brizio is trying to do to him. Romulus adorns a sly smile.

You wanna create discord in our alliance? Two can play at that game.

Romulus has never particularly liked being a snake but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Brizio, Emery, and Aida leave to head back to their apartment and Romulus manages to catch the end of the group's conversation. "See you tomorrow."

Now that the Fours and Emery have left, Romulus takes this opportunity to zip up out of his hiding place and pounce on the rest of the alliance.

"Rom!" Landon chuckles in surprise. "I didn't see you there."

Romulus swings his feet casually, placing his hands in his pockets.

"Where have you been all day?" Meridia questions, raising an eyebrow.

Great, so even his district partner doesn't trust him anymore. What has Brizio been saying? Has she forgotten their pact on the train? What about Tatiana's warning about people like Brizio? The only way to beat them is to become them, it seems, and Romulus is going to have to act quickly if he's going to turn this all around.

Romulus shrugs. "Since you were having so much fun with Brizio, I thought I'd leave you to it."

"He's a pretty chill guy, you know. You should give him a chance," Geneve counters.

"Oh, is that what you think? Better not tell you what he said about you yesterday during our little chat," Romulus replies. "He talked a lot of shit about you," he says, pointing to Landon.

Landon's eyes widen. "What? Just me?"

"Yup," Romulus nods and then points to Geneve. "And you."

"What's he been saying about us?" Landon asks.

"He was just saying… 'Careers from One and Two suck and you're all… trash'."

The Ones glance at each other, bemused.

"That sounds just like something he'd say," Geneve says, but Romulus detects a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

But Romulus ignores it and continues. "And I said 'District Four sucks more, you spend most your time lying on the beach eating seaweed. You're just jealous because we're better at everything than you'."

Geneve snickers. "Good comeback, dude." This time her sarcasm is clearer.

"Anyway, I'm just sayin' to watch your backs around him," Romulus finishes, his eyes darting between the different careers.

"Sure thing!" Landon exclaims. "I'll have your back if he makes any moves against you."

Although, Romulus gets the feeling that he's not taking it seriously.

Romulus punches his shoulder lightly. "Thanks man, but none of you wanna get between us when it kicks off."

With that, he and Meridia say goodnight to the Ones, and depart back to their apartment. But Romulus tells his district partner "he left something back in training", and bids her a good night before turning back down the corridor. He steps into the elevator and then taps the button to Four's apartment. The elevator dings. He strolls out and proceeds to hang out in the corridor until he watches Four's escort exit the apartment.

Romulus stumbles forward into the man, feigning an accidental 'collision'.

"I'm so sorry," Romulus apologises.

"I think you might be in the wrong place, friend."

"This isn't District Two's floor?"

The escort shakes his head.

Romulus smiles jovially. "Silly me."

Masked by his charming smile, Romulus slips the escort's key card into his pocket before parting ways. He heads back down to District Two's floor, waiting for his opportunity. Once the elevator passes all the way down to the bottom, Romulus hits the button for Four's apartment again, but this time he uses the escort's key card to slip in discreetly. The coast seems clear.

Romulus treads lightly on his feet to the escort's room, he creaks open the door and begins searching for information on his tributes. He skips straight over Aida's file and goes straight to Brizio's. There must be something here, something I can use. But without a light, it's hard for Romulus to make out many details. Suddenly, he stumbles upon something that makes his chest practically explode with glee. This is exactly what he's been searching for.

He discreetly exits Four's apartment, leaving the escort's key card on his cabinet, to make it appear as if he forgot it. But then, after pressing the button on the elevator, the doors open to the sight of Geneve standing there. The two careers both simultaneously jump back in surprise, before their eyes lock onto each other, suspiciously.

"What are you doing up here?" Geneve asks as she steps past him.

"I could ask you the same question."

They say no more to each other, but the awkward encounter sticks in Romulus's mind like glue. Geneve already trusts him very little, and he now trusts Geneve even less. He knows she'll side with Brizio when they end up throwing down in the arena, and to Romulus, it is an inevitability.

Romulus paces back calmly to Two's apartment with a bounce in his step. But, after shutting the door behind him, he is startled by his mentor.

"I was about to send out Peacekeepers to search for you," Tatiana states. She is sitting at the kitchen table, with a glass of water.

"You're paranoid," Romulus scoffs. "I told you before, I've never been good at playing by the rules."

Tatiana simply shrugs, then takes a sip of water.

"You know, I discovered something very interesting about our friend Brizio. He's not all that he seems," Romulus chuckles.

"Do go on."

"He's not even supposed to be here, he-"

"Neither are you," Tatiana cuts him off.

Romulus laughs again. "That's different, I'm here by choice." He shakes his head. "You're just like the others, always looking down on us rogues. Let me tell you something, I have more drive than any chosen volunteer, I'm not fighting for some bullshit like honouring my district, I'm fighting for my freedom, freedom from people controlling me like a puppet. That's why I have more conviction than any of them. And nobody is gonna get in the way of that!"

Romulus has suddenly turned red, but then he realises that what he just said is in stark contrast to what he said in his fake little interview at the Reapings. His facade is beginning to crack, and if he's not careful it will soon shatter completely. He has to be patient, and smart. Soon he'll be free from all the shackles of society. It's just, something about this place is breaking him, it reminds him too much of his grandfather's nightmarish, stuffy conventions that his parents made him go to, and the threats that his father would act upon if he refused.

But strangely, Tatiana's eyes are filled with more admiration for the boy than she ever previously had. "You're right. You're right on everything you just said except for one thing… I too was a rogue volunteer, believe it or not," she says.

"You were?"

Tatiana nods.

This mentor of his is full of secrets, but this might be the best one yet.

"I'm just saying, be careful out there, I don't want to see you getting into any more trouble, take it from me, there are times when and when not to get into trouble," Tatiana affirms.

"Fair enough."

Romulus stretches his arms out with a yawn, only now realising that he is tired. However, before he goes to sleep, he says one final thing to Tatiana. "Although, for a rogue, you seem to spend an awful lot of time being told what to do."

He gives her a tilt of the head, then leaves her to dwell as he heads to bed.

Genevieve Ardelean, 17

Geneve never liked rude people, or people criticising others, even when it is not about her. Brizio and Romulus are both doing it; they're both as bad as each other, as far as Geneve is concerned. However, Brizio seems the more composed of the two. Thus, when it comes down to life and death in the arena, she'll put her chips with him.

However, something else has been plaguing her mind more than Romulus or Brizio over the past few days. There's one career that she trusts even less - Aida Canterra. From the moment she met the Four girl, she has had the look in her eye of one of the guilty suspects that she would watch Cesar interrogate back in One. She's going to have to interrogate Aida, subtly, like a filter for useful information. Interrogating was never Geneve's forte, she enjoyed finding evidence to solve cases. But, she's in the Hunger Games now; she intends to return with fortune as it's what her family always wanted for her, and for the family that gave her a home. So, she's not about to wait until one of her allies potentially slits her throat in her sleep.

Finally, the shower switches off after Landon has been occupying it for the last half an hour. Geneve, Titania, and their escort are waiting at the dinner table for Landon to join them, although, that fact seems to be lost to Landon. Geneve can't help but respect his free spirit, adrift somewhere in the clouds, but, for the first time since she got here, the One girl happens to be hungry, and right now Landon is getting in the way of that.

"Can't we just start without him?" Geneve asks.

However, just at that moment, Landon strolls casually into the dining room with just his towel around his waist, yawning. He points to the banquet. "Looks good."

"Landon," their escort groans.

"What?"

"Can you… put on some more clothes, maybe?"

"Why?"

The escort doesn't answer, she just stares at the One boy impatiently.

Landon rolls his eyes. "Fine."

At last, he joins them, this time dressed for dinner. Geneve hastily gobbles it down, not wanting to waste too much time.

Once finished, she jumps up from her seat, leaving the avoxes to clean up her plate before heading to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Just heading out, won't be long!"

Geneve's escort sighs behind her, and the career heads into the corridor and then proceeds up the elevator to District Four's apartment. When the doors open, she is met with a surprise - Romulus. They both jump back in shock.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

She says no more to him, and approaches District Four's door. What is he up to? She doesn't have time for it right now.

She taps the door with her knuckles. Knock. Knock.

For some time there is no answer, until at last, Aida groggily nudges it open.

The Four girl rubs her eyes sleepily. "Geneve? What are you doing?"

"Was bored. Thought you could use some company."

Aida frowns, which only leads to more suspicion. What is she hiding?

"I guess…" Aida mumbles.

Geneve steps in, peering around at the inside of Four's apartment. "No fair, your apartment is much cleaner than ours," she jokes - an attempt to chip away at Aida's barrier.

"Is it?" Is the only response she gets.

"But then I guess you don't have Landon in your apartment."

Still nothing. Geneve wouldn't usually be the one to fool around but, it is a trick she learned from Cesar; whenever he would interrogate someone, he would often start with a joke to ease their nerves and get them to reveal more than they usually would. But, it doesn't appear to be working on Aida - she's a tough cookie to crack or more like a tough boulder to crack.

"Would you like something to drink?" Aida offers as Geneve takes a seat on the couch.

"What have you got?"

"We've got erm…" Aida checks the fridge. "Orange juice?"

"Sure."

Aida brings the red-haired career a glass of orange juice, then folds her arms and hovers over her.

Geneve raises an eyebrow. "You're not gonna sit?"

Aida reluctantly sits across from Geneve on the couch. "What is this? Why are you coming to talk to me in my apartment? I don't understand."

Geneve shrugs and takes a sip from her orange juice. "I just wanted to find out more about you… since we are going to be relying on each other for survival, real soon."

"Alright..."

"So… you got any family back home?"

Aida nods. "The usual."

"Do you miss them?"

"I haven't really got time for all that stuff," she states. "Maybe when I've returned home a victor." The Four girl's expression remains rigid and unbroken.

So… She's trying to prove herself to her family? That's not unusual for a career.

Now Geneve feels slight remorse for this girl, if she is like many careers, and pressured into doing this by her family. Maybe deep down, it's not truly what she wants?

Geneve leans in, now intrigued. "Is that what your parents told you… that you have to win in order to be accepted by them?"

"No, it's what I tell myself."

"Hmm."

That's not an answer Geneve was expecting. Either Aida is lying to protect her parent's honour or she's lying for another reason to protect someone else.

"Was there no one else that could have come here instead?" Geneve questions.

"No. There was no one else." Aida's response is the sharpest and quickest so far. Which only makes Geneve believe the opposite to what she says. There was someone else. She has to get to the bottom of this.

But before she can pressure anymore, Aida unexpectedly leans in, taking on the role of the investigator. "What about you? What do your parents think about all this?"

Geneve recoils, not expecting the Four girl to flip this conversation on its head. She's supposed to be the one who asks the questions. She never enjoyed talking about herself, it sends an uncomfortable chill through her bones.

"I don't know," Geneve mutters, solemnly. "They're not around anymore to see it."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Aida's eyes go from stern to empathetic.

And suddenly, Geneve feels vulnerable, something she didn't expect from this encounter.

"What happened?" Aida asks.

Geneve begins to shift uncomfortably in her seat. "Murder… they were murdered," she murmurs.

Then she hastily stands and takes a final sip from her glass of juice with her shaking hand. "Well… thank you for the drink… I should probably get going now…"

She turns hurriedly to the door, a deer caught in headlights. As she takes one final look into Aida's eyes, she comes to the realisation that they might not be so different, after all. Both are fighting for other people's perceptions of them, and so, Geneve can finally trust a member of her alliance because she understands her. Perhaps, Aida isn't as dangerous as she appears.

She may have failed to completely unravel the mystery that is Aida Canterra, but she succeeded in discovering someone she can trust more than the others in the arena. Still, her curious mind won't be content until she finds all her secrets.

Training is over whooo! Not much else to say, not long until the games now!