District 9 male – Calvus Logg, 15

Why had no one, in my whole life, told me about how high the crime rates were here in Panem? After a day of training, I could tell. So many of the tributes here were criminals. Even my district partner was known as District Nine's local bully.

Well, even though my district partner sucked, at least I'd made a good ally. Asiza was one of the kindest people I'd ever met, and I'd already become great friends with her. I knew already that we had each other's backs.

When I got to the training rooms for our second day of training, I found her straight away and she smiled warmly at me. I smiled back at her and we made our way over to the weaponry section since neither of us knew how to use them.

"Cal, could you please pass me that knife?" she asked me once we were there, and I nodded and grabbed the small dagger she was pointing at and passed it to her.

"So, what do you think of night watches?" I asked her.

"Whatever you want to do," she said, smiling again.

"OK... any thoughts on the bloodbath?" I asked.

"Get in, get something, get out," she said.

"Alright, I was thinking the same thing," I said.

"You know, you're really nice," she said, smiling even wider.

"Thanks, so are you," I said, grabbing a knife and throwing it at a dummy. I completely missed it.

"I'm sure you'll be able to do that by the end of today," said Asiza, and I noticed she moved a little closer to me as she said it.

"Hopefully," I said, shuffling away from her slightly. "What do you need to practise?"

"Nothing," she said. "What's your type?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, your type of person."

"What? I don't know. Why?"

"Just wondering. Want to know mine?" she asked, moving closer to me again. What was she doing? She hadn't acted like this the previous day...

"Um, sure."

"Boys with curly, dirty blond hair, hazel eyes..."

What? Why was she describing me?

"Oh," was all I could manage to say. Then she was leaning into me, closing her eyes, and I let out a cry. "Asiza! What are you doing!?"

"You don't think I'm pretty?" she asked, gasping, and pulling away from me.

What? Was she trying to get me to be in a relationship with her? What was the point of that, if we were both going to die within a few weeks? But then it clicked. Did she think she could flirt with a guy to get him to defend her in the games? Well, she picked the wrong guy. The one who didn't even like girls.

I opened her mouth to tell her this, but then, after thinking about it for a second, closed it. Maybe I could play along with this... get her to think I was fully into her and would do whatever she said in the arena and end up dying for her, then... leaving her to die.

"Yeah, you're beautiful," I said.

Cal, oh my god. I thought to myself. You can't do that to her! You can't leave her to die!

But this is the Hunger Games, came another voice in my head. This is what you do in it.

"Great," she said, grinning again. "Mind passing me a bigger knife?"

I did not feel comfortable with this. Pretending to fall for Asiza. She was nice, sure, but she was all about trying to get closer to me and get me to be absolutely in love with her. As she did this, I missed Maise more and more. I wished I could be up close with him.

But no, here I was, carrying weapons around for the girl from District 7 like she was some princess, and I was her servant.

But I'd stab her back right when she was least expecting it.

District 5 female – Carmilla Wilkes, 16

I could not wait to get into that arena. The bloodbath would be my happy place, screaming at children and stabbing them over and over... their blood covering my hands as I cackled in their ugly faces.

It annoyed me that I couldn't kill my allies in the bloodbath. George, the boy from Six, was incredibly annoying and bossy. God, did he really think I'd take orders from him? Ha! I wished I could kill him right there and then, as I walked into the training room for my second day of training, I saw him standing there next to Cindy, a smug look on his face.

But no. I had to keep it together, otherwise, my other allies would turn on me and I'd have none at all. Not that I needed any, but it was good to have people who'd protect me until I killed them.

We got right into training that day since we didn't need to be spoken to by the Head trainer, and my allies and I went straight to the weaponry area again, I grabbed several knives and began throwing them at the moving dummies straight away. If only they were humans, that would make this whole training process so much more fun.

I was determined to channel my aggression and thirst for power into my training. The knives sliced through the air with deadly accuracy, embedding themselves into the dummies with satisfying thuds. Each throw brought me a strange sense of satisfaction as if I were enacting a taste of the violence I craved. My fellow allies practised alongside me, their expressions ranging from fear to determination. I couldn't help but notice the wary glances they exchanged as I expertly handled the blades.

As the day progressed, we moved on to combat simulations. My eyes gleamed with anticipation as I faced off against other tributes in the virtual arena. The scenarios felt almost real – the rush of adrenaline, the sound of clashing weapons, and the desperate struggle for survival. A cruel grin crept across my face as I fought and defeated opponent after opponent, relishing the sensation of power coursing through my veins.

George continued to assert himself as a leader in our group. His strategic mind and commanding presence irked me to no end. However, I knew I had to bide my time. Turning on him now would be a foolish move, jeopardising the fragile alliance that might offer some protection in the coming bloodbath. I could practically taste the impending chaos, a promise of unfettered violence and carnage.

I'd decided, from the day and a half of training I'd done so far, that my favourite of my allies was Cindy. She was a violent killer, like me, but not annoying like George. And Ezekiel was just boring. Sure, he was an aggressive bully, but he'd never killed anyone. What a loser.

When Cindy and I were alone that afternoon, I took the opportunity to talk to her about the games.

"Do you want to form an alliance within our alliance? After a while, we'll kill Ezekiel and George in their sleep and then it'll just be us, we'll kill off everyone else then fight it out at the end?"

"Yeah, sure," said Cindy. "What about Patch, are we killing him in his sleep, too?"

"Patch?" I repeated. "Who's that?"

"The boy from Eight?" said Cindy. "The one who's been tagging along with us all day? I don't know if he's trying to join our alliance or what's going on there."

"Oh, the boy with the ugly hair?" I said, looking over to where George and Ezekiel were, along with another boy with ugly curtain bangs in his shoulder-length hair. Now that I thought about it, he had been following us around all day. I'd been too focused on wanting to kill George to even notice. "Yeah, we'll kill him too."

"Alright," she said. "Sounds like a plan, Carmilla."

District 2 male – Quintus Grimm, 18

I hated shouting. I hated loud noises. I hated people.

And this training room was full of all those things, the shouting mainly coming from one of my allies, Mark. I really did not like him.

The boy from Ten who'd been tagging along with us since the first day, came up to me as soon as Dania and I arrived at the training room. He attempted to swing his arm around my shoulders, but he was a lot shorter than me, so it ended up around my waist.

"Hey, big guy!" he said energetically. 'Big guy'? Seriously? "You ready for another day of fun, fun, fun! I know I sure am! What's the matter, Quintus? Never been this close to a handsome gentleman like myself? You're not too bad-looking, either."

I pushed him off me and turned away from him quickly, following Dania towards the weaponry area. What was this guy's problem? Why was he even with us, he wasn't a Career. The stupid girl from One wanted him with us for some reason. I hated them both.

I didn't even like Dania that much, either. She had asserted herself as the leader of the group (well, she was fighting Mark for that position, but everyone had taken her side), and she was bossy and had unrealistic expectations for all of us. Also, I didn't like her hair, which sounds dumb, but it was just something I'd noticed I didn't like. She had an undercut, which I thought didn't suit her dark curls, and then she had curtain bangs as well... I personally just didn't like it.

"Alright, guys, today we're showing each other our weapon skills, and teaching each other things they don't yet know," she said, stopping and standing in front of us all once we got to the weaponry area.

"I already know how to use all weapons, I'm the best in the Academy," said Mark.

Dania laughed. "You don't know how good the District 2 Academy is. Much better than yours."

"And how would you know that!?" said Mark, his voice rising and fists clenching. Here we go again...

"What about the District 10 Academy?" Janusz butt in.

"What do you mean?" said Dania. "There's no District 10 Academy."

"Yes there is," said Janusz. "I've been going there since I was a child. It's awfully expensive, but my parents are rich so I'm able to go. Very few people get to go there. That's why I was voted in."

"I thought you told me yesterday that your parents were–" Phoenix started, but Janusz raised his hand to stop her from continuing.

"You're full of shit," Mark snapped, marching over to Janusz with his fists clenched.

"Aw, Mark, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Janusz grinned, looking down at Mark. "The girl from Twelve is just over there."

Mark's eyes widened and he let out a shout, punching Janusz repeatedly in the stomach.

"MARK, STOP!" Phoenix shouted, running over to Mark yanking his shoulders violently and pulling him back.

"EXCUSE ME, NO FIGHTING IN THE TRAINING ROOMS!" boomed the voice of the Head Trainer, pushing Phoenix and Mark away from each other. "YOU TWO, COME WITH ME. RIGHT NOW!"

He grabbed both of their arms and dragged them out of the training rooms, leaving Dania, Janusz and I there just staring at each other in shock.

"Why didn't you fight him back?" Dania asked Janusz.

"Because I knew I'd get taken out, too," he said. "See now I'm the 'victim' here. I won't get in trouble. We all know this is going to end up being brought up in the interviews, which all of the sponsors will see. The sponsors are going to hate anyone who breaks the rules and fights in the Training Centre. Plus, I can deal with it, I've experienced much worse pain from my p-, from the Academy in Ten."

"Yeah, right," said Dania. "Alright, let's show each other what we've got."

District 12 female – Fox Harlow, 12

I didn't like my allies. Well, Buster was tolerable. The other two, Bulga, and Luderick, made me want to tear my hair out. Bulga was bossy and annoying and treated Buster and me like absolute garbage because we were younger than her.

Luderick, on the other hand, hated all of us simply because we weren't from District 4. Like, what did he expect? For him to come to the Capitol and every other person to be from District 4?

I'd only joined this stupid alliance because, on the first day of training, Bulga had approached me and told me to join her. I was worried I'd struggle to find allies, being the youngest and all, so I just joined her.

God, this alliance didn't stand a single chance. Buster was determined, at least, but I couldn't see him standing a chance against the Careers. And me... well, I had one kill up my sleeve. Maybe if I could kill one sixteen-year-old boy, surely twenty-three older kids wouldn't be too hard?

"Alright, we're going to the edible plants section today," Bulga snapped at us all as soon as we arrived in the training room. God, she was annoying. She thought she ran this place or something.

We began walking to the edible plants section, which was on the other side of the room, and I trailed behind the others when I noticed a boy was trying to get my attention. From the look of his clothes, he was from District 3. We made eye contact and he gestured for me to come over to him. I looked at my allies, who were still walking and made my way over to the boy. He was over a foot taller than me and clearly a lot older. What did he want to talk to me about?

"Hey," he said. His voice was soft. "It's Fox, isn't it? I'm Jonas. Jonas Unix."

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"Well, it has been said in the reaping and chariot videos, plus I've heard people saying it here," he said.

"Oh, OK..." I said, awkwardly looking up at him. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I've noticed you're the youngest tribute here," he said.

"Yeah, and?"

"Well, you have the most life ahead of you," he said. "I think you should win this thing."

"Well, obviously I'd like to win, but..."

"You will win," he said to me. "Let me help you win."

Help me win? How was I supposed to trust this guy?

But then again, how was I supposed to trust Bulga, Luderick, and Buster? Just because they were closer to my age I immediately trusted them?

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen," he responded, and I felt my eyes widen. But then again, why should I trust the others over him just because he was older? "Fox, please believe me. I came to these games intending to die, that's why I was voted for. I want someone to win who deserves that win. You're so young, you have so much potential and so much ahead of you. Can you trust me?"

I took a deep breath. As if I was going to survive with Bulga's group anyway.

"OK, I'll stick with you."

He gave me a small smile, and I prayed to every god in Panem that I had made the right decision.

Alliances

Chaotic Careers: Phoenix, Mark, Dania, Quintus, Janusz

The psychotics: Carmilla, Ezekiel, Cindy, George, Patch

Team double backstabbers: Asiza, Cal

Bulga's little kids: Bulga, Ezekiel, Buster

Protection duo: Jonas, Fox

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

Solo (for now?): Thia, Arnold, Zevran