Goof correction:

Cactus has a journal for his luxury item

Persi has a jewelry making kit

Enzo has a game of UNO

Kendall Delancy- District One male (18)

Day 10

Mostly I'm going to use this for strategy stuff, but I thought a diary should have at least a few actual entries. Also I thought that since this has your name on it, I can use it to write down things you might like to hear about, since I won't remember all of it.

Camp life is pretty okay. We're all pretty hungry, even with the rice. We spend a lot of time fishing or looking for plants. Thank heavens for Birdie- she knows a ton of mushrooms. The rest of us would be too scared to risk it but she always says whatever she finds first and she's never died yet. Of course Kallik and Shep also know a lot. Even I know what a dandelion looks like.

Weird to think you were supposed to be here this year and then this ended up happening. Guess you wouldn't have gotten a normal Games anyway. I can't imagine this would have been as good for you. It's really fun in its own way but it's not what you'd been looking forward to. If one of us Careers wins I don't even know how we'll be received back home. I can't help but fear people would just tease me. A Career Victory who didn't kill anyone? Weird.

I don't even know who's allowed with who. Kallik and I tend to hang around each other out of some redundant feelings of District loyalty. Probably we're just afraid people will target us. I had thought Val would be part of our clique, but he's doing his own thing. I think he might not like me much, since he called me a privileged oligarch. I know what one of those two words means. The others don't seem to see him as a Career, since he didn't train and seems to come from a rough background.

Last night Taylor read a scary story for us all. Good God it was $# $ up. There was this doll but it was alive and it was just way scarier than that sounds. There are a good twenty stories in the book so if we read one every other day it will last until the end. Or until Taylor gets eliminated, which statistically will probably come first. We're hoping she'll leave the book for us if she goes. She says it depends on how quickly we vote her out. Clever girl.

There's a really cool waterfall here. Wish you could see it. I asked one of the camera people to take some footage of it. They're not supposed to talk to us but I think he will.

I hear sometimes there was a challenge on the original show where contestant's relatives come out. I get the sense they might be doing that sometime, since they asked us all to make a favorite relative before we came out. I picked Uncle Keith. Ha ha just kidding, I picked you. Hardly a spoiler, since if this does happen, it will happen either before I get sent home, so you'll see me, or I won't be there anyway so you won't get to come. I'll try to last that long so you can at least get a tiny bit of what you worked all this time for.

Oh gotta go it's challenge time.

Cactus Cleo- District Seven male (18)

The challenge field did not install me with enthusiasm. It was mud. Just a giant pigsty of mud. I could think of a few possible challenges and none of them were appealing. I loved plants. I didn't mind dirt. But mud caked under my fingernails with no access to a nail brush? Literally Hell.

"Today's challenge will test your ability to get down and dirty," Isabella said. "When the challenge begins, contestants will have five minutes to collect as much mud as possible, carried on any part of their body except in their hands, and place it in the buckets at the edge of the field When time is up, the buckets will be weighed. The tribe that collected the most mud will win immunity and reward. Ready to see your reward?"

I had not expected to see what I saw under the tarp at Isabella's feet, but I hadn't been entirely wrong. If expected food, just not in that form.

"In this cage are two hens and two goats," Isabella said. "The eggs and milk they provide will give your tribe precious protein and energy." Tough day for Birdie, I thought. More for the rest of us.

"Ellekoner, you have one extra member. Who are you sitting out today?" Isabella asked.

I raised my hand. That would be me.

Octavia Jacobs- District Two female (18)

Disgusting.

There was simply no way to participate in this challenge with any dignity. I just hoped the cameras weren't lingering on me as I wallowed like a sow.

"Kallik with a big load of mud in her bucket!" Isabella narrated.

I wrinkled my nose at the cool, thick, chunky mud squelching in my hands as I smeared it up my arms. Beside me, Rowena head-butted the mud and swirled her long hair in it, coming up bent under its weight.

Ugh. She's right. Gross as it was, I bent over alongside her.

Enzo Charmont- District Twelve male (18)

I was as happy as a pig in mud. Sure my clothes would be a wreck, but life goes on. Birdie, who had worn her new pants to the challenge, had accepted what she had to do and stripped to her bra and underwear. Probably a better idea anyway, since the dirt was sticking to her skin better than it was to my clothes. I wasn't staring at her like a creep or anything. I just happened to see it.

How much mud can I fit in my mouth? Probably just a few ounces, right? What if I shoved it all up between my cheeks and clenched? Gosh I wish I had a dump truck butt.

Trydan Briod- District Five male (17)

I didn't think this was going to end well for us. The female contestants were taking unfair advantage, if you asked me. I'd copied their hair idea, but I couldn't help it I didn't have cleavage to shove mud into.

"The ladies are running away with this contest!" Isabella agreed. "BIG load from Octavia!"

Yeah, since she has the biggest rack, I grumbled to myself. Unfortunately, Ellekoner had seven ladies to our four. It seemed our moment of victory was just that: a single moment.

Amberlynn Hyde- District Nine female (15)

Why did we eliminate Robbie? We're so stupid! He had so much surface area!

Lana Parker- District Six female (17)

I really didn't know what the best strategy was. I'd chosen to make quick mud angels and then bolt for the bucket, hoping speed could outweigh a few more careful trips. It sure seemed like I had a lot of mud in my bucket. Looking from one bucket to another, it was hard to tell how much anyone had. The buckets were all covered in mud and unevenly filled.

Kallik- District Two female (18)

"Ten seconds!"

I had time for one last load. I face-planted right into the mud, squirming like a worm. Oh, the dignity of my great people. Surely they watch their daughter with pride.

I was scraping bits of mud off my back when Isabella called time. Crew members lined the buckets up onto two scale platforms.

Isabella stood behind Ellekoner's platform. "Ellekoner's total weight is twenty-one pounds, nine ounces."

I don't know, that seems like a lot. I really wasn't great at estimating weights.

We all tensed as Isabella moved to our scale. "Huldra's total is… nineteen pounds-"

The rest was drowned out by Ellekoner's cheers.

"Ellekoner wins immunity and reward!"

Well, good thing I didn't sell my pride or anything

At last, it is time! Time for the first actual vote! Now that the inactive tributes are gone, the challenges will be much more even for fairness' sake, though I won't go strictly back and forth every time just because that would kill the suspense. This time it alternated back to Huldra but their huge loser streak is over. Huldra submitters make sure to send in your votes! And congrats to the ladies of Ellekoner for having long hair, or at least most of them did.

TAYLOR'S VOTE: If you want Taylor's vote for your alliance, send me a pm asking for her to join (it can be the same pm that has your vote but Taylor's vote might affect that so do whatever). I'll be using an RNG to pick her alliance, rerolling every week. And I'll also add in to the RNG one rare outcome that means Taylor joins an alliance but votes against them, since chaos reigns. Unless she gets voted out this time, which would be kinda funny ngl