Lana's interview: Kallik must not have gotten much sleep tonight. I asked her if I should cook some more rice and she snapped at me. So rude!

Lana's edited interview: Kallik is so rude. One of these days I'm going to snap at her.

Kallik's interview: Yeah, I totally did. I slept on a rock last night and I woke up super sore. I felt so stupid I was embarrassed to apologize but I'll go get it over with.

Kallik's edited interview: She is so stupid. I'll be happy when it's over with and she's gone.

Shep Howard- District Ten male (18)

It might have been awkward, lying a few feet away from the girl who narrowly beat me and thus put me at risk of going home in a few hours. Yarrow and I both had something far more immediate on our minds, though, and that was why we were lying by the river. Our arms hurt and the water was cold.

I was the first to break the silence. "Nice day," I offered.

Yarrow started to shrug, then winced. "Not too hot and not too cold," she agreed.

"Do a lot of people have cars in Three?" I asked.

"Not really," she said. "Our school principal has one. The mayor, I would think. Mostly business owners and Peacekeepers."

"Ten barely even has any roads. It's mostly just dirt paths. We don't need them, since no one has cars." There was the main road, which led from the train station to the Peacekeeper's village, and that was about it.

"Who do you suppose is going home tonight?" Yarrow asked.

"Maybe Kallik?" I said. I had nothing against her. It just seemed like she hadn't been doing much plotting or networking even from the start. She'd sort of been coasting along since someone else was always a target.

"I always think it will be Octavia or Val, but it never is," Yarrow said. "She must be really persuasive."

"Maybe Val is seducing everyone," I said.

"He'll have to try pretty hard with me," Yarrow said.

"Me, too," I said. "But I won't say never. Maybe he's just that good." I'd always thought I'd marry a nice strong girl from our community. Then again, I never thought I'd do something like this.

"Maybe she'll even win," Yarrow said.

"I like how you say 'she' because we both know it won't be Val," I said.

"Yeah. He'd give it to her if he was going to," Yarrow said. Her face changed, like her arm was giving her trouble. "It must be nice to care about someone that much."

"You didn't have a best friend back home or something?" I asked. Of everyone on the island, I thought I knew the least about Yarrow. She always seemed to be blandly inoffensive- someone who never came out against anything but also was never passionately for something.

She shrugged with the arm that wasn't in the water. "I always thought, people come and go. It's not safe to get attached."

"But if it's worth having at all, it's worth having even if it's for just a while. Like dogs. You know you're going to be sad when they die, but it's worth it." She hadn't talked about it much, but Yarrow was an orphan. It didn't take a genius to see that would affect her view on relationships. It made me feel for her parents. First their daughter lost them, and then she lost the connection that brings so much joy throughout life.

"Most people want something from you anyway," Yarrow said.

I wanted to say that wasn't true, but could I really? It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, if you asked me. Friends wanted friendship from you just like you did from them. It wasn't nefarious. It was just… even.

"If you win, I guess you'll always think that about whoever wants to be your friend," I thought aloud. Whoever won would have to deal with hordes of hangers-on and suck-ups. At least they'd have all their money for comfort.

"Maybe that would be easier," Yarrow said. "If I want a friend I'll buy one. If I get bored of them, I'll just send them back."

It certainly did sound like a very safe way to live. It just wasn't a very sincere one.

Leo Fabrizio- District Six male (18)

One thing about inner peace: it's hard to achieve and very easy to break. You'd think once you faced your demons you're in the clear, but no, they're always climh for a rematch. It's even in the Bible, right down to the verse being about demons.

"You must have really wanted that car. I've never seen you so mad."

Lana's innocent words hung in my head. I'd come so close to snapping at her. Then I would have felt really bad, since it wasn't her fault at all. I'd managed to make some little joke about it and scuttle off before I did anything more.

It wasn't even that bad. I knew if I saw someone else get a little upset about losing, I wouldn't even think twice about it. It was just so embarrassing. I used to be such an absolute terror at games. There was no game so simple I couldn't ruin it by throwing a hissy fit whenever I lost. I was good at winning- I was always humble and gracious about it. But losing… oh, boy. For some reason, losing always made me feel like I was inherently a failure, silly as I knew that was. It got to where I just stopped playing games centered around winning. I'd made a lot of progress, in my defense. No one's perfect. There were a million other platitudes I could say, and about anyone else, I'd believe them. It was only myself I showed no mercy.

But did anyone die? Does anyone even care?

People get bent out of shape about the silliest things. It was like that mortifying thing from ten years ago that wakes us up in the night even though we know no one else even remembers it. I'd already apologized to God about it. That was the silliest thing- I knew he'd already forgiven me. It was water under the bridge. But here I was poking myself with it over and over.

You're still usually a good example. That was the most important thing. Even though my beliefs were secret in general, everyone here knew about me. I was painfully aware that everything I did would be the image by which anyone who saw me judged Christians. So far, they all seemed to approve, judging by that one challenge. I saw how people looked at me first when they were asking for help with a chore, since they knew I'd do it and not complain. I hoped I'd made a difference for Taylor and all my other friends. It wasn't as though one screwup was going to soil my honor and that of all my ancestors before me. So I should just let it go and move on. Truer and less viable words were never spoken.

I'll just go gather some wood. That's how it works, right? If you do something bad, you can do something good and cancel it out. No, I knew the truth was far more difficult. There was no canceling out your bad. God forgave it without you doing anything at all. It went so contrary to human nature, to incur a debt and not pay it back. But I don't deserve it! My soul wailed. And yet, it was given all the same. So easy so receive, so hard to really believe. I was still going to gather the wood, though. It would do me good to get out of camp and do something productive.

Val's interview, unaired: The interviewers definitely think they're on to something. They've been following Kallik and Lana around all day. Did they get in a fight or something? They keep asking us for dirt and it's like, nothing happened?

Since we're getting close to the end, I added some character moments so people really know these candidates by the time the final vote starts.