Soon after the debacle with the bow and arrow, the tributes are led into a cafeteria, scattered with tables and with their meals ready for them at the entrance. Even as she enters the room, Embelia can feel Korren following a few steps behind her. She hasn't spoken a word to him since the incident with the bow and arrow, and he hasn't said one to her either. With the quick glances she's spared him he seemed to be deep in thought, presumably drafting up some sort of apology in his head. She's not sure if she'll accept it, but she'd definitely appreciate it. It depends on how sincere it is.

A part of her urges her to accept that it may not have been his intention to humiliate her. But it's the part of her that's always led her to trouble. It's trust, it's care, it's something she wishes she squashed long ago. So, she ignores it, and takes her seat and sets her lunch down before her. And, of course, Korren follows.

"Are you going to listen to me now?" Korren says, voice quiet enough that it almost falls into the idle chatter of the room. Embelia glances up from her food, looking forward to where the career boys laugh with each other before she turns her heavy gaze to Korren.

"You haven't been speaking," she responds, voice void of emotion now that she's locked it all away.

She sees a smile pulling at Korren's lips, but he tries his best to be serious. "I wanted to explain myself, and to apologise."

"No, it's okay, I get it," Embelia waves her hand, setting down her sandwich in favour of the orange on her tray. Silently, she wonders if she might have picked it herself, but when she examines the quality she knows she'd never have let a fruit so poorly escape her notice. "You wanted them to see me as the weak one. It's every man for himself-"

"No," he interrupts. "I was trying to turn their attention away from us. All of us can tell you know how to work the Capitol, the media haven't stopped talking about you. You're a fan favourite. They know that favour takes you far in here, but if they think you can't fight, then they eliminate you as a long term threat. You're off their radar."

"I'm not doing it on purpose," she mumbles, listening closely to his words even as she peels the orange.

"Don't think I don't notice, Em, you're clever. Somehow, you know exactly how to push their buttons. Look- I won't do anything like that again. I'll tell you what I'm planning from now on. I'm sorry, that was my mistake, but you've gotta trust me."

Embelia places a bit of orange in her mouth, considering his words. "Do you think it worked?"

He blinks, and looks confused for just a split second. "Throwing them off your scent? Absolutely. I think they ruled you out as capable of harming them," he responds, voice even lower now. "But both of us know that you're more than capable."

She doesn't understand where he gets that idea from, but if that's what he thinks, let him think it. It can't hurt.

"We're a good team, Em." He's almost whispering now. "You combine my strategies for the arena and yours for entertainment value, then we've practically guaranteed ourselves an easy ride through at least the start of the games."

"If you extract the variables of an unpredictable death match," she says, cracking a small smile that he easily returns. He seems relieved to see her smile again. "You're too trusting."

"Maybe. But I think I've been smart in where I put my trust."

Embelia swallows. Maybe he hasn't.

"You're forgiven," she eventually concedes. "But don't leave me in the dark again."

"Deal," he nods.

Embelia smiles, and the two enjoy their lunch in relative silence, both examining the room and watching as the career boys threaten a wrestling match, despite that they know it's not allowed. They seem to be growing friendships, though each of them skirt around the truth they all know. Even Korren and Embelia, whose uneasy alliance quickly grows into reluctant friendship, are avoiding the harrowing reality that only one person can survive. That these alliances, these friendships are destined to crumble and crack, breaking at the cost of 23 young lives.

Embelia looks to her partner, who seems to examine the pair from twelve closely. (Though she's unsure why, the two weedy tweens seem too afraid to even look at one another.) If it comes down to it, is she truly capable of killing him? This sweet boy just one year her junior, who's been nothing but kind and charming to her. Is she capable of taking his dwindling mortality into her own hands?

She's not sure. With or without her childish crush, she doesn't know how she could live with it.

The next day, training continues. Korren and Embelia work together once more, yesterday's quarrels behind them. Especially now that they sought their mentors' advice, the both of them assuring the teenagers that their strategies were solid and clever. They seemed quite impressed, actually, which had made Korren puff up with pride and Embelia shy away.

Today, Korren has managed to convince his partner to try a few more of the weapons. Embelia, though hesitant, tries them each in earnest. She's terrible at almost all of them, though she does show some promise with a spear, managing to block several of the instructor's attacks. She comes away from the station with a big grin, to an elated Korren.

"I knew something would stick out to you!" He cheers, offering her a friendly pat on the back as she readjusts her ponytail, curly strands falling from the tie.

"I barely held my ground, but sure."

"Lower your-"

"Expectations," Embelia finishes with a laugh. "I did! I could've done worse, I can admit it."

"It's good, it's something to defend yourself with if you can get your hands on it."

She nods and looks around in search of their next station, on something of a high from her successful attempt at something she was certain she'd fail at. Only, as she's about to speak and suggest the climbing course they hear a shout from a few stations over.

Stood together at the bow and arrows are the tributes from District Two and District Four, and the shouting comes from the hulking figure that is the boy from four.

"You think that's funny?!" He accuses, making for the other boy who looks confused and appalled by the sudden outburst. He's only stopped by his district partner holding him back, the girl looking around in embarrassment. "Huh? You wanna have a little chuckle at me?"

"It was a joke, man!" The boy from two counters, taken off guard by his ally's outburst. "You missed! It's no big deal, relax!"

"Relax? Relax, huh? This isn't a fucking joke to me." Embelia winces with the hateful intensity of the curse he spits at the boy across from him. "I worked my whole life for this, and you wanna laugh at me!"

"Yeah, that's what friends do, they laugh together!"

The boy from four doesn't stop glaring, and doesn't back down when his district partner whispers to him, surely insisting he calm down. By now, everyone has turned to watch the argument go down, the instructors creeping closer in case they need to intervene.

"We're not friends," Four sneers. "Next time I won't miss, and you won't be laughing. Come on." He moves to drag his district partner away, the girl puzzled and alarmed.

"What? No!"

"Yes! We're done with him, with all of them. Unless you'd rather betray your own district?"

The girl looks up at him with indignation in her gaze. But, wordlessly, she gives in and lets him lead her away, across the gym. Left in their wake is a shattered alliance, and a very confused boy from two. He turns to his district partner - a statuesque girl whose beautiful face is cracked into bewilderment - wondering aloud what had just happened.

"Looks like the bow and arrow station causes a lot of drama," Korren comments quietly as the gym's attention falls away from the argument. Embelia tears her gaze away from the frantically whispering careers and looks up at him. "This is perfect."

"I've never heard of the career alliance splitting before the games even begin," she says, and matching grins spread over the pair's faces. "Now he's out to get them."

"And they're weakened," he adds, almost laughing at how much they'd just lucked out. "Luck has smiled on us today!"

Embelia shushes him, but she can't hide the giddy smile on her face as she drags him over to the climbing course. Things looked to be working out, and none of this had even been their doing. Of their own volition, the careers had weakened their strength, leaving themselves vulnerable to each other. She wondered if this would affect their alliance ever more going into the arena? How much sooner would the split happen now? Perhaps it wouldn't even happen at all, and they'd each of them turn on one another the moment someone turned their back.

Embelia, for one, hopes it might be the latter. It would save her the trouble of dealing with them herself.

This day in training, the tributes are tasked with a few mandatory tests. So each of them line up in scattered order- Embelia notices they're roughly organized by height, placing her smack dab in the middle. Though she's taller than her mother, who stands short and stout at Embelia's nose, she's not particularly huge, leaving most of the older boys to stand behind her. The first of the tests is at the edible plant station.

Alarm bells ring inside her head and she glances back at Korren, who stands second to last, only followed by the boy from four. (Whose face is still sour from the morning's quarrels.) Seeder had advised and they had agreed that they would keep their strongest skills for their private sessions, and Embelia's was her botanic knowledge. Korren gives her a reassuring smile, mouthing something she doesn't catch. She hopes it's an encouragement.

The test is a visual matching test, matching the plants on the board with the ones on the screen, excluding anything that might be poisonous. She watches several kids try and fail, and a few more make passable attempts, and quickly comes to realize that if the tributes behind her are paying attention, her efforts are going to stand out right away. She steps up to the test when the girl in front of her finishes, swallowing the lump in her throat. After all the effort she'd put into getting off the radar of any enemies, was this going to end it? Surely not, surely the careers behind her find her skill to be a useless one, nothing worth any sort of note. Would she be smarter to fudge it, and pretend she isn't as clever as she is?

But when the test begins, and she starts to fly through it, she hears murmuring from behind her. Again. She never once misses, never fails to match a plant and never picks a poison, and when she completes it, the screen flashes with a bright, bold 99%. She blinks up at it in surprise, and she frowns. She had missed something? Surely she hadn't, this must be a mistake. She hurries over to the instructor's screen, peering at it, demanding to know what she'd done wrong.

The instructor points it out: poison hemlock. A rookie mistake, yet an easy one to make. It shares such a similar look to a wild carrot, it's a fault easily forgiven in a hypothetical, but a deadly one in practice. She scowls, looking up at the screen where her score has since disappeared and another tribute has begun to fumble their way through the test. Then, she looks to Korren, who gives her a big smile and two thumbs up. Her scowl falters, and she almost smiles. If only he'd known what a deadly mistake she just made.

Then, she can't help but notice two more pairs of eyes on her: the male tributes from district one and two, they're looking right at her from where they stand in front of Korren. They share a glance and look away when they notice Embelia looking at them too.

She was right. She had once more established herself as a problem. If only she had swallowed her pride enough to fake it. She hurries away, off to bide her time until she can reconvene with Korren and figure out how to get back off their to-kill list.

Only, the moment the boy from four finishes with an impressive 93%, they're gathered to line up again, this time for the obstacle course. Embelia frowns and looks back to find Korren while she gets in line, only for her line of sight to be interrupted by the boy from two. She tries not to show her panic as he meets her gaze, turning to look forward as he takes a place in line, directly behind her. The girl who'd stood behind her initially doesn't argue, stepping back to give the boy space.

Her heart pumps loud in her ears as he just stands there, both of them waiting for the first in the line to begin their run.

"Hey," he eventually says, leaning forward so his voice is just about in Embelia's ear. "I'm Cassius. You're Emmilia, right?"

What?

What on earth is happening?

"Embelia," she corrects, not turning to face him for fear he'll see the confused panic on her features.

"Oh, shit, sorry," he says, amused laughter in his voice. "Pretty name. Can I call you Em?"

"No," she says, sparing a glance over her shoulder and seeing a relaxed smile on his angular face. Cassius has warm brown eyes, the corners downturned making him look akin to a sad puppy. Nothing about his handsome visage is frightening, but Embelia is sure she knows exactly what rests beneath his friendly surface. She doesn't know how to ask him what his deal is outright, and she certainly doesn't want to offend him or make him upset. But she does want this conversation to end, quickly. She wishes she had taken a place closer to the front of the line.

"Alright," says Cassius when she turns her gaze forward again. "You were pretty impressive on that test before. Almost perfect."

"Yes," she agrees. "Thanks. I didn't see your score."

"It wasn't my best work," he admits. "I'm not too proud to see that. Not too proud to ask for help, either."

Help? From who? Surely not from Embelia.

"Why are you talking to me?" She finally asks, fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist.

"Well, I'm sure you saw the… incident this morning with four. And I know for a fact you saw his score on the plant thing. Let's just say we sort of lost our plant guy."

"That sucks," she said, stepping forward when the next kid steps up to the course. "But it shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? Isn't it the thing for you guys to hoard all the food in the arena?"

"Yeah," he concedes. "But arenas are unpredictable. There might not be any there, and in that case we're gonna need a hand knowing what we can and can't eat."

Embelia's suspicions are proven. "Are you asking for my help?"

"In so many words, yes."

"I'm already in an alliance."

"With the kid from your district, I've noticed." Embelia notices his hand waving dismissively in her peripheral and she scowls. "But there's no reason you can't consider other offers. Do you think he hasn't considered others as well? Come have lunch with us after this, I'll introduce you to everyone and you'll see that we're a better choice. Deal?"

Embelia almost says no. But a plan is already brewing in her head. They want someone to feed them safe plants? Perfect. They'll get that and so much more. They'll get their demise.

"Deal."