After eating very little at lunch, it was back to training. I made a beeline to the archery station. As I laid my hand on a bow, another hand went for it at the same time, and we both backed away.

"Sorry!" I say quickly.

"No I'm sorry." He says. I recognize him as Ponyboy, the boy tribute from District 3. He had long auburn hair slicked back and grayish green eyes. The corners of his mouth turned upward slightly, creating small dimples. 

"It's fine." I mutter, scanning my memory. I can't place him anywhere in my real life. Back in Pasedina. Where the Hunger Games was only a book. The only thing about him that I can remember is that his parents died. I'm not sure why I know it. He has a small, but muscular build. He's much smaller and obviously younger than that boy, Sodapop, who he volunteered for. "Why'd you volunteer?" I ask simply.

"Because Soda's my brother and my best friend. He'd just give up. He thinks he's dumb, but he's real bright." Ponyboy replies, looking at his shoes. 

"But he's bigger and older than you." I say.

"I know, but Darry doesn't want to lose another family member and he-"

"Doesn't care about you?" I finish. "No, Pony, he loves you a great deal. He wants you to be great..." I decide to stop there.

"You don't know my life!" He says as he walks away.

I look across the room and see my allies at the disguise station. I think it would be good to talk to them. Hesitantly, I go over to them.

"Hi." I say softly.

The corner of Dallas' mouth turns upward. "Hey, sweetheart." He says flirtatiously.

I scoff. "You know one or both of us is gonna be dead in like a month, right?"

"Time is just a number, baby." Then he says something really dirty and laughs.

I swiftly turn to leave, body slamming into another girl. I fall down, but she glares at me with black eyes. She has medium skin and black hair over her shoulder in a braid. She frowned at me. She had a really muscular build. She wore a purple shirt.

"Sorry!" I say scrambling to my feet. 

She sizes me up. "No problem." She says, then turns to a boy a few yards away and they have a quiet conversation. I realize that they're the pair from 5. The girl is Reyna. Tim is really tall with slicked back black hair and icy blue eyes. I could see his muscles through his loose shirt. 

I slowly back away and join Dallas and Clarrisse. I don't talk to Dallas because I really don't like him. Clarrisse just scans me and makes me feel a little uncomfortable. "Um, are you okay?" I ask her.

"Perfectly fine. I've been waiting for this my whole life." She says, not even looking up at me.

Suddenly, I feel someone tap my shoulder. I look up and see Tim and Reyna along with the pair from District 6, Thalia and Jason. 

"Uh, hi." I say. 

"Wanna join up with us?" Tim asks.

"Please." Says Jason.

Thalia rolled her startling sky blue eyes at her brother, who adjusts his bronze glasses and smiles.

"She's with us." Dallas said from behind me. 

Reyna nodded. "Alright." Then the four walked away. 

As I watched them, I remembered a few things. Not from outside this universe, though. I remembered their reapings. How when Jason and Thalia were called, the camera zoomed in and found their parents. Their mother was wailing and their father was staying strong, but a bit of anger and grief had shown on his face. And in District 5, when Tim's name was called, a slightly smaller boy with curly hair held onto Tim's leg as he made his way to the podium. A girl had pulled the younger boy back and attempted to comfort him as no one volunteered. 

My eyes wandered around the room and found the pair from 11 at the spear-throwing station. The boy was goofing off and the girl was making loud orders his way like 'thee are doing it wrong' or 'stop it, Keith' or 'if thee does that one more time, I shall strangle thee'. The girl looked intimidating with dark hair with a silver circlet and silver clothes with a hard scowl on her face. She was working on throwing the spears and generally focused on doing what she was supposed to do. The boy couldn't be behaving more differently. He swung and twirled the spears and laughed loudly. A wisecracker grin dominating the bottom half of his face. He had rusty red hair and his sideburns were long and slightly curly. He obviously wasn't here to follow the rules. Not like there are any rules once we get in the arena. He seems like the last person anyone who wanted to win would want on their alliance, but when he actually did something, it turns out he's someone to watch for. I can't help thinking of how during the parade, he was all jumping around and hollering and flipping off the crowd. Maybe someone had told him to make himself memorable, maybe he decided it on his own. Either way, it was working because not only were the gamemakers' eyes drawn to him a lot, but his chariot had gotten the most screen time during the parade out of everyone. Although he wasn't like that at the reaping. But then again, he was at the very back with the other 18 year olds from his district, and every single one of them was not expecting anyone to get picked back there. He'd been more surprised, I guess. 

I go back to my own training for the rest of the time after that.

___________________________

What'd ya think?

Love ya!

CC