"Ximena!" a voice yelled from outside Ximena's room. "Child, it's Synthia, your stylist." The prep girl banged on the door again, "Wake up, dear!" Ximena rolled over in their bed, letting out a long sigh.
    "Shut up!" they called back, slowly waking up. "Please."
    "I'm sorry, honey, but we need you to get up. Your training starts in..." she pauses, and there is a slight bit of silence, "Ten minutes! Oh my!"
    "Fine, just... be quiet, and I'll make myself presentable." Ximena pulled the covers off of their body and got up, shaking their head to clear the tiredness from their mind. They walked over to the bathroom, planning to turn the water on for a quick shower.
    "Oh, I forgot - no time for a shower! Just pull your hair up and get dressed!" Synthia called through the door.
    "Are you kidding me..." They rolled their eyes and headed over to the wardrobe, swiftly grabbing a training suit from one of the hangers. They slipped it on and opened the door. The prep girl they'd been talking to stood in front of them, pointing at her watch in panic.
    "Put your hair up and let's go!" Synthia said frantically.
    "I would rather my hair be down," they told her, walking right past the harried girl and over to the elevator, "Come on!"
With that, they are headed to the training course. When they arrived, Ximena walked over to Haliey, who was eyeing the contestants.
    "Hey," Ximena said cheerfully.
    "Hi, babe," Haliey responded, leaning in and kissing them on the cheek. "Let's go. We have some impressing to do." She grabbed Ximena's hand and pulled them into the training center. They walked over to the spear-throwing section - Haliey's specialty, and started throwing. After a few bulls-eyes, the couple had attracted eyes throughout the room.
    "Ha, we have their attention," Haliey whispered to Ximena.
    "Yep. Let's show them how it's done." They both moved over to the rope section. Ximena had always been sneaky and fast, so they enjoyed doing things like this. This obstacle course was a piece of cake - they started to climb, continually accelerating. When they reached the top, they rang the bell and hopped down, landing gracefully on their feet.
    "Thank you, thank you!" Ximena bowed to the crowd, smirking. Haliey walked up to her partner and kissed them on the cheek. They went over to the benches to sit down and talk.
    "You're incredible!" Ximena complemented Haliey.
    "You weren't too bad yourself," she giggled.
    "You're right, I was a lunatic," Ximena laughed, looking at the other contestants. Their gaze landed on a figure standing in the bow & arrow station. They were shooting arrows like crazy. "Woah, who is that...?"
    "Hmm. I believe that's Jean Scarlett... Not entirely sure, though," Haliey said, fixing her eyes on the girl. Maybe-Jean was moving like crazy, but it didn't look like she was missing any of her shots.
    "Well, she is insanely good. We'll have to watch our back," Ximena replied, looking at Haliey.
    "Don't worry, I'll save you!" she laughed, hugging them.
    "Haha! No, I have a better idea," they responded.
    "What's that?" Haliey said, grabbing their hand.
    "Avoid the killer."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   

    Rian walked into the training center and took a look around.
    "Hmm, let's see what we've got. Ooh, Haliey Windom. She's good with the spear, which means she's a big target. Oh, and Ximena Katherine. They're pretty quick - gonna be hard to catch. Paul is... not bad. He's handy with a blade, so he could be good in an alliance. Woah, and who is that...?" Rian fixed her eyes on Jean and began to blush. "Well, she's cute, and a good fighter." Rian's face turned bright pink as she stared. She then shook her head and walked over to the camouflage section.
The girl started to play around with all the different materials to help her camouflage. It was impressive, honestly - she was able to make her entire face look like a leaf. Rian glanced at her mentor, who was waving her over. She ignored him and continued to paint. She became entirely focused on the project and continued to make it look insanely easy. When she finished, she looked around. The girl she'd caught herself staring at earlier was now shredding on the bow. It caused Rian to blush hard again. After that, she looked over to Haliey and Ximena, who were checking her out, presumably to categorize her skills.
"What are they looking at...? I'm a human, not a zoo animal."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   
    Alaya and Max walked into the room and took a look at the competition.
    "Our mentor said not to do any real work - just to focus on survival skills, so let's just make our way over to the fire station." Alaya walked over and started to grab materials.
    "I kinda want to get some dagger training in," Max commented, pointing to the station opposite them.   
    "Not today. You heard what Elise said. She told us to lay low for the first day," Alaya said, raising her eyebrows at the pushy boy.
    "Fine... But look, that girl is throwing spears so rapidly! She's not laying low," he replied while pointing at a different station.
    "Haliey?" she questioned.
    "How d'you know her?" Max looked at his partner, confused.
    "I did my research. Anyways, that's not the point," she sighed, "She has a different mentor, who has poor strategies. Now come on. Let's get to work." She leaned down and started to make a fire, Max eventually joining her. Every once in a while Max would look up and start checking out the other contestants.
    "Gosh, these people are beasts. Like, literally - they need to be put in a cage." He glanced down at his work and saw that a spark had finally been lit. "Finally! I was beginning to get impatient."
    "See, this is why you have such a low chance of winning," Alaya remarked, annoyed.
    "What? Excuse me, my odds are just as good as yours," he complained.
    "Well, then both our odds are exceptionally low. You need to calm down and gain some respect and patience. It's gonna be needed. Otherwise, you're just as bad as the people of the capitol. They are heartless monsters, so get over yourself and listen, or you're going to die." Alaya seemed so angered by him. Max could tell his presence was now unwanted (well, unwanted more than usual).
    "I'm sorry, I just... Lose it sometimes," he frowned, looking down at his fire.
    "Yeah, you need to get it together. If you want to win, then you're going to need to fix your attitude," Alaya told him, then switched topics. "I'm hungry, so I'm gonna get some food. Talk to you later." She got up and started walking towards the door. Max took a deep breath and looked at the other tributes once more.
    "She's right. I'm dead meat."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    "Hi... Um, how are you today?" Q'uira asked, pulling her hair behind her ear with a slight blush.
    "G-Good, how about you?" Jay nervously closed his bedroom door.
    "Amazing," Q'uira said, a big smile on her face. "Shall we?" she held her hand out.
    "We shall," he said, smiling and taking her hand. They walked down to the elevator, talking and laughing the whole time.
    "So, about yesterday," Q'uira laughed, "Sorry. I made things a little awkward."
    "Oh no! It wasn't you," Jay said, looking Q'uira in the eyes.
    "No, no, I'm pretty sure it was my fault. I leaned in for a hug, and-"
    "Seriously, It was me who made it awkward. You're totally fine." He turned to face her and stopped, "In fact, you're amazing."
Q'uira pulled her hair behind her ear again. "Th-thanks, you're great. I mean, you're great as well," she laughed, "Sorry, I'm just a little nervous."
    "That makes two of us," Jay stared at her and she stared back. They stood in the hallway like that for a minute.
    "Come on! We don't want to be late, it's your first training session! Then you have the introductions, of course. Busy day, busy day!" Poppy, their mentor, exclaimed, seeming happy as could be. Q'uira laughed.
    "Yeah, we should get going," she said, tearing her gaze away from Jay. The three all got into the elevator and walked towards the training center. They'd arrived last out of all of the districts.
    "Well, I see we're behind schedule," Jay concluded.
    "Oh no, dear! Never behind schedule, just a little delayed," Poppy replied, starting to walk in.
    "Isn't that... just the same thing?" Q'uira whispered to Jay.
    "Shh, don't ruin her moment." He smiled when she laughed.
    "Oh gosh, he is so cute. I am so, so socially awkward. Oh gosh, is my hand sweating? Hold on - we're still holding hands! I am freaking out so hard... C'mon, don't mess this up. It's your shot. You got this," Q'uira thought anxiously.
    "Should I say something? I mean, she is the most adorable thing, so I don't want to look like a fool. Be cool, be cool, be cool... Is my hand sweaty, or is that hers? I don't know anymore!" Jay wondered. They walked over to the obstacle course and finally parted ways, wanting to work hard. It had been going pretty smoothly so far, until Jay decided he wanted to impress Q'uira by doing a flip off the ropes. He fell on his face. It sent Q'uira into laughter.
    "I'm sorry, that wasn't funny," She apologized, helping him up.
    "Eh, it was pretty goofy," he laughed.
    "Yeah, cute goofy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

   
    Paul finished up his spear throwing and went over to Maliery, who was picking flowers in the disguise section.
    "You seem happy," he commented, sitting next to her.
    "Yeah! This is so much fun! La-la-la-la," she sang, glancing at him with a giant smile. He looked away. He pitied her so much he couldn't bear to talk to her.
    "Yeah," Paul smiled hesitantly. He began to study the contestants, "So, anyone in particular you want to alliance with?"
    "You! You're the only person I know anything about. I like you, too - you're like a brother," she said optimistically, looking up at him.
    "Thanks, but..." Paul felt so bad. He couldn't be her partner. He would never be able to kill her in the end. He didn't want to say anything, but forced out a "Thanks, that's very nice of you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Jean looked at Reva, who seemed oddly happy.
    "Are you okay? You're acting like it's your birthday and you just got a puppy," Jean remarked.
    "Thanks!" Reva said, smiling brightly. They walked into the center, a bounce in their step.
    "That wasn't a compliment...?" Jean's face was scrunched up in confusion. She decided she was going to get some bow practice in, so she made her way to the station. It was completely empty - it seemed as though no one was too skilled in that standard.
    "Hm, seems easy enough. Almost too easy." She aimed her bow, quickly striking a bull's-eye, then headed down the line, row by row by row. She kept firing until she'd gotten a bull's-eye on all ten targets; finishing in less than a minute. She was quick and precise, having spent all her days practicing whenever she could. Jean looked around, noticing she had several people staring at her - but only one person caught her attention. Rian Mayfield had her eyes dead set on her. Jean looked over and started to blush.
    "Wow, you're so good!" Reva exclaimed, and Jean looked over, "That was amazing. You're so... vicious."