A/N: That's Venus⬆️ She's portrayed by Camila Mendes.

Day 1

Name: Venus Kentwell
District: 2
Initial Scoring: 11
Weapon Of Choice: Axe
Weakness: Lack of outdoor survival training
Judges' Comments: Venus has a strong and independent personality. Although she is thoroughly trained in weaponry and killing, her inability to hunt and lack of knowledge in plants/animals could cause difficulties for her in the games.

*   *   *

THE horn sounds and I take off running towards the Cornucopia. As I look around me, I realize that most of the other tributes are running towards the woods, completely ignoring the bounty of weapons in the center.

"Bunch of cowardly bastards," I think to myself.

Fortunately for me and the rest of the girls, a few ballsy tributes have come to play and have decided to join us in a race to the Cornucopia.

I beeline it for a display of shiny swords, like the kind you'd see the knights hold in textbooks. As I approach the display, one of the girls from 8 gets there, too. We lock eyes, and she makes a 180, trying to make a break for the woods.

"Oh, no you don't!" I yell and sprint after her.

Grabbing her by the knees, I put her over my shoulder and head for the middle of the Cornucopia. Once inside the horn, the girl starts yelling, so I give her a good bang against the metal wall. She slides into a seated position on the ground, and I push a large plastic bin on top of her legs so she can't move.

"Don't go anywhere, I'll be back soon," I laugh as I head back out onto the field.

There are only so many tributes left and I don't want to miss out on any of the fun. As I survey the area, I can see that both Gem and Sapphire have double teamed a girl from 5. They're only 15, and she's huge, so I don't care how many of them it takes, just as long the girl goes down. Next, I spot Astraea on the ground, trying to fight off one of the tributes from 7. I grab a throwing knife and let it fly. 7 goes down, and that's one for me. I turn to the right just in time to watch Iris plunge a spear into 6's back. It distracts me only for a moment until I hear a struggle taking place close behind me. I look and Phoenix is pounding the crap out of a girl from 9, but taking a few hits to the face herself.

"Hey, P," I call, picking up a dagger I grabbed off the ground. "Try this." I toss it to her and 5 seconds later, the struggle is over. Phoenix is a master with a knife, I've never seen anyone better.

Now that I've helped these guys get their act together, it's my turn to get in on the action.

*   *   *

30 minutes go by. The bloodbath has ended and we begin to loot the Cornucopia. We each grab a backpack and start filling them with everything we think we'll need. Phoenix goes to the back of the Cornucopia and picks up a bin.

"Hey!" she calls. "Look what we have here."

The rest of us come to check it out, and sure enough, it's that girl from 8 I ran into earlier.

"Oh yeah," I say. "I ran into her at the beginning of the bloodbath, she's from 8."
I squat down over her legs so we are at eye level.
"What's your name, girl?" I ask, half whispering. Her eyes keep darting behind me and she is out of breath. I look, and find all 5 girls, armed and waiting for me to let them at her. I look back to the girl. "Don't worry about these guys, I won't let 'em hurt you. Just tell me your name."
"I-Ivory," She stutters.
"Well, Ivory, this is the Hunger Games after all, and people do die here. But I'll tell you what. If you can prove yourself useful to us, we'll let you join our little group here, okay?"

Ivory nods, and I give her my hand to help her get up. We walk out of the horn to the open field.

"Now, Ivory," I say, handing her a spear. "I really want to see if the rumors are true. Do these platforms they have us stand on really blow up? Don't you guys want to find out?" I ask and look back at the girls. They all nod and chirp up in supportive "yeahs" and "uh-huhs."

"So, here's the deal," I continue. "You have three trys to hit that platform with a spear. It's only about 30 feet away. Iris here could do that in her sleep, couldn't you, Iris?"
"Sure could," she replies with a smug grin on her face.

Ivory looks at the platform, and then back at us. Grabbing the first spear, she makes her first attempt. Complete and utter failure. Second attempt comes, and it's just as laughable. Finally, she gets to the third spear, and shockingly gets it about 3 quarters of the way there. Amazed and confused at how she could have gotten so close, we all look at each other. Frustration bubbles up inside me, and I look back to Ivory.

"Oooh, so close. Well I guess the only thing left to do is kill you. Gem, Sapphire! Have at it."

Ivory books it into the woods and she's got a solid 20 foot lead on the two girls. The     three disappear into the trees, and the rest of us finish up picking out what we want. One thing is for sure though, I won't have this nobody try to beat me at my own game and get away with it. I don't tolerate that kind of bullshit.

*   *   *

It only takes about 15 minutes for Gem and Sapphire to take care of Ivory. We've been sitting at the Cornucopia for about two hours now and I'm starting to get restless.

"What do we do now?" Astraea asks.
"Well given the fact that most of the tributes went out into the woods unarmed and they won't collect these bodies until we're gone, I say we go on a little hunting trip," suggests Phoenix.
"What about the stuff here? We can't carry it all," Gem points out.
"We don't need to bring it all, just our backpacks. The other tributes are most likely too scared to come around here, besides even if they did, they would only be able to take as much as they could carry back," I say and start to pack up my things. The others do the same.

With that, we all get up and go out hunting for tributes.

*   *   *

As we're walking through the woods, Astraea starts to tell us about some conspiracy she heard about during training.

"Apparently, the district 3 girls orchestrated this whole 'let's ban together against the careers' thing. That's why they all ran from the Cornucopia."
"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. Who in their right mind goes to the Hunger Games and doesn't grab a weapon?" Sapphire shakes her head in disbelief and confusion.
"Someone who's not here to win, that's for sure," I answer.

Suddenly, I hear rustling in the tree above us. It's faint and the other girls haven't noticed it because they keep talking. Finally, I see it. A tiny "X" drawn in the dirt where Phoenix stands.

"Watch out!" I yell, and push her out of the way. And not a moment too soon because as soon as I do this, a net deploys. The empty trap hangs high above our heads.

The district 3 girl jumps out to see what she has caught, only to have me tackle her to the ground. I guess she didn't leave the Cornucopia empty handed because the next thing I know, I have a knife lodged deep into my thigh. But it's too little, too late. My hands have already wrapped around her neck, and there is no way I'm letting go. District 3 has always thought they were so great because they were smarter than the rest of the districts. Oh, how humbling it must be to have the entire district watch as their mastermind tribute, who schemed away, orchestrated an alliance against the careers, and changed the course of these entire games was strangled by the very career she set out to destroy.

When the cannon goes off and I finally let go, the rest of the cannons from the bloodbath are sounded as well. I rip the knife out of my leg and wrap it as tightly as I can with the bandages I packed. If there isn't enough pressure on it, I could bleed out. Thankfully we were trained not only in how to destroy the human body, but heal it, as well.

"I counted 10," says Iris.

I tear a piece of bark off of a nearby tree and make 10 tally marks with my new knife. Only 13 more to go.

"I got 2 of those," says Gem, as proud as can be.
"I helped with both of them," snaps Sapphire as she nudges Gem.
"Oh, how cute. Wouldn't it be fun to have a kill buddy to help you out," laughs Astraea. "My kill was solo, and it was beautiful. I mean, just clean cut perfection."
"You're all still swimming in the kiddie pool," Iris pipes up. "Two spears, two tributes, no problem."
"Ah spears. The weapons of barbarians," Phoenix says, joining the conversation and mocking Iris. "I, on the other hand, prefer the fine skill of knife throwing. And for the record, you're not the only one who took down two tributes today."

Finally, I've had enough of their bragging. "You're all amateurs," I say and they all look at me.

"Oh, yeah?" Phoenix taunts. "Who's the only one here who got a knife to the leg today?"
"The same person who killed 3 tributes, saved Astraea during the bloodbath, gave you the dagger to take down 9 and. . . oh, yeah. . . saw the trap," I smirk and start walking back to the Cornucopia to build camp.

The girls stand there in silence and just look at each other.

I call back to them, "If you guys plan on getting camp set up before sundown, I suggest you pick your jaws up off the floor and get a move on it."