Jackson's still waiting for me when I open the door, "uhhhh hi?," I say, clearly confused.

"Did you enjoy the roof last night? Cause we'd prefer it if you tell us when you leave. Michele was worried," he says with his arms crossed.

Shit. I guess they did notice. "Sorry, I didn't think it was a big deal cause the door wasn't locked," I say honestly.

He nods, " not a big deal, just worried. Anything could happen to you. Did you have fun?" he asks. I realize this is the most Jackson Spidell has ever said to me.

"I did. The view was nice, but really I wanted time alone to think, you know?" He nods and smiles.

"Well, I'm glad you can find a place to breathe. Just tell us next time, and if another tribute goes up there, be polite, but don't hang out. Just come back. Let's eat," we start heading to the dining room, and he puts his hand on my back and pats it.... again with the other hand. He always has to do things twice.

We sit down, and Michele gives me a cold good morning, well shit again, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I went to the roof last night. Jackson told me it's not a big deal, but I should still tell you. I'm sorry."

She turns to me and smiles, "anything could happen, and we're responsible for you. Just tell us next time," she pats my hand and starts eating.

Ally turns up a few minutes later, looking sleepy. Michele reminds us of the plan today, "Kyle, you're going to do spears, hand to hand, and swords in the morning, Ally will do throwing knives and hatchets, in the afternoon learn some more survival skills. Your dad's training book will give you an edge, but you can also learn more and hit the edible food area; it's the only insight into the arena you'll get. what else did I tell you, Kyle?"

She looks at me, and Ally and Jackson giggle as my mouth is full of food, "ummmmmmmmmmmmm oh make friends," I say after swallowing.

"Good boy, I'm glad you listened," she says.

She tells us to get dressed; the training uniforms are in the closet. I walk back to my room . I need to shave cause my beard is growing in, but I don't see that setting in the bathroom. I'll ask Jackson later. The training uniform is a red and black pullover to help with sweat and has the number 10 on it, cargo pants and boots; not my most stylish look, but once again, the pullover is tight and shows off the muscles.

I walk out into the hall and see Ally; I offer my hand, which she doesn't take, "what are you too old to hold my hand as we walk to school anymore?" I tease.

"I'm not a baby, I'm scared, but I'm not a baby," she snaps back.

"Ok, well, what if I need my brave sister to hold MY hand, so I'm not scared, please," I say and flutter my eyes at her.

She takes my hand, and we walk out to the living room area. Gloriana asks if we want to be escorted to the training room, I shake my head while Jackson says, " let them go. The others need to see that they aren't scared to be alone," and Michele agrees.

Gloriana nods, "ok, good luck today. We," gesturing to Michele, Jackson, and herself, "will be working on sponsors for you."

"what about Alejandro?" I asked, "he's our mentor, too, right?" I ask.

Michele cuts in, "no more than two official mentors, Alejandro's here for moral support and guidance."
She and Jackson exchange a quick look.

"Well, Ok, then, good luck. Ally and I will make you proud," I say.

Ally chimes in, "we got this. I'll be a knife-throwing pro by dinner," and smiles.

We head down to the training room about 15 minutes early, and some of the tributes are already there. I see Romulus and Aurora talking to Topaz and Bella from 1 and plan on avoiding them all.

I turn to Ally and say, "I'm going to walk around. Do you want to come with me to stay here?"

"I'll stay here, I'll work on making friends for us," says.

I smile and walk off. If anyone can do it, it's probably her; everyone loves Ally. I see Lily and Jake walk in and wave and see Ally's already walking over to them with the pair from District 9 right behind them. They're all talking to each other, and Ally....she can really get people to talk. More tributes are arriving, so I walk back over; Ally introduces me to Brian and Jillian from District 9, neighbors in the world of Panem. I'm taller than both of them, and Brian seems more skinny than fit, but they seem nice enough.

A tough-looking lady stands up at 10 on the dot and starts a speech that she has memorized. It's basically Weapons and survival training. A lot of us will die from wounds and the cold so learn those skills. No fighting with each other use the training staff. Be productive and go. Ally and I split off as planned. She goes to the knives, and I go to the spears. I see Titus eyeing Ally and some of the other girls, and I make a mental note to watch that. I get to the spears first, and the trainer asks if I have any training. I mention I can throw a pitchfork well, but they aren't the same.

He nods and says, "they aren't THAT different."

He tosses me one and has me take the throwing position. He walks around me and has me tilt back a bit more and then reach back and throw. I winged the practice dummy in the shoulder when I was aiming for the head. I'm not thrilled. He tells me to try again. I have the strength and form, so the aim will come.

I hear Aurora giggle behind me and say, "too bad it's not a barn. He could probably hit that," Topaz and Bella laugh.

The trainer leans around me and says to her, "a hit is a hit when it's a long sharp pole sticking out of your shoulder or leg, champ," and they stop laughing.

I get 5 throws before I have to move to the end of the line for my next turn. Throw 2 I hit the leg. Throw 3 the target on the chest. Throw 4 the chest bull's eye. The trainer tells me to have fun with the last throw. I aim for the face and picture Aurora. I could probably get used to that, I guess. I aim and throw and hit the dummy so hard in the face it topples over.

I turn and see her stunned face, "I guess it was like hitting a small barn in the face," and walk to the back of the line.

Bella and Topaz are laughing harder, and Romulus winks at me as Aurora takes my place. Thankfully she's garbage at the spear, so she goes quickly and leaves for the archery area. I see Ally is the only one at the knives station, and she seems to be doing ok. Hitting the targets at least. I look behind me, and I see a girl whose name I can't place, but she's from District 6.

"Hi, I'm Kyle," I say with a wave. "I need to make some friends."

"I'm Melissa; you're pretty good with the spear," she says.

"Thanks, it's just throwing a stick, which we do for fun back home......you're not working with Titus?" I ask quietly. I see him throwing axes with all his strength.

"No, never, that guy is the a .......umm we don't like each other really," she says, going from angry to scared to formal in one sentence.

"Gotcha, I'm not the biggest fan, either. I assume you heard about our run-in yesterday," I say.

she nods, "oh yes, he wouldn't shut up about it," good to know I think that I got under his skin.

She taps my arm and points out that it's my turn again. The trainer asks if I want to try moving targets. I say yes, I doubt Aurora will hold still for me. I miss the first shot, but he tells me I need to aim ahead of the target, anticipate its movements. I wing the second and hit the next three head-ons. I ask the trainer if I can do one more, and he looks at Melissa, who nods. I line it up and hit it square in the head. I look over and see an impressive Romulus smile at me. I tell Melissa I'm going to the hand to hand combat if she wants to join me after.

"Maybe I'm going to practice more here," she's says and I nod and walk off.

The combat trainer asks if I want to do hand to hand or weapons practice. I say weapons cause I know how to wrestle. He shows me a couple of starter moves, and we go. Within about 2 minutes, he can see I have real skill and steps it up; I break a sweat and get thrown on my ass more times than I can count, but I throw them around twice as hard. I only spend 30 minutes at the station and thank them and head off.

I see Ally has moved to hatchets, and I walk over, "how's it going, killer?"

She throws the hatchet, and it hits the dummy in the leg, "I'm ok, my aim isn't perfect," she says.

I smile and say, " well, according to the spear trainer, a hits a hit when it's a sharp pole sticking out Of your body. Just keep working on it. I'm going to do swords, and then it's lunch, I think."

"Ok, have fun," she says with a smile she didn't have before.

I go to the sword area; she hands me a foam sword, saying it's all we can use for obvious reason and teaches some basic moves before sparring. We go back and forth for about 20 minutes before she calls it because Harbor and River from district 4 walks up for their turn and another trainer takes over.

She pulls me aside and whispers, " you did a great job, come back later or tomorrow, and we can master this," and walks off.

I see Titus standing behind Ally at the hatchet-throwing station and head that way, making eye contact with Jake as I do when I see him bend over and sniff her head. She didn't realize he was then until then and jumps away, Jillian who was practicing next to her pushes Titus away, and he shoves her with his palm back into the table when Jake and I get there. I shove Titus back, and Jake stands between him and the girls; Titus tries to grab the both of us in a headlock of some sort, and as he is doing that, Jillian hit him in the face with the palm of her hand.

At this point, the trainers are pulling the four of us apart and yelling to stop fighting. I see the game makers watching all of this happen, and I can't tell if they're angry or terrified because none of them are happy.

Atala sends us all to lunch but makes Titus sit off to the side; more peacekeepers are brought in to monitor the situation. Jillian, Brian, Jake, and Lily sit with us for lunch. The careers are at a table next to us, and the rest spread out, mostly keeping to their group expect Melissa, who comes in late; Ally moved over and waves her over. Always good at making friends, we talk about anything that isn't about the games, but I can't help but mention that Lily is really good at archery.

Lily smiles and whispers, "a guy in our area secretly hunts, and he took my dad and me out a couple of times."

I'm impressed, and I don't mind sharing that in 10, the 18-year-olds will sneak under the fence to check out the ruins near us. District 12 doesn't have anything like that except up at a lake; Jillian and Brian mention you can see some ruins on the western part of their district, but they've never been. It turns out 9 does stuff like we do with different zones, but 6 and 12 aren't big enough for that. We talk about food and training, and before we know it, lunch is over.

As we get up to leave, Romulus stops me in front of the other careers to say, " Hey, that was pretty cool what you did with him. He's crazy," even Aurora nods.

Bella adds, "we're going to the swords area if you want to hang out with us, we could use someone your size," and she rubs my biceps.

I smile and blush a little when I look at Romulus, "thanks, uh maybe tomorrow, we're going to work on survival skills," and walk away.

Topaz laughs at her failed flirting skills, and she pushes him and walks away, and we leave them laughing. The rest of the afternoon goes quickly. We learned a lot from our father about fires and shelters. Ally does better on the edible food section, but at least I get it in the end. The one thing that we can't seem to get is more than basic snares and traps. I think I'll tell Michele to have us try it more tomorrow. They call us back to say good job overall think about the skills we picked up.

We leave with most of the lunch bunch (a name Ally gave us) and get off on the 10th floor, where a very excited Gloriana is waiting. I quickly realize that excited actually means anger..... "YOU WERE FIGHTING IN FRONT OF THE GAMEMAKERS!!!" She screeches.

"Titus was smelling her hair. I had to get him away from her!" I say quickly

"He was doing what?" Snaps Michele and Jackson's there looking serious, and I tell them what started the fight. "Do you think the game makers saw the whole thing?" She asks.

"Maybe I saw one of them looking at me as I was heading that way anyway, but who knows," I say.

Just then the elevator door opens, and that Haymitch guy and some other guy get off and wave Michele over. she rolls her eyes and walks over, Jackson tells us to shower and come back for dinner, and walks over to the group at the elevator. I shower and come back into the room; Ally's there already, a cute braid down the side like Lily's; Gloriana seems to have calmed down.

"What did they want? Are we still in trouble?" I ask.

"WE are not in trouble. YOU are," Ally corrects, and I roll my eyes.

Michele smirks but answers, " no, that was Daniel Bernhart from District 9, Haymitch talked to a Gamemaker friend to see if they saw what happened. You're not in trouble. They saw it."

"Soooooooooo what does that mean for Titus?"I ask.

Michele quickly says, "Nothing yet. Stay away from him and hope someone takes him out in the games for you. I guess that's Friday night's problem. Sit. Eat. Tell me what else happened today. Ally, go first."

I wonder if she is like this every year, but Ally starts talking, so I pay attention. "I can throw a knife and hatchet pretty well, I can't always hit the bullseye, BUT I can hit the target, so that's good. I should practice more tomorrow, and we learned some traps and edible foods."

Michele nods and turns to me, "your turn, kiddo,"

"I can throw a spear, I hit the moving targets every time in the end, and I was told to come back for more advanced sword fighting tomorrow, and the hand to hand combat was a breeze," I say with some pride.

"were you showing off or just accidentally good?" Alejandro asks quickly.

I turn to him with a confused look, "I don't know. I was good at them all to start; I just did them until I was better. Why?"

Michele is the one that answers, "you're a target in the games because of your size and story. You don't want 1 and 2 putting you higher on their list."

"Oh, Romulus, and I agreed not to go after each other until Titus is out. I should be ok right?" I say.

"When did you decide that?" Ally cuts in.

"In the makeover rooms when he made that weird pass at Lily. Jake, Romulus, and I agreed then....and the other careers agreed after what happened today, I say with a shrug.

"Ok, well, don't trust them too much, Kyle, but I'm glad you have a plan," Gloriana chimes in.

"Ok, tomorrow, Kyle, do swords ONLY if you run out of those things. Work with Ally on knives and hatchets. You can practice those too. Ally, are you ok trying those again?" She asks, and Ally nods.

"That should be fun," I smile, "maybe I show you the spears and stuff."

"Ok, and in the afternoon, do the edibles station again. You can't overdo that one, really, and work on the obstacle course. That should fill out the day. And tomorrow night, we'll figure out what to show the game makers for your assessment," says and turns back to her dinner. We nod and agree.

The rest of dinner continues with little drama outside of Gloriana praising Jackson and Michele on their sponsor meetings and Alejandro talking about our interview clothes' designs. He stopped by to talk to Portia and Felix.

He winks when he says you'll look amazing and I accidentally say out loud, "I'm going to just be completely naked, aren't I?"

this causes Gloriana to snort up wine, and Jackson does a literal spit take. I'm really proud of that moment until Ally adds, "no, you'll have a little bow tie too," and for the rest of dinner, we keep giggling.

After dinner, we go to the living room and talk. Jackson, Michele, and I explain to Gloriana how stockyards and dairy farms work, and she has hundreds of questions. It isn't until Ally starts to fall asleep that Michele sends us to bed.

As Ally walks off, I turn to Michele and say, "I'm going to the roof for a bit. It will help clear my head."

" ok, thanks for telling us. Don't stay up there too long, sweet dreams," Michele says. I tell Ally good night and head up.

I open the door, but I don't see anyone. I actually walk around this time and wonder if I'm too late or too early. It's not like I can go to the floor and talk to him.

I am heading back when the elevator opens, and he walks off, "Hey cutie," he says.

"Hi, I was worried you weren't coming. Did you get spoken to about Titus?" I ask.

"Yup, Brutus has a lot of thoughts, but I didn't tell him about our plan. I doubt he'd be on board." He shrugs.

I sit down and motion for him to come over. He sits down and leans in to kiss me and we make out for a couple of minutes. He pulls back and then looks out over the city.

"What's it like back in District 2?" I ask, "my father was born there, but he doesn't talk about it," I add.

"It's normal, I guess. Some people work in the mines. Some people train to be peacekeepers. My parents work in the fortress."

"What's that?" I ask.

"Oh, it's the Defense Center for Panem, a big underground building," he says with a smile. "What's your family like? I'm really curious seeing as you volunteered to go in for your sister," he asks.

"Well, I have two older brothers, Evan is 20 and Callum is 19," I tell him.

"Wow, 3 boys in three years, your mom's a champ," he laughs.

"Uhhh, my mom died a couple of years ago. Well, she ran away with my father's best friend, but they both went missing," I confess.

"Wow, I'm sorry. They never found her? Is District 10 that big?" He asks.

"It's big for sure but not that big, uhhhhh I made "friends" with a Peacekeeper for more information, and he said they just couldn't find them. They had no real leads, and they gave up," I'm tearing up a bit but go on, " whatever happened to her happened and I just have to survive now."

"So you had sex with the peacekeeper? How old were you?" He prods. "I was 15, almost 16. I didn't really care at that point, but I wish I hadn't now that I'm a little older. You're actually the second person I've told this too, so feel special," I joke.

He leans in and kisses me, "thanks for telling me. My parents wanted me to be a Peacekeeper if I didn't get picked for the games, but now we will see what happens," He yawns, "we should go to bed. We had a long day."

"Kiss me some more, and you've got a deal," I tease.

We do for a few minutes, and he walks me to the stairs and kisses me good night.

"I don't know if I can come tomorrow night, BUT I want to try. So hopefully, I can see you again," I say.

"Sweet dreams, handsome," he leans in and kisses me. I head downstairs, change in the dark, and crawl into bed. Only to find Ally there sleeping. I'm happy she still needs me. Maybe I'll show her the roof tomorrow after training. I drift off and have another dream about Jonah.
*****