Scarlet Lisicki (D9)

These kids just don't know who they are dealing with. Just looking at them bores me. None of them have strategies. You can tell. What, do these people think that we don't have to kill each other? Do they think we will all live? Whatever they think, they are wrong. I am going to win. These losers don't stand a chance.

Almost everyone is sitting around the largest picnic table in the training center and eating lunch. How sweet. How stupid. How perfect for me. Let them all grow attached to one another with talk of home. Let them all make friends and spill thier life stories. Let them grow soft. Then, they will be easier to kill when the time finally comes.

I'm not heartless, and I'm not a crazy, axe murderer. But, since I'm here, I'm going to win.

I flirt with the two boys I'm sitting in the middle of, Trafford from One and Carnick from Two. Trafford is mainly eating his food and not paying much attention to me. I'm so his loss. Carnick is flirting back, but he keeps looking at some girl older than me at the far end who's sitting with some of the younger tributes. And I've seen that look on a guys face before. All the boys back home look like that at me when they are crushing on me. Ah well, I don't need Carnick either.

Let's see, what other guys are there? Trafford and Carnick from the first two districts are out of my alliance, and the boy from three, Kyle, was totally uninterested when I flirted with him. I haven't even approached Bruce from four. He is obviously taken, although it would be easy to take him away from his girlfriend, I'm so sure I'm better than she is. But I need to concentrate. I'll save that type of fun for when I go home.

Then there is Brute One from Five. Tyler. Not even going there. There he is sitting on his picnic table watching us again. Creep. The boys from Six and Seven, David and Linton, are too young for me to waste my energy on. The other Kyle from Eight is a sweetheart. Very fun to flirt with, and I hardly doubt that he would stab me in the back. I'm still in the air about him. His district is so iffy. I mean, what do they teach you about fighting or the wilderness in District Eight?

Of course, there is my District partner, Brute Two, Tory. Again, I'm so not going there. There is also the sarcastic cutie from District Ten, who brought his sister with him. I might go there, despite his lovely personality, but he could be more concerned for his sister than me, so I'm not wasting my time. The boy from Eleven is Indigo, but I'm not going there either. I heard his District partner Fawn telling the girl from Five, that she heard Indigo mumbling in his sleep about his girlfriend being pregnant. Boys. Haven't they ever heard of condoms?

That leaves Brett from Twelve. What a catch. Strong, handsome, and smart enough to out talk that referee dude. Oh, if only there was a guy like him back home. He's totally perfect. I guess I'll just keep him for fantasy land. I can't align with him after all, since I'm sure he'll be a target of the Capital. His mouth is too smart for my own good.

So, the only guy I may be able to align with is Kyle from Eight, and he hasn't gone near the weapons at all. I have no idea what his strengths and weaknesses are. Ugh. Not knowing is hurting my brilliant plan.

I suppose I'll just have to stick with my original plan, the Black Widow alliance. Or should I call it the Amazon alliance? It will be a power house alliance of girls only that will rip apart the competition in style. Our mission, take out as many tributes as possible, especially Brutes One and Two. I'm holding out hope that they will take each other out, but that is unlikely. Instead, my alliance will take them out. And when the time comes, I will kill what is left of my alliance.

Let's see, what are the girl tributes like? I've socialized with most of them, picking up some information about each of them. Cassia from One has a strong chance of getting in my alliance. She looks like a smaller version of me, though her hair is a duller brown than mine. Mine is a vibrant and beautiful brown that has a red sheen through it. Cassia is small and fourteen, has a sassy personality, like myself, and has been trained. I saw her twirling and throwing a spear taller than her small form, and it was quite a show. Her height would be brilliant for getting into small areas, and no one would think I would align with a fourteen year old.

Another strong alliance member would be Orinda. What a pretty name. We've already hit it off. We have a lot of the same interests and hobbies, and she is totally friendly and easy to talk too. She hates her district partner, Carnick, which is a plus. I know she would have no problem at all killing him. Other pluses about her is that she is keeping with a profile similar to mine, the shallow type that no one thinks will last a day, but I've seen her eyeing those weapons eagerly. She'll be easy to align with, even if she will be difficult to kill.

Ellie from Three is a brat. Me, me, me, me, me, me, my life sucks, me, me, me. That is how our one and only conversation went. She'll probably die quickly. The girl from Four won't last long either. And she's aligned with her hunk of a boyfriend. I hate her already. There is the girl from Five, but I can see no rhyme or reason to align with that shrimp. I can't remember who the girl from Six is. I think her name is Alina. The girl from Seven probably won't last too long either. I heard her District partner Linton telling David from Six that she threw up after she got off the elevator. I'm not aligning with the weak.

Lydia from Eight I can see myself aligning with. She seems totally focused on the task at hand; getting to know the enemy as much as possible without making it totally obvious that she is secretly learning their strengths and weaknesses. I need to find out more about her though, because I have no clue what she can do weapon wise, and weapons are crucial. Why does she have to be from Eight? Once I win, I must make a point of visiting District Eight and find out what they do there.

Amarathe from Ten, Yarrow's sister is way too smart and quiet to do me any good. I don't trust her a bit. I'm sure she is a nice girl, but she's competition, and I don't trust her to align with her. It'll be interesting though to see how she and her brother turn out in the games. I wonder who will kill who.

The last two tributes are Fawn and Bambi. Awwww. Both are deer names! I feel like they should be in an old Disney movie. What a joke. Those two are out as allies. Fawn seemed pretty tight with the girl from Five, and aligning with the one and only twelve year old is suicide.

By the time I've finished my mental evaluation of all the tributes, lunch is over, and I have my alliance. Well, in my head I have them, at least two, but I have to get them to agree to the arrangement, and I can't be totally obvious about it.

I approach Orinda first, since she will likely be my second in command, though I'm going to let her think she is in charge. All day, she has been working on snares and plant identification, so she finally decided to try out the weapons. Excellent, even if quite a few people are around. Of course, two of those people are Brutes One and Two, trying to show off again, while wrestling their assistants. Trafford and Carnick are over by the swords and other large weapons.

Orinda is throwing daggers all by her lonesome. Time for some company I'd say. I flit my way over to her and prepare to work my magic.

"Hey girl," I say at a normal tone as I lean next to the stand holding various sharp objects. Orinda threw a small knife at the nearest target and barely got it to stick. It was so obvious that it was done on purpose.

"Nothing much, just trying to learn how to throw daggers," she told me nonchalantly.

"Ooh, let me try," I pick up the pointiest one and throw it at the same target she did. I make a big show of aiming and wincing before throwing, landing exactly opposite of her knife.

"We have a lot of practicing to do I see," she says dejectedly, because to the untrained eye, we both had poor throws. Orinda gives me a knowing smile before throwing another knife, this time missing by a long shot.

I look around a little bit to make sure no one's around.

"So, do you want to be allies," I say in a normal tone.

"I don't know, I supposed to be allied with Carnick," she tells me. She flips her hair and looks back over her shoulder at him. "Although, I think I could hit the bulls eye allied with you."

She turns around and throws the knife I didn't see in her hand straight for the farthest target in the smack middle. We both look around and see that no one noticed. Orinda gives the instructor of the booth a menacing gaze before he can give her praise.

"Who else," she says.

"No one yet," I tell her, "I wanted to be sure we would have one another's backs."

"Yes," Orinda makes another knife miss, "that would be smart, to have someone I trust fully. We do need at least one other person though, if we stand a chance against the Terrible T's."

"I call them Brutes One and Two. But why not get two more allies, that way we have an extra person to spare when we have to battle them."

"Who though. The only one I can think off immediately is Cassia. This will be really important, don't you think? I really don't see the potential for any other huge alliance." Orinda thinks a while, and then says to me questioningly, "Amarathe, maybe? I've seen her eyeing the bow and arrows."

"She's too smart," I say quickly. "I was thinking Lydia, but I have no idea what weapons she can use."

"I like Lydia," she throws another knife, "I have no clue what weapons she can use, either, but I saw her doing an awesome job at the healing station. She was stitching up a dummy with a huge gash."

That doesn't help. Of course she would know how to sew. She's from the freaking sewing District. It's really starting to scare me that I have no clue who Lydia is. Surely she's not that smart. Sure she's smart enough to keep her mouth shut, but she can't be as smart as me. She can't.

I'm about to say, maybe not, but Orinda says, "Yeah, Lydia would be great. She could heal us and be the perfect pawn."

"Great," I hope my voice has the right amount of enthusiasm.

"So," Orinda tells me, "I'll go get Lydia, and you'll get Cassia."

Damn, this girl keeps beating me to my line. I wanted to talk to Lydia. I still don't know who she is.

"Great," I say before turning around. "Oh, and by the way," I lower my voice, "I'm sure I'm a far better shot than Amarathe." And I sashay away.

Okay, that probably could have gone better, but at least Orinda thinks she's in charge. That was one of the main things I was aiming for.

I go over to the plant identification station to kill some time. Gosh, it's so boring over here. The instructor keeps waving plants in my face and telling me how dangerous it is. Whatever. I suppose I should try to pay more attention, but since Lydia is so smart, I'm sure she'll figure out which plant is inedible for me.

About an hour after my talk with Orinda, plus some flirtation with the HOT instructor boy scout like guy at the knot tying station, I make my way over to Cassia. Almost everyone is learning how to swim, which works for me. Cassia is by the animal gutting station. Yuck.

She has her hand in the stomach of a nasty bloody raccoon. EW! Despite living in the hunting district, gutting and cleaning animals has always been my least favorite task. It's just so gross.

"That looks like loads of fun," I tell her.

"You should know," Cassia replies, while she digs her fingers in the bloody mess of a raccoon. The instructor starts talking about the anatomy, and which parts you can eat, but Cassia isn't paying much attention. She's having too much fun with the raccoon. She pulls out the heart, lays it on the table, gives me a funny grin, and then stabs it with a knife.

"I keep seeing you and Orinda talking, Scarlet," Cassia tells me.

"Well, I don't suppose you would be interested in an," I trail off. The boy from Six, David, is far too close to us. At the station next to us, the trap setting station, he is working intently in his net trap. Too intently.

Cassia slides her snake-like green eyes over her shoulder and notices him as well. David has his back to us, but he has gone really still. Cassia grips the knife, and her knuckles start to turn white. I knew I was making a good choice with this girl. She's a total killer.

"A conversation as well," I finish off.

Cassia turns her attention to the raccoon again, and dips her fingers in the blood. We start talking of home, as I dip my fingers in the nasty blood as well. On the wood next to the raccoon, I write the word, "Alliance."

Cassia writes "Yes," before using the raccoon to wipe away the evidence. I end the conversation, and go to flirt and make myself look shallow some more.

As the bell signifies the end of the first Training day, I catch Lydia's eye, and she gives me a smile. Orinda, at my side talking about her boyfriend, gives me a conspicuous nudge. Everything is in place. I have the perfect, powerhouse alliance. These Games are mine.

I just know I'm the smartest person here.

Okay, okay, yes, I know I hit major writer's block and you haven't heard from me in a while. Hopefully, that is over.

I hoped you enjoyed the chapter. It was fun to write about someone who is completely focused on the Game like Scarlet. And yes, Survivor fans, I modeled her alliance like Parvati's Black Widow alliance in Survivor Fans v. Favorites.

Guess what, this fic has been nominated for the Summer 2010 Hunger Games Fanfiction Awards category "Best Submit-You-Own-Character Story". Yeah, I was shocked. It also cured me of my writer's block.

Anyway, please review! (And I have a plan for when the characters get their chapters, so don't review just to ask me when your character get's a chapter.)