"Hey! Noah!" Cautiously turning around, I was both surprised and confused to find Kane coming up behind me. "Hold the elevator, would you?"
                          
I did, and he boarded in with me, grinning his animal grin again. "Two, please." He knew all too well I had already hit the button. It was like he was rubbing it in that we were from the same district.
                          
"Make any friends today?" he asked casually.
                          
I had never pinned him as an elevator small talk kind of guy, so I replied grudgingly, "Not exactly."
                          
He nodded sympathically, though I was sure it was sarcastic. "I noticed. Sariel won't be very happy to hear it."
                          
"What about you?" I shot back, more bitter than I meant to. "Your smile doesn't exactly say come talk to me."
                          
He laughed, a cold hard laugh. "I see your point. Luckily, my goal isn't to make allies. Or impress Sariel, for that matter. I plan on winning the noble way, on my own."
                          
I was a little taken aback by his forwardness, and by the time I could string together a response, the elevator doors popped open. Kane exited, but said over his shoulder, "See you at dinner."
                          
I watched as he headed to his room, then made a point of sitting at the table now just to avoid him later.
                          
Angeline, Sariel and Varina were all gathered around the table. The ladies smiled at me as took a seat, but Sariel only raises his eyebrows, as if asking a question. At first, I thought it was about Kane. Instead, he said, "Allies?"
                          
"None yet, but that wasn't my fault," I told him.
                          
He only rolled his eyes. "You're representing District Two. You could be a Career if you really tried."
                          
"But I'm not a Career! I'm not as good as the others. If I join them, they'll easily kill me off when they get tired. I need a different plan than that," I argued. I saw the others start to look uncomfortable, but Sariel only stood up.
                          
"Even you can't do this alone. Maybe Kane's going to try it, but you can't pull it off. I don't care if you don't like One, you need allies from somewhere. Pick a few strong people who can see that you're not all bad and go with them."
                          
"Maybe I am just all bad," I muttered as I pulled together a plate of food. Sariel returned to his chair, and Angeline smiled.
                          
"Sweetie, come on. You can't believe that," she said in her fake sweet voice.
                          
"I'll have to if I want to make it in these games." I could've continued, told them how everyone else was dangerous and mean and I was just weak and alone, but I didn't want any of them to hear that. Instead, I plowed down forkfuls of meat and potatoes. I could feel Sariel's stare, but I didn't look at him.
                          
I rushed off as soon as dinner ended. I nearly ran straight into Kane on the way there. I thought I saw a look of satisfaction on his face as I tried to rush into my room. Behind me, I heard him say, "Guess I'll miss you at dinner then. And by the way, I warned you about Sariel."
                          
In the comfort of my room, I changed and rewatched the chariot footage from the night before in an attempt to pound Kane's words out of my mind. Why couldn't I be like him, and not care what Sariel thought? I was so used to not caring. What happened?
                          
As the chariot footage started, I quickly recognized everyone I saw today and managed to figure out who was with who. One seemed to be branching out to other non-career districts, leaving me in the dust. It was hard to tell who had allies and who didn't, or even who would be strong.
                          
I gave up when I heard a tapping on the door. "What?" I grumbled.
                          
Sariel let himself in. "We need to talk about today," he said, all business. Nothing like last night. Was that why I was in such a bad mood?