Throwing the Dice

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to Suzanne Collins.

We have the day off school to watch the kick-off for the 74th Hunger Games. Arcturus greets me and Jo outside the London Underground, excited about the odds. He waves his data pad at me and says, "Here, check it out. Twenty to one on the star-crossed lovers, and six to one on that cute chick you two sponsored. Personally, I just wanna see some action going on."

I'm in my clubbing outfit: light blue silk flared pants, and a shiny purple shirt that's not buttoned up. Just a couple of weeks ago I had a purple dragon tattooed across my stomach and wrapping around my back. It matches Jo's eyes, too. She's in a teal green skintight dress which is held up over one shoulder; the other is bare. She's dyed her hair purple, as well. My hair's got bright silver highlights, purposely designed so I don't look old, but rather, exotic.

We head down the stairs into the club. It's 9:30 in the morning and the place is already just about packed. Every screen in the club has just finished showing recaps of the interviews, lingering on the confession made by the guy from District 12. Peeta Bread, or something. There's some pounding music from a commercial now, and the crowd's babbling is a low roar. You practically have to shout to be heard.

After we download the betting app to our mobile phones, we jostle our way through the crowd to some of our school friends, who have congregated in one of the corners to get a good view of the large television mounted a few meters away on one of the columns. I spot Leander and nod as he grins, high-fiving Arcturus. I notice Leander's girlfriend Destiny and she smiles at us, beckoning us closer. She squeals, "I can't wait! Bet on anybody yet?"

Jo's a bit closer, so she leans forward and bellows, "No, we just sponsored Glimmer!" Destiny marvels at my new dragon, and rubs my stomach to feel the tattoo. Leander's hand just happens to knock Destiny's aside when he feels my tattoo as well.

After Leander's quit rubbing my stomach tattoo, I notice the wall's just behind me, and that Fabricius is just moving off from the table near the wall. I snag his shoulder to ask where he's headed. Into my ear, he says loudly, "Gonna get some drinks. Want one?"

"Sure! Get me and Jo a Swirl Slice each, okay? I'll pay you back."

He nods and moves off through the crowd to the bar. Meanwhile, I lean against the wall, then reach forward to snag Jo's hips. She moves back and leans against me, letting me encircle her waist with my hands. She turns her head to look at me, gestures me forward, and plants a sloppy kiss on my mouth. I adjust my head to better return her kiss. Before my hand can trail up her stomach too far, she breaks the kiss and lightly slaps my hand. "Don't get too excited, Ace!" she barks into my ear.

We both just turned fifteen recently, so it's a little hard to remember that we're in public. Even as I belatedly remember this, I complain, "But Jo, you're so hot, you know that?"

She laughs and gets more comfortable, leaning against me; I can feel the smooth fabric of her dress against my skin. She's just the right height for me to put my chin on her shoulder and watch the television, which is now recapping the bloodbath highlights from previous games. In one, a muscular blond-haired tribute is using a flail and a mace to cut down his opponent, while back to back with him is a grim-faced black-haired girl wielding a sword with devastating effectiveness.

Fabricius Dumont is back with the drinks and I greedily gulp from my glass as I see rapid-fire snippets of the bloodbath from the 60th Hunger Games. Then they change to the 65th Games, and a roar goes up through the club shaking the walls as Finnick Odair, his jaw firmly set, slashes with a spear at a tall guy trying to swing his ax at Finnick.

Destiny squeals in excitement as the camera lingers on Finnick's bloodbath, and I can hear her over the crowd as she yells, "Anything for one night with that guy!"

Jo's shaking in mirth as she tries not to drop her drink, because Leander's looking a little put out. His expression brightens up when Destiny says something into his ear, though. I wonder what in Panem she told him to save herself from having to deal with his annoyance for the rest of the day.

Arcturus helps it along by bellowing, "Me too, Destiny!"

Now it's my turn to nearly die laughing. Arct's so weird sometimes. That reminds me. "Hey, Jo?"

"Yeah?"

"We could still put bets down on someone; Mom dumped a bunch of money in my account. What about your parents?"

She shrugs, jostling my chin. "I got enough! Let's wait and see what happens, though."

A crescendo of music swells over the speakers as an announcer barks, "Update! Viewers of Panem, we have just confirmed that the first tribute has been taken by hovercraft to the arena! Watch our hover-cam's video feed!"

There's a slightly blurry image of the blond-haired girl getting into a hovercraft. Jo and I cheer in anticipation, raising our drinks and then drinking simultaneously. I accidentally spill some vodka-laced liquid on Jo's bare shoulder. Emboldened, I lick it off, garnering a grin from her. She says, "I might start wondering what else you plan to do with that tongue, Ace!"

I smirk at her as I lift my eyebrows. This is the first time we've been together for a Games, but it seems like something in the almost-electric air of the club is starting to let our inhibitions down a bit. Not that I mind, it's way more fun to see a bloodbath with friends than with just my mom.

The noise in the club dies down and the anticipation becomes almost physically painful as tribute after tribute is taken from the Training Center to the Arena. In between updates, we're treated to some reviews of past arenas, telling us which Hunger Games the special features occurred in: a lush field of wheat in the center of a desert; a beautiful still lake not far from a thick jungle; an innocuous-looking forest of trees, except there's some tracker jacker nests in the trees, which the camera lingers on. A shudder goes through me as I remember what happened to some of the kids from the 72nd Games who accidentally knocked one out of a low-hanging tree. Jo lightly grasps my leg, saying, "You okay?"

I ignore the rest of the snippets as I reply nonchalantly, "Yeah. M'okay now. Just the drink getting to me a bit, I think."

She pats my leg, letting me know she'll have it out of me at home tonight, but will let that excuse pass for now.

The club momentarily goes dark as the television screens all go blank, then numbers begin to flash: thirty seconds until we see the new arena.

I clutch Jo to me a little tighter as I gulp the last of my drink and set it on the little table just a meter away. She finishes a moment later and hands me the glass to get rid of, which I quickly do.

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! THREE! TWO! ONE! NOW!"

The club breaks into roars of applause as the camera view splits into two: on the left, we're at eye level with a tribute who's in the Launch Room, rising up to Cornucopia level. On the right, we quickly swoop across the arena; I spot trees, a lake, a wheat field. I spot what looks like a moving log in the wheat field before the overhead view steadies over the Cornucopia as the tribute's-eye view lets us see what a tribute would see.

Claudius Templesmith's voice booms out over the speakers as we hear, "Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"

Arcturus bellows, "Fifty on someone dying within ten seconds after the gong!"

A few people rush up to him with their phones, betting apps open, and they quickly enter the terms of the bet as I see the numeric countdown drop from 0:50 to 0:49.

Jo shifts to look at me questioningly. I say, "Wanna bet now, huh?"

She grins. "Let's wait till after the first minute."

We return to watching as the timer sweeps below 20 seconds. The tributes are beginning to shuffle on their plates, some nervously looking around, others intently eyeballing one thing. From the tribute's eye view I can see the Girl on Fire keenly eyeing something on a blanket. It seems vaguely like a bow and arrow, which makes me wonder why she would want it.

That thought vanishes as the gong reverberates through the club, and everybody's voices erupt into a roar as the overhead view shows a number of tributes rushing to the bounty at the base of the Cornucopia for weapons and supplies. The tribute-level view pulls back to let us see the people battling each other.

Anxiously, I look for the blond-haired girl, but what we see first is the brutal black-haired boy from District Two plunging a sword into another tribute's chest, causing the KILLS number at the bottom of the screen to change from 0 to 1 at the nine-second mark. I see Arcturus clench his fist in triumph.

Jo and I spot Glimmer, the blonde we sponsored, battling with the girl who I think is from Three. After some thrusts and parries, Glimmer's expert skill with a wicked-looking knife against the inexperienced girl trying to use a metal staff wins out, as she quickly slides the knife in and out of the other girl's side, then slashes across the girl's neck, notching the KILLS from 1 to 2.

Jo yells, "Yes!" and lifts her hand for a high-five, which I return. "Okay, Ace, let's bet Arcturus Glimmer can kill two more people before the bloodbath is over." The timer is showing that five minutes have elapsed, telling us that the battle is now a matter of skill and time between the Districts 1, 2 plus 4 pack and the remainder.

We see Clove, the girl from Two, fling a knife into the back of another tribute fighting with the Girl on Fire; she takes off as though a fire were at her heels as the KILLS notches up to 3. Satisfaction crosses her face as she flings another knife, only for anger to replace it as the KILLS stays steady at 3; a quick shot of the Girl on Fire shows the knife has lodged in her backpack.

The camera view changes again, as Glimmer rushes up to a tall girl who I think is from Six or Seven and goes toe to toe with her, first backhanding the girl across the face, then bringing her knife up. The opposing girl leaps, struggling with Glimmer, clumsily grabbing onto her neck with one hand and Glimmer's wrist with the other.

Meanwhile, I bellow, "Hey! Arct! Come here, will ya?"

Arcturus is just with the guy who's handing over his universal ID with ill-grace for Arcturus to finalize the transaction. Once that's finished, he comes over and high-fives us both. He says, "Picked up a cool two-fifty on that bet; five to one against, and I could kiss that stud from Two for it!"

Jo banters back, "You can fantasize another time; we want to bet you Glimmer will kill two more tributes before the bloodbath is out."

Arct quickly turns back to look at the screen, noticing Glimmer still struggling with the other tribute. He says, "You're on. How much?"

Jo looks at me. I say, "Fifty each okay with you?"

She nods and reaches into the little pouch attached to the side of her dress, while I fish my wallet and phone out of my pocket. Arcturus says, "Ok, so she kills two, I pay you guys a hundred. She doesn't kill two, I get the hundred from the pair of you. Are we on?"

I grab Arct's shoulder briefly and say, "It's a sucker bet, dude. She's got it going on, you know!"

Jo's just swiped her card through her phone as she enters the bet and sends the money into an escrow account. After hearing me, she tries to stifle a laugh. She turns to me and sardonically says into my ear, "More like she's got it going on in your pants, Ace!"

I've got my own phone out, but I don't enter anything yet as I say in an injured tone, "Jo, c'mon. You know nobody could compare to you, right?"

Jo says, "You just keep remembering that." Jo then wiggles her bum against me, making my mouth go dry as I hurriedly busy myself with finalizing the bet terms and the escrow deposit. After that, I decide to get a little of my own back by running my hand up her thigh, then grabbing her butt before sliding my hand back up to her waist.

Arcturus lazily leans against the table we had deposited our drinks on earlier, and we watch as the District Four boy - I think his name is Julius - wields his serrated knife effortlessly, battling against a tall guy who's wielding an ax. That must be District Seven, then. Anxiously, we watch, hearing the clanging of metal as knife and ax clash repeatedly. The boy from Seven won't die easily, it seems. The overhead view shows us that Glimmer has managed to get on top of the girl she's fighting against, but can't use her knife. We can also see Glimmer's got her hand around the girl's neck and is squeezing for all she's worth.

Arcturus snags Fabricius, who's been chatting with Leander a meter away from us. He shouts loudly, "Twenty says the guy from Four will kill the other guy in five minutes."

Fabricius nods, and as they quickly key the terms of the bet, I see the tribute's eye view change to the different people fighting, showing the names and districts of people fighting. Marvel is battling the guy from District 8, both wielding wicked-looking sharp knives. Cato's malicious grin sets Jo's heart beating a little faster as we see him swishing his sword at the boy from District 6, nearly decapitating him. The yells of disappointment fill the club as the view shows the guy from 6 lunging towards Cato again, hoping to get his weapon in close, which appears to be a stick with sharp nails poking out of the end.

The girl from Four - Varia, the TV notes - is battling the girl from 6 in hand-to-hand combat. They're trading punches and kicks with impressive swiftness, and I wonder briefly if I should take a long-shot bet on the girl from Six winning that fight. I've seen people die from hand-to-hand before: the usual method is for a strong tribute to aim a crushing blow directly at the other person's chest, or to inflict a major head injury.

Clove, from Two, is wielding two knives at once as she battles the girl from District 9. The latter looks terrified as she tries to dodge; her back is to the Cornucopia and she has no weapons. Clove slashes both knives across where the girl's neck would have been, except she trips backward and falls onto her butt on the ground near the large golden horn.

The camera moves in for a close-up as the black-haired, muscular District 2 girl leaps onto the other tribute, grabbing a fistful of her hair. Clove spits in her face, then grabs her knife and twirls it in her hand, grinning maliciously. The other girl's struggles abruptly cease as Clove shoves her knife into the girl's heart. The club explodes in roars and cheers. Fabricius bellows something about wanting to sponsor her, because she knows how to give a good show. The KILLS notches up again to 4.

It's now been half an hour, amazingly, and the camera now switches to Julius battling the boy from Seven, who's got a cut on his neck and is bleeding. Julius, in turn, has a slice across his arm that's dripping some blood, too. They're now both sweaty, eyeing each other intently as they try to seize some kind of advantage. Abruptly, the KILLS notches up to 5 and surprise rushes around the club. My hands tighten around Jo as we watch the overhead view switch to a recap: we see Glimmer, her stonelike face glaring down at the girl from Seven as she strangles her to death. We know the death happens when the girl gives a final choke, coughing out some blood and saliva, then lies still.

The overhead view comes back, and we excitedly see Glimmer's hair swishing this way and that as she looks for a fight to join. Meanwhile, the tribute-level view shows us Varia, who's been in hand-to-hand, finally gaining the advantage as she backs the girl from Six up against the Cornucopia wall. Arcturus bellows, "C'mon! Get her!"

Varia doesn't disappoint as she launches a swift kick into the girl's stomach, causing her to double over. Varia smashes her fist twice into the girl's ribs, then knees her in the stomach, and kicks her in the chest for the final blow. The KILLS ratchets up to 6, and we know we're in the final stretch now. There's not many tributes fighting, and Jo's starting to hop in excitement as she sees Glimmer and Marvel double-teaming against the boys from 8 and 9.

Cato's next kill comes quickly, as we see him feint with his sword, causing the boy from 6 to be distracted, letting him smash a punch into his opponent's ribs. A second later, his sword thrusts through the boy's stomach, but he doesn't quite die yet. After the boy collapses, bleeding heavily, Cato thrusts his sword one more time into the boy's chest, this time causing the KILLS to go up to 7.

Fabricius grabs my shoulder and says, "wanna make a quick bet?"

I bellow back, "Sure! How 'bout I pay you seventy-five if both those tributes from One make separate kills, but if one of them kills both, you pay me seventy-five?"

He nods eagerly, and there's my chance to make good my loss if I have to give up to Arcturus. Before he can change his mind, I quickly settle the terms with him, then get a really good idea. I murmur into Jo's ear, "Make him bet you that the guy from Seven will win."

Jo turns her full smile onto Fabricius, and amusingly, even though I've just made a bet with him, Fabricius seems just dazzled enough (I may be biased, but Jo's hot) to make a bet for seventy-five he wins if Seven wins.

Glimmer's fighting well against the boy from 8, who's got his knife still, and somewhere along the way he's got a similar weapon to the guy from 6. I wonder if maybe he picked it up to help the guy from Nine. He swings his weapon overhead at Glimmer, who leaps back, tries to get her footing, but has to step back a half meter to get back into a good fighting stance. But before the guy from Eight can press that advantage, Marvel's already yanking his knife out from the body of the guy from Nine, and plunging it swiftly into the remaining boy's side. The look of shock on the boy's face is so comical I'm giggling, and Jo's shaking in laughter. Arct nudges me, and mockingly imitates the look as he pretends to almost fall to the floor of the club.

The KILLS number goes up to 9. I smirk at Fabricius and say, "Pay up!"

He scowls and says, "Wait until the last fight, damn it!"

I shrug and press a quick kiss to Jo's neck, sneaking a peek down her dress before looking back up at the television screen.

The clash and clang of weaponry is now audible, as the other tributes are cooling off, waiting for the final outcome of the battle with the guy from Seven. The overhead view slides off the screen, giving us the full perspective now of the two tributes still going at it hammer and tongs.

The Seven boy seems to be winded, though, and is visibly laboring to keep his ax up to stave off Julius's attacks. Finally, though, as the clock ticks over the 45 minute mark, the ax slips in the boy's sweaty hands, and it flies out of his grip as he tries to swing it. His eyes widen and his jaw drops in shock, but before he can react, Julius grins maliciously as he lunges in for the kill, purposely making sure his knife wreaks havoc on the other boy's insides before yanking it out, causing blood to gush from the District 7 boy's stomach as he collapses to the ground.

The KILLS goes up to 10, and the ragged cheers from the tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4 accompany the more boisterous cheers from the club. As the tributes settle down to the work of collecting weapons and moving away from the bodies, Julius's head suddenly snaps up and he squints, then runs off. He bellows, "Nobody come after me! I got Lover Boy!"

But "Lover Boy", who the camera reveals is indeed the blond-haired guy from District Twelve, is already moving back into the forest, not wanting to give Julius too easy of a target. Excitedly, I lean in for a kiss and amid the lower volume of people settling bets and getting ready for the next stage of today's Games, I tell Jo, "Good bloodbath, huh?"

She kisses me back and says, "Mm-hmm. Let's settle our bets, too." She sweetly says, "Fabricius? Time to settle with you."

Fabricius grudgingly pays over his money to Jo and me, collects his from Arcturus, and then his jaw drops as we pay Arcturus. He scowls and sputters, "You used me to cover your bet with him!"

Arct, Jo and I all start laughing uproariously. Arct says, "Hey, look, it's all fun, okay, Fab? C'mon. I'll give you some SPX for free next party, 'kay? We were gonna hit Icicle tonight, remember?"

Grudgingly, Fabricius nods and moves off to stand near Leander. I can't blame him for not wanting to be around us right now.

Anyway, Julius has just caught up with Peeta Mellark, the television informs us, and Julius is smirking as he moves in for what appears to be a pretty easy kill, even though he's up against a muscular, unarmed guy about his age.

I think, it's going to be a great 74th Hunger Games.

Author Notes: Thanks go to SkyWriter9 for betaing this for me! :) I also want to note that name of the District Four girl tribute is borrowed from caisha702, the club "Icicle" from grand admiral chelli, and the set-up of the battle between Peeta and Julius is inspired by the fic Through Another's Eyes by -Lost In The Stars-, as well as the name of the District Four boy tribute.