Author's Note: This is the second version of this story. It's basically the same as the Teen version, with the exception of a few scenes that are mature. I wanted to write a story that would be accessible to a wide audience, but I also can't help myself when it comes to writing guilty pleasure scenes, so I compromised with myself and decided to make two versions of my story.
A flirtatious giggle, a flip of the hair – that's how she entrances them. Emerald watches on as her older sister, Glimmer, stands at the side of the room, talking to a couple of boys in year 13. I don't know how she does it. The look on her face is a mixture of envy and disgust, on one hand, she hates how easily ensnared men can be by her sister's smile, and on the other, she wishes she wielded that kind of power. "Emerald. You need to focus." Emerald snaps out of her daze, quickly looking back at her trainer. "Honestly, if you just put your mind to it, you'd be better than most of the others." She shakes her head, trying to clear her mind of her other thoughts, "you're right, sorry, Ivory." She narrows her eyes, holding up her spear, she thrusts it forward and watches as it makes contact with the target dummy situated 100 feet away from her. "Good," Ivory gives Emerald a supportive pat on the back, jogging over to the dummy to retrieve her spear from her.
As her trainer readies the next set of exercises, she lets her gaze wander back over to where Glimmer is standing. Only one boy remains now, the other one must have wandered off somewhere. This boy, she knows him, or at least she thinks she does. She recognizes his face somewhere but she can't place it. After a few minutes of searching the darkest recesses of her mind, she realizes why he looks so familiar: he's the son of Silk, the victor of the 54th games. His name's Marvel, or at least she thinks it is.
He's handsome, this Marvel boy, but in a strange way. His face isn't what she'd normally be attracted to, but there's something about the way he carries himself that draws her to him. Maybe it's the way he stands: shoulder's back, chin up. But he's wealthy, and cocky, and falling for someone in this district is dangerous – you never know when you'll be pitted against him or her. She allows herself a few more seconds of examining him before forcing herself to get back to her training. "Ivory!" Emerald calls over to her trainer, jogging over to where she's standing near the knives. Ivory's head snaps up, and she waits as Emerald closes the gap between them. "Why are we working with the knives? I thought you said we'd focus more on spears than knives?" Ivory shakes her head, polishing the pointed blade of a throwing knife. "No, you're already strong in spears, we need to work on your weakness." Emerald sighs, nodding in assent and following Ivory onto a mat where a few other dummies are set up with targets on them.
She practices throwing her knives for a half an hour before Ivory tells her it's time to go. She's glad for the reprieve; it's been a long day. She jogs over to the cubbies and grabs her duffel bag. She turns to look at Glimmer, who is still flirting with Marvel. Ugh. She knows that Glimmer's only getting close to him because he's a victor's son, and being a victor's son means that he's got the best accommodations in the district, save the mayor. It's not that her family was poor, far from it in fact, it's just that the life of a victor was so much more luxurious than that of a diamond cutters and a jeweler. She walks over to where they're standing near the entrance. "Glim," she calls out, hoping to alert her sister that it's time to go. Glimmer waves her hand, telling her to wait. She sighs, marching up to her, "Glim, we have to go." Glimmer just rolls her eyes, "Marvel, hold on a sec, I'm sorry," she turns to Emerald, "Emmie, calm down, just give me a few minutes." Emerald looks up and finds Marvel looking at her, an odd expression playing across her face. He shakes his head, "don't worry about it, I actually have to get back to the village." Glimmer's face lights up at that word – village – it's as if the mere mentioning of the fabulous part of the district Marvel lives in is enough to excite her.
As soon as Marvel is out of earshot, Glimmer turns to me, anger morphing her usually serene features. "You brat, I was obviously talking to him. You ruined everything!" Emerald rolls her eyes, "I highly doubt I ruined anything. Like you'll have a problem attracting him." She turns on her heels, ignoring her seething sister, and walks out of the training complex.
