I stare out at my surroundings in the arena and survey the supplies from the Cornucopia that I want to take. As the clock ticks down to five seconds, I drop into a runner's stance and prepare myself for the oncoming challenge of trying to sprint and fight off the other competitors. Suddenly, a noise disrupts my thoughts, as the clock has run out and I sprint towards the Cornucopia and snatch my pack, and run away into the forest.
...At least that's how it SHOULD have gone, if I wasn't such a terrible klutz. Instead, I take two steps off the platform I'm standing on and collapse from fear, which is typical. I curse my clumsiness as I try to stand up and run away when I'm suddenly side tackled by someone.
Great, I think. I guess I'm getting an early death.
But I'm not dead and when I arise and catch my breath I see Peeta standing over me, looking exasperated. "Are you really that stupid?" he screams at me. "You almost stepped on a landmine and got us both killed! Now let's go!"
"We need supplies, you idiot!" I yell as I yank myself out of his grasp and run towards the Cornucopia, towards the bow and quiver as well as a pack I see in the pile. I reach out and grab them, narrowly missing half a dozen attacks as the tributes fight each other, and jump off the pile, which was a huge mistake because I land wrong and I know I've probably sprained my ankle. But Peeta is here once again and he takes the pack, and we run off into the forest.
The Game makers start us off early with a round of asteroids raining down and I can barely see through all of the fire. Immediately almost all of the cannons go off, which is great because know I may actually live through this. Suddenly, Glimmer appears on my right, with an axe raised in her hand. I am so terrified all I can do is scream, which is when I got distracted and didn't see that there was a trap ahead of me and Peeta. In a moment, we are being pulled up by a net into a tree, barely missing the flying axe Glimmer has thrown. Luckily, Peeta has grabbed a knife from the Cornucopia and we cut our way through the net (which led to an ungraceful fall, as usual) and fall a good twenty feet onto Glimmer, accidentally crushing her as a cannon goes off. As we take off, we're met by two more tributes in front of us who throw spears at us. We try to dodge them by switching our run path but instead we slip and slide right into our opponents, knocking the wind out of them and giving us enough time to truly escape into the forest where we find a spot to set up for the night.
Peeta and I have stayed mostly silent as we set up camp, and I contemplate how to play our romance off as real. He's not very attractive and I'm pretty sure he's a little stupid but since I hate silence and I've never been good with words the best I can come up with is,
"Do you want to make out?" at the same time that Peeta says "So, you're pretty close with Gale right? And you're Prim's sister?"
Embarrassed by my little outburst, I nod and continue. "Yeah, Gale's kind of my best friend, I guess. He's a little stupid though and all he does is talk about revolutions and his abs, you know the usual stupid guy things. And Prim, well I love her to death, but she can be kind of a bitch sometimes you know? I mean just because she's hot doesn't mean she can get whatever she wants and get with whoever she wants." I turn my focus back to the tents I've been working on to hide annoyance.
At this statement Peeta looks up with surprised interest. "Wow," he says as he turns his attention from the fire he's been working on. "She sleeps around a bit huh? And how old is she?"
"Fourteen," I say absentmindedly, as I stacks logs into a shelter of sorts.
"Not too old then," I hear Peeta mumble and is that confidence I hear in his voice?
"Excuse me?" I say as I drop what I'm doing and turn towards him, ready to fight. He stands with his hands raised in a surrender. "I just mean that she's old enough to do that sort of thing right? At least she's not a ten-year-old running around with everyone, you know what I mean?" I think about it for a minute, and I suppose is does make sense and I feel bad for turning on him when he just cared about the well-being of my sister so I ask, "Well, tell me about your friends and family. I bet they are way more interesting than mine."
Turns out, they aren't. I'm so bored half-way through that I have to go entertain myself by killing a rabbit. He continues anyways, without seeing my annoyance. His life, for the most part, is extremely boring, but I play it off as if I'm interested. I feel like we've made some progress afterwards so I lean in for a kiss, and as he leans in, I know we have our spot secured as one of the favorites, although when I pull away he seems to have a disgusted look on his face which I don't understand why, but I don't ask questions.
As night surrounds us, we wait for the death toll to be put up. I have been so preoccupied with my plan to survive, I haven't paid much attention to the cannons going off. When we look up to see the tally, we see that half of our competitors have been taken out, which is unsurprising, because you know, the asteroids obviously. Suddenly, the voice of the head game maker, Seneca Crane, fills the arena. "Tributes!" he begins with fake cheerfulness, "Since these games are going so quickly, and we are all so upset to see them come to an end so soon, we've decided to add some participants! So without further ado, here is the list and happy Hunger Games!" Immediately, the death toll disappears and is replaced by a list of names. I scan it quickly and see that Prim has been added.
As soon as I see her name on the list, I take off running and go face first into a giant spider, which will definitely not look good on camera but whatever. I'm running and screaming, trying to find her. Peeta, who didn't have anyone on the list, has followed me. After what seems like forever, which was actually twenty minutes of running into trees and contracting poison ivy, I see her, her vague, petite form running frantically in the darkness. "Prim!" I scream, "Come this way!"
"In case you forgot, your hair is dark and it's the middle of the night, dumbass! I can't freaking see!" she yells back at me in the distance.
Always a brat in the worst of moments, I think, as I run up to her and engulf her in a hug. "You're a tribute now," I tell her, "so you need to be more careful and stick with me and Peeta, okay?"
"Seriously, Katniss? You're the one that's been falling all over the place like an idiot," she says as she turns away from me. "I can't believe you've even made it this far. Did you somehow sleep with one of the Game makers before all of this? Probably not because you're too ugly and you have literally nothing else to offer, obviously." She suddenly turns her attention towards Peeta. "And who is this?" she asks with a predatory look in her eyes.
"The only person in the village that you haven't slept with, and I intend to keep it that way. Now let's go before you find a tree that you want to do."
She's about to retort when suddenly, out of the darkness, several hands wrap around Prim's arms and pull her into the darkness. I scream as I run after them but I can't see anything and I immediately know it's useless. I sit down, defeated when all of a sudden, Peeta, who'd I'd almost forgotten about, speaks up. "You know, for a fourteen-year-old, your sister has a GREAT ass." I look up at him in disbelief. When he sees my expression, he backs away a little bit. "What?" he says. "Gale is hot and has great abs, and believe me, an even better package, but damn your sister is hot, which is not your strong suit I will say and I definitely didn't want to kiss you earlier but-"
He never gets to say his last words because I stab him with a dagger I kept hidden from earlier. I expect to feel guilty or sad but more than anything, I feel exhilarated! I feel as if something that has been buried inside of me for so long has opened and honestly, this is the best I've felt in years and maybe after all those years of being criticized for not amounting to anything, I've found my calling! And with at least twelve more tributes out there, holding my sister hostage, I feel a rush of excitement to explore my new hobby. Oh, and rescuing my sister too, unless she gets annoying of course. Then I'll just have to teach her a lesson, just like the people back home when I win this.
And with those thoughts in mind, I head into the night, scheming excitedly on how to "greet" the next tributes I run across.