Chapter 2

After settling into their temporary homes and participating in intense training sessions, the 25 tributes were now waiting to be called into a room so that the gamemakers could assess them and give them a score of 1-12. All three district 9 tributes were freaking out, especially due to the intimidating demeanours of the careers.

"What are we going to show them?!" Morris whispered urgently.

"I have no idea."

"Neither do I," Lim crossed his arms. "And if I did I wouldn't say it in front of you."

After a moment of silence Lim murmured to himself, "I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have been chosen…"

The twins simply rolled their eyes.

"Lim Youngwood."

Lim took a deep breath and stood up. Then he went into the other room.

"Ok, we need to plan," Morris said. Boris agreed, but they had a limited amount of skills they could show the gamemakers.

"What if we do stand up comedy?"

"That would never work!" Morris said harshly.

"Singing? Dancing? Clapping?!"

"NO! Be serious, our lives could depend on this."

Both of them thought for a few seconds. "If only we could throw something at the gamemakers." Boris said mournfully.

"That's so unoriginal! Plus, there are forcefield barrier things."

"Well, I don't see you coming up with anything."

"Ok, fine," Morris bit her nails. "Um, how about we just go in there and try to use the equipment?"

Boris was about to remark how horrible of an idea this was, when they were called up.

"Boris Turner." the voice said, then hurriedly added "And Morris."

The twins entered the room. It was big, bigger than they thought it would be, and the gamemakers watched them from behind a forcefield barrier.

"What do we do?!" Boris whispered.

"I know! Let's run." Morris said. "We're fast."

Before Boris could respond, Morris took off at a sprint and she had to follow since they were connected.

"Right, left, right, left!" They yelled.

They ran laps around the room, and on the way Morris picked up a knife and stuck it into a dummy but she had little strength and the knife simply clattered onto the ground.

"Ok, new plan," She puffed. "Let's do parkour."

Boris was surprised because although they had seen parkour being done before, they had not actually ever attempted it themselves.

They took a running leap at a wall and kicked off it, before doing a roll and then sliding under a piece of equipment. Unfortunately, they snagged the equipment and the whole thing came crashing down.

"Oops…"

In frustration, Boris grabbed a sword that had fallen and plunged it into a dummy. The dummy fell over in pain.

"Wait, what?"

Apparently, it wasn't a dummy. It was a peacekeeper. Whoops…

That concluded their little session, and they promptly left.

That night, Boris, Morris, Lim, Pea, Aleisha and Persuliosianio (yay we remembered his name!) gathered around to watch the news. The tributes waited anxiously for their scores. So far, all the careers had gotten a score of either 9 or 10.

"From district 7, we have Ian Albright with a score of…" Caesar left the audience hanging for a second. "...12!"

Everyone in the room gasped and Persuliosianio fell off his chair.

"WHAT?! HOW?!" Lim screeched.

Caesar frowned at the paper in his hand. "Oh, wait, it says minus 12. My bad!"

They sighed in relief.

"This tribute stood and blinked the entire time. What happened, district 7?"

"Watch out for him." Aleisha advised.

"What? Why? All he did was blink" Lim said.

"Well, that's what I did and I won my games. So watch out."

Lim shook his head the useless mentor and turned back to the TV.

"Ooh what's this? It appears the female tribute from District 7 gained a score of… 8.5! By hiding inside the gamemakers roast pig they were about to feast on, waiting until they were cutting it open and then waving at them! Uh.. okay then. Very good hiding on her part."

Lim was looking extremely proud of himself, and Boris wondered what he had shown the gamemakers. However, she felt a little uncomfortable asking him because he was always so unfriendly.

The tributes from district 8 got a 5 and a 4, and then it was time for district 9.

"Lim Youngwood from district 9, received a 9."

Boris looked at Lim in bewilderment. A nine?! What on earth did he do to get that?

Personiumio slapped Lim on the back. "Well done, lad."

Pea gave him a thumbs up and Aleisha gave him a blink.

"What did you do?" Morris demanded.

Lim flashed a grin. "Secret."

Caesar continued. "And the twins from district 9, Boris and Morris Turner, received…" There was a long stretch of silence. "...A combined score of 7."

"A combined score of seven?!" Morris exclaimed."Deh?"

Aleisha and Pea looked at the twins in concern.

" what did you guys do…?"

Morris cleared her throat. "Parkour, running."

"And we may or may not have killed a peacekeeper." Boris added hesitantly.

Lim burst out laughing hysterically, since they hit him at the reaping, before quickly composing himself. "Ahem, sorry."

Pea frowned. "What were you trying to accomplish? Make an impression? Well done. Now all the game makers are gonna remember you guys as the twins who can't tell a dummy apart from a human."

"It was an accident!" Boris cried. "Peacekeepers, dummies, they're all the same."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Lim remarked.

"Ayo. In all seriousness," the escort said. "Everyone view on district 9 is shamed, ya."

"But I still got a better score than them." Lim boasted.

"Will you shut up about your score!" Morris yelled. "It was only one higher than our score."

"Calm down."

"Only if you tell us what you did in there." The twin folded her arms.

Lim sighed. "Ok, ok. I got a knife and pretended to stab myself. They all thought I was dead so the peacekeepers rushed in. They tried to find my pulse but I didn't have any, and so they tried to take me to hospital but that was when I woke up and they realised it was a prank. So that's how I got my score of 8!"

"..."

"..."

"…"

"So you basically pretended you died.?" Pea clarified.

"Yes…"

Pea uproariously laughed. "That is the smartest thing-"

"The dumbest thing you could've done!" Boris exclaimed. "What are you gonna do in the games, pretend to be dead and just lie there?!"

"Well, I'm not the one who got a combined score of seven." Lim huffed. "I wonder which one of you got a better score. Maybe Morris got 4 and Boris only got a 3? Or maybe it was the other way round. And besides, I wasn't even supposed to be here!"

Lim then stormed out of the room and slammed his door shut.

"How rude!" Persuliosianio muttered.

Pea sighed. "I'll get him when it's time for dinner."