ONE
Me and the male tribute who I hadn't paid much attention to because I
was numb ever since my name was called. And honestly, I don't really
care.
My mind suddenly swept over the looks of our train. What was this
thing? I hadn't ever seen the inside and... It was amazing. There were
bright colors I'm sure I had never even heard of and foods set on a
table that hardly looked like they were edible. So beautifully
decorated to a point that they had a plastic effect to them. I
wondered briefly if I hadn't been called in the reaping, who would. It
suddenly felt wrong that I was the one on this train, standing next to
the quiet blonde boy.
"what's your name?" I ask almost robotically. I'm looking at the wall
in front of me not at him next to me, but when there's only silence in
response I turn to see why not. He's looking at me like I'm stupid. No
surprise there.
"You weren't listening at the reaping?"
I laugh. "How could I? It was my death sentencing, you wouldn't have
been listening if I were second either."
"Peeta Mellark."
"Nice name." I snort. "So baker's son right? Yeah I've seen you. Lemme
tell you, you live in a GREAT part of town." and to his surprise I
wasn't being sarcastic. I live in what they called the seam. Peeta and
the whole Mellark family lived a little upper level then we could
afford.
"you're making fun of me? Excuse me, but you're name consists of a
bird and a poisonous berry." Is he really trying to pick a fight with me?
"Your point?" I say with an edge to my voice.
"Stop bickering." A voice groaned behind us. Oh yes. The joy of this
party. How could I forget?
"Fine." I shrug. Peeta glares at me. Well then, I see how this is
going to go. But I find myself not blaming him. He was also most
recently sent to his death and I was in no place to make it worse.
Later at dinner, I found myself warming up to Haymitch, our mentor,
more and more. Sure, he was incoherent and and rude at times, but
sober, he was a good man... Sorta.
"What a big, big, big week we have." says Effie clasping her hands
together. She goes off on how she has planned every last detail down
to the bone.
"Yes Effie, we know how much you're in love with planning things."
Haymitch rolls his eyes. "How is the happy husband anyways, Well I
assume." he says tapping her calendar.
"Hush now Haymitch, it's rude to interrupt." she straightens In her
chair.
I slowly picked at the meat I didn't recognize on my plate. The fork
brushed against it softly tearing it into small pieces.
"What's wrong dear? Don't you have an appetite?" Effie asks. "Its
just... I'm not entirely sure how to eat all this." I say my cheeks
red being the only one in the room who didn't know how to properly use
a fork and knife. Of course, Peeta, being the baker's son would know.
Then suddenly it dawned on me. Of course I knew how to use a knife,
when it came to skinning and hunting. Which was something else I did
that was almost rebellious. I broke the law to go into the woods every
now and then when we need food. I'm not the only one either. Once -and
only once- I had encountered someone in the woods, though I can't
recall there names. Well I can the boy, his name was Gale. I knew
cause sometimes the girls in school would talk about him. I never did.
I had two friends in school. Chimmey and Kayden. Chimmey was six year
younger than me, and Kayden at seventeen, was eight years older than
her. Do the math.
I wondered if they were okay now. I wondered what their thoughts were
at that very moment. I wished my mind would just calm itself down.
