Chapter two: The...em...Insident
I glared at Adric. A whole day had passed since I had tried to talk to him about helping us and now I was angry. He was sitting across from me at dinner, Pansy had told him he wasn't allowed to leave the table until we were all finished which gave me the perfect opportunity to glare at him.
"So do you think I should form any alliances?" Austin asked, he'd been trying to get him to talk all through dinner but Adric had just sat there rolling his food around his plate and occasionally glancing up at me. Whether it was to see if I was still glaring at him or to try to apologize in a bizarre Adric-ish way, I don't know and I don't care.
"For goodness sake Adric!" Pansy exclaimed "You're supposed to be helping them! The least you could do is give them some advice!" Adric glared at her before returning to his game of foodball. The table sat in silence for another ten minutes. I glared at Adric the whole time before he finally snapped.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Adric snapped, glaring at me "Is that the only expression you've got? Is there a reason why you keep staring or are you just insane?"
"Says the boy who has a temper tantrum at the mention of his own games!" I yelled back
"What did I tell you about that?"
"Your Games! Your Games! Your Games! Your Games! Your Games! 72nd Hunger Games! 72nd Hunger Games! 72nd Hunger Games! 72nd Hunger Games! 72nd Hunger Games!" Adric glared. I want to say he stormed off but I'm not sure if that quite describes it. I ran after him, seething, at this present moment I was seriously considering murder. I stormed into his room as he glared at me from his bed.
"Leave, this is my room!"
"No!" I yelled.
"What do you want me to do Angel!"
"One, don't call me Angel and TWO, Help us you...you...Clotpole!" I said accusingly
"Really, Angel, really? Clotpole?" he raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms.
"Yes, you are the biggest Clotpole of them all and call me Angel one more time and I will not be help responsible for my actions!"
"Angel, Angel, Angel, Ang-" He didn't get to finish his sentence, I was so mad, so mad at him for leaving me defenceless, so mad at him for not listening to me, I was mad at the Capitol for putting us both through this, but, most of all I was mad at myself, mad at myself for loosing my temper and falling into the trap. I lunged at him, pinning him to the ground. I could hear Pansy screaming on Austin to come help. I was seeing red, Adric looked shocked at first, but seemed to recover and was glaring up at me, I made to punch him, but as my luck would have it, he caught my hand. He rolled me over so now, I was trapped. I let out a scream and tried to move, but he was way too heavy! A smirk was on his lips, mocking me, I glared at him, letting him know that I wasn't intimidated. "Calm. Down." He said, I wanted to scream 'no!' at him but somehow I doubt that would help the situation in any way.
"Adric let her go and stop behaving like a child!" Pansy scolded
"Wha- Me? I'm the victim here!" Adric said, his grip on my wrists tightened
"Adric. Adric. Adric. Adric. Adric." I said
"What?" he snapped
"Ow." I said
"Sorry." he let go and stood up holding out a hand, I glared at it before accepting.
"Ow, Adric, ow. I'll get you for that."
"I said I was sorry!" he shrugged,
"Aria, just go to bed." Pansy said, with one last glare at Adric I left the room.
The next day I woke up, I went to sit up and winced in pain. I looked down at my wrists and saw bruises in the shape of hand marks. I guess he's stronger than he looks, stupid string-bean. I bit my lip, this was not going to help me and my odds. I dressed with difficulty as the bruises flamed, I walked out, Pansy glaring at me, she gasped looking at my hands.
"Aria, your wrists!" She exclaimed, holding her hands to her mouth. Adric looked up, then at my wrists. He slowly slid down in his seat and glanced worriedly at Pansy, I shrugged and sat down. I went to pick up a fork,
"ow!" I said, glaring at the fork as if it was its fault.
"Aria, shouldn't you be glaring at Adric? Rather than the fork?" Austin said,
"Don't tell her that!" Adric hissed,
"Oh so you are talking to me now?" Austin asked,
"Maybe...?" Adric said looking down at his plate. A lightbulb went off in my head!
"Adric?" I said,
"Yes...?" He said wearily,
"Since you have caused me such great pain, can you help me now." Cue puppy dog eyes, and yes he was a goner.
"Fine! But it isn't because of those reasons, it's because I want to!" He declared, Austin looked up,
"Both of us?"
"I can only do so much!" He said, "And I am obviously going to help her!"
"Why obviously?" I asked,
"Because...Because...you're younger!" He said,
"Something tells me that isn't the real reason." Austin said, glaring at me.
"My wrists hurt!" I said, before another argument started.
"Aw, poor Ang..." Adric stopped as soon as I glared at him. "...el" I rolled my eyes,
After Pansy had gotten stuff to help my wrists, I went to the training centre, next to Thresh. He kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye, it was weird.
"Aria?" I nearly jumped a foot in the air at hearing his voice, my brain had somehow made up that he didn't have one.
"Yeah." I said recovering from the shock quickly,
"What do you say about becoming allies, stronger as a team, right?" I thought about this for all of a millisecond.
"Becoming Allies would be great." I said, smiling a little. Thresh grinned and went back to whatever he does. I stuck to the rope station, learning how to set snares and stuff. I found it quite interesting learning all the different techniques. The scoring thing was tonight and I had no idea what I was going to do, I was going with the old back up plan, it was called winging it.
I stood in the middle of the room, the gamemakers with the weird pointed beards and cold eyes staring at me. I stood there, changing from one foot, to the other.
"Aria Smith, District nine." I said, I looked around, for some inspiration of some sort. I found the knifes, Leo's words ringing in my ears. I picked one up and threw it, dead centre on the dummy. I did this a couple of times and walked out.
We all sat around the T.V screen, Adric was hunched over, staring at it intently as the numbers flashed. I bit my lip, my wrists were better now, Pansy had given me weird gloopy stuff that helped. Austin's face appeared, a big shiny nine appeared and Pansy clapped. I wasn't taking any noise in really, as soon as I saw myself staring back at me I went deadly still. Adric had done the same, his eyebrows knitted. I let out a breathe as a seven appeared, so I had done ok, not brilliant but not terribly.
"Thank god you didn't get a one." Adric muttered
"You thought I would?" I questioned, glaring at him
"No offence Angel, but you don't look much like a victor at the moment." He smirked at me.
"What did I say about calling me that?" I asked
"Hey, I'm your only chance of surviving, I'd be nice if I were you!" I crossed my arms and glared at him.
"You're a sucky mentor." I muttered
"Mature, Aria real mature." Adric shook his head, smiling slightly. I grinned.
I stood, fidgeting in the stupid dress Honeyman had me in. It had long sleeves on, so people couldn't see my battle scars. Adric was pacing, muttering incoherently. He'd stop every few seconds, tilt his head at me then shake his head and start the whole cycle over again.
"Quit it, you're putting me on edge!"
"Maybe if you were a nicer person I wouldn't have to!"
"Says the person who gave me these!" I held up my wrists
"You can barely see them!"
"They're still bruises caused by you!"
"Aww, do you want me to kiss them better Angel?" He asked mockingly
"No!" I snapped quickly putting my hands behind my back
"Then quit complaining, it was your own fault anyway."
"How was it my fault?"
"Who attacked me?"
"Who had a temper tantrum?"
"Who talked about my games?"
"Who constantly called me Angel when I told you not to?"
"Who glared at me all through dinner?"
"Who acted like a complete dolop head?"
"Who's an annoying midget who doesn't know when to shut up?"
"Why you little-"
"Coming from the munchkin?"
"I'm gonna-"
"Good luck Aria." I heard Thresh mutter from behind me, I spun around to see him walking back to his place in line
"You too!" I shouted back
"Who was that?"
"Eh, Thresh?" I said, why he had suddenly gone all big brother on me, I have no idea, but if he's anything like Leo I ain't taking any chances.
"And why would he say good luck to you?"
"Because we're allies." I muttered, Adric tilted his head and stared at me before saying,
"What do you know, the girl has a brain."
"Why you- Did you think I didn't you- unbelievable, you're such a... a... a..." I said jumping up and down waving my arms around attracting quite a bit of attention. Adric just pulled my arms down and muttered a quiet
"Shut up and be nice." In my ear before stalking off to the other victors, sending two-fingered salute my way as he left. I glared at him. Sighing I marched to my place, managed to put on a smile, even if it was fake and walked out onto the stage. Flickerman shook my hand, lightly as he had been told about the...em...incident.
"Welcome, now Aria, this must be a big change from District 9, tell me what do you think is the biggest change?" he asks, my eyes scan the crowd looking for a friendly face or at least, one I recognise and finally settled on Adric. He caught my eyes and gave me a look clearly saying 'don't mess up'
"There's no grain." I said plainly, he laughed along with a few members of the audience.
"There's no grain." He repeated,
"Eh yeah, I just said that." I stated looking at him strangely, the crowd laughed again.
"So a seven, that's a pretty good score for someone so small." I wanted to yell 'I'm 15 you (insert word of the moment here)!' but one glare from Adric and I quickly went against that idea.
"Well, my brother said I was good at aiming so I kinda went with that idea." I said
"How does he know you're good at aiming?" he asked kindly
"Well when we argue, which we do, a lot, I would snap he would shout and I would throw various objects perfectly on target." True story
"Was your brother alright?"
"Oh yeah, it was just pillows and stuff." I said, then added quietly "And a vase once." Flickerman laughed along with the audience. Again. I looked out at him and was blessed with a miracle, the thumbs up from Adric.