I am being tightly hugged by my friends when she calls my name again, but then I break free from their embrace, determined to not show any signs of weakness, and start walking up towards the stage. On my way I see my mother's eyes bursting with tears and it almost makes me start crying myself, but I hold on and walk up the stairs straight to Havanna. She takes my hand and shakes it before asking the crowd for any volunteers, and to my immense surprise nobody is volunteering. I search for the Hail sisters, and when I at last find their faces in the crowd they look straight into my eyes and grins, just grins. They really hate me, they hate me enough to not volunteer. The one thing they want more than anything. They just gave that up so they could show me how much they hate me.
As the seconds drag by and nobody seems keen to respond Havanna on her question she finally continues and goes on to the boy's container and pick out a note. She reads out: "Eric Dodge."
All I manage to think is oh no cause he is one of my best friends, but then somebody shouts: "I volunteer!"
After some struggling I find the face of the boy saying this and although I recognize it, seeing as I've seen him around all the time, I don't remember his name. All I know is that he is one of the few guys who have been training for this the last four years.
When the boy has gotten up on the stage and on to Havanna she asks him so sweetly: "And what's your name young man?"
"Typher Jones." Oh yeah! That's it, it's so weird I didn't remember that. He's only one year older than me and I've seen him train with the other boy's lots of times.
"Well congratulations Typher! And congratulations Mariana!" She turns to the audience, "The tributes of District 4, and remember, may the odds be ever in your favor!"
Just a few minutes later I'm alone in one of the rooms in the Justice hall, I've been here before, but never because of this particular reason. I sit down by one of the windows heading straight towards the ocean, and I look out, wondering if I will ever see this place again. Considering I would never ever kill anybody I suppose not, something miraculous must happen if I would win and get back. The tears creep behind my eyes but I force them back, I know my mother will be in here in a term of seconds and I can't cry in front of her, she would collapse from sorrow and guilt. So I get a grip of myself and get up from my chair and turn my back on the glorious sight, and probably also of any chance of ever getting back.
As I predicted my mother, closely followed by the rest of my family, soon comes in, and they all hug me times and times again, telling me to do everything I can to win, to get back. They all beg me to come back, and I tell them I will try, but I withhold the fact that I refuse to kill anybody.
The time is up all too fast, and they have to leave, I give mother one last hug before she's taken away by the peace keepers, and then I wait again. Soon Jade comes in, alone, and she starts speaking right away:
"Listen to me, you have to do what you can to win this, but at the same time I hope you won't kill." Jade is like me, she also hates these games, all of the killing. She hopes that all of the people from the Capitol will get bored with the idea in a short spam of years so that this murderous campaign will stop, but we both know deep down that that won't happen. She continues:
"You know how to fish, and you know so many plants that you can eat. Make sure to eat and drink a lot while you're there. And make sure not to team up with anyone from 1 or 2, they will kill you while you sleep; you're safer on your own. Ok?"
"Ok." I answer with a really tormented voice, and I start to cry right there and then. We hug each other till the peace keepers come in and take her away. Some of my other friends come in and talk to me, hug me, but I don't really notice who it is or what they are saying.
When the hour is up the peace keepers take me out of the building and transport me to a huge car that will take me to the train station. Typher and Havanna are already in the car waiting for me, so we start driving immediately after I get in. The road between the Justice hall and the train station is really short, but because of all of the people on the streets, it still takes some time to get there. I wave goodbye to everybody I see outside, and most of them wave back. At one point I saw one of the Hail sisters and I almost went berserk wanting to rip the girl to shreds for doing this to me, but I contained myself when I realized that it wouldn't be any point trying to get to them, that I would only be fetched and that my crazy actions actually may just work against me later in these games.
As we get on the train I almost get a chock looking at all of the stuff in there. As the mayors daughter I am quite used to some glamor and stile, but this is just crazy. The entire cart we're in is filled with blue sateen chairs and couches, crystal chandeliers and other various things in crystal. Though all of this is admittedly quite beautiful it still feels so strange; I really shouldn't be here. This isn't where I belong.
Havanna shows us to our rooms, and happily I find that it's a bit more similar to my own room than that cart earlier. I have a huge bed though, big enough for my entire family actually, and it's a bit weird knowing I'm sleeping in there alone. As for the rest of the room it is just a big wardrobe filled with all different kinds of clothes and shoes, a little desk where I can write letters and such, a huge TV-screen and a door to my bathroom – which is crazy in itself.
Although I see that the shower is rather complex with its many different buttons, I decide to get washed anyway. I carefully press one of the buttons that look rather harmless compared to the others, and a warm stream of water comes down on me. Since this is just what I wanted I memorize exactly were the button was so I could do this again later on.
After a long, nice, warm shower I get out, dry my hair and wrap my towel around me before starting to explore my wardrobe in search for acceptable clothes. I stop searching after I find a light blue shirt and a pair of simple jeans.
Considering there isn't really anything to do in my room I decide to go away to that cart we came in to first and sit down there, hoping for company. My luck struck out, as both Havanna and Typher are sitting there, face to face in two of the sateen chairs. I walk over to them and sit down; they are talking about the games.
"Well, since nobody has won yet from District 4," Havanna says, "there is nobody but me to guide you through this, so you must pay attention. Okay?"
"That's okay, and I guess that it's the same for most districts, considering it's only been winners so far from 1 and 2." Typher concludes.
"Right. Well, make sure to eat a lot during these few days first of all, you'll need all the strength you can get in the arena, and make sure to pay attention during training when were in the Capitol. Oh! And you must be doing exactly anything your stylist tells you to do, they can either make or break you, so make sure you have them on your side!"
I get a flashback of last year's competition when the tributes from our districts had nothing on them but some fish nets during the parade, covering only the bare minimum of their bodies, I really hope they have something more… well, clothes for us this year.
Havanna leaves us in an attempt to find out if dinner's been served yet, so I find myself alone with Typher. I look over at him. He's quite muscular, a clear result of four intensive years of training, and realize there would be no chance for me to ever beat him – even if I would actually try to kill him. I continue looking; he has a nice face – you couldn't believe a future killer was hiding beneath that face. He has these big dimples that makes you just know that he smiles often, and well, he sort of looks so innocent. I guess it is kind of a good cover, not many would count him to be a big threat, well, at least if he didn't have all those muscles anyway…
Then he suddenly looks straight into my eyes before a huge smile spreads across his face, and I quickly look down on the floor as I feel my cheeks turn red from embarrassment. Oh gosh, I think, how could I ever stare at someone like that and then just go like a tomato? I know better than that, don't I? Mother taught us never to stare, and it's just what I've done now… I feel like I want to slip beneath the surface of the earth.
"It's Mariana right?" he asks, and I can hear that he has a huge smile across his face.
"Yeah…" I whisper and find that I sound very timid, very unlike my usual self. I don't sound like that calm girl at home that makes friends with everyone in a heartbeat.
"I'm Typher." I still don't dare to look up when I answer him:
"I know, I've seen you at your practices."
Then he just laughs at me, oh god, this is so horrible, he probably thinks I'm an idiot or something.
"Why don't you look up at me so I can see you when I'm talking to you? It's a lot easier."
He's still smiling when I look at him. I begin to wonder what his tactic is. Is he going to make me trust him just to desert me when we get to the arena or is he actually trying to become my friend? I don't know but I decide not to trust him or anything he's saying, at least not for now, at least not until I've gotten to know him and know about his true intentions towards me.
"There, it wasn't so hard, was it?" And then another one of his huge smiles, and those blue eyes of him really just seem happy, doesn't seem to be hiding anything, and I just have to smile back at him.
"No, I guess not." Then we just begin talking about anything and everything, apart from our imminent future and anything related to it.
It isn't until we finally get up to go to dinner that I realize exactly how huge he is, or at least compared to me. I'm a little bit over five feet two myself but he's towering over me, at the very least a feet taller than my own small build. Then add huge muscles on top of that… Just as I start to feel pathetic here next to him he smiles at me and I snap out of my thoughts. I think I could become friends with him; or, that is if we were still back home and not on our way to our own execution. Now it just seems like one more thing I will be forced to say farewell to.