God there were so many typos in that first chapter T,T I will try and proof-read more this time.
And yes, I am aware that Haymitch does not have a little sister, he had a little brother, but I felt like putting a little bit of a spin on it relating to Katness and Prim. Plus I can't write little boys for some reason, they always turn out to girly. I don't believe Sunny will even be present in the rest of the story. Even if Haymitch will mention her…
By the time the four tributes had been boarded onto the train I had convinced myself to stop even thinking about my family and that it was completely useless to even have hope of winning the games. Not that I ever really did have hopes of winning them, but deep down inside of myself I had that small glimmer of a fantasy. A fantasy that I would win the games and come home to my family and live in Victor Village with Sunny and Mom and we wouldn't have to worry about anything. But fear soon crushed that small glimmer of a fantasy.
Bevin, Conner and Maysilee and I sat in an awkward silence in the room we had been heard into as the train began to move. Slowly at first before picking up speed. I don't even bother with looking out at the crowd that waved goodbye to us. The fake happiness to please the capitol that they were performing was making me sick. Instead of looking at my fellow tributes I look at my hands, rubbing some of the dirt out of the creases of my palm that I had never washed out this morning. Slowly my gaze begins to inspect the room around me. The train was amazing high-tech looking, inside and out. The whole room we were sat in was filled with beautiful tables and amazing fabric. I noticed that even the chair I sat in the fibers felt to soft and delicate to be natural. The TV on the wall was bigger then any one I had ever seen before and the whole place had a sickly sweet smell about it that just made me want to open a window and stick my head outside. Just to remember what real, natural scented air smelled like.
"Ah, what beautiful young tributes we have here!" I groaned in annoyance the second I heard that capitol accent and the click of heels against the wooden floor. Maya was at the entrance to the room looking at us with a smile covered in lipstick. Conner didn't even bother looking up from where he sat, staring at his shoes. Maysilee rolled her eyes at Maya and Bevin look up at her with watery eyes. Did that girl ever stop crying? I watched Maya enter the room and walk towards us, her purple nails sliding along the wooden table next to the cushioned chairs we sat in. "Do I at least get a hello?" Maya sounded slightly disappointed. Immediately I labeled the tone in her voice fake just like the rest of her body.
"Do we at least get a chance to live?" Maysilee shot back, Maya coiled away a bit and Conner looked up from his shoes at the snaky remark. Maya quickly regained her composer.
"Feisty one are you?" She said, her smile disappearing and unconcerned frown replaced it. Maysilee went silent, curling her lip in disgust at the women in front of her. I sat up straighter.
"She's just stating the facts. If we be friendly to you we should get a chance to live for more then one more month," I said with a grin at her. Maya's unnaturally bright blue eyes narrowed slightly as she looked me up and down.
"Being a tribute in the Hunger Games is an honor, Mr. Abernathy," Maya growled, her voice laced with annoyance and venom.
"Yeah, it's an honor like it's an honor for a dog to be slaughtered in a dog fight for sick people's entertainment," I snapped. That remark sent me into the silent treatment from Maya for a few minuets as the other three sat in an awkward silence that followed the argument. All of us knew what I was implying in my quick come back. We were the dogs and the Capitol was the sick people who were entertained and betted on our deaths.
"I'm sure your family believes it's an honor, Mr. Abernathy," Maya turned to me again, content on winning the argument with me. Maysilee looked at me, tilting her head silently when I looked away from Maya, her statement bringing back the words of my father.
"Yeah, you better be getting out of here! We don't need you here, Haymitch! I hope you get picked for the games!"
"Yeah, sure," I muttered, keeping my head down and my eyes out of Maya's view. I bite my lip and look a large breath, hoping she would chose to pick apart someone else and not me. Instead she chose to talk about more things relating to the games. None of us were to keen on already having to start thinking about how we were going to survive in arena.
"Well, since the only victor from District Twelve has, um, passed on we have some other victors form other Districts that have volunteered to help you. You should thank them! They did this on their own free will!" Maya said. I snorted rolling my eyes. Free will my ass.
"Where are they?" Conner spoke up for the first time, his voice deep and gruff but I could sense the fear and wonder in them too. Maya seemed to perk up at the sound of a tribute that wasn't giving her back talk, "Where are they from, what are their names, when do we get to meet them?" Conner listed off questions quickly. I blinked at him, suddenly interested his sudden interest in our mentors. It's not like any of the mentors would help us that much. All the mentors and stylists did was shine us up, put us in a glass case and place us on display before turning around and accidently knocking us off the pedestal. I had no interest in listening to mentors, but Conner sure did.
Maya looked him up and down quickly, making note of every spot of dirt that was left on his form, or where his cloths folded when they should have stayed straight. Or the tear marks that he was tired to hide from us. He must have cried when he had to say good-bye to his family. I wasn't going to comment on it though.
"Well Griffith is from District 11," Maya said, pressing a finger to her lips as she thought, "And Flint is from District 4." She finished looking at Conner again with a sweet smile.
"Where are they?" Conner asked again, more firmly this time, "When do we get to meet them?" He said, sitting up in his seat and leaning forward slightly, looking at Maya with green eyes filled with hope.
"They're at the Capitol," She said quickly, blurting it out like it was some like of secret. I looked up at her quickly.
"You mean to say that all the other tributes get a mentor to talk to them on the train but we don't? Isn't that unfair?" I questioned quickly, shifting in my seat to look at her more directly. Maya tilted her chin up a little higher in the air and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Once I seemed to come into the conversation she became stiffer and stricter. I held back a grin that wanted to spread across my face at the though of Maya acting like the girls in my grade when they got mad at someone.
"It doesn't matter," She snapped, heels clicking again the wood as she walked to the door. Maya hesitated by the door, hand on the frame, "It's not like you four are going to survive past the bloodbath anyway. No one from District 12 ever does, what would make you think you four were special?" And with a slam of a door she was gone. The second Maya made her exit Bevin put her hands over her eyes and began to cry again.
"W-We're all going to die! She's right!" Bevin cried out helplessly, Maysilee was at her side quickly, her arms wrapped around the younger girl as she pulled her close to her. It struck me as Maysilee gently rocked Bevin that the four of us had grown closer to each other with only moments together then many people will in a life time. All of us were being forced to fight against our will. All of us were being taken from our families and put to sudden death.
We had formed an unbreakable bond with each other. These were the three people I would remember to be my some what friends when we were in the arena.
"Excuse me," Conner stood up suddenly and darted from the room and down the hall. I watched the large boy walk swiftly away and then looked back to the two girls. Maysilee had finally gotten Bevin to calm down.
"Are the rooms that way?" I forced out my mouth, pointing down the hall where Conner has disappeared to. Maysilee looked at me, which was the first time I noticed that I had seen her before. She was in the grade below me. And the more I looked at her the more I noticed that I had seen her more the once.
"….hey day dreamer, you hear me?" I snapped quickly out of my thoughts. Maysilee was glaring at me, waving a hand in front of me. Bevin was curled into her side.
"What? Oh sorry can you say that again?" I felt the heat rise in my face slightly. Maysilee pulled the front of her dress up, the part that covered the front of her chest. She narrowed her eyes at me,
"They're down the hall there, day dreamer," She said dryly. I nodded as I stood, running my fingers through the wave of my hair. I bit down on my finger as I headed down the hall to stop the ever present tears from flowing. I didn't let them go till I had locked myself in one of the bathrooms within one of the rooms. I dropped down onto the tile floor with my back pressed against the door. My knees bent up close to me as I let my hands drop to the floor. The sobs pushed themselves though me before I knew what was going on. They pulled at my throat and twisted my gut and made me feel empty. Empty and lonely. So lonely that the only thing that I could do now was cry. Cry because nothing else matter. It wouldn't matter because I was going to die anyway. I was just going to yet another empty, abused, dead tribute to the Hunger Games that no one ever bothered to even remember.
I felt bad now that I could not even bring myself to remember who had been picked from our District last year. I could not even remember who the one victor form District 12 had been. I sat on the cold tile floor of the bathroom, feeling every small vibration and bump from the train. It could have been just a few moments, it could have been hours but I finally emerged from the bathroom after the swelling in my eyes from the crying had reduced. I looked over the room in front of me and quickly found the dresser. I pulled open the top drawer and pulled out a pair of plain grey sweatpants. Next I found a black tee shirt.
Those would have to do because I was far sick of the clothing I had been forced to wear for the Reaping. Once I was more comfortable in the baggy pants and tee-shirt I opened the blinds to the window I had finally noticed beside the bed. Silently I watched outside the window as the world whizzed by me, it was getting dark outside but I could still see that the fields outside the window stretched on for miles, trees dotting them once in a while. It must have been District 11. I could see the lights from a few houses in the distance and more and more as we passed over a hill. After watching the lights from all the houses fade out again and the fields turn to trees I moved to the bed. I touched the sheets softly, feeling the silky fabric against my rough hands. With a sigh I climbed into the bed, curling up under the sheets.
Maybe if I slept long enough I could just die in my sleep instead at the hands of another human being. If we could even still be considered humans when we were set against each other and our life was put in danger.
That was kind of short, the next chapter should be longer.