After the performance, we are brought back to our apartment at the training center, where we will spend the near future. I go straight to the bathroom and wash away my makeup, and then it's time to eat dinner. After dinner I decide to go up on the roof and take some fresh air. I sit at the balcony edge and looks on the dark violet sky, which is covered by clouds and therefore completely without stars. The air is cold, but I like it. Who cares if you're not aloud to be on the roof?
The view of the festive city is so amazing that everything feels really good for a while.
I love being alone sometimes, and now I'm alone with the night and the big city. The bad part is that I once again have time to think. I'm not scared, just angry. I'm so angry at the sick regime who has invented The Hunger Games !
Just then I hear someone coming out on the roof and I turn around instantly. To my relief (and surprise), it's neither Angela or any of the assistants, but Seth.
"Hey," he says and sits down about half a meter away from me, a good distance. After all, we will be forced to kill each other in the near future.
"What are you doing here?" I ask with a voice that is a bit too unkind. I add: "I mean, can't you sleep either?"
"No, it's impossible," he says with a sigh, and I nod.
"But I wonder what you're doing here, you looked so thoughtful when I came?" He asks. Great.
"I thought about the Games." I can't exactly say I was thinking about how much I hate the regime...
Seth immediately becomes more serious. He takes a look on the sky before he says:
"I promised my sister that I would win. Mother to, for that matter. They won't survive otherwise, since I was eleven years old and my father was killed, I have supplied my family"
"What happened to your father?" I ask without thiking first. I hope he don't mind people who don't think about whether they are nice or not, like me. Fortunately, he tells -without seeming angry at me - about how his father was killed by the regime after having been part of a group of rebels.
"I had to start working, so I got a job at the harbor. I help to repair damaged boats. Mother works in a simple clothing store, but she earns barely anything - not enough, anyway. "
"I'm sorry…" Then we don't say anything more, we just sit there in silence until we fall asleep.
When I wake up, the sky is not quite light yet, and I realize that I'm very, very cold.
"Seth!" I whisper , and he turns around and slowly open his eyes.
"What the ..?" He whispers before he remembers what happened.
"It seems like we fell asleep here yesterday,"
We rise and walk into the apartment again. No one has woken up yet, luckily.
"Well, I'm probably better go to bed in my room before Angela comes and wakes us"
"I'll see you about ..." Seth glances at the clock on the wall. Quarter to six. "…An hour and a quarter" he finishes with a wide grin. Then he goes to his room, and I get another hour of sleep before it's time for training.
The training center is already full of other tributes when we arrive. I notice some special people; The girl from the district one is only fourteen years old and named Saphira, which suits her incredibly blue, almost purple eyes. Her look is mean; the violet eyes looks truly evil.
Jenna and Quill from district nine are both nice. Jenna is naturally sweet with red, curly hair and big eyes. You can see some freckles on her nose. Quill is some years older, maybe eighteen. enna is nice and caring, but Quill hardly says a word. He seems totally focused on lifting weights and fencing. But what a marvelous brown eyes he has!, I think.
I start with going to the knife station, it feels like one of my better sides…I swing away a knife through the air and hits the heart of one of the dolls.
"Nice" Seth laughs.
"I know," I reply with a pleased smile. Then he offers to teach me how to make a fire without matches, and try to imitate his technique when it's my turn. I can't say I'm good at it.
Seth is great with shoot weapons, even though he has never practiced it before. At least he says that, but maybe he's lying.
When training is finished for the day, I'm exhausted. It continues that way for a few weeks, and I'm starting to think it gets more and more fun. To fight and throw knifes is such fun, I think! At least for now, when it's only training and there's no real danger.
Then it's time for the interviews, during the last evening before the Games. My stylists prepare me almost all day, and I get a makeup similar to my first one – but this one is not as dramatic, maybe they want people to recognize me when I'm in the arena.
My outfit is a black jumpsuit, with a deep V-neckline and bare back. The legs are long and a little puffy. In the back, the shoulder straps are tied together with a bow. I love it, it's the best outfit I've ever had! I expected some flashy dress or weird costume, but this simple black jumpsuit is so comfortable and discreet that it's actually strange they let me wear it.
The entire left arm is covered out bracelets in different shapes and sizes, most are in silver and gold. On the feet, I have black sandals that matches the clothes.
The interview went out pretty well and I feel relieved when it's over, because I really did 't think it would go well. Talking is defienetly not my strongest side. But I followed Finnicks advice and appeared as tough and ready to kill.
I hope that I at least scared som of the other tributes.
On the day when the games begin, I wear a thick jacket and boots, over the robust pants and top in matching fabric. That must mean that the arena is a cold place! Oh no!
"Good luck now." That's Jay's last words before I'm forced to go into the glass elevator that will take me to the arena.
The first thing I notice when the elevator stops is the coold breeze and the smell of wood. It means there are trees, a good sign. It's always easier to hide in a forest than on a flat ground.
Then I see that the arena comprises a large mountain in the north, covered of the forest that shifts between conifers and deciduous trees. The rest of the arena is partly covered by the forest, and partly covered by grass. Around the Cornucopia in the middle there's just grass, to make it easier to run.
"Twenty ... Nineteen ..." Seneca Crane's voice echoes through the speakers and I realize with panick that I haven't decided if I should flee into the woods directly, or if I should try to get some of the things first. I'm fast, so it feels absolutely wrong not to use that.
"Thirteen ... twelve ... Eleven ..."
Help! What should I do? I look through the things that I can see; A backpack with secret content, several packed food bags, a bow, a huge ax, some knives. If I could only get a knife! The closest one I see is maybe fifteen meters away, about seven meters away from the Cornucopia. Will I be fast enough to get it? Or should I run into the woods instead ..?
