THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS: Mild violence, some cuss words
Note: Romance if you squint
I roll the knife over in my hand, getting used to the feel of the weapon. I'm in the Training Centre, where I'll spend the next few days preparing for the unavoidable slaughter to ability to handle a knife, I decide, might come in handy in case I beat the odds and actually survive the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. I'm not the only one at the knife throwing station, but right now, I'm trying to ignore the other occupant. It's that damn District Four boy, and he's annoying the hel-never-mind.
I throw the knife at one of the dummies, and it barely misses the center. The District Four boy laughs.
"Nice shot," He snickers.
I glare at him and speak to the annoyance (that's what I've nicknamed him) for the first time. "Like you could do any better."
The boy flips his stupid black hair back, smirks at me one last time, and throws the knife. It nails the dummy right in the center, where it's heart should be. "You were saying?"
"Oh, shut up, kelp-for-brains." I say. I start to walk to the camouflage station instead.
"It's Percy!" The boy shouts back.
I ignore him. I devote my undivided attention to pairing my body with different dyes to match backgrounds that the trainer lays out. I do a pretty good job until Michael comes over.
"Lunchtime." He says. His voice is hoarse, but I'm not sure why I care, I mean, He's my opponent, right?
He helps me up and starts to walk away. I'm following him reluctantly to the cafeteria when he suddenly whirls around. I jump back. His face turns bright red, and he mumbles: "Sorry".
"So. . .Are you and that District Four kid. . .like, you know. . ." He doesn't finish his sentence, but I know what he's getting at.
"What? No!" I think I might puke just from thinking about it.
Michael smiles now. "Good. I mean, good for you. Because. . .It's not god to be hanging around the enemy."
I stare at him for a second, debating whether to give him an honest comment or a sarcastic remark. Then I decide silence is better, because getting close to anyone in these Games would only get me a knife in the back at one point or another. At lunch, I sit alone at a table and ignore everyone around me. Making friends isn't any way to survive.
There are only two more days until we show our skills to the Game-makers , and I'm still not sure what to show them. I could do camouflage, but at best, that will get me a three. I could show them my sword-fighting, but I'm guessing some Careers will be doing that. I guess that leaves only my knife skills. But in order to perfect that, I'll have to go to the knife-throwing station. . .And right now, there are two Careers there.
Rather than put myself in potential danger, I decide to go over to the archery station for a while. I do pretty good at it, and I can't help but compare my skills to Per-the District Four boy's. I saw him try the station a couple days ago, but he was awful at it. Arrows were flying everywhere, I doubt that it was a ruse, because as much as I hate him, that kid is as sincere as he is dense.
I shoot an arrow through one of the targets and put the weapons away, now that the knife-throwing station is open. I perfect my skills, and, after a while, Michael joins me. I have trouble concentrating now that he's here. It's not that I don't like him, but I feel uncomfortable whenever he's around, because I feel like I should be nicer to him or something. I mean, he's from my district. . .
"Look," Michael turns toward me and I instinctively back away. "I know that you don't know me very well, but. . ."
"Don't talk to me Michael," I sigh. "Being friends would only be bad for the both of us. In the Games, who knows if I'll have to kill you or not?"
Michael stares at me for a second, and something flashes in his eyes. Hurt? "Okay Anna-"
I leave before he can finish my name. Like I said, I plan on winning this thing alone.
I throw around knives for the Gamemakers. They pretend to pay attention to me. That night, I end up getting a 5. Michael gets a 3, that girl from District Six gets a 2, and fish-face gets a 7. I hate people from District Four. The following night, we get interviewed. I wait anxiously throughout the other interviews, trying to pay attention but failing epically. The girl from District One, Desiree, definitely goes for seductive in her interview. She nails it, and the maven to the next person. The boy from District Four-I find out that his name is Perseus-is probably going for charming or something. His interview just about makes me sick. In what seems to be no time at all, I go up on stage for my interview.
Caesar Flickerman, the host of the interviews, has dyed his entire body a nauseating shade of yellow. It looks disgusting. He warms up with a few easy questions, asking about my life back home. Then he asks me:
"How do you plan on surviving the Games tomorrow?"
I hesitate. If I say that I don't plan on surviving, that might hurt me later on in the games if I live through the battle at the Cornucopia. If I lie and I end up dying, I might hurt my family, back in District Eleven, which seems so far away. So, I just say:
"If I tell you my plan, I'll have to change it again so the other tributes won't do anything!" It sounds stupid as soon as it comes out of my mouth, but hey, at least it sounds better than: "Oh, I don't plan on surviving. I want to die! Yay!"
Caesar laughs at my corny joke, and before I know it, my interview time is up. I go to bed that night but don't fall asleep right away. When I do slip into sweet unconsciousness, I'm plagued by nightmares. I wake up at five in the morning, according to my clock. My stomach goes numb when I see the clock, and I don't know what to do anymore. In a few short hours, I'll be in the arena.
If you're wonder why this came out before Thanksgiving it's because I decided that I wanted to work on Chapter Four some more over the four day weekend I'm gonna have. :) You can thank me for having this up a day early. Go ahead.
(AND) Dun Dun DUN! Ooohhhhh, it's a cliffy! What's going to happen next? Nothing, if you don't review! ;) ANd yes, I know it's super short. They'll probably get longer once the action starts coming along. As in, the next next chapter will probably be longer.
