A/N: This chapter was a lot longer than I intended but it's my favorite chapter so far. I don't like reading long chapters and I know other people don't too, so I try to avoid making mine too long. Unfortunately, I started writing and really just couldn't stop. My chapters seem to keep getting longer but I promise the next one will be shorter.
Once again, please review. I love hearing what people have to say about my writing. Thanks to Lillybylilly for reviewing after the last chapter. I hope that anyone reading this likes it.
"Ow!" I screeched as the three drones worked on me. They were "trying to make me pretty," and if I wasn't putting up an act I probably would've barfed. I don't like 'looking pretty' to begin with, and I didn't think I was going to like the Capitol standard of looking pretty very much either. "Just hold still. We're almost done," said the tallest of the drones. I endured the pain for a few more minutes before they sent me off to the district designer. His name was Drek, and I basically ignored him as he lectured me about the dress I was going to wear. He slipped it on me, and all I remember about it was that it was pine green and was supposed to represent our district.
Later that day, we had to get ready for the Ceremonies, where we rode out on chariots and acted like all of us actually wanted to be here, where we acted like what we would do later was somehow justifiable. Drek put me back into my dress and I went over to my designated chariot with Wyatt. I decided that crying now would be overdoing so I just stood at my chariot expressionless. Since I wasn't over-exerting my tear ducts, I decided now would be a good time to examine the other tributes. I didn't pay attention when they showed us the tapes of everybody being reaped, so I didn't know much about anyone other than Wyatt. The District One tributes were both really tall. The boy was large and really ripped, he looked old too, probably 18. He had blonde hair, similar to Wyatt's, eyes the same as Wyatt's too. Geez, they could be brothers. The girl had long, dirty blonde hair that fell to her mid-back. She was probably a good head taller than me, and she looked like she might be 18 too. The District Two tributes looked just as in shape as the District One tributes. The boy had short, jet black hair, and piercing light blue eyes. The girl was blonde and had her hair in a high ponytail. She had an air of confidence about her, and she actually sort of scared me.
I was about to start examining the District Three tributes when music started playing, signaling the start of the Ceremonies. Our chariot got pulled out, and while Wyatt waved happily at the crowd, I just stood there dumbly. If I was going to convince everyone I was weak, I had to commit to my act, and that included right now. I basically just stood there dumbly for the entire event, and Puff scolded me afterwards for my behavior. I just blocked out her words. I really didn't give a shit about what she had to say. Afterwards I just went back to my room and thought about the upcoming days. Tomorrow would be training, and the day after that we would receive our scores. And then the day after that...would be the start of the Hunger Games.
There was a knock at my door, and Brittany asked if he could come in. Since I had to be nice to people, I let her in. She sat down next to me and started giving me advice for training tomorrow. I sort of appreciated that she was going out of her way to help me, I certainly wasn't being a very good pupil. "Just remember, if you can, learn how to identify healthy berries and start a fire. If you can survive in the wilderness on your own, then you may be able to make it pretty far. Who knows, people might not see you as a threat and not even try to kill you right away, you could actually make it pretty far." So, Brittany basically figured out my plan, except my plan involved turning into a killer and winning. Her plan ended with me dead. I liked my plan more.
The next day, Wyatt and I took the elevator down to the training room. Flip wasn't at breakfast which was fine with me, I had basically been avoiding him as much as possible anyway. The elevator slowed as we got closer to the training room, time to put my game face on. The Careers were already training, along with the kids from a few other districts. I walked past the girl from District Two, who's name I had learned was Iris. Iris was at the axe throwing station, and was holding five axes in one hand. She glared at me before stepping forward and throwing one of the axes at the target in front of her. Her form wasn't very good, she was clenching the axe too tightly too high up on the handle. Her grip was a bit off too. She then quickly threw the next four. Her strength was good, and the axes went deep into the target, but the accuracy of her throws suffered from her poor form. Still, her throws did enough to visibly scare some of the other tributes, and when she looked at me, I pretended to be intimidated. Iris then moved to the knife station. She seemed much more comfortable there, her throws were much more accurate.
I decided that I might as well take the time to try ad learn some stuff. I took Brittany's advice and decided to go to a survival station. I started at the berries station, and began to memorize the berries that were safe. The instructor would occasionally test me, and every time I would pick the berries that would kill me. But I knew that, I had to appear as if I didn't know what I was doing. And at the very least, I was getting good at knowing which berries not to eat. I could tell that the instructor was getting irritated with me, and since I had already spent a lot of time there, I figured I should try to learn some other stuff. I spent some time watching the fire instructor build a fire, and memorized most of the steps. Then I went to the trapping station and learned some basic traps. Of course, anyone watching me would've thought that I hadn't learned anything because of my terrific acting, but I was actually picking up on a lot of stuff. Every now again I would see the Careers laughing at me as I failed to correctly build a trap, but I'd just ignore them. They should enjoy the sight of me struggling while it lasted, they weren't going to have a clue what hit them in the arena when I finally dropped this ridiculous act. After going through all of the survival stations (and the berry station twice) I made my way to the knife station. I threw knives in my spare time, but I could definitely improve my form. I had already decided to stay as far away from the axe station as possible, if I got my hands on one it would just be too tempting to throw it as hard as I could at the head of a dummy. At the knife station, I took two knives and threw them as poorly as I could. They both hit the ground a few feet in front of me. I had attracted the attention of the Careers and they laughed at my pathetic attempt to throw. I so desperately wanted to throw a knife right into the forehead of the dummy in front of me, but I had to keep my act up. I hate this stupid fucking act. The instructor came over and showed me how to properly hold the knife. The grip he had me use wasn't that much different than the one I normally used. I simulated a throwing motion to see how the new grip felt without showing my strength. The new grip made the throwing motion a lot smoother, but I couldn't figure out what the release was like without actually throwing the knife. "Well, go on, throw it." said the instructor. I threw the knife again, this time hitting the lower part of the target. I could've thrown it a lot better, but it felt satisfying to actually hit the damn target. Still, the Careers scoffed and moved on to watching two tributes struggle to build a fire.
After spending some more time at the berry station (I had a bunch memorized now) I scoped out more of the competition. The Career boys were all lifting weights. Originally, I thought it was just the boys from Districts One and Two, but apparently he boy from District Four had joined the alliance as well. I had learned that the guy from District One was named Gram and that the guy from District Two was named Jett. I didn't know the name of the District Four boy, but he was tan and had messy brown hair. I decided to call him Mud, because that's what his hair reminded me of. The two Career girls were both working with the bows and arrows. Iris didn't seem very comfortable, her usual smugness gone, but the District One girl seemed at home there. She was pretty good with a bow. I had learned that her name was Siren. The tributes from ten and twelve were pathetically trying to build a fire, and the two tributes from eleven were setting traps. The girl was struggling but the guy seemed to know what he was doing. I wondered where Wyatt was and found him talking with a few other tributes at the berry station. He was with the two tributes from five and the girl from six. Why was he hanging out with them? After the tributes from twelve and ten left the fire station, I went over there to refresh my memory on how to build a fire. As the instructor went over the steps with me, a guy and a girl I didn't recognize came over. "So just take the sticks and this rock and strike..." I zoned out. "Hey, what's your name?" I was snapped out my trance by the girl next to me. I looked up to see that the instructor had left. "He left to talk with some of the Gamemakers," said the girl, as if reading my mind, "What's your name?" I looked at up at her, "Johanna, from District Seven." "Nice to meet you Johanna, I'm Mara. And that's Clay," said the girl. I looked over at Clay, and he smiled weakly before turning his attention back to the fire he was making. "What district are you two from?" I asked. "We're both from District Eight." replied Mara. Mara was about my height, and had straight brown hair that was pulled pack into a short ponytail. Her eyes were green and she seemed to genuinely be smiling. Why the hell was she so happy? Clay had sandy brown hair and dark brown eyes, and all of his attention was on the fire he was trying to build. Clay managed to get his fire started, and Mara leaned over to say something, "So, do you have an alliance yet? Or are you in the minority like us." What? How many alliances were there? There was the Career alliance of course, but what other alliance was there? Then I remembered Wyatt. I looked over and saw him talking with some other tributes, including the girl from District Six. Mara saw what I was looking at and pointed at the two of them, "Yep, those two are working together, and there are other people in that group too, I'm just not entirely sure who else though. The girl's name is Elodie and she's from District Six. But I don't know about the guy." I studied Elodie briefly, she was Wyatt's height and had stunning brown hair, held back a gold headband that matches her hazel eyes. "The guy's name is Wyatt, he's from my district." I told Mara. Clay looked up at us, "I've overheard some of them talking, and it sounds like they're making an alliance to counter the Careers. That's why the Careers brought in the boy from District Four, to make their alliance stronger. From what I've been able to gather, the boy from District Nine, Brisk, might be part of it, as well as the girl from District Five, Cinder." "I've also seen them talking with the two tributes from District Three." interjected Mara. "Oh, there names are Gage and Mallory. They're both pale and have black hair," said Clay.
"How do you remember that stuff?" I asked. "Clay's got a really good memory, great spatial relations too," said Mara pluckily. Clay's expression didn't change despite the compliment. "I also saw Wyatt, Elodie, and Cinder talking to the boy from District Five earlier." I added. "He's another possibility," said Clay, "his name is Crimson." "You don't think all of them could be in an alliance, do you?" I asked the two. "I don't know about all of them," said Mara, "a seven person alliance? That's unheard of, I don't think an alliance that big has ever formed before." "There was a six person alliance in the 62nd Hunger Games, but it didn't last very long," chimed Clay. "Anyways, if the alliance does together, that's twelve people in an alliances. We wouldn't stand a chance by ourselves," said Mara. I saw where this was going, "So you think the three of us should form an alliance," I said. "Well it would increase our odds of survival a bit," said Clay. "So what do you say?" asked Mara as she stuck out her hand, "Alliance?" "Sure," I replied, shaking her outstretched hand.
"So what are your strengths?" asked Clay. "Well," I said thinking, "I'm pretty fast." That was all O had told Flip and Brittany, but this alliance could help me, and I needed them to want to keep me alive. "And I'm really good at identifying berries," I added. "Oh, that's really helpful," said Mara happily. "Clay's got a good memory, but he's slightly color blind, which normally isn't a problem. But it does make it hard for him to tell some of the berries apart. I'm pretty fast myself, and I'm pretty handy with a bow. Not as good as some of the Careers," she gestured to Siren, who was training at the shooting range, "but I'm still pretty good. Clay can use a bow and arrow too, and as I said earlier, he has a great memory and great spatial relations."
After I had shaken hands with Mara and Clay again, training ended and I went back up to my room with Wyatt, who was smiling like and idiot. His alliance building must be going well, why else would he be grinning like that? Flip and Brittany greeted us and asked us how training went. Wyatt immediately started blabbing to Flip, and I raced to my room, sending the message that things did not go well.
I was in a bit of a dilemma now, my original plan had been to appear as weak as possible so everyone would overlook me, but if I looked too weak, my alliance might not want me. And the alliance could be useful later if the stuff about Wyatt's alliance was true. But maybe being in an alliance was a bad thing, it would just draw unnecessary attention if anyone else found out. Mara and Clay seemed nice, and I could probably trust them, but if they were able to learn about the other alliances, what was to stop other people from learning about us? We had been sitting at the fire station for awhile, what if someone had seen us talking and shaking hands and connected the dots? I decided that I needed to appear incredibly weak but still keep my alliance, but how was that even possible? I guess I could just get a really bad training score and just explain that to Mara and Clay that it was a fluke. That seemed to be the best solution. I was pulled out of thought by a knock on the door. I looked up and saw that it had already gotten dark, how long had I been sitting here thinking? The knock repeated, "Johanna, it's me, Brittany." I was nice and let her in.
"So how did training today go?" she asked. "Not well," I mumbled, sniffling a little. "Johanna, drop the act." said Brittany. "What?" I asked incredulously. Shit. Did she really know I was faking my frailty? And if she knew, who else knew? "Don't worry, Johanna. I don't think anybody else suspects a thing, but when I suggested that being weak might get you further, I didn't realize that that was what your strategy was." "How did you figure it out?" I asked her, a little relieved that I didn't have to constantly act like a baby. "Well I was talking to some of the Gamemakers and they were discussing the progress everybody made. They talked about how the District Twelve tributes had managed to build a fire and how the District Eleven tributes had learned how to make some traps pretty quickly. And then they got to you and they remarked how you had made virtually no progress, and how you sucked at everything." I snickered to myself, at least I had the Gamemakers fooled. "I hadn't quite figured it out at that point," continued Brittany, "but I was incredibly suspicious. And then the knife throwing instructor joined the conversation. He talked about how he showed you the correct grip, and how you were going through the throwing motion, and how the motion was almost completely perfect. And then you threw the knife and it was like you threw everything he said right out the window. And then I remembered our conversation yesterday and it clicked." I was a bit impressed, she was smarter than she looked. "Don't tell..." I started, but she cut me off, "Don't tell Flip or Wyatt? Don't worry, I won't." Good. "I think it's a good strategy. I don't know what you're really capable of, but you could definitely win." I smiled. She'd find out how good I could be soon enough. "So what about Wyatt?" I asked, "Is the stuff about his big anti-Career alliance true?"
She looked at me, stunned, but the look was replaced with a smile. "You're pretty observant. But I can't give you much information about that." "Well, why the hell not?" I asked rudely. It felt good to speak normally again. "Because it wouldn't be fair to Wyatt. My job is to help both of you. And it wouldn't really be fair to give information to one of you at the expense of the other? You wouldn't like it if I told Wyatt your plan would you?" Ughh...Brittany was all about fairness. "Who cares about fairness? Flip doesn't seem to give a damn about me. I bet if he learned my plan he'd tell Wyatt as soon as possible!" Brittany seemed to consider what I said, but responded, "Sorry." She got up and was halfway out the door before turning back to me and saying, "It just wouldn't be fair if I told you about Wyatt's seven person alliance against the Careers, it just wouldn't." And then she left.
I smiled. She hadn't given me much, but she'd at least given me something. Wyatt's alliance included seven people. I laid down on my bed and closed my eyes. Training scores were tomorrow, I needed to be well rested for that. Not really, I was going to botch my training evaluation, but I was tired.
A/N: I'll probably update this with another chapter in the next day or so. I'm on Spring Break so I've had some extra spare time to write this. When school starts again I might not be able to update this as quickly (maybe every two days or so, we'll see).