Chapter 3: District Square Viewing
My father's presence is more welcome than I can possibly say the next morning, staving off my nightmares.
It's only small comfort when I remember that I am essentially still in one.
The Hunger Games are mandatory viewing throughout the whole district, for all districts. Absolutely no exceptions. To miss even one broadcast guarantees a beating from Peacekeepers, at the very least. They must be effective, for there has never been one for missing mandatory programming as long as I have been alive.
When my family joins the rest of the district in the square, a giant jumbotron TV screen blocks the main entrance to the Justice Building. The Mayor and his family are in the shade, leaning against the stone pillars.
Not so for the rest of us. We common people have to stand in the street, in the hot sun. I look around for Prim or her mother. In this dense crowd, there is little hope that I could spot them. A search for Gale Hawthorne's family proves fruitless as well.
These first few days will be unbearable, but not as much as the actual Games. The next week will show the tributes being prepared for the arena.
The live feed now shows each of the trains pulling into the Capitol, their tributes being guided through the throng of paparazzi. Since the Reapings are not broadcast to anyone outside of the other tributes, this is the first time I will get a real look at Katniss's competition. Only a few stick out in my mind. The boy from District 2 – I hear a commentator call him Cato – looks like he could rip apart a redwood tree with his bare hands. His district partner, Clove, has an unsettling glint in her eye. Same for a redheaded girl from 5.
I skim through the rest more quickly, sorting out who's a threat to my true love and who's not. The boy from 10 has a bad leg; he'll be killed in the Bloodbath. The boy from 11 is basically Cato with darker skin – hulking, menacing, muscular. His partner reminds me painfully of Prim. Then come Katniss and Gale themselves. I am not sure where to place the handsome Seam boy. I have to trust he will look after Katniss in the arena as an ally, but if they make it far enough…. I label him Neutral.
The next several hours are spent watching Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith, our hosts, yakkety-yak about this tribute or that – all pointless gibberish to me. I can see other people around me shifting restlessly, but you are only allowed to leave the area if you really have to go to the bathroom. And if it's not an emergency, or all the Port-a-Pottys are taken? You hold it. Or piss your pants. Same difference.
When dusk finally falls, the coverage of the Chariot rides begins. It is a traditional presentation of the tributes to the President of Panem, with iterations of it even going back to times of some ancient country called Rome. The Career tributes from District 1, 2 and 4 are predictably the most well-crafted by their designers. They will get the most favor from sponsors.
And, no matter how much I will it otherwise, I know the winner of these Games will be one of them.
But I can still hope, especially when gasps and screams of delight make me focus on the screen again.
Katniss and Gale are on fire. Literally. But they aren't burning up into ash. Instead, they are positively glowing and by the time their chariot reaches the City Circle, the audience is chanting their names.
Yup. They'll get sponsors for sure after making such a splash. Maybe they could win after all…
I am relieved when we only have to attend viewings in the evening for the next four days. It will keep me rested to watch the actual stressful part: the arena. Nevertheless, during the ensuing days, Mom keeps us busy with orders, yelling at us if we don't bake something just right.
My thoughts are constantly on Katniss as I knead the dough in front of me. I wonder how she is doing now in Training? I try not to think of Gale, or what he might be doing. Frankly, I don't care about him. All I care about is Katniss.
In the evenings, Caesar and Claudius spread rumors about how the tributes are doing, what their chances will be. It's so boring, I wonder why we don't just have at least the next three days off entirely. Besides, things won't get interesting until the third evening when the tributes scores are broadcasted following their private sessions with the Gamemakers.
On the third night, I wait anxiously as Caesar reads off a name, then a number. All the Careers garner high scores of 9 or 10, on a scale of 1 to 12 total. Medium to low for the rest. Finally, we reach District 12.
"And now, we have the lovely Katniss Everdeen, with a score of….." Caesar blinks and peers closer at the paper, as if he has to believe what he is reading. "11."
11!
There is an audible gasp in the Square and a few people start applause that quickly dies out. I don't know whether I should feel elated or petrified. Katniss just got the highest Training Score ever! The Careers will target her, no question about it.
I am so worried about my love that I barely hear Gale's score of 10, putting him in the mix with the better Careers.
Sponsors will be peppering Twelve with gifts now. And maybe such high numbers will endear the Careers to seek an alliance with the hunting pair. At least it would delay Katniss and Gale being on their kill list. But even if they did, I doubt Katniss would take the offer. She's too proud and too true to herself. She would not stoop to mixing in with the Careers, who illegally train for the Games from practically birth.
The next night is the final night before the arena. This will be the tribute interviews with Caesar Flickerman.
Like the unloading of the trains, only a few tributes really stand out to me. The girl from District 1, Glimmer, is the stereotypical blonde ditz, right down to the annoying giggle. Her performance makes me reconsider where to put her on my Threat to Katniss Meter, until I remember that, live Barbie Doll or not, she's a Career and therefore a threat. Besides, this could very well be a fake angle to throw the other tributes off their game. That's how a girl from 7, Johanna Mason, won a few years back. She pretended to be a total weakling until the Final 8 before she turned on her remaining competitors with an axe and chilling ferocity.
Cato, meanwhile, is going for arrogant. Both Clove and the redhead from 5 sly and cunning. Thresh rarely gives anything beyond one-word answers, and his partner – Rue – draws pity from the audience, even if her age pretty much sentences her to death.
Then it's District 12's turn. My jaw hits the floor when I see Katniss walk out in a strapless red gown. She looks gorgeous and I feel my pants tighten. The red of her dress is so bright, it looks like it might burn right off her.
Then, in the middle of her interview, it does. She twirls around in a circle, and the flames lick up the hem of her dress, Caesar clapping in delight. By the time her buzzer sounds, the audience is calling her Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire.
Gale is last of all. For Katniss's sake, I try to act polite and listen to him, though it's hard. He tells of his close friendship with Katniss, even going so far as to promising he will get her out alive, and I am comforted that it appears he will remain loyal to his hunting buddy in the arena. I feel my stomach clench as I fear that Caesar might try and ask if there is more to Katniss and Gale's friendship, to boost ratings, but he doesn't, instead changing the subject. By the time Gale is through, I can tell his looks alone might make some sponsors interested in him.
When I fall asleep that night, I feel a little bit better about the possibilities of tomorrow's start of the Games, but not by much.