I wake up and stretch, but instantly regret it. The last two days of training were a shock to my muscles which are not used to being subjected to lifting anything heavier than a book; they ache continually when moved even a little.
After Katniss's revelation about Coin yesterday evening, she spoke to Peeta and Haymitch and convinced them to train us properly. I insisted it was a little too late, but they seemed to be motivated by something important although they would not explain.
We stayed up late last night, and finally we were given some real tips. Katniss taught us about some plants which the expert had not mentioned from a little handwritten book with beautiful illustrations of what each looks like. Peeta described how to make a decent camouflage out of dirt, and how to find water. Haymitch joined us, and then fell asleep after the first hour. I managed to take his knife without waking him, although I'm sure by that point he was so drunk that I could have taken his entire arm and he would never have noticed.
I finally manage to drag myself out of bed and to the shower, allowing the warmth to sooth my aching muscles. Today is the last morning of training, at lunch we will be called out for our private sessions.
Last night they kept us so busy that I barely had time to think, to consider what Katniss has told me. Even if she is right about Elias, surely I can't let him go into the games with the intention of protecting me rather than himself. It may have worked out for Peeta, but Elias can protect himself alone. He has a real chance of winning, as long as he concentrates on protecting himself instead of me. I decide to push the thoughts to the back of my mind and deal with them later.
We spend the morning brushing up on the last few things that could help us, revisiting stations until we're sure that we know the important points off by heart. Then they begin to call us out of lunch for our private sessions, first the boy then the girl. They don't come back afterwards, so soon only Eli and I are left. Eventually Elias is called, and I am left alone.
"Remember what Katniss said. Try to look average." I say.
"That won't be too hard." he says, then leaves me sitting alone. For about fifteen minutes I sit and try to remember everything our mentors said over the last few days. Thanks to Coin I know that I'm either going to be given a score so low that nobody in their right mind would sponsor me, or one so high that I will become a bigger target than I already am. Elias's tactic will not work for me, so I have decided to aim for the latter.
Eventually my name is called. I try to smooth down the stray hairs and wipe any remaining crumbs from my tunic. I enter the gymnasium and announce myself politely. I request a partner, and simply ask them to attack me. The woman seems confused at first, but at least I have the attention of a few of the Gamemakers. I wait patiently, and when she figures out that this is not a joke she takes her stance and attempts a kick. I block it easily. She tries a few more moves, but I manage to duck out of the way before she has even fully completed the move. I can tell by the redness in her face that she is truly trying, but I've barely broke a sweat and none of her swings have so much as scraped me. On her final attempt she almost catches my left ear, but the momentum leaves flat out on the padded mat. She signals to me that she is done. I help her up and smile sweetly.
The Gamemakers look mildly impressed, but I still have a little time remaining. I choose the throwing knives and manage to hit the centre of almost all ten targets. I turn to the Gamemakers and bow. At last, I am dismissed. I take the elevator up to floor twelve, relatively pleased with myself. Those extra nights practicing with Elias when we were younger must have paid off.
When I get to our floor, it seems at first that nobody is there. I knock on bedroom doors searching for a reply but receive none. I decide to go to my own room to see if the interactive wall here plays music like mine at home. It seems so long since the last time I heard the soothing sound of my favourite tracks. I open the door and walk in half in a day-dream, and Jump as I hear a sniff from underneath the covers. I pull the sheet from over the person's head cautiously. It's Katniss.
"Hey." I say.
"Hey." she replies.
"Um... Are you alright?" I ask.
"I'm sorry if I scared you. I just didn't know who else to talk to. I'm not good at talking to people about this kind of thing, even with Prim. But you're different somehow. You're like me." She says. Her words come out in a rush, tripping over each other as they escape.
I go to the panel on the wall and ask for two cups of tea which appear almost instantly, as always. If there's one good thing about the capitol, it's consistency. "My mother always used to say that tea fixes everything that could possibly break." I tell her.
"I think I'm broken beyond the reaches of hot beverages." She says, with the same sad smile as always.
"What's going on, Katniss?" I ask gently.
"We're getting married. If you win, that is." She whispers.
"Weren't you already married in your district?" I ask.
"No, we weren't. Coin said that if we let you win, then she's going to make us have the public wedding which was planned for us before the 75th games and there's nothing we can do." She seems so sad, most couples would love a wedding paid for and held by the capitol. "It's not real, Melodie. None of it is real." She says. And that's when she explains it all to me. About my grandfather's threats, about the part that she played in the act which tricked the nation. By the time she tells me that there was never any baby, she begins to cry. The girl who seemed unbreakable falls apart right beside me, and I just sit there gawping like an idiot.
Once the tears stop once again, she tells me about the events which lead up to her coming here. She tells me how she locked herself away when she came back to district twelve after she killed my grandfather, barely eating anything until she was saved again by the boy with the bread. She describes how Peeta turned up at last and planted the Primrose bushes around her house. He took care of her for the months leading up to my reaping, until the phone call came and she remembered the choice she had made. The choice to allow the 76th hunger games to go ahead. The choice that ultimately lead up to me being here. But not really. Because they choice was always Coin's.
Katniss looks so fragile and young, and I finally see what the capitol has done to her. I've always seen her as the girl on fire, the Mockingjay who lead a rebellion. Yet here in this room, she's an eighteen year old girl who has lost everything she cares about. Her home, her family, and now her free will.
I reach across and lift her chin up so that she is looking at me once again. "The chances that I will win are slim at best. Even if by some miracle I do win, we're not going to let her do this. We'll figure something out, I promise." I say.
"You don't have to promise me anything, except that you won't tell Peeta. Please, Melodie, you can't tell him." She begs.
I act out zipping my mouth and throwing away the key. "Thank you." she mouths. We lie back on the bed and stare at the ceiling for a while, the quiet is nice. Eventually Katniss falls asleep, and I tuck the blanket around her. She looks so peaceful in sleep, as if the world is no longer resting on her shoulders. Elias knocks on the door soon after, so I leave her and go to dinner.
Peeta asks about her absence as we eat, so I lie and say that she has a bad headache and doesn't want to be disturbed. Luckily he does not enquire further, so the issue is laid to rest. We decide not to discuss the private sessions without Katniss against Haymitch's protestations, which allows me a short reprieve. We finish our meal quickly; I know that everyone is eager to see our scores this evening. I'm nervous; although I'm pretty sure Coin will have ensured that my score draws attention to me. I felt that I did well, but what I did in the gymnasium will probably mean nothing. We arrange ourselves on the sofas ready for the broadcast to start, and Katniss rejoins us looking like her normal self. What happened earlier is a secret that only she and I will keep.
The announcements begin. First they flash up a picture of each tribute and which district they represent, then their score. Most score around six, with the girl who was reaped first pulling the lowest score of just two. Isaura, I think her name was. Elias gets the result he was hoping for, a nice average seven. I know he is actually much better; it must have taken real effort to achieve a score so much lower than he could have. Still, it will keep him from being seen as too much of a target.
Although I am expecting a high score being given, I'm still shocked when the number comes up on the screen. I get a twelve.
"Well, they really must want you dead." says Haymitch. They all look at him angrily but I know that it is what they're all thinking. The likelihood of Katniss getting that wedding is even slimmer now, so I guess at least my imminent death won't be a total waste.
I crawl into bed with my head filled with a million thoughts, and decide after an hour that I'm never going to get to sleep. Tomorrow we will be coached for the interviews, then the day after we will appear on the live interviews with Ceaser Flickerman. Then the next, the games begin. After tonight, I can see that the odds are most certainly not in my favour.
I creep down the corridor and to Elias's door. I push it gently, and see that he too is awake. I sit cross-legged at the end of his bed.
"Couldn't sleep either?" he asks.
"Not knowing that by Wednesday evening I could be dead." I say.
"I'm not going to let that happen." He replies.
"Eli, you're not going to put yourself in danger for me. You still have your mother and father to come home to, they need you safe. If I die, then there's nobody left to miss me." I say.
"I'll miss you." He mumbles.
"You've done well enough without me for the last few years. And besides, you have the best chance of actually winning this thing." I tell him.
He brushes a group of loose curls away from my eyes. "Let's agree to disagree." He smiles.
We stay up and talk about all the things we did when we were younger. While our parents were at parties used to sneak out and make our own entertainment. We were so proud when we figured out how to trick the minder into thinking we were still at home. It was pretty easy back then, all it took was a few bottles of warm water hidden under the sheets to create a heat signature roughly my size and a cold shower to disguise mine long enough to escape. That was before they were all upgraded, of course, and before I was moved from our apartment a few streets from Elias to my tower.
We used to go to the small park a few streets away and have picnics made from mismatched items stolen from the cupboards. Crackers dipped in honey and chocolate pudding were always our favourite, although the flavours never quite worked it was the excitement that made it special. The more we talk the more I remember, until it seems absurd that the first thing I thought of when I saw him on the first day was of defence classes. Those days were only a tiny fraction of the ones we spent together, which seemed to have pushed themselves to the back of my mind.
Eventually we do fall asleep, and I wake up nestled against him. It is still only early, so I sneak back to my own room and go back to sleep as if I had never been gone. My last thought before I drift off is that I really hope I die first, because I couldn't bear to lose him again.