After I woke up, Mac came back into the room and said we have to go back to the train station. We all get up and leave, and then soon we're on the way back to District 4.
Even though I was lying down the whole time, I feel tired. I sit down near the edge and let my feet dangle over it. I lie down, and fall asleep. When I wake up again, I can smell the sea of District 4. It's nice being back. I didn't like District 3 that much. Well, maybe because I wasn't used to it, but whatever. When we arrive at the train station in District 4, we all go back to the training center.
"Now, it's 8:30 am." Crash says over the megaphone once we've all settled down. "Since you all played a good game, you'll have breakfast now. Head over to the eating area at 9 am. You will all have free time for half an hour. Try to do something productive. That is all."
It's 8:30 am? But we arrived in District 3 at about 6 am. Which means we probably started our game at 6:30, and it takes an hour to get from 3 to 4. That means we ended at 7:30. But that also means that our game was only an hour long, as supposed to three or four hours.
"Hey!" Shelly says as she walks up to me. "What team were you in?"
"Hey Shelly." I smile at her. "I was a sacker."
"Me too! We should've teamed up. Did you team up with anyone?"
"Me." Kendall says as he comes up behind me.
"Hey Kendall," I say. "Sorry I didn't see Marina in time and didn't warn you."
"Nah, it's fine. She snuck up behind me and you couldn't have seen cause you were up ahead." He says, and looks at Shelly. "How much points did you score?"
"I didn't keep track. I think they're showing everything when we see what team won though. Fingers-crossed it's us." She smiles.
"I bet it's going to be you guys." Finn says as he gives Shelly a kiss on the cheek. "Kendall and Olivia went on a total killing spree."
"We did?" Kendall smirks.
"Yeah. Especially you!" He says, looking at me. "You killed me with your poisonous blow darts." He laughs.
"Sorry Finn. Wasn't really looking at who I was killing." I say.
"That's so not true!" Seb says as he walks up to us with Harbor, Wave and Tide behind him. "You totally knew who I was."
"Whatever." I laugh, and then we all go to the eating area. When we get there, we have 10 minutes to spare so we decide to talk about our kills.
"Well, I killed about 10 people with my darts." I say, looking at Finn. "Then I don't really know about the rest. Oh, Seb and Marina. And some girl who I stole the darts from. That's all I remember though."
"I killed Tide and Harbor." Shelly says. "And some group of girls who looked too scared to move. They must've never been to a forest before. Or don't adapt quickly like most of us who've never been to a lot of places."
"I killed Wave." Tide says, nudging him. "And I almost got Kendall, but then Shelly killed me before I could throw my spear."
"I killed most of the girls on the red team. And some guys." Wave says with a shrug. Just then, Crash opens the door to the eating area and tells us to go in, but don't sit down yet. After a few minutes, we're all complete and Crash tells us to look for our names and sit down. I find it a few tables away from where I was originally standing, and then I sit down. Finn comes up to me and sits down on my right, smiling at me.
"Thanks for not killing me so brutally." A brown-haired girl says as she sits down on my left. It's the girl I stole the darts from.
"No problem." I say and smile and then we both laugh.
"I'm Taylor." She says.
"I'm Olivia." I smile at her again, and then we hear Crash's voice.
"Now, there should be an envelope in front of you. If you see a "stay", well, you're allowed to stay. If you see a "home", you're going home. Got it? Now, if you see a "home", you have to pack your bags, and be at the gates by 10. You're allowed to eat breakfast here, but that's all. You can now open your envelope." He says, and then leaves the room.
When I open my envelope, I see a blank paper. I look at Finn, who is looking at his paper that says, "stay". He looks at me, and then smiles. I show him my blank paper.
"Turn it over." He laughs.
"Oh." I say, and flip it over. It says "stay". I laugh at myself and look over to Taylor. It's says "home". Obviously, I don't know what to say. I'm the one who killed her. If I didn't, her paper would probably have said "stay".
"Taylor…" I begin, but then she stops me.
"No, that's okay. It was my fault I wasn't careful. Have fun okay?" She says, smiles, and leaves. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me but it seems like she wanted to leave.
"That was weird." Finn says as he gets up to get food. "C'mon, I'm starving."
After breakfast, we all go to the training room, and we pick a slip from a bowl. When I open mine, it says, "knives".
"Sweet! What'd you get?" Seb calls out to me.
"Knives. You?"
"Machete." He says, grinning. "Well, I already know how to use it but it's always nice learning new things."
"You obviously need more practice since you couldn't kill me." I grin back at him and walk towards the knife station. When I get there, my trainer isn't there yet, so I just decide to observe my target. I walk towards it and see that it's a little thicker than my target in District 2, but I remember that one of my old trainers said that it shouldn't make much of a difference.
"Now, before we begin, as you all obviously know, people were sent home today. Can any of you guess how much?" Crash says over his megaphone.
"27?" Brooke says over at her station.
"Good, did you count?" Crash smiles at her. "Anyways, 27 people were sent home. It's a lot more than what we usually send home on the second evaluation, but what's done is done."
"So only 8 more people have to go home, and then we start training for real?" One of the eighteen year-old boys says.
"Yup, and we're going to see who those 8 are tonight at dinner." Crash says and leaves the room. I turn back to look at the targets, but I hear the sound of metal spinning towards me. I turn around and blade spinning towards me. I time it correctly so I can catch its handle, which is very hard to do, but I manage. I position myself to throw it back at my attacker but then a tall, dark and stocky man who was in a throwing position now holds his hands above his head.
"Don't throw. I was just testing your attentiveness. I'm Pelagic, but you can call me Lag. I hate the name my parents gave me." He says, and walks towards me with his hand stretched out, gesturing me to give me his knife back.
"I'm Olivia." I say, but before handing him the knife I say, "How do I know you're not going to throw it at me again?"
"Because I'm your trainer." He says, and smiles. I hand him the knife and we begin training. At first I show him what I can already do, and then he just gives me tips. He says that I'm already an expert at it and I don't need much help, but training days are not to be wasted, so he has me throw at some dummies.
Just then, a loud cry comes out from behind me. I see Lag stiffen as he looks back to where the noise came from, and when I turn around, I see why. Seb's on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. I start to walk over to him, but Lag puts his hand in front of me.
"Stay here." He says, and walks over to him. The trainers all do the same and soon all 37 of us are in the knife station, looking over at number 38, Seb.
"What's going to happen to him?" A teary-eyed Shelly says as she walks up to me with Finn holding her hand tightly and comforting her.
"I don't know." I say, then add, "Why are you crying?"
"Because I saw it happen. The snare-making station is right next to the machete station, and I saw it happen." She says, then the tears start falling from her eyes.
"What happened?" I say.
"His trainer accidentally sliced his waist open. There's a big cut along his stomach, and blood started spilling out of him and he collapsed and… and… and then…" She begins, but she's running out of breath because she's crying.
"Don't continue. You might upset yourself even more." I say, and start comforting her.
"I almost vomited. It was like I could see it happen in slow motion. I keep seeing it over and over again." She says, and then her knees give in and she sinks to the floor. "Is he going to…?"
"Nope." I say, before she can say the word. Die. "Was it… deep?"
"I don't think so." She says, but apparently it's so bad that we have to cancel training for today. As we walk out I see Seb, who's on the stretcher. He's just lying there, and he looks so pale. I look at his chest, and thankfully I see it rise, and then collapse. At least he's still breathing. When we pass him, I squeeze his hand, which is really cold, to let him know that he's going to be okay. Before we disappear around the corner, I look at his stomach. There's a red blanket over him, but after I look closely I see that it's actually a white blanket, covered in blood.
"What's going to happen to him?" A very scared Shelly asks once we're all inside my room. After we were told training was cancelled, we decided to stay together.
"I don't know." Wave says, holding Tide. She was near Seb too, and saw the cut. She said it was pretty deep, but she wasn't sure. Out of all the good friends I've made here in District 4 so far, only 6 are in my room. Shelly, Finn, Wave, Tide, Kendall and I are in my room; Seb's in the hospital and Harbor got sent home.
"Let's change the subject." Tide suggests.
"Okay, um… Who got sent home?" Kendall says, sitting beside me.
"Harbor did." Wave says.
"And Taylor." I say. So far, that's all I know. Finn seems to know a lot though, but I space out and just stare out the window until someone knocks on my door.
"Dinner time." The voice says, and we all head to the eating area. Most of us are really hungry, since we didn't have lunch. When we get there, we see no name cards, even though they said they were sending home 8 people today. We get food and all sit down on a table next to the stage. Just then, Seb comes in, in a wheelchair. He's wearing his jeans, but no shirt, because there's a huge bandage across his stomach. He wheels over to us and Wave gets him food.
"Hey guys." He says.
"What happened?" I say.
"You know, got sliced. No biggie." He says and takes a bite of the hamburger Wave got him. He winces when he swallows. "I also had stitches done, and it took like 900 hours."
"No it didn't." Kendall says, and they start laughing. Crash comes in and gets food, then takes a seat next to Shore. After dinner, Crash stands up on the stage and ons his megaphone.
"Now, guys. 8 people are going home tonight, but technically only 7 were picked. Seb has to go home because his gash is too deep. Sorry, buddy. It's too bad actually because he was really good. Anyways, see you next year, yeah?" Crash says and gets a paper out of his pocket. "Now, I'll be reading the people who are going home. Tomorrow at breakfast, there will be an envelope on your plate. Inside, there will be a paper with a number on it. The number determines the number of people you will live with, and the order of which the picking will commence. Got it? Oh, and pack your things, since we're all leaving tomorrow."
He clears his throat and says, "Sandy. Cove. Coral. Morgan. Bay. Kai and Oceana. Oh, and Seb." When he's done, I let out a sigh of relief because it's no one I know that well and so I don't have to feel bad. Well, except for Seb. I guess he's an exception though, since he wasn't really supposed to leave. Oh well. We all say bye to Seb since we won't be seeing him for a while.
"Bye Seb." I say, and give him a light hug, since I don't want to hurt him. "Guess we can't go jogging anymore, huh?"
"Whatever." He says, and we laugh. He winces after a while though. "Sorry, it hurts when I do something with my stomach. I wasn't even supposed to eat. I just got so hungry."
I laugh and hug him one last time, and say bye. After that I walk to my room and shut the door. I change to my pajamas and lie in bed. I'm about to fall asleep when I remember I have to pack. Most of my things are still in my suitcase, but for the things that I used, I put them in my duffel bag. I can wash them later. I do one last check of everything in the room to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. The only things I leave out are my toothbrush and toothpaste, my hairbrush, and my clothes for tomorrow.
We were told to wear our training clothes, so that's what I left out for tomorrow. I make a mental note to remember to put my toothbrush, toothpaste and hairbrush back in my duffel bag. Before I go to sleep, I brush my teeth and brush my hair, and then I lie back down in bed. I fall asleep quite quickly, and soon am being waken up by Shelly, who's in her pajamas.
"Wake up!" She shouts, and smiles at me. She opens the curtains in my room and this really wakes me up, because it's so bright.
"Wow, you're happy. What time is it?" I ask, and rub my eyes.
"6." She says and beams at me.
"Isn't breakfast at 7:30?" I say, and lie back down into bed, with my face in the pillow so I don't see any light. However, Shelly pulls me up and so I sit back down. Looking at her now, I see that she looks slightly different. Her brown hair, which usually falls down in curls is now a lighter shade than usual, and is straight.
"Yeah, but we're going to get ready together! Since it's one of the first times that we're going to see the Victors, a good first impression can't hurt!" She says, and Tide comes in.
"Whoa." I say as she does. She looks very different. Her red hair, which is usually in a ponytail, now has a black streak in it. She usually wears glasses, but I guess today she's wearing contacts. She's not wearing her retainers, but now I don't see why she even bothers wearing them; her teeth are really straight. She's not wearing that much make-up, but she still looks different. "You look nice."
"Thanks." She says and smiles at me. "Your turn." At first I didn't want to, but Shelly and Tide kept insisting, so I said okay. They made me listen to music so I couldn't hear them discuss what their plans were and they also made me wear this blindfold while they were doing my hair. However, when it was time to do the make-up, they made my face away from the mirror; so I didn't really know what I was going to look like. While the song faded out so the next one could play, I heard Shelly say something about not to much make-up, so I'm very grateful since I don't like make-up that much. And finally after a few minutes, they were done.
"Voila!" Shelly says, and Tide and I laugh at her. "What?" She says, and spins me around. My draw almost drops when I look in the mirror. I don't even look like me. My long, straight blonde hair now falls down in curls, and the tips are bright pink, but it starts to fade as it rises. It looks nice, and I thank them for it.
"Thankfully, your roots aren't that dark so it looked nice. You know, blonde to pink. Rather than brown to blonde to pink." Tide says. I look again, and notice that I'm not wearing any make-up. I ask them about it but they just shrugged and said, "You look better without it."
We all go back to our rooms to change and agreed that we'll meet up back in my room in 10 minutes, so we can walk up together. When they leave, I grab my clothes and change. When I finish, I brush my teeth, brush my hair and put them back in my duffel bag, along with my pajamas that I wore last night. Soon, Shelly's back and Tide comes awhile after. "Let's go?" They say, and I grab my things. As we walk up, I decide to ask, "Do all the Victors come to this?"
"Only the ones that are chosen. Also, if you're alone with the Victor, you don't come back next year. You live with them until you're 17." Shelly says, and soon we're in the eating area. We find Finn, Wave and Kendall sitting there already, and they wave us to come over to them.
"Hey boys." Shelly says as she sits on Finn's lap. Kendall raises his eyebrows at me questioningly and I point at Shelly and sit beside him. We laugh, and then Tide sits in between her brother and Kendall.
"Wow, you guys look pretty today." Finn says, looking at both of us. Shelly playfully hits him and he raises his eyebrows. "What? You look pretty everyday." He says, and he kisses her. Tide throws her bread at him and scowls. "Thanks Finn." She says, and laughs.
"Aw, don't worry. You're pretty everyday too…" Finn says, looking at Tide, but then turns to me, "Olivia." He turns back to Tide and throws her bread back at her. We all laugh except Tide, and Kendall puts his arm around her and says, "I think you're pretty too." Wave sees and smacks Kendall's hand away and now we all laugh.
After a while, Crash comes in and tells us to hurry up eating breakfast and then go to the training area. Everyone in our table is done so we all go there. When we get there, I see that all the Victors are standing in a line. It's quite scary seeing them all standing there, since they're all so… Intimidating. We walk over to Crash, and he each gives us an envelope.
"We were supposed to give these to you guys earlier, but Shore forgot to set it them up." He says as he gives them to us. The rest come and when we're all complete and have our envelopes, he tells us to line up by height starting from the tallest. I'm the shortest, which means I'll see who I'm going to live with last. We're all in line now, and the first one to go is Finn. He steps up on the platform beside Crash and opens his envelope. He smiles and walks up to a tall, dark man and high-fives him.
"You're supposed to read who you got, Finn." Crash says, to which Finn says, "Reef." I hear the girl in front of me groan and say, "Again?" Next up is Maria, Sprinkle and Captain, the triplets. They all get some girl named Elizabeth, except Maria who gets Reef. I don't really pay attention to who gets called next but my attention returns when the girl in front of me gets called.
She walks up to the stage and smiles when she sees the person she's going to live with. She walks up to him and high-fives him. Crash rolls his eyes and says, "Terri, you're supposed to call out the name." She rolls her eyes too and says, "What for? Everyone knows who Reef is." Crash nods, and turns to me. "Last one." He says, and motions for me to come forward. As I do, I look at all the other Victors. There are some with no kids at all, and most of them look happy. I'm guessing having a lot of people interrupting the way you live can be disturbing sometimes. I look at the people who have a lot of kids though, and they look happy too. I wonder who I'm going to get.
"Ready?" Crash whispers.
"Yup." I say, take a deep breath and open my envelope. I look up before I read the name and look at all the people without any kids yet. I wonder if I'm going to get one of them and not see any of these people for 6 years, or if I'm going to get the ones with a lot of kids and see everyone next year. I think I'd like that. I don't even know why I'm so nervous. I look down at my name and tilt my head a bit because I don't know who it is, because the name doesn't even ring a bell.
I turn to Crash and tell him, "I don't know who it is."
"Just read it." He tells me reassuringly.
I take a deep breath and say, "Finnick."