I wake up screaming into my pillow. I feel a hand on my back and figure that it's my mother trying to comfort me after my nightmare, but when I begin to look around, I see I'm not in my room and it all comes rushing back to me. It wasn't a dream; I was really reaped into the Hunger Games. And then I remember the hand on my back. My first thought is that it could be Zane and I jump up out of the small bed dragging my sheets with me. The blankets cover my body, and I look up to see Wiress standing near the window. The sun is slowly setting outside, and I can barely see her expression. Fumbling for the lights, I can tell she's slightly frightened by my reaction.
"Oh, Wiress," I say flipping on the lights. "I, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was you. I thought you were, uh, someone else…" I instantly blush; realizing that in some part of my head I had hoped it was Zane coming to comfort me.
She nods quietly and smiles at my pink cheeks. "Yes, he is quite the charmer."
I stand shocked that she has spoken. Her voice is quiet, barely audible. She speaks as if she is a shy child.
"I'm sorry?" I move my arms down, letting the sheets fall slightly out of my grasp, a little more comfortable around this still strange woman. This is the first I've heard her speak since we got on the train.
Wiress points her thumb to the wall, indicating the next room over where Zane is sleeping. I blush and lift the sheets to my face and shake my head, almost ashamed that she was able to read my thoughts so perfectly.
"I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't know I was, uh, that obvious…" I shuffle towards the bed and drop the sheet, lacing up the boots I was wearing earlier. I don't look at her face, knowing that she'd see that the color in my cheeks hadn't faded.
"Oh, you're not," she practically whispers. I look at her face, not understanding how she could have known if it wasn't obvious. She smiles quietly to herself and says, "I can just see why someone would enjoy his presence. He's sweet."
I smile at Wiress and nod. She clumsily takes my hand and squeezes it, silently telling me she'll keep my secret, whatever it may be. I don't bother asking why she had come into my room in the first place, I'm just glad she was here.
She points to the door and I take the hint that we should get going to dinner, before Courtney attacks us for being late. My stomach is still slightly bloated from lunch, but the thought of facing all of that delicious food again was making my mouth water. Wiress chuckles and slides out the door, disappearing by the time I finish getting the boots on and entering the long hallway.
As I get closer to the living area door, I can hear Courtney's ridiculous accent blabbing on about the importance of appearance. I giggle quietly to myself as I picture Zane's face scrunched up in a sneer of disgust, his arms crossed as Courtney nags him about mascara and colorful clothing. I slink in slowly and spot Beetee and Wiress right away, sitting on the same couch as they were earlier. Zane is sitting at his place at the dining room table, a full plate a food sitting in front of him. His eyes are closed and no one but our mentors notice me sit down. Courtney is pacing in her tall heels across the room with her back turned to the table. She stumbles and I have to try hard not to laugh too loudly, and end up snorting instead. I instantly blush and see Wiress giggle into her hand behind Beetee. I hide my reddening face when I see Zane snicker out of the corner of my eye. His eyes are still closed, but he grins slightly, making my stomach do summersaults. I turn to look at him just as he opens his eyes and glances at me. The second our eyes lock we break out into insane laughter. Wiress is next, giggling silently against Beetee, who breaks out into a quiet laughter watching Zane and I fall over each other. Courtney whips around and glares at the two of us practically falling out of our chairs.
"What in Panem's name are you two snickering about?" she shrills at us. Zane practically falls backwards out of his chair, which makes me begin to snort, causing everyone's laughter to intensify. Courtney however, was not amused. "Ebony, young ladies do not snort when they laugh. And Zane, young men are supposed to sit up straight and keep all four legs of the chair on the floor at all times. I seriously do not think you two are going to survive very long without proper etiquette!"
"Proper etiquette!" Zane mimics and he and I, plus our mentors, double over with laughter. Courtney gets even more frustrated with us, and nearly falls over trying to confront Beetee who has fallen over onto the arm of the couch. Out of the corner of my eye I see a small, redheaded avox smile with her eyes at our antics, and I find myself wishing that she could join us. She looked about my age, far too young to be a traitor of Panem.
Slowly, I calm down and stop watching the young girl. Zane wipes the corners of his eyes while the rest of us slowly sit up straight once more and chuckle to ourselves. Courtney remains unamused as she shuffles towards her seat on the opposite couch.
"If you two are quite finished mocking me and giggling like children, I think we should discuss survival, since you were so keen on interrupting my program earlier to talk about it."
Courtney sits on the couch, snapping at the redheaded avox. The girl comes bustling over presenting her dish to Courtney, who after getting one whiff of the platter, brushes the girl away again. "So, Beetee. What do you have to tell our champions?"
The emphasis on "champions" is sour. She doesn't look at anyone as she says it either, just picks up a magazine with an overly made-up Capitol woman on the cover and begins reading. Or at least, I hope she's actually reading it instead of just flipping through the disgustingly colorful pages.
"Would you two care to join us over here with your food so we can discuss this?" He pushes his glasses up his nose and squirms in his seat to get more comfortable. Wiress tucks her legs under her to make more room for him and watches silently.
"Yeah, sure," Zane says, standing up with a small plate of food. His stack is small for dinner, only a small plate of chicken and potatoes. He shakes his head politely no at an avox that offers him a dish of soup and sits back in his spot on the couch. He looks up at me expectantly, motioning with his head that I should sit down too. I grab a sliced up apple, some cheese, and District three bread and settle down next to Zane on the couch. The second I become comfortable next to him, his body relaxes and he begins talking to Beetee between bites of food.
"Like I said earlier at lunch, be smart," Beetee begins. "Don't count yourself out of the games if you see others in the training arena who are stronger or faster than you are. Some, like those in Districts one and two, may have been training their entire lives for this moment, but I know for a fact they don't exercise their brains like you two have." He smiles at his little speech. His confidence in us seems to be growing as well. He speaks sitting up straight with a glint of hope in his eyes when he directs us.
"Before I continue, I want to hear every strength you each think you posses. The more we know about you, the better we can equip you in the Games when sponsors come knocking. Ebony, why don't you begin?" Zane watches me carefully, as do Beetee and Wiress. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Courtney peeking over her magazine behind Zane's shoulder. All eyes are on me as I stutter out, "I-I don't think I have a uh, any strengths." My voice drops off slowly as I sink into the couch.
"Bullshit." I open my eyes wide as Zane turns to me and repeats, "bullshit. I know you have strengths. Chris would gush about you all the time, how you are absolutely brilliant with your hands and can improve so easily on old technology without adding anything to it."
The second he mentions my brother's name I remember where I knew him. They did work in the factories together, and often I'd look out my window watching him and Chris outside of our building. Chris never talked about him though. He'd mention him, but not by name and I didn't know anything about his personal life. Other than where he worked and how he knew my brother, Zane was a complete mystery to me.
"Ebony, is this true?" Beetee looks at me encouragingly, to build upon what Zane had said.
"Of course it's true! She's brilliant, incredibly intelligent. I don't know much about her physical strength, but I know her mind is as amazing as it can be." I burn a brighter red with every word, and Beetee smiles, nodding his head.
"Good, good. That's one thing you really have to rely on. It's how I survived, and it's how Wiress survived, and it's how you two will survive."
"But Beetee, only one of them can survive." Of course, Courtney would be the one to state the obvious. She plants both feet on the floor and stares ahead at Beetee. Her voice is almost mocking, but maybe that's just the Capitol accent twisting her words.
"Yes, Courtney. We are all aware that only one of them can win. But right now, until otherwise specified, they are a team. Until they let us know that they'd like to begin to train separately, we well all work together."
Courtney pulls her magazine back over her face, shutting us out once more.
"Zane, what about you? Do you have any talents?"
Before he can even answer Beetee, I blurt out, "He's strong." Everyone looks at me, shocked that I've even spoken without being asked a question first. "He, he works in the factory with my brother. My brother would come home and lift my younger brother over his head, and me too. Sometimes both of us at once. In his area of the factory there was a lot of heavy lifting, mostly boxes of gears." I trail off there, not exactly sure where this stream of information was coming from. Everyone in the room was still looking at me, including Courtney who had lowered her magazine at the sound of my voice.
Zane was the quickest to gain his composure again. "She's right. At the factory, the younger workers do most of the heavy lifting. We can lift and throw pretty far, depending on what it is we're holding. But I don't know how that would be able to help me."
"If you can throw something that heavy you can throw a spear. You can throw a knife, you can fight. You have a chance of survival against the careers."
"And don't forget the sponsers." Courtney chimes in. We all look at our personal ray of sunshine. "Well you cannot! They're just as important."
"Being well-liked, yes that is important. But your strengths are as well. I think we had better let our tributes rest for now. We should be arriving at the Capitol in the morning."
Beetee stands and Wiress follows, cutting Courtney off before she could argue and lecture about manners.
"We will see you all in the morning then. Goodnight." The two leave silently, Wiress following closely behind Beetee practically walking on top of his heels.
"Well, I guess that just leaves the three of us. Now I don't know about you, but I'd like to turn on the television and watch Ceasar Flickerman. Would you two care to join me for this riveting program?"
Zane and I share a glance, and he helps me up off the couch. "No, Courtney, I think we'll head off to bed as well. Long day tomorrow." I follow him out of the room, much like Wiress had followed Beetee, and he leads us to where the rooms are. He pauses only for a second outside of my door and tells me he'll see me in the morning before sauntering down the long hall to his room. I watch him walk, and he turns around and waves once before disappearing inside his room.
I don't know why, but I continue standing out in the hallway watching where Zane used to stand, almost hoping he'd reappear. I watched the woods passing in the window opposite my door and tried not to think about the days to come. Every tree we passed brought us closer and closer to the Capitol, and closer to the Games themselves.