I was so hungry that when I woke up, I just rolled out of bed and into the dinning area. I was still wearing my pajamas and my hair was all in different places giving me the appearane of a sea monster. I was just to tired to care.
"If only Copper was here to see this. He would love this." I stopped and spun around to see Posiedon.
"Why would Copper want to see this?" I bitterly asked.
"I thought it was obvious that that guy likes you." Posiedon laughed.
"Copper doesn't like me. He doesn't even know me." I stubbornly stated.
"Ever the girl." Posiedon snorted, I clenched my fist and pressed my lips into a thin line.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I spat.
"I just meant that you aren't all squeaky and "YEAH! A BOY LIKES ME!" It was really a compliment, if you think about it." He told me rolling his eyes. We both sat down and Finnick came up out of the elevator.
"Attractive." Finnick nodded in my direction. I flipped him off as I ate my bagel. And then a muffin. And then some eggs. And then some pancakes, and I just started some waffles.
"Does your stomach have no end?" He exclaimed.
"I dunno, I've wondered the same thing sometimes." I told him, before continuing to eat. I drank a large gulp of Orange Juice. Aww, that taste.
It was hard brushing my hair, and I nearly gave up. It would be funny to see the expressions of people when I walked into the training center with huge affro like hair. I searched around the bathroom for twenty minutes before discovering a hair detangler.
I pulled my hear into a braid ponytail. I pulled on a training shirt and some shorts. Three more days and I would be in the arena. It all seemed so sureal. So unrealistic. So scary.
Yet, somehow I carried on like normal. I guess it's because despite the frightening time limit, and depressing arena, I knew it was coming all along so my body was accustomed to it. I kept my head up high and even smiled at a few of Finnick's jokes.
"This afternoon will be your private training session. Do you know what you plan on doing Charlie?" Finnick asked.
"Oh, so only Copper gets the privilege of calling you Charlotte?" Posiedon asked.
"No, you've got it the other way around, the capitol, Copper, and any careers call me Charlotte." I spat.
"I'm a Career." Posiedon smiled.
"Exactly." I sighed.
"Focus Charlie." Finnick sighed.
"Okay, okay. I was thinking start out with some spears, then move unto knives and then maybe the bow. But hey I was thinking, what would they do if I rewired all of the lights in the games to make it flash on and off like strobe lights? It would be awesome if they had the right set up, because then I could keep it flashing so that the next tribute would have to preform his or her set up in strobe lights." I thoughtfully said.
"You don't have the skills." Posiedon said off the bat. I looked to Finnick. He was shaking he head. That kill joy.
"Besides, they probably won't fix it before district 7." Finnick said, he knew me to well. He had seen my rebellion book. He knew me almost as well as Naunet.
We all stepped out of the elevator and I met up with Birch. She was angrily crossing her arms, her dark brown hair falling around her in messy natural curls. Her hair was finally let out of it's ponytail. I walked up to her.
"I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Johanna." She spat angrily. I laughed lightly.
"Why?" I asked leaning against the wall with her.
"Johanna is trying to give Ashton dating advice, and it's really really bad. Be prepared, he might practice a few terrible pick up lines on you. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised." Birch sighed.
"How should I respond?" I asked her worriedly.
"I dunno. Just pat his head. Or kick him in the shin depending on how terrible it is." Birch sighed. The elevator dinged and Ashton stepped out.
"Here comes the devil himself." Birch muttered under her breath, and I lightly laughed.
"I wish I was one of your tears, so I could be born in your eye, run down your cheek, and die on your lips." My eyes widened and I muttered something even I couldn't understand and I turned bright red.
"Aww! You two... look just so-so stupid!" Birch started laughing. Really hard, so hard she ended up falling on the floor attracting attention.
"Birch!" I cried, trying to get her up.
"Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up." I repeated over and over in an annoying tone.
"Fine! J-Just let me c-catch my breath." She wheezed. But when she saw the blush still evident on both of our cheeks she almost lost it again.
"Okay, Okay. I'm honestly getting bored of this whole thing, how about you guys?" Birch sighed.
"It's boring but I think we need to practice." I told them seperating.
"Hey, can I stay with you?" Ashton asked.
"Uh, no way if you two are going together, then I'm coming too. Excluding me isn't very nice." Birch stepped in. Ashton sent her a puppy dog face.
"You know what? I didn't want to be a third wheel anyway." Birch angrily mumbled stomping away. I stood their frozen. I was tempted to ask what just happened, but I had a feeling it wouldn't be appreciated.
We moved around the shelter station, a station we had totally forgotten about, with ease. Then we were going to try camoflouge, but after the first time Ashton picked up a brush, I couldn't help but see Naunet. Naunet with her beautiful paintings hanging on my wall. Naunet with her home made paint brushes, from her own hair, and paint made from her garden outside.
"Can we go somewhere else?" I asked, anxiously rocking back and forth on my feet.
"Why? Are you afraid of us finding out about your secret paint skills so that you can hide from us?" Ashton asked, grinning.
"No. It's just that my friend..." I couldn't even say it. Wow.
"My friend- the one who..." I was fighting tears, and finally Ashton caught on.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.. That was a jerkish move." Ashton said hugging me tightly.
"It's not your fault I never told you." I said.
"How long ago did this friend die?" He whispered in my ear. "I know it was right after the Reaping, but which Reaping?" He asked.
"The one that sent me here." I told him and he hugged me even tighter.
"So now they really want you dead, don't they. You went on that mad tirade... less then a week ago." He stated bitterly.
"Yeah. But I'll be fine. C'mon, let's go." I told him, a week. It felt a lot longer then a week, like a year or two. Had Naunet died a just... 5 days ago?
We walked to some snare station. Ashton was okay at knots, he was better than some of the Careers and tributes from District 3 and 5. He said he only knew the knot that they used to tie the logs together, but it was decent knot.
It was possibly the slowest morning yet. It almost seemed like everyone operated in sort of a daze. I for one definitly did, I was barely putting one foot in front of the other. Like everything was in slow motion, my senses were turned off, loosing me a fist fight with Ashton.
I guess I was just feeling the effects of complete dedication from the past two days. Even Ashton noticed.
"Are you okay?" Ashton asked me.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." I sighed, exhausted, everything was slowed down.
"Are you sure?" Ashton asked, grabbing my elbows.
"Let's take a break at the plant station." Ashton offered. I nodded and we walked over there. I took a deep breath, a relaxing one. I felt myself wake up a bit. I shook it out. Ashton laughed.
"That's a nice dance." He smiled, and I raised my eyebrows.
"Is it now?" I asked amused, he just shook his head with a smirk.
"Well then what's this dance rated?" I asked leaning black and flailing my arms in all direction. I shook my head my hair whipping around, and even wiggled my eyebrows.
Saddly it was a very exhausting dance, so I had to stop after a minute to halt my wheezing. I was doubled over like I had just ran a mile, and I heard some laughter. Go on people, laugh at me, you would get tired too.
"I-I think that's rated a-at a 10 out of 10. Maybe you should just do that for your private session." Ashton was laughing so hard I thought his head might fall off.
"Do you need some help?" I cautiously approached him
"No, but I think you do." He said gaining his composure.
"Okay. I'm awake, let's get this party started." I said rubbing my hands together. I stood in front of the plant station, and when the button pressed on, Ashton and I raced to see who could name as many plants as possible.
We looked funny our faces pressed in concentration and our hands flying around the screen. Every once in a while we would reach into each other's area to match one. We weren't particularly good, and we definitely weren't impressive looking, but our team work was. Alone we would've been disregarded, but the way we slid past each other, ever aware of each others movements was actually kind of cool.
It was almost like we were on the same radio frequency, while everyone else was all scattered around, dotting random spots. It was like we were getting the same directions, the same upbringing. It made us seem like we knew each other way better than we actually did.
I think it's because we had grown trustful and relaxed around each other, and we started to attract a crowd.
We continued onto the hardest level when we were both stumped, I leaned into Ashton and whispered something in his ear.
"I think it's upper right corner, right? Looks healthy enough..." I whispered.
"No, we have something that looks an awful lot like that at home, and it's deadly." He had to bend down a bit to reach my ear.
"Fine." I huffed, crossing my arms. He rolling his eyes and bumped his hip into mine. I bumped my hip back, and much harder, while he had lost his balance, I hit the button. When it announced that we won, I pumped my fist in the air.
"YEAH! GO US!" I cried triumphantly. We had just won the game.
"You!" Ashton exclaimed lunging towards me smiling. He engulfed me in a hug and spun me around. We high fived.
"I say we go to..." I said spinning around the auditorium.
"We challenge you, a fist fight. No weapons, just our fists and a mat." Copper said.
"Who is we?" I asked him.
"Me and Tiger, my District Partner." He grinned, I smiled sweetly back. I think he was trying to make me feel guilty, and it was kind of working... weird. Really really weird. Once I kicked his ass I seriously needed to talk to my brain, what was it doing? Who was controlling it, because I definitely was not.
"Okay." Ashton grinned, his arm slipped around my waist and I felt warmth bubble up in my stomach.
Double weird. No, like a million zillion times weird. When did this all happen?
We all walked over to the mat, and lined up. I stood next to Ashton, and across from Tiger.
"Just a question, I don't really want to break my leg before we even get in the Arena, so what are the rules of defeat?" I asked.
"10 seconds on the ground, don't they teach you that in District 4?" Tiger asked, sneering at me.
"Erm... No. I'm not actually a career." I awkwardly mumbled. We lined up and tensed. I tried to remember my brother teaching my kickboxing. It had been hard then, I was only 9 and I was clumsy and led footed, thankfully after a few years on the boat that had all changed.
Tiger thought I was distracted and lunged at me. I ducked out of the way just in time sending her flying. Copper went to Ashton who was looking worriedly at me. I dove to catch Copper's fist. I winced as my wrist throbbed. Bad Idea. Ashton ducked out of the way as Copper sent a weak fist my way. He wasn't trying nearly as hard as before, and yet I skillfully dodged everyone.
Tiger came back at me, but Ashton simply picked her up and pinned her to the floor for ten seconds, she angrily stomped off the mat. I felt this sick feeling of happiness rise in my stomach. What was going on?
Mean while Copper finally landed a punch, in my gut too, and I was glad he wasn't trying nearly as hard as before, he seemed almost surprised when he landed the punch, and my body jumped backwards, and then ti went into auto pilot.
I dove for his feet, knocking him face first into the floor he caught himself before causing any real damage. I sat on his back and rested my feet lightly on his arm, if he tried to move, I would crush them. Ashton got his ankles.
In a fleeting moment of flying limbs, grunts, punches, and a blur of movement I was pinned under Copper, his breath moving my hair.
At least he brushed his teeth this morning.
And he has really cool freckles, like the light kind that you can barely see, despite the fact that he was far from District 4, I couldn't help but see the resemblance.
I realized, that I was just sitting under his grip, and plus it wasn't a very tight grip. I used all of my force to throw him off of me. I jumped up, and Ashton moved to restrain him. This time I took care to make sure that he was secured, and after ten seconds I got up and stretched.
Then a minute later we were called in for lunch. I would step foot in the training center one more time after this, and it would be for my private session. We all sat down at our usual table, and I brought my legs up to sit criss cross apple sauce.
"I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow, but if you want when you guys are done you can come over, I'm sure everyone will welcome you." I grinned.
"I think I might have to take that, Johanna is now convinced that I can pull off, "Sexy." I don't understand where she get's these things from." Birch huffed crossing her arms. Ashton and I laughed.
"I say we meet up at least once tonight and tomorrow night up on the roof." Birch said.
"I agree." I said, picking at the food. I drank lots of water.
"Okay, how about aiming for 7 pm." Ashton asked, I nodded. We all laughed and talked about funny stories in school.
"One time in music class we were using oil drums to make some music, and it was honestly really really cool, but one kid managed to get the wood sticks we were using stuck straight up. Like he stabbed the drum or something." I laughed.
"One time we were all walking and my friend Eva was laughing really loud and we all turned a corner, and she just walked into the wall." Birch smiled.
"Sarah did that?" Ashton asked surprised, Birch nodded.
"That's weird, she just seems a lot more... graceful now." Ashton marveled.
"Well she wasn't always." Birch laughed.
"I was really heavy footed as a child. Apparently you could hear me from a mile away on the dock." I told them.
"You're kidding, you're so nimble though!" Birch cried.
"I know, it took so many years of my brother showing me cool ways to get on and off the boats, or to repair the sails. He spent so much time on the harbor, and I would just follow him, so I learned how to opperate on a boat, and fish. You can't alert the fish of your presence." I explained.
"Oh, so you're not always a quick learner." Ashton laughed.
"Yeah, not when I'm learning how to completely readjust my whole body stance." I rolled my eyes.
I grimaced as Copper was called, he gracefully got up from his seat and with a killer smile he walked with some stupid confident gait. He even winked at me, I exasperatedly huffed. I looked down at my meal, as Ashton and Birch just looked at me.
"What's that guy's problem? He's always looking at you, I don't like it. It's creepy." Ashton shivered.
"I think he li-ikes you!" Birch sang.
"Shut up. Let's talk about something else." I said throwing a pea at her. She threw the pea back scowling.
It seemed like people were going to fast, and when Posiedon went, I was almost shaking. I still was clueless about what I was going to do. As much as I wanted to do something stupid, but I couldn't lead them to think that something else was up. I had to paths, I learn how to bend the arena like planned, or get killed by a bunch of muts, I took a deep breath.
"District 4, Charlotte." I was thankful they didn't attempt to pronounce my last name. I smiled at Birch and Ashton before taking a deep breath and walking pacified to the room. I was developing a plan in my head. I pushed the large doors open, and I went around to gather objects.
The judges watched me curiously as I threw a bow over my shoulder and strapped a knife to my belt. Especially when I started putting some spears, something they hadn't once seen me touch, totally uncareer like, under my arm.
"Music?" I strongly asked, and in a few minutes some annoying electronic music pulsed through the room. I threw the spears to various dummies about the room. I even threw one to a rope that was holding up some kind of water punching back, for learning. It splashed on the floor, and I shot an arrow at the center of another dummy as the water splashed in my face.
As the beat quickened I threw the three knives I had attached to my hip. The music turned off, and I realized I was done, but there was still around 10 minutes left of private session.
I then did something I will probably always regret. I danced out of the room, and blew the stunned gamemakers a kiss. I even twirled before I opened the door. I sunk against the wall, a relieved woosh coming out my throat.
"Relieved?"
I jumped up and back as Copper came up to stand in front of me. I watched him carefully. My stomach got butterflies and I felt my tummy somersault. These were completely new feelings. He walked closer to me, and my heart raced.
I gulped as he pressed his body against mine, it was intoxicating, and nerve wracking. He dipped his head and lightly kissed me, it wasn't dominant, or violent. It was sweet and calm. His hands cupped my face.
"I'm confused." I whispered, he chuckled like I was a child, someone who knew so little.
"This." He pressed his palm to my pumping heart.
"Means that you like me." He whispered, grinning in my ear.
"So just kiss me back." He smiled. He kissed me again.
"But I don't know anything about you! I don't know your favorite food or color, or your favorite thing to do. I don't know what you do when your mad or sad. I don't know what makes you happy, or what makes you sad." I breathed.
"Then I'll tell you all of that, we have a free afternoon right?" He grinned.
"Yeah.." I trailed off. It suddenly struck me, as I looked at him. I took a step back from him, to him there was only one person getting out of here. Only one person who was victor, there was no way he or I would work, so why start this now?
So he could develop some stupid trust between us so that I relax around him and he can kill me. I was totally falling for someone who was tricking me. I felt blush rise up in my cheeks and irrational pain in my torso. The chilling cold pain turned into boiling anger quickly though.
"I can't believe I was so ignorant!" I cried pacing back and forth. Copper looked confused.
"Why on Earth would you, right before the Hunger Games starts, fall in love? You're a career, you've been trained since you could walk to kill and not to let anything in the way. Fuck, I thought I was smarter than this." I felt like punching a wall.
"Wait, Charlie-" He began.
"Charlie?" I angrily cut him off.
"Yeah, Charlie, I heard District 4 calling you that. Do I not get the honor of calling you Charlie?" He angrily spat.
"After you played my emotions like that? No." I angrily said before walking away, mashing the buttons. Sadly, he got into the elevator, when he walked in, I pressed his floor. The elevator barely moved and the door opened. Copper sat there staring at me like an idiot.
"You should go." I bitterly said crossing my arms. I'm glad I realized this before it got out of hand. I tapped my feet as he defeatedly walked out of the elevator. When it reached my floor, I sprung out of the door.
I exploded into the apartment Finnick's head snapped to greet me.
"How'd you do?" He asked.
"I dunno." I deadpanned.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah I'm fine." I stubbornly stated. I sat on the couch my arms crossed. I stared ahead blankly, irritated.
I thought I liked Copper, and I thought I liked Ashton, but I was so stupid. So naïve, how did I not see this happening. I was being like a pansie, discovering I have feelings for people who were set out in an arena to kill me.
"I think you may have just cost me my life in the arena." Posiedon angrily said as he stomped into the room.
"What?" Finnick's head snapped to attention.
"I just talked with Copper, you totally discovered him. He says your a great kisser by the way." Posiedon angrily grinned when he saw my reaction.
"He kissed you?" Finnick asked, a little angry, confused and upset at the same time.
"Twice, why do you think her lip was bleeding?" Posiedon was finding joy in Finnick's stunned expression.
"We're talking right now, and you're going to tell me every detail." Finnick said leading me into his room.
His bed was clean and his whole room smelled like cologne, it was a little gross. I laid down on his floor taking a deep breath.
"It all started after the second day of training. He kissed me, he was mad at me... and I just don't know. I guess he spent a lot of his time stalking me, so I was kind of freaked out. And he would follow me around, giving me tips, challenging me. Then after the private session, I finally got thinking, and I realized he was just simply using me, so I told him so. Then I came up here. It's simple." I told Finnick, he sighed and hugged me.
"It'll be alright. Now go take a shower we're having an early dinner tonight." Finnick told me. I smiled getting off of his floor.
