Day Three of Training
Oaklea:
This was my last day in training with Drew Ilium.
It had been twenty-four hours, almost to the minute, since Skye and Drew had made this agreement that bound me to Drew and Robin.
But I wasn't sure if I hated Skye for this, or if I loved her for it.
Maybe Drew and I did have to kill each other, but I knew that we would at least make it to the final six together. What one of us lacked, another made up for.
I couldn't throw a dagger, so Drew could. I couldn't build, so Robin could. I couldn't do archery, so Skye had learned. It went on like this through the skills until I realized that we were the dream team. If I had ever wanted to go into the Arena with anyone, it would be this team, even if two of them would probably end up slowing us down.
And I had made a friend.
AsUndoubtedly, the knowledge that I soon would be with Drew again had kept me calm through the night before of Skye gossiping with Nicolt, Copper smoking like a chimney while she worked with our stylist for a theme on our interviews and my other mentor stopping every few minutes to give me a speech about how dangerous allies could be-and to never get a capitol girl pregnant because you'll have to marry her and she'll drive you insane with her constant shopping addiction.
In sixteen years of life, I had never made a friend like Drew.
I always seemed to have to comprise on something that I wanted in a friend, but not with Drew.
She was an abundance of everything I had ever wanted in a friend, and I truly hated the fact that I wouldn't have Drew for long. That's why I wanted to spend so much time with her. I wanted to make up a lifetime that we would never get to spend together, talking about people who had left scars with us and those who we loved. I could listen to her forever as she talked about Alicia, Robin's mother.
Of course, I knew that Drew was holding back a story or two because she didn't want to hand me any weaknesses, but I was doing the same anyway. So, it was calling the kettle black.
"Look like we've got some new fans," Drew nodded behind me as she bit into a green apple that seemed to also be mixed with some kind of pear.
I turned around slightly to see the Careers.
They even looked the same.
Rigid way of sitting, with smirks on their faces. Their lean yet muscled bodies. Their pure white smile and attractive faces. They even all seemed to have either the same blonde or same shade of brown hair. And they definitely all had the same dark brown eyes that could make you want to run and hide like a child.
"I guess they figured out that we're the crowd's favorite, and the crowd favorite is blessed by the Gamemakers," I tried to seem happy about this, but Drew still stared at the careers while Robin and Skye were off to find some sort of dessert that Skye was craving.
"It'll be trouble though," Drew shifted her full attention to me, "I don't want to be the Careers target."
As I looked at her, I realized that she had remembered that final piece of the game that I had forgotten.
The Careers.
I guess I just wrote them off, thinking they'd be killed by the Gamemakers for the crowd so that Drew and I could end it all. But they were still a threat, still going to go out fighting. Even if these careers seemed different from the ones in the past, they were still careers. And they were still mumbling about something, ocassionally going off to tell other tributes.
Undoubtedly, they were putting a bounty on our demise.
I couldn't take all of the careers on my own without a casualty on my side. And, if they killed Robin or Skye, Drew nor I would have a reason to want to win.
"Then we get in and get out of the Cornucopia. Know what you'll need first."
"We should probably make a list then, in case only one of us can find something," Drew told me, and I grabbed a napkin and took out a pen that Robin had stolen from a teacher.
List of Supplies:
Water and Food
Sword (2)
Knives (As many as you can carry)
Bow and Arrow
Wire
Matches
I continued to jot down the list with Drew, and I began to wish that she had been my fellow tribute so that we could both get out of this mess.
Drew:
I took aim, telling myself that I'd make the mark perfectly.
I released the string and sent the arrow flying into the air.
It was going perfectly, until it curved down at the last minute and missed the target.
I brought my bow down and groaned.
Oaklea didn't say anything as he took aim, accounting for the new found curve, and the arrow flew straight over to the target.
Oaklea's lips formed a smile, and he turned to me without a word, silently asking for congratulations on a job well done.
Instead of responding, or giving him his praise, I looked back and began to shoot, making the target not all the time but pretty close.
What would Katniss think if she could see me now? Would she give me pointers or say that some people just didn't have the gift? Would she laugh at me or smile? Would she be proud, for once, or would she continue to look at me like she knew that these were my last days?
"Which one do you think you could take?" Oaklea finally spoke up, for the first time pretty much since lunch.
"The Careers?"
Another shot to the dummies heart.
"Yeah, if we do have to go up against them, Frio, from District Two is all mine. He keeps staring at Skye, and I'm still her big brother," Oaklea smiled, though I knew that he was completely serious about wanting Frio, which was great since Frio scared me to death.
I instantly understood why Skye hadn't told Oaklea that she was pregnant. If Jonah was as protective as Oaklea, I wouldn't even tell him that I talked to boys, much less that I was about to have a baby with one.
I began to wonder if Oaklea would ever know about Skye and his little niece or nephew. I highly doubted that she'd really tell him for the first time in the Arena, but we were running out of time to do it anywhere else. And, if Oaklea or Skye died without Oaklea having known about the baby, I would have regretted not telling him.
But I couldn't be the one to tell him.
"Then I want Willa."
I didn't know why I had chosen Willa to hunt down, but I had.
Willa was a normal looking Career. She was from District Four, with blonde hair like Skye. She had brown eyes, and a pretty face if she could maybe learn to smile without looking like the devil. She was strong, lean, and she really knew how to use a spear.
She could kill me at any time, and that was probably why I wanted her dead before she could get the chance to kill me.
But I quickly thought of something Willa had done against me to explain it for Oaklea's sake.
"She made fun of my dress from the Chariots."
This made Oaklea laugh until the timer for an hour went off.
"I'm off to the fire making course. Wanna come?" Oaklea asked as he put his bow away.
I was about to say yes when I noticed Skye walking across from Camouflage to see me, and I quickly decided to spend time with her instead of him, though it hurt me to think that.
"I'm good, go ahead," I told him, silently cursing Skye for breaking me away from her brother, but I understood why she was doing this. I was really the only girl she could trust, and she desperately needed some girl time.
Oaklea looked over and Skye coming towards me and nodded, and he had just walked away when Skye made it to me.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Skye's voice was hushed as she looked around the room at the cameras installed to watch us, and the Gamemakers up in their veranda.
I knew that this meant going to the only place without cameras, the bathrooms.
"Sure," I nodded, and Skye quickly hurried off in the direction of the Girls Bathroom, and I struggled to keep up with her. I wasn't sure if I would ever understand how wished could walk so fast in a tight jumpsuit and uncomfortable looking sandals, but I decided against asking.
Skye rushed me in the bathroom and locked it behind us.
It took her only a few moments before her blue eyes watered and she came to stand beside me.
"Feel my stomach," she wiped her eyes, and I hesitantly felt at her growing abdomen.
And then suddenly, I understood why she was crying.
The baby kicked me.
"The baby kicked me for the first time," Skye laughed with a big smile, enjoying what was probably her first happy moment of motherhood since finding out her child would never meet its father.
When Skye had finished her happy moment, she let herself drift back into the reality, the truth of why we were talking here.
"Drew," she began to cry, "I'm never going to see my child's face!"
She rushed into my arms to hug me, and I awkwardly patted her on the back for a minute or two while I decided what to do.
"Skye, don't think like that. Right now, all you need to worry about is naming this little rascal," I would have poked her in the abdomen if she hadn't been hugging me so tightly.
"I don't know what I'd do without you, Drew!"
I took a long deep breath before I finally spoke up.
"I think you need to tell your brother."
"What?" Skye screeched and quickly got away from me.
"Listen, we need everything that we can Sponsor-Wise. Oaklea and I have already planned out how we are going to announce being allies. But I don't think that it'll be enough."
"So, you don't want me to tell my brother? You want me to tell the Capitol? For sponsors?" Skye looked betrayed.
"I think it could work. But, if you don't want to, we can still go by the plan of you and Robin being together. But your brother does need to know. I mean, while it's your son or daughter, it's his niece or nephew," I tried to reason with her.
"I don't know, Drew," Skye propped herself up on the counters.
"Listen, he's going to find out sometime if you win. And, if you lose, you don't really want your brother to have died without knowing about the baby."
Skye stared at me, her sapphire eyes watering up as she saw the truth in what I was saying.
"I'll tell him tonight, Drew," she told me resolutely, knowing that this could be her last chance.
Oaklea:
"No one can live forever, Oaklea," my mother stroked my hair as I continued to watch my grandfather's funeral.
Suddenly, the scene shifted and I was standing a jungle, watching the night sky. The anthem played, and I watched the faces in the sky.
Both tributes from Two, Three, and Four.
The girl from Five.
The boy from Seven.
The boy from nine.
And then it showed Robin.
I gasped and looked around for Drew, where was Drew? I needed to talk to her, I needed to console her.
But then I saw where she was as her face flickered in the sky with "District Twelve" written underneath her name. The Capitol didn't even bother to put her name there!
I felt myself begin to tremble as I tried to remember Drew's last words to me. But I couldn't remember them. I couldn't remember how she had last looked, if I had been there as she took her final breath. If I had been the one to take it from her.
I couldn't remember such a pouding of my heart, like it couldnt decide if it needed revenge or to give up all together
But then another face flickered in the sky.
"No one can live forever, Oaklea," my mother's voice whispered as my eyes widened at the last face.
The picture wasn't the official Hunger Games picture, it was a picture from her at home, tanning by the beach with that same sunny smile. And the bottom read "District One"
I felt my entire world collapse when the sky read one more thing.
"No One Can Live Forever, Oaklea."
And just like that, it flicked off and the ending anthem played.
But I kept hearing the same thing.
"Oakey! Oakey!" my sister's voice.
No, my late sister's voice.
"Oakey! Oakey!"
Something continued to shake me.
I opened my eyes, and there she was.
"Skye," I almost cried out of joy, and it took all of my willpower not to pull her down and hug her.
"Oakey, can we talk?"
"Talk?" I asked, my eyebrows knit in confusion, and Skye just nodded, "Uh, sure, I guess."
Skye left my room, expecting me to follow her, and I had to basically jump out of bed and run to catch up with her. When I came into the living room, I saw that this wasn't just spontaneously coming to talk to your brother.
She had everything set up. She had my favorite movie waiting on the TV, and there was enough food to fill the stomachs of an entire district. There were plush blankets and pillows everywhere, and it all looked like it could have taken an hour to put together.
As I stood there, I remembered the last time she had done this.
It had been my final day in my beloved District Four, and we were about fourteen. For years, we had agreed on basically everything except for a certain boy named Jon. I hated him, and Skye had before. But, when he showed up to her school that year, Skye was convinced that he had changed from the evil little brat we knew and hated.
Skye suddenly took his defense, and she was seeing him all the time. And that just made me hate Jon even more.
But, when a summer dance rolled along, Skye was offered two dates.
There was Lionel, who I didn't really like.
And there was Jon, who I really didn't like.
Skye had told me that she would go with Lionel since Jon was still so awful.
But, when she called on the me the night before we were to leave, with a set-up like the one here, she had told me the truth about how she was not only going to the dance with Jon but that she had been going to parties and such with him all the time, which I later got her to admit meant that she was dating him.
I knew, as I stood here, that Skye could only have bad news for me.
"What's wrong, Skye?"
Skye looked at me, knowing it was of no use to argue with me.
"You're not going to like it, Oaklea."
"Tell me, Skye," I grit my teeth.
Drew:
I tiredly got out of bed and went to my desk, where there was a new tablet waiting for me.
I passed through the news alerts, mainly talking about our upcoming interviews, and I went back to the list I had been drafting the night before.
But I couldn't get into it.
For the longest time, the Games seemed to rule my life.
Why were the games like that?
If killing you wasn't enough, there was the worry that consumed your final days.
As I sat here, I began to think about my family. No, not my entire family. My dad.
My sister, Annalisa, would cry and cry for years, but she would eventually get over it, name her child Drew in honor of me or something. Jonah would take it the same way.
But I knew how much this would mean to my dad.
Aside from the fact that I was his child, I was also, in a way, his late wife. My sister and brother had inherited their looks from our handsome father, but I was, in almost every way, my mom. My dad had already lost her once, could he handle losing her again?
I pushed that thought away, and my mind focused on something else.
That baby that had kicked me.
Skye's baby.
I wanted that baby to live so much. I wanted it to be raised by whatever new father Skye has found for it, and I want it to have its Uncle Oaklea.
I wanted Oaklea to live.
I wanted him to finally get back to his District Four. I wanted him to have that life he always wanted, with a wife and children. I wanted Oaklea to be able to leave the Games without even so much as a scratch.
Actually, I wanted Oaklea.
I longed to be with him, to find out his secrets. I wished to be the one he dreamed about, the one that he couldn't live without. I wanted to keep him alive, for us both to leave that awful arena.
I pushed away my tablet and came through the hallway, being quite so I wouldn't wake up the happy couple in the mentor's room and Effie in the hot pink room at the end of the hall. It was eerie how quite it was in the penthouse.
It was always like that.
No matter what.
I could be playing music to the loudest it could go in my room, but I couldn't escape that quiet.
I knew it was President Snow telling me that, no matter how shiny and splendid it was, this was a grave.
All of it.
The fancy dresses. The amazing food. The kindhearted teachers, who seem to want to cry just looking at you. The dumb announcers, no matter how sweet Effie can be. The expensive furnishings. The small sliver of hope that your allowed.
It was all a coffin, ready to wrap around me and show that the Capitol won. That the Capitol would always win.
Who had made it like that?
Who had given the Capitol so much?
Who had failed to take it away?
Did they regret it now, as they watched it suck the life out of all of us?
There was only one place I knew that didn't have that smothering quiet.
I knew that Tributes before me had been here time and time again, but it felt like my own little hideaway, where I didn't have to answer to anyone.
When I opened the door to the garden, a full-faced cold front hit me like it was December.
I was only wearing a thin cotton dress that I had found in my closet. It was the closest thing I could find to the nightgown I had at home. All of these nightgowns were plush or silky. But nothing comforted me like this dress did.
I shivered but walked out to the garden. I even walked to the top level, though the metal stairs made me hiss. And I went straight to the edge.
I picked up a flower and through it straight over the fence, but it came right back at me.
Of course it did.
I didn't know why I wanted the barrier down.
I couldn't commit suicide. If I did, I'd be killing Robin in the process. He was dead without me, and he was all I really cared about.
If I didn't have Robin though, if I had been free, I would have wanted to jump off. I would have wanted to die knowing that there was nothing President Snow could do about it. That maybe the Capitol couldn't control some things.
But they had controlled me by brining Robin the Arena.
What would my life have been like if I hadn't been drawn?
I let myself think about it for a long time, and I had a pretty reasonable guess.
Robin and I would never have anything romantic, but I probably would marry someone like Peeta's older brother, who I used to have a crush on. I would have probably had kids, named one Scarlett in memory of my mother. I would have stayed in town most likely, and I would cry immensely every time the Reaping rolled around.
Now, Robin had a more predictable future.
He'd settle down with a sweet girl, have lots and lots of kids, and grow old happily.
What about Skye?
…What about Oaklea?
Where would Oaklea be?
Right now even.
I looked towards the high rise Oaklea had told me was his, and I saw the penthouse he had described. I knew it must have killed Oaklea and his mother to be so close to each other, yet so far.
"Hey, O' Strong One."
I kept looking on, knowing it had been my imagine that I had heard the name that only Oaklea called me.
But then a cold hand touched my back.
I jumped and looked around to see Oaklea, in all of his splendor, almost laughing at me. But he looked too sad to be laughing, and it looked like the face I had seen a Career make when he had accidentally been killed by a practical joke he was going to pull on his friend.
"How'd you get up here?" I asked, silently wondering if this was a dream.
"I don't know. I started walking, up some Avox corridors I think. And I ended up here," Oaklea shrugged as he came to lean over the fence.
"You walked up twelve flights of stairs?" I laughed, and he didn't smile like he usually would have.
His blue eyes met mine, and it all made sense.
Skye told him.
I hadn't expected him to take it well, his sister being pregnant and all, but I never would have thought that Oaklea would take it like this, with such betrayal in his beautiful eyes.
"You knew," he didn't make it sound like a question.
That's because it really wasn't.
It was the only thing that could make sense for suddenly getting an alliance with his sister.
I simply nodded, because my voice was rendered useless with the guilt.
"You're the reason she told me, too, huh?"
I nodded again.
"I didn't want you to never know about your niece or nephew, you know. In case you…" my throat tightened, "died."
But I didn't think Oaklea would die. Maybe Skye, because if she got separated from her brother, she couldn't last a minute.
I knew that Robin could take care of himself, for a while, but he couldn't win.
Oaklea could win.
Oaklea stared at me for a long time, and neither of us spoke.
I knew that, if the crowds could see us right now, they'd be all gushy with this moment.
I didn't much care about the Careers below us.
They could rot for all I cared. They wouldn't win, I knew that much. Nor did I think they wanted to win this year. They didn't have that drive.
Right now, on this rooftop, it was two tributes.
Two tributes with completely different lives.
Two tributes with the same convictions to lead us to the same goal.
And there was one victor on this rooftop.
Only one.
There would forever be only one.
But, for a split moment, I didn't want it to be me.
And, for a split second, Oaklea didn't want it to be him either.
