Athena stares after Blackquill as he leaves, her eyes blank.
Trucy cowers for a minute before saying, "Athena...?"
The District 3 girl slowly brings her vision into focus and turns towards her. "Um—yes?"
"What was that?" Trucy's voice sounds a little odd when it's this quiet. She seems... frailer, somehow.
Athena puts her hands on her hips. "Simon invited me to join the Careers, and I declined." She smiles. "I'm already allies with you guys and Clay, right? I don't think they'd let all of us into the pack."
I rest a hand inside my elbow, prodding my forehead with my free index finger. "Is that all it was? It sounded like it was rooted in something else. Do you... know him?"
"No, not really." She scratches her right ear, but only briefly. The motion makes her earring gleam bright yellow. I hadn't noticed it before, with her hair in front of her ears. I don't see one on her other ear, either.
The click of a P.A. is followed by a clear voice from all directions. "Attention, tributes! Food is ready in the lunchroom. Please wrap up your training sessions and come eat as soon as you're ready."
Athena immediately turns that way, popping her knuckles in one punch of the palm. "Great! I'm starved." She bursts forward in a jog, leaving Trucy and me to catch up.
"So," I say once I have the chance, "is there a reason you only have one earring?"
As if just realizing we're still here, she slows down. "You mean this?" She gives the crescent moon a tap, letting it swing. "It's the only one my mother left me, that's all." She grins. "It's supposed to be made of moon rock, so Clay's really jealous."
Ha. I bet he would be.
An image of Clay struggling to pin Athena and swipe the earring crosses my mind, and I almost laugh. I'm sure she would throw him off in a second, though. No luck, Clay. Sorry.
"That's so cool!" Trucy rubs her own earlobes. "Mine are just plastic."
Athena finally slows to a walk as she smiles at Trucy. "They still look great on you, don't worry!"
With a chirping laugh, she bops her head lightly. "Thank you."
I smile, but I can't help thinking back to Athena's latest twitch. If she really was brushing her earring then...
After thinking for a second, I catch her attention.
"Yeah?"
We're drawing closer to other tributes now, so I lower my voice. "Simon Blackquill... Did he have something to do with your mother?"
"My...?" She stops so abruptly I almost pass her. "I..." She gasps in a breath, clenching her elbows as her eyes lose all focus and Widget's screen goes black. "I..." She trembles, her throat working but nothing else coming out.
"A-Athena!"
"Athena!" Trucy steps forward to sling an arm across her back—Athena looks close to falling to her knees. "What's wrong? Are you okay?!"
All Athena can manage is an indistinct noise nearly lost in the sound of her breathing.
"I-I—" I grab one of her wrists. "You like juice, right?!" I nod for her. "I'll be right back!"
And with that, I'm sprinting for the lunchroom, because I don't know what's going on or what I've done to her, but I have to do something about it.
Most of the other tributes are lined up by now, but I charge straight ahead of them to the last table, which carries a neat array of different-colored drinks in cups. At least one person yells at me, but I don't make out the words.
Was it—Did she drink orange juice or apple juice? I think... Maybe... Agh!
I grab a glass of each, turn, and pelt back out to the gymnasium, nearly running over the short guy from 12.
Athena's in exactly the same spot, Trucy still trying to support her. Both of my hands are sticky with what I've managed to slosh out of the cups, but I don't slow down until I'm right in front of them.
"Here," I pant, offering both cups to Athena. Breathing shallowly, she stares at them before slowly reaching out an arm to take the orange juice. She doesn't seem to care about it spilling over the edges as she pulls it towards her lips.
"I-I'm sorry!" I take a huge swig of the apple juice without thinking or taking my eyes off her. "I shouldn't be prying into your life like that. You don't have to answer anything I ask. It's—it's not important, okay? What's important is that you're all right. Are you okay?"
I really have no idea how to encourage her if she can't even speak. But I'm the one that got us all into this, and I have to make it right myself.
Athena lets out a long breath. "It's... okay." She takes another sip of orange juice. "It's okay." Putting her weight back on her feet, she gives Trucy a nod of thanks. "You didn't mean anything by it. Simon..."
I hold a hand out. "You really don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"Right." She takes a step towards the lunchroom, inhales, and starts walking. We keep pace. "My mother did a lot of work with robotics, and she had to travel between districts pretty often. I hated having to travel so much..." She gulps a little more juice. "But a lot of her work was in District 2, and for the time she was there, Simon studied under her."
"Oh, okay." I don't see how any part of that caused her to shut down, but that just means there's still time to stop.
"So that's how I knew him." She takes one more drink of juice before turning her head to smile at us. "Thanks for the juice! Normally it's something I go for after a jog, but! I could go for a little running right now. Still want to race, Trucy?"
She adjusts quickly. "Sure! Although it looks like Polly already beat both of us."
Athena scrunches her nose at me. "Cheater."
"Hey!"
"Okay, Trucy, let's do this! 3, 2, 1, go!" Dropping her cup, Athena tears down the aisle.
With a whoop, Trucy takes off after her. "Don't forget my hat, Polly!" she calls, voice fading as she speeds away, leaving me standing here with an empty but sticky cup and a small pool of orange juice nearly spilled on my shoes.
Where did I even leave her hat?
With a sigh, I set my cup down and try to retrace my steps.
I'm by far the last one to sit down for lunch, but Trucy has saved me a seat. We're at the farthest table from the buffet line, right next to the Careers. I can see why the other tributes weren't so fond of this one. Juniper especially seems nervous about being so close to them, but she stops fidgeting and throwing glances their way once I approach.
"Thank you!" chimes Trucy when I toss her hat back.
I set my plate down next to her and pick up a fork. No finger foods today. I managed to wash the juice off my hands, but my nails are still stained from the camouflage stand despite my best efforts, and the last thing I want to do is make myself sick before the Games start. I'm at enough of a disadvantage already.
Athena's chattering away at Juniper, and Widget is back to a neutral pale blue. I guess she's feeling all right, somehow. I still want to know what happened, what she's hiding from me, what has hurt her so much, but I have to stay my tongue. I can't risk shutting her down in front of anyone else and definitely not in the arena—especially when I, uh, already announced one of her weaknesses to the crowd. I didn't notice more than one person looking over at us then, but I was more concerned with digging the truth out than surveying the crowd.
Honestly, I should be grateful Athena's even sitting near me after all that, let alone declaring an alliance. Given her other choice, it's hard to believe she's putting up with any of us regular tributes.
I throw a few glances at the Career table, but not enough to get their attention. The boy from 1 is still wearing a helmet and face guard I can't see through. The only time he wasn't wearing it was the parade, when he instead had some kind of weird, telescopic goggles. His district partner sits across from him. She's not that imposing physically, but somehow that doesn't make her seem any less efficient at her job. Even if she can't end me with one punch, she's sure to have plenty of equally lethal techniques at her disposal.
I can only assume the same for the District 4 girl. She looks like more of a gymnast than a fighter, and with those clothes she can't be hiding any muscle. Unlike her district partner. He... Yeah, he could kill me in one punch. Gulp. And what are those huge scars on his shoulders? I'd hate to know how he got those... Or what happened to the other party.
My eyes skip over the other two at the table when Simon's sister stands up. Empty cup in hand, she walks past us with little more than a condescending look. With those eyes, it's not hard to imagine her being a killer.
Simon doesn't react to her leaving, but he's still engaged in conversation with the tribute next to him. The guy all in white—what district was he? He's pretty big, so I can see why—
Crash! Simon slams his hand on the table, rattling the plates and upending one bowl. "Foolbright!" For the first time I can see how chafed his wrist is, although there's nothing on it but the edge of his sleeve.
The boy in white pulls back exaggeratedly with his hands up and his mouth wide open. He looks ridiculously shocked, but then again I cringed enough to bump into Trucy, and I'm not even at the same table.
"Sorry." I scoot back to my proper seat and scoop up a heap of mashed potatoes on my fork.
Trucy titters. "You're fine."
I shoot her a look, but motion ahead catches my eye. Ms. Blackquill is heading back now, walking between our two tables to her spot on the far edge, but she stops. After setting her cup down, she takes a few strides to stand behind the middle of our table. Athena turns to see her before the District 2 tribute slips her fingers under Athena's chin and tilts it upward. Right in the redhead's face now, she hisses:
"Forget anything my idiot brother has said to you, any hope he has given you. He may be a skilled manipulator, but I know all of his tricks, and they will not work on me. You won't enter his protection. Not for long, anyway." Her nails are digging into the underside of Athena's jaw, but the latter makes no move to pull away. "I look forward greatly to serving you justice myself, princess."
She flings Athena's chin away from her and turns, a glare of light crossing her frameless glasses. She tilts her nose up at the rest of us—What are you going to do?—before returning to her seat and never giving us another glance.
Athena rubs her chin gently, her eyebrows drawn together.
"Th-Thena?" Juniper reaches towards her.
Inhaling, the 3 drops her hands. "Oh, I'm fine." She smiles. "It doesn't hurt, just feels a little weird."
"But...! What she was saying just now!" She coughs. "What on earth does she think you did?"
With a frown, she says, "I'm not sure." She sounds genuine, but she scratches her ear.
I refuse to try putting the pieces together.
