I don't own Hunger Games. I have no life, which is why I write this fan fiction. (Actually, I so have a life. But I am in love with writing.)
Chapter 7-Katniss's POV
"Remember the plan," Gale said.
"Yeah. I'm going to start right now, screw what Haymitch said, we're the ones playing the games." I said.
"I think he had a good reason for telling us that," Gale persisted. He touched his fingertips to mine, as if he wanted to hold my hand.
"No! I'm getting into the careers, your not. But I swear, we are allies. Double agent, remember?" I said. I watched Gale nod slowly. He should be more competitive. He's probably dig himself out of whatever depressed hole he put himself in at the start of the reaping later. I walked over to the boy from District 2, Cato.
"Hey!" I said.
He faced me. "What do you want, Everdeen?"
I was surprised he knew my name, but then realized he had probably watched recaps of the reaping. "I want to be on the careers. I want to be allies."
Cato looked at me with a scowl. "Really? What would I benefit from?"
"I can take out someone with one arrow, one shot. I'm good with knives, too." I demonstrated for him.
"Prove it. When we start training, go over to the archery station, and show me. I don't believe you, because there's nothing to shoot in 12." he scratched his head.
"I can't. I don't want the people outside of the careers to know my skills. Especially not the boy from my district. He's a bitch and would try to take me out first chance he got, if he knew." I wasn't normally one to swear, but it was all part of the bribery. "But I'll tell you this. It might win you over. I hunt illegally. For real. Ask anyone in 12."
Cato's face broke into a huge smile. "Deal. I'll get you a bow if there is one, and a belt of knives. There's always those. But you have to participate in the blood bath. I'll have people watching you, and if you try to make off with your weapons, they will kill you. Understand?"
I nodded. "If there's not a bow, don't worry. I can make a makeshift one out of wood. There's always wood." I paused. "Oh, and by the way, if you see me with the boy from 12, it's all fake. I'm trying to buddy up with him so he'll trust me." I lied.
Cato nodded, then I left.
I rejoined Gale, and smiled. "I'm in. Cato says he can assure me a bow and arrows, as long as there is one at the Cornucopia. Let these Games begin."
Gale then told me his plan. "Get your bow, and knives, and get me something to. Like, pretend to throw a knife at me. I'll catch it and run off, but I'll end up just outside the careers campsite.
"Every night, volunteer to go on patrol, with one other career. I'll kill them, and you can beat yourself up a little to make it look like you got in a fight. After a while, Cato will start doubting himself, and go on patrol with you. This may happen very quickly, or slowly. I'll attack him, but start trying to protect him, and let me 'get away' before you can actually hurt me. The next night, steal a sack of food big enough to keep for a few nights, and then meet me somewhere. Then we'll start our Games."
I had to admit, the plan was brilliant. I might tweak it a little bit, but it would work. It could really work. Good.
Training began, and Gale and I drifted from station to station. I liked the edible plants one, because we both aced that. I could scale the plastic tree they had at the climbing station in under a minute. But it wasn't very tall, probably just as high as the ceiling, ten or fifteen feet. And it wasn't as rough. Gale and I steered clear of the knife throwing and archery stations, because 3, 5,6,7,8,9,10, and 11 were keeping eyes on everybody.
The next three days passed like this. We trained, ate lunch (I tried to mingle with the careers, but bide by my promise to Haymitch as well,) trained a little more, and then went back to our floors. Finally came private lessons. As I was the girl from 12, I was scheduled to go last. All the tributes went out the opposite door and back up to their floors, so the room slowly emptied. When it was just Gale and me left, I considered telling him my feelings. But I couldn't. Not just yet.
Finally, Gale was called away, and I waited uncomfortably for my turn.
Fifteen minutes passed, and I went inside. I could tell the Gamemakers would not be paying very much attention to me. I was last, and they'd probably had one glass of wine per tribute. That's twenty three glasses of alcohol. I threw knives at a target for a few minutes, then moved on to archery. The materials the bows and arrows were made out of was unfamiliar and slick. I picked one and shot until I got the feel of them. Then, I shot down a weighted sack that was hanging near the ceiling. Hardly anyone was watching. They were paying attention to the pig that had just been delivered to them. That made me mad. I got out-staged by a pig! I pulled back an arrow, and shot it through the apple in the pig's mouth. It soared through the stands and smacked into the back wall. The Gamemakers were startled. One man even fell backwards into the punch bowl.
I threw down the weapon and stomped out of the room, a smug look on my face. The smugness only lasted till I got into the elevator though. I probably just ruined my chances of getting a decent score. That didn't stop anyone in the Capitol from being my sponsors, but it would make Cato wonder if I was lying. Whoops.
Effie confronted me at the elevator. "Oh, Katniss, you're early! What happened?"
"I'll tell you at dinner. I only want to tell the story once." I said.
We sat down at dinner a few minutes later. Obviously, Effie had spread the news of my early arrival, because everyone was staring at me, waiting for an answer. "I shot an apple at the Gamemakers," I mumbled quietly.
"What?" they all said.
"I SHOT AN APPLE AT THE GAMEMAKERS!" I yelled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell."
"You, what?" Haymitch was all over me. "They'll sic wild dogs on you in the arena, or…or something! They'll keep trying till you are dead. They will make sure you don't win, Katniss."
Oh, gee. That sure made me feel better. "Oh come on, they'll probably just give me a bad score." I said.
Haymitch shrugged. "Believe whatever you want to."
"Can we just eat and agree that I messed up big time?" I asked. "I don't thing I really deserve to be scolded when I'm going to be in the arena one day from now. Besides, we need to go watch and see the scores."
Everyone agreed, and we went into the sitting room.
They showed a headshot of all the tributes on the television, and their scores. I wasn't paying attention much to anyone but Cato, Gale, and I. Cato pulled a seven. Gale got an eight. I'd be lucky if I got a four. I waited for my score, and to my intense surprise, I got an eleven. I gasped, and suddenly everyone around me had pulled me into a group hug. Everyone, except Haymitch.
"They did that so everyone will be after you in the beginning." Haymitch shrugged. Little did he know, my eleven was actually a good thing. I bet Cato had fallen out of his chair due to sheer happiness I was "on his side". No matter. I wanted to go to bed.
"One question," Haymitch asked before we went to bed. "Would you two like to be coached separately, or together tomorrow?"
Gale and I both agreed that separately would work the best for both of us, and went to bed.
XXX
I was awoken by Effie's chorus of "Big, BIG day to get ready for," outside my bedroom. I put on random articles of clothing and stumbled to breakfast, still half asleep.
Gale was already there, just a little bit more awake than I was. I made him pinch my arm really hard, the way he did when I was extremely tired in the woods some mornings. I was awake almost instantly.
We got eight hours of training. Four with Effie for public etiquette, and four with Haymitch for interview style.
I got to be with Effie first. I had no idea how much she could possibly teach me about sitting and listening intently to everyone's interview. But it turns out she had me working down to the last minute. She had me walk in a full length ball gown and five inch heels. She squealed at me when I tried to hitch the dress up above my ankles, and got very impatient when I tripped. But when I finally mastered those, she gave me the most important test of them all.
"Smile, Katniss." she said.
I flashed a very quick, and very fake smile.
"Not like that!" she cried.
"I can't smile if I'm not really happy!" I said.
"What happened to that smile you had on right before you got on the chariot? It was wonderful. It's Gale, isn't it? He makes you happy. So think about Gale, for God's sake, Katniss think about the funniest thing he's ever done to you!"
I thought about the arrow through the bread on the reaping, and how I had to tackle him to get it. I couldn't help but smile a little bit. Just a little, though.
"Oh my god. Was it really that hard? A real smile, even if it's small, is better then a frown. Now go, Haymitch is waiting for you."
I pulled on some normal clothes and went to meet Haymitch in the dining room.
"Okay, Katniss, let's find your angle. That's the way you portray yourself. You would do good with how you were on the chariot, I think. So, do that, plus determined to win for your sister, and you'll have it. Just remember to smile." Haymitch let me go back to my room and rest for the rest of our time. I guess he was using his time to get drunk, since he wouldn't have a chance for at least two weeks while were in the arena. Then I had to be handed over to my prep crew.
Octavia painted my nails black with little orange flames forming at my cuticles. Flavius weaved strips of red in my hair, and did tiny braids all over the place. Venia rubbed out my features and drew them back in; dark eyes, red lips, orange eye lids. The last touch was Cinna's dress. The prep crew left, and Cinna came in with a black dress bag over his arm. "Close your eyes," he said.
I did, and held my arms up. He slipped the dress over my head, and instantly I could tell that it was very heavy.
He directed me toward a mirror. "Open your eyes."
I did. The dress was beautiful. It had red, orange, and white crystals inlaid in the fabric, and some of them had blue accent tips. The dress material was gold and shiny. "Oh, Cinna…" there were no words to describe how pretty the dress was.
"You look beautiful. Now let's get you downstairs by Gale. You wouldn't want to be late, would you?"
Cinna led me to the elevator, and as soon as I saw Gale, I had to stop myself from gasping loudly. He was very handsome in a black suit with flame accents. His eyes looked like smoke. Very, very sexy clouds of smoke.
We waited behind the stage for about ten minutes, then Caesar Flickerman, the person who interviews us, said, "Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the tributes of the 74th Hunger Games!"
We entered the stage, and sat in a long row behind the interview chairs. I was second to last, because of my district. Gale was last.
The girl from District 1 puts on a small crooked smile as she sits down across from Caesar, his hair dyed powder blue. She's sexy all the way.
I tried to wipe the sweat forming on my hands off on my dress, but the fabric was too slick. I was getting nervous, which was bad. I can never smile while I'm nervous. It was a known fact in my household. When my mother knew I was hiding something, except on birthdays, she'd say, "smile, Katniss!" and if I couldn't, well, she knew.
Each interview lasts only three minutes. Before I knew it, the little girl from 11, Rue, was across from Caesar. She was exactly like Prim in size and demeanor. I wondered how long she would survive.
As I pondered on this, Rue's interview came and went. Then Thresh's. My name was being called.
I stood up and smiled. As I was partially hidden by the curtain, the crowd had not yet seen the beauty of my dress to the extent. They "ooh-ed" and "ahh-ed" every five seconds.
As soon as I sat down, Caesar was asking me questions. "So? Katniss. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that little girl you volunteered for?"
I gulped. "Her name is Primrose. Everyone calls her Prim. She's my sister, and she means more to me than anything else in the world." Well, actually, right now Gale might be the exception. Prim was safe at home, and now I wanted to keep Gale safe. For as long as possible.
"I see. I could tell she didn't want you to volunteer."
"She didn't but she would have died, otherwise." I explained. "She takes after my mother. She likes to heal people. She'd try to help the people that were hurt, and that would make her vulnerable."
"Yes, it would, wouldn't it, Katniss? And what about this eleven? Wow." he said. "Are we possibly aloud to know what you did to get such a high score?"
"I'm not supposed to talk about it, am I?" I looked up halfway at the Gamemakers' box.
The man who fell into the punch bowl yelled, "She's not!"
"Well, okay, then. Katniss, can you do one last thing before your interview is over? Spin for us?"
I sighed, and twirled a few times around. The crowd sighed out of pure admiration. "No, don't stop!"
I twirled once more, and as the timer rang, headed back to my seat.
Gale's interview was twice as good as mine. He had a certain calmness about him, and he was funny, too. I thought it kind of odd that he was finally showing the world the carefree side of himself that only I'd seen before.
"So, Gale? Do you have a girlfriend back in 12?" he asked.
Gale thought for a second, then shook his head. "No."
"Oh, surely, though, there's a girl that's stolen your heart? Am I right? Why not tell her now, live? When you get home she might just notice you for once…" Caesar teased.
"That wouldn't really help my case," Gale whispered.
"Why not, Gale?"
"Her name is Katniss Everdeen."
A/N: Am I torturing you all, yet? I've been desperately trying for a decent cliff hanger…I think I finally achieved it! Tell me in your reviews! Also, if you are lucky I might have the next chapter up today, because I don't have much to do. This is my longest chapter yet! REVIEW!
