The district boy watched us that whole afternoon; his emerald eyes burning into my mind. I wanted to go talk with him, but somehow that felt wrong. He gave me a weird feeling, like you get when you get up too quickly.
I tried to ignore him; two allies were plenty for me, but every time I looked up he was staring at me, his face full of an emotion I couldn't name.
"Prim? What's wrong?" Rue asked as we left fire-building.
"Huh, oh nothing." I tried to cover for zoning off each time someone noticed but as they kept noticing, and he kept slowing my mind, the excuses came slower and slower.
We arrived at knife throwing and I grabbed a short dagger. I threw it and missed the target. I tried a few more times, but soon I got bored of missing and looked up to where the boy had been, but he was gone. I turned and saw him beside me. I gasp loudly and a smile breaks across his lips. He begins to laugh. "Ugh, this isn't funny." He kept laughing, I guess he could tell I was just as amused. "And why have you been trying to get into my head?" he laughed a little more.
"Just so I could scare you. I'm Skeet by the way. I'm 15; district 9." He sticks out his hand.
"Prim; I'm 12 from 12." He smiles, I wanted to be mad that he is amused by this, but it really was quite ironic. "Yeah, hilarious."
"Hey, I didn't mean like that." I suddenly felt Gale's eyes on my back.
"Prim, this guy bothering you?" Gale was beside me and I could see a hint of fear in Skeet's eyes; Gale was 18 after all.
"No, this is Skeet." I couldn't say we were friends but I didn't want to watch Gale hurt him in the arena.
"Yeah, I just, uh, I wanted to know if you could show me to throw?" Skeet motioned to the throwing range.
"Sure, whatever." Skeet followed Gale to the throwing barrack. Skeet was about to throw his first knife when the final bell rang. I looked to Gale and he was by my side, and we were walking out of the gym.
I couldn't help but feel strange, I had felt this way when I was a young girl; I felt like I had a father.
When we got to our floor Gale turned to me. "What?" I asked innocently, starting to head down the hall. Gale grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.
"I don't want a ton of allies, especially not one like Skeet." Gale said his name like it was a curse word. I could tell he didn't like Skeet.
That always troubled me; how could you judge someone by looking at them? It made no sense to me. I gave Gale a puzzled look, like I didn't understand.
His voice had a certain harshness, "Don't talk to him anymore." It sounded almost like a threat. Tears began to well on the edges of my lids. His grimace softened when he noticed this, but I didn't want his sympathy. I pushed his hand away and ran down the hall and into my room, bolting the door behind me.
I dove into my bed, ignoring Gale at my door, I let my tears flow. As I cried I thought, what if Gale never even wanted me to be his ally? No, that was impossible. The Games aren't something to play around with.
Skeet obviously wanted me to be his ally; he had tried to make me laugh even though I was a stranger. I knew if I left Gale I would die the first day. I needed to put up a fight, for everyone back home, especially Katniss.
"Prim, please open the door. I'm sorry." I wanted to forgive him, but if he was truly sorry he wouldn't have reacted the way he did.
After I had cried myself out, I took a shower, clearing all remnants of tears from my face. I unlocked the door and tiptoed down the hall. Although I was still upset, I was starving.
"Prim, dear you missed dinner." Effie said, she looked almost concerned.
"I- I wanted to relax." She took this fake excuse and I grabbed some dinner. I started to head back down the hall.
"Why didn't you just order in you room?" Effie sounded very baffled by the mistake I didn't know I'd made.
"I can do that?" My face filled with wonder.
"Of course! The purple button, child." I felt myself blushing, I hadn't thought of ordering through that microphone.
"Oh." I just said and hurried down the hall. I went to my room and ate my dinner. This time I was sure to check it for baby animals.
When I was done, I decided I wanted to try out the order button. I got up and pressed it. The microphone emerged, "Um, orange?" I asked unsure. A few moments later a peeled orange on a plate rose out of a panel on my nightstand. I grabbed it and started to tear off chunks.
The citrusy flavor reminded me of home. One time on Christmas, my dad brought an orange home for us to share. I wished he was with me.
At around 8, I left my room and went to Gale's. It was unlocked as I had expected. He was lying on his bed, watching a TV with a capitol news lady talking. "Prim! I'm really sorry about earlier." He sprung to life and crossed the room to give me a fatherly hug.
"In other news, a writing piece, believed to be a poem was discovered in the district 12 tribute train." The peppy announcer on screen said. Gale and I both rushed to the TV. I knew they were talking about my poem. She recited my poem, and Gale looked to me.
"That was beautiful." Tears were welling in my eyes again; except this time some of my tears were out of joy. Joy for the discovery of my poem, but of course this reciting of it had opened wounds I had been sure to stitch tightly closed.
I looked to Gale and saw, a rarely seen, expression of sorrow. I felt bad for him, but knew there was really no point; Gale was almost as well off as a career.
After a half hour of watching the screen, my eye lids grew heavy and I began I droop.
"Ok Prim, bedtime." He walked me to my room and tucked me in. I fell into a dream world.
Katniss, Gale, my mother, my father, Rory, Vick, Posy, everybody I knew was heading into a mine. I could feel something bad about to happen, I just couldn't tell what. I walked to school, still feeling…wrong.
I was sitting in class, when the school started shaking, but only briefly. I knew what had happened; a mine explosion. I screamed and fled the school.
When I reached the mine, there was only one survivor; scathed, coughing, broken, baby Posy. They handed her to me and I was called her mother. "I'm just a kid." I complained. They looked at me and smiled. Guards seized us from behind; we were hauled to a community home.
Flash
Reaping day, I stand in the 12 section holding Posy. Effie is on the stage, "And our tribute is Posy Hawthorne!" I scream and as guards rip her from my arms and take her up to stage.
I am called a disruption, and my head locked into a wood cuff with a hole in one side. I feel the cold metal tube slide against my temple. I hear a gunshot and slide my eyes up to see Skeet lying dead. I scream and see Rue is next in line. Her body hits the ground. The gun against my head is cocked. I whisper a good-bye to Katniss, and feel the bullet take my life.
Then, I am surrounded by screams, darkness and screams...
I woke with a start. I was soaked with sweat; I needed to stop these nightmares before the games started.
I was scared to go back to sleep, lucky for me it was almost 8am. I climbed out of bed and into the shower.
When I was done in the bathroom, I slipped on a pink sweater with brown flowy pants. I fixed my hair into a ponytail on top of my head and headed to the dining room.
I was greeted by an embrace from Effie. "They loved your poem, Primrose! Oh, it's like you planned it!"
"Yeah, it worked out well I assume." She shook her head, disheveling her pink wig in the process. She rushed out to fix it.
I sat down with my stack of flapjacks. I started on the first one. I was about half-way through my second when Gale came in. "Good morning," I said to him.
"What's so great about it?" He said as he grabbed some eggs. I gave him a sarcastic look.
"We won't die today." I said with a hint of smugness.
"That is definitely a pro." I giggled and he sat down beside me. I eyed his eggs, but I guess killing an unknowing innocent life is better than killing a baby already aware of the world. "Sorry, do the eggs bother you?"
"Kinda, but I can deal." He nods and gets back to eating. "Gale, are you sure you want such weak allies?" He looks at me pained.
"If anybody in my pack was weak…" I look into his misty eyes waiting for a response, "They would be dead the first day." Panic and terror must have crept on to my composure because Gale quickly said, "That would be while I don't have any weak allies." I calmed down a little, but still not enough to bring my mind to rest.
Effie took us down to the Gym and handed us over to Atala. She reviewed the rules. After we were released Rue finds us at the water preservation station. I began to think Skeet gave up on befriending me, but about halfway through the morning he found us and began training with us. Gale still seemed a bit uneasy with him, but he was making an effort to get along with Skeet, who seemed to have a fondness for Rue.
We all sat together at lunch; the tributes giving us looks from their solitary tables. The careers sat together again, we got especially nasty looks from them. I'm not completely sure why though; we really weren't threatening. Two twelve year olds, a wiry 15 year old, and Gale (the only intimidating one). Although we did find out that Skeet had a decent shot with a spear.
When we were dismissed for lunch Rue and Skeet went to the pool to learn to swim and Gale and I headed over to knot tying.
I am amazed with his snares; I knew they would trick me. I'm not to great at knot tying though.
I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated this story in almost 2 weeks. I've been writing for my SYOT; were up to interviews now. I wanted to catch it up to this story but now this one is behind, so I'm going to try and knock out a few chapters over the next couple days. Sorry again.
