WHOO! Two chapters in one because I love you guys and I don't want you hating me.
Thank you to the favorites:
-Hermione Sparkle
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Thank you to all! It really encourages me to keep writting when I see people favoriting and following this story to see where it goes next!
-Miche :)
Chapter 9: Sponsor performance and secrets told
When I returned to the Floor assign to us, I was still drying off from our session. Finnick today, had also sent me through a gauntlet of exercises to prepare me of what may come in the arena. None of the mentors knew what to expect sending their tributes in.
This practice went well for strengthening the shaky relationship between him and me. I was beginning to see him more as a person than just another perfect poster face for the capitol and district Four. He had flaws both physically and personality wise. He didn't have perfectly straight teeth, had a little curl in his right ear, freckles on his face and arms, and even a scar or two. He was one to act like he cared about the capitol and other victors in public, but behind closed doors he hated it all. Yes there were a few friends he made through his years, but the others he could live his whole life and not want to know them. The rest were truly arrogant and selfish, spending their money like it was nothing, and taking trips to the capitol every week for their own selfish pleasure.
I knew we would get along the minute he complained about the system of the games. It was horrible how they made us do this every year, living our lives as if nothing were happening up until the week of the reapings. Every child in Panem would either live another year or die at the hands of the president. We both agreed it was a corrupt system, someday to fall again.
In my final round of my obstacle course, I challenged Finnick to try and beat me. He laughed at me but accepted anyways. In the end he beat me, but I was close to him the whole time. we were both dripping from the pool water, but made our way back to the floor.
I entered first, him getting the door for me (a peace offering because he beat me "so terribly") and I ran into Deary who had been pacing, getting water on her outfit. Grey sat on the couch with Abby, and they looked a bit worried.
"Where were you two?!And do nottell me 'having fun,' because I know you, Rain. You don't seem like a funny go-lucky person like Finnick..." what did she know about me, or Finnick? "You got water all over my new coat! Why are you all wet?" she shook off the little bit of water I had got on her, complaining about her new, hot pink, fur coat.
"I thought I would take on some personal training for Rain here." his hand rested on my shoulder as i kept my arms crossed defensively. Why were they so worried? I thought finnick had told them we were training. Was he not supposed to?
"Well it would have been nice if you had told oneof us where you were!" Deary was flustered and post-panic. Her hair was a bit crazed for once, and not in a 'stylish' way.
"Rain, why didn't you tell me? I thought we were sparring today." Grey spoke up as we made our way in.
"Finnick said he talked to you about it and you said it was fine." I turned to the liar himself and saw he was guilty of it, he had a timid grin.
"Oops?"
"You lied to me-?"
"I wanted to train you."
"You could have just told someone we were training!"
"They would have said no-!"
"So you lied?"
"Yes, and Im sorry I caused any inconvenience, but you have to-"
"No, I don't have to do anything you say. You lied to me." and I left for my room, refusing dinner when offered. I hated when people lied to me, especially Finnick now. I thought I was the only one he was starting to open up to, and I started to trust him. I thought wrong.
"Rain, wait." an impatient voice called as I stormed down the hall.
"Just stop finnick, don't try and make things better, because you're just going to lie to me again-"
"I didn't know you would get so angry at a small fib-"
"It came from you and that's enough!" he stopped a moment, shocked I'd blame him.
"You said you were over your thoughts of me being an arrogant, smart-ass. You know that I'm not-"
"You told me the truth once, and I knew I could see it in you since. You tricked me, again. I thought you'd be different with me-"
"Get over it!" he was truthful this time. He wasn't holding back. "You need to realize that people in the area will lie twistedly and more often than I have to you; The difference being they want to kill you. Do you want to die-?"
"No-!"
"Then you need to get over it, Rain." I was hurt by his words, and it must have show for he calmed and approached me differently. "i don't like yelling, especially at you. you know that is true." it was. "i dont want your last thought of me, if you do die, to be of me lying or yelling. And in turn, i don't want to know I failed you by lying. I hate it, but it''s the only thing that can protect my sanity in this life."
"If you just told the truth-"
"In my life, telling the truth gets everyone you love killed." What kind of work was he in? I should've asked him when we trained. It never seemed as though he had that challenging of a life as a victor, or he was in anything dangerous since his games. "I have to lie to everyone around me if I want any chance of gaining my own happiness." he now stood between me and my door, obviously wanting me to forgive him first. "I'm truthfully sorry for lying to you of all people. I promise I won't, ever again."
"How can you convince me so well that your telling the truth?"
"I don't need to if it is." He took a step towards me, and I knew it was the truth. He wanted my forgiveness more than anything, but would I give it to him so easily? Something changed in myself at that moment. It was a good change, i guess, one that made me more of a forgiving and kind person that I'd been raised to be. I felt bad for thinking he was so rude, because I could see his internal torment from my anger towards him.
"I forgive you," he smiled, "but if you lie again, you won't get a second chance."
"Yes. Okay, I can live with that." he smiled a true grin, affecting him from his eyes to his toes as he pranced away to the living room. I stayed in my room the rest of the night.
The next three days went by the same way, only everyone knew in advance Finnick would be training me in the afternoons. We would have ur sessions up until our dinner at our main floor was about to be cleaned up, arriving latte for the meal, so most of the time we ate together. We would talk about simple things but also important things like what strategy to use, what knots to tie for which occasion, and even what kinds of knots we knew. Finnick could tie some of the most complicated knots I knew in mere minutes sometimes seconds while it took me twice as long.
He was becoming a good friend of mine.
Grey and I were heading down to the Training center for our final scoring and sponsor scouting today. Each of our mentors gave us some last minute advice on what we would be doing. Both of us had a strategy and order of our talents we had to stick to in order to give them the best show.
They placed us in a somewhat-confined room that just held all twenty four tributes. We must have been right next to the training room because when Diamonde was called to go, the grated wall slid up and let her in. I jumped when Zyre was next, and Grey just put his hand over my twisted up ones.
The moment came when it was finally my turn to go, and I was scared as hell.
"Rain Troute, please proceed forward for your assessment." A lady's voice sounded. I stood with Grey following and turned to him for good luck. He hugged me rather quickly before watching me go.
"You'll do great. Just aim straight, okay?"
My feet felt like jelly as I walked up to the stage where they all sat. Half of them looked like older aged men with their grey and white beards while others just looked aged from whatever their jobs required.
Remember what Finnick said. Remember what he taught you. Remember and be calm...
"Rain Troute, District four." I smiled when they all fell silent to me.
"Ms. Troute, you have fifteen minutes to display your arrangement of talents to which you will be judged accordingly. you may begin." the game maker said. I remembered him by his beard. Seneca Crane. He was the newest game maker this year, so not even the oldest tributes in this years games knew what to expect this year. Having quite the looks, many women fawn over him and voted him in as such. I almost lost me breath at his eyes but passed it as sighing to calm myself. He looked like he was used to hiding things from others by the way his eyes looked at me. He knew something I didn't...
Our eye contact lingered too long as I was left awkwardly standing in the center of the room now noticing the others watching as well. My cheeks burned as they all had their eyes piercingly staring back at me.
Okay, remember the order Finnick told you to go in. Use your strengths, use your strengths. I made my way over to the weaponry section of the training facility and stood up to the line with a rack of different objects to throw next to me. I chose the longest spear and ran it through my hands in a way Finnick taught me to test its weight.
I took my stance and threw it, following through and twisting with a grunt, skewering the dummy right through the stomach. They clapped when I finished three more times and watched me walk over to the impossible net. Making sure they saw how flexible I was, I climbed the entire thing while trying to show off my body at the same time.
12:39 read the count down clock for my time left.
Next I went to the archery station and shot a few times, as Grey had taught me, before finishing with hand to hand combat with an assistant trainer and close combat with a trident. When I was done, there was a pile of slashed up dummies on the floor, along with a pretty beat up assistant.
8:47
For the final minutes, I waltzed up to the swimming tank, set similarly to the one Finn and I had in our training sessions, and climbed in after calming myself. Finnick had told me to keep my meditative state by thinking of something that kept me in a dream state. I had tried my mother, family dinners we've had, but only one thing would keep me calm: a heartbeat, my own.
My mind wandered to the subconscious thoughts of mine. those of memories, and moments I wish I could have changed, people I knew, and others I would remember.
The remembrance of someone elses heart beat put me in a trans that allowed me to stay through the rest of the time they allowed me to show off. A loud buzzer, and flashing red in the pool made me surface for the last tie in training, and exit. I looked at the time I had set before going in, and saw a great time.
"Seven minutes and forty-nine seconds." I announced bowing at the poolside. They clapped signaling my time to leave.
Deary met me on the other side of the exit and congratulated me.
"I never knew anyone could be that attractive at throwing a spear!"
"Finnick taught me to act, so I just followed his advice."
"Pretty good advice, if I may say so myself." I didn't get to see anyone else until later that day when we saw our results on live television. I curled up on the couch with Grey next to me, holding my shaking hand while we waited for the special to come on. The moment it did we all felt the tension in the air and excitement.
"Did I miss anything?" Finnick said, entering in sweatpants and struggling to put a shirt on. his tattoo was completely visible for only a few seconds before the white v-neck covered it up. It was similar to tribal tattoos we had studied in our history classes of earth before the floods and destruction. It was like a Hawaiian warrior tattoo, intricate and strong lines curved and pointed inside the dolphin silhouette.
"Took you long enough-!" Abby yelled obviously showing her dislike of him. He sat by me on the couch.
"Shh! They're talking about the scores." Deary squealed turning up the volume.
"Now each tribute was judged on their skills on a scale of one to twelve with twelve being the highest. And the scores are:
"From District One: Diamond Serever, a score of Nine. Zyre Konium, Ten."
"They have good scores-" Grey was shushed again by Deary.
"From District two; Ginger Lilly with a score of Ten. Lockwood Flanchly with a solid Eight. From District three: Cassiopeia Casscade, a seven. Orion Betta with a Five. From District four-"
"That's us!" I shouted.
"Rain Troute." Please be a seven or more, please be a seven or more… I saw my smirked face in the background. "With a score of…" he stopped and looked shocked. I froze thinking the worst. "Folks we have never seen the score so divided amongst judges, A score of ten and a half!"
Everyone shouted in joy for me! How could I get a ten and a half? was that even possible? okay, it was since they just announced it, but what made me so divided amongst the judges? Everyone then shushed each other before we quieted down for Grey's score, all holding hands. I hadn't noticed, but now saw I held Finnick's since Plutarch paused at my score.
"District Four: Grey Twilight. A score of nine." We all cheered upon hearing that we both got decent scores. Most of the others got three to sixes until both the boy from ten and Solar from five got nines, and Willow and Coal got a five and eight.
Our celebration consisted of drinking the sparkling champagne the avoxes provided, and our stylists, Deary, and Abby all getting drunk after their fifth glass. Both Grey and I only had half a glass since the stuff was just too strange for our tasting, and Finnick not drinking more than a sip while staying stationary on the couch.
He left the room soon after everyone finished talking, the others heading to the dining area for appetizers and more drinks. I followed him to gloat about my score and discuss how long I held my breath for. In his games he had gotten a solid ten in his scores showing he was a force to be reckoned with.
"Seven minutes and forty-nine seconds!" he refused to turn around. "That was my record in my sponsor performance." still nothing as he passed my own door. "Where are you going?"
"A very important client of mine is waiting for me."
"And their 'appointment'with you is more important that your tribute who demolished her own score?" I crossed my arms, trying to challenge him, when I noticed he was heading for his room. Why would his client be-
"Finnick?" A woman's voice, probably just around his age, called from his room. I was confused. First: shocked about him conducting these events at this time, second: hurt that he would lie like that, and third: I was horrified. He wasn't happy about returning and it wasn't because he just didn't like her.
And it hit me why he could never have been with Annie. He was forced not to. He hated the capitol. This woman was a 'client' so there was payment involved-
"Oh my gosh..." This is why he was a flirt to everyone. "Finnick?!" he turned, acknowledging I now knew his biggest secret. This was the one he held behind everything he said, why he chose words carefully. He had to do this for his living.Not because he found it fun. "Dont-!"
"Don't what, Rain?" he was mad, guilty, and defeated. "If I remember correctly, you use to hate me because I acted like this, right? Because all I wanted was to break innocent young girls hearts with my charming ways." I couldn't speak. He had me in the same reaction as when he yelled at me about calling him a whore. Now I knew how much I was tragically correct. My eyes burned.
"Oh but now you're indifferent. Now you know what I am and what I do and you've pieced together why I do it. For fun, right? for my own personal gain?" he walked closer to me, insulting my intelligence with his claims. "And you know its true-"
"How arrogant are you?" my anger at him from before spilt out before I thought.
"I don't do these things because I want to! I do them because I have to!"
"For the money-."
"No!"
"Then what?" he glanced around for anyone in earshot before stepping closer to me "What's wrong with you?" His demeanor changed from defensive to offensive, ready to bite back. "You think I don't give a shit, but I bet I care more than anyone in that room about you." Oops, that wasn't meant to come out. I had grown attached to him through our sessions. Knowing more about him and he of me, we had a mutual friendship. "I dont want you hurting like this-."
Instead of answering me further, he closed the gap between us and had my head in his hands swiftly and elegantly, like in movies. I could feel his breath, his pulse of his thumb on my neck. "Stop. Just stop." I thought he was going to kiss me, but he held back a few seconds, allowing me breath. His nose touched mine, but he never kissed me, just my forehead. Second, he pulled me in to hug him and hold me. "Stop caring so much, please." Our eyes locked."I wish you didn't care."
Finnick was in his room. Soon after, the girl left with her clothes barely on her. She was unhappy, and hot headed as she left to the sound of him yelling in anger.
What had Snow done to him...
Okay to let you guys know, I made a twitter to share the photos and answer any questions you guys have aout the story! Hope you check it out! My user name is MicheArt221 with the backphoto of Castiel (big SPN fan here...) The link to it should be in my bio if you look.
I promise the next chapter will be up next week :)
-Miche:)
