They threw kisses at us and I grabbed one and batted it back to the general direction that it came from. About a dozen females in the front row screamed and grabbed the invisible love. Wow! This is so cool, girls looked at me back home for sure, but not like this! I waved and they waved back, chanting our names; "Tony, Chrissy! Tony, Chrissy! Tony, Chrissy!" Chrysantana waved with her free hand more happily than she did before, drawing in the applause like oxygen, so did I. Although throughout the ride she kept holding my hand. It was like she was home, in a way, even though we don't know each other that well, we sort of looked out for each other. If the district 2 tribute's frowns got any bigger, their faces would crack. I laughed and continued my parade... "Wake up!" a voice urged, louder than the other's. That's weird, it sounds like Sequin, but she was far away... now there's a sort of tingling in my arm..."Wake up!" the voice got louder. What?
"Wake UP!" Sequin was kneeling by the side of my bed, shaking my arm. "You have training in an hour and a half, so you need to be totally. Completely. Awake." I nodded drowsily and propped my body up.
"You can wear whatever to breakfast; only me, Chrissy, Katniss, Peeta and you will be there. You talk to them about today when you get there, okay?" I nod silently again.
"Oooooooooooookay!" she chimes, leaping up. I stand in a haze and walk slowly over to the wardrobe. I grab the first thing that I see; a pair of ripped jeans and a plain white t-shirt, and when I turn around, ready to undress, I see Sequin standing there.
"Uh, do you mind?" I ask, gesturing to the door.
"Oh!" Sequin exclaims. "Oh right...I'll see you later!"
Once I get changed, I slouch into the dining room. Katniss, who looks as though she has gotten a little more sleep than usual, was in a considerably good mood and was chatting to Chrysantana, who was drinking orange stuff. Peeta was smiling while talking in the corner with Sequin, whose face was flushed with excitement, like little pink blotches over a sea of cream.
"I have an announcement!" she gushed. Katniss, Peeta, Chrysantana and I all turned our attention to Sequin. "I-I-I'm...pregnant!" she clutched her stomach and smiled so widely that I couldn't help but join in.
"Congratulations!" Chrysantana squealed. "Can I feel?"
Sequin laughed, "Sure! But you won't be able to feel anything. Yet." While Chrysantana rushed up to Sequin, Katniss gave Sequin a warm hug and said tenderly, "I'm so happy for you," and brushed a strand of her gold hair off her face. Peeta's grin stretched from ear to ear, and he too, gave Sequin a hug.
"Good one – congrats," I beamed.
"Thanks." Sequin bit her lip. Katniss and Chrysantana gushed over Sequin, fussing and laughing, while Peeta and I sat down at the table. "I think we should start eating, we're stretched for time."
Sequin sat down, flattening her skirt in the process.
"I'd like to propose a toast!" Peeta raised his glass. "To Sequin!" Katniss stood up, "And to the tributes, both dead and alive," she smiled sadly at Peeta. Now it was my turn. "To District 12- and all of the districts!" I raised my glass. "And to the baby!" Chrysantana jumped up.
We all laughed and raised our glasses of orange juice to the sky.
"Try this." Katniss offered a glass of brown liquid to me.
"What is it?" I ask, taking the glass and sniffing it.
"Hot chocolate," she tells me. "I tried it when I first came to the Capitol, and I get everyone to, each year. It's sort of a tradition, I guess," I nod and take a sip of it, letting it float down my throat. "Wow."
"It's nice isn't it?" Chrysantana asks me from behind. "Yeah," I reply.
"So," Katniss begins. "We need to work out a strategy for when you're in the games. As you probably know, when Peeta and I joined the Hunger Games, we were hopelessly in love, and that, thankfully, got us sponsors."
"Are you asking us to be in love?" Chrysantana squeaked uncertainly. I was dumbfounded, where was she going with this?
"No of course not!" Katniss exclaimed. "Just let me finish. Anyway, we split up. That wasn't wise. Peeta was with the careers and I was going solo, until I made an ally; Rue. She was...killed. A while after that I rejoined Peeta. After he saved me from the careers, we teamed up, helped each other. That's what you two need to do. Stick together and that should get you to pull through,"
When she finished all was silent, except the scratching of Sequin's pen against paper.
"We're not saying you have to do anything, but just think about it okay?" Peeta said. "Any ideas for in-game strategy? Any alliance members you have in mind?"
"I like Robin from nine, and Rioro Ire seems okay too." I say.
"Are you sure you want them as allies? They'd be good and they show promise, but they look too smart, they could easily double-cross you." Katniss says, concerned. "Who looks good to you, Chrysantana?"
"I think Beatrix from 7 and the girl from 10 look nice," she shrugs.
"The same rule applies to them as well. Beatrix Morgenstern looks like she could do some damage, and while the girl from 10 looks okay, I still think you should be careful." Peeta tells her. "You both look pretty weak, no offense, so you guys need to play this up, trust me, we learnt from the best," He said, remembering Haymitch Abernathy, who passed away in the last year. "Do badly at training, go to the survival stations, not combat. Scope everyone out, see who would make a good ally. Be calm, do not display any emotions, and then do average in your training sessions; make it look like you're not threats, even if you are, or shock everyone with an outstanding score."
"So you're saying that if we act weak, the careers wouldn't pay us a single ounce of attention, or instead, go hunting for us because they think I'm no contest?"
"It is risky, yes," Peeta replied, fiddling with a napkin, "But if you act strong, the careers will definitely want to get you out of the way,"
"And in our private training session, if we decide to trick people into thinking we are weak; won't that mean we won't have sponsors?"
"Not necessarily," Katniss spoke this time, "The times you usually get sponsors are when you show that you have what it takes to stay alive in the games."
"And if we decide to play strong?"
"You will, most likely, have a target on your forehead, or be feared by all. But that might make things worse, because people will kill you on instinct."
They finished and we went back to our rooms, greeted by a neatly laid out uniform on my bed. It was a black t-shirt and faded jeans with lace-up army-style boots. When I got it on, and met Chrysantana, I smiled. She was wearing almost the exact same, except she was wearing a white t-shirt and black skinny jeans as well as the military boots.
"We wanted you to look similar," Katniss explained. "It makes you seem united,"
"Let's go or else you'll be late," Peeta ushered us into the lift. When the door shut, he disappeared.
Inside, we were in the lift with the district 1 tributes, Ruby and Seve.
"Hi," Ruby smiled warmly at me.
"H-hi," I replied.
"Sup," Seve winked at Chrysantana, who blushed. That's gross, he is such a flirt. She's twelve for god's sake- twelve!
"So how are things going?" Ruby asked conversationally.
"Um...okay I guess. Normal. You?" I answer shortly. Ruby may be sweet, but she looks dangerous.
"The same," she answers. Ruby doesn't sound phased at all by my answer, in fact, she really looks like she's concerned. I'm convinced she's lying. The elevator goes ping and we step out, into the training center. Like Katniss predicted, only Chrysantana and I are wearing similar outfits. I tugged at the collar of my shirt self-consciously.
Chrysantana wafted over to the knot-tying section, so I decided to visit the edible plants section, where Robin was.
"Hi, I'm Tony, we met," I say, just in case she doesn't remember.
"I know," she replies, not looking up.
"Just checking," I say casually. Naturally, she passes the test with flying colours. I passed, but she was way better than I was. When we finished, she said;
"So district twelve, what's it like?" I raise my eye brow at her, "Just curious," she adds.
"Okay, it's not the greatest, and we're not the richest, but its home." She nods.
"See you later!" she turns and goes, just as she did last night, she'll talk to you and then turn to leave just as you're about to ask her a question.
I managed to do as Katniss says, stay out of the way, and was on the lookout for potential allies. I managed to get through camouflage, poisons, fire-starting and a few other stations before lunch.
I felt particularly uncomfortable then, because the alliances seem to have been made. The careers were made out of the tributes from 1, 2 and 4. Seve was over at the same table as Tanner from 5, flirting yet again. Tanner seemed to be falling for him too. She kept batting her eyelashes and flicking her hair back. They can't seriously be starting something, can they? The rat-face smirked and snarled at everyone in general. Selena's mesmerising face twitched into a painted smile as we came in, I pretended not to notice, or rather looked for an excuse not to look into her eyes. Smarth Vital from 11 was sitting with his district partner, Trixi, who was moodily picking at her food. I didn't want to look into her eyes either. Robin was sitting with Rioro, and like last night, they were chatting agreeably. It looked as though she really trusted him, and that made me envious. Beatrix from seven was sitting with Alloura from ten, also the boy from 10, and they weren't doing much talking. Conan Beckon was sitting with Daisy Crest, his district partner and Chrysantana was sitting with Alloura and Beatrix, her face was down as she nibbled on some bread. I grabbed something to eat and walked over to where Robin sat. It appeared that everyone else was sitting alone
"Hi again," I said, drawing out the chair and sitting down.
"Hey," Rioro answers, "Robin was telling me about you,"
"Really?" I asked, a little astonished.
"Sure," Robin says, "You seem okay," Now that I was sitting down, I could see Rioro's tousled brown hair and impish grin more clearly than before.
"Listen," Rioro says leaning closer to me, "I talked to my mentor about it-"he almost finished when Robin burst in;
"Wanna join our alliance?"
Wow. This was surprising. They're strong, for sure, but there looks like there's something different to them, and I was afraid to find out. Anyway, I thought it was me that wanted them to be in an alliance with them.
"Like I said, we've discussed it with our mentors, and we've agreed that you'd be the best person for us," Rioro completed. What about Chrysantana? I glanced over at her, sitting with who she thought would make good allies. Beatrix was smiling at her and nodding, while Alloura bit her lip and looked around serenely. Chrysantana was sitting in the middle of them, silent. Now here comes the part I keep coming back to, I didn't want her to be in a different alliance, she was of course home in a human form, if that made sense, which it didn't. While I was contemplating this, Robin was studying my face, just like Sequin did. What is it with people and deciphering my thoughts?
Selena Lennock – District 4
Ruby was sitting beside me, with her face down, facing her salad that she kept picking at. Her type always ate health foods, not that I thought she was vain, she wasn't (or at least I hoped she wasn't) but the district 1 girls nearly always want to take care of their images. Rat Hues was highly dislikeable, and I knew by the way people grimaced when he spoke, I wasn't the only one. He had this really horrible snarky face that made you want to punch it until you couldn't recognise that smirk on it (no doubt he wouldn't be smiling at all if anyone – especially someone with the strength of Smarth Vital, the district 11 guy – if his face was smashed in). Freya Kalen wasn't saying much, so I tried to engage her in the conversation.
"So Freya, what's it like in district 2?" I asked, putting on my best natural-looking 'I'm perfectly serene and I can handle anything' face.
She didn't look up from the food she was eating. Oh right, she's deaf. I nudged her gently. She whipped her head up and glared at me. I tried to maintain my friendly face, after all, the way my eyes pierced any soul back home was my trademark.
"So what's it like in district 2?" I repeated my question. Could she read lips?
"Why do you want to know?" she asked sharply. I was surprised her English was so smooth. I opened my mouth to answer and when words were about to escape my lips she continued.
"You're just being kind because I'm deaf. Don't. I'm in this to win it, and I'm not going to let a little bit of false sympathy get in the way, okay?" I shrugged, still maintaining my calm demeanor.
When the district 12 boy entered the room, I felt his eyes burn into the back of my neck. I twisted my head gracefully to give him my most dazzling smile, but his eyes averted my gaze. He slumped into a seat next to Robin from nine and the other boy. Why wasn't he sitting with the little girl from 12? She looked as though she could hardly take care of a goldfish let alone herself. I put it out of my mind and turned to Tanner, who was sitting at another table, blushing as Seve chatted with her. She couldn't possibly – could she actually like him? She fluttered her eyelashes and Seve played his usual show-off card that he used on Ruby at the opening ceremonies, only she was smart and ignored him. When Tanner's eyes were off of Seve, I gave her a knowing smile and nodded encouragingly. When the two of them finally sat back down at our table, Tanner was flushing with flattery.
I nudged Ruby, "I think Tanner has a thing for Seve, could you get him away from here so I could grill her on it?" I whispered. "Sure," she answered, straightening up.
"Hey Seve," she said. "I want to show you something; can you come with me for a sec?" He smiled and stood up, being willingly led by Ruby away from the table.
"So Tanner, why are you looking so happy?" I asked, in my best inquisitive voice. She blushed even deeper red.
"I dunno…it's nice meeting people I guess…"she shrugged.
"So there's nothing…going on between you two…" I said, my grin widening.
"Why would there be?" she shrunk in her chair.
"Are you sure?" I asked, putting on my most persuasive face to replace my old 'I'm just curious' one.
"I don't know!" she burst. "I can't have a relationship with him; it's the Hunger Games for heaven's sake! It's mad! We can't both get out! We can't be together!..."she wailed.
"Yes you can," I cooed, my match making skills elevating as Ruby winked at me when Seve's back was turned. "I'll talk to him for you," and with that, I stood up and marched over to where Ruby and Seve were.
"…honestly Ruby, I don't know how you find that interesting…" Seve was saying.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked him.
He nodded, "Just as long as you don't go telling me about the fact that my opening ceremonies outfit was a little lopsided," I smiled. When Ruby left I turned on him.
"So Selena…what do you have to bring to my attention?" he tried to put on a seductive voice, but it fell flat when he saw the look of disgust on my face.
"It's about Tanner-" I began.
"Nice kid," he commented. I rolled my eyes.
"She's older than you." I pointed out.
"Really?"
"That's not the point," I continued.
"How old she?"
"Seventeen! Now will you shut up?" I demanded. He fell silent, but still kept the devilish grin on his face. "Good. She really likes you, but she's afraid to tell you her true feelings. I don't mean as a friend. So go and talk to her. And if you break her heart I will punch your face in!"
"Whatever!" he drawled and turned to his seat. Damn, I could swear he was going to talk to her.
Graphite smiled and tried to flirt with Gabe, but he wasn't in it. Maybe because of the fact he had a girlfriend! Gabe never really showed that he was in a relationship, like Seve, he always flirted, so no one would suspect a thing. He tried it with me once, the night on the train, oh boy how that didn't turn out. I smiled at the thought of me kicking him in the stomach. Oh did Sheree and Advon- our mentors- like that! I had to endure a lecture for about an hour about the fact that tributes weren't allowed to fight before the games.
So all in all, our group consisted of both district 1, both from 2, Graphite from 3, Gabe and I, and Tanner from 5. We were a big group. I made up my mind there and then to go solo when we were in the top eight, or else they could easily kill me when I sleep.
I shuddered, and then composed myself to a state of silent perfection…