Chapter 10: To Keep His Mom Safe

Torrence Clark, District 8. Chariot Ride

"Welcome to the fifty third Chariot Ride," the familiar voice rang out for all to hear. The audience clapped in anticipation. This was always a favorite night. At least for the people of Panem and the children who hadn't been reaped.

For the twenty four who had been reaped, this was one of the most nerve wracking nights of them all. Because this was the first time that the audience would really get to see them. This was where opinions were made and sponsors began to decide who they wanted to put their money on.

He subconsciously picked at his face. He always did that when he was nervous. It was a habit that he was unsuccessfully trying to break. His mum hated how his fingers were always roaming his face, looking for new pimples to pop.

"You'll just cause new ones to appear and your face will scar," she would say as she wheeled around the kitchen reaching for the knives on the counter to cut the vegetables for dinner. It always scared him to watch her work. She was already paralyzed from a factory accident. He didn't need her accidentally cutting off her fingers as well.

The girl beside him was tapping her foot anxiously. She terrified him. He couldn't remember her name to save his life, even though they were both from eight. She seemed very familiar, he had known her from before they were both reaped, but he couldn't remember how.

The first chariot was about to wheel into the arena. Waiting was always the worst. He had never been extremely patient, unlike his mother who was the most patient person that he had ever met. He often thought that she would be a good teacher. After her accident she became a kindergarten teacher, and she absolutely loved it, and he loved it because she did.

"Fucktards," the girl muttered under her breath. He decided then and there that he didn't like her; she was cold, calculating, determined, and evil. The female version of that Two from last year. The thought did not comfort him.

The Ones entered the arena, the audience went wild. Torrence strained his eyes to see what was so special about the Ones. The Ones always looked the best though, because they did luxury items. The girls were always dressed up in pearls and gems with long sparkly dresses. This year was just like last year.

The One girl sported a long strand of pearls around her bare neck, her dress made of a silky white material and it was cut low, showing off her top goods and cut high, showing off her bottom goods. Her short hair was teased into curls and her eyes were round and beautiful.

The One boy was hot enough to turn other guys gay. Torrence had to look away so it wouldn't happen to him. He already had a reputation in his District, he didn't need another one.

His fingers grazed his face again as the Twos rolled out and his own chariot slowly inched forward. He was thrown forward, but the girl stood her ground. Nothing seemed to faze her.

The Two girl was the sister of the Two from last year, and his stomach flip flopped. He hoped that the sister was nothing like her late brother. It would suck if there were two tributes this year who were like Dragan. He gulped, this was not going to be good.

Both of the twos were dressed in white lab coats. The boy had a stethoscope around his neck and kept placing the end that was always cold on the girl. She was trying not to glare at him. At least this year they wouldn't try to kill each other like last year.

Torrence had watched the fight between Sadie and Dragan last year. It had been an awesome fight and had gotten them both sponsors because the people of Panem could see how tough they were.

The Threes were decked out as an explosion gone wrong. The girl had ashes on her cheeks, and the boy had wire wrapped around his body. He didn't look thrilled. He was fiddling with the wire, as if trying to fix it.

Their own chariot lurched forward again as the Fours entered the lime light. Last year they had been mermaids, but this year didn't luck out. The boy held a fishing rod and the girl was the fish that he was reeling in. A tiny hairclip glistened from the top of the boys head, carefully clinging to his hair.

Torrence blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing correctly. What kind of guy would wear a hairclip? Was he gay?

"Totally gay," the girl said, as if reading his mind. He wanted to ask her what her name was, but felt that she would bite his head off if he admitted that he didn't remember. She seemed to be a girl with a short temper.

They were getting closer and closer to the exit of the chariot house. Soon they would be displayed for all to see. Now, it was the Fives turn.

He didn't remember their reapings, they both had forgettable faces. The girl was decent looking, but nothing to write home about. Her plain brown hair was done in a single braid down her back, his dark brown hair was spiked with definition, but it wouldn't help to make him memorable.

They had been dressed as an equation. Torrence tried to solve it, but he had never been good at doing math in his head. He needed a calculator, a pen and paper. Calculators had been invented to do math, not his brain.

Torrence categorized both the girl and the boy as blood bath victims.

But to be perfectly honest, (and his mother had taught him never to lie), he saw himself as a bloodbath victim as well. He was only thirteen years old! He'd led a sheltered life, had never been a fighter, and had never gone to bed hungry. He had never in a million years thought that he would be reaped.

Yet, here he was, watching the Sixes enter the arena.

The girl looked the same age that he was. A permanent look of terror marred her otherwise pretty face, though she was still prettier than her sister who had died last year. Nat had been a plain looking girl, not that Torrence had really been paying attention last year. After all, he had only been twelve, and he wasn't interested in girls yet. Still wasn't, they terrified him.

Like Rhyne Easterly, the red headed girl from his District who had cold green eyes and an evil smile. Last month Rhyne had thrown a party at her house and almost everyone went. She wanted to play a game called spin the bottle. Whatever that was. They sat in a circle, boy then girl then boy then girl. He found himself between Misty and Bailey. Rhyne directly across from him. Rhyne had spun the bottle first, and it did one complete circle, followed by a half circle and landing on him.

Rhyne had grinned as she cat walked across the circle to him. Her eyes were dancing playfully and her tongue was licking her lips in preparation.

He hadn't seen it coming. His first kiss was with Rhyne Easterly. She broke away saying ew and wiping her lips.

"That was nasty," she complained as she flaunted back to her seat. He would be forever scared by that moment. Girls were mean, they were evil, they terrified him.

"She has no chance," the girl commented from next to him, bringing him back to the present. His mother had always said that the past was over and couldn't be changed, the future was a hazy mystery, but the present was now and could determine his future. She lived in the present, not the past and not the future.

"None of them have a chance, not with me," the girl said coolly as she met eyes with the other girls.

Torrence wished that girls came with remotes so that he could turn them off when they got annoying, or at least change the channel or press the mute button. She would so be on mute right now.

The Sixes were finished with their roll-through and the Sevens were headed out.

It seemed as if the poor girl had gotten stuck with the same stylist as her older sister. The whole world of Panem had buzzed about Autumn's paper dress for months. They had felt so bad for her. Several girls from his school had even came to class the next day in the same type of dress to show respect for Autumn even though she was from Seven.

And now, poor Myrrah was following in her sister's footsteps. Another Faith was rocking out a paper dress. They had both done an awesome job at pretending that it didn't bother them.

"She deserves it, that bitch," she sneered. Torrence was getting tired of listening to her.

"You might get sponsors if you at least pretended to be nice," Torrence told her, risking losing his head.

"I don't need sponsors to win," her eyes flashed angrily. And then he remembered her name and the story of her past.

He recoiled from her in fear as their chariot entered the limelight.

"Guess you finally figured it out," she whispered nastily in his ear. The audience turned their eyes toward them.

She turned to the audience and smiled. He was too scared to look like a good little boy.

Her name was Aria Meneme; everyone in District Eight knew her name. She was the girl who had killed her whole family two years ago in cold blood. They had done nothing to deserve death by their psychopathic daughter. He had been warned by his mother to stay away from that crazed Meneme girl, and now he was forced to be with her.

He now knew how he was going to die.

Aria was going to kill him, just like she murdered her own parents and brother. She had vowed to kill all of District Eight. He was probably first on her list. If anyone was crazy enough to live, it was her and she would go home and kill everyone in their District. Torrence wasn't going to let that happen. He was going to do everything in his power to kill her himself. He was not going to allow her the ability to win, the power to kill his mother.

He thought that with her attitude, she would have volunteered to go, but no, Aria had been chosen and no one liked her enough to save her. In fact, the District had cheered when she had been reaped, because they knew that they were safe for at least a few weeks. They knew that she had more of a chance of winning then he did though. Well she had killed her whole family. She was crazy enough to win these games. He gulped in anticipation. He hoped that the next few days would go by slowly, because he was not looking forward to being turned lose into a deadly arena with her.

Death wasn't just a game, it was final, and this game would bring about death for twenty three of them.

He looked over at her as smiled and blew kisses at the audience. She looked sweet, innocent. Not at all like a killer. Torrence wanted to expose her, to show the world what she had done. But not right now, not until they got in the Arena.

Guess she wanted sponsors after all, she did look very angelic when she wanted to be. But didn't all devils have disguises?

Like Rhyne, the pretty red head with a secret agenda to make his life a living hell. Well it wasn't exactly secret anymore. He would forever be known as the horrible kisser who slobbered on Rhyne's rhinestone necklace during spin the bottle.

The lights moved off of them and their chariot and he turned his body to see what was going on behind him.

To keep his mother safe, he had to kill Aria.

Trivia Question: Who said "Did Bigfoot take it?" (there are actually 2 answers to this one, this is a quote from a movie that I inserted into the story. No one caught this reference, if you know 1 answer, you get the 2 sponsor points, if you know both answers, you get 5 sponsor points)

The answer to the previous trivia is: Belle said "That's what friends do." she said it in chapter 21.

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~*Misty*~