Chapter 9
Marvel
I'm completely freezing when I wake up the next morning: I'm still wearing my trunks, and I haven't pulled the blankets over my body. The sun hasn't come up yet, but I force myself to crawl out of bed and take a shower. Then, with water still dripping from my hair, I order a cup of hot chocolate and sit on a chair, taking small sips and thinking about the day ahead of me.
It's the last training day; this means I will have the opportunity to show the Gamemakers everything I'm capable of- not that I haven't done it already, but I was surronded by twenty-three other tributes at the time, and now I will have all of their attention for sure. I intend on having a training score of at least nine- pretending to be weak has never been my thing; it would be useless to do so, anyway, since I'm the largest tribute, apart from Cato and Thresh. Oh, and that Peeta guy, but he's shorter than I am, and for what I saw for the past two days, he's not that big of a threat.
This makes me think of Serena; she's so small she could have pretended she couldn't even handle a knife, and then reveal how dangerous she really is in the arena. But even though she might be shy, she doesn't lose an opportunity to show off when it comes to the Games. Then I remember Cato and Clove's initial refusal to let her join us, and realize she had her reasons.
Serena.
This will also probably be the day of our last swimming lesson: tomorrow we'll spend the whole time with our respective mentors and escorts, and the day after that we'll have to get ready for the interviews. And then-
No, I can't think about that; I already feel my stomach turn just by thinking this is the last day we will spend together as true friends. I decide to seize it the best I can.
The sun is already shining through the curtains. I put down my cup, that has gone cold, and stand up, so I can get dressed. As Effie Trinket would say, it's a big, big, big day.
When I come down for breakfast, Glimmer is already leaving, with Cashmere quickly following on her heels, still whispering instructions. I notice Glimmer's clothes are even shorter and tighter than usual- maybe she's hoping she will get a better training score by seducing some of the Gamemakers; the sad part is, she's probably right. Thank goodness Serena's stylist doesn't share of Diana's ideas, apart from that mermaid outfit and the bikinis. It would be my doom.
"Good morning," I say, earning a surprised stare from Gloss; Cashmere ignores me and returns to her quarters, most likely to catch up on her beauty sleep.
"Good morning," he replies. "Are you ready for today?"
"Yeah." I sit down and start stuffing my mouth with a bowl of cereal; I'm starving. "I can't wait to show the Gamemakers what I can do."
"Great." He's still eyeing me suspiciously. "The score you get today, along with the interview, may determine whether you get good sponsors or not. So give it your best."
"Don't worry, I will." I finish my breakfast and get up; none of us seems to be in the mood to talk. Besides, what could he tell me to do that I haven't done already? I've tried pretty much every weapon in that gym. "Later."
I've almost left the room when I hear him shout "Tell your girlfriend I said hi!"
Despite having woken up early, it seems today I'm the last to arrive. It doesn't matter; there's practically nothing left to improve, so I'll just look for Serena and join her in whatever she is doing right now. I run my eyes through the room and find her throwing knives with Clove, who seems to have forgotten her little humiliation yesterday- at least she's not pointing her knives at Serena's head. I decide not to join them; I don't want Clove- or anyone else- interfering with our talking.
Remembering my resolution of learning how to swing a mace- not that I think it's that hard-, I make my way towards the station. When I walk past her, Serena looks away from the target she's aiming at, and her face lights up with a smile as soon as she sees me. I'm still choosing my weapon when I sense her coming.
"Good morning, Marvel," she says timidly from behind me. I turn around, smiling; her District 4 accent makes my name sound longer than it actually is- and I don't mind it at all.
"Hi there, Baby-face." Serena turns slightly red and smiles back, while she moves some strands of hair away from her face. "I know I'm handsome, but you didn't need to come so quickly."
She squints at me. "Fine, I'll come back later." She tries to walk away, but I grab her arm- once again, no one is paying any attention to us, not even the instructor- and pull her towards me, bending down so that my face remains within inches away from hers.
"I was only joking," I whisper. "It's good to see you."
Serena blushes deeper and purses her lips, visibly trying not to laugh. "Whatever. Hand me one of those," she says, pointing at the maces.
"Which one?" I ask, without tearing my gaze away from hers.
"Never mind." Serena seems to decide she's had enough, because she frees herself from my grasp, grabs a particularly deadly-looking mace and proceeds to observe it closely. "These things kinda creep me out," she says, running her finger along one of the spikes. "Have you ever used one?" she asks, her eyes wide.
I slowly shake my head, waiting to see what she's going to do. "No."
"Oh, well." She shrugs. "It can't be that difficult, can it?" Approaching the closest dummy, she starts hitting it with the mace over and over; something tells me she's not doing it right, because the mace ends up getting stuck in the dummy's head, and she's not able to pull it out.
Repressing a smile, I walk up to her and easily remove her weapon from the dummy. "I thought this creeped you out," I say, holding out the mace.
"It does." Serena giggles nervously. "Can you imagine if this was a person? Ew."
Something's not right. I lift her chin, making her look at me, and scrutinize her face. There; I hadn't noticed it when I was teasing her, but there's a hint of fear in her eyes. "Serena, are you okay?"
Serena
Of course I'm not okay! In about three hours I will be forced to show my best to the Gamemakers, hoping to get a good training score. If I don't, I will have no sponsors. Even if at this point not everyone is aware of my connection to a past victor- though I highly doubt that- they certainly will be, when Caesar Flickerman asks me about Grandma- and he will, trust me.
Because that's how things work- I will be expected to be one of the best, and reach the top eight, maybe even win. And I'm not sure I'm up to it.
There's also the tiny fact that Marvel is making me really nervous; in a good way, but still.
I push his hand away. "Stop it, people are looking." They aren't, but I'm sure someone will catch us if he's not careful. He's not exactly the king of discretion.
"That didn't answer my question."
I run my hand through the hole left by the mace on the dummy's head, avoiding his gaze. "I'm just nervous about the private sessions with the Gamemakers, that's all." My head darts up when he snorts in response. "What's so funny?" I ask coldly. "Just because you are big, strong and full of yourself it doesn't mean I am."
"It's not that," Marvel replies amusingly. "It's… I don't know how you can be so nervous, when you almost just tore that dummy's head off." I raise my eyebrows. "Think about it; you convinced Cato and Clove to let you join us, didn't you? They even let you keep your little pet from District 3. Look around you!" he says, pointing at the other tributes. "You're better than them. We are better than them." His tone softens when he turns back to me. "Just give the Gamemakers your best. I'm sure they will be impressed."
I honestly hope he's right.
Despite Marvel's words, I still find it difficult to eat anything; once again, I feel like I'm about to throw up. If this is what I'm feeling because of a mere private session with the Gamemakers, I don't want to imagine what it will be like to step on the plate that will take me to the arena.
What a pathetic Career you are, Serena.
At least I know someone will be cheering for me; Marvel spent the entire morning following me around, making sure I was okay- and teasing me, as usual. That's way too heavy for you, Baby-face; here, let me hold it for you. It's hot in here, mind if I take off my shirt? Don't you worry, I'm sure you'll be just marvelous.
Maybe the puns he makes with his name aren't the best or the cleverest, but I can tell he really cares about me and is trying hard to make me feel better.
"What is taking them so long?" Cato asks impatiently, frowning towards the dining room entrance. "It's not like we have all day!" We do, actually, but no one ever dares to go against anything Cato says. Not even Marvel.
I play with my food a little more before giving up on my lunch. I cast a glance at Marvel- he's not able to hide his good mood, and winks when he notices I'm staring at him; I manage to give him a half-smile.
"Let's agree we'll all show what we're better at." Cato is now giving us instructions, probably thinking he's our mentor. "Clove has already assured me she will stick to the knives; Dave, you do that weird fishing-like thing with the spear; Serena, you use your trident, but you can throw a spear if you feel they're not paying enough attention." I nod, happy that he considers I'm good at something I only learned yesterday. "Glimmer," Cato pauses for a second. "You can try whatever you want; let's face it, your looks are your best weapon." Glimmer doesn't look surprised or annoyed, so I guess Cato is not the first one to tell her this. "Marvel, dude- you know what to do." Marvel smirks, probably already thinking about those spears, all to himself. Besides, he will be the first to be called, so he will certainly have the Gamemakers completely focused on him.
"We're a team," Clove adds, "As long as we work together, whoever sponsors one of us, sponsors all of us. So don't screw up."
She's obviously ignoring what happens after that: when all of the other tributes are gone, our wonderful dream team will turn against each other, and that's when the real show will begin.
"Marvel Gould!" The voice of one of the trainers echoes through the dining room. Marvel's hand touches mine briefly, in one last attempt to calm me down, before standing up.
"Good luck," I mutter, looking up. He smiles, and I can almost hear him say Thanks. Good luck, Baby-face. Then he turns around and darts towards the gym, leaving me alone with the other Careers.
Marvel
Poor Serena; she really does worry too much. Not even my best attempts- I asked her if I could take off my shirt, for God's sake- at making her laugh seemed to calm her down. I wish I didn't have to go first, so I could stay with her until she got called.
I open the gym door: it would be as empty as it was two nights ago, if it weren't for the Gamemakers- about twenty of them- sitting on the elevated stands; they're all staring at me, holding clipboards and ready to take notes.
"Good afternoon," I greet, giving them my most captivating smile. "I'm Marvel Gould. From District 1." I casually run my fingers through my hair, just to see if it has any effect, and a young female Gamemaker giggles loudly. Sweet.
I have fifteen minutes to make an impression; I decide I'll start with the knives, just to assure their attention, then set the trap Serena taught me, and leave spear-throwing for the big finale. I grab about six knives of different sizes and place myself in front of a target; I may not be the best at this, but if I can do this with a spear, I can surely do it with a knife- or two. Having a sudden inspiration, I take the risk and throw all of the knives within seconds, two each time- they hit the target in different spots, and thankfully none of them missed; two of them are even close to the center.
Some of the Gamemakers clap as I head to a pile of ropes and proceed to set a trap. I don't have time to tangle a net- I'm not as fast as Serena, and much more unexperienced, so I use a net I find between the ropes. Then, in order to test it, I choose a bag from the weight- training station and- why not take this chance and show my strength as well?- toss it to the net; it instantly closes around the bag with a loud rustle.
I'm running out of time, so I rush to the spears without checking if the reactions were positive. Since there is a line-up of three targets, I take the same number of spears and get ready to throw them; I've done this thousands of times- I will not fail.
After all three spears hit the center of their respective targets, I straighten up and turn back to the Gamemakers- this time, each and every one of them is applauding me; then they gather and start whispering and nodding in approval. Finally, a man I presume is the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane- man, that is some epic beard- gets up and signals me.
"Very well, Mr. Gould, you may go," he says. I bow slightly and, without tearing my gaze from Miss Giggles- I have absolutely no interest in her, I'm just trying to get an extra credit-, leave the room. I can hear another feminine laughter that pierces my ears, and cheerful voices talking.
Hopefully, they will like Serena just as much.
Serena
Marvel. Glimmer. Cato. Clove. By the time they call Chip, I'm already sitting with no other company besides David. Unlike me, he doesn't seem worried about his upcoming private session at all- like any thirteen-year-old boy, he's eating what appears to be his weight in food. This time, he's struggling with a piece of cake about the size of my head (I have absolutely no idea how he manages to remain so small and skinny), which is keeping him too busy to talk to me. Not that we speak very often; he still acts shy around me- but he totally worships Cato.
"David Rivers!" David picks up what's left of his cake, stuffs his mouth with it- earning an amused stare from the trainer that just called him- and runs out of the dining room.
For the next fifteen minutes, I sit in silence, completely alone at the Career table, and observe the other tributes; thankfully, they are too concerned about themselves to look back. As always, all of them sit alone, and avoid looking up from their plates. The exceptions are Katniss and Peeta, who insist on showing they are friends and are sitting together; and Thresh, who casts me hateful glances every once in a while- I'm not going to lie, he terrifies me; I regret following Cato's order to try and seduce him. What were we thinking? Thresh obviously despises all of us, and the way Glimmer and I approached him only seemed to infuriate him even more.
"Serena Brooke!" I practically jump on my seat as soon as I hear my name. I walk to the gym, not looking behind once- there's no one left in that dining room that would wish me good luck like Marvel did.
Luckily, the Gamemakers don't seem very tired, despite having been here for about an hour and a half now; they are sitting around a punch bowl, and I bet that half of them will be completely drunk during the last tributes' presentations. As selfish as it may sound, I don't really care, to be honest.
I look up, to the Head Gamemaker (what is that on his face?). "Serena Brooke. District 4." I anounce. He crosses his arms and tilts his chin, telling me I may begin.
Where to start? Something tells me Marvel already showed them my trap- he seemed so happy when he finally learned it; I don't mind, though. I can use the net for other purposes, and most importantly, I can tangle it in a minute- and Marvel can't. So, after I finish my net, I fling it over a dummy- just like I do when I'm fishing- and take hold of two tridents: I use one to pierce the dummy I just trapped- perhaps they recognize it as Finnick's signature move- and impale a tall bag (used for fighting, I suppose) lying behind me with the other. The bag's not heavy, so I swing the trident, tossing the bag across the room.
Remembering what Cato said, I decide to try and throw a spear; I will stay away from knife- throwing- for some reason, I always hit the target, but rarely the center. I'm only good with knives when close to my victim. I mean, dummy. This proves to be a good idea, since Marvel's advice works perfectly and the spear hits the center of the target on the first try. However, I can't throw as far as I would like to, and the Gamemakers will certainly take that in consideration.
"Thank you, Miss Brooke, that would be enough," Seneca Crane dismisses me, gesturing towards the exit. I beam shyly at the Gamemakers and take a bow before heading to the elevators. Apart from a couple of Avoxes, the hall is empty. As the doors close, I take a deep breath; it's over, for now. I still have a whole day before I can start freaking out over my interview; as for the day that comes after that, I'll just pretend it doesn't exist until it arrives.
I hope you liked this :) Get ready to chapter 10!
(I couldn't help it. I had to include Seneca Crane's beard)