Capitolrebel13: Back to Chelen... I'm running out of things to say before the chapters...
Chelen: So then leave it for the end. People want to read the story not the Out-of-story stuff.
Lyme: CR13 does not own THG
Thank the Heavens! Caesar looked so much better than earlier today. His hair was in place, his outfit was neat, his eyes were bright, and his voice was up-beet. This is the Caesar I knew.
"Where's Katniss?" Kyro asks. She wasn't here when we got back. I wonder where she went.
"She said she was going to back by the time the interview was over." Tenra, Kyro's stylist, says. Right now the only ones in the apartment are Kyro, Tari, Tenra, Carlil, and me. After Plutarch Heavensbee's interview they are going to announce the other twenty four tributes. I hope they don't make Caesar announce them. He's gone through so much already. Just then the front doors open and Katniss strides in.
"Speaking of Katniss." Tari says. "Where have you been?"
Katniss plops down in a chair. "The interview. Effie says hi."
"Wait. What?" I say. "What were you doing at the interview?"
"I needed to talk to Caesar. Damn it! I forgot to get after him for inviting Peeta on our trip through out Panem after the Games."
"Are you having an affair with Caesar?" Kyro asks. Katniss and I stare at him. Shook was all over her face and I can feel mine begin to redden. Um, shouldn't that be the other way around?
"Nooooo. Though my friendship with him is taking… off?" A strange look comes across her face. I bet she never expected to be saying something like that.
"Then why don't you want Peeta to go with you if you're going to be gone for over a year?" Kyro presses on.
"It's not that. I just wished he would have asked Peeta before he told Panem that he was coming with us. Caesar seems to have the tendency to assume that people are just going to go along with whatever he says."
"That's Caesar for you." I say without even thinking.
"What?" Kyro says. "How would you know?"
"Oh uh… My mother used to be his best friend. I remember being at his studio and Mom telling me that all Caesar had to do was flash a smile or even bat his eyes from time to time and people would fall all over him."
"Really?" Carlil says. I should never have said anything. They're my memories; these people have no right knowing them. I don't have those two people in my life anymore. I can't, I won't let them go. I won't share them.
"Chelen?" Katniss's voice breaks me out of my daze. She and I lock eyes… She already knew that my mother was best friends with Caesar.
"I'd rather not talk about. Before today at the reaping, Caesar and I hadn't seen each other for years." Panem's nation anthem begins to play on the TV. We all look toward it. The screen's blank and a man's voice says, "Here are the twenty-four tributes voted into the Arena." A list appears, the Northern and Southern sections are on the left and the Western and Eastern sections are on the left. I scan the Northern Section and find Theresa's name has come up in second place. She'll be in the floor below me but I think I already explained how that works. The third place girl I don't know but her name is Felli Teebrout. The third place boy I do know. He's in a couple of my classes at school and we used to hang out before my mother died. His name is Yansen Hilel. I don't look at the rest of the names. I don't know anyone from other the Sections and, like I said, I have no interest in the other tributes who going into the arena with me.
I get up and walk out of the room. It's late and tomorrow's going to be busy. I might as well get some sleep.
My dreams are nothing special, just flashes of random stuff. I've heard things around school about the tributes and how most of them have dreams about past arenas. You'd think that since I'm about to go off and die in one of these said arenas I'd be dreaming about it. Yeah, like that will ever happen. The dreams never really have anything to do with what is going on in my life.
I wake up the next morning by someone pounding on my door. "Time to wake up Chelen! It's going to be a big day. You also have to meet the other two tributes who are sharing the floor." Tari says then I hear her heels clicking on the ground as she walks away. What time is it? What am I doing here? What was she talking about?
I hit the light switch and cover my eyes. Slowly they adjust to sudden brightness and allow me to see my surroundings. Oh yeah, now I remember. Yesterday was the reeping and I volunteered for Celi. Why was her name even drawn anyways, it was only in there once. I guess it doesn't really matter. It's in the past and I can't change it. I'm going into the arena and I'm most likely going to die.
I force myself from bed and get dressed in a black blouse and blue jeans.
"KATNISS! IT'S SEVEN O'CLOCK! GET OUT OF BED!" Tari yells but I doubt Katniss is even in her room. Why would she stay here when she had someone who was as good-looking as Peeta waiting for her at some hotel or something?
I walk out of my room and quickly glance at Tari before walking on. Only one other person is up and it's the girl who was voted in. We lock eyes for a moment when I enter the room but we don't say anything. It's dark so I can't really tell what she looks like only that she is taller than me. Before I can move someone bumps into me.
"Hey watch it will you?" Yansen Hilel says and shoves me aside. My mother's death and me taking the lead role in my family is what caused us to stop hanging out but whenever I see him in school I'm glad we did. He's become such a big jerk. Yansen isn't any bigger than me and I doubt he's any stronger. If I know him, he will most likely use his attitude to last in the Games.
"Hey," Kyro smiles at me as he comes into the living room.
"Watch it Kyro or she'll smash your jaw in again," the girl, Felli I think that's her name, says. She's taken out this small handheld mirror and was inspecting her reflection.
"She can't do that again. I'm bigger than her now. And she didn't just hit me, I let her hit me." Kyro sounds like he's bragging. He didn't let me hit him of course. If he did he wouldn't have coward every time he saw me. As for him being bigger… well, bigger isn't always better. The front doors opens and Katniss strolls in.
"Look at that, a full house today. Let's see what's on the schedule." There's a slight bounce in her step as she goes to find Tari.
"We're about to go off and die. Why is she so happy?" Felli asks with a hint of irritation leaking out of her voice.
"Weren't we that happy when the Hunger Games came around? Weren't there twenty three tributes going off to die every year?" I ask her.
"That was different." There's indifference in her tone. "The Districts actually committed a crime that needed a lasting punishment. We as the Capitol have done nothing wrong."
Kyro sits down next to her on the couch. "Some people would argue that." He looks at me as if I'm the only person who would argue that the Capitol has been committing a crime every year at the Hunger Games. Kyro tries to wrap his arm around her shoulder. Without breaking our eye contact with her reflection, she reaches up and removes Kyro's hand.
"All I know is that I'm coming out of the arena alive," she looks Kyro up and down. "Alone."
"What are you going to do?" I ask. "Send out text messages to all the sponsors telling them fake rumors about all the tributes so that they'll all sponsor you and no one else. Oh, and then I bet you'll ask sponsors for new high-heals and you'll hit us all to death with the heal of the shoe. Then during your victory interview you'll be wearing said shoes that you killed us with. Now that would be very interesting to see." I sit down in the chair across from her, and flash her a smile. At first all Felli does is glare at me than she slowly stands up and walks over. With half my relatives being in show business, I've learned how to see through people's masks, especially the ones that are poorly put to together. Felli's mask is poorly made, anyone could see her body shaking, her fists clutched up in balls, and the rage in her eyes. At first she just stands there staring at me. I don't thinks she's really going to do anything to me.
WHAM!
Or maybe she will.
"Hey!" Katniss calls coming in with Tari. "If you guys want nothing to do with each other than just ignore one another but don't you start fights." I rub my nose where Felli's open palm made contact with it. Tari comes over to me.
"It's fine. I've been knocked in the nose quite a few times. It's nothing. It's not bleeding, it's not broken, I can still breath out of it. Really Tari, it's ok." I try to convince her. It's not broken but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt when she touches it.
"No, Tari's right to be concerned. It doesn't look that good." Katniss says taking a step forward. "Come on. I'll take you down to the infirmary." She does this mentioning movement with her hand. What is she up to? Her eyes don't say that she really believes I'm that hurt. I stand up and meet eyes with Felli for a moment. Just as before, her mask is poorly put together and her eyes tell me that under no circumstances will she ever be my alley in the arena. I glance down at Kyro…
I had it wrong. Kyro's eyes are saying that we will never be allies. Felli's eyes are saying that she's now my worst enemy. As I walk out with Katniss I also catch Yansen's gaze. He gives me a smirk and shakes his head. Outside the apartment Katniss doesn't say anything until we reach the elevator.
"The other three don't mean anything to me," she says.
"What?" I look at her and don't believe what she has said. There's this pained look on her face as she stares at the ground.
"Ok, fine. They do mean something and they're deaths will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, just as some many others do." She closes her eyes and then shiver. When she opens them again she shakes her head. "I didn't sign up to mentor them though. I didn't sign up to mentor anybody until you volunteered for your sister. I didn't know what to make of you, and I still really don't, but when I saw that look on your face when you ran to stop your sister-"
"Celi." I say and she nods.
"Celi. When you stopped Celi from going up on stage I knew that there was something different about you. And then there was your dress. It was simple, very simple. Nothing like average Capitol wear. I thought– I think that if there really was anyone who could put a stop to the Games for good it could be you." The elevator dings and the doors open but Katniss and I don't walk out.
"I don't understand. I thought these were the last Games. Isn't forty-seven of us dying and the last one standing being named Victor enough?" My mind flashes back to what Gale Hawthorn had said and the look on most of the Capitol residents' faces at the reaping. Could they really continue the Games if they wanted to? "What can I possibly do? How could I put an end to them?" The doors of the elevator close again leaving Katniss and I disconnected to the outside world.
She looks at me, all emotion gone from her face. "Stay alive." Again with the useless advice. Her emotionless face changed to being very serious. "Win the Games and don't lose yourself along the way. Right now you're the talk of the country because you volunteered to save your sister. People in the Districts think that all Capitol people are heartless being who care more about wasting rather than saving. This year's going to be different. Every district will get three sponsors with a certain amount of money. Then the Districts will use those sponsors to obviously sponsor whatever tribute they want. Right now, you're the Districts' favorite. If they wanted to, they could all sponsor you."
"What about the Capitol?" I ask.
Katniss shakes her head and crosses her arms. "Some of them are moved but mostly Capitol people say you were just copying me. From what I hear from Joanna, Gale isn't too happy about it either."
"Hawthorn? The Head Gamemaker?"
Katniss nods once. "I was a volunteer from a place where no one volunteers. You're a volunteer from a place where no one was expected to volunteer. I broke my home's protocol. You broke your home's protocol. I threw the Gamemakers' rules aside I played the Games my way. Gale wants to have complete control over what goes on in the arena. On the outside, you appear to be very similar to me. Gale does not want someone who isn't about to do what she's told in the arena." She pauses and looks at me to see if I'm responding to this in some way.
Right now, I'm numb. What she has said hasn't yet completely been absorbed emotionally. Logically it has. I heard every word she said and my brain understands it. Given the fact that what she has told me is very important when it comes to life and death, and since my emotions don't know how to really react at the moment, I will take the opportunity to look at this logically.
"So, this is what I understand so far. The Head Gamemaker Gale Hawthorn does not like me because I volunteered to take my twelve year old sister's place in the Games." Katniss nods. I take a step back and lean against the wall. "And he's worried that I won't play by his rules even though he has never met me and the only thing he has to go by is how you acted in your Hunger Games. And if I turn out to be like you then he will most likely get rid of me because he does not want to be up staged or embarrassed by a Capitol child. If I'm correct, to be humiliated by the Capitol now would be a fate worse than death to him. After all, the Districts won the war and the Capitol Games is the Capitol's punishment. It would only be true justice if all the tributes were completely terrified, and one hundred percent at the mercy of the Gamemakers.
"And yet at the same time," I push off the wall and start pacing. "Gale Hawthorn might actually be happy that I'm going in but he's unhappy because he can't think of the way to kill me that would have the most effect on the other tributes. 'Cause think about it. If I'm the tribute that really sticks out and doesn't want to obey the rules than Gale Hawthorn can kill me in some way early on, in front of many tributes at that, and use my death as an example to the other tributes as a reminder of who's in charge and a warning sign about what happens when you disobey the Gamemakers. The only problem with that is how they're going to get all the tributes to see… I'm sure they'll think of something. They can invite everyone to a feast or just play it in the sky I suppose." I stop for a moment and notice Katniss staring at me. "Sorry. My emotions are switched off right now I guess and without emotions getting in the way I tend think highly logically. When I do that, I can see clearly small details that people often overlook thus enabling me to arrive at my destination with a much surer mind than that of others who have walked down the same road as me."
Katniss turns her head slightly and looks away. If I'm right, she's trying to decipher what I said. "How often do you turn off your emotions?"
I shake my head. "I do not turn them off; they turn off on their own. It rarely ever happens though. I think it's a defense mechanism because it started after my mother died and it only happens when I receive such news that would normally arouse strong emotions in people and cause them to act irrationally."
"That's a nice mechanism to have." I shrug, I don't mind it really but it gets strange reactions from people. "We've been down here awhile. You need to get to the Training Center."
"Training Center?"
"Yes, you will be in the Training Center while the chariots and the stylists are getting ready for the Tribute Parade." She hits the down button and the elevator begins to take us down to the lower levels.
Chelen: Have you thought of anything to say yet?
Capitolrebel13: Me? You guys usually take over the bottom part.
Peeta: Indeed we do.
Katniss: But we got nothing to say.
Kyro: Wait, wait, wait... Does that mean I can start commenting down here now?
Capitolrebel13: Yes.
Yansen: Well that's great.
Chelen: Kyro! Yasen! I can't wait for...
Capitolrebel13: That's enough of this little reunion. No need to bring up the names of characters who are not here yet.
Celi: Hello Kyro and Yansen. I can't wait for you two to get the know the other characters. Say hello everyone.
Everyone: Hello!
Katniss: Well this is... awkward for me... Review!