I woke up the next morning. Who was going to be missing today? That question was answered when I looked over and Grace was gone. What was with people and stealing my partners in their sleep? I walked around, and soon noticed there were footprints that led from Grace's sleeping spot. I followed them and saw Grace aimlessly waling around. I laughed, she was sleep walking. "Orange juice, where's my motorcycle?" She muttered. I laughed, and shook her softly awake. Her eyes opened suddenly.
"Where are we?"
"We are in the forrest. We got here after I followed your sleep walking trail. Don't do that again!" I answered, giggling here and there. Grace sighed and we walked back to our bed.
Reed, Maggie, and Leo were both awake. They were freaking out, considering me AND Grace were gone. "Don't scare me like that! I mean... us." Leo yelled at me. I rolled my eyes and started to walk away. "Where are you going?" Leo asked pathetically. "We're short on food and water." I growled. I grabbed a basket and walked towards a tree. Seeing the tapping device made me sad, it made me think of Finn.
I saw a beautiful flower. I plucked it and laid it on the grave I had dug for Finn.
I continued with my chore; Collecting water and berries/walnuts. I tapped the tree and filled the baskets with water. I found a berry bush, too. But I didn't recognize it. "Reed, Maggie, Grace, L- Will one of you three come here and tell me if this is safe to eat, or not?" Reed came over and looked at the plant. "Uh, no. That's night-lock." I'd heard of that. I instantly backed off. But then I got an idea.
"Eventually, we're going to come across someone we want to kill. I say, when that time comes, we act nice. Give him/her a few good berries, water, and warmth. Then, we give them a basket full of night-lock."
My group agreed it was an awesome plan. And right in time, too. The boy from 2 and the boy from 1 appeared. They were each roughly 17, perfect. They were not younger, and I could not feel bad. "Hey, guys! You two just got lucky!" Grace said in a flirty tone. I hated it, it wasn't her and it was really scary. But I wouldn't do it, and Maggie had Reed... Grace batted her eyelashes.
"Why is that?" asked the boy from 1, about to fall over. I laughed at him. "Oh, you haven't heard? We're good at helping with food, water. Whatever they need. I've already helped your partner, Crystal. And Mags from 4. I helped Finn from 4, but then Leo went and killed him. So what do you guys need?" I asked. I tried to take Grace's lead with the flirty thing, but I decided not to. She could do that part.
"We could use some food. And it seems that you guys know where the Cornucopia is," said Vivia's partner. He revealed a bright, white smile. "Sit down, dude. We can hook you up with food, and the location of the Cornucopia. Berries?" Leo told them. They nodded hungrily. I realized the problem with my plan, there were two of them. They wouldn't eat the berries at the same time. I went and sat uncomfortably close (for me) to Crystal's partner. I would have Vivia's partner eat the night-lock. Then I'd stab District 1 with my knife.
The closeness was highly uncomfortable. I considered telling Grace, who was okay with being flirty (little did I know it was very uncomfortable for her, too), to do it. But I needed to gain his trust. I gave Vivia's partner, who's name was Tyler, the night-lock. "You sure this is safe?" Tyler asked. I inches closer to Braxton (the other boy), "Of course, Ry." I dreaded doing this, I really did. It was terrible, and uncomfortable on SO many levels. I tightened my grip on my knife.
Ryan plopped the night-lock in his mouth. He was about to die. I rolled over now was really close to Braxton. It was disgusting! I stabbed him in the gut. Ryan's cannon shot. Braxton started bleeding, like, a lot. "Why?" he asked. His last word. I cried, "I'm so s-sorry." The cannon shot. And that's when I realized I wan't just uncomfortable with being too close to boys. I was uncomfortable with people- friend or foe- being killed.
I buried Braxton and Ryan near where Finn was buried. This was officially my burial ground. Great, now I had left Crystal and Vivia without partners. I hoped I would see Mags again.
That night we heard a terrible screaming. I ran and ran until I reached in. Knife in hand, I found Isabella on the ground with an extremely bloody arm. "Who?" I demanded. "Marissa, from 10." she answered weakly. Reed arrived and I told him to tend to Isabella's wound. Grace and I ran after Marissa. Luckily, she was a slow runner. "What do you have against me?" she asked as I pinned her to the ground.
"Isabella is our friend. And you stick up for your friends!" yelled Grace, regretfully stabbing Marissa in the heart. A cannon shot. I high-fived Grace. We dragged the dead body to my burial ground. Then we ran to where Reed and Isabella sat. He had wrapped something around the wounded area. "Thank you," Izzy whispered to us.
"No problem. Any time. We have an unofficial alliance, remember?"
We took Izzy to our Camp. "Berries! Water! Fire!" Izzy exclaimed happily. "I have been alone since the games started! I have been unable to find Bianca, who I am in alliance with. And I don't know how to go any of this! I've only been able to find water and build a shelter. All the berries I found looked too much like night-lock!"
Hearing that she had not eaten, not felt warmth, since the beginning made me feel good about helping her. "You stay here tonight," Maggie demanded. Izzy agreed and didn't put up much of a fight. Her medium length dirty blond hair showed somewhat of a reflection of the fire. The flames danced in her warm, brown eyes.
It was hard to find a place in our bed for her to sleep in. We went back to our original beds; Boys in one tree, girls in the other. The boys took one sleeping bag to their tree. We got my sleeping bag, and one of Reed's homemade blankets- because there were more girls.
In Maggie's pack, there was nails and a hammer (or at least, that was one of the things). So she quickly made a giant shelf that was in our tree for our stuff. She also built one right above us- literally 2 feet above our feet so that we couldn't sit up- that carried the food. The fire sat right in between our two trees.