I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated, summer is the busiest time of year for me, you can ask my sister ScarletDaydreamer.
Anyway, I'm putting up two chapters today, the first one is this one, and the title is probably making you curious. I'll get to that in a second, first I'm going to reply to reviews!
SneverusSnapers: Hehe, I don't know what I'm going to do with her alliance yet, but I'll take your opinion into consideration. It was totally your choice to vote or not. the reason I put it out there is because I wasn't sure which way I was going to go. I had ideas for both, so I let the readers decide. You didn't have to vote if you didn't want to. I'm glad you like it! I totally understand about being busy. My schedule is insane right now, I'm either skating, in the car, at my cabin, or have friends begging me to find time to hang out. :P It gets really stressful.
QueenCobraWing: My hint is to think of the songs you learned in pre school. I know that makes no sense at the moment, but once you get it, you'll be like OOOHHHH. Also, think of the equation 26-2=The number of tributes. I thought the same thing about making friends. I'm happy to hear someone has faith in her, because she obviously doesn't... But remember, as I show in this chapter, I can change the POV at anytime. I hadn't thought about whether Elise spoke from experience. Gosh, this is why I love having reviewers, because they make me think deeper into my stories. I love that! Keep it up!
She'sALady-SoTreatHerLikeOne: Hmm, awesome idea! I think you're on to something... I might change it a little bit, but that's good! Keep up the good work!
And uh... No name...: I'm glad you like the story, I've been working very hard on it. I'm sorry I didn't update soon but as I told SneverusSnapers, my schedule is insane right now. I'm taking everyone's ideas into consideration, and I'm not going to do exactly what anyone's idea is, but I'll probably combine a lot of them, and then put my own twist on it.
By the way, I didn't edit this chapter, so there are lots of mistakes. I was just trying to get it up asap.
Okay done with that. Now for those of you who peaked ahead, I should explain who the heck Yumako Daquip is. Yamako is one of the capitol Gamemakers. She is not the head Gamemaker, but she is one of them.
Okay, anyway, I'm going to write now...
Yumako Daquip
Those little brats!
We just found out that one of them found the thirteenth floor.
They're gonna figure something out one of these days if we keep letting them get away with this stuff.
The thirteenth floor is laid out the same as the other twelve floors because we didn't know we were going to blow district thirteen up.
You see, back before the Rebellion, we had already come up with the Hunger Games. We were just waiting for the districts to mess up. After a few years of waiting, the Rebellion started, and it went further than we thought it would. District Thirteen was no more and we had an extra floor. We remodeled the building while we 'came up with the punishment' to make it so that you have to find the staircase to get to the thirteenth floor. We thought we hid the staircase well, but apparently not well enough.
"So what's the plan? How do we make the little brats pay for this?" I asked aloud the question I knew everyone was wondering.
The head game maker Qasim Simar thought about it for a moment, and finally replied, "First we give them a change to admit to it. We'll tell them if they admit to it, then we will let them off easy, even though we won't. If no one admits to it, we will punish everyone. We will brainstorm ideas to punish them with. Whoever has the best idea will become second in line to be head Gamemaker once I resign. Any questions?"
The room was silent.
"Alright then. Meet back here tomorrow at three. We confront them tomorrow after training." Qasim said. "Dismissed."
Everyone stood, stepped behind their chair, pushed it in and turned at the exact same time.
We had practiced this at least thirty times before Qasim was happy with it. It wasn't something I would call "time spent well" but Qasim was annoyed with how it looked unorganized when we all stood up at different times.
After that, whenever we were dismissed, we were to do it at the same time, otherwise, he'd make us do it again. I'm not even kidding. It was really annoying...
I walked to my room and thought about what Qasim had said.
If I come up with good torture, then I could be head gamemaker someday!
I had to start brainstorming. I had to come up with something never done before. Something totally new...
Jewel POV
"It's okay Elise, calm down! I know you didn't mean anything by it, it's fine!"
Elise nodded. "If you're sure..."
"I am, trust me." I hated it when I was the center of attention... So I tried to change it to be someone else instead. "So what's our plan in the arena anyway...?"
They all thought about it for a second.
Penny finally spoke up. "I suppose that was our next conversation huh?"
Lorie jumped right into the new subject. "Well I think we should just run at the cornucopia instead of trying to grab stuff. It'll just make things difficult and we'll probably end up one person less. So we just have to run to the edge and try to meet up with each other. Are you guys fast sprinters?" She said in one breath.
I nodded. "I guess I am..." Okay, so I know I am faster than most people, but it really isn't that fast. I mean, it's not like I'm Olympic speed or anything.
Penny replied next. "I'm not fast by any means, but I'm not the slowest in the district..." She shrugged.
"Well I'm not as fast as a panther or anything, but I'm faster than a turtle." Lorie said.
Elise nodded. "I'm average too."
"Alright, what about all you're strengths?" Elise asked us.
"Making fire and recognizing plants." Penny said right away.
"Um, long distance running and I have a good memory." Lorie said.
"Well I'm a good scavenger, and I can use a knife pretty well." Elise told us.
They all looked at me expectantly. Have I told you how much I hate attention yet? I have? Oh, okay, well it's true. "Um..." I tried to think of something I was good at. But everything I thought of, there was always someone better than me at it. "I'm good at..." I was trying to think of something, I really was, but when you have no self esteem, that becomes a pretty tough thing to do.
"Come on Jewel, everyone's good at something!" Penny urged.
But I'm not. "Well, I'm not particularly good at anything, but I'm okay at somethings." I shrugged and looked down hoping they'd let me stop there.
No such luck.
"Then what are you okay at?" Elise said obviously still feeling bad about earlier.
"Um... I'm pretty good at running like I said before, and I'm good at making do with what I have." I shrugged. Now please let me stop talking!
For once in my life, things went my way and they moved on.
"Okay, what about you're weaknesses?" Elise said.
I almost laughed without humor. My weaknesses? I could go on for days talking about them. Maybe they'll finally realize that I'm no help in an alliance and that they should just kick me out or something. I would have to see.
"Well I for one, have like, no strength what so ever, and I can't aim anything for my life." Elise said when no one spoke up.
"I can't throw, and I can't tell poisonous and non poisonous plants apart." Penny said.
"And I am afraid of heights and I barely ever eat meat. But I suppose I'll have to in the arena because I don't think the gamemakers will have a vegetarian friendly arena." Lorie said.
They all looked at me. I took a deep breath. Come on Jewel, out with it. They deserve to know what they've gotten themselves into...
"Well, I probably won't be able to kill anyone. For several reasons, I couldn't stand watching their face, and I have no strength at all. I can't fight at all, last time I tried I ended up with a broken arm, and the person went easy on me. If I was attacked, I probably wouldn't put up a whole lot of resistance because I'd rather get the pain over with and maybe they'd make it quick." And because I'm suicidal. I didn't add that part though. "And a whole lot more."
They all stared at each other with wide eyes. They turned to each other and started whispering to each other not facing me. They were just loud enough so I could hear them, but I couldn't make out who was saying what.
"Okay, I don't think we can afford to have her in our alliance, she might be the death of us all."
"Yeah, but the poor girl is even younger than us."
"So? This is the Hunger Games. The capitol takes no mercy."
"Okay, now you;re just being cruel. The poor girl has obviously been through a lot. When she talks she sounds like she's thirty with the words she chooses. She's obviously been forced to grow up quickly."
"That's not our problem though!"
"Who cares. I mean, look at her. She obviously comes from a poor family."
"Yeah, and we can't just leave her defenseless..."
I spoke up. "Yes you can."
They turned to me in shock as though they didn't realize I could hear them. Oh give me a break. You're five feet from me. And I have good hearing. What do they expect?
"I mean, I'll just hold you guys back. So... I'm going to let you guys be in an alliance without me. I mean, I don't want you guys getting killed because of me..." Without another word, I grabbed my tray and left to the corner of the room to eat.
"You guys can go back to training when you finish eating." A tall man said.
As soon as he finished speaking, a large group of people left. Including the three girls I had formerly been in an alliance with. I didn't watch them as they left knowing that they would feel worse if I did.
I kinda just moved the rest of my food around my plate with my fork when I finished eating. I wasn't ready to go train yet.
When I looked up there were only two more tributes in the room. Kyle, and a boy I didn't recognize. I think his name was Waldo or something. But I wasn't sure.
Eventually Waldo left, and that left just me and Kyle in the room.
Kyle got up after a few minutes, but his footsteps didn't go toward the door, they went toward me. I sighed. This wasn't going to be good...
"Look Jewel, I know you hate me." He said.
Hah. No duh jerk.
"But you gotta listen to me when I say this." He pleaded.
Who is he to tell me what I have to listen to and what I don't have to listen to? "What?" I asked as I turned to him.
"I was a jerk."
Obviously...
"But I didn't mean it. I was too stupid to realize it back then though. I regret everything I did and I want you to forgive me. Could you do that?"
I thought about that for a second, and I took a deep breath. Let's see here. He's made fun of me, practically ruined my life, and... And he stood up for me.
But it was one time...
I looked over at him, his eyes pleading in a way that isn't possible if he were lying. Gosh, I can never say no to anyone no matter what they've done to me can I?
I sighed. "Yeah. I can." I said as I looked down at my food.
Kyle walked over and sat next to me. "I know before we both decided we didn't want to be allies. Is there any way that's changed?"
I thought about it. It might be nice to have an ally. But the same question as before popped into my head.
How do I be his ally when I know what the arena is?
I decided to go for it. If I'm not going to be killing anyone, and I'm not, then I'm going to need someone who will be.
"Yeah it has."
He gave me an awkard one armed hug. "Thanks Jewel."
I nodded. But there were so many questions I wanted to ask him. But I hate talking. But some of them were important.
Hmm. Talk, or forever more be confused and never have the questions answered because one of us will die?
I decided that I could talk for one day I suppose.
"Why are you thanking me?"
Kyle seemed to think about it for a minute. "The truth?"
I nodded. Obviously... Why would I ask a question but want a lie?
"Well, I've always hated watching people make fun of you." What does this have to do with thanking me? "And I've only had the guts to stand up for you once. And I want to make up for that. So I want to help you in the Games. But it would have been difficult if we weren't allies."
I thought back to that one day, how he really seemed to care. It was a day of the past, but it was an important one to me.
I nodded. "How come you stood up for me that one day?"
"Um... Well I guess I've always kind of thought of you as a little sister of sorts. I mean, you were never mean to anyone, but you get made fun of all day. It just didn't seem fair. So one day I was walking by in the hall and I saw those girls bullying you, and I decided to step in for a change."
"But you pretty much knew that by doing so, you'd lose your whole reputation." I stated. This was so confusing to me. He had twisted logic.
He shrugged. "I guess I didn't care. I couldn't let someone hurt you. Like I told you earlier, I always thought of you as a little sister."
I laghed once without humor.
"What?"
I looked up at him. "Chloe always had a crush on you. I had figured you guys would end up getting married since you were the most popular boy, and she was the most popular girl." I shrugged. "Then I would be your little sister in law."
He smiled.
I added quickly before he got any ideas. "Um, but don't marry Chloe. She's not the nicest person out there. She may be popular and pretty, but she's really hard to live with..." I thought back to all the arguments we've had, and all the door slams, and the hours I spent locked in my room so no one could even talk to me.
He gave me another one armed hug. "Okay Jewel. I won't."
I noded.
"Let's go finish training." He said.
I nodded and got up. I was walking over to my corner again, but he put his hand on my shoulder. "Where are you going?"
Now that we were around people, I didn't plan on talking. I pointed to the corner.
"Why?"
I could make a sign saying, I want to be invisible, so I just shrugged.
He sighed obviously trying to decide whether he should let me go or not. In his hesitation, I used it to my advantage to sneak out from under his arm and quickly jog over to the corner.
I got situated in the corner and continued watching the room as everyone trained.
But apperently Kyle wasn't going to let me get away with that.
He walked over and sat next to me. "What are you doing?" He asked in a way that didn't seem harsh and demanding, but sounded more curious.
I sighed. "I'm watching."
He rolled his eyes. "Well I knew that."
"Then why did you ask?" I smiled at him. Okay, maybe it wasn't a smile, but it was the biggest smile I've done in about five years.
He laughed and sat down next to me watching.
He got visably bored and turned to me after a while. "Well I'm gonna go check some stations out. See you later Jewel!" He smiled and I waved goodbye to him.
I looked around and found a boy around fourteen or fifteen, and he was... Well. Let's just say he was different. Let's see here, how do I put this... He was... A little off. Yeah, that's it. WHen he turned around, I recognized him as Fred from District Twelve. He had as much a chance as I did... Which wasn't very high in case you hadn't noticed.
I looked around and found a guy who had brown hair. I think his name was Quincy. He was definately an outdoors type person. He had a tan, which showed he was in the sun a lot.
I saw a girl walking past him, and she was wearing some tall, dirty boots. She had a very slight bowlegged walk that not many people would notice. She was obviously someone who spent most of her time on a horse. I heard her introduce herself to the instructor as Rachel.
I looked over toward the first aid station, and saw someone there. Well, not really there. He wasn't at the station, just... Around it. But I barely noticed him. When he turned toward me, I automatically recognized him as Waldo, the boy who wore a red and white striped shirt and blue pants at his reaping. I'm not sure how I remembered that, but it seemed like a defining part of him.
I was missing one more girl... Let's see. Ah there she is.
She was tall, skinny, and obviously weak. She obviously didn't get fed very well, and never had to build muscle. I heard her say her name was Samantha.
Okay, two left...
There was a short boy at the track. Okay, not as short as me, but still short. He was really slow, and I could easily out run him. Anyway, he was obviously my age, and I remember his name being Greg.
Okay, last one.
Oh! There he is!
How did I miss him? He's huge! I mean like... HUGE!
Alright, I probably skipped by him thinking I had already figured him out with the careers, but he's not a career. He may be big, but he's not career skilled. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's good, but he obviously hasn't trained. Anyway, I immediantly recognized him as the big scary guy from district seven. His name was Hewrman. I remember that only because I never wanted to get close to him if I could help it.
Okay, now that I figured out all the tributes, it's time to train.
I looked around and gulped. I was not looking forward to this...
I looked around and decided maybe the weapons. I mean, yeah I'd probably be made fun of, and yeah, people would try to talk to me but... I needed some way to protect myself.
I walked over to the knives and picked one up.
As I weighed it in my hsnds to get a feel for it, I could feel the eyes boring into me. Lots of the tributes here were watching me. Because I was small, and because I was an easy target. And because they were probably wondering where I had been all day...
I swallowed with difficulty and decided that throwing the knives would be the best idea since if I was in close range, I'd be crushed and I'd be a goner for sure.
I took a deep breath and aimed for the target. Keep in mind I'd never thrown anything besides a ball and my life, and I hadn't even done that in at least five years.
I threw the knife as hard as I could, hoping the speed will make up for the fact that it might not even hit the target.
I closed my eyes after it left my hands because I was afraid to watch.
Half a second after it left my hands, I heard a collective gasp around me.
I opened one eye slightly to see before me... The knife was thrown so hard, the blade was completely in the wood. As in, no blade visable, just the handle.
My eyes widened as I took in the sight and found that the knife was not at the bulls eye, but the ring around that.
I walked up to the target, and just stared at it for a second. After getting over my initial shock, I started to pull at the knife.
Unfortionately, I am the weakest person I have ever met, and I couldn't get it more that an inch out of the wood.
I sighed and blushed, but kept facing the target.
I heard a thump on the target next to me.
I looked over. Who ever threw it got a bulls eye. If I had to guess, it was probably a career.
I kept my eyes on my target, but my presance was obvious anyway, and as the girl walked up she looked over at me after grabbing her knife.
It was Victoria.
She smirked at me and raised her eyebrows. "What, you aren't going to take the knife out?"
The way she was looking at me, she had obviously seen me try to take it out. She knew I tried, but failed.
I blushed and whispered, "Can't." I looked down embarrassed waiting for her to laugh and make fun of me.
She did. "What, little twelve year old can't pull a knife out of wood?" She laughed and walked up to my kinfe and pulled on it.
The weird part? It didn't come out.
I stoped myself from smirking and making a snide comment. That wouldn't get me anywhere. It would make things worse.
Unfortonately, the room was filled with several people's laughter.
I looked down and had already anticipated Victoria's response before it happened.
Victoria stomped away in exhasperation.
I had a feeling I was at the top of her "To Kill" list.
I just walked away from the station and went into a corner never to be noticed for the rest of the day.
After Victoria's failure, every career had to try. It never did come out...
I wasn't going to be the quiet invisible one anymore was I?
The bell rung signaling the end of training day. I waited until everyone was out before coming out of my hiding spot.
Everyone else had left on and elevator to go to their floor.
I got in one and pressed the number eleven.
After the doors opened, I saw everyone standing there waiting for me smiling. Obviously Kyle had told them what happened.
I panicked. I admit it. I did. I haven't panicked since I was caught trying to commint suicide in fourth grade!
I ran. I ran with all my might into my room, shut the door, and locked it.
I leaned against the door and slid down to the floor.
I put my head between my knees and tried to ignore the people pounding on the door and screaming at me to come out.
After about, fifteen minutes they finally gave up. The last thing anyone told me was that dinner was at six.
I wasn't going.
In fact, I was going to bed right now. I wasn't hungry, and I just needed to relax.
So I crawled into bed, and turned out the lights. And then, I was staring at the knife in the target.
Thankfully, somehow I knew it was a dream.
Done! That took forever to write, but it's done. Sorry about the wait, but like I said at the begginging, I've been really stressed and busy.
Not sure how often the updates will be, I'm just trying my best to write at all as it is.
No promises besides one: I will finish this story. I don't know whether I'll be thirty by the time I finish it, but I will finish it.
Okay, I'm exadurating. Not thirty, more like one more year until the end.
Okay, I really have to go or my parents are going to kill me. Bye!
And don't forget to review!