The Capitol Games
Chapter 11
Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to Suzanne Collins.
Asedio Avalon
Snow's dead. Choked on his own blood. Good riddance.
Another new government is hastily set up, with our brand-new President being a woman named Paylor. She was elected by what remained of the Senate after the war, and several people I've already seen on the news are officially appointed to government positions. The Provisional Government becomes a proper one, being retitled the Government of New Panem.
All this runs through my mind as I walk to school. Classes re-start today; this act of normalcy is almost enough to convince me that the last several months of shortages and war haven't happened, and that the Capitol never fell to the rebels.
The Peacekeepers standing guard at my school rather spoil that thought, although they're not doing anything but checking our ID cards and keeping the crowds orderly as we enter the school.
Amazingly, the only thing that's happened to the school is the dust covering the outside walls from them shaking during the bombing. No shattered windows, no broken doors – not even any looting. Either nothing here to take, or just the rebels had more important targets.
I make my way through the familiar corridors, brushing past a lot of people I sort of remember, ending up near my locker. I slap my thumb to the identiplate, and the door unlocks. Everything's still there where I left it, though the battery's probably dead in the laptop.
After shoving my laptop and solid-state disks into my school bag, I close the locker door and turn, only to freeze when Arcturus hesitates near me. He looks nervous as he comes up to me. He says, "Hi."
I fiddle with my shirt button and mumble, "Hey."
After a few seconds, Arcturus leans closer and says, "So… how's it going?"
I sigh. "Okay."
The tension between us finally gets to be too much. I blurt, "Arct, can we just sort of… forget what we did before? I haven't talked to Jo yet, even, and it's such a mess."
He casts his eyes down to his feet, then looks up and says, "Okay, sure. I mean, we were being pretty crazy that night."
It's weird, trying to go back to the way we were before. He's been inside me, for crying out loud. I think this is why they always say friends don't fool with each other. Too damn complicated afterwards.
I look around furtively, noticing the people near us are busy with their own excited greetings and reunions. I say, "Look, I've gotta tell Jo. You know that, right?"
"Do you have to?" whines Arcturus. "She's gonna kill me. Well, first, she's gonna kill you. Then she's gonna kill me."
"Arct, I said some things to her I shouldn't have. I mean, she slapped me when we had our fight. That's how mad she was. If she wants to take me back she's gotta hear everything. I can't lie to her, man!"
He heaves a huge sigh. "All right, I get your point. Can we just forget about it now?"
I nod, relieved that the subject's closed between us.
Arcturus opens his mouth to say something else, but is cut off by the announcement: "All students please gather in the auditorium for further announcements and instructions."
The mass of students in the hallways begins to move towards the center of the school, where there's a huge semicircular theater which doubles as an auditorium for important school functions when it's not being used for plays and music.
Arcturus and I are aimng for seats near the exit doors when I bump into someone, only to realize uncomfortably that Jo's looking coldly at me.
I want to blurt out my apology, but Jo turns away and goes off to sit with a friend of hers near the front. As I sit next to Arcturus in the rear, I notice he saw the incident. He reaches up and gently pats my back, saying, "Better luck next time, huh?"
"I wish." I rub my hands along the arms of the theater chair. "I'm so nervous. You're right, Jo's gonna kill me."
Arcturus lets out a weak chuckle.
The Headmaster's going up the stairs to the stage. He gestures to someone in the back, and the room lights dim a bit, while the stage lights come up.
I survey the heads in the crowd, and maybe it's just my imagination, but there's not as many as there should be. Ominously, I remember Arcturus's discovery.
Headmaster Crosby begins his speech.
"I would like to first welcome you all back after a difficult time. For those of you whose brothers, sisters, parents, as well as friends, died in the war, I want you to know my sympathies are with you and I will excuse you from classes if you wish.
"Before I continue, however, I would like to have a moment of silence. Over a hundred of your fellow students have died in a war – a war we brought onto ourselves. Take a moment to reflect on them, for they did not die in vain. Their deaths are our lesson for the future."
The hall goes absolutely silent as he bows his head, his hands by his sides. I keenly examine the man as my thoughts run over the people who are missing… no, not missing. Dead. His head is almost entirely grey-haired now, and he's a slight, energetic man who I never suspected of harboring such opinions about the Capitol when Snow was President.
I grimace as I realize we Capitol people lied to each other perhaps as much as the government lied to us.
A hundred people.
I knew many of them. Not well, but I knew them. It's still not really real to me, the idea that the guy I once shared computer programming with, Fabricius Dumont, isn't going to be there anymore.
My thoughts cease as the Headmaster resumes his speech.
"A new era has dawned in a suitably named New Panem. At long last, the war is over and we can begin to discover, or rediscover, certain truths about ourselves and our people that, for too long, have been denied or hidden by a government corrupted by the absolute power once vested in our old Presidents.
"There are those who would say that the past is now dealt with and that we should look to the future. But there is an old saying: 'Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it'. We must learn the truth about our history if we are to become coequal with the Districts in New Panem. For they – even District Two – know more about themselves and the past than we do.
"It is with this consciousness of the lies we have told ourselves and the Districts as self-justification for holding onto power, taking their wealth and their people from them, returning only oppression and injustice, that I have ordered a complete revision of the curriculum in history. From this point on until the end of your grade in school, all of you will spend your history classes learning about the real story of Panem and the Districts; not what we have made up about them, but what they know about themselves and what we have done to them.
"In doing so, I hope you all will bring this new awareness of Panem's past to make a better future."
After a few moments of the Headmaster's silence, uncertain applause sweeps the auditorium. I look around, seeing confused expressions on many peoples' faces.
They'll learn, if Snow's death and the televised trials already haven't taught them. They'll learn what I've already had shoved in my face: what we really were in the Capitol.
But can we really look each other in the eyes and admit that we could be evil people? Could Arcturus bring himself to admit to me that his house, his drugs, his money were all bought on the backs of the people in District One? I can't even figure out what to think about Mom.
Maybe we just need to keep having it rubbed in our faces that we've lost.
/\/\/\
After everybody exits the auditorium and begins scattering off to classes, I walk down the hallway towards my next class, which is history.
The halls are still stark white and very sterile. They must have cleaned up before we came back.
After Arcturus breaks off for math, I stare down at the floor as I walk; I can feel people staring at me, probably because of my mom.
Uncomfortably, I scuttle into the history classroom, but I can't escape a stare from a girl in the class who I recall is named Iris.
As advertised, history class has changed. The teacher, Mr. Hellstrom, has us sit down at our desks. As we settle down, he says, "Welcome back, everyone."
He paces in front of the holographic projector near the front of the room. His desk, usually cluttered with history vids, is empty except for something I don't recognize sitting on it.
He says, "As you have all heard, our curriculum has drastically changed. Much of what we will learn comes from scattered archival materials that escaped destruction by the old government, and is still fragmentary. Secretary Heavensbee has indicated that new textbooks will be available sometime in the next two months.
"In the meantime, I would like to start with this book."
He holds up a battered bound-paper volume. "This volume, printed on paper, which you have learned about in your survey of the Districts last year, is one of the few surviving accounts of the history of Panem, then called North America.
"You will learn that it was, at one time, one of the wealthiest areas of our planet. Its population was not just in the hundreds of thousands as it is today, but in the hundreds of millions. People everywhere lived as we do in the Capitol.
"So, the modern history of Panem starts with, as this book recounts, the arrival of a water-bound ship called the Mayflower."
/\/\/\
The rest of the classes passed by in a blur; mostly people just sat around and talked about what happened during the war; I've had my fill of vicarious adventurism, and I spent my time half-heartedly attempting the old math problem set on my laptop that I never finished.
My mood still hasn't fully lifted by the end of the day, and it's not going to get any better because I've got to confess to Jo.
She's at her locker, putting her things away. She frowns as I approach and says, not looking at me, "Make it fast, Ace."
Desperately, I say, "Jo, we need to talk. Can we go somewhere quiet?"
She shuts the locker door, folds her arms and leans against the banks of lockers. Grudgingly, she says, "All right. There's the algorithmic simulation lab. It won't have anyone in it now."
As we walk in an uncomfortable silence, I notice Jo's chosen subdued clothing, like I have. I've got on a white shirt and black pants, and she's wearing practically the same kind of outfit. I try to resist checking her out as she opens the door ahead of me into the classroom, sees nobody there, and holds it open so I can come in.
She shuts the door, then gestures me over to a corner desk with computers in various stages of assembly on it.
As I sit, I say, "Jo, I'm sorry for – for what I said. I'm really, really, sorry. I was… okay, I was an asshole."
There's the hint of a smile to her lips as she replies, "That was"—she nods—"easier than I thought it'd be. I actually thought I might have to yell at you for a bit to get an apology."
"I wasn't being fair to you. That was pretty obvious after I quit stewing about it."
She purses her lips. "To be honest, staying mad at you was kind of hard after a day. But I wanted to know if you'd apologize before I started being nice to you again."
Oh geez. If only I could just not tell her. We could go back to being boyfriend and girlfriend again.
But I've got to.
"Jo? There's something you should know." I begin fiddling with a circuit analyzer.
She's looking at me uncertainly. "What? What happened?"
I look Jo in the eyes. "Arcturus and me." I try to swallow the lump in my throat. "That's… what happened," I conclude lamely.
As realization dawns on her, she's seething. In a low, strained voice, she says, "You bastard. You unmitigated bastard. What'd you do, jump straight into his arms at that party he had?" She shouts, "I can't believe this. Fucking your best friend behind my back!"
Defensively, I blurt, "He fucked me, Jo!"
"Oh, well, being underneath him makes it so much better. Really, Ace!" The sarcasm drips off her words.
I'm stuck. As I look at the floor, I say in a small voice, "I knew it was a mistake as soon as I woke up the next morning."
"Ha! Not soon enough if you ask me. Why'd you tell me? Just to make me hurt some more? Twist the knife?"
"Because I did something stupid and you deserved to know!" I yell. "I get it, Jo. I'm an idiot. You had an idiot for a boyfriend."
She looks perplexed for a second, but her anger's back. "Just get out of my sight. Don't talk to me. I'll talk to you when I think I can trust you again. Go, have fun with your new boyfriend."
I'm going to cry. Damn it, I don't want to. She'll think I'm just trying to manipulate her. I whisper, "We're not like that, Jo. It was… you know what Arct's like at parties."
She sneers. "Don't give me the drugs excuse, okay? Just go. Now."
I grab my bag and leave the room. Hastily, I swipe my sleeve under my nose as I sniffle. Damn it all, anyway!
Author Notes: Thanks go to SkyWriter9 for the beta work and helping with the writing of the scenes at Ace's school. :)