Chapter 11
When there's a knock on my door, I stop my dancing and walk over to answer it. It's Alexander.
"Ademia says we have to go now, since she doesn't want us to be late." He explains apologetically.
"Okay," I answer. I'm in top physical condition, so the last 40 minutes of dancing didn't make me break much of a sweat. My feet are sore though. I'll have to remember to order some Capitol dance shoes later.
Ademia is waiting at the elevator, and soon we are on our way to the basement where we will train for these Games.
We arrive early, and there are only the other career tributes waiting here. Well, them and the two tributes from District 12…
I make a split second decision and head over to the District 12 cluster.
"Hey," I say.
"Hey," replies Rhett, more than just a little surprised at our appearance.
The other career tributes are staring daggers at us, but I honestly couldn't care less.
"I saw you fall last night. Smooth," says the District 12 girl.
"Yea, they only tranquilize the important people that others actually give a crap about." Replies Alexander sharply.
"Who are you, anyways?" I demand of her.
"Lavender Slinth," she supplies smugly, as if I'm supposed to recognize the name and bow down to her or something.
I look her over again and again, and then she finally snaps and says, "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm trying to remember every detail of you. You're going to be my first kill," Then I walk away calmly with Alexander. When I look back I give her a confident smirk, her face turns to a ghostly white. I then turn my attentions to the career conversation.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Lily?" Demands Grey.
"Intimidating the competition," I say, and then add. "You're welcome."
Other tributes file into the training center while I dance circles around Grey with words. He really leaves himself open for so many comebacks, it's sad.
After a while a man named Jason comes up and explains the rules of training to us, and soon after releases us.
Alexander and I follow the rest of the careers for the most part of training, which is pretty normal since they seem to move in a pack.
After an hour of Seth showing off at wrestling, I get bored and trip him when he's going at it with the instructor. I soon find that that's a bad move…
"HOW. DID. YOU. DO. THAT?" says Seth, the indignation evident in his voice.
"I have absolutely no, idea…" I do, actually. He's extremely clumsy and relies on brute strength, which was his downfall.
To avoid any other conflict, I wander over to the plants station.
I don't recognize very many of these plants, and their habitats won't help very much. Some survive in extremely desolate areas, others in swamps and wetlands. It makes no sense.
"Hey, Lily. Sorry that Lavender is kind of, well…" Says Rhett from behind me. I jump, but I could hear him and easily knew where he was headed. He's oh so very loud.
"You startled me, Rhett. And don't worry; it's not your fault. So there's no need for you to apologize."
"That was the idea." He says, grinning. "And I just kind of felt obligated to."
"I was just about to head over to knots. You coming?"
"Sure, everything else is occupied," he says sarcastically. There are several more interesting stations that are vacated.
I push him playfully then we head over to the instructor. I wiz through the class but Rhett has a few, well, difficulties. When he gets stuck I place my hands on his and guiding him through the motions.
"Not so sarcastic now, huh?" I ask.
"Not one bit, ma'am," he replies with a mock salute. I laugh.
"If you were as smart with your mind as you are with your mouth, then you just might make it…"
"Yea, maybe I would. That is, if all of the tributes from 1, 2, and 4 killed each other. No offense."
"Well, 4 isn't that stupid, plus 1 and 2 will kill each other later on." I reply, "1, 2, and 4 may have been the better trained districts, but some people aren't snobby about it."
"Well, you guys were the better trained offensive districts during the rebellion. Going in and attacking, leading the raids. You were trained to fight extremely well. The other districts were taught the basics on how to defend." And then he adds in a rather matter of fact tone, "You have to take some credit for it."
"Why," I snap. "Would I want to take credit for the reason my older brother is dead?" My voice rises at the end even though I didn't intend it to do so.
"I didn't know that…" he starts.
"Of course you didn't. I bet you didn't know that my dad and I are the only survivors of my original family, or that he ignores me and remarried. I had an older brother and sister, only to be replaced by 2 younger siblings who live to ruin my life. In fact, both of my older siblings were trained for the rebellion and killed soon after. My mother was killed for simply being associated with them. My grandmother slaughtered before my eyes just because she took care of harmless children. I only survived because I escaped and stayed hidden with the other children."
"You mean you kept the other kids alive in a hidden area by quieting them, feeding them, and tending to their wounds." I didn't even notice Alexander walk by. He wraps his arms around me and whispers soothing words into my ear to calm me down. Eventually I do, and see how guilty Rhett looks and realize that I was shouting at him.
"I'm sorry Rhett. It wasn't right of me to blame you. Blame anyone except for the killers themselves…"
"No, I need to learn when to stop," he says.
"No, it was my fault. There was no way for you to have known about any of that." I say, then walk over to camouflage with Alexander.
I'm able to pain him into a flowery meadow, but he takes a while to paint me into a snowy pass.
'You're shaking…" I say. Then I try to steady him by taking his hand and running it against my face.
"I'm remembering," he says. His voice seems far away, and soon I am remembering too.
Everybody that I loved except my 'father' was dead. I watched one of the most important people in my life die. Now I had to take care of roughly around 70 children.
"What do I do?" I had said helplessly, my chin rested on my knees. I don't know how, but I knew this is where we were supposed to go. It was a hidden clearing in the middle of the forests in District 4. Nobody would find us. The only way to find this place is if you looked for it. I knew my grandmother didn't want me to look weak by crying for her in front of everyone. It didn't matter. The tears wouldn't come.
All I remember is one of the boys saying to me, "I'll help you take care of them."
After that we wove very large bowls to put freshwater in, as well as ones to put food in. We gathered food from the ocean, found a freshwater stream, and many herbs in the forest that we could mash up to help the wounded. We fished, ate, drank, and basically kept everyone alive.
After a week of this we had a fairly large collection of supplies, so we snuck into the District and got a radio from one of the houses. That's how we got our news.
One night the full force of losing everything that mattered hit me at once. I had built a dam to keep it away, but I had heard that beautiful tinkling, and with that small noise it all broke free and crushed me. I cried huge body racking sobs when I was alone, and cried myself to sleep for a week. Yes, they were silent but hurt all the same. Then finally the boy who had offered to help get food found me and cradled me like I was a small child. He did this every night without a word, and soon I stopped my tears. When tears turned to nightmares, he still stayed and comforted me, stopping my screams and holding me down when I thrashed around. It sounds horrible, but if he did anything else the other children would have heard and panicked. This boy helped me survive back then.
I come back to the present and realize that Alexander was that boy.
Awwww, that's sweet.3
Who knew that Lily and Alexander could take care of 70 children? I didn't. Well, at least until I wrote it…
Well, it looks like that makes both of them top competitors in these Games. WHO WILL WIN?
Alright, I may or may not update for a while. It depends on how cruel teachers can be during the last week of school. You guys know what I'm talking about.(;
Review, favorite, and PM me any suggestions.
Bye!
