Hellooo, everybody! So, in this chapter there's finally some excitement, in the end at least. It's a quite long chapter this time, if you compare to my other chapters, but I wanted to fit a lot in this. And please, if you have the time, write a review, doesn't have to be long, to tell me what you think. It makes me really happy when I get a review, even though I don't get a lot of them. I'll be happy to check out your story in return if you want me to :)
Oh, and I realized it's much easier to write in present tense (Is it called that? We don't really learn those kind of words in English-class… :P) than in past tense (Again, is it called that?) so I'm going to switch. Hopefully it won't confuse you, but I will re-write the last chapters when I get the time, just so I won't confuse myself… :P
After Snow's speech, the national anthem start to sound and the chariots go in to the Training Centre behind him. Jonathan's and my own costume stop glowing and we step down from the chariot and in to the arms of our prep team-members.
"You looked marvelous!" Sable says and carefully hugs me.
The others agree and give me encouraging pats on the back, and I smile in response.
"You were beautiful" Jonathan whispers in my ear while our prep teams talk about us.
"You didn't look too bad either" I smile at him and put my arm around his back.
"You really outshone everybody! They must be so jealous!" Emerald says.
A couple of feet behind her I see a group of tributes talking and glancing at us. Emerald notice that I'm not looking at her and turns around to see what it is that has my attention.
"That's the Careers. They must be a little suspicious, since district 8 usually don't like to draw that much attention" Emerald explains.
"I'm getting a little tired. Shall we?" Jonathan asks and looks at me.
"Sure" I say without looking away from the tributes that seem to whisper about us.
"We'll see you at dinner!" Emerald waves at us, before we head for the elevator and I stop looking at the Careers.
We walk to the elevator in the other end of the hall. Another pair of tributes, I'm guessing the couple from district 9, are waiting in front of the elevator. The boy whispers something in the girl's ear, and she giggles hysterically.
"Dean, you're terrible!" she giggles and punches him on the shoulder. He smiles and kisses her on the cheek.
Me and Jonathan stand next the couple in front of the elevator, and the doors slide open. The elevator's quite small, but I stand in the corner and squish together the skirt of the dress so the four of us can fit. The girl presses the buttons for both floor 8 and 9.
"You should be more careful with that dress, it's so beautiful" The girl says with a big smile and taps my shoulder.
"I'm never going to wear it again, so why bother? And apparently it's wrinkle free fabric, so it doesn't matter…" I sigh and give her a slight smile in response.
"I'll take it if you don't want it" she laughs.
I look surprised at her.
"You do realize it's a very small chance that you'll get to go home and actually wear it" I say.
"I know. But it's so pretty! I would wear it every second before the games!" she says and shrugs. "I'm Lupia, by the way, and this is Dean. Nice to meet you, Phoenix!"
"How did you-"
"You looked so gorgeous during the parade, so right afterwards I asked Lori, our mentor, who you were" Lupia smiles. "You're the brother, right? Nice to meet you too!"
"Great, I'm now known as 'the brother'" Jonathan whispers in my ear and I giggle.
"Anyway, if you really don't want the dress, I'll come and pick it up later tonight" Lupia says when the elevator stops at Jonathans and my floor.
"Sure…" I say and we walk out of the elevator and onto our apartment-floor.
The room we walk in to is very big. Easily bigger than our entire house at home. To the left is a low dark brown long table surrounded by a large beige couch and a few matching armchairs. Opposite of the couch is a big TV. To the right is a big white table with elegant black wooden chairs around, and over the table hangs a large lamp-like structure covered in white gems. The wall opposite of the elevator is covered in glass, and outside are the large buildings of the Capitol with lights covering every inch of it and cheering people crowded on the streets.
"Lupia sure is one happy girl" Jonathan jokes when the elevator doors close again. He takes off his hat and tosses it onto a small table standing next to the entrance.
"You should be more careful with that hat, it's so beautiful" I say and mimic Lupias high voice.
"I'm never going to wear it again, so why bother?" Jonathan says and mimics my careless tone.
I stick out my tongue at him and he laughs at me.
I walk to the other side of the room and into a small corridor to the right. I then walk into the second door where I find, as Emerald told me, my room.
I take off the white dress and hang it in the wardrobe, before I step in the shower. The screen in this shower is much easier to understand than the one on the train, so I easily wash my hair without making it smell weird. Then I put on a blue tunic and a pair of black pants that I find in the wardrobe, and put my hair in a high ponytail.
"Dinner!" Emerald's voice says through the door. Finally, I'm starving!
"I'll get Jonathan" I say when I walk out of my room, and Emerald answers me with a smile.
I walk down the hall to the last door where Jonathan's room is. I rush in to his room and find him looking through his wardrobe after a shirt.
"Dinner's ready" I say.
"I'll be right there" Jonathan answers and pulls out a grey t-shirt.
"Hurry up! I'm really hungry, and they're not going to let me start if you're not there!" I say and look pleadingly at him.
He grins at me before pulling on the shirt and then follows me out to the dinner table. We sit down with Emerald, Kaila, Eunia, and Jonathan's stylist Rufus.
There is plenty of food served, just like when we ate dinner on the train. I don't know how they do it, but there seems to be even more different kinds of food. This day, they also serve dessert. Pralines, soft cake, cookies, and slimy colorful stuff.
During most of the dinner everyone talks about the parade, and how fantastic we were. Of course, not only me and Jonathan gets all the praise, but Eunia and Rufus too. After all, it's their clothes. They made us fantastic.
"Hello? Phoenix! Anyone here?" Lupia's voice suddenly calls from the elevator.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you were in the middle of dinner" she says when she sees us at the dinner table.
"It's okay. Wait here, I'll go get the dress" I say and excuse myself from the table. I then go to my room and pick up the parade-dress. I carry it out and give it to Lupia.
"Thank you so much!" Lupia says and hugs me tightly.
Right when I'm about to say good bye, Emerald coughs gentle.
"Oh, right. Erm, this is Lupia" I say.
Emerald gives me a strange look from the table.
"District 9" Lupia adds when she notices Emeralds confusion.
"I was just giving her my parade-dress"
"You what?" Emerald snaps at me, but carefully, 'cause, you know, she is Emerald.
"Yeah, she wanted it" I answer.
"But… Aren't you going to keep it?" Emerald asks in a pleading voice.
"Why? I probably won't make it out alive to be able to use it again, and even if I do, I will probably never wear it anyway" I answer.
"But… Oh, fine. Just be careful with it" Emerald asks. Lupia's face immediately light up.
"Of course I will. It's such a beautiful dress, it would be a shame to just let it hang in a wardrobe and never be used" Lupia answers. This seems to relax Emerald a little bit too.
"Thank you, again" Lupia adds and then gives me a quick, but tight, hug again and leaves.
I sit back at the table again and continue to eat, while the other's conversation is now a little more dull.
After dinner we all sit by the TV to watch the recap of the Parade. We actually look quite good. The lights reflecting from the dress hits my face, hence why I didn't need any make-up.
The other tributes don't wear anything extra-ordinary, much like the previous years. I now get a better look at Lupia and Dean. Lupia wears a short dress completely covered in what looks like grain, laid in a beautiful pattern. Dean wears a similar outfit, obviously not a dress, but a shirt and pants.
When the Parade is over I walk back to my room to get some sleep. Instead, I find myself awake almost the entire night, not being able to sleep at all. Finally I doze off, but it feels like I only sleep five minutes before Kaila pounds at my door to pick me up for breakfast. Jonathan, myself and her is supposed to meet for breakfast to talk about our training strategy.
"10 minutes!" she calls behind the door.
I take another quick shower and then get dressed with the clothes that have been laid out for me. Tight dark-blue pants and a black and grey top. Hopefully, Jonathan won't have the same outfit as me again.
I then walk out for breakfast. Immediately I notice Jonathan's tight dark-blue pants and black and grey top, but before I have time to complain Kaila interrupts me.
"Take it easy. All of the tributes are wearing this for training" she says.
I still want to complain, but this makes things a little better.
I sit down and start to pick from the great offer of food.
"So, what are you good at? Do you have any talents that could be useful in the arena?" Kaila then asks.
"I'm almost kind of good with a bow and arrow. I hit sometimes…" I say and start to eat from the variety of eggs.
"And you?" Kaila turns to Jonathan.
"Erm… I don't really know, actually. I've never got the chance to try any weapons" Jonathan answers.
"You're really strong" I suggest, thinking of the times we wrestled when we were kids. I don't think he's become any weaker.
"Yeah" Kaila agrees. "You're quite big, so that could be an advantage in hand-to-hand combat."
I shiver at the thought of Jonathan wrestling down someone and killing him or her with his bare hands.
"Well then, I suggest that you Phoenix, practice archery. But try something else too, like throwing knives, in case you don't get any better. Jonathan, you try different weapons to find something that suits you. Knives are good, if you do get into a lot of hand-to-hand combats. And both of you; don't forget survival skills. It's really important. And get some friends. If you don't really excel in anything, allies are really important." Kaila then puts out. "Now come on, you don't want to be late"
I stuff myself with the remaining food on my plate until I almost feel nauseous, then Jonathan and I walk to the elevator and go down to the bottom floor. We step out of the elevator and in to the gym. It's on the entire floor, which of course is necessary to fit all of the different stations.
There are plenty of different types of weapons, many which I've never seen before. There are obstacle courses and survival stations. Everything you can think of that you need to know when you're fighting for your life.
A few districts have arrived before us. When I look around at the other tributes to see who I can remember from the Parade, Lupia comes over to us with Dean dragging behind her.
"Hi guys! Are you excited for training? I know I am!" she says, and you can tell she's excited. Dean is also smiling like his life depended on it.
I can't really figure them out. They seem so happy. Do they even know what's happening? I remember their Reaping. No one volunteered for them, still they were really happy. You'd think someone would volunteer for one of them, since they're a couple. Then I remember. No one volunteered for me or Jonathan either, even though we're siblings…
I give a subtle smile in response, but Lupia doesn't seem less happy that we don't respond to her question.
"Gather around" a man says and waves at all the tributes to come.
We head over to the man, and the other tributes fill in the row in front of him.
"I'm Juno, the head trainer. Now, during the next four days, you will train here. Most of the stations are individual training, but there will be four compulsory exercises. It's completely forbidden to fight with the other tributes, even for practice. There are trainers at each station if you want to train with a partner. Don't forget the survival skills, you never know how hard it will be to find food, or if there will be poisonous plants, or anything like that"
Juno continues to explain some of the stations, and then releases us.
"I'm gonna go practice some shooting" I say to Jonathan and head off to the archery-station while Jonathan tries knife throwing.
When I get to the station, I'm by myself, but Lupia quickly joins me.
"Are you any good?" Lupia asks me while she examines the different bows.
"Not really" I answer and pick out a bow similar to the one I use for hunting at home. There's no point in lying about my skills, I'm about to show them anyway. "You?"
"I'm decent" Lupia says and finally picks out a bow and a quiver with arrows.
I start to shoot at the target closest to me. I manage to hit all of the arrows on the target, even if they're not that close to the center. When I go to pull out the arrows, I see Lupia shoot at the target next to me. She shoots five arrows right after each other, and each one hits right in the center. I look stunned at her and she gives me a confident smile when she walks forward to collect her arrows, and then drops of the weapon and heads to another station.
She is much tougher than see seems to be. Earlier, she'd seemed so happy, and up in the clouds. Now… With that confident smirk she gave me, I have a whole new image of her. I shake my head as to get rid of the thought, and then go back and shoot again.
I shoot two more arrows before, when I stretch the bow; I feel someone's heavy breath at the back of my head. I stand still, trying not to seem nervous.I know it isn't Jonathan; he wouldn't come up behind me like this. I start to run the tributes I can remember in my head, to see if I can figure out who it is, but the dark, confident voice interrupts me.
"How's it going, cupcake?" It's definitely not Jonathan.
I turn around. Right in front of me stands an athletic boy with blonde hair and dark-blue eyes, who I somehow recognize. He's almost a head taller than me, so it's hard to look confident when I feel so small.
"Phoenix, right?" he continues while picking out a bow. "District 8. You're here with your brother"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, who are you?"
I watch him as he stands in place to shoot.
"Denim Hayes, district 1" he answers with a sigh and shoots and arrow without blinking. Then he walks towards me and looks me in the eye. "You should remember that, cupcake"
"How come?" I ask.
"It could be useful to know the name of your last hope" he answers with a smirk.
I lean forward so that I'm just a couple of inches from him.
"Well then, it's a good thing you know mine, cupcake" I say and mimics his voice, then turn around and shoot at the target. I picture his smirking face at the center, and it helps, 'cause I hit it.
Denim laughs subtle and shakes his head.
"You're confident. I like that" he says, and I shoot another arrow at the center.
"Then you probably like yourself very much"
"You're smart too"
"I can't really say that you are"
Denim's smirk disappears and he glances at me while shooting an arrow. It doesn't even hit close to the target, and it's my turn to smirk.
"Maybe a little too confident" he then says and leaves the station.