Ooh, this is going to be a tricky one. Wish me luck.
Tied Edison, District 4
"Do you use any weapons at all?" Verres asks behind me. He's trying hard to be patient, but I can tell that he's exasperated with me. I think he was expecting a Career to volunteer as his District partner, not a girl out of the boatyards.
I think about it. Weapons? Not really. Although…
I turn abruptly and stride off to a booth that looks like it's just full of completely random weapons. I pick up a few, hefting them. Verres takes a deep breath when he catches up to me. "So, do you see anything you like?" I can hear the irritation in his voice. I don't get why he bothers. I mean, if he doesn't want me around, why is he going so far out of his way to make sure I'm part of the Career alliance? I decide to ask him.
"Because you're from District Four!" he exclaims agitatedly, practically waving his arms around. "District Four is always part of the Career alliance!"
Well, that makes no sense at all to me. But still, I do want to be part of the alliance, so I won't point out the fact that he's being kind of irrational about this.
My hand falls on a massive hammer. Hmm. I wrap my huge, scarred, callused hands around the leather-bound handle, and whirl, swinging it. Verres ducks with a yelp, and the war hammer whooshes through the air just above his short brown hair. Whoops.
A guilty look steals over my face as he straightens. There's no way that he's going to put up with me after I just almost accidentally bashed his skull in before the Games even started. But no, amazingly, he still just looks vaguely annoyed.
"Okay," he snaps, "War hammer it is. We're going to need to work on your aim, though."
"Don't you have anything you need to be training with?" I ask.
"I've been training for years. Three more days will do you much more good than it will me."
Well, that's probably true. Both Verres and the Capitol man attending the weapons booth try to show me how to use the war hammer, but Verres is barely strong enough to lift it, let alone swing it, and the Capitol man can't even get the handle off the ground, so they just yell advice at me instead. I don't really listen. I probably should, I guess, but I'm doing fine on my own.
I bash a dummy's skull in, picturing the dummy as another tribute. I recoil from the thought. I don't want to do that. That's… gross. And I don't want anyone doing that to me, either. But I have to win, for Davy and Sean. They have to finish school, unlike me. And as far as I can see, this is the only way for that to happen.
I start fantasizing about what could be done with the Victor's winnings. Maybe Eelier could go back to school. Maybe she could even go to college! Maybe we could order prosthetics for Mom and Dad, to fix their injuries from the boating accident. Maybe the Capitol could fix them completely! I know without a doubt that volunteering was the right thing to do.
"Tied!" Verres hollers, bringing me back to Earth. "Could you please just…" He trails off.
"Sorry," I mutter. I'm not really sure what to do now. I swing the hammer halfheartedly, but it seems a little awkward now. Verres' eyes are closed, with one hand on his temple, and the Capitol man is looking at the floor, so I elect to wander off and explore the rest of the gymnasium.
The District Twos, Jasper and Eliza, are at the sword station. I consider joining them. Eliza's nice to me, but Jasper's sort of scary, and besides there's no way I can learn to swing a sword in three days, anyway. I meander over to a random booth, and discover it to be knot tying. If there's one thing I'm good at, this is it. I know I'm sort of wasting my time, but I pick up a piece of rope and tie it in four different knots in a row.
"Wow," says a small voice beside me. I turn, and have to look down to see the source. It's a tiny boy in square glasses. I think he's from Six.
"Uh, hi," I say, not really sure what to do.
He blinks. "Hi."
Neither of us seems to know what to say after that. I look over my shoulder, and see the Nines, the Eight boy, and the Six girl staring at us. They don't look hostile, exactly, but suspicious. I think they're trying to figure out whether I'm a Career or not. I know I shouldn't really be at this station anyway, so I turn without another word and drift off. By now, the Twos have moved on to maces, and I'm not sure where Verres went. The archery station is empty, so I go there, but I only make a mess of things, breaking bows and arrows and almost shooting the attendant, so I leave after a few minutes.
The next day goes pretty much the same way. Verres tries to make the four kids from Two and Four stay together, but the Two boy clearly doesn't want me around, and I'm not all that good at most of the stations that we go to, anyway. I learn to throw a spear reasonably well, and Verres talks me into trying out an enormous broadsword, which I turn out to be fairly good with, but I'm hopeless with knives and archery.
Finally, the day of our private session with the Gamemakers arrives. Verres seems to have given up on being my personal coach, and I watch as the Capitol attendants appear and call him into the gymnasium. The Twos are already gone, so I can't talk to Eliza. I sit silently. I'm the only tribute from a Career District left, and the rest of the tributes keep shooting me glances from the corner of their eyes. I'm getting a little uncomfortable with it, so I'm glad when they call for me.
The Gamemakers raise their eyebrows when I enter the gym, and I know why. I'm big, taller and stronger than any of them, but I don't look like a Career and everybody knows it. I scowl as menacingly as I can and walk over to the miscellaneous weapons booth, rooting through the pile of metal until I find the massive hammer from before. I wrench it out of the tangle and raise it over my head, walking over to the line of dummies. The Gamemakers' eyes widen slightly, and I grin a little bit, before bringing the hammer down on one of the dummies as hard as I can. The lump of rubber becomes completely unrecognizable as a human being. I mash a few more dummies, then grab the huge sword Verres made me practice with earlier, and chop some of the mannequins in half.
I consider tying some knots, since I'm pretty much out of weapons, but I decide that that would be really boring to end with, and besides, they probably know already that I can tie knots.
I stand for a moment, waiting for the Gamemakers to say anything. Once it's apparent that I'm not going to do anything else, one of them says, "You are dismissed."
Okay, D9F next, for real this time. Sorry about that, katszoa. ;)