Kanina was out of breath. "Can we stop!" She panted.
"Wuss," Gretelda teased, but stopped anyway.
"Keep moving," Kat commanded the group.
"Who made you in charge?" Scarlette sneered. Scarlette spent a lot of her free time at home with her little brother, a sweet little thing. She cherished him and was looking forward to a new sibling on the way, which permitted her a sense of parental authority. Maybe the power got to her head, this feeling of control she sensed, but she felt it was right. She was too family oriented to take any crap from a group of hormonal teenage girls. Was she wrong? They had vowed not to kill each other but any one of them could turn on one another in the night without warning.
It was a terrible thought. Who's idea was it to get together a group of jealous bickering girls, anyway?
Scarlette glared at Kat, who held up her hands in a faux sign of white flag surrender. Kat laughed. "Wow, what's got you glaring?"
Gretelda exchanged a glance with Kanina, who held the same anticigarette look in her bright eyes.
Gretta tried to lighten the mood by laughing and brushing everything off. Like dust off a shoulder by a sweeping hand, the tension in the hair dispersed for the desirable moment.
Kanina stepped in.
Her thoughts on everything were blurred, and she was confused. But here came that jovial sense to her features that gave her name a renowned acknowledgment. She wasn't happy? Did faking happiness earn you sponsors? The games were fake and they were all actors, but Kanina couldn't tell how well she was playing the part.
Surely the fight the girls almost got caught up in would cause their sponsors to deplete and the girls would have nothing left but themselves and the arena. It was a mutual nod of fake-alrightness that propelled the group forward, before it dawned on them that it was almost dusk. The woods they inhabited were casting shadows as a fisherman whipped his line into the unforgiving sea.
Gretelda was being simply herself. She almost had an alter ego, but both sides of her combined made her the unique single person she was. She was bubbly and fun one moment, but hostile when fighting. She could be deadly and scary. Her cousin Angela never failed to mention at one of her visits how Gretta was a klutz at that, when she was being happy.
How mixed and twisted human personalities and traits could become, she didn't know. She might never have a daughter to love and cherish, and she might never find out. Gretta loved anything that had to do with both fighting and her 'Lovely' personality, which guaranteed herself a higher ranking in the Games. But her personal image was simply a self reflection and a big ego would have nothing to offer her once the reality of the Games set in. It's effects would change Gretelda - for better or for worse? Either end of the spectrum would be magnified to a full extent considering this was Panem, and where they lived was unforgiving territory.
*.*.*
The sun had an hour before it set on Kat, Kanina, Gretelda, and Scarlette. They were toasting their hands on a muffled burning fire. They deluded the smoke and hid any signs of their whereabouts, a smart move, and well played.
It was a comfortable silence before Gretelda broke it. "Back home," she laughed, remembering, "They used to call me Grace." For a moment she forgot the entire country could be watching her.
"Why?" Scarlette mused. Maybe it was her middle name and she was simply making conversation.
"Well," she laughed. "I'm an admitted klutz, if I do say so myself. And also the aspect of 'Gracefulness' doesn't apply to me, unless I'm in this Zen sort of fighting state. Hence the name Grace. My friends used to make fun of me when I tripped over air," the group laughed along with her.
"Back home," Scarlette started. She didn't want to talk about her brother or soon to be sibling. She simply wanted to make conversation, to try and fill the void that was her heart. "I used to spend the longest time of anyone I've known mastering a pristine brown pony-tail. My hair is straight brown, and it looks terrible down! Don't get me started," She giggled. She hadn't been as shallow as she was in a long while.
"Oh my gosh. I always wear my hair in a bun. It has to be tight to my head like always. My hair looks so bad down, too!" They talked together.
"I like mine down," Scarlette shrugged, causing laughter. The girls bonded and called each other pretty, reinforcing their alliance.
They talked hours, not realizing the capitol had done something to ensure an extremely long sunset and that Grace had upped and moved herself to the edge of their little bonfire.
She'd always secretly felt like the odd egg out, because she made analogies that involved eggs. But mainly because she was never really girly and the whole bubbly nice thing was all an act. Especially to cover up the klutziness and to ensure no one would ever know how she felt. It was a secret she didn't feel like sharing, and these strangers didn't deserve to know how she felt.
Grace wanted secrecy but friendship at that. But in an arena full of people who wanted you dead, she saw only one way out. Surveying the doors, she predicted what lie beyond each of them. And it was an exit that she took, not bothering with supplies or food or goodbyes. She simply walked away.
She hoped to come out of the arena alive with no regrets or mistakes. She wanted only the memory of herself being a strong and independent deep thinker, and these girls couldn't do her justice. She needed to do it. She needed to leave them.
*.*.*
The anthem played and the faces of the six dead guy's faces flashed across the screen projected in the sky. A mysterious force portrayed it, and an even bigger mystery brought on a storm of curiosity - how could they all hear and see it perfectly. Yet another mystery of the capitol, they supposed.
Adonia paced back and forth in the night. "Richie, you're on guard. Or patrol, or what not. Alright?"
"Who made you boss," Aqua pinched her nose in a way that didn't affect her cuteness.
"Don't question her authority," Dray sneered back at her, defending Adonia.
Aqua raised her eyebrows and stared at him all knowingly. She let out a little "Ooh," an and threw her head back in a mocking laughter.
"Quit it. I'll stand guard for an hour or so. Claire, Ben? You guys what's the plan?" Richie replied agitated. The group conversed.
The career's objective had always been to gather as many supplies as they could before anyone else to manage to scrape up an ounce of sustaining, useful, material. They were in a way selfish, but not so that it compared to the brutality of the games.
Supplies were an essential, and only a handful of them even knew the basics to surviving in the woods. They knew how to hunt and kill and that was where the knowledge ended. None of them knew what was right and wrong when one referred to what was meant to be.
Dray glanced up from his hands. He ripped open a packet of crackers and the crumbs exploded upon the packed dirt ground. Half the bag was lost in a sea of green weeds that surrounded his feet.
Adonia, next to him, got lost in his eyes. It was like they pulled the part of her that ever loved - the part of her soul - right out of her. They took everything good about her, every aspect of her life and hid them away behind the whites and the deep crystal blues. His hair shone in the light like a magnificent reflecting marble, and to her, it was perfectly polished to a king's approval. He was nothing other than perfect, and she fell in love.
More so she fell in love with the idea of love. These feelings had been building up inside of her for the longest time, bubbling and aching to be let free. His little mishap with the crackers would have had her screaming to conserve food, but not to him. Never to this perfect angel that had fallen from the sky.
She giggled. He took away every part of her that was a tough fighter. A smart player. This was the Hunger Games and against everything she believed in, everything she was taught.
She was taught to ignore the feelings, but she didn't even know what they were anymore. She liked this feeling. Or maybe she loved it. As far as she could tell, she would go so far as to have it interfere with the games. Everything she was now revolved around the pit-of-your stomach feeling she felt. The adrenaline. It was a crazy emotion she'd only been warned about 1000 times but never associated it with the real thing. She didn't take the advice and didn't know what she was getting herself into.
Adonia reached for his hand and took it, causes two sets of faces to blush. The crackers remained on the floor as Dray raised his eyebrow.
Neither of them spoke to fill the awkward silence that was occurring. They glanced around and noticed they had an audience of four. Richie, Aqua, Ben and Claire each had a questioning expression on their face that varied with the person - not caring, a mocking expression, disgust, and acceptance.
Dray smiled and led Adonia half a mile before they stopped in a clearing in the trees.
"I wanted to talk to you in private," Dray began.
"Same," Adonia was about to do what she knew was right. She'd been taught to go by what she knew and not by what she felt. The Games were the most important thing here. To her family and the Game-makers she owed them. And to herself, she had to do this. Adonia couldn't get caught up in this stupid boy she had nothing with. She had to banish hope.
"You totally defended me before. Thanks, but I don't know if I feel the same way."
Dray scoffed teasingly with a smile. "You're going to tell me you're not head over heals for me?" He smirked again. He was kidding, but in a way he meant it. The two knew how such little actions could go a long obvious way in the arena.
"Are you saying you like me?" Adonia opposed.
He was quiet and looked away. "A little. If I didn't say it now I never would have."
When his piercing eyes bore into hers she melted. This was a new emotion she wasn't familiar with - same with Dray. He'd only once had a crush on a priss that just used him. He felt something real here.
Whether it was teenage hormones acting up or whether it was true love, the two leaned in for a lasting kiss. Dray moved his arms around her waist and pulled her in tighter. She wove her hands around his neck and tousled his hair. It'd been a long day, but this felt right.
Was this the truth? Was this not just some silly teenage hormonal mishap, and was this real? Adonia contemplated. Maybe there really were things in life more important than the Games.
*.*.*
She crashed before evening and it wasn't the deaths of the day that flashed before her eyelids. It was a vivid array of colors that danced in front of her, for her eyes only. Random pictures and shapes formed a mysterious unremembered dream. Maya remembered back to her district instead. Her story was unheard of not only in her district, but not heard of in the rest - or anywhere.
Her parents used to be Capitol officials back in their prime. It was the most spectacular thing - they upped and moved to district seven. Seven! They were all over the news and the 7th district was welcoming to the wealthy family and their fortune to help the community. They did much more than what was expected.
Maya was always an observer and noticed that most people in the Capitol were greedy and mean and selfish. They never left their beloved city and frowned upon the starving districts.
She soon realized her parents had come here for a reason and for a promise. They never would have left but had come to live with the land on their own, and with their kids. They wanted to raise Maya and her brother and sister to hate the Hunger Games.
Maya's grandparents had died in district seven. It was the rare vacation when they were in their eighties that they took Maya's dating parents to the Capitol by a monorail. That day went down in history. Their transportation crashed.
Her Grandparents were stuck in the flames and their son - Maya's Dad - heard them shout their last words. "The Capitol is a terrible place. Promise me you'll never get caught up in their lies!"
It took her Dad - Quil - and her Mom - Jadea - twenty years to figure out what they meant.
They were hospitalized in the Capitol and their profiles were screened. Jadea turned out to have amazing reflexes and her husband combat skills. They were recruited as officials, almost shoo-ins, and offered a home in the Capitol.
There they worked for fifteen years before one day, Quil looked in the mirror at his tattooed body and neon hair and wondered what he'd become. He'd dedicated his life to looks and lust. Not to love. His parent's words haunted him and that day they made up an elaborate lie and were transported back to disrict seven, where they raised a family.
Maya had figured all this out through old stories from people in their district, old typed articles, and the little knowledge she could bribe off her siblings.
When the truth dawned on her, she was beyond outraged. The entire day before the reaping she screeched, screamed, yelled, bellowed at her parents.
"How could you not tell me!" She thundered after another ten minute rant.
"We don't like to talk about what we've become. Or what we were," they weren't getting through to her, and that wasn't enough for Maya. "We just want you to know how terrible we were. And we never want you to become that way."
"How couldn't you let me know! You lived in the capitol! You were one of them! And you expect me to just be a district seven loser?! No Way!" She was crying tears of anger and pain. She stormed out of the room.
Little did her parents know, the next and last time they saw them was after she volunteered for the Games.
Maya, right now, was regretting it immensely. She was always so rebellious, and her life seemed so boring. She thought she could be the victor and prove her parents wrong. But this was so hard. She was alone day and night with no one by her side. And if she didn't take the offense, she would be killed. She had no defense.
Was it the right choice? Were the Games ever?
Maya woke with a start and noted it was midnight by the position of the moon.
She was in no way getting back to sleep. The nerves were getting to her. From her dream she concluded some force was telling her to take the offense. Truly, she couldn't camp out here forever. She had minimal food and supplies, stealing would be rough, and she was out of other ideas. Better to eliminate the competition before they eliminated you.
She started to head in the direction of a very specific group of girls - whose numbers were dwindling, though Maya didn't know where she was heading. She had her bow and arrows, in which she was skilled with, along with nothing but a meek motivation.
This is relatively longish. So hey, I've been across the country with my family for a while and I just got backed. I'm traveled out and exhausted, I fell asleep while eating breakfast, but I desperately wanted to write.
I feel so terrible about not updating and I know I hate it when people don't update for extended periods of time. (The trip was fun but my hotel had no wi-fi and I couldn't bring my laptop and I had no access to a computer. Our days were booked and when I tried to scribble some of the plot down with pen and paper I fell asleep.) But enough about me. I'm so sorry guys!
I've got the plot all figured out now. Every twist and turned has been decided. I know the winner. The runner up. The third place Champ. Wink wink. Stay tuned…
Trying my hardest to update. I feel bad. I worked for a while on this and I hope everyone liked it. Feel free to ask questions, point out mistakes and I really would love constructive criticism! Improves my writing!
PS: Deaths in the next chapter. I know I said this would be all action but now I've set everything up just right. Prepare for adventure, action, and twists you didn't see coming?
I'm just curious, any predictions?
