Shimmer heard Cloud's laugh. It was a bad laugh, an acerbic chortle, almost like some nasally cartoon villain. Shimmer poked her head out from behind a training dummy to look at him. She followed his gaze to a group of twelve-year-olds.
"Look at those idiots." He said. Shimmer closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I only see one."
Gabby Corbett had called over Skye Andronicus and Auralee Cyanite. Gabby's father had been dead drunk, no help at all. Last night at dinner, Cole suggested she form an alliance with the other two twelve-year-olds. His reasoning centered on accruing Capitol sponsors, and using their size and agility.
"Hi." Gabby said. The blonde haired, blue eyed Gabby made a strange pair next to the brown haired, brown eyed Auralee. Of course, Skye couldn't tell.
"Hm?" Skye replied.
"I'm Gabby, from District Five, and this is Auralee, from District Eight."
"Hiya." Auralee chimed in.
"Hello." Skye said flatly. The ends of her light brown hair were tossed around as she turned her head towards their voices. Not much color in the training center. All black.
"So, uh… Skye. What do you think about an alliance?"
"Are you two strong?" Gabby and Auralee looked at each other.
"Uh…"
"That's a good sign." Skye replied to their hesitation.
"Well, I'm great with a dart-gun." Gabby offered.
"You think there will be one of those in the cornucopia, huh?" Skye asked dryly. She didn't wait for an answer.
"And what about you, Auralee?" Auralee didn't answer. She was silent, her soft features perplexed at Skye's bluntness.
"Most importantly, why do you want to be my ally? You've found out I'm blind by now, right? You think I need your pity?"
"It was more of a sponsorship thing." Gabby offered. "My par—well I thought if we could get all the twelve and thirteen-year-olds on a team that we could get a lot of support from the Capitol."
Skye mimed looking pensive.
"You know what. I don't need your support and I don't need their support."
"Fine." Gabby said frustratedly. She turned and left.
"Well… good luck." Auralee offered genuinely, before walking off in a separate direction.
"Thanks." Skye said. Skye returned her attention to the station she was at. She picked up a spear and went back to thrusting it at the air.
"Good." An attendant told her. "You've gotten the form down. Now let's practice using it. I'll stand behind the dummies and make a noise. You practice getting the dummy." The attendant walked behind a dummy, readied herself to call out a noise, then decided to take a few more steps back.
"Here!"
Skye thrust the light spear into the dummy.
"Good!" The attendant called out.
Malik Broker had been to an eclectic variety of stations. He'd been to fire starting, slingshots, wrestling, knots, and hammock making. It was almost as if he'd been picking the most unpopular stations, searching out the ones where he could be alone. He now sat at hammock making. Although he wasn't trying to make a hammock. He pulled the twine around in his hands, feeling it.
Huh?
He heard somebody approach from behind him. Malik turned. He saw a lanky boy with a Cheshire Cat grin. Malik glared at him.
"You remind me of my cat, Greaser." The boy said. Malik said nothing. He stood up, handed the hammock materials to the boy, and walked away.
Track Deckman was left alone at the station, holding the twine. He tied it into a bow, and giggled. He tried tying a lasso but couldn't figure it out. Still, he pretended what it would be like to have a lasso. Track was lost in his daydream when he noticed a green eyed girl with some metal in her nose next to him. She seemed to know what she was doing; hand over hand she busily began weaving a hammock. Track went back to his lasso fantasy. He was riding on a train and throwing lassos out, catching all manner of small mammals: rabbits, mice, prairie dogs, and hedgehogs. Track thought for a second. Were hedgehogs mammals?
"Are hedgehogs mammals?" He thought aloud.
"Yes." The girl answered him without looking up form her hammock.
"But they don't have hair. They have spikes." Track said to her.
"Good point. But their spines are made of keratin, the same protein that makes up hair. Plus, whales don't have hair but they're mammals." The girl told him. "A better way to tell is mammary glands. All mammals have mammary glands, that's how they get their name. They just don't teach you that in elementary school because then they have to teach you about boobies."
"Cool." Track smiled. The girl continued with her hammock, and Track went back to daydreaming. As he flew past the hills on a train, he lassoed all manner of small mammals: especially hedgehogs, with their spines that were just like extra big hairs. Greaser was next to him. They were both wearing ten-gallon hats. Track giggled silently. He looked down at the rope. What else could he do with this?
"Make a noose with that and hang yourself. It will save me the trouble." Cloud Lopea told him as he walked past.
"I might." Track smiled. "Or I might…" he trailed off and said nothing to Cloud's back. The girl next to him looked at him, and perked up her thin eyebrows.
"Yeah, I bet that career knows all about nooses." The girl mimed the actions of autoerotic asphyxiation and pushed her tongue out of the side of her mouth. Track laughed.
"What's that supposed to be?" He asked happily.
"Uh… never mind. Dirty joke." The girl said.
"I'm not very bright," he said, "but you seem clever."
"Thanks…" The girl said hesitantly. She seemed a little off put. "I'm Cadence." She extended her hand and he shook it.
"Track. I've got many allies, but not here."
She laughed. "Okay."
"Maybe we could be allies?"
"I don't know if that's a good idea. I don't really plan on, you know, killing a lot of people." Cadence told him.
"That's okay. Neither do I."
"Great. Well. Let's just see what happens then." She smiled back at him.
Cole liked the training center. In some areas it was dimly lit, which allowed him to convince himself it was night. But at the very least, he knew it was night somewhere on their planet. He found comfort in that. The girl with one green eye and one blue eye, Press, looked up at Cole Tenser.
"You think you could show me again?" She asked.
"Sure." He smiled. Cole showed her the mechanism of the counter-weight. He hadn't come up with this snare but it was really rather a brilliant one. It involved carefully balancing a weight, a counter-weight, and a net using material available from plants. It was an elegant design. Cole realized it could be improved by using a different material with more tension. This would allow for a quicker release and could possibly even eliminate the use of a counter-weight. Cole, slow down, he thought to himself. He found his mind even more excitable around Press.
"Thanks." She said when he'd finished showing her.
"It's a shame you'll have to use it to kill me." Cole joked.
"What! No way! I thought we were in an alliance." She exclaimed.
"We are?"
"Well, we've been helping each other for the last two days! I thought it was assumed." She said exasperated.
"Okay, we're in an alliance." Cole said, smiling. He usually didn't talk this much. Press took his hand. It surprised Cole, and he almost pulled it away, but he didn't"
"We gotta shake on it." Press smiled.
Ace's curly dark hair had been buzzed. It was his decision, not his stylists'. He dabbed his brow with a towel. He was coming from the weight station. He hoped all the work he did had just been noticed. He walked up to Alex Feltham.
"I want to join the careers."
"Well that was forward." Alex laughed. "Doesn't anybody introduce themselves anymore? I'm Alex, nice to meet you, and you are…"
"Ace Tannen." Alex wanted to tell him to smile, but that was a little presumptuous.
"Isn't that better? Why do you want to join the careers?"
"What is this a fucking job interview?"
"If it was, how would you think you're doing?"
"Let's cut the shit, alright?"
Alex sighed. What was this world coming to?
"In the future, you might mesh a lot better with Cloud, he's the blonde one over there. But if you want to join us you have to ask Shimmer. She's the dark haired one." Alex pointed her out on the other side of the training center.
The knot in Ace's stomach was climbing up his throat. He tried to swallow it back down. Approaching Alex Feltham had taken guts—this would take even more. He made his way across the training center. Shimmer's long black hair was in a ponytail as she practiced hurling axes at a target. Her body looked good. Ace got the impression that the axes weren't normally for throwing.
"I want to join the careers." Ace said again, without any hint of nervousness.
Shimmer turned around and looked at him. He was tall. And looked strong. Almost as strong as a career.
"Why would we want you?" Shimmer asked.
"I'm the deadliest non-career here. I might as well help you weed out the others before we have to worry about each other."
Decent answer, Shimmer thought. She looked him up and down.
"I suppose that remains to be seen. See that girl over there, from Thirteen? Blast Nuckerworth. She asked to join us, as well. We'll take whichever one of you has the highest training score."
Ace looked at Blast. She looked strong, and not just strong for a girl.
"Fine." Ace said. He nodded to Shimmer and walked away. He headed over to the sword fighting station. He wanted to round himself out as much as he could. His knife throwing abilities would he his ace in the hole. He could use those in his private session tomorrow.
Cloud approached Shimmer.
"They don't really think we're going to let them in do they? I say we just kill them both."
"It's not up to you, is it?"
"God you're being a bitch today." Cloud told her. Normally this would have set Shimmer off, but she was the leader of the careers now. She could just have River bury a knife in Cloud's back. Or have Drakkon rip him limb from limb. She wouldn't even have to dirty her hands. But then again, how long could she trust the others? How long would they be loyal? How many of them were planning to betray her right now? How long before River buried a knife in her back? The thought disturbed her profoundly. She remembered what she had been forcing herself to forget. She suddenly wished she and Cloud could be friends again. Damnit, Shimmer.
At dinner, Minnie got her food and sat down next to Grave and Cherry. She waited for them to notice her, but they just kept talking. She thought about talking, but was a little too nervous, and didn't want to interrupt. She leaned in closer towards Grave. He turned and looked at her.
"Hello." Grave said.
"Hi." She said. "I'm Minnie Starwoods." Grave looked back at Cherry. She didn't seem to protest.
"I'm Grave Seeker—"
"I'm Cherry Rose."
"Cool. The D-Twelvers." Minnie smiled. She didn't say anything and the two just looked at her.
"Well, sorry, let me get right to it. I'm from D-Seven and I was hoping to form an alliance with you guys… My partner has already recruited D-Eleven."
"Our mentor actually already pointed you guys out to us." Cherry smiled.
"Great minds…" she added.
"Oh wow, so that's a yes then?"
They both nodded. That was easy.
"Cool, well let me go tell Eli. I'll get him to come over here and introduce himself"
"One thing." Grave chimed in.
"Huh?"
"Uh, our mentor was thinking that it might not be good for us to let the careers find out we were planning a huge alliance."
"Oooh." Minnie sat back down. "I didn't think about that."
"Yeah. Do you think we should try to keep it a secret?" Minnie added.
"At least until the games begin."
Rye Kuna headed back to his room. Dinner had been interesting. He enjoyed Livi's company, as much as he hated to admit it. He didn't care for the boy she'd seem to have made a friendship with; he was a little too friendly, and Rye didn't trust that. All of this made things so much more complicated. Rye sighed. He was turning the knob on his door when he looked up and saw a note.
"Come down to the training center. It's unlocked." The note read.
What the fudge? Rye was making progress on stopping himself from cussing. He scratched his face and dragged his fingers across the backside of his ears. He caressed the rows of earrings.
"Alright." He said to himself. He turned around and went to the elevator. It took him down to the training center. The lights were all on and the door was open. Somebody was sitting in a chair near the center of the floor.
"H-hello?"
"Please come in. Shut the door behind you." Rye couldn't make out whom it was. The voice was familiar. He searched his memory… No. It couldn't be. The Head Gamemaker? Rye shut the door behind him and hurried to the center of the arena. He sat down across from the man.
"Do you know who I am?" The man asked. Rye cleared his throat. He wanted some water, suddenly.
"You're Licinius Gracchus."
"That's right." The man said from beneath his goatee. He looked like a very anxious man, with creases in his brow. His brown eyes starred into Rye's.
"Um. What do you want from me?"
"I'll get to that in a minute. But first, I want to ask you one question: do you know what we are capable of?"
"Uh…"
"It's a simple question. Do. You. Know. What. We. Are. Capable. Of?"
"Yes." Rye willed his dry throat to swallow.
"Good." Licinius said. Licinius crossed his legs and shifted his weight. He glanced at a paper he held.
"Now I want to talk about your sister. Penelope, is it? Goes by Pepper. She has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, does she not?"
"What?" Rye breathed. "What do you want with her, I was the one that was reaped—not her!"
"Calm down, Mr. Kuna. We haven't done anything to her yet. In fact, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."
Rye said nothing. He stared intently at the man across from him.
"That Capitol has the technology and the money to cure her. I'm sure you know that, and you've already said you know what may happen to her if you don't agree to my offer, so I suggest that you do. We don't have a lot of time, nobody can notice you're missing. Not your escort and not your mentor. Nobody. That's why we're meeting here. Nobody else will know about this."
"What do you want me to do?" Rye asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Will you be able to form an alliance with your district partner?"
"Livi?"
"Yes, Livi Tarrlock. Before we go further, I need to know you could still form an alliance with her. Answer carefully, your sister's life depends on it."
"Yes. I can." Rye said quickly.
"Good. I need you to protect her, befriend her, lead her to another location, and then arrange for another tribute to kill her. Don't worry about the details, we've worked it out, but can you do that?"
"You want me to kill Livi?"
"No, I want you to arrange for another tribute to kill Livi. Please listen more carefully. Again, your sister's life depends on it."
"Alright." Rye said hurriedly.
"Alright you'll kill her or alright you'll listen more carefully?"
Rye's mind raced. He thought of Livi. He thought of Pepper. Why him? Why did the Capitol want this from him.
"An answer, Mr. Kuna? We are out of time."
"Yes." Rye said. "You'll save Pepper if I do it? Then yes. What guarantee do I have?"
"Considering the alternative, my word is good enough." Licinius stood up and extended his hand.
Rye took it. What am I doing?