Disclaimer: Nope, don't own the Hunger Games.
This chapter is just a random Gamemaker's POV.
Gamemaker's POV
It was time for the private sessions, for us to score each tribute. This was my second year as a Gamemaker, a pretty good job. But this part was extremely boring, and I hoped someone would have a new talent. I looked up as the first, a heavily muscled boy from District One. On the sheet in front of me, his name read was Spike Holt.
He headed straight for some spears, and pulled out a short, thick one. He weighed it for a moment in his hand then whipped around and threw it straight into a dummy's heart, from across the room. Pretty impressive, but nothing I'd never seen. The boy threw it again, this time disconnecting the dummy's head from its body. Then he sliced the rope holding it up. He knocked down a light and did many other incredible feats with that spear of his. Finally, he was finished and waited for us to do something. The Head Gamemaker waved at him.
"You can go," he said.
"Thank you for your time," the boy responded politely, which I hadn't expected.
Next a pretty blond strutted in. She asked for a trainer to fight against. The girl picked up a sword, and tossed it to the trainer, who caught it, surprised. This piqued my interest.
"Where's your weapon?" the trainer asked. The girl, Saffron, smiled mysteriously.
"Not usin' one," she responded.
"Okay," the trainer responded. They paired off. The trainer leapt at her, but Saffron nimbly skirted away. She then appeared behind the trainer, surprising him by coming that way. She punched the back of his neck, and when he stumbled forward in pain and by her force, she pulled him around and tossed the sword away. Then Saffron pushed him down and landed on top of him, in a killer position with her thin but strong hands wrapped around his neck. The Head Gamemaker raised his hand to tell her to stop, and she rolls off the trainer in a second. It was an excellent fight, but I wondered if the trainer had gone easy on this weaponless girl. She returned his sword to him, and a million different fights, all similar to the first, ensued. The last had her sitting on the trainer's chest; a move that she told us would kill him slowly because it would constrict his breathing. While the trainer was sweating and breathing heavily, the girl barely broke a sweat.
The next kid, a District Two boy, Jack walked in. He immediately marched over to the fish hook making area. I watched him curiously, wondering what the Hell he was going to do. The boy picked up a piece of string, a board and a wire. He tied the string around the board and attached the wire to it, forming spikes coming out of it. He then called for a trainer. The trainer came out and picked up a sword. The two men fought. I watched Jack's eyes, saw something relentless in them. There was more than that, though. I saw a cold fury in them. I was loving it. I was also loving that his weird weapon was kicking the trainer's ass. This guy was good.
The District Two girl, Andromeda, caught my eye. She was pretty enough to catch the eyes of many male viewers in Panem, and hey, maybe some females. She was also stone cold and vicious. I vaguely recalled her Reaping, and I remembered her ripping a couple of girls away from the microphone just so she could get up there. I was sure she'd do well. She picked up two long knives and stood next to a dummy. I felt something disconnect in me. I mean, anyone could take out a dummy. Then she flipped around at a lightning speed and sliced the one next to it.
My interest was rekindled as she whirled around with her knives slicing all the dummies. Once she was done, the dummies were mere shreds. I was impressed with her speed and accuracy of her knives. And she was pretty!
I wasn't expecting much from District Three. Generally they sucked in terms of entertainment. So I was paying more attention to my food when the surprisingly bulked up boy walked up. He strolled over to a light and did some weird technical stuff with the stuff from the light and some wire. I didn't really get it, and it lost my attention for a few minutes as he worked with it. Then, he wrapped the wire around a dummy's head and plugged it in. There was a blinding flash and the lights flickered off. When they came back on, the boy was standing proudly next to his dummy. Or what was his dummy. Now, it was essentially a heap of ashes.
The girl, Annie, strolled in with a smug expression. Though, I admit, she didn't look like anything special. She picked up some ninja stars and started throwing them around the room. They were an unusual weapon, and really we had only put them out as an experiment, but she was kicking ass with them. I mean, she was just a normal girl, not amazing like Saffron, muscular, super beautiful, quick and vicious, but she had great aim. And she was really good with those stars.
When I realized that District Four was going next I was excited. They were beautiful and great fighters. Always great entertainment. However, this one, Marcus was just averagely brown. He was strong though. He headed for the usual District Four weapon, the trident. He speared a couple of things, and, while it was all very impressive, it was what I had expected. I was putting on a show here-I needed something special.
The girl was short. And small and weak looking. I couldn't imagine that she could do that could impress me. She grabbed a sword that looked a little too heavy for her and called in trainer. When he came out he looked infuriated.
"You!" he cried, outraged.
"I'm sorry, is there a problem here?" asked the Head Gamemaker. The trainer shook his head and raised his sword. He took swings at the little girl, but she dodged his every blow. I thought I saw her swing at him a few times, but she never got a hit on. Eventually she threw away her sword and just kept dodging. She was quick, but if she wasn't able to hurt him, she wouldn't be able to win. As soon as she got tired, the trainer would do her in. In an act of desperation, she grabbed a knife and hurled it at the trainer. It struck into his stomach. He collapsed, bent over in pain, blood trickling through his fingers. The doctors entered and wheeled him away. I turned to congratulate the little girl when I saw her face.
There were tears streaming down it.
My interest was beginning to ebb away. All the good districts were gone, and we were on the fifth. Maybe there would be some surprise talent in these later districts, but I doubted it. The average boy, Alex, was in no way memorable, except for his bright green eyes glowing out of his brown face. His show wasn't memorable either. He picked up a spear and started to throw it at some targets. He missed a couple, and never got right in the bulls eye of the target, but he struggled with it. Still, he had met my expectations.
The girl from that district didn't do much better. She wandered in with her head in the clouds and made her way to the edible-inedible plant table. She sat down and inspected the plants. Then she glanced at us, her judges.
"I like plants," she stated. She held up her palm with a couple of leaves on it. "This combination will extract poisons from your wounds." She held up some more leaves. "This will lower fever. This will cause you to throw up, if you swallowed something bad…" She went on and on with the virtues of these plant combinations. The last plant combination she held up could kill a full grown man in less than thirty seconds.
"But of course," she said, "I'll never use that."
District Six produced a handsome boy, Vesper, which I was thankful for. Sometimes, a pretty face could tide the audience over, if only for a while. He picked up a sword and fought a trainer. I admit, he was pretty good. At one point, he jumped up on a climbing rope and climbed it, wrapping the rope around his foot and leaning down to slice at the trainer. At the end of battle, Vesper was holding his sword to the trainer's throat. While it wasn't the best fighting in the world, all I could think was how did District Six produce him?
The girl, Harper, was also fairly impressive for her district. She picked up a bow and arrow and started shooting at the targets. While her aim wasn't amazingly perfect, she did get quite a few bulls eyes. She also shot some dummies through the heart. I figured that with the right tools, she could do fairly well. It was up to me to give her the right tools.
A/N: Hi! Sorry this took so long. I've been super busy. I'm in my school musical, which has an insane rehearsal schedule, homework has increased, and I'm in two other musicals and my city youth symphony! XP