The Mentors

Chapter Thirty-Six

Day Five; Part Two

Dara Valentine (D4)

I roll my eyes at the dark-haired man shoving ham into his mouth. "Hungry Damon?"

He looks back and, seeing it's me, scowls. "I'm not in the mood."

I smirk at him, knowing what he means but disregarding it. "For eating? Your piggish manners make me doubt that."

He glares. "I'm not in the mood for you, Dara. I can't deal with your less than wonderful personality right now."

"You don't like me? I thought we were besties."

Damon grimaces. "Just leave me alone."

"You should know by now that I don't take orders," I say with a small smile. "So? I heard that you're having marital problems."

He turns around quickly, looking terrified. "What?"

"Yeah . . . according to the Capitol News you're cheating with a very beautiful woman."

Damon hides his face in his hands, falling silent. He finally looks up. "Can you give me a general idea of who they think it is?"

I grin. "I really shouldn't."

"Dara."

"But you seem so upset . . ."

"If you don't fucking tell me-."

"Alright, alright. According to the magazine, it's a young Capitol citizen named Blossom. They say you seem to have quite the flirtation going on." I cock an eyebrow.

He sighs in relief. "You could have told me that to begin with!"

"Eh. It's not my style." I give him a genuinely worried look. "You seemed really terrified right then. A man who isn't cheating wouldn't be that scared. So who is she?" Damon seemed like such a nice guy. Who the fuck would he be sleeping with anyway?

He gives me a wary expression. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I won't tell anyone." I give him a small smile. "I don't tell other people's secrets, just in case they find out one of mine."

"You have secrets?" he asks, unconvinced.

"Everyone has secrets, Damon." I frown. "Now who is it?"

He hesitates and then finally says, "I didn't cheat on Hope. Ever."

I give him a confused look. "Then why were you so scared?"

"I . . . I thought about it." He looks at the ground, clearly embarrassed. "With Quinn."

I nod. "And what did Quinn say about this?"

"She told me to shut up and leave her alone, pretty much." He looks back up at me. "I really hope she'll still speak to me."

"Eight won't ice you out for long." I smile. "You and Hope are supposed to get married, right?"

He nods. "Next year."

I'm already planning on how to let Quinn know that I know. I almost let out a laugh at the thought.

"Believe it or not, you are a teenage boy." I frown. "It's hard to make such a huge commitment when you're young."

"I've been thinking about waiting a little longer to get married. I don't want to marry her when I'm unsure. I want to marry her when I can't think about being with anyone else. I just don't know if that time will come or not. I don't want to disappoint her."

"You love her," I assure him. "You're too young to be sure, though. You should try waiting two or three years. You'll know for sure then."

I begin to walk away and he stops me. "Thank you."

"No problem." I grab a granola bar before walking away without another word.

I eat it slowly as I walk to my room. I don't really know about Hope and Damon's relationship, never having talked to the girl, but I can tell Damon loves her by the way he speaks about her.

I wonder if people think Kai is really in love with me? I wouldn't put it past them to think he isn't. I am a raging bitch. I don't think myself that bad, exactly, but people have told me that I am. I wonder what their problem is.

I run smack into my door. "Fuck."

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" A female voice asks, sounding like she's trying not to laugh. I look and see Quinn hoping to help me up.

How cliche.

I wave her away and climb up myself.

"I'm fine," I growl, wiping my ass off. I find myself . . . angry at her.

She could be breaking up Hope and Damon. It's sad that I'm mad and I don't even give a damn.

"You seem . . . mad?" Quinn looks confused.

"Not at all," I spit sarcastically.

Quinn gives me an annoyed look. "Just tell me what's wrong so I can fix it."

I glare at her. "You're going to ruin Damon's relationship with Hope."

Her face whitens. "You know? How the hell do you know?"

"Damon told me." I give her a smirk. "It's funny because I never would have taken you for a home-wrecker, Quinn."

"Shut the hell up, Dara." She gives me a withering look. "I haven't done anything wrong and it's not my fault. I turned him away. So fuck off."

She begins to walk away before I call her name. She turns with an expectant look. If she's expecting an apology, she's an idiot. "Remember to wear protection! I wouldn't want you to have his love child."

She flips me off before striding away. I smile at how easily I pissed off the always calm Quinn.

I get to check something off my clipboard!

Ah, life. How I love it so.

Blaise Calder (D10)

"So, I know you have a large family, but can you tell me all of their names?" Lilac asks. "And, you know, tell me about them a little."

I sigh. "This might be . . . long. And definitely confusing."

"I need something to puzzle over," she responds with a laugh. We both know she has enough confusing problems, but she likes to act like she doesn't. Well, I don't know exactly what they are, but whatever.

"Well there's Nova, we're getting married when we have the time." I roll my eyes. "And the space."

"So everyone lives with you?" Lilac asks.

"Pretty much." I smile. "There's my grandma, Mina. My granddad died a few years back and she hasn't been the same for a while. They lived on a dairy farm, but she had to give it up for Palmer, my cousin. I'll get to that later. My parents, Lydia and Silas, died when I was younger, they were in their early thirties. I went and lived with my grandparents then."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I can barely remember them anymore." I look at the ground. "I have a younger brother and sister, their names are Merril and Delphia. Well, my aunt died in birth and my uncle drank himself to death. I have nine cousins. Palmer is the oldest- he's twenty one- he's married and expecting triplets, that's why he needs the dairy farm. I'm the one who runs it though. The rest live with me."

Lilac stared at me in shock. "Eleven children and an old lady? How do you do it all?"

I smile. "I'm good at multitasking. I did have another cousin, but he died in the Games before I went in. His name was Pol. Well the ones that live with me are Piper, Pepper, Pansy, Palla, Peter, Parsnip, Paisly, and Pavi. Paisly and Pavi are twins. I volunteered for Pepper. Nova and I have foster children, too."

"Foster children?" Lilac asks quickly. Surprise and another emotion dance across her face, but before I can identify it, it's gone.

"The orphanage doesn't have any room for them and we give them a place to stay until we can find permanent homes for them."

"Really?" Lilac tries to sound nonchalant. "That's really nice of you."

"We have three at the moment. Shepherd, Rutherford, and Bubona. They're very nice. Shepherd is twelve, it was his first reaping this year, but Bubona is only three. We've had Bubona since she was six months old."

"That's so sad," Lilac replies, looking really shocked. "So no one wants them?"

"Not that we know of." I shrugged. "Nova's been trying to find some people in the other districts to send them to."

"You can do that?" Lilac exclaims.

I give her a weird look. "I just use some of my money to buy a train ticket and then the Justice Building files a report saying that they've been relocated to whatever District they've been sent to."

"Do you sometimes not tell the Justice Building?" Lilac asks.

"As much as I would like to not, I'd get in too much trouble for that." I roll my eyes. "But it isn't all that complicated, you know, if I can do it."

Lilac tries to laugh. "Could someone get . . . I don't know . . . all three of them?"

"I guess if they wanted that kind of responsibility."

"Oh."

I give her a confused look. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Lilac says. "I've never heard about anything like this before. It's amazing what you do for your community, Blaise."

I give her an uncomfortable look. "I don't see it as a helping hand to the community. I love them, I really do, but it's more for Nova than anything else. She wants a baby, but we can't get another person in the house that will be there permanently."

"Then what about the foster kids? You have room for three of them."

"We have one room and they all share it with Paisly and Pavi. It's not practical, for us to put another in there. Palla and Parsnip sleep with my grandmother. Piper, Pepper, and Peter share a room. Then there's a room for Pansy, Delphia, and Merril. We're hoping to get the boys and the girls in a few rooms together soon. But we just can't handle a baby, right now. Maybe when Piper and Pepper move out, we can think about it."

"Oh." Lilac grimaced. "You would have a lot more room when the three other children get a family."

"It's only three years until Piper and Pepper move out and hopefully we will have found a home for them first. Nova will be so happy for all of them. I just hope that we can manage until then. I might have to put my foot down about other children in the home for the meantime."

"I agree with you. How big is the dairy farm?"

"About three rooms."

"Well, one for the triplets and then you could ask him to let Piper and Pepper live there, I mean you could pay for living expenses. How could he say no to that?" Lilac asks, looking put off.

"I've asked." I roll my eyes. "Repeatedly."

"That just pisses me off," Lilac informs me. "Those are his brothers and sisters."

"I know," I say. "But they're my cousins, too."

"Hmm. Well, Blaise, I have to go." I give her a surprised look. "It's just for an hour or two. I need some time . . . alone."

"Well . . . okay. If that's what you need."

She leaves quickly, leaving me speechless. I can't help but wonder if it's my fault, she seemed fine before.

What the hell did I say?

Hazel Birchbark (D7)

I'm fucking bored . . .

Hours later, I'm still bored.

I check the little refrigerator, enticed by the idea of peanuts.

I grin at the big bottles of what I'm guessing is alcohol. Jackpot!

I've never drank before in my life, I don't like the way people say it makes you lose all control. I like being in control. But right now, what I need is some downtime.

Being in control is not all it's cracked up to be.

I drink, about, I don't know . . . four bottles? I feel really tipsy . . . I prove that I'm drunk by falling over. I get off the floor, giggling wildly.

A knock comes at the door. I giggle again before opening it. My mouth falls open in shock. I imagine what my face must look like at the moment. And, of course, I laugh.

"Clubbers?" I ask. "Hello, beautiful!"

He gives me a freaked out look. "Um, hello?"

"You must be here to steal my liquor," I whisper conspiratorially. "But you know what? I don't like people stealing my liquor. But I do share!"

Clubb looks mildly surprised. "I'm guessing you're drunk?"

"You lie!" I yell and then cackle in delight.

He grins. "But, being serious, I have nothing to do."

"So you want to do me?" I ask, with a raised eyebrow. "Too bad!"

He chuckles. "Yeah, that's exactly what I meant."

"You can't fool me, Clubbers!" I exclaim. "I can read minds."

"I'm sure you can," he responds dryly. I'm starting to slur words and he gives me a surprised look. "How much have you drank?"

"I don't know, four bottles. Maybe?" I reply with a lot of giggling. He roll his eyes and plucks the fifth bottle I just began to drink out of my hands. "Hey, Clubbers, so not cool."

"You need to stop." He gives me an inquiring look. "Have you ever even drank before?"

"In your dreams, I have."

He rolls his eyes again. "I'm guessing that's a no."

I finally realize that he's not going to give it back. "NOOOOOOOOO!" I wail. "Give it baaaaaaaaack!"

"Really, Hazel, really?"

"But, Clubbers, I need one to feel complete!"

He laughs loudly. "You shouldn't be drunk. What about Olive?"

"It's not like I can do anything for her anyway," I inform him with a small laugh. "It's not like I can talk to her!"

"Well, I'll be right back," Clubb tells me. He leaves, taking the liquor with him, of course. I sulk on the bed and entertain myself by watching the TV. Wait, this is the Hunger Games, isn't it? I watch as my tribute kills some kind of animal. I giggle at her face when she's skinning the squirrel. Funny!

Olive looks around quickly, and I have no idea why. Before Olive can run a spear enters her chest. She falls over, screaming in pain and Anneliese comes charging through the trees. She gives Olive a smug look, laughing at my dying tribute. "Thought you were going to win? Please."

I stare at the TV in shock, wondering what the hell is going on. My intoxicated mind can't process what's going on per say, but it does understand it's not a good thing. I burst into tears, and Olive's cannon sounds. The TV switches to the next thing.

Clubb opens the door, smiling, but it quickly fades when he sees my tears. "What..?"

"Olive," I sob, the slurring worse, unfortunately. "Anneliese killed her."

"I- I'm sorry," he mutters, looking like he wants to run away. I cry for minutes, and he stands there. He finally sighs and comes to sit beside me. "I'm really sorry."

I find myself becoming tired. I stop crying, my puffy eyes fluttering. He gives me a small smile. "Tired?"

"A little," I admit. He gets up, letting me climb under the covers. My eyes flutter close. "Clubbers? I'll see you . . . tomorrow . . ."

"I hope so."

I feel a soft kiss, and then seconds later, the door closes quietly.