Of Butterflies, Scores, and Independence: Maine Hofman, District 11 Male Tribute

As my eyes flew open, I sat up quickly, stifling a yawn and stretching. I was still in the Tributes' Lounge. Sunlight streamed in through an uncovered window, just enough to show that it still had to be a decent hour of the morning. The clock confirmed that it was time to start getting ready for training, but I didn't want to race down the two flights of stairs to the District Eleven floor quite yet. There was food for breakfast here, after all, so what would the purpose have been in it?

I forced myself off of the couch in the lounge and up on to my feet. There were still some other tributes there, I wasn't surprised to see. There was Vitality, the District Five girl, and then there was Gavin, the boy from District Ten. Neither of them was really talking, so I said, "Mornin', guys!"

"Morning," Vitality mumbled.

"Hi." That was Gavin, with a bit more energy.

"So, did you two have any trouble with sleeping' last night?" I asked, walking over towards the breakfast table.

"Didn't sleep." That was the general response.

"Oh. Well, that's okay, too," I replied, already filling my plate. The District Ten boy, who I'd come to know as someone with a lot of energy, just seemed tired by now, and the District Five girl just didn't seem to be a very friendly person.

I sat down at the table with my plate, turned to the others, and asked, "Are you going to get some food?" Then I realized that I probably sounded like their moms, which was, admittedly, a bit of a disturbing thought.

"I think I'll be going back to my floor now," Vitality answered, already walking clear out of the room.

"Sure, why not?" Gavin replied, and he, too, grabbed some food and sat down.

"So, what were you up to, being up here?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing..." There was no mistaking the... mischievous smile on his face.

"Come on, what was it?"

"Just messing with some tributes' heads, that's all," he finally answered. We had a bit more meaningless conversation before we both really had to get back down to our floors. "I'll see you in training, then," Gavin said.

"See ya' then." I took the elevator back down to the District Eleven floor, changed in to clothes for training and washed up. Without bothering to check on anyone else, I started to head to training, only to be stopped at the elevator by our escort, Clover.

"I need help!" she whined. "Your district partner refuses to go to training! She won't move from the breakfast table!"

I sighed, but then put on the most convincing smile I could. "Alright, let me see what I can do." You'd expect that maybe our escort would hang around after that, or, maybe, I don't know, actually care, but, of course, no. She went back to her so-called "office", and disappeared.

I went to the dining room, where only November remained now, sitting stubbornly in one of the chairs, facing out the window. I sat down in the chair next to her, and she moved hers farther away. "So, why don't you want to go to training?" I asked.

"Why do you care?"

"Because, I should care. I'm your district partner, after all."

"That doesn't mean we're allies."

"I know that."

She was quiet for just a second, and then said, "Well, I don't want to go because if I go, that means that I feel like I'm getting closer to being in the arena."

"You'll be getting closer to the arena either way."

"You think I don't know that?" she snaps. "I said that it would feel like time was going faster."

"Training well is your best shot of winning, you know," I pointed out. "And they say that time flies when you're having fun, so maybe that means that you really think that training will be fun. So, in that case, you should go."

November just groans. "Oh, okay. Just to get you to shut up, I'll go."

I smiled, and we both walked towards the elevator to go down to training. The ride down there was fast, and filling in the tribute outfit forms flew by so fast that the only thing I really remembered about them was that I had selected light khaki pants and a dark green tunic to be the main part of my tribute outfit. Pretty similar to what I wore on Reaping Day...

Could that have really been just two days ago?

Either way, once the stations were all explained, I decided to head out to my first station. Where to go, where to go...

I tried opening a door towards the back of the room, where I found myself standing alongside Tod and Mist, as well as the instructor. "Welcome to the camouflage station," the instructor said. "You can call me Ari, and I'll be your supervisor for the next approximate half and hour. Here's what we're going to do. This is basically a different version of the main camouflage station. Hence it being in a different room. I'm going to give each of you a little cutout butterfly on a sheet of paper, and some coloring tools. You're going to color it to camouflage it against one of the surfaces in this room. It has to be in plain sight once you "hide" it, but don't let anyone see your butterfly until then. Then, one at a time, you'll tape them to the place you picked, and then you'll all try to find each other's-just announce when you've found someone's. Got it?"

I understood, so once I had my supplies, I took a look around the room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all painted to look like a forestry/woodsy setting. I made a mental note that that might be part of the arena. Finally, I colored in my butterfly to make it look like some of the leaves clustered around one of the branches. I was the first person to be able to kick everyone else out and hide mine, so I taped it against a part of the wall where the pattern that I had copied was.

Then I had to wait for everyone else, and the second we entered, I said, "Found both of them."

"Really? How in Panem-where are they?" Ari asked.

"There," I said, pointing to a spot in the corner of the room on the floor, "and there." I pointed to a high up place in the middle of the back wall.

"How in Panem did you ever find both of them so quickly?"

"Just used to it, I guess," I shrugged. "In my district, you have to be able to spot things in the trees, like bird or tracker-jacker nests, so you can stay out of the way."

"I have to say, you seem to have a knack for this. Alright, let's have everyone try to find yours now." That took a bit longer. Tod just kept glaring at me-Mist seemed a bit... out of it.

I considered using that as part of my private session with the Gamemakers. Finally, Mist pointed to a spot on the wall. There it was-my butterfly. "Good eye," Ari, the instructor, said. "Well, I suppose that that's all I have for you folks today. You all have a fun day, now, and remember that you never have to be a stranger to good ol' Ari. Any of the other instructors giving you a rough time, you're always welcome here."

We all nodded and left.

My next few stations were all me experimenting with all of the different weapons I could think of-maces, tridents, knives, spears, swords, bow-and-arrows, slingshots, you name it, I tried it. I seemed to be okay with a spear, but some of the others I just wasn't the best at.

After lunch, I went to a few more "survivaly" stations. Edible plants (yet another station that I was a natural at), water purifying, fire making, snares/trapping... Those, as a whole, I was a lot better at.

Training was done for the first day.

But it continued like that for the next one, and before lunch on the third one. The third day, for me, was just reviewing and finalizing what I was going to do for the Gamemakers. Finally, after a much too long wait, it was my turn to shine. I took my place in the Gamemakers room, and began. First, as fast as I could, and in sight of the Gamemakers, dragging some supplies out of the room, I colored in a few butterflies and stuck them up in various places of the training room, watching them fade in to the background. The Gamemakers seemed impressed, and were squinting to try to see them again. Next, also quickly, I made a trap, pushed one of the dummies in to it, and then stabbed it with a spear, making it shoot out fake blood, which I jumped out of the way of, thankfully. As my final act, I walked around the wall and pulled down each of the butterflies, and laid them out on the floor in front of the Gamemakers. It was a short session because of my speed, but I was dismissed, and I left, smiling in satisfaction.

At dinner, which was a large feast, also District Eleven style like it had been on the night of the opening ceremonies, I told my support team and November about what I'd done during my session. November just looked miserable and scowled at me. Her mentor didn't really respond, nor did Clover. Simmons seemed pleased, but quickly changed the conversation over to November. While she stalled talking about what she'd done, I noted that neither of our stylists had bothered to show up.

Finally, November said, "Well, I tried to show how I could climb and gather, but I don't think it went so well." She refused to elaborate, so we went to get our scores. November's came up first-a four. And then there was mine-a... an eleven? That was the highest score, even out of the Careers...wow. I'd always known that I was good, but even I hadn't suspected that I was that good.

Everyone seemed pleased with my score but disappointed with Novembers, which made her sneak off to her room.

I went to bed that night, not feeling like a trip to the tributes' lounge, and knew that I was ready to face whatever was going to come next.