Walcott Patel- District Three female (15)
"Why are you making a stake?"
Fleur asked the question not so much to gain knowledge or as a rhetorical statement but as a resigned remark on my nature that seemed so strange to most people.
"In case there are vampires in the Arena," I said, not looking up from where I was slowly filing away a broken chair leg by stroking it against a jagged edge of metal on a broken shelf. I didn't look up because I was hoping a perfunctory answer would be enough.
"Still think there are vampires in the Arena? Or, like, in the world?" Fleur asked in more of a puzzled tone than a disdainful one.
"There could be," I said defensively. I pulled out my ace in the hole. "There was one in the second Resurrection Games."
"Yeah but the gamemakers made that," Fleur said.
"So maybe they made more," I said. "To break up the infrastructure or something, I don't know," I said.
"I mean... I guess... you're not wrong," Fleur was charitable enough to allow.
"Just better safe than sorry, you know?" I asked. Fleur tossed her head in confused inability to either agree or disagree and left to get water from our corner sink.
Fleur had probably noticed I wasn't as enthusiastic or defensive about vampires in the conversation. It was because I was lying. I did think there were vampires in the world- correction, I knew there were vampires in the world- but I didn't think there were any in the Arena. But I was still making a stake. The thing about stakes was they kill vampires and they also kill humans. I wasn't getting ready to kill a vampire. I was getting ready to kill a human.
I didn't want to kill another person. We were supposed to be allies against the vampire menace. But I also didn't want to die. It was becoming realer and realer that the only way to get out of the Arena was to do that. It wasn't easy to muscle past probably the most deeply-engrained lesson every human learns. When I helped Fleur with the chemicals it was different. We didn't know if it would work so I could tell myself it was just a science experiment and shove the idea away in my mind as not really killing. That was why I told Fleur I was making a stake for vampires. If I ever used it I knew it would be against a human. It would have been hard to justify making it if I admitted that was the case. So I told myself it was for a vampire. An inhuman, definitely not a child, vampire.
Flint Kenyte- District Two male (18)
I was pretty sure being in a garbage can saved my life. I hadn't known what to make of the sprinklers going off when it happened. Under all the garbage I didn't even get wet. I just heard the patter of the drops hitting the garbage on top of me. It almost made me cry, honestly. It sounded like rainy days back home sitting around with the boys and sometimes fighting over which drop would reach the bottom of the windowpane first. There was a weird chemical smell but I'd thought that was just the moisture in the air bringing out the scent of the garbage.
When I climbed out of the can later to find water I saw how wrong I was. It looked like a tornado had gone through. But, like, a tornado made of acid. I shuddered to think of what would have happened if I'd been out there. I didn't even know how I'd survived it until I looked back into the garbage can in puzzlement. I saw all the different layers of garbage, from crumpled paper to coffee grounds to the bits of leftover food I'd been eating, and realized it was all one big filter. All those different layers of debris with all sorts of pH values had blocked the acid before it ever reached me. It was a weird, smelly miracle.
The next miracle came while I was bending over the water fountain. Movement caught my eye and I tensed to run. A single face poked out from a corner for down the hall. It wasn't a Career- that was obvious both by the hesitation and the fact that I knew the Careers' faces. I stayed at the fountain, cautiously ready to run but also interested in what an encounter with another Tribute might bring.
"What do you want?" I called down to the other Tribute, who I had finally recognized as Edward.
"My ally died," he said back.
"Mine too," I replied, aware of how strange it was to be carrying on a conversation with a disembodied head peeking around a corner.
"You wanna ally?" he asked.
I should really play this cool, I thought. I did want to ally. Really really badly, honestly. I was used to being in a gang and knew how dangerous it was for someone to be going it alone in a fight. I would have allied with just about anyone but Edward was about the best person I could have asked for. But it wouldn't do to show all my cards and make it obvious.
"Yeah, why not?" I shrugged airily.
Edward slowly oozed out into the hallway so I could see he wasn't armed. We scuttled awkwardly toward each other and awkwardly shook hands without murdering each other. At that point we were allies and didn't have to be awkward anymore. We were like old friends.
Jacquard Crock- District Eight male (17)
"What are you going to do if you win?" Lacey asked me.
I scooted self-consciously against the washing machine wall. "It's silly," I said.
"We're sitting in a washing machine eating stolen cookies like a couple of rats," Lacey said. "Everything's silly."
"I don't know," I said.
"After all this buildup you better say something crazy, like 'I want to be the first person on Pluto'," Lacey said.
It was so silly I had to smile. "It's not that bad," I admitted. "I want to get super buff."
"Oh, that's cool," Lacey said. "I was never very athletic."
"Me neither, obviously," I said, pointing at my stomach.
"What? That's how it's supposed to look," Lacey said.
"It's flabby," I said. My stomach was one of my biggest insecurities. It stuck out and folded over and I just hated it. I covered it with one hand even when I mentioned it.
"Well yeah, you're all folded over," Lacey said. "Mine looks like that too if I sit like that." She pulled up her shirt. It did look sort of similar but it looked a lot better on her.
"My outfit in the parade made me look really muscular. That was the coolest I've ever felt," I said. "But I'll probably never look like that."
"I heard people who look like you have the easiest time building muscle," Lacey said.
"Anyway, I guess if I won I could go to fancy gyms and get a trainer and stuff," I said.
"If you want to get super big you'll have to eat, though," Lacey said.
"I do plenty of that," I said.
"Do not," Lacey said. "You've been pretending to eat the same cookie all day," Lacey said.
"I don't want to eat too much," I said. It made more sense in my head.
"If you have a lot of muscle, that will weigh a lot, right?" Lacey asked.
"Yeah but muscle weight is okay," I said.
"But where do you think that weight comes from?" Lacey asked.
"...Food," I admitted. "But healthy food."
"All right, we can try to find an apple vending machine next time," Lacey said with a lightly teasing tone. "It's not ideal but this is what we have."
"I'm not going to get strong in the Arena," I said. "I'll get strong when I get out of here."
"You won't get out of here unless you eat," Lacey said. "What are you going to do if you get chased by a Career and you can't run fast because you have no energy?"
I looked down at the cookie. Maybe if I gained weight in the Arena it wasn't the end of the world because once I got out I could go on a fancy diet with a weight trainer and everything. Right now I had to focus on just getting out in the first place and then I could work on myself.
I went ahead and ate the cookie. I could spent the rest of the day pretending to eat a second cookie.