Breaking Point Sextet V
Love: The 75th Hunger Games
Chapter Eight
District Three Reaping
A/N: Thanks to Draph for the wonderful Tribute pair featured in this chapter! Please keep submitting your beautiful Tributes to me!
Elara Sora –14- -D3- POV
I finish doing the second spacebun, releasing my curly black hair from my hands, and smile at my blue eyes in the mirror. Or try to, this dress is still grating against my skin. It doesn't feel right, doesn't have the right texture. I appreciate the thought of getting me a new one for Reaping day, but I wish Mom and Dad would've brought me with them so I could've picked out a soft one. I think this will have to go, no way I can be comfortable through the whole Reaping in it, sorry… no just to explain that to them without disappointing them.
After I get through the fun business of taking off my dress without messing up my hair or making my glasses fall off (I need those things to see!), and then getting on one of my older and comfortable bright pink dresses, I smile at myself again, then look down at Tali. "How do I look?" I ask the little robot bug.
Tali doesn't respond, unfortunately, being only a robot bug, but I like to think that she says I look good, I'm sure she likes the bright pink as well.
"Thanks, Tali. Well, guess I better be heading out, I'll see you later!" I smile at her, and leave my room, going to the living room.
When I get there, I can hear the muffled sounds of an argument coming from the master bedroom. Of course. I check my watch. If they're not done in five minutes, I might have to leave a note and just go myself, they'll get there at some point.
Luckily, whatever they were fighting about was resolved in only two minutes, or at least enough for them to stop bickering enough to notice the time and start walking before starting fighting again. I'm not sure what they're talking about, and I'm too worried about the Reaping to try to listen today.
Yuna Odalis –14- -D3- POV
I finish the last braid of my long brown hair, and my big black – well, brown, but they look nearly black – eyes meet each other in the mirror. I try to smile, like I'll need to for my siblings later, and my canine pops out a little like it always does, which some people says makes me look goofy, but my eyes don't smile today. After all, the Reaping… and this year… well, this twist is pretty terrible, I just hope it can go by again without affecting my life.
Well, time to head out to make sure everyone's ready before Mom gets out. When I arrive in the living room, I see that Tami's there. Well, at least that's something. I suppose somebody else helping the three and four year old would be surprising.
"Hey, Tami," I force a smile, "you all ready? Need anything?"
"Nope," he says. "Thanks."
Somebody's on good behavior today, thank goodness. Well, time to go get the other two ready. I head to Milo and Moryan's room, where they're still asleep.
It takes me maybe fifteen minutes to get them up and dressed, but then they are, and out waiting with me and Tami before Mom's up. Yay, mission accomplished. Now hopefully she won't find anything wrong with how they're dressed or anything like that.
A couple minutes later, Mom and Dad come out. Dad yawns. "Sorry we're late, kids… I slept in late, I was up until midnight working last night." Yes, I know. We all know. You're always up til midnight working. Yet you once had time to make all these kids, maybe you should've made time to have them too. But I suppose that's not fair. He does work to provide for us… even though it's not enough. Whatever. Not important right now.
"I see you're all up and dressed. Good. Now let's go," Mom orders.
"Yes, Mom. Let's go everyone," I instruct my siblings, and we head out.
Elara Sora POV
We're nearly to the Reaping, when I hear a sound. Well, I mean… I'm always hearing sounds, obviously, that's how the world works. Unless you're in a vacuum, but if you're in a vacuum, you're not doing much of anything anyway, so – right, the sound I heard. It's the sound of a cat's meow, but a more tortured one than normal, and I have a feeling I know why, so I head towards the sound, my parents continuing on as if they hadn't noticed I'd left. They probably won't notice.
After a couple minutes of walking with the meow getting louder, I find it. A cat, lying on the ground, with exactly who I thought above it, using some new torture device on the poor thing, flanked by his henchmen.
"Kell! You know, most people stop at realizing there's more than one way to skin a cat," I shout to get his attention. Mmm, that was a good one.
He turns to look at me, sneering along with his cronies. "Well, those people won't make money off all the other ways they never tested, will they?"
"It's not all about money," I say.
"To you. Where's your friend today?" He asks. "Busy, or just tired of seeing you get beat every time?"
"Probably busy being a good person," I say, then realize maybe I should've bluffed and said she was here. Ah well.
"So, you're all alone, then," Kell cracks his knuckles. "Well, this should be more fun than usual."
"Just let the poor cat go," I say. "I'll take it to a shelter."
"Maybe you should go to a shelter," he says. "But to stay. But that's later." He starts walking towards me, and his henchman follow. Hmm, I should've planned this better… like at all. Well, I've got maybe fifteen seconds – scratch that, thirty, dramatically slow walking for intimidation is great for giving me time to think – to come up with a plan. What can I use? Nothing on me, I only have my clothes and a couple bows. Well, probably nothing on me. What's around me? This is an ally, there's a couple drainpipes, and a couple dumpsters… dumpsters! They're kinda tall, but I'm kinda tall, well for a girl at least, and if I can get to one, I could get to a roof. Of course, if I can get there, so can the people bigger and stronger than me, but it won't be expected. Then I just need to grab the cat and get out of here. Five seconds left, they're almost within grabbing range.
I bolt out, towards a dumpster on the left side of the ally and jump as high as I can, and I land, sprawled, half on and half off it. I scramble to get the rest of the way.
"Oh, so you're going to make this hard!" Kell taunts.
"You're… the one… making," I pant as I stand up on the dumpster, to see Tynda and Gino, resident goons incorporated, staring at me, sizing up their own run onto it. Well, have fun with that. "Things difficult!" I jump again, and grab the ledge of the roof above me, swinging one leg onto it, then rolling myself the rest of the way onto it. I'm getting tired already, but I just need to do a little more, and I'll be free. I hear crashes from below me as one of the henchmen jumps to follow my path on the dumpster.
Where's the cat? There she is, I need to make sure I don't land on her, but near her… I'll jump a good bit on the none-Kell facing side of her. I jump down from the roof, bending my knees, and land almost exactly where I had targeted. It hurts a bit, but… well, fights always hurt. I grab the poor kitty up, and start to run. Hopefully, Kell won't follow.
A few seconds later, I'm tackled to the ground. "You know, all I had to do was stand around while you wore yourself out," Kell says. "And you think you're smart." He gets off me and gives me a kick so I roll over, exposing the cat cradled in my arms. "Maybe you should've -"
"Hey!" A loud voice, a woman's, calls out. "What's going on here?"
"None of your concern, b- I mean, uh, nothing, Ma'am," Kell says. I try to look at the source of the voice, and am surprised to see Kell offering me his hand. I don't take it, and stand up, still cradling the cat. Oh. The source of the voice is none other than one Diana Axel, Victor of the Seventy-Third Games, and resident District Three Hero, accompanied by her fiance, Vax, and a couple of blonde girls I don't recognize.
"It looked like," Diana says in a faraway voice, "you were attacking this girl and trying to steal her cat. Eris, Katie, restrain this boy, please. You two," I look up to see the two idiot henchmen on the roof, "get down from there. Are you alright?" She asks me, approaching me as the other two blonde girls seemingly follow her orders and grab Kell by the arms.
"Ma'am," one of them says, holding up his torture device. "He's got some kind of device, what should we do with it?"
"Oh, give that to me," Diana says. The girl does. "Thank you, Kaite." Katie nods. Diana looks over the device for a few seconds, presses a button, pulls some panels off, and the entire thing comes apart. "Good construction, interesting idea. You could have a very bright future ahead of you, if you stop assaulting people," she tells Kell. "Also, make sure your sauder right next time, I could pull apart these wires with my fingers."
Kell nods, probably not knowing what to do in this odd situation.
Diana turns to me again, as I notice the henchmen slowly extricate themselves from the roof. "Sorry, are you okay?"
"Yeah, fine," I say. A few bruises, but that's nothing new. "Uh, thanks for that, by the way… he's a real jerk."
"This has happened before?" Eris asks.
"Uh, yeah," I say. "He and his friends like to, uh, test their inventions on animals they capture, like this one. I'm not a big fan of that, so we've gotten into… fights like this before."
Diana nods. "You know that experimenting on animals like this is both illegal and immoral, right?" Kell just nods again. Diana sighs. "How old are you?"
"Uh, fourteen, Miss Axel, Ma'am."
"I see." She considers for a second. "Well, I don't think we'll take you to the Peacekeepers today, but let this be a warning, don't do stuff like this again, or you will be arrested. You understand? It's wrong, and there will be consequences."
Kell nods. "Uh, yes, Ma'am. Thank you, Ma'am."
She smiles. "Good. You're free to go, then." Eris and Katie release him, and he runs off, his two henchmen quickly join him. Diana again turns to me. "Well, again, I'm sorry about that. I take it this isn't your cat?"
I shake my head. "No, I just found her here."
Diana nods. "Vax, dear, why don't you take this cat here to a shelter, while I get Miss…"
"Elara," I provide, "Elara Solra."
"Elara to the Reaping," she finishes.
"Of course, honey," he smiles, and offers to take the cat from me. I gently put her in his arms. "See you one more time before you leave, right?"
"Of course," she answers. They kiss, and then he heads off. Kissing… still can't say I particularly get it, although they are a cute couple. So sweet and caring.
"So, how did you start saving cats?" She asks me.
"Well, it started a while back, when…"
We talk until we reach the Reaping, and she has to onstage, while I have to go find Yuna and tell her everything that just happened! I mean, I met a Victor! And she liked my ideas about technology and writing!
Yuna Odalis –14- -D3- POV
"…You went into a fight without me, nearly got yourself beat up, nearly broke your knees jumping from a roof, but ended up meeting Diana Axel?" I ask Elara. I can't believe it. It sounds too good to be true. Like something out of one of the stories she'd write. Or I'd write. Maybe Tami will go out today and the other two will sleep, and I'll have good time to write. That sounds nice. Doubt it'll happen, but still.
"Yeah!" She smiles. "A few bruises worse for wear, but it's fine, they'll go away soon!"
"That's amazing!" I return the smile. I mean, that is pretty amazing, especially that Kell got what he deserved, finally. "And who were these other girls again?"
Elara shrugs. "I dunno, she just said friends, didn't push."
I nod. "Huh, well that's interesting… that's amazing, actually. Wish I was there."
"Yeah, me too!" Elara says. "Well, maybe we can do something later today, like -"
"Remember, I've gotta babysit my siblings today," I say.
"Oh, right," her face falls. "Well, I could always come over still, and -"
"No," I say quickly. "No, it's fine. Maybe in the evening or something, we'll see."
"I still don't know why you don't want me to come over, I know it's not that nice of a place, I really don't mind," Elara says.
"It's not that, it's -," I start to say, but Cinnamon, District Three Escort, cuts me off.
"Okay people! Today, we will choose two people to participate in this year's Hunger Games! Of course, as you know, only one will be Reaped, the other will be whoever this person loves most! Are you ready to get started?"
Luckily, we were already standing in our section, so we shut right up.
Elara Sora –14- -D3- POV
After my interrupted conversation with Yuna, I wait. And I do wonder, why won't she let me come over to her house? There's something she's hiding, I just wish I could… tell what. Or that she'd tell me, I don't get it, we share everything else, so what's going on with her home life that's so bad?
Anyway, Cinnamon is starting the Reaping. "Okay then, let's start…" She reaches her hand into the bowl and picks out a piece of paper. A name. One person condemned to a near-death sentence. One person condemned to throw away their life, or the life of the person they love most. "The Tribute from District Three is… Elara Sora!"
This can't be happening. Maybe this isn't happening. It doesn't feel like it's happening. It feels like I'm watching somebody far, far, away, take those steps up towards the stage. Somebody else repeat their name to Cinnamon. It's just a nightmare. It's not happening to me.
"And who do you love most?"
It is happening to me. It is happening to me. No. It can't be. It can't be. But it is. And I need… I need to protect Yuna. I need to protect Yuna.
"I… I… don't love anyone within the… age range." I manage.
Cinnamon taps a tablet in front of her. "Not according to our records, sweetheart. It says here, the person you love most is… Yuna Odalis, please get up here."
Yuna Odalis –14- -D3- POV
I think I'm going to cry, or be sick… or both. Elara, Reaped? How… why? My best friend, really, my only friend… Reaped, for the Hunger Games, and… well, actually… what she has to say next might be good. At least I can protect her. I'll die, but she can live.
"I… I… don't love anyone within the… age range," she stutters out. I know that's a lie. She knows that's a lie. But it comes from trying to protect me. The question is, does the Capitol know it's a lie?
"Not according to our records, sweetheart," Cinnamon says. So they do know. And they have the audacity to call her sweetheart. "It says here, the person you love most is… Yuna Odalis, please get up here."
I comply, trying to look somewhat confident as I do. We probably want people to like us, after all. I repeat my name for Cinnamon, with one thought in my mind. I must protect Elara.
Diana Axel was sitting in the bathroom of her train car before the Tributes got there. The shower water was running, but she wasn't in it or thinking of anything like it. In fact, the shower water was only running to make it believable for any bugs nearby to not hear any noise from the secret conversation she was having on her tablet. Of course, she would need to shower, if her hair wasn't wet, for example, that would raise suspicion, but that was for later. Now, she had more important things on her mind.
"Do you know how risky this is?" Layna Paris, sixteen-year-old chief engineer of the Rebellion chided the twenty-year-old chief scientist. "Calling me from a Capitol train?"
"Relax, Layna," Diana said. "I'm untraceable, you know that."
Layna sighs. "I know we think you are. You have the bug jammer running?" That was a program, not just the shower.
"Yes, and the shower, although the sweep didn't show any in the bathroom."
"At least they have some decency."
"I know, right?"
"So why did you call?" Layna asked.
"Well, it's about the Tributes, my two specifically."
"Okay."
"I've read their files, and… Layna, I really like them, but I don't think they'll do well."
"Let me see… yeah, they're both kind of young for the Games… although Kayne won younger."
"Yeah, but this year, with them loving each other… I don't think they'll make it out, Layna, well, at best, only one can anyway."
"I agree. What's your point, Diana?"
"Well… that note my father gave me… I was thinking…"
"You want to use it? You want to teach them how to break out of the Arena?" Layna was mildly incredulous. "What good would that do for them? You didn't do it because you had nowhere to go, they'll have the same problem."
"What if we picked them up?"
"Picked them up… I know what you're suggesting, Diana. It's risky. Really risky. And we could only do it once."
"Won't the Capitol be trying to kill us all soon anyway?"
"Probably, but I'd rather not poke the bear while you all are in it."
"They still don't know it's us. I think they could be useful to us, Layna. They're both smart, they'd make good science team recruits, especially Elara."
"We could use more science team members…" Layna sighed. "Look, I'll look into it, draw up a plan. But it'll be risky, and one time use only, and if things continue, they'll have to live underground until the war starts."
"I know. But if it's all going to hell anyway, might as well crack the dome first."
"Right. I'll look into it, and I'll send a plan to you and Athena. But, you need to get Athena's approval first, I'm not letting you do anything, and this is way too risky for either of us to approve. Both Emma and Athena should be onboard. No promises they will be. Or that I'll even have a workable plan."
Diana nodded. "Of course. Thank you, Layna."
"Yeah, no problem, Diana. Just wish somebody had done this a few years ago."
"I know, Layna, I know. Well, I gotta take a shower. Contact me when you have something."
"Will do. And Diana?"
"Yeah?"
"Make sure they survive long enough for this plan to work."
"Right."
A/N: Well, another day, another Reaping! What did you all think of this chapter? Who's your favorite Tribute, both of this pair, and of the ones introduced so far? Let me know in a review, and please keep submitting your wonderful Tributes! See you soon! - JStar14H
Tribute List:
D1R: Open
D1L: Open
D2R: Candence Fellows, 18, by BeeBoo15
D2L: Foxtrot Suevite, 18, by BeeBoo15
D3R: Elara Sora, 14, by Draph
D3L: Yuna Odalis, 14, by Draph
D4R: Nerys Pacifica, 18, by Son of Arryn
D4L: Halian "Hal" Maui, 17, by Son of Arryn
D5R: Daisy Brownstone, 15, by chcolate
D5L: Matilda 'Mattie' Edlington, 17, by chcolate
D6R: Seras Axis, 15, by TheWatcherofTheVoid
D6L: Remington Axis, 18, by TheWatcherofTheVoid
D7R: Rowan Mildberg, 18, by Pengu54324
D7L: Cedar Mildberg, 15, by Pengu54324
D8R: Open
D8L: Open
D9R: Open
D9L: Open
D10R: Gadge Paddet, 17, by Professor R.J Lupin1
D10L: Simon Hazel, 17 by Professor R.J Lupin1
D11R: Open
D11L: Open
D12R: Open
D12L: Open