Chapter 18: Gwendolyn Whitfield

A/N: So we finally have District Nine! Hope you enjoy Gwen's story! Cheers:)

"I remember her!" Katniss exclaimed. "Effie sent us her tape, remember?"

Peeta nodded. "Yeah, but she didn't seem very special."

Haymitch scoffed. "Nothing special? Ha! She studied psychology after her Games to help out other Victors! Special enough?"

Katniss raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why didn't she help us, then?"

Peeta shrugged. "We were kinda busy with the Quell. I heard she got along really well with the Fours. You know, Annie, Coral, Rafael..."

Haymitch nodded. "Yeah, those fishers came out pretty messed up. She helped them, all right."

Gwendolyn Whitfield

District 9

Aged 15

2 Kills

Gwen was weak. She'd known it ever since her parents were killed by a freak tornado and left her homeless and orphaned. Naturally, she'd gone to the Community Home, but even there, she only received the bare minimum. It didn't help that the doctors diagnosed her with anorexia. She was already starving, but whenever she got food, she could hardly bring herself to eat it! The peacekeepers always smacked a large cake on her

dining table, taunting her to try to eat it. Oh, and she'd begun developing heart problems when she was thirteen. She wasn't allowed to go outside or do any physical exercises. So when all the kids went on their errands or monthly morning jogs, she would be left indoors, all one, stuck with Rye Gramdan, the burly former field worker turned orphanage worker who especially hated her for accidentally spilling juice on his pants a couple of years back, allowing the other workers to assume he'd peed his pants and have a good laugh at his expense. "Get back here!" he roared, chasing her around the orphanage with a hot iron rod. She screamed for help, darting through corridors, ducking behind closets and bursting down stairways.

"Argh!" she shrieked, dodging as the rod smashed into the wall next to her. Her chest was throbbing from all the exertion. "Help!" A hand reached out and pulled her into a small trap door in the floor. "Ack!" she gasped as she hit hard, bumpy ground. The door was sealed shut and Rye was left banging on it, hollering in rage. Gwen turned. "Thank you," she whispered to her friend Amaranth, who was grinning wildly. Amaranth was two years older but her immature attitude and small stature made her seem two years younger.

"Ah, see you've got into a bit of trouble with old Rye again, eh?" she chuckled. "Good thing we found his old hole!" The trap door led to a small hole that had once been Rye's secret drug stash. It even said so on the rough concrete walls, dug into the earth many years ago. Now, Rye wouldn't fit in since he'd grown so damn big. He couldn't harm them here, and he couldn't tattle either. If he did, he'd be shot for hoarding drugs back in the day.

"I hate old Rye," Gwen bemoaned. "Why can't he just forgive and forget?"

Amaranth smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, Rye Gramdan is brutal. Rye Willems, on the other hand..." She sighed, and Gwen could only smirk. Amaranth had been smitten with Rye Willems, another orphan boy a month older than her, ever since she first came into the Community Home when she was seven.

"Eh, at least he's much nicer than Rye Grady," Gwen remarked, shuddering at the thought of the big bully lurking the corridors of the Community Home at night. Now, you might be thinking, why is everyone named Rye? Well, as it turned out, Rye was the most popular name in District Nine. Out of all the tributes Nine had sent into the Games, three of them were named Rye. Out of the fifteen boys and thirteen girls in the Community Home, four of them were also named Rye. It was as popular in Nine as Gadget and Lacey in Three and Eight respectively.

Amaranth giggled. "Oh, him? Ah, right! I put a frog in his pants. That's why he was screaming so much the other night!"

Gwen gaped at her. "You did what?"

"I put a frog in his pants. Speaking of frogs, I hear that's going to be our lunch for quite a while now."

Gwen turned green with nausea. She had an irrational fear of frogs. Combined with her anorexia, lunchtimes were going to be hell for her. Amaranth saw her uneasiness and quickly dropped the subject. "So, how's your stomach?"

For the past two weeks, Gwen had been experiencing an awful lot of horrific stomachaches, but not due to hunger. No, she'd been around long enough to know it was because of something else. Problem was, the doctors in Nine weren't skilled enough to identify the cause. The doctor who'd diagnosed her with heart problems and anorexia had been the only Capitol-trained doctor in Nine, a gentleman who'd offered free services to orphans, but he was killed in another freakish tornado incident. Alongside the constant aching, she'd also had constant fevers, something that didn't quite help her situation. "It's not any better."

Amaranth sighed. "Oh, well. I guess you'll just have to wait and see. Who knows, one of these days, someone might finally be able to diagnose it!"

Unfortunately for Gwen, it seemed that she would never be treated. Because that idiot of an escort, Penelope Judson, dressed up in a ridiculous President Ravenstill cosplay costume, apparently the trendiest new fashion amongst those shallow Capitolians, decided to pull her name out of the reaping bowl. "Gwendolyn Whitfield!" In the seventeen-year-olds section, Gwen could hear Amaranth gasp, her usual peppiness vanishing by the minute. Gwen hung her head and walked up the stage. At least the stomachaches would finally stop. Her life, devoid of a future, would end here. It might be the merciful way out for her, an orphan riddled with health problems. The escort pulled out another name, this time for the boys. "Rye Adler!" A nervous boy from the fourteen-year-olds section sobbed and wailed as he shakily climbed up the stage. Neither of them would last very long, they both knew it. Odds were, they would both have their throats slashed by some murderous Career tribute in the opening seconds of the Bloodbath. Gwen hoped that when she died, at least it would be quick.

Amaranth was having none of it, though. She'd barged into the Justice Building and demanded to see Gwen. Gwen sat in the room, staring silently at the wooden floor. She'd never been inside this building before, and never would again. Her door banged open and Amaranth burst in, clutching Gwen tightly. Her eyes were red from crying, but she'd managed to put on a brave face and the most serious expression she'd ever managed to muster in her entire life. "Gwen, you can win this!" she urged, grabbing her by the shoulders.

A tear slid down Gwen's face. "Am, I can't. I-I have..."

"I don't care!" Amaranth shouted, glaring straight into her eyes. "Just hide like Woof did and you'll be fine! Please, Gwen, at least try..."

Gwen pursed her lips and nodded slowly. "Okay, Am."

"Promise me you'll at least give it a shot! Don't be like all the others and die in the Bloodbath!"

"I-I'll try..."

"No! Promise me!" Amaranth was shaking horribly by now, struggling to contain her emotions.

Gwen sighed sullenly. "Fine, I promise."

"Good," Amaranth said as she gave her best friend one last hug before the peacekeepers had to drag her away, leaving Gwen all alone.

"Maybe, just maybe..." At that moment, Gwen willed herself to hope. If she played her cards well, maybe, just maybe...

Marina glanced around, making sure no one was around. She was perched atop the roof of the District Four train in the middle of the night, all alone with only a walkie-talkie with her. Her tribute was fast asleep and Mags was discussing tactics with hers. The walkie-talkie crackled and she could hear a woman's voice faintly. "Hello?"

Marina smiled. She was on the verge of a breakdown after constant nightmares about her Games and being forced into bed with that awful monster Draco, but the sound of the woman's voice was calming. "Hey, Oakette," she whispered. "How's District Fourteen?"

"Oh, we're all good!" Oakette chirped. "Yeah, we've managed to build a couple of hovercrafts. No impressive weaponry yet, of course, but hey, it's a good start!"

Marina chuckled. "Sounds good. I'll tell Nikola to continue hacking the Capitol's defence ministry and claim more blueprints."

"Oh, by the way, Ragnar's stumbled upon a new top-secret Capitol research facility! It's on the border between Districts Two and Ten, in a pretty rural area with less than ten residents. I hear they're testing new chemicals to make poison!"

Marina shuddered. She'd had a close call with poison a year ago when she'd been served a drink spiked with cyanide in the Capitol during one of her 'sessions'. Lucky for her, the rich businessman's friend had drunk it while she was in the bathroom, and he had died instead. She'd dashed out of there and called her peacekeeper escorts immediately, the businessman running after her with a bloodied knife in hand. It was a wild fiasco, one she couldn't quite wrap her head around, but she was thankful to be alive, if not increasingly wary of poisonings. "Sounds sketchy," she said.

"I know, right? Anyway, any word on Thirteen?" Oakette asked.

"Axel says they're dealing with a supply shortage problem right now. It's pretty tough for them too."

"Yeah, but I still don't trust them. I fancy my chances with Fourteen. We're treated as equals here," Oakette told her.

"We're about to reach the Capitol boundaries," Marina noted, catching sight of the border station between Four and the Capitol in the distance. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Marina. Hope you get another Victor this year. Four's had horrible luck, eh?"

Marina sighed, thinking of her own doomed tribute. It was no use hoping. Draco was hell-bent on enduring Four would never again have a Victor. Her tributes were dead even before they entered the arena.

Gwen stared at the screen, biting her nails as she watched the Ones and Twos volunteer during their Reapings. Reyna plopped down next to her. "How are you feeling?" she asked. Ever since Orchid's victory, Reyna had been volunteering to mentor Nine every single year, until they got their first Victor. Sapphire had decided to mentor the Sixes since no one in One would listen to a constantly crying woman who'd only won because the Gamemakers were attracted to her. Gwen appreciated the help but it was hard to ignore the fact that this woman sitting next to her had been a Career. Well, not really, but she had volunteered. Those volunteers always disgusted her. Yet Reyna was different. She could never understand why she'd volunteered. She seemed far weaker than the average Career and Amaranth once mentioned she was a toymaker who loved kids. Didn't exactly scream 'child murderer'. Still, Reyna seemed troubled whenever she saw a Career volunteer, so Gwen decided not to ask.

"Um, I'm probably going to die?" she answered. It wasn't much of a response, just a probable statement.

Reyna put a hand on her shoulder. "And that's where you're wrong. Orchid said the same thing too, but did she die? Nope. You've got the smartest Victor from Two mentoring you. Relax."

Gwen managed a weak smile. "Thanks."

Just then, the Avoxes brought out lunch. Food. Gwen gulped. Her anorexia started to kick in and she slunk into her seat as Penelope rambled on and on about the latest fashion and all that nonsense. Rye Adler's jaw dropped when he saw the food and practically inhaled it. "Ugh," Penelope muttered. "You district scumbags have no table manners!"

"Us district scumbags are starved to death by you Capitolians," Rye pointed out.

Penelope hissed at him. "Liar! You expect me to believe that? No, you district buffoons have been stealing food from the Capitol since the dawn of time. We've tried to help, but you're a lost cause!" Then she turned to Gwen, who was looking away from all the food that had been dumped onto her plate. "And why aren't you eating?"

Gwen bit her lip. "I, uh, do you mind if I take a couple of sandwiches and eat in my room?"

Penelope rolled her eyes. "See? No table manners! Eating in your room? Gah!"

Rye narrowed his eyes. "Wait, only a couple of sandwiches? I thought you were from the Community Home!"

Gwen flushed and Reyna and Rye exchanged a confused glance while Penelope threw her hands in exasperation. "Eat, you fool!" She grabbed a forkful of beef and slammed it into Gwen's mouth. "Open up and eat, baby!" Gwen could only whimper, shaking her head rapidly.

"Penelope, stop!" Reyna swatted Penelope's hand away, giving her a firm look. She turned and gave Gwen a concerned look. "Gwen, what's wrong, dear?"

Gwen shook her head. She was too embarrassed to speak, especially when all eyes were on her. She pointed to her room and gestured for Reyna to follow. She did and Gwen closed the door. "Anorexia," she said. "Plus heart problems and a crippling stomachache."

Reyna hugged her. It was only then that Gwen realised she was crying. "I-I just want to die and get it over with!"

"You're not going to die," Reyna told her gently. "You'll win and I'll get the best doctors in the Capitol to fix you up."

Gwen shook her head rapidly. "N-no! I can't win against Coin and Bellona!" she exclaimed, the boy from One and the girl from Two's menacing expressions haunting her mind. "The odds aren't in my favour!"

"The odds weren't in Nikola's, Orchid's, Woof's and Hassan's favour either. And yet, they all managed to win," Reyna pointed out. "It's not over until it's over. For now, I'll go back out there and get you those sandwiches, okay?"

Gwen nodded, drying her eyes with her sleeve. Reyna handed her a handkerchief. "Thank you," she whispered. Reyna smiled and Gwen found it even harder to believe she was a Career from Two who loved Ragnar, a fearsome Career Victor. To her, it just didn't quite add up.

Training had been tough for Gwen. She was fairly decent with a knife but nothing compared to the vicious boy from Two, Janus. She spent most of her time at the survival stations, learning to make traps and of course, identify poisonous plants. She didn't want to end up like last year's tributes, after all, perishing after eating the wrong berries from the wrong bushes. As she practised making a simple trap, a girl approached her. "Hello." She looked up. The girl had short auburn hair and a splash of freckles across her face. She was taller than Gwen and slightly more muscular but judging by her nervous expression, not much more confident. Gwen recognised her as Sable, the girl from District Ten. She was sixteen, only a year older than Gwen and she'd seen Sable doing pretty well at the axe-throwing station before miserably failing the survival ones.

"Hi, Sable," she said while tying up her last knot.

Sable smiled uneasily. "I saw you at the survival stations. You're pretty good."

"Well, I saw you chucking axes. You're nearly as good as the Sevens!"

Sable grinned. "Oh, yeah. We have an axe at our ranch. I secretly trained with it in case I got reaped. But that's not why I'm here."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Okay..."

"I want you as an ally."

Gwen seemed stumped for a moment. Why would anyone want her as an ally? She was arguably the weakest tribute, with only the bone-thin pair from Twelve having lower odds than her. Sable, on the other hand, was good with weapons. Could she even trust this girl? "Uh, I need to think about it," was all she could respond.

Sable nodded understandingly. "Sure."

Reyna told her to ally with Sable. "But keep a close eye on her," she warned. "She might be hiding her true brutality." So, the next day, she'd gone over to Sable during lunch to seal the alliance.

Sable seemed delighted. "That's great!" she exclaimed. "You know, I have a feeling one of us could win this!" The way she'd said it, Gwen was almost certain that 'one of us' meant Sable.

When Gwen was first launched into the arena, her chest began to throb. Her arena was a vast wheat field, with a small stream running behind her. With a pang in her heart, she realised just how much it reminded her of home. Of all the kids in the orphanage. Of Amaranth, her best friend, no doubt nervously watching her as she entered the arena for the first time. She glanced around. To her left was the boy from Four, Trident, a sixteen-year-old deckhand with good harpooning skills. To her right was the eighteen-year-old merchant boy from Eleven, Guava. He had hearing problems and had sprained his wrist in training so maybe he wasn't that much of a threat to Gwen. Gwen looked around, scanning the faces of the tributes until, finally, she found Sable, four pedestals to her left. Standing in between were the sobbing thirteen-year-old female engineer-in-training from Five and the sixteen-year-old mute baggage handler boy from Six. Fifteen seconds left. Gwen scanned the supplies. There was a backpack she could snatch rather close to her. She could get it and make a dash for it. Yes, that would be her plan. Get the pack and meet up with Sable someplace very far from the Careers. Five seconds. This was it. The moment of truth. Gwen's heart was still throbbing as the gong rang and she forced herself to push her speed to limit as she ran for the backpack. Shame the girl from Four, Lake, had the same idea. The girls slammed into the ground, writhing and wrestling. Gwen screamed and started kicking furiously, Lake desperately trying to punch in retaliation. It wasn't long before Gwen found herself on top of Lake and punching her desperately. She soon went still and Gwen screamed, realizing what she'd done. The icky blood stuck to her hands like glue, no matter how hard she tried to brush it off against her shirt. "Gwen, run!" Sable shrieked as Bellona caught sight of her. Gwen screamed again as she scooped up the backpack and together with Sable, ran straight into the thick and thin of the wheat fields, Sable slashing a sickle she'd snatched to clear a path. Bellona had long given up on the chase and the pair stopped to rest. By then Gwen was wheezing and gasping for air. Her chest was ever so painful, as if it was on fire. She was hurting both physically and emotionally, Lake's desperate screams still ringing in her head. "Need. Defibrillator," she wheezed out. Sable took out the defibrillator she'd salvaged from the dying body of the boy from Twelve and used it on Gwen. Within minutes she was back on her feet but still looked ever so miserable. "I can't believe I did that," she muttered softly, her voice a mere echo in the wind.

"You'd have to kill them eventually," Sable pointed out. "Don't get too worked up about it."

"Did you-"

"No, but I slashed the girl from Seven's leg when she tried to steal my sickle. I saw that awful One girl Lovely massacre her," Sable said with a shudder. "It's horrible. It was as if I'd killed her myself."

The pair continued walking, following the path of the stream. Gwen had a bottle of iodine with her to purify the water, just in case it was contaminated. The boy from Three would find this out the hard way, as he gulped down the water and ended up with severe food poisoning. It didn't take long for a flock of crow mutts with sword-like talons to find him and carve him up.

"Come on, Gwen, you have to eat!" Sable urged her, shoving a roll of bread into her hands. Gwen could only stare at it. It was the second day and she was famished but for some reason, her mouth refused to open up and eat it. Her stomachaches weren't much better. She was wheezing as she hauled herself through the wheat fields, Sable having to drag her at times. Gwen knew the cameras were watching. The Capitol had probably given up all hope of her making it past the next day by now. "If you want sponsors, you'll have to at least take a bite," Sable sighed. Gwen gritted her teeth and did as she was told. The bread tasted like the ones from the bakeries in Nine. This arena, everything about this year's Games, it reminded her ever so fondly of home. Home. Where Amaranth was waiting. She devoured the bread. She had to if she wanted to see District Nine again.

"How many are still alive?" she asked. She'd been asleep when the anthem was played. Sable was on guard and had seen the fallen tributes. Was Rye alive? Gwen hoped not. She didn't want it to come down to the two of them. She'd be outcasted if she killed her own district partner. Besides, on the final day of training, he'd seemed hostile, for some strange reason. She figured he might not be willing to spare her if they ever crossed paths.

"Nine," Sable replied. "Both from One and Two, the boys from Four, Five and Eight, and us."

Gwen nodded. "We should make some traps. You know, just in case someone comes wandering."

Sable handed her some rope. "You do it. I tried in training and the instructor told me I was the worst trapmaker in the history of the Hunger Games."

Gwen took the rope and got to work. She only stopped when she heard an ear-splitting scream in the distance. The cannon boomed soon after. "Who do you think it was?" she asked Sable.

"Boy from Five," Sable answered quietly, her face darkening. "He was twelve. Too young to die." Gwen worked in silence after that, the screams of both Lake and the boy from Five, Fuse, echoing in her mind as she tied her knots. However, she was again interrupted by the sound of beeping. A sponsor! Sure enough, two parachutes floated towards them with small metal containers attached. "Who do you think it's for?" Sable asked.

"Probably you," Gwen responded, but her eyes widened when she realised both had '9' printed on them. Someone had sponsored her! It seemed like a Christmas miracle and she opened the container eagerly, only to find a tornado-shaped toy and a road sign that said "Left, 10km'. She sighed, letting the items drop to the ground. Was Reyna messing around with her or something? Was she having a laugh?

Sable, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes. "Wait a minute, this is a riddle! Your mentor is Reyna, right?" Gwen nodded. "Remember what she did during Orchid's Games?"

That's when it clicked. Gwen's eyes widened. "Tornado!" she shrieked. Right on cue, a large twister loomed in the distance, swiftly swirling its destructive way towards them. "Run!" Sable didn't need to be told twice. The pair bolted away from the freak storm as fast as they could. Gwen had to stop to use the defibrillator twice, but she was still a fast runner. Tornadoes were common in Nine but this one was so freakishly huge, even bigger than the one that had killed her parents all those years ago. Two cannons boomed. She didn't stop to think about them, especially not when her life was at stake!

"They're pushing us together!" Sable shrieked, pointing to several figures in the distance. Trident was slashing his knives, bolting away from a flock of crow mutts while Janus, Bellona and Coin were screaming as they escaped another large twister. "Get ready, we'll have to fight!"

Gwen gulped. This was it. The final battle. The one in which she would surely die. "I'm sorry, Amaranth," she choked out, holding back tears. "I can't win."

The final six were getting closer. Bellona hurled a knife at Gwen but she dodged just in time. Janus was busy battling Trident, the boys clashing their blades, trying to gain the upper hand and make the kill. Coin fired an arrow at Sable and to Gwen's horror, it struck her foot. She let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony. "Sable!" Gwen yelped. A cannon boomed. Janus or Trident was dead but Gwen only cared for Sable. Sable didn't respond. She was busy burying her axe into Bellona's chest. The cannon boomed. Coin fired another arrow and this time, it killed Sable. Gwen let the tears fall as Sable's cannon boomed. Sable's lifeless eyes stared right into hers, her last gasp frozen in time. Gwen clenched her fists. She didn't deserve to die! This was just wrong! Coin was about to fire his last arrow at Gwen when Trident slammed him to the ground, slashing his stomach and shoulders with his knife before Coin managed to stick the arrow in Trident's chest. Trident's cannon boomed and with a gasp, Gwen realised that she could win. All she had to do was finish Coin, who was within and groaning in pain and weaponless, and she would be the Victor. She could go home. Gwen let out a loud screech as she punched and kicked a slowly dying Coin, until he lay still and the cannon boomed. "That's for killing Sable," she rasped, snarling at him. The trumpets sounded and all fo a sudden, Gwen felt her chest throbbing painfully. "Help," she squeaked before everything turned to a sea of black.

"I hope she survived," Katniss murmured, taking one last glance at Gwendolyn's photo.

Haymitch sighed. "So do I, kid." The phone rang and he went to pick it up.

Peeta flipped the page, revealing a tall girl with auburn hair and cunning grey eyes. Her face was solemn but Katniss noticed that a hint of a smile could be seen on her lips. Shocker stood behind her on the stage, staring at the ground, probably knowing that the districts of Panem hated him for his actions. "Switch Kim."

VICTORS

District 1-Sapphire Huntington(4), Onyx Hibonite(9), Franc Montgomery(14)

District 2-Ragnar Sveinsson(5), Reyna Boudicca(6), Draco Hadley(10), Scipio MacAllister(17)

District 3-Nikola Johnson(13)

District 4-Marina Bluebell(1), Mags Flanagan(11)

District 5-Shocker Crimson(8)

District 7-Hassan Greenwood(2), Jill Wilson(15)

District 8-Woof Casino(16)

District 9-Gwendolyn Whitfield(18)

District 10-Ringo Alvarez(7)

District 11-Orchid Bloom(12)

District 12-Axel Millar(3)

A/N: So that was Gwen's story! An underdog who survived against the odds was always bound to happen and that was Gwen in a nutshell! As usual don't forget to review and tell me what you think. Stay tuned for Switch, District Five's second Victor! Cheers:)