Angus Jenkins- District Ten male
The sponsors started lining up before I even got into the Arena. I felt bad, because Cornflower had to deal with mobs of people trying to send money for "the little cutie from Ten with the wife". We weren't even married yet. Theresa and I were just engaged. We were fourteen years old. It was all just formalities and promises at this point. But Fluvius said it was just a little white lie and it didn't hurt anyone.
My first sponsor gift came right after the Bloodbath. I hadn't grabbed anything, and I thought I was about to spend a lot of time wet and cold. Someone in the Capitol took care of that. They sent me a camouflage tarp with stakes and ropes to make a little shelter. With the tarp, there was a note about how my love was so romantic and an inspiration to everyone.
I'm fourteen. I hope I'm not inspiring people to love, I thought, but I took the tarp.
The fourth day in the Arena, there was a huge storm. Ten people were swept into the water and drowned. I was swept in, too, but I had the life jacket someone sent me. I could only wonder about how much money or influence they had to have to know about the storm ahead of time. Let me keep your love afloat, the note read.
Nothing I did mattered, and I felt guilty more than relieved. When I heard the screams so close behind me, I knew it was someone who'd been hunting the wrong Tribute. I heard the cat snarling and spitting, and then I heard the cannon. Farlan was the only face that night. Someone saw him coming after me, and they came after him.
Parachutes littered the sky like a Capitol firebombing. Everywhere I went, notes and tokens followed. A bundle of roses reading For your lady. A bow and arrows I didn't even know how to use from "Cupid". A blanket Until you feel her arms again. It wasn't just me trying to keep me alive. All of Panem had united behind the separated lovers. I got the feeling the entire Games was a farce at this point. If I didn't win, the people would be furious. They might even try something, and that was exactly what the Games were meant to prevent. Better to let the people have their Victor and let them think they've made a difference. I certainly wasn't going to make any trouble.
The only problem was getting me to actually win. Sponsor gifts could put off my death, but to win, I needed to be active. I had to fight sometime, and they couldn't win it for me.
They found a way. On the third week, there was another storm. It rained and rained, until the water was swallowing up my island. Just as the land started to disappear from under me, the biggest sponsor gift I'd ever seen floated down on a human-sized parachute. Nobody could have afforded to send a rowboat. This one came straight from the Gamemakers.
Even I couldn't mess this up. All around me was nothing but water. I couldn't even see any of the other Tributes. There were only three of us left by then. Eleanor ran out of energy and drowned on the second day after the flood, or at least that was what I assumed. That night, I heard Pray screaming in frustration as she vainly tried to find me in all the water. She should have stumbled across me eventually, but the wind was somehow always against her. It took another day for that last cannon to sound. I didn't feel like a Victor at all. I felt like a cheater.
Whatever misgivings me and Theresa might have had were gone. Our wedding was attended by a thousand of Panem's greatest, and the party lasted nearly a week. We were swamped with presents and well-wishes, so much that Theresa's wealth looked like nothing. After months of interviews, parties, meetings, and train rides, I finally got to go home. Then I finally got to spend some actual time with my fourteen-year-old wife. In two years I'd be able to drive the car someone bought us. And in seven, I could drink our wedding champagne.