"Non-Stop"


A/N: This was supposed to be 5 povs but instead it's only 2 bc Ainsley's POV turned into 3k words of stupidity. But it's fun stupid so we're leaving it.


~Cause all this emptiness has left me feeling numb

But it's darkest right before the sun~


May Redding

The headphones are waiting for me in my room. They're laid out neatly on my dresser, a scrawled note in familiarly messing handwriting sticking beside it.

Don't stop listening to the music.

I almost forgot about them. When I tried to take them as my token they were taken away for inspection and it wasn't until my private session that I realized it was missing. I clip the Walkman to my belt and put the headphones over my ears as I throw myself onto my bed.

A click of a button and music fills my ears as my head sinks into the pillow, my eyes stuck on the rotating blades of the fan blowing cool air onto my face. It's the first time in days that things seem to slow down.

And that slowness brings about thinking. The music isn't loud enough to block out my thoughts, as much as I wish it was. The past few days have felt surreal. I've bounced from place to place, everything speeding by me so quickly it's like nothing's happened at all.

Now, tomorrow morning I'll be headed into the arena. I hate the way that thought runs a shudder down my body. Hate the way that every morning I wake up feeling less and less sure of myself. Less sure that I made the right choice, that I'm as strong as I thought I was, that I'm really going to win.

A squeezing tightness comes from my chest and I suck in a deep breath, pounding my fists against my head as if to force out the thought. Stop. No thinking like that. I'm going to win. I'm going to win. I'm going to win.

The music pumping through my ears is all melancholy and sorrow and every other line talks about death so I rip it off my ears and toss it to the floor. For a moment the only sound in the air is my ragged breath, in and out as I grip tightly to my ears, afraid to let go.

And it passes.

I lay in my bed for a while longer after that, my hands slowly recalled to my sides as I keep on staring at the ceiling fan, watching it spin, trying to figure out what just happened. It was like the world was closing in all around me, this awful, visceral feeling taking grip of me and refusing to let go.

Even thinking about it makes those feelings start to creep back and so I push it away. It's nothing worth focusing on. The interviews are all done by now and Gal and Melody and the rest will be headed off to their Gala pretty soon. It's still lame that they canceled the party this year. Gal says it's for the best, but I have a hard time believing that. I could use some karaoke and dancing right now.

Either way, this might be my last chance to say goodbye to everybody. There's no telling how late their Gala goes, and while I should get to see them tomorrow morning that's never a guarantee. It could be like Glory's games, where they went to sleep and woke up in the arena the next morning.

I head out to the living room and it's so loud out there I'm surprised I couldn't hear it from my room. Pierre and Ariya are loudly laughing at some Capitol television show that's blasted at maximum volume. Melody is hurriedly giving directions to Glory as the two rush to get prepared, while Prestige and Gal are standing by the door arguing about something.

I cough and knock on the wall, which is at least enough to get Gal and Prestige to switch their attention to me. Gal takes a half-step toward me then sighs and turns around, muttering something to Prestige before he rushes over to help Glory and Melody.

Prestige gives me an awkward half-wave and I return the gesture, slowly sliding over to her at the door. She's all dressed up for what seems like the first time ever in her life, her usual t-shirt and jeans swapped out for a tight-cut dress colored a bright purple.

"Hey," I say awkwardly, sticking my hands in my pockets as I plop myself against the wall.

"Hey," she says with equal awkwardness, passively fidgeting with the straps on her shoulder.

"You look like a grape," I say.

She nods her head, the silence continuing to hang in the air for a long few moments before we both break into laughter. "Yeah," she says, smoothing out the fabric as she looks herself over. "Well, Gal thinks it'll be a hit with the sponsors, so."

I wince. "Ouch, sorry." It isn't hard to fill in the gaps there.

She shrugs. "I've had to wear worse outfits. You should see what they tried to get me to wear for our team presser announcing my signing with the Sabres."

"At least you're not a mentor for District Seven," I say. "They'd probably stick you in a tree."

"Yeah," she says, a short, cut-off laugh escaping from her. Then it's quiet again, a thin slice of silence in the loudness of this room.

"The day before the Games," I say suddenly, my voice quiet as my eyes dart over to ensure Ariya and Pierre aren't eavesdropping. They don't even seem to notice I'm in the room. "How did you feel?"

She scratches the back of her neck. "I think my situation was a bit different than yours," she says. "I'm sure Gal would have a better answer for that."

"I don't want to ask Gal," I say immediately, a bit louder than I intended. Luckily nobody seems to pay it any mind. "And, you can't go telling him about us talking about this. He'll misunderstand it. Turn it into this big thing that it isn't and try to turn it into this long talk and lesson and–"

"I get it," she says.

"Sorry." I sigh. "I just– I know it was different for you, but still."

"Well," she says, blowing a raspberry as her eyes go to the ceiling. "The party was a nice distraction, or at least I thought it was. Then the party was over and all that loud music and the fun and games went away and I realized I'd spent the last few hours running from what was happening. And all that fear that I'd been trying to escape from all cut up all at once. I was terrified, I was angry, I was confused and upset. It felt like there was this clock ticking and my time was about to run out, and I could hear each and every second ticking by."

"And what about Hailey?" I ask.

She looks at me oddly, seeming to snap out of whatever place she was in her mind and refocusing on me. "Hailey?"

"Your district partner, the girl that chose you," I say.

She pauses at that for a long moment, her eyes unscrewing out of focus. "Hailey was, well. . ." she shakes her head. "You'd have to ask Gal about that, honestly, it's not something I could tell you much about. I was trying pretty hard to avoid her those last few days. But, if you did ask Gal, I'm sure he'd tell you that she didn't feel all that different than I did." She looks me in the eye and pats me on the shoulder, accompanied by an awkward half-smile. "Being a Career doesn't mean you stop feeling things."

"It does for them," I mutter under my breath, regretting the words as soon as they leave my lips.

Her smile grows and she almost laughs. "Yeah, well, no offense May, but telling how other people are feeling was never your strong suit." She glances to her right and I follow her gaze to find Gal, Melody, and Glory all headed towards us. "Me and you have that in common," she says quietly, giving me another pat on the shoulder.

I smile at that, and mouth her a thanks as Gal stomps up beside us, a suspicious look crossing his features as he swaps his gaze between the two of us. He shrugs it off after a moment, though, raising his voice as he looks over at Ariya and Pierre. "Alright, us four are headed out. Try not to raise any hell while we're gone. No telling when we get back, so don't wait for us. Get some good shut-eye, you'll need it for tomorrow."

Pierre and Ariya give mock salutes before returning to their show and Gal turns to me expectantly. His eyes seem to expect some sort of defiance or argument, another drawn out and long fight over something stupid and pointless. Just the fact that he's expecting that from me almost has me wanting to prove him right, but I stop myself short.

Instead I wrap him up in a hug, surprising him as he takes a sudden step backward. I let go before he gets the chance to react and then give a few quick waves to Glory and Melody. "Have fun. I'll see you all again tomorrow morning, 'kay?"

"Of course you will," Glory says.

"Yeah," Gal says, his voice undecipherable as he stares right through me. "See you tomorrow morning, May.

They head out with that, Prestige bringing up the rear and giving me a thumbs up and quirking a fraction of a smile as she squeezes out. As soon as the door is shut behind them a smile breaks onto my lips as I skip over to behind the couch Ariya and Pierre are camped out at.

I throw my hands on the cushions, leaning in so that I'm in between the two of them and glancing from one to the other. "So, we're in agreement that having no party totally sucks, right?" I ask deviously.

"I was really looking forward to the open-mic, I was gonna do some stand-up," Ariya says glumly in a tone that could just as likely be joking or serious.

"Well then," I say, pushing back with a dramatic flair. "What do you say we call up our friends in District Two and Four? We've got a few hours of no mentors and escorts, what's stopping us from making our own party?"

Ainsley Maris Sims

I thought they were joking at first.

Arno was in the living room, in a sour sort of mood and rereading a crumpled up note over and over again. Dewey said it was news from back home and to leave him alone. Then he and Jensen left and it might as well have just been me on the District Four floor.

A quick shower, a change into some more comfortable clothes, and I was ready to go to sleep. It would've been the smart thing. Tomorrow is the day that I've been spending my whole life preparing for, being anything less than my absolute best would be idiotic.

Which should've been my first hint that District One would have some other ideas. The phone rang off the hook for a good few minutes with both Arno and I ignoring it, but when they started knocking on the door, that was harder to ignore.

Now it's ten minutes later and I'm sitting on a couch at the District One floor watching my allies be complete idiots. Arno seems to have forgotten about whatever it was in the note that had him feeling down, he's laughing just as loud as the rest of them as they all go around in a circle playing some game I don't care enough to pay attention to.

I just wish I was in bed. But something about the idea of skipping out on a "party" with the rest of the Career pack felt unsettling. I don't think that any of them would be stupid enough to try to break apart the pack before the Games even begin, but District One isn't to be underestimated.

Even Everly showed up, even though she seems to be here for mostly the same reasons as me. She's at least sitting in the circle with all the rest of them, but I'm not sure if she's said a single word the whole time, just passively watching the rest of them as they go around.

May and Ariya are in the middle of a heated argument over something stupid, shouting over each other as Arno laughs and tries to calm them down. I'm just about ready to take my chances and leave when Pierre lets out a loud whoop from the kitchen.

We all turn over just in time to see him dancing through the doorway, hands behind his back and a shit-eating grin on his lips. "It's time," he says in a booming, dramatic voice. "To turn this into an actual party!"

He holds out his arms to reveal two tall bottles of alcohol and I just about choke on my tongue while Ariya and May echo his cheer. He slams the bottles down on the table and I slide out of my seat, walking over for a better look.

"Pierre, you're my hero," May says, clasping her hands together.

"Of course I am," he says, punching her on the shoulder. "And you can be mine by taking the blame when your dad notices his stash is missing tomorrow morning."

"Done and done," she says in a sing-song voice, reaching for the bottle.

Pierre slaps her hand away. "Not a chance. Ainsley, huddle up! Career team building exercise, mandatory attendance."

I raise an eyebrow as I close in on the circle, sliding in between Everly and Pierre. "What even is that, grain liquor? Is the team building exercise death?"

"Pfft, 'course not," Ariya says, reaching across the table to swat my hands. "That's tomorrow."

Pierre opens up the taller of the bottles and takes a sniff, then shrugs. "Just vodka. May, you're the expert, how classy is your dad's drinking taste?"

May rolls her eyes and rolls out of her seat, snagging a glass from the table and sliding it over to Pierre. "Only one way to find out."

Arno coughs awkwardly into his fist. "Any of the usual voices of reason going to help explain why this is the worst idea in the history of ideas?"

I look over to Everly, expecting her to speak up, but to my surprise she shrugs, leans in, and grabs the first glass as Pierre pours it. "At least one of us is probably gonna die tomorrow."

"Yes," Arno says. "And might being hungover increase the chance that it's you?"

"If you can't handle it, don't have any," she says quietly.

Pierre bursts into laughter at that, Ariya quickly follows, and even I crack a hint of a smile. The rest of the glasses are poured in rapid succession and Pierre dolls them out without further questioning.

"Let's call it that then," Pierre says. "Mandatory bonding shots, for everybody here who can handle one single drink without vomiting."

I snort. "So then, who's telling May she has to go wait in her room until the grown-ups are done?"

May bristles, rolling her eyes while the rest of the circle breaks into laughter. She snatches a glass and holds it in the air. "Half my victory earnings say I can outdrink you."

"What victory earnings," I mutter.

"Ooh," Ariya coos, clapping her hands together. "Is this how we settle your rivalry? You go head-to-head and then end up tying in the end and like, start to mutually respect each other and become besties at the end of the day?"

Everly reaches for the bottle and pours another shot into her empty glass. "You all talk too much," she says.

Pierre laughs at that and clinks her glass, then holds his in the air, motioning for the rest of us to do the same. Ethan scrambles to reach up from his spot on the floor. I roll my eyes as I put my glass in the middle, let it clink against a few other glasses, and reluctantly throw the liquor down the hatch.

It burns going down my throat and I can't stop myself from coughing, immediately reaching for water to rinse the rancid taste out of my mouth. Arno scrunches up his nose, Ethan sticks out his tongue and brushes it with his sleeve, and Pierre subtly mouths a "blegh."

Ariya and May are both laughing, Everly cracking a hint of a smile as she leans back into her seat. Pierre recollects himself and joins in laughing, looking around the circle in curiosity. "Do you not have booze in District Four?" He laughs. "You all look like that's your first drink."

"Like you looked any different." The words spill from my mouth without the normal inhibition that would have kept them in my head, like a gate in my mind was left swinging wide open.

Things are quiet for a moment, and I half expect Pierre to snap in rage, squeeze the glass with his bare hands and leap across the table at me using shards as daggers. Then Everly snorts, Ariya chortles, and Pierre cracks a wide grin.

"It isn't my fault, what kind of vodka is that?" He demands dramatically. "Was that a peach after-taste?"

"No, no," May says, laughing. "You can't dodge out of that one, we all saw you Achilles." She grabs at her throat, gasping for air dramatically as she drops to her knees, a hand held faintly over her forehead. "Please," she says mockingly, "somebody help me! It's my only weakness. Peach Vodka!"

Pierre scoffs and waves her off. Ariya suddenly claps her hands together, a devious grin working its way across her lips. "Ooh, wait, now that we're all loosey goosey and actually deciding it's okay to have fun for the first time in our lives. We should play some games."

"Games?" Arno asks, tilting his head. "Like hide and seek?"

Ariya's smile drops for a second and she tilts her head in return. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that."

May snorts. "I'm not," she murmurs.

"I mean," Ariya continues, grabbing the two bottles and shaking them in the air. "Drinking games? I mean, if we're gonna finally do some mandatory Career team building we might as well get to know each other a little bit, right?"

"Ooh, can we play Paranoia?" May says excitedly. "I mean, we already all kind of hate each other, so this is like the perfect game."

I look back at Everly, still expecting to see some sort of passive judgment in her expression, some sort of support in the stupidity of all of this going on, but get nothing. She even goes as far as to nod her head and shrug. "Sure, why not," she says.

I shake my head in disbelief, but don't go any further. Maybe as stupid as this whole thing is, it'll somehow turn out for the best. If there's one thing that all seven of us can agree on, it's that the only way a Career isn't walking out of the arena as the victor is if we turn on each other. If this can help glue us together just enough so that I don't have to worry about waking up to a slit throat? Sure then, I can stomach a few drinks and a couple rounds of whatever stupid kind of a game May Redding finds fun.

By the time I come to that internal consensus everyone else has echoed their agreement in playing, and so when May looks over to me expectantly I just sigh and nod my head. "Sure, I'm not gonna be the one fighting Azai tomorrow morning though."

"I got top training score, respecteth the rule of dibs," Pierre says eloquently, moments after a second shot passes through his lips. "Azai is mine."

"I'll take anybody but music-boy," May chirps. "His guitar playing was too beautiful, I'd feel bad."

"We can draw lots or something later," Ariya says. "C'mon, explain the rules so we can play before the downers sober up from those shots and go to sleep."

"Sure," May says. "It's simple. We take turns going around in a circle. When it's your turn, you whisper a question into somebody's ear so that only they hear the question. Like, who's the smartest, most beautiful, talented person in this room, and then that person answers the question out loud for everybody to hear. So when somebody answers May Redding out loud, you have to take a shot if you want to find out what the question was."

"I think I'll be able to resist the curiosity," I say drolly.

May smiles pleasantly and shrugs. "We'll see. Me first!" She turns to her side and smiles widely at Arno. "Big time question for you." She leans in and whispers in his ear.

His eyes widen and he looks at her dumbfoundedly. "That's horrible! I can't answer that, that's so mean."

May giggles. "Duh, that's the point?"

Arno still looks unsure, so Pierre slaps the table. "Come on, answer it. We're Careers, you all volunteered to die in the arena. You can handle some hurt feelings."

"Oh, we all volunteered to die, huh?" Everly says sarcastically, her hands on the bottle as she fills another glass. Pierre shrugs and slides over his glass, Everly pouring it tall for him before nudging it back.

Arno is still unconvinced, chin resting on his fist as he goes deep in thought. The side conversations carry on a bit longer, splintering off as everybody gets isolated in their own little world. I catch bits and pieces of each of them, Pierre and Everly exchanging training regiments, diets, and workout routines, May and Ariya trading increasingly stupid and unbelievable stories of their pranks and exploits. Ethan gets up and turns on some music that he begins to hum along to and I toss in a word or two every once in a while when Pierre and Everly's conversations shift to familiar territories.

The music cuts out for a moment as a song dies down, and Arno suddenly lets out a heavy sigh. He shakes his head and mutters something to himself. "Nobody take this in the wrong way, I wouldn't really answer any of you for any of these options if I had the choice. I mean, I think you're all really grea–"

"Shut up and answer," May says, kicking him below the glass table.

Arno scratches the back of his neck, then tentatively says, "Ethan, Ariya, Ainsley."

It's silent confusion for a moment, the only sound in the room May's barely contained laughter as she rolls back in her chair. "Seriously?" May asks. "That order?"

"I'm not even gonna pretend to try to resist," Ariya says, quickly downing a shot. "Question. Ear. Now."

May quickly whispers the question to her, and Ariya crunches up her nose while Arno buries his head in his hands, slinking into his beanbag chair. May finishes whispering and Ariya snorts. "Yeah, you wish, Four."

Ethan follows suit, his reaction going from smiley excitement and anticipation to immediate disappointment as his smile dissipates the moment May whispers in his ear. He looks over at Arno and looks ready to say something, but keeps his mouth shut. When he falls back into his seat, his chair is pulled a little further out of the table.

"And then there was one," Pierre says, shaking the bottle of vodka at me. "We all know you're dying to know, come on now."

I bite my lips, reach out to the bottle, but then reach back, shaking my head. I couldn't care less what Arno says about me. Definitely not in response to a question from May. Nope. Not one bit.

The guilty look Arno shoots me every time our eyes accidentally cross paths doesn't make that an easy decision to live with, but everybody seems to move on quick enough, Ariya stealing the attention as she slides over to Pierre with a goofy grin and a question in his ear.

Pierre's grin widens as Ariya animatedly explains the question to him. By the time she's finished he looks every bit as pleased with himself as he did announcing the death penalty on any outliers who touch a weapon. He claps his hands and rubs them together, looking around the room.

"Objectively speaking?" He says. "Me, obviously, then Everly, Ariya, May, Arno, Ainsley, Ethan."

Ariya looks at him like he's crazy, then shakes her head. "Can all of you drink for that?" She begs. "Please? Because we really need to discuss this as a group."

Everyone else is quick to grab a drink, except for Ethan, though he offers no resistance when Ariya shoves one in his hand. She tries to do the same to me but I immediately set it back down on the table and shake my head.

"I'm good," I say. "I'll survive not knowing."

"What's wrong?" May asks in an overly sweet voice. "Scared to hear what he put me above you in? It could be so many things. Personality, humor, skill, popularity–"

"Ego size?" I finish for her. I roll my eyes and snatch the drink, downing it before she's able to reply. "Go ahead then, what was it?"

Ariya shakes her head disappointedly. "Rate the room least to most ugly. Such an easy question. And you butchered it completely."

May immediately starts cackling, and it takes a moment for the cogs in my brain to start turning. The part of me that said I was going to not care about the question regardless of what it was is washed away, by the liquor or by May's laugh or maybe by both. I turn to Pierre and raise my eyebrows at him.

"Oh, don't worry," Ariya says, patting me on the shoulder empathetically. "He put Arno above you, turns out he doesn't have brains or eyes."

Everly shrugs. "It wasn't that bad of a list," she says, and I have to do a double take when I see another full glass in her hands.

"How many of those have you had?" I whisper to her, in a voice that ends up not being remotely the volume I intended.

Everly shrugs, a lilt in her voice as she replies happily, "Not too many."

Ariya jiggles the bottle. "It's been almost an hour and it isn't even half empty, so however much it is, it isn't enough."

"An hour?" I exclaim. "It's been like ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes?" Pierre questions.

Everly laughs. "How many of those have you had?"

I turn to Arno and then Ethan, hoping for support from a cooler, more sober ally, but find it in neither place, Arno looking away and Ethan still looking down at his lap in self-imposed sadness.

A glance at the clock shows 8:47, a full thirty plus minutes since Pierre entered the room with bottles in hand. I shake my head exasperatedly. "We've only done two questions of this stupid game!"

"Because Arno took ten decades to answer," Ariya whines. "I thought that the plates were gonna be lifted by the time we got a response."

"I'm sorry," May says, holding a hand up. "Can we not get off topic and go back to Pierre putting himself at number one on his list?"

"They don't call me Achilles for nothing," Pierre says satisfactorily, leaning back into his chair.

May looks at him dumbfoundedly. "They don't call you Achilles for your looks, either!"

"Pride cometh," Pierre says, sighing as he closes his eyes.

"I– you–" May chokes on her words, looking around exasperatedly for assistance that nobody is willing to offer. Eventually she just shakes her head. "It's not too late for me to tell Prestige to cancel all your sponsors."

Ariya pinches May on the cheeks. "You're so cute when you pretend to be angry."

May looks entirely unamused at that, which is enough to unleash a pent up wave of laughter in me that I didn't know I had stored. Pierre joins in, then Everly and Ariya and even Arno and Ethan, May looking around helplessly at the group of us the whole time. Eventually though, she joins in laughing too, and for just a single moment I forget that every one of these people are my enemy.

They aren't my opponents, obstacles in the way of my victory. They aren't slack-offs, or daddy's girls, or egotistical asses, or pushovers, or psychopaths. They aren't my friends. It isn't anything so strong as that. But they're real, more than just side-characters, blocking me from what I've already earned. They're people, the current chapters of their own stories still being told.

Then the laughter dies down, the moment passes, and it's like nothing ever even happened.


A/N: I'm a degenerate for that but there you go, of course I had to have a party in TTS, even if it was an incredibly budget version. Next chapter will finish off the rest of what was supposed to be in this chapter as we finish off the night before with Vesta, Kyler, and Prestige. Cy'all then.