Flynnigan rides with me and Trapper down to training, which is held in the basement of the Training Center. The elevator ride is smooth and quick, mostly uneventful besides the nervous way that Trapper taps his foot. I only give it a curious look but Flynnigan either does not notice it or is pretending not to. I bite my lip the further we go down. I suppose I should be more nervous, but all I can feel is a rising sense of humiliation as I realize I will be seen by fellow Tributes by Flynnigan in his sold gold suit and rhinestone top hat.
The elevator opens with a ding, and I am relieved to see that many of our fellow Tributes are not here. The Careers are here, of course, mingling together with quiet voices as they look out at the rest of us. I see District 5 in the corner, sitting together on a bench. District Eleven is at the very edge of the room, putting on a not quite believable façade of calm.
Flynnigan claps in excitement as he ushers us into the room. The other Tributes give Flynnigan a curious glance before looking away. I manage to catch the eyes of the District Four girl as she turns away from us, and we stare for a moment, before she sends a sneer that sends a shiver down my spine and I look away.
"Now," Flynnigan says, putting a hand on both of our shoulders, "remember what Blight told you, and have a fantastic day!" And then he steps back in the elevator and we are completely alone with the other Tributes.
I start to move towards a bench opposite District Five, and I motion for Trapper to follow. He smiles at me gratefully and falls into step with me. I cannot decide if I like Trapper or not, something in him seems so innocent and fearful, and it almost reminds me of Jonathon, but then I remember how quick he was to separate himself from me on the train and I feel pinpricks of anger all over again.
Regardless, I do not see the harm in letting him sit with me. Everyone else is pairing off by district, and I don't want to single Trapper out too much.
The minutes leading to eight passes by sluggishly, and the rest of the districts arrive. Most are accompanied by their escorts, but a few arrive alone. I had wanted to arrive without Flynnigan myself, but Trapper had wanted him to come, "just in case". When I asked just in case of what, he looked away, but I did not push it further.
The Gamemakers watch us as we wait from their balcony above us. They would be here all three of the days, to watch us and learn how best to kill us based on our strengths and weaknesses. The arena was completed years in advance, so there would be no major changes, but if a tribute happens to have an affinity for knives, they just might put a few extra in the Cornucopia.
The last to arrive is District Twelve, and the two children are escorted by a bubbly woman with neon blue hair. The three of them talk back and before for a few moments, and then the woman is leaving, and the two children share terrified looks as they scan over all of us.
My heart lurches. It is always sad when twelve-years-old are reaped. They are almost always cannon fodder – only a few twelve-year-olds have made the top eight in the whole history of the Games, and that is the highest they have gotten. A morbid part of me wonders if it will be me that will have to kill them. I hope not.
I am distracted by my thoughts by a woman calling us to order in the center of the room and telling us to stand together to hear better. The woman explains in a no-nonsense tone that we are under no circumstances to fight with each other, but we are allowed to speak to those outside our district. There are stations for all means of fighting and survival. She gravely warns us to be sure to visit as many of both as possible.
"Nature will be more enemy more than each other," she intones grimly. She dismisses to train, and I look over at where the aiming station as an ax. I consider going over there just for practice, but Blight had warned me against it before we left.
"You're too good at it," Blight had said. "They see you throwing like a pro? You'll become threat number one."
I shake my head and the District Two tributes take over the station, beginning to throw knives at an impressive speed. I look down at Trapper next to me and he is looking out at the myriad of stations. I wonder what Blight told him to do.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the knot tying station is empty. I suppose it will do me some good to know that.
"I'm going to knots," I say, "Are you coming with me?"
Trapper turns to me, furrows his brow like he's considering it, and then he shakes his head. I do not question it, only giving him a shrug as a lackluster goodbye before turning on my heel. Trapper kept going back and forth on if he wished to be around me, but I had other more pressing concerns.
I settle myself in at the knot-tying station, and I spend about half the morning there. The instructor is patient with me for the most part. I was not a novice to knot-tying, but I was nowhere near the level of a District Four tribute. By the end of my session with the trainer, I'm able to tie two new types of knots and can make a snare for the game.
I decided to try my hand at the fauna station. As a citizen of District Seven, I spent so much time in a forest that I knew which leaves and vines to avoid, but I figure I better stop by at least. And there was no guarantee that the arena would even be a forest; I remember a few years ago when they were thrown into a jungle. Half of the tributes died by picking the wrong thing to eat.
The trainer is not alone when I arrive, and I see that the two District Twelve kids are listening intently as the trainer lists off what to avoid. They give me a scarce nod as an acknowledgment, and I settle next to the other two.
"If you're in the desert, it's tempting to use the cactus as a water substitute," they said, "but the acid will ruin your stomach, and you'll dehydrate even faster. If you're in a jungle, however, a coconut might…"
The trainer goes on for what feels like forever, and while I try to absorb all I can, I am almost taken in by how attentive the Twelves are. They hardly blink or breathe too deeply, too scared they might miss something, which I can not really fault them for.
The trainer is almost finished when they dismiss for lunch, which is held in a room just off to the side. I stay close to the Twelves, unsure if I should seek out Trapper, but unwilling to appear to be alone. I did not want to be singled out, not yet.
I catch Trapper's eye as he takes his food from the buffet lined up against the wall, and I see he has deposited himself with a skinny, dark-skinned boy from 11 and the red-haired girl from 3. I decide to leave him be. If he wanted to make alliances with his lonesome, so be it.
I file in behind the Twelves, who are now noticing that I followed them, and are sharing terribly concealed significant looks as they grab plates. I roll my eyes.
"I don't bite, you know," I say, dumping a thick scoop of mashed potatoes on my plate. The boy laughs once, softly, and that seemed to set them just a little bit more at ease.
"D-do you want to eat with us?" the boy asks. I think for a moment. If I pair off with the Twelves now, they will see us as trying to form an alliance, and I consider if I really want the Twelves as my allies. They seemed to have no particular skills that would be helpful; both were small, skinny, and scared witless. But then again, I was pretending to be useless myself. The Twelves might surprise me.
I give a shrug as an answer and the two smiled. We sit just a bit off from the others, and the Twelves seem to take this as an invitation to begin talking with me. I learn that they're named Clyde and Daisy, and that Clyde is the youngest of three, while Daisy is an only child. They're sure to clarify to me they're not related; it seems much like District Seven, some traits were so common that they pop up in almost everyone. For us, its eyes and hair the same shade as the bark of our trees, for them, it is olive skin and coal-black hair. Both their families work in the mines, except for Daisy's mom, who mends clothes.
In turn, I tell them about Jonathon and Paw Paw. I tell them how Jonathon used to come with me to hunt for odd jobs around the District, but our Paw Paw started to need us more when his health took a nosedive last winter. So aside from shifts in the lumber yard and school, Jonathon spends nearly all his time at home.
By the time we are called back into training, I'm almost certain I like the Twelves. They have this sweetness about them, that despite their fears and anxiety managed to shine through. The three of us continue together to the camouflage station, but before we can reach it, we are interrupted by the District Four girl falling into step with us.
"Hello Seven, Twelves," she says. I am unsure what I expected this ferocious seeming girl to sound like, but I do not expect the high-pitched squeak that comes from her.
The Twelves look away from her and begin to hurry their stop to the station head of us, but I stop, giving my best imitation of a polite smile. Jonathon always told me I did not really have one, so I make do pretending.
"Four," I say, nodding. She twists a strand of her sun-bleached hair around her finger, which is pulled into such a high and tight ponytail I wonder if it hurts.
"Just wanted to meet the competition," she says as if this was a race instead of a deathmatch. She smiles a pearly smile, and I notice her front tooth is chipped just a little. "Call me Marlin."
The fact that this girl is named after the first Victor, District Four's Aada Marlin, does not quell my uneasiness. Aada Marlin was held to near diety-level regard in Panem, when she died there was a four-day long funeral and memorial broadcast. Many tributes from Four have been named for her, and though none of them won, they were all the deadliest before they died. I expect this girl will be no different.
'I'm….Johanna," I say. She looks me over once, twice, and then she folds her hands in front of her primly.
"I look forward to a good, clean game," she says, and then she scrunched her nose and then turned to go back to the Career pack waiting by the archery station. I hesitate for a moment and then turn towards my previous destination.
As I join the Twelves again, I quietly think to myself that something tells me Marlin was not going to be playing a clean game.
Clyde smiles at me as he begins mixing some green substance out of grass, mud, and water. Daisy watches him warily, biting her lip nervously. The trainer seems to have left them to their own devices, as she was helping the District Five pair with something they seemed to have started this morning.
The three of us continue with this gunk that Clyde concocted, and after almost an hour it's almost the same shade as tree leaves. Daisy does not look pleased with the results, and I agree with her. This was certain to not fool anyone and spending so much time here when we could be doing something else when it was clear this was never going to be our forte.
I turn my head, and I see that Trapper is currently still with the girl from Three at the edible plant station, but the boy from 11 was gone. Trapper leans closer to her and seems to whisper something, and she laughs. I narrow my eyes at him. Something seems too friendly about Trapper's smile. I make a note of it and turn back to the Twelves, a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I heard another laugh, and all three of us turned to see the entire Career pack now having their eyes trained on us from the archery station. My stomach churns. It seems, despite only training for a day, battle lines were already being drawn.
Hey, y'all! It's been a bit longer since an update, but I've just started school back while under quarantine, so I've been a little overwhelmed trying to learn and also communicate with my professors. But!
This chapter is the last one before we get to the real meat of the story and all these pre-Game politics are played out. I love y'all and can't wait till next time!
Chapter Bible Verse:
"Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth." - 1 John 3:18
Review replies!
Radio Free Death: Thank you so much for leaving such an in-depth review; it makes me happy to see people having any kind of interest in my story. To address a few of your criticisms, I assumed that Johanna would know certain things about other Districts like how Katniss knew minuscule things - District 1 had a machine that turned graphite into diamonds, and that kids in District 7 start work particularly early. As for Johanna being the main provider, I had not realized how much of an imbalance there was in-text for what the twins did, as I intended for Johanna being the leader but Jonathon still being a provider. I hope what I'm adding in the coming chapters helps alleviate this, and I will be going back to see what I can change in Chapter 1. And Jonathon and Johanna in this fic are loosely based on my own twin relationship, so that's why Jonathon has such a disrespectful tone but settles down after being talked to. It's because it is her specifically - he does not enjoy being bossed around by her even if she's right. And the migraine medicine is something that Johanna specifically does for him, because even if it allievates his pain for a little bit it's worth it to her. And he can cut his own hair, he does, but Johanna likes to care for Jonathon - he's her person. And later chapters will go into Jonathon returning the favor. Jonathon self-medicating is a no-go for me, as a writer, because alcoholism and self-medication with drugs is something that has had a profound impact on my family, so I choose not to write them. I do thank you for your review - the constructive criticism you left has made me rethink some of what is to come later, and I will go back and see what I can do to make my intentions as a writer come across in the actual text. I hope you're having a blessed day, and thanks again!
Questions, comments, or concerns, let me know! Hav e a blessed day!
-PrincessChess