I don't do regular training/private sessions.
I know this story has taken a bit of an unconventional approach
And I haven't forgotten a lot of what you probably think I have, and it will be tied back into the story.
However, I have seven tributes left to do a POV after this chapter, and interviews are next, so I figured you'd like to see more of those than these. So just sit back and hopefully enjoy the ride.
Thank you for reading this.
All I know is that yesterday
Everything has changed
Whitney Kaull, 14
District 8 Female
"Alexandrite Renaldi!"
Private sessions are one of the most stressful things I've ever encountered. The actions that take place in the next fifteen minutes can be the difference between life or death in the arena. No pressure or anything.
"You look a little intense." says a male voice from next to me. Ishmael is the first to see the boy from 5 talking to us. "Maybe you should breathe a little easier? Your stress is making me stressed, and that's not good for my face."
"Sorry?" says Ishmael looking at me a bit confused. "I mean, I know that I don't really think I should apologize for being nervous? But I'm sorry…?"
"Oh my gosh, you're worse than Rico with this question thing!" says the boy from 5 as he throws his hands up in the air. "Listen, I have a proposition for you two, one that will make the games significantly easier for you in every way until I decide it's time to end it."
"You want an alliance," I say to him looking sure of myself.
"You totally stole my thunder," he says a little annoyed. "But yes, an alliance is being placed on the table. You see, I have the boy from District 10 on my side, as well as a sure-fire plan to take all of the careers out. You just need to trust me and let's move forward. Almost assured top 4."
I look to Ishmael and frown. The thing is, this kid seems to be a lot more put together than I am in the current situation of our Hunger Games experience. I haven't even thought of an arena strategy that I'm extremely fond of, let alone come up with a plan that can take out the careers? That's huge.
I can't tell if this kid is blowing steam up my butt, or genuinely an organized person, but for some reason, I don't want to take the risk of being on his bad side. Someone like him seems like they'll be petty, and even if his plan fails, I see him having a backup. Maybe even a back up to his back up.
I look to Ishmael and see that he is not thinking about this as hard as I am which is a bit frustrating. I feel like he doesn't take a lot of this serious. I know, I, am not the pinnacle of maturity and knowledge. But I also don't want to die at 14.
"I'm in," I said very rushedly and surprised with myself.
Ishmael looks at me wide eyed and almost annoyed. "We aren't even going to talk about it first? Whit, this is my life too!"
"The bigger our group is, the greater our chances of survival." I say looking at the boy from 5. "And talking about this right now really isn't the most politically correct thing to do right now, Ishmael."
"Screw politeness," he says. "Can you give us a minute?" he asks the boy from 5. He rolls his eyes and nods but gets up and goes to sit with the boy from 10. They begin to talk, and then it quickly starts to look a bit dysfunctional. Once he is far enough away for us not to be overheard, Ishmael looks at me with a look of frustration. "What the hell was that?"
"What was what?" I ask defensively.
"Since when are you the only one who can make decisions in this alliance? Or did you forget that I was here too? Fighting for my life?" he asks angrily. "That was so impulsive, Whitney! I would have liked at least a little say in it."
"He looks like the type to get angry over little things that set him off," I say quickly. "The last thing we need is to be looking out for the careers and a spiteful boy from District 5. If you have a plan to take the careers out then by all means, please, let's hear it?" I ask him waiting for him to respond. A few seconds go by, and he doesn't say anything. "Good, that's what I thought," I say. "I didn't do it to be mean, or to cut you out. At the moment, it felt like a sure answer. Something tells me he doesn't take waiting lightly."
I smile towards the boy from 10 and 5 and wave slightly. Ishmael sighs in defeat and throws his head back against the wall and closes his eyes. "This whole situation isn't fair," he says. "I feel like everything is going to quickly, and if you blink all the sudden, you're dead."
"I know," I say back to him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you," I say as I grab his hand and put it on my own. "You're like my older brother, man. This whole experience you've been great. I just feel like you can't make mistakes with people like him."
"I understand," says Ishmael. "I trust you."
We sit in quiet for a while as we wait for the next name to be called. A few minutes later the girl from District 1 walks out of the room with a saunter and a smile that's so huge you'd think she just got engaged in the room.
"Oliver St. James!" calls the head trainer over the intercom. "Your private session is now."
The boy from District 1 gets up and walks into the room with a big smile on his face. Something tells me there's more to the story with Mr. St. James.
It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rivals!
Oliver St. James, 18
District 1 Male
"Hello, Oliver." says the head GameMaker as she stares at me from atop of his giant podium. The panel sits in a series of twelve chairs along the rostrum. They have a large packet attached to a clipboard, and a pen in hand. This is my shot to show them everything I can do.
"Tell me, Oliver." says one of the GameMakers sitting in the row. "Are you nervous?"
"Not at all," I say with a smile. "I'm feeling very prepared for this moment," I say. "This is everything I've worked for a long time, and I just don't have it in me to fail at this point. Everything so far has worked out great."
"Your District partner seems a bit...unpolished." says one of the GameMakers on the opposite end of the row. "What do you think it says about the volunteer system in District 1?"
"I think," I say, "That it means they put all their eggs in one basket."
"Oh?" says the Head GameMaker surprised by my answer.
"Yeah, me," I say confidently. "Alexandrite is a sweet girl, but I honestly don't see her excelling in this games for very much longer after the bloodbath. Same for most of the careers honestly. The only two I'm worried about is the girls from 4 and 2. The rest seem like they're going to take care of themselves."
"Very well, Mr. St. James. Tell me, what do you want to show us today?"
"It's easier just to show you," I say with a confident voice as I begin to walk towards the hand to hand combat area. There is a trainer already waiting for me there, and when I nod at him to start, he comes full throttle towards me. The first time he swings, he catches me off guard, and the fist makes an impact with my jaw. My head begins to spin for a minute, but it only lights a fire under my butt.
I turn and quickly send a jab straight into the middle of his face. There is a crack, and I know I probably just broke this guy's nose. Instead of being upset about it, though, the trainer begins to swing harder, and much faster. I dodge several of his moves before I start to see a pattern with him, and when he swings the last swing, I grab him by the arm and send him face planting into the ground with a hard pull. He winces as I put his arm behind his back, and pull out an imaginary knife and show them that I would slit his throat after.
I get off the trainer and extend my hand to help him up. He took it and smiled at me. "Good show," he says as he extends his hand again for a handshake. I take it and then walk back into the center of the room.
"Very well," says the Head GameMaker, "Now what else do you have in store for us?"
I walk over to the agility course that they have on the wall and begin to run through it quickly. I dodge the various obstacles along the wall with ease, and I duck through a lot of the primary variables and take a few short cuts. I finish scaling the course in about 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
I then make my way over to the throwing knives section and begin to throw the knives at various dummies along the course. I look at the GameMaker and call the shots as I release the blade and each of them land close, or directly, onto the spot that I called. I look back at the GameMakers and see that they're impressed with my skills, and I walk back to the center of the room.
"Your District partner mentioned that there were no set rules in the pack this year, Mr. St. James," says the Head GameMaker. "If you were to elect a leader for the position of head of the careers who would you pick to be the leader?"
"Easy." I say, "Myself."
They nod and begin to scribble down various notes onto their packet for me, and then smile when they look up. "Very well, Mr. St. James." says the Head GameMaker. "Thank you for your time."
I walk out of the room with the most confidence I think I've ever felt. I walk back into the room where all the tributes are currently waiting and smile at my teammates as I walk towards the elevator to go back to my suite. When I get to the elevator, I push the up button, and the doors open immediately. I walk onto and smile.
"Well, Oliver," I say to myself. "You killed it. Now it's time to kill 23 more."
I won the war, I won the war
Broken bodies and broken bones
I won the war, and now I go home
Broken bodies and broken bones
Warren Church, 15
District 9 Male
"You got stuck on the train track?!" shrieks our escort. "And with the President herself! What a treat!" she says
"Yeah," says the new Sybil as she sits at the dining room table taking everything in. "Katherine was able to score me from the train and send it to the GameMakers by this weird rectangle thing. She was able to work with certain weapons, and why we were waiting for the hovercraft, we went outside to work on some survival stuff."
"Do you happen to know your score already?" ask our escort in an all-too-excited type of voice.
"No, she wouldn't tell me anything." says new Sybil as she looks at the kitchen and slack jaws. "I've never seen so much food in my life," she says as she walks over and grabs a handful of grapes and begins to eat them one by one.
I for one think the entirety of this whole situation is absurd. Old Sybil had to go off and get shot in the head, and I mean, life happens. Here we have this new girl who I know nothing about, who I haven't had a chance to interact with at all because she walked in a total of 5 minutes ago, and she seems nice like old Sybil which is just really annoying.
"I can't wait to kill you in the bloodbath," I say to her as the escort, and she continues to chit-chat. She pauses eating grapes and begins to cough one up because she appears to be choking. When she finally stops coughing, she clears her throat and looks over to me with shock.
"Excuse me?" she asks me.
"I didn't stutter," I say standing up from the loveseat I've been sitting in. "I don't know why the Capitol sent you here just to watch you die when you could have been living at home and enjoying life, but here you are. I was going to kill the old Sybil in the bloodbath anyways. I guess the new one will have to do."
"Actually." she says getting a serious face on and sitting the grapes on top of the table, to which our escort freaks out and grabs a napkin to put on, "my name is Ellis."
"Sweetheart, your name is not worth learning. So come on over and see your fake training score since you didn't even train, and just enjoy the last few days you have left."
"Or," she says with a bit of fight in her voice. "I can come sit on the couch and see the score that I earned, and enjoy the rest of my life when I see you die in the arena."
"Not likely."
"We'll see," she says with a confident voice as she walks over to the couch and sits down on the opposite end from me. Our escort turns on the TV and squeals in excitement as the Head GameMaker Alexandra Rabble appears on the tv screen.
"Hello, Panem," she says smiling. "Lots of you know that I am fronting the games as Head GameMaker this year, but what you don't know is that my twin brother Alexander is also running the GameMaking through engineering the arena and all the twist we had. I've gotten most of the credit due to dealing with the publicity of it all, but there wouldn't be games this year without Alexander."
The audience roars and I roll my eyes. These idiots would clap if you told them you killed their dog with a lawnmower. The only reason I will appease these people is that I want them to send me a cool weapon in the arena.
My arms get chills as I start to imagine the feel of a new weapon in my hand, as I imagine stabbing new Sybil in the gut and then pulling it out and doing it again and again. A smile creeps upon my face, and I feel the best that I've felt in the entire process of being in the Capitol.
"WARREN!" screams our escort. "WARREN IT'S ALMOST OUR DISTRICT!"
"Next from District 9, we have our new tribute, Ellis Rowden. She's 17 years old, and not a lot else is known about her, but I'll give the Capitol reporters a couple of days to get to the bottom of her! Anyways, the young girl from District 9 scored a mark of a 6! Wow! For someone who didn't have that much training she sure did exceptionally!"
"Did she say a 6?!" says new Sybil getting excited. "That's so much higher than I expected!"
"Congrats, Ellis!" says our escort grinning widely. "That's a very impressive score for an Outer District. Maybe you can pull some sponsors with that!"
"I hope so!" she says giddily and staring at the tv screen waiting for my score.
"Up next we have Warren Church. One of the younger tributes in the games this year at 15 years old. He has a bunch of siblings back home in 9!" says Alexandra smiling. "I bet he misses them a lot!"
"Yeah, not so much," I mutter under my breath.
"Warren has a score of...a 7! Great score Warren!"
"Seven!" screams our escort. "I have a shot this year!"
Well, this chapter is short, but like I said there were only nine tributes we haven't heard from, and I didn't want to double up before the games started. What did you think of this chapter?
The last seven tributes we need to hear from are Ortheus, Cortana, Lenovo (I think you all know why I saved him for this point in time), Samira, Lennox, Dove, and Xoren. We'll see getting ready for the interviews, two interview povs, after the interviews, the night before launch, and the actual launch itself.
Training Scores via Alexandra Rabble
Alexandrite Renaldi- 8
Oliver St. James- 10
Asha Titus- 9
Ortheus Margo- 10
Cortana Ramslee- 5
Micah Cobalt- 5
Arabia Hakim- 10
Delta Brooks- 9
Gaia Hummel- 4
Lenovo Cane- 5
Samira Rider- 4
Maxwell Hurley- 4
Lennox Knolls- 6
Dailen Clervani-7
Whitney Kaull- 4
Ishmael Fosters- 5
Ellis Rowden- 6
Warren Church- 7
Dove Henderson- 2
Kyle Timmons- 4
Elodie Sash- 3
Danny Calison- 6
Ember Poxal- 5
Xoren Cinnabar- 4
That's the scores. What do you think?
Also, a big thank you to those who read and messaged me about my original story The Kiridian Chronicles! Means so much to have some support from you guys. (Side note, I broke 400 reviews, and we aren't even at the bloodbath yet? What the heck guys. *tears* you rock!)
Keep it classy,
Caleb