Chapter five: Onward we go Ivory's POV
I sit on the floor next to Tessa in the tribute's car. The tribute's car is a new car so we can socialize. The new tributes from district six come in. I don't know them, because they didn't come around, until now, because district seven's reaping comes in an hour. I look up from my spot on the floor. Tessa looks up from her spot on the couch. There's a boy, with a Mohawk and a goofy grin, next to a girl that looks slightly modest, and then two other boys, one smiling the other flipping his blond hair.
"Hey." Mohawk boy said. The girl stood next to him quietly.
"I'm Brody," The blond boy said with arrogance. "And there's Allie, Adrienne and Cricket."
Allie was the girl with Mohawk boy, Adrianne, and Cricket just grinned, walked over and sat next to Connor, striking a conversation. Arianne sat down next to Tessa on the couch and drummed his fingers.
"So we just sit here?" Adrianne glanced at Tessa. "Aren't we supposed to be, like, I don't know, Training?" Allie rolls her eyes and goes to sit with Sunny.
"Can you fit the idea in your head that, oh, maybe we can get bored after five days of ripping duct tape?" I said, Adrianne annoying me, and tucked my arms behind my head, leaning back on the couch, my elbow brushing Tessa's knee.
"So, are we watching seven's reaping?" he smirks, leaning back and crossing his arms, coping me. I scowl.
"Yeah. Can that fact fit in your puny brain?" I ask irked, starring at the screen. He just smiles.
"Whoa," Tessa says, flicking on the TV.
Whoa is right. The whole city looks like a giant antique room, like wallpaper city, with all the building covered in peeling scrapbooking paper, all different colors, with designs. And Effie's on the screen. If you look hard enough, though the makeup, you can see small bags under her eyes, and her voice was slightly out of it, but it was barely noticeable. She was giggling about something like how the cute antique style looked like one of her designer purses.
"And welcome to the Tape Games!" Effie grinned at the crowded center of district seven. There was an evident air of untidiness, and the clothes had gone from perfect clean pressed in the early districts, to an uneven shabbiness, and the colorful clothes of the paper district had faded, as if the dull atmosphere had drained out color. "Welcome to the games of pride, the honor of the country, the dream of any boy or girl . . ."
"I think it's screwed up." Someone said silently next to me. I turned to find the form of someone. The lights had been turned off, so it took a moment for me to recognize Adrianne. I gave him a look like, "What do you have to say that's worthy of your time?"
"I think this isn't honor. She's sending us to our imprisonment. I know I'm not going to go home." He stared at me. I wanted to assure him, he would, even though I didn't totally like him. But the words died. I had been around a community that trained all my life. Yet I probably wouldn't live, how did I tell a boy from the district of truck driving that he would win? What he said next made me think. "I just want to meet some friends, maybe someone special that makes my few weeks my best and live what I can before I am a slave for the capitol."
I blinked. He seemed cocky at first, but now he was really nice. I stared at him. From the light of the TV, I could see his features. Freckles, gelled up brown hair and light demeanor. Most girls would call him cute, but for me he wasn't cute like Snapper. Wait. No, shut up. I came to a conclusion.
"I'm going to be your first friend. The one friend who won't betray you in the arena." I shocked myself. I had hated his guts two minutes ago. "But, no way on my life am I your special someone."
"I wouldn't like that." He recovered his goofy grin. "You're too, huh, unpredictable."
"Say what?!" I shrieked silently, hitting his arm. Everyone else was still watching Effie drag her hand around in the bowl, even though her dramatic demeanor was overused.
"My point, see?" He grinned. I just rolled my eyes, and watched Effie dramatically read the girl's name.
"Natalie Crescent."
My Natalie? My cave Natalie, the one that visited every day all the way from district seven? What?
I couldn't help. It was like watching your little sister or brother being reaped. It was worse than you yourself. I shrieked and started to cry. I couldn't be against Natalie. Tears blurred the screen, and I saw Natalie walking up, crying, and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands. She had- was, never a strong one for things like this. Coming to me was different, she had a goal, food, but Natalie would break down at our cave frequently.
She'd cry about when her mom had gotten cut in the paper cutting machine, a long gash, and hadn't stopped bleeding for hours. She cried when her dad told her mom had a disease, one that made one cut fatal, she would bleed out until she couldn't live. She'd thrown a tantrum, so I thought that the patrols might have heard us, when her mom couldn't work because of the risk, and her dad's job was lost, and they skyrocketed downward, into poverty. And I stayed three nights with Natalie at the cave when her mom was cut deeply, and died. Nat then visited daily, and I snuck out with food for her and her dad.
I lay down against the couch, and didn't cry once after that. I just sat. I didn't wipe my eyes, my tears dried. Sunny and Alejandro lead everyone out of the room, except Adrianne, who stood awkwardly, Snapper who knew, and comforted me, (haha, tried to), and Tessa, who turned off the TV, after it announced an extreme nerd guy, Peter as the boy.
"Ivory?" Tessa said carefully. "What do you know about . . . Natalie Crescent?"
I sat up, aware of Adrianne, too. I spilled, about Natalie being from district 7, her coming, her mom and dad, the food, the death, what she meant to me. I rambled about her mom before she died, her dad, and the time I once met him in our cave, how Snapper had been told and met Nat, how my mom found out, and how we once pulled a prank on Lauren when she tried to follow me and Snapper after a day of career training. "You know, not a word. This out, it kills my mom, maybe even dad, Ella and Aidan, too, Nat, her dad, Snapper, and all of you." They nodded.
I left, wandering to the front for Natalie, and sat down in one of the joints that connected the compartments. It was only a few feet long, and the openings exposed to the night air. It's not cold, but refreshing, and I just sit, knees and arms tucked together. I feel as small as possible, hiding in this train, in this world. Finally, the doors connecting it slide open, and Effie's heels click around, passing though. There's a ray of moonlight, and the nerd boy, Peter is hurrying alongside Effie. It slides shut on the exiting side, and so I see Natalie. Grubby sneakers, covered in dirt silent slide across the compartment. She's really good, I can't hear her at all.
"I'm really sad," Natalie said. "I- I don't know what to do." If anyone else was standing near, it would appear that Natalie was talking to no one. But she's hidden in the cave for years; she's bound to know when someone's hiding. It will help her stay on her feet in the arena, it's a good skill.
"Well find a way, we will, Nat," I appear and take her hand. She doesn't even jump at my appearance. "And right now, I promise you we'll go to my compartment and you can sleep on the floor, and we can steal some of the chocolate cake. It's the best thing you'll ever taste." Natalie nods, and pulls me away, into the car, the heated air, and the florescent lights.
The next day, I wake up, only a sheet above me. I fell asleep in my clothes, and my comforter went to Natalie. She's not there, but Tessa is, doodling little chibis on a piece of paper, and she's sitting on the floor, a tray with a small stack of waffles.
"Hey," Tessa looks up. "I brought you some food, the waffles are delicious, mind you, and I figured we could just watch the tributes in here. You missed eight, by the way. Some boy named Noah and this girl, Naomi. Snapper's coming here, Adrianne and Alejandro popping by." I nodded. Tessa pulled all the covers off the bed, and thew them on the ground. I looked at her.
"I'm scorching." She says matter of factly. I sigh, and she jumps on the bed, and sits cross-legged, turning on the TV, and giving me the waffles.
"Mind if I pop in?" Snapper walked in. "Cozy party, sorry, my invite must have gotten lost in the mail." I roll my eyes.
"Sit, and try not to cause chaos. I'm eating." I snap my attention to district nine. It's getting poorer and poorer. I see Effie; she's looking at the poorness of the weaving district. It looks like everyone made their own clothes. Alejandro and Adrienne come in as Effie starts her speech.
"Hi!" Alejandro says, looking at Tessa. She turns pink. "I'm going to see the girl from district eight, Naomi. She's really pretty. Want to come along Tess?"
"No." Tessa says stiffly. Alejandro looks confused at her cold tone. He just gives us an "oh okay" and leaves.
"Are you watching district nine tributes, Adrienne?" Snapper asks.
"No, it's . . . just not my thing," he shares a look with me. "And, I'm going to talk with Allie, I feel something . . . emotional." He grins. I roll my eyes, along with Tessa.
"Bye," I wave. I look at the TV. Effie just called a girl . . . Calliope.
"She's making a scene." Snapper muses. He's right. She's thrown herself onto the stage trembling and crying. Two stock keepers drag her up, and she wails. "That's just worse, it shows that you're an easy target." Calliope sniffles on the side as a thin boy comes up, but I like him, his name is Flame, and that's cool.
After, I just lay down.
The next day I don't bother watching the reaping. The other tributes are glued to the screen, searching for allies. I don't. By now, I feel claustrophobic. The train's trapping me, and so when the others take to watching ten and eleven, I run along with Adrienne, and paint freely, or open a window and throw my hands out, laughing when my hair tangles I the wind. Nat will come later, and at night we open the car joint door. It's risky; the track passes by at what seems like hundreds of miles per hour, one false step, and you are run over. Nat and I just hug our knees close and feel the wind.
Adrienne's nice to talk to. He talks about his brother and family, and Allie. He likes her, but he knows she doesn't like him. I bet ten coins he'll fall in love with some girl from district 12. Being the guy he is, he bet ten that some girl from district 12 will fall in love with him. (I punched him).
Finally, I met the tributes from 10, and 11. Cecily, a girl who reminds me strongly of Basil, Sherbert, a friendly girl, and Caleb and Zach, who both smiled at Cecily. From eleven, a tall girl that was nice, named Kate, a weird guy, Nate, who started milling around Adrienne.
The day to meet 12, I sat in my car with Natalie, Tessa, and a bowl of soup.
"Mmm, I'm not sure." I said to Tessa.
"Why?"
"It's so stupid! First impressions-"
"A dare is a dare." Tessa stated. "Do Basil's dare." Earlier everyone played truth or dare, and I had a few bad ones, kiss Snapper on the cheek (wasn't bad, downright embarrassing when Adrienne made a disgusting comment), admit my crush that I had in elementary on this boy, but Basil made me….. it wasn't right!
"Just do it." I stood up, and walked out to see the district 12 girl, Jaydn.
Hahaha, here goes nothing.