I made a lot of references in this one...enjoy!
Today is the day when we meet our mentors before we start training.
"Alright, so what are your names?" one of our mentors asked.
"I'm Ruby, and this is Ian," Ruby introduced.
"I am Johanna and this is Blight," Johanna said. "But you can call me Jo, for short."
"Nice to meet you Jo," Ruby smiled as she shook both of the mentor's hands before I did too.
"So, what are your talents?" Jo asked.
"Well…" Ruby said shyly puzzled. Johanna and Blight give each other baffled looks as they see Ruby in her thinking face.
"Oh come on, there has got to be at least one talent you can use in the games!" Johanna shouted.
It's not that she doesn't know any talents it's just that she's so diverse she doesn't even know which one to pick out.
So, instead of waiting for her to answer, I speak for her. "Well, she's a master in sword fighting, knife throwing, and archery," I said.
Jo and Blight stare at each other for a moment. "Impressive," Blight says and smiles at me politely. "What are you go-"
"A master of all that and not any axes? You're from district seven, the lumber district! How can you not be a master of axes?" Jo impedes. In response, Ruby rubs the back of her neck.
"Anyways," Blight sighs. "What are you talented in, boy?"
"I'm good at assassinating and throwing knives," I answer. I'm more of a sneaky type of person while Ruby is more of a long ranged sort of person.
"Interesting," Blight said as he strokes his beard.
"I'd like to see those talents with my own eyes," Jo said, crossing her arms.
Ruby and I look at each other and say, "Okay."
Ruby's POV
After showing off my so called "talents" to my mentors, Ian and I head to the training center to meet up with other tributes.
"This is a chance to intimidate the other tributes," Ian whispered. We both chuckle and wander off with each other.
I stare at the careers as they train one by one, showing off their skills and their style of fighting. I can tell that they already teamed up considering how they are grouped. I can sense Ian looking at me and looking back at the tributes.
"You know, if you want to join them so badly, you can always ask," Ian says in a low tone voice.
"I can't" I say. "I can tell how conceited and arrogant they are. They probably might think that I'm not good enough."
"Who cares what they think? Besides, you are so distinct with your weapons how can they not accept you? I've trained with you for about eleven years, and I know that you're skilled." Ian sighs and continues as he observes one of the careers, "Besides look at that district one dude throwing that spear. You can easily dodge it and counter with a knife."
He points out another career that comes by at a station of targets, and throws knives as each of the bill boards blink. "Look at that district two girl throwing knives. She can throw one knife at one enemy, but you can throw an unlimited amount of knives at least at two enemies simultaneously."
He points out another career tribute that's using a bow and arrow. "That district one girl isn't much of a sharpshooter. Compared to you, she's nothing."
Then, he points out the final career tribute. A big, buff, blonde dude who practices with his sword, cutting and stabbing each dummy that surrounds him. He looks pretty cute. "And that district two dude. He may be big, strong, and good at wielding that swords, but he's no match for your swordsmanship and speed. You've been practicing fencing since the age of ten."
"Who said that?!" the boy shouted. Ian and I quickly look at each other, pretending that we didn't relate to whatever got him angry.
"You're probably hearing things, Cato," the male tribute from district one says. Cato just growls and goes back to his training.
I turn my head back to Cato, "observing" him even more. "Why are you staring at him like that?" Ian asks, giving me an odd look and then smirking at me. "Ahh, I see." He comes in closer to my ear and whispers, "You like him don't you?"
I blush and my face is flushed with red skin. "Shut up!" I whisper-shout.
"Hey check out those losers!"
I look towards one of the careers, who was the blondie that used the bow and arrow. It's that district one girl. Ian glares at the group, but I just keep an emotionless face at them.
"What are you looking at?" the girl continues.
"Come on Ruby, let's not waste our time," Ian whispers, pulling me to a different spot.
"Hey! Instead of staring at us, why not you show us what you got?" the district one boy calls.
Ian and I gaze at each other for a moment. "As you wish, come on Ruby, show'em what'chu got!" Ian says, patting my back before setting up.
"No wait!" I whisper-shout to Ian.
"What? Don't you want to show them what you're made of?"
"I can't…"
"Why not?"
"Because…because I'm nervous okay!"
Ian's POV
Nervous? I'm sorry, did I just hear Ruby…RUBANNA ROSE…say that she was nervous?
"Don't be shy. Just pretend that they're not there," I say, laying my hand on her shoulder and give her a comforting smile to brighten things up. "but don't show too much."
She giggles and nods before walking past them towards the rack of swords. I can feel the ominous glares that we are receiving from the careers as we past them. I follow behind her and prepare the dummies in a position that fits her fighting style.
I set the dummies in a parallel line ten on each side and one at the middle in the end of both lines.
As I prepare for her, she picks a sword from the racks, examining every one of them she picks. Finally, she smiles, bringing her and her sharp weapon towards the set up.
"Finally done shopping, princess?" I tease.
She smirks at me and punches my shoulder…HARD. "Shut up!"
I laugh before backing off and letting her practice.
Ruby's POV
I get my sharp sword and crack my neck, preparing myself. I back at the careers; they are watching me very closely. I look at Ian, he gestures a thumbs up and a smile.
I get in my stance and dash forward with a 360 clockwise spin. I slice all the enemies surrounding me, cutting six dummies in half, between the torso and the pelvis, with one slice. I do another spin, but this time counter-clockwise and I cleave another six dummies. Finally, I do a front flip, raising my sword up high and slicing the dummy in front of me, in half, straight in the center. My landing also made a knock up, shaking the floor and knocking down the other two dummies.
I grab the throwing knives and daggers I grabbed earlier, but Ian stops my hand, clenching my wrist and looking at me straight in the eyes. He gets closer to whisper in my left ear, "Don't show too much or they might consider you a threat."
I look back at the careers, and they give me startled, amused looks. He lets go and I put away the daggers and knives. He then pushes me towards the careers, but I try to push back and away from them, but it was too late.
The district two girl and Cato whisper in the background while the district one tributes greet and introduce themselves. "Hey, I'm Marvel and this is Glimmer, my district partner," the district one tribute says as he lets out a hand.
"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Ruby," I say insecurely. "and this is Ian, my brother."
Ian waves and they wave back, but they give us peculiar looks. Then, Cato and his district partner walk by and join the group. "Hey, I'm Clove," she smiles and she shakes my hand. "and this is Cato." I glance at Cato, but he seems pretty angry, so I quickly look away.
"Say…" she continues. "Do you mind joining us in our alliance?"
In the outside, I know I look calm, emotionless, filled with pride, but inside I know I'm excited and eager. I'm joining forces with a highly skilled group in the Hunger Games!
A few weeks later…
It's finally my turn to meet in a private session with the game-makers. As I walk in, they all became silent from their chit-chat, watching me as I enter. What made them silent? Is it really just me?
The training center was all opened, but there was a perfect display of weapons I mainly use: some throwing knives, a bow and arrow, and a sword. When I observed the sword, luckily it was sharper than the one I used to show off my skills in front of the careers. They know me so well.
I take a quick glance at the practice arena. There was the same set up as the one Ian set up a few weeks ago, but this arena was different. It was as if it was perfectly made for me and my skills. There was a set up for my sword fighting style, a set up for my archery fighting style, and a set up for my dagger fighting style, no other stations were opened or even there. My mentors must of set recommendations for Ian and I.
I take everything from the display and put all the weapons in a comfortable position where I can easily equip it. It was hard for my suit, considering I don't have any pockets, so I had to improvise.
I start with the sword set up. I get my sword out and I do the same technique I did to show off the careers, but this time there was a dummy behind the one at the middle. So, after I rent the center dummy, I threw my sword straight at the heart of the dummy behind it, piercing right through it and knocking it down to the floor.
Then I equip my throwing knives and daggers and move on to the throwing knives set up. I walk in between two dummies that stand facing each other. I do my special technique: the death lotus. As I twirl and spin, I throw multiple daggers at both of the dummies simultaneously.
Then, when they finally knock to the ground, I make front flips, while throwing daggers, towards another circle of dummies. Flipping faster and faster until I past the opening of the circle and reach the center, I make an upside down, mid-air twirl, throwing a spin of daggers towards the surrounding dummies, and to finish it off, I make a 360 spin throwing another fan of daggers.
I rush back to the display to equip the bow and arrows. The arrows weren't metal, nor as tough as I thought they were. They were sort of plastic and lightweight. Instead of putting the bow and arrows around my torso, I wrap the arrow holder belt around my waste. I grab three arrows in my hand and look back at the game-makers, and they give me baffled looks, but I didn't care. I just want to get this over with.
So, I point my bow towards the heart of the target and shoot each arrow in my hand one at a time, shooting with fierce attack speed. Each arrow pierced the other except for the third one. Phew, finally I'm done with this crap. I stare back at the astonished faces of the game-makers before walking to the exit, hiding my smirk with a sense of pride.
As I meet Ian outside, he asks with his innocent voice, "So, how did you do?"
"Ehh," I answer with half a smile.
"That's a lie, you know that you did perfect. I bet that you're going to get a twelve!"
"No I'm not, that score is impossible!" But then again whenever Ian says "he bets" it always turns out true.
It's time for the announcements for the private session scores. Once they reach district seven, Caesar announces:
"Ian Rose…ten."
Tia, our mentors, and our stylists cheer and congratulate Ian until they finally announce my score.
"Rubanna Rose…" There was a moment of silence, longer than when he waited for Ian's score to announce, but then he finally says, "twelve."
Everyone is the room including myself gives an astounded face with gaped mouths to the TV, except for Ian since he knew it was coming so instead he give a big smirk.
"I told you so."
It's time for the interviews. Apparently ladies go first before their other district partner goes. So, I'll be going before Ian. Once it reaches my turn, I get nervous and walk up to the chair in the middle of the stage.
I wear a short purple dress that flows when I twirl along with matching necklace and earrings with purple gems and a purple headband.
"Wow, you look gorgeous, Rubanna!" Caesar compliments.
"Thank you, you don't look bad yourself. Right?" I smile in the crowd. The crowd roars and cheers.
"Well then, thank you. So, from what I've seen you and your brother, Ian, were the first tributes from district seven to ever volunteer in the Hunger Games. What do you think of that, fighting your own brother? Were you two planning this all along?"
"To be honest Caesar, yes, my brother and I both were planning on competing in the Hunger Games sometime, but I wasn't expecting him to compete in the same games as I was. I only wanted to join the Hunger Games for the sake of my family, hoping that if I win then I can get my family and I into Victor's Village for a better life."
"Ahh, yes, well that is a high risk high play you're making there. I also heard that you and Ian made an alliance with the careers. It seems pretty interesting how you manage to impress the careers, enough to invite you into their group."
"Yeah, well all I did was just show off my skills and they seemed pretty impressed so they asked me if I'd like them, and so I accepted. I'd always love to join a group so skillful in fighting just like I am."
"Impressive!" he gives me a wide smile. "Well, I'd love to ask a million more questions, but it seems that your time is up. Rubanna Rose everybody!" The crowd cheers and whistles as I exit the stage.
Ian's POV
After Ruby, it's my turn. I wonder what sort of questions Caesar will ask me .One of the producers pull me in form the back and guide me to the stage. I walk in with my navy blue tuxedo with a sky blue boy tie.
"You look very smooth Ian," Caesar says pointing two index fingers at me as if his hands were guns.
I give Caesar the same gesture. "Thanks Caesar," I wink to him and to the crowd and I hear some girls squeal. I didn't think I was that charming.
"So, you and your sister chose to volunteer for the Hunger Games. Why did you choose to volunteer?"
"Well, ever since I was a child, I owed Ruby my life for all the things she has done for me throughout the years. So, in order to repay her, I might as well join the Hunger Games with her protect her. Without her I wouldn't have a purpose in life."
The crowd gasps in awe, while Caesar gives me a bewildered face. "Wow, how comforting." He bends down, leaning closer to me. "However, if you two were to be the last ones standing, what do you think you two will do?"
"Well, like what I told Ruby, I would sacrifice my life for her to win. No question about it."
There was an ominous silence and he finally asks one more question. "Okay, before you leave, let me ask you this." He leans back on his chair, raising his right ankle to rest on his left thigh, and clams his hands together on top of his shin. "What were to happen if Ruby dies?"
I stay silent for a moment before finally answering, "Then I would do the best I can to win for her. Though, Ruby's skills are far stronger than mine, I highly doubt that she wouldn't make it out alive. Otherwise, if she's gone I would strive to do what she couldn't: get her family into Victor's Village."
"Wow, well you have a very heart-warming heart. I would love to listen more about how much you care about your Ruby-Gem, but I'm afraid that your time is up. Everyone, give it up for Ian Rose!"
The crowd roars, cheers and cries. I wave as I exit the stage, and hug Ruby just as I see her.