Platters of decadent delicacies load the tables in front of me, my eyes widen and my taste buds twitch at the prospect of so much food in one place, I hadn't seen this much food in a year, let alone one afternoon. Gabe and Mags were explaining something to us, rattling on about how we should consume as much food as possible to build our muscle further. Don't worry, I will. I think to myself as I tune them out and let my eyes greedily land over the many colourful dishes provided. It's the first time our Capitol escort, Saphira, has joined us since the reaping, She was probably tending to the perfectly primed blue wig she adorned along with her garish make up that made her look more like a clown, rather than the fashion icon look she was most likely striving for.
"Tuck in you poor little things! You must be ravenous!" She exclaims excitedly, clasping her gloved hands together as she does so. In District Four, we weren't poor by any means, I would even say we didn't live in poverty like many of the other districts, we were lucky. We had the food we needed and were able to live from it, but still, this amount was more than any district citizen could hope to see in their lifetime. I laden my plate with a soft, creamy substance and some small vegetables and a strange purple meat on top and inhale the mouth-watering odor it gave off. I had been used to eating mainly fish and sea grown plants back home, so it was nice to try something new and flavoursome, Although Chaim stuck to eating some kind of fish platter which baffled me slightly. We're allowed to continue eating our food for approximately twenty minutes before the agonizing strategy meeting would begin.
"So, obviously you'll be with the careers, so we don't need to worry about making alliances. But we do need to talk about the other tributes in your alliance." Gabe explains as he stabs a piece of meat with his fork and slobbers it into his mouth greedily, much to the distaste of Saphira. Mags' stands up and grabs some form of control panel, punching in a few buttons and the large flat screen across the carriage lights up. It's the coverage of the reapings.
It doesn't take long to cease my appetite as we look upon our competition, our allies from District 1 don't fail to impress, the boy is large and slender with cold blue eyes that seem to suck the life out of everything around him, I catch his name as Mercury, his district partner, Aine, is said to be only 15 years old, but when she proudly steps up to volunteer, nobody questions it. I inhale deeply and hold in a breath, I'll have to be good to beat these guys.
And then comes the second district in our alliance, The district two pair are both strapping eighteen year old volunteers, Petra, the female tribute has a build enviable of most males, bulging muscles protruding from her dainty reaping dress that looks completely mismatched, I hope hand to hand combat doesn't occur with her. The boy, Rex, is only slightly larger than Petra herself, his legs look like parts of a machine, powering towards the stage in a march of masculinity. Then it's on to the other districts whom will fear the very sight of me simply due to my district, Not all the tributes make an impression and I can see how hopeless the fight for some of them will be. There is something unnerving about the girl from three, Neave, though, Her eyes are miniature almond-shaped and dark, like looking into pits of the abyss, Although she was small, she appeared down right terrifying compared to her feeble district partner who faints as his name's called. Then it's us. Saphira calls my name, I step up, I don't look anywhere near as panic-stricken as I felt. Then Chaim's called and he receives several pats on the back on his way up, Did they really think that being reaped was a good thing? An honor? They must be downright delusional. The rest of the districts go by in a blur of tragedy and angst. The boy from district 10 sticks in my mind though, Quinn his name was, he looked much older than he no doubt was, with a faint line of stubble curling from ear to ear, and broad shoulders that seemed to widen his stature, still, the fear in his eyes was undeniable.
Twenty three terror-stricken children, twenty-three people I will have to murder.
