Another long chapter ahead for all of you! I'm on a roll :)
Thank you all so much for your fantabulous reviews! I will try my best to please you all with this new chapter.
Also, I changed a few things about how lunch and training worked. I hope that's okay. It just worked better for the story, plus my friend was borrowing my copy of HG, so I only CF for reference and that one doesn't go into much detail about training. Besides, it wasn't anything too major. I just thought that I would warn you all ahead of time.
First Impressions
I brace my shoulders and straighten my back as we exit the center and erupt into the cheering crowds of the Capitol. I try to put on my most dazzling smile and I feel my back and shoulders brushing against Gale's. I suppress the shivers that I've been getting around him ever since we were standing together on the train.
I lift my hand and start waving. Gale stays still. He's too proud to wave, but I sneak a quick glance and I see that he's smiling uncomfortably, lifting his hands as if telling the crowd it isn't necessary, and inclining his head too. He must be going for the humble angle, I realize. I start to nod whenever I hear my name shouted or the calls of "I'm sorry about your cousin/ Aunt/ best friend" begin.
They know our connections, I realize. This gives us a huge edge. We might not be star crossed lovers, but we are the poor, final remembrances of past tributes that are willing to die in order to avenge and bring honor to their loved ones.
We glow- like our costumes, I discover- with the sorrows of the past.
Thank you, Cinna, I think as we begin to circle around the Center.
Gale and I stand in the elevator after the Opening Ceremonies, waiting for it to arrive at floor twelve. The doors finally close on the crowds, Peacekeepers, and other tributes and I let out the breath that I seemed to be holding in for the entire chariot ride. Gale also looks relieved to finally be out of the giant spotlight that's been shining on District 12 ever since our reaping.
"That wasn't too terribly awful," I sigh as the elevator begins its rapid ascension towards the sky.
"Yeah, you're right. I just wish that we didn't have to pretend, you know. How much we hate this and all of them," Gale sighs.
I'm a little more shocked than I should be. After all, the Capitol does send children to their deaths every year. However, I don't hate the people of the Capitol. I don't particularly like them, but hate is far too strong of a word for how I feel.
"I don't hate the people. I just hate… this. How they think that we're glad to be here and enjoying this as much as they are," I explain.
"You weren't acting like you hated it tonight," Gale points out.
"Neither were you," I snap, giving him a glare. He just raises his eyebrows and murmurs:
"Fair enough, I guess."
"I'm sorry," I sigh.
"For what?" Gale asks.
"For acting like this. It's just… the stress… and the fear too. I- I don't know what to do but I'm just so scared of everything going wrong being just horrible," I blurt out, on the verge of tears. The stress really has been getting to me. But Gale just laughs.
"Madge, everything already has gone wrong," he says darkly. I shudder, realizing the truth in his words.
I wake up and I feel sore and nervous. But a little happiness also manages to creep in. I begin to remember Cinna's words as we left the elevator: "You were both just named in the list of the top five tributes to sponsor," he had said. Then Gale had hugged me and whispered a quick "thank you" in my ear. I don't know what for; maybe he thought that I had managed to draw in the sponsors.
Maybe, I think in that little, crazy, hopeful part of my brain, just maybe, everything will work out in the end. But even I can tell that I'm either lying or going crazy. Either way, though, I'm just setting myself up for disappointment because this is the Hunger Games and, win or lose, nothing works out in the end if you're one of the tributes.
So I sit across from Gale at breakfast trying not to look at him even though my eyes keep on shifting up as if they are magnetized to him. Once, our eyes finally meet and he gives me a sad little smile. I try to return it, but forget that I have cereal in my mouth. Haymitch sees this and snorts loudly as Effie runs off for some napkins. Gale glares at Haymitch. I can feel my cheeks turning red, so I look down again.
Effie rushes back in with an Avox and some towels, but Haymitch stops her.
"Take a pill already. They should just head on down to training now," he groans, rubbing his shoulder. I wonder if Gale has punched him over something. The bastard kind of deserves it so I don't feel all that sorry for him.
"Come on, you two! Haymitch is right; you had better head on down to training now!" Effie decides.
A feeling of dread begins to build in my stomach. I've never used a weapon before, unless you count a bread knife, and I have this feeling that the Game makers won't be all that impressed by my ability to slice bread evenly.
"We can stick together, Madge. I can show you how to use a few things," Gale whispers. I jump. I hadn't heard him appear at my side.
"Thanks, but you really ought to practice and try to make some alliances. I'd only hold you back with that. Besides, I'm sure that I'll find something I'm good at," I lie through my teeth and it feels wrong. I can tell that Gale knows because he's giving me this odd look.
I sigh. This is going to be a long three days.
We arrive last at the Center, just in time to hear the speech about how thrilled the Capitol is to have us.
Now, as we are left to our own devices, the first stage of the Games has begun. I can see the career pack forming; however, there is one noticeable exclusion: the girl from 2. In her place are both tributes from District 7. The girl from 4 also looks a bit left out of the planning, I notice. If one turns on them, it'll be her, I think. She looks like she liked the girl from 2 more and would much rather be her ally than join with the careers, but she seems to realize that this charade is her best hope for survival.
"Madge, would you like for me to teach you about archery? Or spears?" Gale offers. I don't know what his angle is, but it seems like he's trying to get himself killed. No one should want to ally with me seeing as I have no skills of any kind, save for piano playing.
"Gale, you should really be trying to make some alliances. I'll be about as much use in the arena as a wet sponge," I sigh.
"Look, Madge there must be-" he begins to say, but I cut him off.
"Gale, please. I don't want to be the reason why you die on the first day," I snap. He looks a little startled but thankfully not too hurt by my outburst. He opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again, then sighs and walks over to the archery station where the boy tribute from three is being instructed on how to hold his bow.
I conceal myself over at the edible plants section and see if I can learn anything about what the arena will be like this year. I look around and Gale is practicing archery with the boy from 3. Gale is doing exceptionally well and the other boy doesn't look to be half bad at it.
I hear a clatter next to me and I see a girl about my age with almost powdery looking dirty blonde hair and freckles that are almost the same color. It is cut in a short bob with bangs that stick up from underneath the pink head band she wears. She's been trying to cut open a small reed, I notice, but has cut her finger by accident.
"Maybe we'd better go over to the emergency first aid station instead?" I try to joke.
She looks confused, at first, and then she smiles a little. She seems to realize that I'm making an attempt at kindness- awkward kindness seeing as we'll be trying to kill each other in a few days' time- but it's still kindness none the less.
"I'm Avan, District 5," she says, sticking out the hand that isn't bleeding.
"Madge, District 12," I reply. We both ought to know each other's names, but it feels polite to make the proper introductions.
"Your costumes were fantastic last night," she says.
"District 5s' were pretty good, too," I say. They were, actually. They were also almost on fire, but with wires covering them instead of embers.
We head over to the First Aid station because the edible plants really haven't been all that helpful or interesting. The instructor has me clean out and then patch up Avan's thumb using a small bandage a splint, and some strange herbal paste that smells like the pine trees that grew up by Victors' Village. I wonder if that's a clue about the arena or if it always smells like this.
We listen as the instructor babbles on and on about different injuries and what to do in this case or this case and in this climate versus this climate. He spends a lot less time talking about Jungles and warm weather than he does about cold weather. The words "snow" and "frost bite" seem to be popping up too often to consider a coincidence, I decide. In the arena, there will probably be snow unless they are using reverse psychology. Either way, though, it gives me comfort to know that I have some sort of guess about the arena.
I look over at Avan and she seems to be bored by this talk of how to heal frost bite and such. Either she's very dumb or a very good actress, I decide. After thinking it through, I feel that it would be far better to overestimate Avan than to underestimate her. Avan, the actress from District 5. I'm pulled from my thoughts by the sound of the bell signaling lunch.
"Great, I'm starved," Avan sighs as we make our way to the cafeteria.
Like every meal in the Capitol, there are dozens upon dozens of choices of food. I can see bread, hams, muffins, and even what appears to be a whole turkey down at one far end of the assembly line. I hang back as Avan goes ahead, waiting for Gale. If things were different- far different- then I would be willing to make the effort to eat lunch with Avan. She doesn't seem half bad. But I'll be trying to kill her in a few days, so why bother? It'll only make things harder.
Gale comes up behind me and I begin moving forward in the line of twenty-four quiet tributes. The silence is eerie, broken only by the sounds of clinking plates and utensils. I take some bread, butter, green beans, carrots, ham, fruit salad, and a bit of chocolate cake. I look at Gale's plate to find mostly bread and meat with a small slice of cake. There's a part of me that wants to laugh at the fact that even mister sullen eyebrows (I hate to admit that's what I called him when we were little kids) is immune to the taste of chocolate.
We are the last two out of the line and everyone seems to be eating and making small talk with their District partners, save for the career pack, who are all sitting together, and the girl from 2. She's sitting by herself and I feel obliged to sit with her. Plus, it's the closest thing to an empty table left. The staff was probably used to not having to provide an individual table for districts 1, 2, and 4. I nudge Gale, and we sit down opposite each other with the girl's seat in between us. She looks a little surprised to have company.
"Hello!" I say, trying desperately to be friendly. She looks at me as if I've got lobsters crawling out of my ears. Gale rolls his eyes.
"Hi," she says quietly.
"Well, I'm Madge and this is Gale. We're from District 12. What about you?" I ask. Gale shakes his head a little and I have the urge to yell at him. There's nothing wrong with trying to be friendly.
"Penelope, District 2 and the first tribute of the District not to be included in the career pack in decades, according to Brutus. Oliver was almost left out as well because they think we're too weak," Penelope mentions in a too casual voice. I have the feeling that she's trying to get us to give away something about our strategies, so I go for an answer that is overly innocent to let her know that I can tell what she's up to.
"Yes, Peeta was probably the first tribute from 12 to ever be included," I say, eyeing her. She raises her eyebrows and I can tell that she knows what I'm thinking. This only confirms my suspicions about her, but she probably knows that already. Gale seems to be far too busy stuffing himself to notice our silent exchange.
Most of the meal continues in silence until Penelope leaves to go back to training. Gale and I (along with a few other tributes) go to the line for seconds. I see a bowl of strawberries and Gale laughs as I pass them by.
"What?" I ask, genuinely confused.
"Well, all of lunch I've been wondering why you haven't taken any strawberries. I remember how much you loved them back in District 12 and I thought that you'd for sure eat as many of you could now that they're free," he explains.
He may find it innocent enough that I haven't taken any strawberries, but my ears turn bright red beneath my hair. I'll never tell him that I don't even like strawberries all that much. I only bought them because of a twelve year crush that I'd had since my first day of school when he knocked me over running to the small bucket of balls that the Capitol had provided the school with back when Haymitch Abernathy won the Quarter Quell.
"Yes, well, they'd remind me too much of home," I lie as I grab a dish of blackberries.
In training that afternoon, Penelope meets me at the knots station. She's not very good and the instructor spends most of the time we're there trying to get her square knot untangled. I finish what the instructor calls a double byte figure eight, thank him, and head out. But Penelope appears at my side out of nowhere.
"You need to learn how to use a weapon, Madge," she says, crossing her arms and smirking.
"What?" I blurt out; aware of how stupid I must sound. But I'm too shocked by the fact that she wants to help me to really care.
"Yes, Madge, a weapon: W-E-P-O-N," Penelope says. I want to point out that she's forgotten the A, but I'm still too shocked to do anything.
"No, I meant why do you want to help me? We'll be enemies in a few days," I explain.
"Or we could be allies," she suggests. I begin to consider it, for a moment. We're both smart enough and observant enough to figure out the other tributes. But I'm lousy with a weapon so why would she need me? Unless she's really a part of the career pack and trying to get me killed faster.
"Why should I trust you, Penelope?" I ask.
"Fair enough," she laughs bitterly. "I figure that if we're allies till the end, I'll have a greater chance of winning. I'm not going to lie to you, Madge; I just want to go home. I know that it seems mean, but I'd rather team up with someone who knows her way around plants and is useless with a weapon than someone who could kill me in my sleep if they get angry."
"I get it, Penelope. And you're right, I'll be useless when it comes to killing people," I admit.
"So does this mean we're allies?" she grins.
"I guess it does, but no lies. We both know why we're here," I decide.
"Perfect, Madge. Let's see how you are with a knife."
Penelope and I spend the rest of our training time together. I teach her about plants, first aid, and knots and she does what she can to help me with weapons. I find out that she's one of three kids and was never quite as into being a career as everyone thought she should be so she was sent to the traditional school instead. She still trained in her P.E. class, but it was no where near the amount of training that most careers and other kids in her district got.
I also learn her inability to remember anything about plants. She is genuinely confused when attempting to separate the edible and non edible plants. I can tell that it's genuine by the way she tries desperately to hide it, so I let her get away with a few so that she thinks she's doing alright. I can't let her know that I've figured out a weakness even though we're now allies.
Gale spends most of his time with the tributes from Districts 3 and 9. He goes to archery only that one time then learns about knives, fires, edible plants, and First Aid. He grabs me strawberries at lunch one day and says that I should have one because once we get into the arena I might never have them again. I eat one and they have never tasted so good.
"He's almost as bad as Peeta freaking Mellark was last year," Penelope giggles to me one day at the spear throwing station. I grab one and it flies into the dummy's stomach. Not too bad for the first try of the session.
"Penelope, I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure that Gale has hated me since we were kids. I'm the mayor's daughter that he's sold strawberries to for years. I'm rich, he's poor," I explain, but she just rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, right. I'll be waiting for the moment when he professes his undying love for you to Cesar Flickerman," she laughs.
The spear flies into the dummy's head and we both start to grin.
"Good luck in there, Gale," I say after Penelope leaves our table for her private session with the Game makers. She would have never forgiven me for wishing him luck when it's beneficial to us for him to fail miserably today.
"Yeah, you too," Gale sighs.
We sit in silence, each completely miserable and nervous, until the girl from 11 (I found out from Penelope that she's supposed to be Thresh's sister or cousin of some sort) is called in for her private session. At this point, Gales starts to speak again.
"Did you ever figure out a good weapon, Madge?" he asks, genuinely curious.
"Yeah, I'm okay with knives and spears. Useless with a bow and arrow, but at least knives and spears are something to show the Game makers," I reply. Gale nods, but he looks incredibly stressed about something. Not that I can blame him, of course. We're about to fight to our deaths in front of everyone we love and loves us back.
"I should have helped you more," he blurts out.
"It's fine that you were looking out for yourself, Gale. Only one of us can live so what would the point have even been of teaching me anything?" I say.
He sighs as if he wants to say something but decides against it. We sit alone in the silence for a few more minutes until Gale speaks again.
"Did you make any alliances?" he asks.
"I think so. What about you?" I reply, not wanting to get into too much detail.
"Same," he says.
Then his name is called and I am alone for about twenty minutes, with only a sense of dread for company.
"Hello, Miss… Undersee," the Head Game maker, Plutarch Heavensbee, says. The rest are too busy drinking and eating to really give any notice at all. But I notice something else, too. It looks like a force field has been set up between them and the training floor. I can't imagine why, so I ask.
This seems to get their attention even though no one answers me, so I decide to start.
I throw about ten spears and they all hit close to a vital organ on the dummies. One even manages to go straight through the heart and another through an eye. Unfortunately, I was aiming for the spot between the eyes, but the Game makers don't know that, so I pretend like I meant to do it. I throw a few knives too, but they seem to be getting bored with all of this.
That's when I see the paints.
I grab a large pallet of yellows and greens as well as a peachy color and a blue one, and begin to work on my creation on the floor. I've never been particularly gifted with the visual arts, but I've drawn this many, many times before. It's on every card I have ever given my mother and every family picture I've ever drawn at school.
I step back so the Game makers can see what I have painted. A few seems confused, but one in the back whispers something and they seem to understand. The others look shocked at both my abilities and the portrait of my Aunt Maysilee with her golden Mockingjay pin.
A buzzer goes off and Plutarch Heavensbee rises carefully from his seat.
"Thank you, Miss Undersee. You may go now."
I leave shocked with myself and scared for what is to come.
This is the only good thing that came out of me blowing off my Hamlet essay. Spoiler alert, but literally every major character, except for one, dies. I am not even kidding you. It's almost like Hunger Games in that sense, except with badly imitated British accents (courtesy of my English class).
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter as much as I enjoyed procrastinating. Please leave a review (even though you guys have been fantastic about it, I still feel the need to ask).