Okay, so before we begin, I'm really really REALLY sorry I haven't posted anything in ages, just again, I've had exams (I've actually been writing another story in English, comment if you would like to hear more about it!) also, my parents seem to think that NOW is the best time to put me in loads of clubs -.- so I have hardly any time. But it's hear, the next chapter, and chapter 7 is already in progress! So yes, I don't own the Hunger Games, and thank you so much to LifeThroughSeaGreenEyes, Moonlight Beauty8, teampeeta07, Lady Luna Riddle, and GizzyGirl for favouriting, reviewing and subscribing to my story. You people keep me writing, so please check out their channels guys! Anyway, on with the story!
I'm woken up the next day by Effie pounding on the door. "Get up!" she cries. Then in a gentler tone, "It's going to be a big BIG day!" I groan. Today is when we begin training.
It's not the training that I mind; it's the fact that I have to socialize with y competition. With the people that I have to kill in order to survive. I'm terrified, but also slightly curious. Maybe by meeting them I'll find out some good tactics to use on the other tributes. I look on my bed, and see a t-shirt and some trousers. The number 4 is sewn in to the back pocket, and when I put them on, they're pretty comfy. I brush my hair, which is a lot easier thanks to my prep team, but the tangles have begun to appear already. The weather outside is sunny, which would usually mean a day at the beach swimming with Mantis, but now I wish it was a colossal storm; that's how I feel inside.
I'm quiet at breakfast, which was the opposite of last night, when I was crying out in awe of our quarters. It's magnificent, all modern and sophisticated, with a view that stretches over the entire city. But now I don't care about the crystal chandeliers or the fluffy rugs, and I've seemed to be chewing the same piece of pancake for about half an hour now.
Of course, Garter is as happy as anything, so nobody notices me as he tells them all a so called humorous story about the time he caught a shark instead of a fish. "I nearly got it, you know," he said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "I'm one of the best fishers in all of district 4." Skylar, Effie, Haven and Garter's stylist, whose name turns out to be Taylor, who has poker straight blue hair and jewels dotted around one eye. She keeps on saying, "Twinsies!" when she sees me, as our names sound the same. I give a little giggle every time, but really I just want to push her face into the bowl of porridge that she's eating right now. They all clap their hands in admiration, but Finnick is just listening interestedly. He looks at me with a very subtle wink as Garter explains how some people don't know how to fish very well. Obviously he remembers the conversation we had on the train.
Effie looks at her watch. "OH MY GOODNESS!" she cries, causing us all to jump and Taylor to drop her spoon on her suede skirt. "We're late!" she shrieks, unaware of the chaos that has emerged. She grabs Garter and me by the arm and pulls us towards the lift. "Good luck!" I hear someone call. I think it's Skylar.
"Nice butt!" that's definatly Finnick.
We run into the training room, which is already full. It's a big dark looking room with red stripes, with equipment and weapons strewn out all over the place. Above us are the gamemakers, who will obviously be watching us while we train. The woman in charge of training us all gives us both a disapproving look, and we both sheepishly move into our place around her. "Quiet everyone!" she says in a clear, pruney voice. "Now, welcome to the training centre. Over the next two days, you will be taught how to be able to battle your way through the arena. There are different stations, each one with a different skill to teach. We wish for you to move calmly throughout each station, and absolutely no fighting; you'll have plenty of time for that in the arena." I hear Garter give a little chuckle, and I see my fellow careers smirking as well. People are looking at me, expecting the same. Trying to keep to the status quo, I do my best to look smug, but just end up looking like I've swallowed a lemon.
"Now remember, don't just go for the big shiny weapons to practice with. If you wish to survive for more than a day, knowing how to start a fire can be the difference between life and death. Although the majority of you have had experience with weapons, it is most likely that more than half of you will die of natural causes. 10% of heatstroke, 20% from dehydration…."
She rambles on, and I let my mind wander. I already know this, and I know there's no point telling the other careers the stuff she's saying. And just as I suspect, as soon as she's finished talking they head over to the station which holds the deadliest looking weapons, and I find myself following them.
Garter takes the spear of course, and the rest of the careers scramble for the rest of the weapons, so all that's left for me is an axe. I shrug. I might as well make this work; I can't be any worse with an axe than I am with a spear.
We begin training with these objects which make me feel wrong even by holding them. Occasionally we swap weapons, but I do so reluctantly, as it actually comes to show that I'm not too shabby with the axe. On the first few tries I'm only a little bit off the centre of the target, and with a few more throws I manage to do it. The other careers nod, pretty impressed, and the other tributes seem to be a bit wary of me. Probably the reason for that is because I imagine Garter as the target.
And yet I seem to be beside him the whole time. Pretty two faced, I know. We attempt to laugh and joke, as we both know that if we start arguing, the other careers will turn against one of us; and Garter knows that I'm good at getting people on my side, so he doesn't try anything. But I don't take any chances either.
With the other weapons I don't appear to be too incompetent with them. Although I never get a bullzeye, I do hit the target a lot with the bow and arrows. However, I don't seem to be pretty swift with the knife, and I'm even worse at throwing them. I have to practise with them a lot more. I don't dare try to practice with the bludgeon. It looks such a barbaric weapon and the guy from two looks too fond of it for me to try and take it off him.
Unfortunately I can't avoid using the spear for much longer. They're all pushing it at me now, expecting me to be brilliant with it like Garter is. Oh, how wrong they are. I finally take it, and line up in front of the target, shaking nervously.
Come on now, Paylor, I say to myself, don't be an idiot, don't let them think you're weak, just hit the target, that's all I'm asking, just hit the target-
I throw it at the target madly, but it goes in the complete opposite direction. It zooms past the district 3 girl who squeals, and nearly it narrowly missies the girl from 6. She jumps back from the camouflage station, eyes wide and mouth open.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I shriek, running over to her to check if she's ok. She's giggling. "Yeah, I'm fine thanks." She says politely, but then gives a cheeky smile. "I don't think you should practice with the spear anymore though." Suddenly, I find myself laughing. We begin talking, and I decide to ditch the careers for a bit- they won't mind, they're too busy fighting over who gets to use the sword next- and pick up some survival skills with her. We talk quite a lot; not asking any personal questions, but she seems like a pretty sweet and kind girl, just like an ordinary 12 year old would seem. She talks a lot about the boy from 12, saying all the stuff that I've been thinking, but quickly shuts up when a Gamemaker strolls past. All throughout this I'm learning some pretty decent tips to stay alive. I'm just learning how to make a fire when I spot the boy from 8 dodging plastic knives which the trainers are throwing at him. He just about misses one by doing some sort of pirouette in mid-air. I take the opportunity to get him back for mocking me.
I stroll over. "Training for the ballet?" I say, in the best snide voice I can muster up. This startles him, and he gets hit bang on, right in the face. He rubs his temple, and then sticks his middle finger up at me. The gamemakers raise their eyebrows, but don't do anything; they know he's not too offended. I grin at him and stroll back to my station.
After learning some very good survival skills I wander back to the careers to see what they make of my terrible spear handling. Garter has a smirk on his face, but the others don't seem to be too bothered. I just stick with the axe for the rest of the morning.
As training continues, I find out a little bit more about my opponents. The girl from district 1 is very beefy, and she's got a pretty manly personality to go with it. Her name is Starlet, and she became such a tomboy due to having 6 older brothers and no sisters. They all volunteered for the hunger games. They all won.
The boy from 1 is called Jazz and is a little bit less scary, but even so, I make sure to keep a distance from him. He seems pretty nice, and of course being from district 1 he is very good looking, but brags a lot about how he broke this guy's leg with just one hit. When I ask him why he did it, Jazz just smirks and says,
"He looked at me funny."
The girl from 2, name of Marilyn, is a lot quieter. She's the youngest out of all of us, being only 13, with dark hair and big blue eyes, and she actually seems pretty nervous and dreamy, plus she isn't very good with any weapons apart from a slingshot. Turns out she was bullied a bit at school, leaving her weak and scared of a lot of things. I find myself feeling sorry for her, but then scorn myself. Being empathetic won't help you win.
And finally, the boy from two is the nicest of them all. His name is Sam, and it seems like I'll have some competition during the interview. You have to hand it to him; he knows his stuff about charming. I act charming too, and we find ourselves laughing and joking around even though we've only known each other for a couple of hours. I flirt with him, acting stupidly, and he has this little comedy routine using his machete all set up for me. I can tell we're both really thinking how to slit each other's throats while they're sleeping. I can't help feeling sick at this, and with myself. Have the games already changed me before they've even started?
It's weird, though, I actually seem to like it. After being out casted by every boy around my age apart from Mantis- Oh god I shouldn't be thinking about him- it feels nice to have someone who seems to want me, even though I know it's fake.
But still, everything seems to be going pretty well. That is until lunch.
I sit with the careers of course. We're the only ones in a group; the other tributes are by themselves, apart from my new 12 year old friend, who seems to be suffering the droning coming from the mouth of the girl from 3, and boy, does she go on. I feel like stuffing my meal in her mouth; then maybe she'll shut up.
The rest of the careers are talking as well, usually about home. Each pair of district tributes seem to have a link with the other one, so we hear stories on how Starlet and Jazz had had to do an art project and ended up nearly blowing the whole school apart- don't ask, and that Sam and Marilyn were both in the school play one time and Marilyn forgot her lines, her costume ripped in two and she fell off the stage. She nervously laughs with everyone else at this story.
"So what about you guys?" asks Sam to me and Garter, "anything you've done together?"
Argue with each other mainly, I think. But Garter and I know we have to fit in, so we give each other a look, swallow deeply, put away our differences and get ourselves ready for the sheer agony that is sure to come.
"Well," I begin, and fake a small laugh, "there was this one time in the summer when we-"
"Oh, you mean the boat and pie incident?" asks Garter, and he too begins to chuckle. Obviously I have no idea what he's talking about, but I nod excitedly. "Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about!" we both begin laughing, while the others watch us, curiously waiting to hear more.
"You see," I begin, making the story up in my head as I go along, "Garter and I had decided to take out the boat to go fishing together," my voice wobbles at the end. I never thought I'd ever have to say those words at any point in my lifetime.
"It was my boat of course," Garter buts in, "Paylor could never afford one." he secretly gives me a sneer. Trust him to make a stab at me even when we're pretending to be friends.
I grimace back at him, and say, "although it was a rubbish boat, it kept stopping all of the time." Garter stops laughing for a second. "Anyway, before we'd managed to set off, the baker came over and decided to give us some pies to taste."
"But I thought that the bakers in 4 never let anyone have something for free." Says Starlet suspiciously.
"Yeah, that's what I've heard." Adds Jazz.
"Yeah, well um, that one baker is really nice." Says Garter quickly. He doesn't sound at all believable, but everyone seems to be convinced.
"So we decided to take them out with us on the boat to eat while we fished." I continue, "We fished for a while, adding a nice pile up, ["I caught loads!" smirks Garter] when all of a sudden-"
"A great big fish jumps out of the water and slaps Paylor in the face!" cries Garter. Everyone begins laughing, as do I because I've got to keep this act up, but then say:
"Actually Garter, it was you who got hit. I remember seeing your face; you looked like you'd just been caught in a hurricane." I imitate him, and everyone laughs. Garter shakes his head.
"No, it was you."
"No, it was you-"
"Maybe you we're both so shocked about the other one getting hurt you don't remember?" says Sam helpfully. We both jump at this opportunity.
"Yeah," I say, and I feel myself die a little inside, "that's it." this is torture, because if Garter were to get hurt, I'd most likely just laugh. "So we both jump back-"
"And Paylor falls in all the pies!" laughs Garter. He really wants to make sound like an idiot, doesn't he? Still, I decide to let this one go so I laugh along with everyone else. He continues, "So this fish is just laid on top of her, and it's practically licking the pie off her!" everyone laughs, even though to me it's a disgusting thought.
"Gross!" exclaims Jazz, but he's laughing.
"Wish I was that fish." Purrs Sam. God, he's just as bad as Finnick. The other careers wolf whistle while I theatrically gasp, offended, and gently shove him, giggling- and with my skin crawling.
"And then the boat breaks down and completely falls apart, [Garter growls] so we both just fall into the water, with bits of boat, pie, and dead fish everywhere! And that's not the best part!" I pretend to wipe a tear of laughter from my eye. Time to make this story seem realistic. "This girl from Garter's class, you know the one, right?" I say to him. In order to make this seem real I have to include him in the conversation.
It's the last thing we both want him to do, but he answers, "you mean the blonde one?"
"No, the other one!"
"Oh, you mean the redhead?"
"That's the one, well she runs to the shore, doesn't see me, and yells to Garter, "Can I join you?"!" everyone's screaming with laughter now, slapping the tables, getting the hiccups. I can even hear people from nearby tables chuckling. I never really thought of myself as a funny person, except from when I'm with Mantis or Father- I really need to stop thinking about them!- but these guys seem to think of my story as hilarious. I'm just glad that it's over, because then we can talk about something else and Garter and I don't have to pretend to be friends anymore.
So after that we just talk about how good we are with weapons. It's ignorant, but it doesn't really bother me, so I stick it out and do my best to join in with the conversation.
"You see," says Sam, his straw coloured hair glimmering in the light. "I got these muscles by picking up bags of metal each day. I used to wow all of the girls with these guns." He wasted no time, and was immediately flexing. I placed a hand on his arm.
"Wow, they're amazing." I say in such a sickening voice I want to slap myself. But my natural instincts of lying and charming have taken me over.
He smirks, and passes me his pudding, "but of course, none of those girls have a chance against you."
I giggle like an idiot. "Oh shut up!" I say, flirtingly flicking him. Please, will someone just stab with me a knife or something-
"I'm serious," he says, looking into my eyes, "there was this one girl who looked like a seal, and she acted like one when she was clapping me." he does a cruel imitation of her, and I force myself to laugh. If being shallow is the only way to survive, then so be it. It doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.
"I wrote a story about a seal once," says Marilyn quietly. "The seal had special powers, only miss said that wasn't accurate, and gave me an F." I want to pat her on the shoulder as she does look quite upset by this, but everyone else ignores her, so I do too. Great, so I'm giving in to peer pressure now too.
Not that I wasn't before. I seriously want to blow off these careers, and I keep furiously asking myself why I don't. I know the answer of course. Leaving them will give me an even smaller chance of winning.
Father is going to hate me.
"So," says Jazz in a hushed whisper, "what's our plan of action?" everyone suddenly stops eating, and begins to look serious. Though Marilyn is daydreaming of course.
"My guess is," says Starlet, "go for the biggest threats first, and then weed out all the weak ones afterwards." Sam nods.
"But wouldn't that mean we'd have to weed out them all?" sneers Garter, not bothering to keep his voice down. We all laugh, but mine appears a lot later than everyone else's.
"But in what order should we go for them during the blood bath?" asks Sam, "we really need to sort that out, take them all out to save a lot of trouble of finding them in the arena."
"By the way," I put in, as I know I have to speak up sometime. "What do you think will the arena be like?"
"It won't be like last year, thank god." Jazz says with a sigh of relief. "They always do something completely different from the year before."
They talk about it while I ponder. What will it be like? I'm really hoping what Jazz has said is true, because I know I haven't got a chance of surviving in a swamp arena filled with disgusting creatures. I'm hoping it's some kind of water type place; I'm good at swimming and there'll be a lot of water to drink from. I just hope it isn't salt water, because getting the salt out of it; I have no idea how that works. Or maybe a forest arena, that won't be too hard. It probably will be a forest; they always have wood since a couple of years back when nearly every tribute froze to death during the games, even the victor.
"Anyway," Says Garter, "back on to our competition. I say we go for the boy from 9 first. He seems quite tough, so it's best to get him out of the way first." We quickly take a glance at him, to see his eyes glaring back at us. As he's sat at the table nearest to us, he's heard every word. I shuffle uncomfortably in my seat, but the rest of the careers just give him an evil grin. He goes back to his lunch.
"Then next, the boy from 6-"
"What about the girl from 7? She's done better than him in the training!" Sam pipes in.
"I guess you're right. But without that axe, she's nothing. Paylor," Jazz says, making me jump, "you're good with an axe. Make sure you get it before she does." I give a nod, but running straight into the mess of the cornucopia really isn't the best idea I had in mind for myself.
"Okay," says Garter, "so the boy from 9, the girl from 7, and then the boy from 6. Remember guys, when we kill them, make sure to give the audience a show. That way they'll like us better; maybe even send us more sponsor gifts; if we need them I mean." Everyone nods, including me. But how can they all talk about this so casually, as if they were deciding what to have for dinner? How can they be so ignorant? How can they be so sure that their opponents won't kill them first?
"So who else?" I say. I desperately want to get out of this conversation, but what else can I do?
"Erm, how about that girl from 8?"
"Yeah, she seems pretty tough, plus I've heard that she and the boy from 6 have made an alliance. After we've killed him she'll come running in to save him, and BAM! We'll kill her the same way!" The whole of the table laughs. I'm getting seriously annoyed with them right now, but I don't say anything.
"Why her?" asks Starlet, "why not the girl from 6?"
"You mean that little kid? Why would he want her? I mean did you see her practising with a bow? She's almost as bad as that boy from 12, ha-ha!" Laughs Sam. The anger is building up inside of me, I'm even starting to twitch, how DARE they?
"She's my friend." I say slowly with gritted teeth.
Everyone raises their eyebrows, but they aren't too surprised since they saw me with her just an hour ago. Maybe that's why they said that. "Why on earth would you pick her as a friend?" asks Starlet. She almost sounds disgusted. I don't say anything.
"Maybe because Paylor knows that she's just as bad with a bow?" mocks Garter, which is unfair because I'm not actually that bad. I'm getting even angrier now.
"Leave her alone, Garter." Says Sam. Garter quickly shuts up. I can't say that I'm not grateful to Sam for this, but I still want to slam his face into the plate he's eating from after he made fun of the girl from 6.
"You're also friends with that boy from 8, aren't you Paylor?" says Marilyn randomly. She sees everyone's questioning look. "I saw her talking to him a while ago." She explains, her voice still sounding dreamy.
"WHAT?" the other 4 of them say. They seem pretty annoyed with me now.
"No, we're not friends," I stammer quickly, "I just-"
"Why, Paylor, why?"
"Yeah Paylor, he's even worse than the 12 year old!"
"Actually, he's pretty good with weapons and stuff." I say defensively. I know this because I've seen him; and I'm not lying, he is good. Nearly career standard.
"No, we mean about what he's been saying." Whispers Starlet. "I overheard him at the beginning of training; he was talking to the other district 8 tribute. The things he was saying!"
"Like what?" I ask.
"He was talking about how stupid the gamemakers were, saying how they found wine more interesting while children were teaching themselves how to kill others."
"Stupid idiot," says Garter, "what else?" I'm really starting to follow in my mother's angry footsteps; I've managed to squish my carrots into mushy nothingness with my fork.
"I'm not sure, he was pretty far away, plus he was mumbling to her, but I know he definatly insulted the games, and even President Snow!" they all gasp, but I'm not really sure why. Why wouldn't he insult Snow, he's the reason 23 of us are going to die.
"It's just because he's jealous that he has no chance in the hunger games." Says Sam bitterly, and they all laugh meanly. I clench my fists.
"Yeah, I'm glad Snow did create these games, to get rid of weasels like him-"
"SHUT UP!" I shoot up, making them all jump and knocking over my drink. The whole room's gone silent and the Gamemakers are watching us warily while I continue screaming, "HOW DARE YOU? HOW ******* DARE YOU?"
I've lost my temper; I'm in full rampaging mode. Soon after my outburst Starlet seems to be too.
"WHAT THE **** ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU'RE NOT SERIOUSLY SAYING THAT YOU AGREE WITH HIM?"
"YEAH, I DO ACTUALLY!"
"WHO THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" I want to throw myself at her with my knife, but I'm not stupid enough to do that, and neither is she. However, I'm three to one when Jazz and Garter join in. They're all double my size but I suddenly don't care.
"ARE YOU EVEN A PROPER CAREER?" Jazz yells.
"OH WOW, BEING ABLE TO KILL INNCOENT PEOPLE, THAT'S SOMETHING I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO ******* TRAIN FOR!"
"JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'T ******* DO IT!" cries Garter. "THAT'S WHY YOUR MOTHER HAS ALWAYS LIKED ME BEST!"
"BRINGING IN MY MOTHER, ARE WE?" I scream, "HOW ******* ORIGINAL YOU ****!"
The whole rooms staring at us; even the boy from 12 has stopped playing with his food and is looking scared. Gamemakers are running over.
"SHUT UP!" yells Starlet.
"MAKE ME YOU FAT PIECE OF ****!"
"Okay, okay let's all calm down now!" says a Gamemaker, lodging himself between us. The whole room is looking at me, some admiring me some thinking I'm crazy, but they all seem to be on my side. I glare at the careers for a moment, and vice versa, before grabbing my plate- and spilling most of the food out of it- and beginning to stomp away. I've gone a few steps before Garter's words stop me. I turn around to see him pointing his finger accusingly at me.
"Walk one more step away from this table," he cries slowly, panting after shouting at me, "and you're dead meat."
The rest of the careers are looking at me in the same way, even Marilyn and Sam. The other tributes are desperately waiting to see what my response is; either I sheepishly walk back or I walk away. Even the gamemakers are holding their breath. The cameras must be loving this. I already know what I'm going to do.
I give a small laugh mockingly. "Oh trust me," I say coolly, "I was dead meat anyway."
And with that I walk off, leaving the whole table glaring at my back, seething. I get to the table furthest away from them, slam down my tray, and sit down. Once I've calmed down I realise what I've done.
I want to put my head in my hands; oh no, what is wrong with me? I have single handily messed up any chance of me winning this thing. Now I'm going to be the careers biggest target, and they know all of my strengths and all of my weaknesses when it comes to weapons. I'm doomed.
And what about my family? My mother will be furious with me, and with the fact I've ditched the very people that gave me the best chance of survival. Even father will be disappointed, he told me not to talk about what I thought of the careers and the games, and I've done just that. Even Mantis will think I'm crazy.
But I don't want the careers to see my regret. I can't give them that satisfaction, so I begin spooning up forkfuls of food into my mouth. But after the fight I'm not hungry anymore and the food tastes like cardboard, but I eat it anyway. Bu suddenly my thoughts are interrupted when a voice comes out of nowhere:
"Can I sit with you?"
I look up to see the boy from 8. He's holding his tray and, well, not exactly smiling at me but it's not as if he's glaring.
Finnick's voice as he warned me not to get close to anyone flashes through my mind. I know I've already done so with the careers, but he said that it was ok. This on the other hand, will not go down well.
However, it's quite lonely, sitting at the table all by myself. And it's not as if I've followed the rules so far. Just don't be too friendly, I tell myself and then nod to the chair on the opposite side of the table, inclining that he can sit. He sits down quickly, and begins to eat. We don't talk.
But I come to notice as the meal goes on that he seems to be staring at me. Whenever I look up, BAM his eyes are staring at my face so intensely you'd think I'd been painted purple or something. He's staring at me alright, but surprisingly it's not in a drooly, lovey dovey creepy pervert way, like it was with Sam. It seems like he's trying to break into my head and read my thoughts. Thinking that I'm imagining it, I shake it off at first. But again, whenever my eyes slightly flicker up, I seehis eyes fixed on me. It's really starting to bug me, and due to the current circumstances, I'm in no mood to be pleasant. After 5 more minutes of the torture, I snap, "What?"
"Huh?" asks the boy, still staring.
"Why were you staring at me?" I demand, flicking my hair out of my eyes so I can squint them at him suspiciously. Is he thinking of the best way to chop off my head or something?
"No I wasn't." he says, sounding annoyed.
"Yes you were!" I say, also ticked off.
"No I wasn't."
"Yes, you were, I saw you!"
"But wouldn't that mean you were staring at me?" that's it.
"Argh!" this is not going well. I get up and storm out of the room, leaving my lunch. My appetite hasn't come back, anyway.
So finally, her and the boy have had a conversation! Not a particulary GOOD one, but still, yaaayyy! So the next chapter will be on quicker than this one was, please keep reviewing and favouriting! Remember if you do, you'll get a shout out in my next story! Also check out my other story, Slightly Sexy Twilight: a parody. I've been getting so many reads latley on both of them, and I've got you guys to thank for! Anyway, there's going to be a lot more of district 8 boy in the next chapter, so don't worry, haha!
Love Lucy