I'M SORRY! I waited so long for the next chapter to be put up! I've been focusing on other fanfictions, and I admit, I didn't feel like writing this chapter, cuz anything before they enter the arena is MAD boring. You guys forgive me right? I'm really sorry, I really, truly am sorry.
Expect more updates when they get into the arena, cuz that's where the fun begins!
OKAY! So the last chapter was short, but it stated that Haymitch is finally coming to terms with the fact that he will proabably never make it back to District 12, so yeah. That's how I imagined him, knowing he had to no chance but covering it up with lies and arrogance. I'm sorry if you see him a different way, he's just like that in my mind.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I wish everyone well.
I played with my food, which is unusal for me. I honestly didn't want to eat the food they had prepared, whether it was delicious or not. For some reason, I would've rather eaten the meager meals my mother made every day back home in the Seam. I want to sleep in the rickety old bed that we all schared, and I wanted to gather apples everyday. I want to help my mother put out the frequent fires that our stove caused. I even wanted to be back with my useless father, Cruz, who only cared about bringing home money and not his family. I want to help Colette with her hair and tease her constantly about her ratty ribbons and dressed. Heck, I miss being poor and having no food in my stomach, and I miss the apple tree most of all.
I really don't like being stuffed silly and being pampered. I hate the fact they have gadgets for every single mundane thing like drying or brushing your hair. It makes me disgusted, actually. Very disgusted. I don't want to be at the table anymore, and I don't want to go to the ridicously plush room. I get up and walk away from the table to the door that lead to the roof. I ignore Ailia who calls me back to the table and I push the door open a bit melodramatically.
I go up the stairs as quickly as I can and I soon emerge at the top. The air smells like flowers and the rising sun is slowly turning the sky into a light blue. I walk up to the railing and looked down. The capitol was still busy even at this early hour, there were cars flying down the roads and it must've been loud. I could't hear anything other than a faint buzz. I look around the rest of this tiny little haven. There's a little garden, and the plants look well tended. I make my way over to the garden and sit down in front of it.
I've always like flowers, but fruit trees will always be my favorite. I touch the leaf of one of the flowers and rub it between my fingers. I wonder what type of plant this is.
"That's a white rose," A voice coming from behind me says. I turn around, a little shaken since I didn't hear the door open. I see Micah standing five feet away from me. I study her. She was small for a 14 year old, and her hair was strangely short for a girls. It came only to about the middle of her neck, and it was a dark brown. I motion her over, and she comes to sit next to me.
"How do you know?" I ask her. I thought back to school. I don't remember learning about plants in school, so I doubt that she has. Micah holds her legs in her arms and looks at the garden.
"My Mom spent a lot of time in the apothecary shop, she told me a lot of the names of flowers when I went there. I fell in love with them, they smelled so nice, they looked so pretty. They're absolutely perfect," She said in a dreamy tone. I turned to look at her, eyeing her up and down.
"Are they that special to you?" I ask. She nods and plays with one of the petals of a purple flower.
"Yes, I love them very much. They remind me of my Mom actually. Is there anything that you hold dear to yourself, Haymitch?" She asks me. I look at her and find her staring at me. Her teeth were really uneven and sort of just out from her lips a little bit. I look away from her.
"A ring," Is all I said to her. She nods.
"What kind of ring?" She asks me, beginning to bug into my business.
"A silver one. It looks like ropes intertwining," I say lowly, thinking of Deirdre. She'll be disappointed if she sees me being an ass. I shake the thought away.
"Ooh, it sounds beautiful. How did you get enough money to buy it?" She asks.
"I didn't. My sweetheart made it for me," I say. Micah nods and stands up, wiping off the back of her legs. She gave me a quick smile.
"Well, she's very kind for doing that. I guess I'll be going back," she said, with a small wave. I waved back and watched her descend down the stairs. I think Micah is way too nice for her own good. Later on in the day we're supposed to be having our private training with the game keepers. Dang, I'm dreading that. I'll probably get a four or a three. I lay on my back and look at the sky above. There were some white and fluffy clouds lazily making their way across the light blue sky. The only beautiful part of this city is the sky and the limited plants. If I tried hard enough, I'm almost reminded of being lazy in the meadow with Deirdre, we used to lie there for hours. It was like a slice of heaven, just for Deirdre and I.
"HAYMITCH!" A shrill voice screamed into my ear. I sit up immediately and slam into something that seemed to be hard as rock. I flop back down on the ground and rub my forehead. I groan and open one eye. I see bright green eyes staring into mine, pink skin crinkled around said eyes, and her signature bright blue hair was in hundreds of buns around her head. I hiss at her under my breath, she doesn't seem affected.
"It's time for your private training! Time to get up now!" She half shouted. I don't reply and stand up, and look away from Ailia. She somehow manages to skip ahead of me in her sky high heels and close fitting gold dress with swirling cut outs. I don't really look in her general direction. Downstairs the rest of the tributes were standing by the elevator, most likely waiting for Ailia and I.
Maysilee seemed to have forgotten all about yesterday because she smiled at me. I didn't make an effort to return it, as usual. Ailia presses a button and the door opens. She smiles and makes us get into the elevator. I get in just before Ailia does. I end up standing near Maysilee, and I make no effort to even look in her or anyone elses direction, I didn't have anything to say.
"Are you nervous?" Maysilee asks me. I look at her from the side. She was looking at me and her long golden hair that was fairly curly was up in a ponytail.
"No," was my short answer. She nods and turns away for a second.
"I'm nervous," she replies.
"That's fantastic," I say automatically.
"You don't care at all, do you?" She inquires. I smirk. So she sees the truth.
"Yup," I reply cooly. Maysilee says nothing else to me. The elevator door opens seconds later and I was somehow the last person out. We didn't really get to practice any of the skills before we went into the private training, whihc left us to sit around the large table, waiting for our turn. To my fortune, District 12 went last, but I was the first one to go. The order is sort of strange if you think about it. It counts down from 1 to 12, boys go in before girls, and it's in alphabetical order. Whatever happened to ladies first, hmm?
I sat there making random shapes with my fingers on the table. How boring can it possibly be to sit in a room with 47 other people around my age that I could totally talk to if I wanted to? Apparently, very boring. My eyes wandered around the table, looking at the other contestants. So far, only one person has left and it feels like I've been here for hours (more like five minutes). Maysilee was in deep conversating with Micah and Harris seemed to be checking out another tribute.
"So, Harris," I say, turning to him. His eyes widen, and he looks from me to the girl he was looking at, his cheeks turning red. He cleared his throat.
"Um, yes?" I open my mouth, then close it, not actually knowing what the heck to say. Harris decides to fill the silence. "You're pretty mean to Maysilee," he says out of the blue. I blink twice, really not knowing whether or not to reply. "She always complains about how you're so full of yourself and how you only care about yourself. She doesn't think you're very nice," he finished.
"If she thinks I'm a jerk, why does she keep talking to me?" I ask him. It was a perfectly logical question if you ask me. She tries to talk to me every chance she gets, yet she thinks I'm a jerk. That makes absolutely no sense at all. Harris shrugs and leans a shoulder on the table.
"I don't know. Maybe because she thinks you're cute, or she wants to make you nicer. She never actually told me that," he finished quickly. I don't even comment on that and turn away from Harris. Jeez, why is Maysilee so weird?
Time passed quicker when the last girl from District 11 went into the room. I bobbed my legs, which is extremely unlike me, but hey, everyone has nervous tendencies, right? I continually clasped and unclaspsed my hands in my lap. I find myself wanting to get this over with more and more.
"Are you sure you're not nervous?" Maysilee asks from behind me. I swivel the chair to face her and see her wih a questioning look on her face. I smile to seem as confident as possible.
"Of course I'm not," I quickly reply. It was more of an instinctive thing than a consious thing. She nodded and rolled her eyes slightly.
"Whatever you say Haymitch," she says while walking back to Micah. I swing my chair back so I'm facing the table once again. I hear a door open and I feel a presence next to me. I think I just shit myself. I look out of the corner of my eye and see a small and stout woman with a clipboard standing beside me. Her lips were in a perfect 'M' shape and they were covered in dark purple lipstick. Her pink hair was in a strange updo, and her skin was thankfully a natural color. She wore a short dress that was a deep blue and had several stones all over it.
"Haymitch Abernathy, it's time," she said with a strange smile on her face. I sigh and stand up, pushing the chair back, letting it roll across the floor. She quickly makes her way to the door and holds it open. I walk through and hear her click clacking behind me. She sat in a chair in the corner of the room and checked something off on her checkboard. She looked back up at me.
"Go on through that door," she said to me, gesturing the large brown door on the other end of the room. I make my way to the door and grasp the handle, preparing for the worst. With a deep breath I throw the door open and walking inside, trying my best to look as if I hadn't a care in the world. The game makers were sitting at a table, looking pretty bored if you ask me. I quickly scan the room and decide to go to the kives first.
I've only used knives once and that was when Cruz showed me how to throw knives in the woods. "If we ever need to leave this place," he had said. I guess he wanted me to be prepared for something that would never happen in one million years.
I picked up one of the knives and turned it over and over in my hand. I turn around and stare at the big target on the wall. I hope I can still get this right. I take aim and squint, trying to line everything up perfectly. I threw the knife, but it ends up missing the board by a quater inch. I reach back and take another knife and aim again. I realize my mistake. My foot hadn't been aimed at the target last time, but now it is.
I throw my arm forward, letting go of the knife. It sailed through the air and it hit the target. Not on bullseye where I would've liked it to though, but about two rings away from bullseye. I throw another knife, taking even more care to aim and I almost get bullseye, but missing it from what looked like one quater of an inch. I looked at the game makers and saw that they didn't really care at all.
I move onto a different station; snares and knots. I pick up a piece of rope that was just lying on the table. I tied the one knot I remembered. I messed it up on the first, second, and third try. I threw the knot back onto the table and walked around in a circle in the middle of the room, trying to find something else to use. My eyes immediately go to the swords in the back of the room. I've never actually picked up a sword, but I'm willing to try it.
I walk over and pick up the first sword I could get my hand on. It was light and fit perfectly in my hand. I swung it across my once and found that it was surprisingly easy to use. Though it was sort of hard to control the swing. All of a sudden a dozen of staw dummies fell from the ceiling. I sharply take in a breath. I get over the surprise quickly. I go up the the first dummy and swing the sword across the waist. It goes through for the most part, and I swing again to chop off the little part that was still intact. I go up the the next one, and put more force behind the swing. This time the dummy was chopped in half on the first try, but I spun around once from the momentum.
I took a moment to steady myself. Just when I was about to go to the next dummy one of the gamemakers spoke.
"That is enough. You can leave," he said. I look at them and see that some of them were happily munching on turkey legs. I let the sword clatter onto the ground and push the dummy out of my way. I reach the door and fling it open. The short woman sees me and gets up from her seat, going into the room where Maysilee and them were sitting at the table. I click the button and step inside, slumping against the wall.
I did horrible, I know I did. I couldn't tie any knots and I missed the bullseye everytime I threw the knives. I even couldn't stop myself from spinning when I swung the sword. I won't be surprised if I got a three or a five. I feel the elevator lurch, then I feel weightless. I grab onto the railing and close my eyes, inclining my head. If I imagined enough, it felt as if I was flying. I admit, I did grab the railing because I'm still a bit afraid of elevators.
In seconds the elevator comes to a stop, not one of those sudden stops but one of those very soft ones that just sort of swoop in very fast so that you don't notice. The elevator dings and the doors open without a sound. I open my eyes and slowly detach myself from the wall. Oh well for imagination then. Back on the floor Ailia swoops on me like a hawk. She grabs my shoulders.
"How did you do? Did you do well?" She asks somewhat frantically. I frown at her and brush her hands off of me.
"Stop touching me," I say as a reply. I walk away from her.
"How did you do?" She asks again. I turn around and see her standing in the same spot as she was before. I shrug.
"We'll see tonight, won't we?" I don't really expect an answer, so I walk away from her. I go right into my room and collapse onto my bed, not before kicking off my shoes of course. I fall asleep before I even hit the covers.
Just when Dierdre was about to put the ring on my finger I'm rudely awakened. I groan and slap and arm randomly in the air. Like I guessed, it hit someone. Except, when they said ouch, they didn't sound like Ailia. I open my eyes and quickly sit up. I see Maysilee rubbing her arm, a big red mark from where I must have hit here. I form an 'o' with my lips, then quickly blame her for getting in my way.
"Haymitch!" She scolds. I cross my arms defensively.
"It's not my fault!" I say back. She rolls her eyes and turns around.
"The scores are about to come up," she says right before walking out. Oh, that, the scores. I twist my back around, cracking it. Well, it's time to see how much I failed at private training. I get off the giant bed and walked out of the room and down the equally plush hall. Within seconds I'm in the television room. I plop onto the couch right next to the arm rest, next to Micah. She stares at the Tv, almost like she wants to see the scores. Well, I certainly don't.
The Capitol seal appears and the scores begin right after that. The scores weren't anything, they were mostly in the 8-9 range, though sometimes there were a couple of 5s and 6s. Then it was time for District 12. I gripped the arm rest, waiting to see my horrible score. The scores flicker onto the screen, and I find myself to not be disipointed.
I myself got an 8, Micah got a 5, Harris got a 6, and Maysilee managed to get an 8. I look across the couch to Maysilee and see her smiling happily.
How did you get such a high score Maysilee?
I'm sorry for such the long wait, and having the next chapter handed to you after I pooed on it! I'm truly sorry!
Anyways, thanks for reading!
Next chapter will be the interview, and then after that will be the arena! Then there will be a lot of updates! YAY!
:) I hope you liked it. Give me any suggestions if you want to.