Her mother had refused to speak to her the entire first night on the train to the Capitol – to be honest, Emily hoped the silent treatment might last the entire period leading up to the Games...it would be the best gift she could possibly receive in her last days.
Unfortunately, the next morning, it became clear that her mother had no such plans to leave Emily to her own devices. By first light, she was already whisking her daughter up and out of bed for what she called a 'thoroughly exciting day of studying and preparation'. Hardly Emily's idea of excitement, but she went along with it because she couldn't escape her mother's clutches on a moving train.
"Where's Matthew?" she asked as her mother sat her down before the screen in the train's viewing room where they'd watched the other eleven reapings the night before.
"Never you mind," her mother snapped. "He'll take care of himself." And before she could further protest, the footage of the reapings was being replayed, but with a running commentary of what her mother called the 'best possible Capitol intel' on the other tributes.
According to her mother, Mick Rawson and Megan Kane from District One were both extremely charming and used their sex appeal to their advantage. Mick was an expert sharp shooter with a blow gun, but was extremely skilled with just about anything that could be used to kill someone. Megan, on the other hand, preferred hand-to-hand combat and was known to play with her victims like a cat with a mouse until they begged for death, which is when she would snap their neck.
District Two, of course, were the tributes she needed to truly worry about. Ian Doyle and Elle Greenaway were already being widely acclaimed as the winners and the Games hadn't even started yet. Ian's weapon of choice was the spear, which he was deadly with both at short and long range. Elle, it was rumoured, was mentally unstable and had once killed a man. She relied on stealth and sharp, short-bladed knives to approach victims from behind and slit their throat.
From District Three, Frank Breitkopf and his beloved Jane Hanratty, both of which were a little 'odd'. But then again, most people from District Three were thought of as being different. Frank was an inventor, like most of the citizens of the District, specializing specifically in medical innovations. Jane, however, seemed woefully unprepared, perhaps even unaware of the danger she was in...but Frank was her sworn protector so it didn't really matter
District Four, the last of the 'career districts' would be sending Clyde Easter and Tsia Mosely. Clyde was kind of an egotist, not to mention an insufferable show off. His sword was like an extension of his body, wielded with ease and dexterity...not to mention he touted it as if it were a metaphor of his sexual prowess. Tsia was a well-known knife-throwing prodigy, though with a much smaller ego than her companion.
The male tribute from District Five, her mother warned her, was not to be underestimated. George Foyet had, reputedly, once survived a stabbing attack by a thus unknown murderer who had killed his girlfriend; according to rumours, though, Foyet had committed both attacks himself, though they had never been proven. He and the female tribute, Haley Brooks, already seemed to be sworn enemies. Though she looked harmless enough, she was a good shot with a bow.
Benjamin Cyrus from District Six, Emily was already quite familiar with. When Emily's mother was training to become a mentor and Emily was too young to be left on her own, they'd travelled to District Six in order to observe the Reaping first-hand. Cyrus had cornered Emily while she was playing with a stray kitten, he himself not yet twelve, and had beaten her until she went crying to her mother with a black eye and a split lip. She was planning on keeping her distance from him after experiencing just how skilled he was at hand-to-hand combat. Ashley Seaver, she had never met, but she'd heard the other children whispering about her father who had been hung at the gallows by the Peacekeepers after murdering several women. Emily didn't care to find out whether she had inherited her father's skill with a blade.
As always, the District Seven tributes, John Blackwolf and Amber Canardo, were expectedly skilled with axes. Blackwolf was reported as being an excellent tracker who reputedly knew every plant and animal native to the District. Amber was a hunter who was good with wire traps, which translated into being a skilled garroter.
District Eight's Nathan Harris was reportedly a very troubled young boy who fantasized about killing women. This was his first year being eligible for the reaping; he was small and physically weak, but still somehow frightening. Sarah-Jean Dawes had married young to a much older man because she'd gotten pregnant. And while she stayed home raising their son, her husband had committed multiple murders for which he was later hanged. And though many people from the district pitied her, no one had been willing to step up and take her place, but she took her punishment with a steadfast quiet graciousness.
Though District Six was known for its abundance of morphling addicts, Tobias Hankel from District Ten had gotten addicted at a young age to dull the suffering his strict father inflicted upon him. No one expected much from someone whose mind was so dulled by drugs. Sydney Manning had caused quite a stir at the reaping and her mother was already fretting over the stir she was going to cause among the Capitol viewers and sponsors. They loved a good love story, she warned. While rather unassuming in and of herself, when her name was called, her long-time boyfriend Raymond became hysterical, desperately pleading to let him go with her and protect her, but he'd turned eighteen a week previously and was ineligible. Then, he'd taken a swing at one of the peacekeepers and was shot in the back, causing Sydney to be lead off the stage screaming.
Her mother bothered little with Districts Eleven and Twelve since she was certain that neither of them were likely to pose any sort of threat, considering the history of the Districts' performance. Jennifer Jareau and William LaMontagne from Eleven were a young married couple and Derek Morgan and Cindi Burns from Twelve were cousins. She did warn, though, that they would have the viewers' sympathy because both male tributes had volunteered to protect those important to them.
By the time her mother released her from the impromptu 'study session', Emily was feeling overwhelmed and was starting to doubt whether her decision was wise – how could she possibly protect Matthew against so many well-prepared tributes?
She fled to Matthew's room and, though he wasn't there, she didn't have the energy to go in search of him, instead she curled up in his bed. Weary and stressed, she felt slightly better as she inhaled his scent – like warm wheat – and cuddled deep in his still-warm bedding.
When he later found her in his bed, fast asleep, he couldn't help but laugh. He had been rather upset with her after the reaping, but she knew he couldn't stay mad at her for long. It wasn't as if things could be changed at this point, they were going into the Arena together and only one of them was going to make it out alive.
When he asked her why she'd done it, why she'd thrown away her life like that, she'd lied and told him it was because she wasn't thinking clearly, she was too upset to act rationally. She knew that if she told him she had done it so that she could sacrifice her life for him, he would never let her go through with it.
That was the kind of friendship they had – both of them too stubborn to let the other do something foolish without trying to do something even more foolish to counteract it. Emily had a feeling he had feelings for her that ran deeper than friendship and maybe, if things had been different, she might've had feelings for him too, but she refused to let her only real friendship be ruined on the off chance that there might be something more between them.
Sighing, he brushed her hair from her forehead, then poked her sharply, waking her up. Chuckling at her confusion and alarm, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, kissing her cheek. "Time to be 'mentored', Sleeping Beauty."