Ok, there you are. Next up is the training session, I don't want to spend too much time in the capitol, so I'm just going to do the training, and the interviews then straight to arena.
The train was nice. It had a thick, blue carpet and white-washed walls. Silver was impressed.
He'd said goodbye to his mother only an hour ago, but already she was disappearing from his mind. Now all he could think of was the food. In half an hour, maybe, he would be sat at a table full of delicious food. The very thought made him nauseous.
The down side was that his fellow tribute from district one was Stacey Hale. Stacey was overweight because her family was far richer than many others in One. She was also known as Glitter's sister. Glitter was definitely the best-looking girl in district one, but Silver didn't care, because he was going to kill Stacey and then there was no way that Glitter would ever look at him, not that he wanted her too. The only reason she wasn't as disgusting as her sister was that she was pretty.
Stacey eyed Silver over the table. He made his distaste for her obvious, but Stacey didn't care. She'd never seen the beggar before in her life and he seemed like a jerk anyway. She didn't think she could kill anyone, not even Silver, but she imagined that other people wouldn't find it hard. Besides, if he was planning on lugging that ego around with him to entire time then eventually it would catch up with him
Stacey was still upset; she kept on bursting into tears, but she's found out how to stop it, at least for a while. You needed to think about something else. Concentrate on a different emotion, or problem.
At the goodbye's Corey's father had given him a judgemental eye and told him 'I told you so'. But Corey had been to busy thinking about ways to help Roxana win the games to take much notice.
Now on the train Corey was just about to knock on Roxana's door. He could hear her sobbing and crying, and in the end her decided to just open the door.
"Ana? Roxana?" He asked gently. Roxana gave him one look and began crying some more. Corey put his arm around her, feeling an odd mix of sympathy for her, and joy at being to close to her.
"I-" Roxana breathed in sharply as she began to descend into hysteric's. "I don't want to kill you! I don't want to kill anybody!"Corey hugged her.
"It's OK, you don't have to kill me, or anybody. I'll get them all for you, eh?"
"No you won't! You'll just let them win like you do with me!" said Roxana. Corey blushed. She'd noticed that he let her win? Oh damn. But Corey just laughed to hide his embarrassment. "And anyway, then I'd be just me and you. I don't want another Katniss-Peeta end. I don't want you to die!"
"Let's not think about that, huh? You're strong enough. How about an alliance? We're both friends, best friends" Corey emphasised. "And we're stronger than all the others, we've been training our entire lives." Roxana nodded, wiping her tears away. She looked a bit better, trying to smile if only for Corey's sake. Corey smiled back and hugged her again, hoping there'd be plenty more opportunities for all this hugging. He needed to make sure he stuck to his own advice, and not think about how one, if not both of them would be dead in a matter of of months, weeks.
Ebony was painting her fingernails black again. The Peacekeepers were really stupid, they let her get on the train with the little bottle hidden in her underwear. She should've brought explosives or something, that would've been fun.
The male tribute for her district had been a boy called Electric. He was a few years older than her and she'd heard rumours about him being a genius. She didn't doubt them, half the population of District three were genius's. But they said he was cleverer than most. Still, Ebony didn't give one about him and his clever little brain. Brains don't win the games, she though coyly to herself. I do. Ebony smiled, picturing herself killing the other tributes, and being showered with riches when she returned.
Damn! The nail polish had spilt onto the carpet. There was a huge black spot on the floor. Ebony looked around the room desperately. There! A carpet was in the corner. She dragged it over the spot and the floor was good as new.
Rosemary jumped when someone cleared their throat from the doorway.
"What?" She asked, before she turned properly to see who it was. She raised her eyebrows when she saw it was Shiloh Storm, the other tribute from District Four. "What do you want?"
"Me?" He asked. He mocked thinking. "Ice-Cream, one of these trains, a dog, and a one-way ticket out of these games" he laughed a his own joke, but Rosemary waited patiently for the real answer. Shiloh raised his eyebrows. "It's not me, it's Aengus. He wants us in the 'dining hall' for food, I suggest you get down there pronto. He says he wants 'A big, team discussion'. You coming?" Rosemary stayed still on the floor for a moment.
"OK" they walked down the hallway together. Rosemary held onto the train wall when the train jerked..
"There you are!" Aengus cried when he saw the enter the room. "OK, Have you met your mentors? Rose, can I call you Rose? This is Tess." Tess offered her hand to Rosemary.
"Hi Honey. Hope you're ready for hell on earth" Tess winked good-naturedly, but didn't smile.
"Yes..." Aengus said, painting on a smile. "And Shiloh, this is the famous Finnick Odair!" Aengus clearly expected Shiloh to say something, to bow in his presence.
"Hey" Shiloh said.
"I like this one" Finnick joked. "How're you, then Tess? You seen the reapings?" Finnick asked, separating himself from their conversation, which annoyed Aengus greatly.
"Yeah, who're you betting on this year?"
"Well, there's the kids from two, they look tough enough, or the ones from nine. But I think my friend here has a good chance."
"Yeah. Did you see that one from ten? Poor thing" Finnick only laughed. Shiloh gave Rosemary a look and laughed.
Blade felt sorry for Daisy. The girl looked lost at the vast table of food. He had to admit, he was a bit too. He didn't know what half the stuff in front of him was. He mostly lived on a diet of bread, rice and pasta. Sometimes some sort of meat if he could persuade Meaty Joe to sell him some.
"there's some bread and butter there" Blade pointed to the girl. "And a plate of fruit there, see? And there's meat over here..."
"I'm a vegetarian" Blade blinked at her. She didn't eat meat? Well, her loss.
Daisy liked Blade, despite his scary name he was really friendly and nice. They'd spent an hour looking out the window. They'd seen three districts. Blade thought they were Seven, Ten and Two. Daisy had liked Seven best, it was just a slightly woody area, it was a wood, a forest even. They'd thought it was just a large bunch of conifer trees, until Blade had spotted a building.
"C'mon Daisy. Eat up! You want to have big strong muscles when it comes to the games, don't you?"
"Well, yeah. But I don't want to go into the games at all"
"Who does?"
"I can't believe you did that! I thought I told you not to do anything stupid!" Jez screamed, tears streaming down her face.
"Preserving your life isn't stupid! I can't just let you die!"Morgead protesting, reaching out to touch her arm.
"You could have done! And then you would have lived! We're both going to die now!" Jez stepped away from him.
"Jez, please. If I find a way out, we're taking it. And if there isn't a way out, we're going to go through the Games, and then you're going to go home and live a long happy life." Jez sighed.
"Can we please not talk about it? Please?" Jez pleaded. Morgead nodded and hugged her.
Jazmine tied her hair up in a high ponytail. She studied herself in the mirror on the train wall. What was that behind her?
"Dad...?" She asked, trembling. She spun around on the balls of her feet, but there was no one there. She breathed out in a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. The visions were going to be worse in the arena, the nightmares more viscous. They always were worse when she was stressed, but the arena was a naturally evil place.
Her room on the train was large, and fancy. There were heaters under the floor that made her feet tingle when she walked barefoot in the thick white carpets.
Jazz sat on her bed, swinging her leg. Bored, bored, bored...Maybe she should go talk to Fir. He was the boy who'd been picked, and he was alright. Jazz knew him vaguely from school. His room was right next to hers and he seemed just as bored as her when she strode into the room.
"Hey Fir. You OK?" She asked as she sat down on the bed.
"Ha! I wish. No way am I OK. I've been thinking too much about it, the games, the arena, bleeding, death. That kinda thing. It really gets you down."
"Well you're cheerful! Nah, you just have to think about happy things. Butterfly's, Conifer trees, Friends, family..." Fir shrugged.
"I have two little sisters, and two older ones. Birch, Carolina, Climba and Reya. Climba and Reya are seventeen and sixteen, man, do I get tired of their talk. They're always yapping about clothes and boys and stuff. Birch and Carolina are alright though."
"I have two brothers. Kory and Udonis"
"Oh yeah? I know. Kory's that kid that got caught in the machinery, and Udonis...Hey, so you're the girl that owns her own factory?" Jazz blushed.
"It's not just mine. It belongs to Udonis and Kory too."
"Yeah, but your dad's will said Jazmine. Not Udonis, not Kory."
"How do0 you know so much about my Dad's legal rights?" Fir gave an elusive smile and raised his eyebrows teasingly. Jazz only rolled her eyes.
Jade was looking for Budd. Budd was the other kid that had been chosen. If she didn't know that he was a weak-willed, stupid boy she might've been worried about his muscles and huge build. She wasn't worried though. She was going to scare him off before the games even began. All of a sudden, someone knocked into her. She nearly fell over but instead hit the person back ten times harder and they were the one to fall over.
"Oh, sorry Jade" It was Budd.
"There you are. I just wanted to check you'd been able to get into your room. You have problems with stuff like that, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"You have that issue with your weight? Don't you?" Budd's face instantly iced over.
"There's nothing wrong with me, I've just got big bones. I'm no different from anyone else"
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"Yes you did. I know about you jade. You're a cruel, sadistic, evil girl"
"Thank you for the compliment!" Jade smiled and walked away.
Brita had been avoiding Tane ever since they'd both been reaped. She knew Tane would be mad at her for not letting Cynth volunteer. But Cynth was her sister! Better her than Cynth. But the other part of the reason was that she was mad at him. He volunteered for Cael, and sure, she understood. Cael was his brother but she'd all but convinced his friends to volunteer if he was reaped. Mark wanted to anyway, she'd thought. But he'd put them off. Man, Tane could drive her crazy! He spent his time worrying about silly things, when she was trying to protect him from the capitol all the time.
She liked him, a lot. And he made no secret that he liked her. But she didn't want to encourage him too much, she'd always been scared of this sort of situation. Both headed for the Hunger Games. At least one of them destined to die. She sighed, maybe she should talk to him, it wasn't as if she could freeze him out for the entire games. She'd have to talk to him sometime.
Brita walked down to the dining room in search of company. Anyone would do, but preferably Tane. She'd convinced herself that she needed to talk to him desperately.
"Tane?" She called out to the empty room. She heard something crash and someone swear from a room beyond her vision.
"He's not here, lass! Off with ya, I'm trying to cook yer meal!" Brita scurried off in a hurry, not willing to anger the chef further.
Brita walked along the brightly lit corridor, looking back to the dining room, well, if she didn't find Tane before-
Brita fell over as she walked into someone. She quickly saw it was Tane.
"Oh! I've been looking for you! Tane, I'm-"
"What do you think you're doing? You should've let Cynth take your place!" Brita iced over at his anger.
"Maybe you should've let Cael go into the games" She retorted and Tane sighed, easily defeated.
"Ok, I get it. But now we're doomed!" Brita rolled her eyes and kept her mouth shut.
"Do you hear me? DOOMED!" Tane was nearly crying, bless him.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll figure something out"
"Pfft! Yeah right!" Tane was about to come up with some more to say, but Brita silenced him by kissing him on the lips.
Dexton bit his nails some more. It calmed him a little bit. His eyes hurt from crying, all his little sisters had been hugging him, and crying with him, even little Betty, who probably didn't even understand. His Ma had been crying too, telling him that he was a big, brave boy and he could make it out for them.
Big, brave mummy's boy
The female tribute was Dove Ellis, the weird kid with white hair. At least he wouldn't have to worry about her killing him. Her arms were as long and thin as a stick. She was her daddy's little girl. But then again, Dove probably wasn't too worried about him either.
Oh, jeez. He was scared. Scared, scared, scared, scared. It didn't even sound like a word anymore. The word itself scared him. Well, lots of things did. Fire, the dark, open spaces, fast moving objects, his dad. That was only a small piece of the list. He was in trouble, he'd got himself a one-way ticket to certain death. What did he expect? District Ten was a small district, and in the last few years there hadn't been many baby boys. Plus he'd had plenty of tesserae.
Tesserae. He'd noticed that only he'd had tesserae. Neither one of Helene or Ruth had any tesserae. Ma said it was because they're girls.
Oh man. What had he got himself into?
Allie hadn't stayed in her room at all. Cole had seen her go in, leave her token, and come back out again. Cole wanted to know what her token was. He wanted an advantage, and he was going to work to get it, because he didn't like the idea of sleeping in the same area as Allie. Maybe he could kill her before the games? In her sleep? But she'd more likely get him first. When had he become this paranoid?
Cole rooted through drawers and turned over carpets. He eventually found it under the mattress.
It was a small booklet type thing, a family tree inside. He flicked through the pages and watched the names with their pictures appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. Oliver Pace m. Genevieve Laughlin, Frederick Collins m. Elize Kalnan. Charlie Pace m. Claire Collins, Jack, Kate, and finally, Allie Pace. It went back centuries, and there were plenty of spare pages for future family members. An icy thought struck him cold. Allie won't have any future family members. He put the room back to its original condition, and was about to hide the book again, when he heard someone clear their throat from the doorway.
"Happy now?" Allie strode forward. "Give me that, you bastard " Allie put it back under the mattress and slapped him when she was done. Cole looked at her in surprise, he could feel the sting and shock still lingering on his face. And he couldn't think of a single goddamn thing to say.
"You could have asked. I'm a lot more kindly to friendly, polite people than I am to thieves. Thought that it would give you some sort of advantage, did you? You make me sick." Cole laughed.
"Right back at you, rich girl" Allie moved her hand to slap her again, but Cole begged her with his eyes.
"I'm sorry, OK? I didn't mean to steal" And he was, kinda. Not because he'd upset her, well, not much. But because he was better than that.
"Oh, of course. Only borrowing. I see" Allie smiled at him again and Cole felt uneasy. But Allie seemed to have already moved on. "I don't care, and I know you want to kill me already, but a little chivalry won't do any harm" She smiled, not mockingly. "Cole, right?" She put her hand out, for a second time, and Cole took it. The malice of the previous shake was gone "Nice to meet you"
Jarsen knew the girl, Eliana. He'd followed her home once or twice, but not by choice. His friend Blake had a crush on her, and he'd often been the go-between. He doubted he remembered him much, she normally brushed aside the question Blake had asked him to ask her. He remembered she was very focused on her school work and not normally listening to him much.
He imagined that she wouldn't be particularly strong in the arena though, although he knew better than to underestimate her. Intelligence was just as important as strength. But Jarsen was confident, he had both.
He considered his options, would it do any good to try and talk to her? Maybe. He might get a better sense of how motivated she was, but he'd got most of that from the handshake earlier, after a mildly disturbing one from Katniss, the one that they'd shared had given him an idea of how driven she was. She'd seemed fairly determined to win, and she hadn't liked the look of triumph he'd allowed her to see.
In the end he decided to find Katniss, to get a head start on training, get some advice. She was sat watching the reapings from the day. She turned the television off when he entered the room.
"Yes?" She asked.
"I was wondering if you had any advice, for the arena. I wanted to get a head start" Katniss raised an eyebrow cynically.
"Stay alive" She told him, with a hint of a smirk as if it was a private joke. Jarsen tightened his lips in frustration. He wanted real advice, techniques, something that would help. "There's not much I can say. You'll know when you get into the arena. Now, I suggest you go wait in the dining room, the food'll come soon. I'll find Eliana and you can talk or whatever you do" Katniss left the room, presumably in search of Eliana, And, slightly humiliated, Jarsen found the dining room and sat down.
Jarsen scared Eliana slightly, but she wasn't going to let him see that. She knew she'd seen him before somewhere...Oh yes. That was it, his friend Blake was always wanting to know stuff about her and he sent his best friend, who was Jarsen. What was her middle name? When was her birthday? What were her siblings names? It was quite funny really. But she got the distinct impression that she was really beginning to annoy Jarsen. It was in the way he looked at her over the table. Eliana smiled.