As soon as all of us were in the stables, they shoved us all into an elevator and sent us straight up to our rooms. I'll be honest, the whole ride I couldn't take my eyes off of District 12. Their costumes were just... wow. I would say that I wanted their stylists, but I have a feeling the gods would not be too happy about it. After the first few tributes got off, Leo realized that I was staring at 12. "They aren't THAT impressive." he whispered at me. "The little wimps don't know how to play with REAL fire." He lit his index finger with a tiny flame. "I think you may want to put that away." I stifled a giggle. "You may set your pretty cape on fire." "Do you think?" he asked. I laughed.
Pretty soon, the only people left on the elevator were us and 12. The silence that stood between us was borderline unhealthy. "You look amazing!" I told them, trying to make things less awkward. "Your stylists must be really creative to think of that." They just looked at me. The elevator stopped on their floor, and they stepped out. "Well!" I exclaimed. Leo collapsed on the floor, laughing like a freakin' hyena. "Zeus, that was the best you could come up with?!" he was able to say through his fits of laughter. "Hey, I didn't hear YOU coming up with anything, pretty boy." "Whatever." was all he was able to get out.
The elevator doors slid open, revealing Zeedee and Hedge, waiting for us. "You looked GORGEOUS!" Zeedee gushed. "After that performance, I wouldn't be surprised if all of PANEM wanted to sponsor you two." Hedge looked Leo up and down as he stopped laughing. He said "You look like a girl." and took a huge bite out of a corn can. "Yeah yeah yeah," Leo said. "Now, where do I get rid of this?" He gestured his make-up. "I don't think you can get rid of your face." I joked. He just rolled his eyes. "Come on, pretty boy." Hedge muttered. I know, right? He grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him to a random room in the hallway. "Should we wait for them?" I asked her. "We should. It would be rude to start without them." she told me (Shocker). After a few minutes, she gave up on the recap and just took me to my room.
"Don't be up too late now." she told me. I smiled politely and waited for her to leave the room. When the door slammed behind her, I fell onto the bed and kicked off those monster heels. I basically laid limp on the bed for 5 minutes before finally deciding that I should change. I rummaged through my clothes and pulled out this. I figured I wasn't going to wake up early enough to get ready then, so I was just going to change now and sleep in. Maybe Aphrodite was supposed to plan my outfit for tomorrow, but considering she hasn't shown her face since she disappeared, I wanted to keep it safe. I hopped under the covers and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out cold.
The next morning, I woke up to a face full of ice cold water. It may seem unpleasant for mortals, but for me, that's like 3 espressos and a Monster chugged at the same time. I sat up with a sudden jolt of energy. Hedge was standing next to my bed, just munching away on a metal bucket. "I'm not sure if I should hug you, strangle you, or both." "Good morning to you too, cupcake." He look down at my feet. "Why the shoes?" I gave him a look. "Really? I'm wearing a freakin' necklace to bed and you ask 'Why the shoes'?" "Whatever. Get up, you got training." I rolled my eyes. He just trotted out with his little goat tail held high.
I threw off the covers, literally jumped out of bed, and ran into the dining room. Zeedee, Leo, and Hedge were waiting for me. "Now that everyone is here," Zeedee shot me a look, "We have matters to attend to. Mr. Hedge?"He burped up bits of metal and grass all over the floor. I had to bite my cheek to keep for laughing. She glared at him. He smirked, then said "Ok, so, private training. I can train you alone, or-" "I'll take door number two." I interrupted. He threw me a look before continuing, "Or you could train together. Personally, I would pick the going alone." "Why?" Leo asked. "Because if you have to kill each other, you want the other to know as little as possible, if you know what I'm saying." "No." he said stupidly. I rolled my eyes and said "We'll just train together."
Zeedee let out a breath. "Well, now that that's settled," She pushed us toward the elevator, saying "Chop chop, we don't want to be late." She practically punched the bottom button once we were all in, and barely even then. Hedge's tail and Leo's foot almost got butchered by the door.
We flew down to the bottom floor, and when I say we flew, I mean we FLEW. My feet ended up a good inch off of the ground before we stopped. I, of course, face-planted on the cold metal floor while everyone else (even Leo) was able to stay on their feet. As I peeled myself from the elevator, Zeedee said "One last thing. Please, don't let Mr. Hedge into the Training Center. If he does..." She looked down at Hedge with his baseball bat high above his head. "Don't let him into the Training Center." The doors slid wide open, letting bright light flood into the tiny room. He tried to bolt, but I tackled him to the ground. Let's just say, the fight wasn't pretty. In the end, Leo got a good conk in the head and Hedge was hog-tied in the corner, trying to reach his bat.
I brushed the dust off of my clothes and saw that everyone was staring at us. Awkward... We crossed the room to have our district pinned to the back of our shirts while everyone just stared. Leo was walking a little weird, but he seemed fine. I walked up to the tense little circle in the middle of the room and squeezed in between 12 and 1. I was able to catch a few bits and pieces of the speech they were giving, like you have to work with professionals, don't kill each other, but most of it got drowned out by the ADHD.
Once we were let out on our own, I wandered around the circle of stations, trying to figure out where to go. Camouflage, fishing, and swimming seemed pointless (Hello?! Daughter of the Sea God here!) and I can naturally handle any weapon: knives, swords, hand-to-hand, tridents, bows and arrows, so basically more than half of the stations, useless. They already taught us the normal survival techniques at camp, like hunting animals (or monsters), snare-setting, shelters, fire-making, tree climbing... What I'm saying is that the stations were basically pointless. The only ones that could actually teach me stuff I didn't already know were knots, edible plants and insects, hammock-making (?), weightlifting, and 'The Gauntlet'.
The most useful in the arena seemed to be the edible plants and insects, so I made my way over and got familiar. It was just memory, really. The trick was to drill it into your head enough to actually remember it when you're starving and desperate. Now, which ones were good? The crickets... DING! The brown flower... DING! And the... stringy moss? BEEP! CRAP! I heard a ton of noise coming from next to me. A girl with red hair was pushing those buttons like her life depended on it. It probably did, actually. Anyway, she was going a mile a minute, a green light flashing on every 5 seconds. DANG! She looked over at me with a bored expression and just kept blazing through.
At that point, I just felt self-conscious and inadequate, so I drifted off and started walking toward 'The Gauntlet'. It was pretty impressive, but it was nothing compared to the obstacle course back home. I watched as some of the stronger tributes cleared it. For mortals, I guess, it must have been pretty difficult, because a ton of them ended up getting knocked off by another tribute or the actual course. I, however, could probably finish it in 2.2 seconds, but watching how vicious these people were, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to draw attention to myself. They'd be able to take out hordes of monsters single-handedly, so it really wouldn't be a good idea to make myself a threat.
As I was walking around the circle a forth time, I fell flat on my face (again). THUMP! What the Hades? I twisted around a little to see that I'd been taken down by 12 (the guy, of course). "What the heck, 12?! They said we can't kill each other yet!" I yelled at him. "First of all, my name is Peeta, and second of all, I was not trying to kill you!" "Well, even if you weren't trying, right now, you're succeeding. My ribs are being crushed and I'm pretty sure you're sitting on my liver." "Oh." He rolled off and let me take a deep breath. I coughed a little, turned toward him, and said "Now that I'm not your bean bag chair, can you please explain why you tackled me?" "I didn't tackle you!" he insisted. "I fell on you!" "Now how is that possible?!" He pointed up. I looked and let out a little squeal. "YAY! ROPES COURSE!"
I jumped up and looked around. Where am I supposed to- "There!" I ran over to the far right corner and shimmed up the dangling rope. The course seemed kind of complicated, actually. The first layer (Yes, LAYER) was running horizontal to the starting rope and the second was going vertical. That's where it started getting a little confusing. Hundreds upon hundreds of ropes intersected each other, making weird shapes and angles. Most people would get tangled up and fall to the ground. I, on the other hand, am not most people. I gripped the first rope, swung myself to layer two, then three, then four. Just like the Labyrinth, I told myself as I looked out into the mess of ropes. After I wriggled through the first cluster, I was unstoppable. Flips, tricks, and overall fancy footwork were all I did until lunch was called.
I landed with a back flip from the 6th layer. "Dang." someone said behind me. I spun around on my heel, only to find Leo smirking at me. "Are you part monkey or something?" "I was about to ask you the same thing." I pulled at my ears and puffed out my cheeks. "Wow, really mature." he chuckled. "I know, right?" We walked over to the area set up for lunch.
The Careers (Districts 1, 2, and 4) swarmed around one of the tables, loudly chewing on their food, while everyone else was cowering in random parts of the room. I walked over, grabbed a plate, filled it to the brim with every meat available, a chunk of each bread loaf, and some kind of berry they had set up. "Aren't girls supposed to be worried about their weight?" Leo asked from behind me. I glared at him over my shoulder and said "Ok, one, that's sexist, two, if you haven't noticed, I'm not the average girl, and three, I'm going into a fight to the death that may not have ANY food whatsoever. I can stand to gain a couple of pounds." I turned back around and scanned the room for an empty seat. Wimp, wimp, wimp, dogs... THERE! I made my way through the people and plopped right down across from District 12.
Leo reluctantly sat next to me as they stared at us with confused looks on their faces. "Um... Why-" The girl cut herself off and looked at Peeta. He kept looking at us, me specifically, and said "Why are you here?" I rolled my eyes. "Because the Capitol requires an annual manslaughter to be broadcasted on national TV." He raised an eyebrow. I know that look all too well. You know what I meant. "Well, I figured since you practically killed me, you owe me a solid. Plus I didn't want to hang around... them." I gestured at the groups of tributes that were crying their eyes out and stopped at the Careers. Peeta shrugged his shoulders and said "Suit yourself."
They weren't exactly the most social people. They didn't talk much, and when they did, it was usually small talk like "How've you been holding up?", "This Capitol food is amazing", and "Ok, now laugh like I said something funny." I cleaned my plate and immediately felt bloated. I pushed myself away from the table and asked "Do we go back to our rooms, or do we have to stay for more training?" "Whatever we're supposed to do, I'm going back to our floor." Leo said, pushing his chair out and walking over to the door. "Yeah, I don't think I can do much after that lunch anyway. See you guys." I got up and followed Leo. When the elevator flew up, I lost it. I doubled over and puked up most of my lunch. "Perfect." I heard Leo mumble.
The next few days went by in a bit of a blur. We woke up, trained, ate lunch with Peeta and Katniss (I FINALLY learned her name), went back to our rooms, passed out, ate dinner, got hammered for details of training by Zeedee, and passed out again. I do remember one day, though, that I got tired of hearing the obnoxious Careers talking about who would be the easiest to kill. I nudged Leo and whispered "Watch this." I took my spoon, loaded it with a few of my berries, and sent them flying at the backs of their heads. It only hit one guy in particular. He took his eyes off of the guy he was criticizing and looked at me. Of course, I was stifling my laughter, making it pretty obvious it was me. He got up and walked over to our table. Oh no.
"What's so funny, 14?" "Your face." I giggled out. He took me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me out of my chair. "What's so funny about it?" "The fact that you look like a freakin' gorilla when you get mad." I gave him a smile before coughing. "Hey, ever heard of this thing called a Tic-Tac?" He took my neck and pulled me another inch off of the ground. "14, when those games start, you are as good as dead." He threw me to the ground and spat on me. "And so are you." I said confidently. He tried to kick me, but I grabbed his foot before he could land the blow. I yanked him down as I jumped to my feet. I stepped on his stomach and walked away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him reach for his dagger. But somehow, it wasn't there. Teeheehee I thought to myself as I felt the flat of the blade. Thank you, Stoll brothers.
On roughly the 4th day (or the 3rd, or the 5th. The days really started blurring together), when we went down to the training area, everyone was doing their own thing, as usual, but the feeling in the air wasn't right. Call it demigod intuition, but I was certain that something was about to go down. I brushed it off and went to the camouflage station. I know what I told myself the first day, that I wouldn't do it 'cause it was useless and blah blah blah, but I got bored. Simple as that. Don't judge me!
I didn't do much training, actually. All I did was stand at the station, painting all over my arm with random colors and completely zoning out. Somehow, some way, when I snapped back to reality, my arm was looked exactly like tree bark. It really confused me, but what confused me even more was the fact that everyone was gone. Had I missed the lunch call? I shrugged, assumed I was right, and walked off to the cafeteria (more or less).
I was sort of right. Most of the tributes were sitting it their normal groups, but I noticed Districts 1 through 4 were missing. There was food set up, but no one (and I mean NO ONE) was touching it. I spotted Leo in the corner, carving something into the tabletop with his fingernail. I looked over his shoulder and saw what he was writing. 'BORED'. Huh. The guy from 5 got called. "What's going on?" "Apparently, the goat-man and Ms. OCD didn't bother to tell us about our 'private session' with the Gamemakers." He looked around the room as my face flushed. "I've got a terrible feeling that by the end of this, someone is going to have a spear sticking out of their shoulder." I said, genuinely worried. These people controlled what happened in that arena, and no matter how they act, if I didn't control myself, they could indirectly murder me brutally. I shuddered.
I took a seat. There was one of our signature awkward silences hanging in the air, only broken a few times by someone calling for another tribute. My mind was drifting off to the other tributes, then District 12 specifically. "Why aren't we sitting with Katniss and Peeta?" I asked him. He gave me a look. "We're basically going to have to kill each other. I don't want to get too attached." "Well, someone's in a bad mood! Did you lose a hammer or something?" I laughed. He full-on glared at me. "Let's stop talking." "Yeah."
More awkwardness. And it was even worse this time around, 'cause I know that something's up with Leo. Seriously, this whole 'battle to the death' thing adds way more drama to life than it should. "District 12, Peeta Mellark." Peeta got out of his seat and walked into a random room that I hadn't noticed before. How could I have MISSED that?! More silence. Even more awkwardness. 2 more words scratched into the table. "District 12, Katniss Everdeen." She got up and walked out of the room, just like Peeta. This is so BORING! Minutes passed, still nothing to be said. "District 14, Leo Valdez." As he stood up, I looked up and said "Don't burn down the building." He looked down and replied "Don't drown the Gamemakers." "No promises." I mumbled to myself as he walked to the door.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Is there a clock in here?I looked around. No, that's just my biological clock making this even MORE tedious. "District 14, Androme-" "Don't need to say it, I'm the only one here." I told the caller. Then, I remembered my goal. Don't be disrespectful. Disrespect leads to anger, anger leads to violence, violence plus many weapons equal dead me in arena. Flawless math.
I walked into the huge, concrete room that all of the other tributes went into. It reminded me of a prison. The window-less walls screamed YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE! I looked at the middle of the room and saw a huge black mark on the floor. Leo... I walked into the middle of it and looked at the Gamemakers. A lot of them were cowering while the others looked at a roasted pig, filled with holes and with the apple knocked out of its mouth. Well, they've been busy. I walked over to a rack of swords lined up on the wall. I grabbed the first one I touched and yanked it off. A few others came down with it, but the Gamemakers didn't seem to notice.
I grabbed a dummy by the neck and dragged it to the middle of the room. I gripped the sword and started to go into combat mode. Cut! Slash! Whoosh! DIE KRONOS! That's all that my brain was screaming during the dummy-slaughter. Pretty soon, the doll was but tattered pieces of cloth and... styrofoam, maybe? I looked back at the table. One person was looking at me out of the entire group, and he didn't look particularly interested, either. I kept seeing his eyes flash back to the pig.
Here's how saw it. They dragged me into this room to see what I could do. All they were seeing was the ruined pig left on the table. I used some of my best moves just now and all they could think about was rump-roast. Well, if that's how it is, I thought, I'll give them something a little more interesting. I focused all of my energy and suddenly felt my stomach jerk.
Instantly, I felt the pipes beneath the floor break. Water began pouring out of any crevice it could find, soaking the Gamemakers very thoroughly. One wave sent the pig flying onto the ground at my feet. I willed the water to lift the pig up to shoulder level. I gripped the sword and began hacking away at the pork ball. I could honestly say that it was kind of fun. The sound the pig made when I made another slice, the faces they made as they saw me manhandle their lunch, and the feeling of complete control made this way more enjoyable than expected.
As I finished up, I figure I might as well leave with a bang. I've already screwed myself enough, why not make it worse? One clean slice downward, one across, and a single round-house kick was enough to send all of the little chunks of pig plus a huge current of water into their faces. Their faces at this point were pretty hard to read. Confusion, disgust, intimidation, anger, impress, all mixed into one expression. It was hard to look at for too long, so I simply said "Enjoy your lunch," turned on my heel, and walked away.
As soon as I got in the elevator, I realized the severity of what just happened. "Oh my gods." I gasped to myself. I hit the top button and leaned against the wall. I was as good as dead now. Not only were they going to give me a low score and a harder time in the Games, but I have no idea what they may or may not have seen. We already think Panem's a pretty horrible place, and that's only after 2 months of nothing. Imagine what would happen of one of the Gamemakers leaked what happened to Snow. If someone in there saw through the Mist... I slowly sank to the floor. We're all dead.
A/N: Long chapter for a really long wait. So, like always, did you like it? Was it good? Am I starting to suck? Comments are very much appreciated, so... You know... It's right there. No promises for a straight schedule, but I'll try to get my stuff together. Soon. Probably not.