Today is Victor's Birthday…

He walks through the empty streets of District 1. He and Pearl are among the only people outside. Everyone else is inside preparing for the hours to come. Today is the Reaping. They have just gone through the eliminations. Victor and Pearl still remain. Of course. He and Jasper are no doubt the top two boys with swords, and Victor feels the top two boys overall. His father will be proud. Right now he is walking to their house. All the children at the Center were dismissed early so they could dress in Reaping clothes and get ready. Pearl walks next to him, staring at all the signs of the downtown area. "I can't remember the last time I was out here." She pauses for a minute, then adds under her breath "or outside at all." Victor doesn't get why she sounds so angry. He really likes the Training Center. Who would want to go outside anyway? He looks at Pearl. "Why'd you want to go outside? I mean, what do you do anyway?" Pearl stares at him as though he had said he didn't know what a sword was or something.

"I don't know how to explain it to someone like you." She snapped. Victor stopped in his tracks. The way she said that "someone like you" was exactly the way his mother would have said it when describing Pearl. Was Pearl proud of being poor? But Pearl's tone quickly softened. "It's just that I used to play outside all the time when I was little. We had the tiniest house, but my father, whenever he didn't have to go to work, would take me to this little meadow. I just…I really miss that is all I'm saying I guess." She shrugs. Victor doesn't really know what to do. He finds himself subconsciously patting her on the back. Well, now he probably seems horribly awkward. But Pearl doesn't seem to mind. Girls are much harder to understand than swords and things, Victor reasons. After a little more patting, Pearl seems to have cheered up. "So Victor, who do you think is going to win the Games at this rate?" Victor pulls himself up straighter. Well, here is the question he's wanted to answer for quite some time!

"Pearl, don't you remember that plan we made a long time ago? You're going to win when you're 17, and I will win when I'm 18." He answers confidently. He has remembered all this time. It was a very good plan. But Pearl looks sort of unsure now. How could she be unsure?

"Who do you think we'll be going with?" She asks. Oh, is that all? Well, that's a legitimate question. Victor thinks about this for a while. Pearl is probably the best girl there. And he's not just saying that because he's her friend. She practices extremely intensely. A lot of times, after dinner when everyone has free time, Pearl will go back into the gym. Victor follows her. The only other kids in the gym are usually 16 to 18 year olds. Ruby is among them, but Victor has given up on her a long time ago. Besides, she's at such an important point in her training, at 16 years old, that she doesn't have time to stop and talk anyway. Victor doesn't mind. The instructors at the gym always nod approvingly at him and Pearl. They're practice is paying off. Victor can't remember the last time someone beat him in hand-to-hand, or the last time Pearl missed a target with one of her axes. But they aren't the only ones excelling.

"I think maybe, though I hate to say it, I'll get sent with Jasper." Pearl suddenly says. She's probably right. Jasper, at his point, is Victor's biggest competition. But he's really arrogant. Anyone can see that. He doesn't practice as hard as him or Pearl. He probably thinks he can win without it.

"Hey Pearl, if you do get sent with him, don't hesitate to kill him. Kill him first, if have to." He tells her. Pearl laughs. Then, suddenly, she puts her arm around Victor's shoulder. They used to do this when they were smaller, but they haven't done it in a while. He's surprised to find himself missing it. So he puts his arm around her shoulder. Friends. No matter what people think. "Oh, I'll kill him all right." She laughs again. "The only problem is that throwing an axe is quick. I wish I could make it slower!" Now Victor is laughing. Oh, there's no doubt in his mind that Pearl could kill Jasper. At least, she could certainly outsmart him. Victor waves to her as he turns a corner out of the downtown area. Pearl will have a longer walk to the poor miner's village. In footage of the district that Capital citizens see on television, the miner's section is never shown. Only the wealthy vineyard owners, or the mayor's house, are shown. But they have to get their gems from somewhere. Victor heads up the tree-lined hill leading up to his grandfather's mansion at the top. He walks up the long walkway. He can't remember the last time he was at this house. Has it grown since then? He rings the doorbell. From the inside, he hears shouts. Victor smiles. Well, someone certainly is happy to see him. As if an answer to his thoughts, as soon as the door is opened by his mother, Amandine throws herself at him. He stumbles back, vaguely wondering where she learned to hug like this. It seems a strange thing to think of for an average child, but neither Victor nor his sister has ever been hugged, as far as they know. But Amandine is squeezing the life out of him! His mother tensely puts a shoulder on Amandine's shoulder. "That's enough Amandine. Your brother needs to get ready. Why don't you go take care of Amy?" As Amandine lets go of him, Victor wonders who Amy is. Then little Amethyst walks into the room and he places her as "Amy." Well, that's not fair. Amandine is only 7 years old. She shouldn't be "taking care" of anyone, least of all disagreeable, annoying Amethyst. Why doesn't someone "take care" of her? Besides, he and Amandine have never been given pet names. Victor grabs his sister's hand and stares up at his mother defiantly.

"I have more than enough time to get ready. I'm going outside to play with Mandi. I haven't seen her in a long time." He practically pulls her out the door, ignoring his mother's voice telling them to take "little Amy" with them. Huh. Mandi is a nice nickname. He will have to remember that. It's much nicer outside. Victor thinks he almost knows what Pearl was talking about. Maybe a small part of him missed the outdoors too. He turns to Amandine. In just a month, she will turn 8, and who knows how long it will be before she sees these lines of grapes or the green grass? "Hey Mandi, how would you like to have a piggy back ride through the grapes?" Amandine claps her hands and immediately hops onto his back. "Come on, we have to go deep into the vines! That way we can escape from Crys-, err, mom who will want us to babysit that little terror." He shouts, as he runs through the vines of green. She buries her face in his shoulder. Victor slows down. He runs his hands along the vines. He should go back. He'll be wanted in the Square in less than an hour. So he turns around, heading back to the huge house looming above them. Suddenly, he laughs, a sharp, cold laugh. It is so different from his laughter when he was younger. The joyful, innocent laughs, like when he played the hand game with Ruby at his first birthday, or when he first played with that wooden sword at his fourth. No, his laughs are short and sharp as the swords he uses now. He's laughing because he has realized that his house is so big, it seems to be blocking the sun. It just seems so fitting. Amandine stirs on his back and he sets her down. "Let's go inside." He whispers, giving her little hand a squeeze. Amandine stares up at him with her wide brown eyes.

"I love you, Victor." She whispers back. She loves him? How does she even know what love is? Certainly, his mother hasn't been saying that to her. Maybe she simply heard it from his mother saying it to Amethyst. Or she heard some kids at school saying they "loved" a game or they
"loved" a certain color. But how could this "love" apply to humans? He doesn't know how to answer. He's hardly ever seen her, after all. So he just doesn't think. And what comes out of his mouth seems exactly right.

"I love you too Mandi."