"Okay, first is Rapture," I said to Emma. We were discussing the competition over lunch while we shot the breeze and caught up from being dead.
"He'll probably be the hardest. I've seen enough Careers to know his type. He's in for the game, not the victory," Emma said. It never crossed our minds to make another Career pack with him. It was hard enough for me to get close to Emma, and neither of us had any warm feelings for Rapture.
"He'll take care of a few Tributes at the Bloodbath," I said. That was the only thing he was good for. It was more kids I didn't have to kill. We turned his picture over and flipped the next one in the pile.
"Next is Mei. I hardly even remember her," I said.
"She was way before our time," Emma said. "She was your normal Three brainiac, but she didn't have much common sense. She died of an infection because she couldn't figure out how to keep her wound clean." I felt mean thinking it, but she wouldn't be competition.
"Jonathan Wright," Emma read the name off the next picture. I didn't even recognize the face. "Don't worry about him. She only picked him because he's her age."
"Most of them are. Rapture and us are the weirdos," I said. "She must have thought we'd be like a big sister. Lucky us."
"Who wouldn't want the princess of One?" Emma said sarcastically. She always hated that nickname. "There's Aimee. She's worse than Mei."
"Eleanor... she killed that big snake," I said. I remembered from a Games highlight clip from forever ago. "We should keep an eye on her."
"Maybe she'll take out Rapture for us," Emma said. We lingered on her for a moment, then went on. "Demetria. Rose is a cruel mistress. Demetria's more fragile than she is."
"Rapture's going to be delighted," I said.
"This one's Harmony. If she lives past the Bloodbath, she'll definitely get sponsored," Emma said. "Assuming that's allowed and assuming Rose doesn't send her favorite a tank. Rapture's probably too dumb to know that, so she has a chance."
"If he doesn't get her we will eventually," I said.
"Last one. Angus. Nothing to worry about there. His voice has barely changed," Emma said.
"So it's just Rapture, Eleanor, and maybe Harmony," I said.
"No," Emma said. "There's only one person to worry about."
"Who's that?" I asked. I was afraid she was going to say herself, and I felt cold. We'd bonded in the Arena, but there was no way to know how far it went. Emma was a Career. I'd killed my own share of Tributes. I knew friendship bracelets and sleepovers didn't change what happened on the last day of the Games.
"Rose," Emma said. "This is her Games. We're the players, but she makes the rules. Whoever she picks is going to win. So you better act cute. And me- I better be a pretty princess."
"Fighting in pairs is more a matter of what not to do than what to do," Emma said. We had an assistant, but he hardly had to say anything. Emma already knew how to fight. Fighting and winning was all she knew.
"Whoever we're fighting- most likely Rapture- will know that the thing to do when facing two opponents is to get one in the other's way. We don't want that to happen, obviously. We want to work together so he can't block both of our attacks. Let's try it," Emma said.
Slowly, painstakingly, we made progress. It was somewhat uncanny to fight beside Emma. It was unsettling how good she was at hurting people. It was what they did in One, but it was still unsettling. She didn't seem to enjoy it, exactly, but it came to her so easily.
"Your instinct is going to be to slash," Emma started as we practiced with daggers.
"No, it's okay. I know this one. I hunted a lot at home," I said. The assistant looked off innocently at this implicit confession of illegal activities.
"Oh, yeah. I suppose you had to," Emma said. She hadn't know until we met how hard things could be in the outer Districts. Careers thought they were the only ones that fought for a living.
"Why are you teaching me all this anyway?" I asked. "We're going to be enemies eventually."
"Maybe because you never treated me like a princess. Maybe because I want you to win if I don't. Or maybe I just want it to be a good fight," Emma said. I felt the same way.