I should have seen it coming that it would be more dull than anything else this time. Rapture didn't want to attack until he had a good plan in place, and the others couldn't. We didn't want to leave our stash, so we hung out at the Cornucopia and shot the breeze. Sometime during the day, another cannon sounded.
"Probably Demetria," Emma said. "Rapture should think more carefully. If he kills all the people Rose likes, she might not want him after all."
Maybe she'll send a mutt after him, I thought. I wasn't sure what Rose thought about mutts. Maybe she'd send a dozen horrible clown mutts to clean the Arena up, or maybe she wanted to keep us around a while longer. If she decided she wanted someone in particular to win, she'd make it happen. We just had to hope the most spoiled, pampered girl in Panem wasn't going to change the Games in her favor.
"She said she picked you because you're a great fighter and really pretty," I said. "I guess one of those is true."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma asked.
"Whichever you want," I teased.
"Guess I must suck at fighting, because I am beautiful," Emma said. She must have hated her outfit. It was a frilly, glittery, princess-style pink gown.
There was only so much we could chat about. Before long we were terribly bored. Emma tied a rope to a spear and started popping the balloons on the tables around us. They weren't so far away that we couldn't walk to them, but it was more fun to haul the spear back and not even have to stand up. I joined in and she started doing trick shots. Then we were out of balloons and back to square one.
"I never thought the Games could be boring," Emma said.
"Must have been boring when Toby won," I said.
"And hot," Emma said.
More time passed. The sun started to get a little lower, and I wished it would hurry up and set so at least something would happen. Then I sat up suddenly.
"Oh my goodness, we're so stupid," I said.
"What do you mean we?" Emma asked.
"We don't have to stay here," I said. "We just don't want Rapture to get anything."
"Yeah," Emma said.
"So let's smash all the weapons and get moving," I said.
"We are so stupid," Emma said wonderingly.
There weren't as many weapons as usual in the Arena. There were only ten of us, and Rose wanted her birthday party to last a while. She must have favored swords, since there were six of them. There were two spears, one belt of throwing knives, and one bow. Rose had a weak stomach- there were no maces or clubs. Emma snapped the shafts of the spears and I got to work bending the four unneeded swords. Or trying to, anyway. They were sturdy and stiff, and I was afraid they'd snap back and impale me if I leaned too hard on them.
"Let's just bury them," Emma said.
"We are so stupid," I echoed. I found a plate in our supplies and started shoveling out bits of dirt. Emma joined in and we excavated a pit large enough to contain the swords. Before we buried them, Emma picked one up.
"Know how in books, the characters always mash their swords together dramatically? That's actually super bad for them. It makes them dull and can actually break them. So let's have some fun with these and ruin them in case Rapture finds them anyway," she said. I picked up the other and squared off with her.
"En garde, varlet!" I said.
"You dare challenge me?" she shot back. We swung the swords straight at each other and they clashed. I winced at the shock in my hands, and the blades vibrated sickeningly. We smashed them together a couple times more, and a chunk of metal flew off of mine.
"I'mma show that platform who's boss," Emma said. She hit the dull metal platform over and over with her sword, and I did the same with mine. I felt the blade after a few minutes. It was like a butter knife.
"Well, these are now thoroughly useless," I said. We laid them in our pit, along with the spearheads. and smoothed the dirt over them. We piled some supplies on the spot to hide the discolored dirt and slow Rapture down in case he'd been watching us from some hidden spyhole. We snapped the leftover shafts into splinters so Rapture couldn't sharpen them.
"I feel so destructive," I said as we worked.
"I know," Emma said. "Isn't it great?"
"What about the other stuff?" I asked when we were done.
"We can take what we want in these," Emma said, holding up two floral-patterned party bags. She stuffed her arms into the sleeves of one and wore it like a backpack. "The rest we'll have to destroy."
"What food do you want?" I asked. The food containers were airtight and cool when we opened them, so they wouldn't spoil.
"Gimme them deviled eggs. I love them things," Emma said. I tossed her the container and started peeking through the others. I took some oranges, a platter of sandwiches with some sort of meat paste, and some pastries filled with chocolate. Emma filled her bag with more food and other supplies. We surveyed the rest and came to the same conclusion.
"What do you say we pig out?"