The next day of training, we decide to stay together and work on skills we are all lacking. First, we head over to basket weaving.
Evan and I make three baskets to store food and one so tightly woven it can hold water. Marcus and Kennedie are having a little trouble, so we help them out. In no time, we have about 15 baskets made, so we move on to hand-to-hand combat. I'm already pretty good at it, but I could brush up on my skills. Kennedie and I practice with each other.
She isn't as strong as she looks, because I take her down easily. She brushes it off, which I did as well. The real test will be in the arena anyways.
Marcus and Evan go against each other. Some struggling occurs, until eventually Evan takes Marcus down. This seems to make Evan really happy, he is smiling and cheering, which in turn makes me smile happily. It was like watching a kid get the toy they wanted most on Christmas, and it made me happy to see him like that.
When I look over at Marcus, I find he was already looking at me and smiling.
"The boy has some pretty good skills," he says, winking to let me know that he let him win. This brings out a giggle from me. Evan comes running over and gives Kennedie and I high fives.
"Maybe next time buddy," Evan says, patting Marcus on the back, making both Kennedie and I laugh.
"Not likely. He's an easy match," I joke.
"Oh really?" Marcus cuts in, while Evan and Kennedie start laughing yet again.
"Really," I say confidently and challenging.
"Let's just see then." He grabs my hand and pulls me up to the mat. The instructor looks between us, seeing if we were going to do this. We both nodded and then I turned to look at Marcus, giving him a cocky smirk.
"Don't go too easy on me," I say. He returns my cocky smirk with an equally cocky one.
"Wouldn't dream of it." The instructor blows the whistle, and we start.
We wrestle for about 9 minutes, almost evenly matched, before he gets me pinned down. His hands pin my shoulders to the ground and puts his face directly above mine, only mere inches away. My heart beat accelerated and I wasn't sure if it was due to the exercise or something else.
"C'mon Sapphire, you can do better than that," he teases. His eyes move from mine to another part of my face, and I take the opportunity to gain the upper hand. I push him off me and pin him down.
"You mean, like that?" I ask, almost too innocently. He laughs, looking me directly in the eye. Both of our chests were rising and falling quickly due to the match that had just ensued, and while all that was happening, something clicked inside of me. It was something of a new realization, but I wasn't sure what exactly that was. Almost like some sense of security.
A feeling that the boy I had pinned down was someone I could trust whole-heartedly. That we were about to risk our lives for each other without a second thought. I don't know why it just happened, nor do I know where it came from but it gave me more comfort than months of training could.
"1, 2, 3!" the instructor calls out, breaking me away from my thoughts.
"I win," I say, standing up and offering a hand to him, desperately trying to hide my flustered face.
"I lied. I went easy on you," he says.
"Riiight," I giggle, rolling my eyes. We join the by-standing Evan and Kennedie, who were both looking at us in amusement.
"Wow, you are too easy Marcus," Evan says.
"Let's just move on," Marcus mutters.
After a brief laugh and poking fun at him, we go to the track to run a few laps. On our way there, I spot two tributes standing by themselves in a corner. They both look to be 12. I hadn't seen them around, and neither of them looked like they had been doing anything yet.
"Hey, I'll catch up to you guys in a minute," I say to the other three.
"Is something wrong?" Kennedie asks.
"No, nothing's wrong. I'll be over in a sec," I reassure them. I make my way over to the pair in the corner, stopping a few feet away. They both back up when I approach them. They both seem so shy and scared, almost like small puppies.
"Hi, my name is Annelise. What are your names?" I ask, using my soothing voice. They both stare at me uncertainly.
"I'm Max." The boy says. He has green eyes with medium brown hair, and he's tall or his age. The girl standing next to him has dirty blonde hair with blue eyes and freckles that dot her nose and cheeks. She looks down at the ground, her hands behind her back as her shoes kick some invisible object on the ground.
"I… I'm Sarah," she says barely above a whisper.
"Well, Max, Sarah, what are you guys doing over here? Me and my friends are going to run some laps. Do you want to join us?" I ask them.
They look at each other uncertainly before Max speaks up. "Sure."
We walk to where Marcus, Kennedie and Evan are waiting patiently.
"Guys, this is Max and Sarah. They're going to run with us."
Everyone greets them and we go to the starting line. I get in position, ready to sprint. On my left is Sarah, and to my right is Kennedie. I give Sarah a reassuring smile as she gets into position. Her eyes flit away as soon as they meet mine, but she gives me a tiny smile.
The trainer blows a whistle and we all take off instantly. Sarah Marcus and I are all neck and neck with Evan and Max close behind, Kennedie only a few feet behind them. The track is a half of a mile, and we do two complete circuits.
We finish running our two laps and I finish first. Marcus claims 2nd place, with Sarah 3rd, Max 4th, Kennedie 5th, and Evan last. By the time we finish, training for today is over.
I invite everyone to have dinner in my room, and they all join, even Max and Sarah. We all decide to get to know each other better. Even thought we all know this is probably a bad idea, no one says it. However, it could also be good as well. Trusts form when you get to know someone.
It turns out Max and Sarah are from South Carolina. They are actually stepbrother and sister. Sarah doesn't do much talking, she remains quiet as she stares down at her hands, twiddling her fingers in her lap. I ask them about their skills.
"If I do say so myself, I'm good with a spear and camouflaging," Max states proudly.
"What about you?" I ask Sarah.
"Oh… I'm not really good at anything," she says quietly, never looking up from her hands.
"Are you kidding?" Max says. "Sarah is the best at throwing knives that I have ever seen." She is still looking down, but a sheepish smile crosses her lips.
In my mind, I couldn't seem to find the justice in sending such a quaint and small girl into the arena. Sending anyone in there is unjust, but at least most of us could handle it well enough. Her and Max, however, were too young to be handling this. Then again, looks could be deceiving. Maybe she is truly the stronger one out of all of us. Only the arena would be able to prove that.
My thoughts bring me down, and I fall into a silence as I listen to everyone else chatting as if they have forgotten why we were here. The conversations go on around me and I listen, but not really. It goes in one ear and out the other.
I feel someone's hand on my shoulder, and I turn my head to see Marcus looking at me with a concerned expression. I give him a reassuring smile, which I find hard to force on my face. It probably looked more like a grimace.
"Are you feeling ok?" he asks.
"Yea, just thinking…"
"About?"
"Nothing important."
"Annelise…"
"Seriously, It's nothing," I reassure, trying harder to smile. There was no need bringing anyone else down with me. He opens his mouth to say something, when Kennedie cuts in.
"Marcus, tell us more about your sister," she says sweetly. He gives me one last look before going into details. I zone out as he talks since I already know all this anyways. When he finishes and everyone gets up to leave, we say our goodbyes to each other and I hold the door open for them. I stop Marcus before he can leave.
"Hey, I want those 4 as our allies. Is that ok with you?" I say. He thinks over it for a second.
"So you want two 12 year olds, your cousin and Kennedie?"
I nod my head. "Just wanted to run it by you first," I say.
"So, even if I say no, you are still going to take them as allies?" he asks.
I raise one eyebrow. "Yea, pretty much." I say. He laughs.
"I figured that much."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, trying to be serious, but I'm smiling so it's not too convincing. When it hits me that I was actually smiling and it wasn't being forced, I have to blink a couple of times. It always takes me a while to pick my mood up when I was down, but here he was making no effort and already brightening my mood. How he made me smile so easily was a mystery. However, I wasn't going to complain about it, I actually kind of liked it.
"You are pretty stubborn, Sapphire." I pout and playfully punch his arm. He smirks, flicking my nose. "I like them too. I guess we can tell your father about our allies."
I nod my head. "Well, I will see you in the morning," I say.
He nods back "Goodnight." He walks out and I watch him walk back down the hall and into his own room. When I shut the door, I lean against it, a goofy grin finding its home on my lips. The sense of security I had found with Marcus when we were wrestling has me feeling slightly too eccentric for my situation, but I was enjoying the feeling.
He grin stays on as I make my way to the bed, wrap myself in my blankets, and eventually fall asleep, a replay of today's events playing, the good surprisingly outweighing the bad.