Hello, I apologise before hand if the chapter is short. Other than that I hope u like it. Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Hunger Games.
I am awaken by a loud bang on my door. I sit up and rub my eyes. I slowly rise to get the door. I unlock it, although I don't remember ever locking the door in the first place. Haymitch stands there leaning against the door frame, obviously very drunk. He has a bottle that is almost empty in his hand.
I take a glance over at the clock. 2:47a.m, great I was asleep for about an two hour and a half. What could Haymitch possibly want right now? He shoves past me and walks over to the chair in the corner of the room. I close the door quietly.
"Come in, come in," I mutter sarcastically. I sit down on the corner of the bed and face him. I open my mouth to say something, but he raises his hand. And then he flexes his index finger back and forth as if he's saying 'come closer'.
I lean forward slightly. He looks from side to side like he has some juicy secret he doesn't want anyone to know about. Then, he looks at me and belchs right in front of my face. Not what I was expecting. I immediately back up and wave my hand through the air in front of me. Haymitch throws his head back laughing. I end up laughing with him.
"I can't believe you fell for that, kid," he says slapping his hand on the arm of the chair.
"I can't believe you woke me up just to do that in front of my face. I thought I'm suppose to get some sleep for tomorrow." I tell him. His smile diminishes from his face. Then, he scratches the back of his head and leans back in the chair.
"I wanted to make sure you got everything covered."
"I do. I've already talked to the Careers and I'm in."
He let's out a sigh of relief. I think Haymitch actually does care about us. He probably thinks that Katniss really could win this and I could fulfill my purpose of protecting her. A smile forms on my face from the thought.
"What you happy 'bout?" he asks with his speech slightly slurred. I look up at him and then back at my hands that are resting on my lap. I shake my head. "You don't want to tell me that's fine...So, how do you feel about your rejection?"
"What?" I gander at him and see that he has a crooked smirk on his face.
"Don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about."
I don't really know what I was expecting. I already knew that she didn't like me the same way, but I guess I didn't think she would attack me either.
"I don't know. I guess I wasn't expecting her to attack me."
"Oh, so you wanted her to jump into your arms and you two will live happily ever after...you know... until you're thrown into the arena to kill each other," he says sarcastically.
I stay silent. My head is filled with so many worries right now. Is Katniss going to have enough sponsors to keep her alive? Did they even buy our story? What happens when the Careers do catch her? Will the Careers even keep their promise?
I lay back and put my left arm over my eyes as if the sun is buring bright. "No," I finally answer him. "I was not. I just hope I did enough to get her sponsors."
"Don't worry. She'll get a lot more sponsors than she really needs," he says gulping down the last of his liquor bottle.
"Yea I guess your right." Then out of no where, he starts chuckling to himself.
"Just to let you know, it'd take a lot of convincing for her to believe what you did, when I tell her," he says standing up. He walks to the door and opens it.
"What do you mean?" I ask him. He turns his head to face me.
"You're a smart kid. You figure it out." With that he walks out and closes the door behind him.
I surprisingly find sleep again until I'm awoken by Portia. She has me change into a simple outfit. She guides me to the roof and onto a hovercraft ladder. As I place my foot on the step, I feel a strange electricity run through my body and I'm completely frozen to the ladder. I can't move any part of my body. The ladder is reeled in and I'm taken into the hovercraft.
A lady appears with a syringe in her hand. "Okay, hold still please. I need to place your tracker." I don't think I can move even if I tried. She slides the needle into my arm. I immediately feel a sharp pain, but as fast as it came its gone. "Thank you for corporating." Then she's disappears behind a door.
I feel the electricity stop flowing through my body and I step off the ladder and walk to the center of the small room.
It's all whitish grey panels with two identical doors on two opposite walls. The one on the left was the door the lady disappeared through. I turn around and see Portia stepping off the ladder. A boy, probably an Avox, appears from the door on the right and gestures for us to walk through it. Portia puts her hand on my shoulder and nods. I walk through the door and Portia and the boy follow behind me.
I'm now in some sort of hallway with different colored doors on them. The boy steps in front of me and gestures for us to follow him. We're lead down to a door near the end of the hall. The boy opens the door for us. Portia and I step in. I turn and see the boy walk back the way we came.
The room is a fair size. The walls look just like it did in the previous room. Except there are seats and a table with food on it. Portia sits down and I sit across from her. We both began to fill our plates with the variety of food. I don't eat very much. Probably half of what I served myself.
"Try and eat some more," she says pushing the plate closer to me. I just shake my head. "Okay. Here have a glass of water." She fills a glass and hands it to me. I grab it and stare into it. I lift the glass to my lips and take a sip. As I place it on the table, I notice that my hands are shaky. The nerves are starting to get to me. I take a few deep breaths.
"Are you feeling okay, Peeta?"
I simply nod my head. She grabs my hand and squeezes it. "Don't worry. You'll do fine. Just follow the advice Haymitch told you." I suddenly miss my mother. Even though she stopped showing me real affection after I was four, I still miss her. Portia is kind of like the mother I didn't have. She has me drink more water until I've drank a full cup. Then, the window in the room goes dark. After a while, the boy comes back and leads us back to the ladder. We descend down a tube that leads underground.
The room I'm standing in is referred to as the Launch Room. Back at home, its known as Stockyard. Portia has me shower and clean my teeth while we're waiting for the arena clothes to arrive. When I'm all cleaned up, Portia drys and combs my hair. She doesn't do anything fancy to my hair. She neatly combs down the waves of hair on my head.
Finally the clothes arrive and Portia inspects the material. "Interesting. This jacket is made to reflect body heat. I think it may be a bit cold in the arena." She has me change into new undershorts and then she has put on the pants given to me. Then she hands me a thin short sleeved black shirt. I slip over my head and turn around so she van help me into my jacket. After, she has me put on the brown belt. Finally I pull up the tight socks and put on the black boots. Portia laces the second boot while I double knot the first boot she laced. She hands me the second boot and I slip my left foot into it and double knot the laces.
Once I'm finished dressing, Portia has me stretch my arms out and roll my shoulder back and forth to see if my clothes fit properly. "Peeta, did you ever bring a token with you?" Damn, I forgot to bring one. I shake my head. "Well, I figured. So, I brought you one." She opens her hand to reveal a thin wooden bracelet with a loaf of bread carved into it. I grin at her and pull her into a hug. I whisper a thank you into her ear. I release her and she puts the bracelet on my wrist. "Good luck."
She tells me to step onto the metal plate and wait. "Peeta, keep your head high. Show that your strong." Then, a glass cylinder closes around me. I look at her for direction. She nods her head and I can see a few tears roll down her cheek. The plate begins to rise and I have to squint my eyes because the light blinds. I feel a breeze blow by my face. I look around me to see where I am. I see a forest and a lake and in front of me is the Cornucopia. I smell pine trees coming from the forest. Then, I hear Claudius Templesmith's voice boom around us.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games began!"
Hurray! I finally made it to the Games. Okay, so that felt sort of like a long chapter. Anyway ... I would like to thank a few people for reviewing and PMing me. First i would like to thank Cassy for all your supporting reviews. Next I would like to thank .wish for your lovely review. Now, I would like to thank OliviaHG4215 for both of your encouraging reviews. Next, I would like to thank Guest for your review as well. Finally I would like to thank .1 for your PM. I thank all of you reading for continuing to read this. So Lets all have a review party and lets all do the review dance with your computer mouse :) In other words, I mean...Please Review. A review would actually encourage me to update faster.
~ secretTHGluver