The next day the Tributes are gone for a very long time, obviously being plucked of every hair on their bodies and primed to perfection. I spend the day wandering around the District 7 level. Luckily the decor holds no memories in its paint and furniture as everything appears new. The carpet when I was here was soft and white, now it is thick and green. Everywhere I turn the colour green slaps me in the face, it's supposed to remind the Tributes of home but it doesn't remind me of home. Instead it reminds me of a forced photograph, where the participants are forced to smile for too long so their happiness looks so insincere and forged. The curtains hanging across the large windows are dark green with lighter green flecks, the kitchen table is green, the sofa is green with green cushions even the walls are painted light green. I think whoever created this floor had a bad hangover and thought their pea green vomit looked pretty, it's the only explanation for this catastrophe. James wandered from the kitchen past me, a cup of black coffee clasped in his hand.
"Is that your third today?" I ask, James laughs
"Try sixth." I raise an eyebrow, but then a buried memory resurfaces, James hates to sleep because it brings him dreams of his Games. The black haired Victor walks to the sofa and sits down, he switches the TV on and stares blankly at it. I continue to stand in the middle of the room, lost without anything to do. After 10 minutes Zion enters the room, flushed and anxious.
"Have you seen the chariot outfits, are they ok? We must make an impression, we must!" He exclaims, as quickly as he arrives Zion leaves, leaving a trail of muddy footprints after him.
"No respect." James scoffs, draining the last of his coffee. I snap out of my daze and walk towards a sofa to sit opposite him. The TV replays the highlights from the Reapings for the third time today, James stares into his empty coffee mug and I stare outside the window onto the empty street below, neither of us speaking for a long time. Eventually, James asks
"How are you?"
"Ok." I answer, but James knows I'm not. Although we became friends after my Games ended, James and I never stayed in touch. I would often see him from my bedroom window, sitting outside his house or buying some food, but that was it. In some aspects, James and I were very similar in our coping mechanism. It was all pretence, we were hurting worse than anyone could image but we just acted like we were fine.
"We have a meal tomorrow with the other Mentors." James says, giving me a split second of eye contact before looking back at his coffee cup.
"You'll get to meet Charlotte again." I mutter, looking at my broken nails. James groans and walks towards me, his arm out stretched.
"Look what she did to me last time she was here." He points towards a ragged scar at the top of his arm, I know that it's from a knife wound thrown at him because the animals I used to hunt always had wounds that shape.
"Why did she do that again?" I ask,
"Because she's a psychopath. Pure District 2 bred insanity wrapped up in a tiny frame." James replied, I smiled,
"I'll enjoy meeting her."
"It'll be a battle of the knife throwers. I recon we can pin her down and take her." James says with a smile, sitting down on the carpet.
"Lets create a battle plan! Maybe we can trap her in a rabbit snare if she's really small and feed her to Zion?" I suggest, both of us start laughing. It feels good to laugh, like I'm exercising my happiness to make it stronger like an athlete would their stamina. Whether it's how funny feeding a person to Zion would be, or just the pure elation of laughing, James and I can't seem to stop. We laugh until our sides ache and our lungs scream. Even after the initial laughing fit, we still have outbursts of laughter every couple of minutes for the next hour. Zion wanders back into the room a few hours later to be be greeted with the sight of James and I drinking coffee and throwing plastic spoons at a painting of Ceasar Flickerman.
"What's going on here?" He snaps, annoyed. Both of us ignore him. Sheepishly, the two tributes walk into the room, wearing the most ridiculous outfit I've ever seen. They're both wearing a body suit made of a brown plastic material with large leaf headdresses balanced on their heads.
"Let me guess, their coal miners?" James asks, sarcastically. Zion shoots him a murderous glare while Dill and Cecilia squirm uncomfortably.
"We look like idiots. All the other Districts are going to take the piss out of us." Dill complains, his slanted black eyes burning with annoyance.
"You're right, they will. But District 12 always look worse so don't worry too much about it." I say,
"Cleopatra, will you at least try to make them feel better about themselves?" Zion growls,
"Nope." I say childishly. Zions looks like he's about to start ranting at me about my manners but a clock chimes in the distance, informing us that we have to get the Tributes to their chariots.
All of the Mentors gathered together at the ending point of the parade inside a glass panel lit with warm orange lights and filled with tables of delicious food. The panel is enclosed off from the crowd by a glass box; the seat I'm sitting in is thick and luscious, it curls around my body and supports my weight comfortably. Sitting slightly in front of all the Mentors behind a black desk is President Snow. I haven't seem him this close for a very long time. He is as tall and thin as I remember, with vicious snake yellow eyes. James stares ahead into the night, waiting for the horn to blare for the parade to begin. Some of the other Mentors are chatting to each other, obviously familiar with one another.
"Sitting here makes me feel important." I whisper, James nods and adds
"Especially with Snow sitting just in front of us." A few of the Mentors stand up and walk around, getting a few drinks or talking to someone at the other end of the room. James stiffens his position in his chair as a small woman walks up to us. She's as tall as me, with an hourglass figure. Her hair is black and reaches her shoulders in a choppy style, which looks similar to how James' home cut hair appears. The woman's eyes are big and brown and outlined in a black eyeliner 's beautiful in a cruel, menacing way.
"James, it's been so long." She says, her voice is surprising high pitched which doesn't match her touch, gothic exterior.
"Charlotte." James says, his voice rougher than I'm used to. I look from James to Charlotte, confused.
"So you're Cleo. James told me a bit about you last time we slept together, e made sure you survived, sweet." Charlotte said, bluntly. James faced flushed red with embarrassments. I felt my toes curl in my flat shoes, whether that was because I felt for James embarrassment or because I as annoyed Charlotte and James had slept together I couldn't tell. Charlotte sat down on James knee, obviously enjoying his awkwardness. She wrapped her arms around his neck and crept close to his face.
"It's been so long," she lulled. James tried to pull his face as far away from her as he could, but his head had reached the wallpapered wall and there was no escape from this District 2 Mentor.
"Charlotte, get off me, this is not the time." James hissed,
"When is the time, big boy? When you're screaming my name in the Training hall or when your pounding me in the canteen after both your Tributes died?" Charlotte asked, her dark eyes dancing with cruelty. James stood up, knocking Charlotte to her feet, but the graceful woman recovered quickly and laughed harshly.
"Oh James, this is how you were the first time. Don't worry, it only takes you a few days to drop your trousers to me." With that, Charlotte spun around and walked back to her seat. James sat down, burying his face in his hands. The Mentors from District 6 and 8 stared at us in shock. From his reflection in the glass, I could see President Snow smiling to himself. I bit my lip, a laugh bubbling up inside me. James groaned slightly and that was enough to set me off. I burst out laughing, covering my mouth with my hand but it couldn't stop my delirious giggles.
"Shut up, Cleo." James snapped, I shook my head, my laughs effecting my balance so I fell to the floor. Obviously finding my outburst amusing, the other Mentors began to laugh, some tying to hide their giggles with napkins while others roared with laughter. A few people from the crowd looked up into the glass box and pointed, wondering what was so funny. James reached down and placed his hand over my mouth.
"Shut up." He spat. His blue eyes locked with mine. I was silenced immediately by his intense gaze. His eyes were like electricity shooting through my body, they were so blue they could almost be considered purple and the furious fire that was burning so fiercely inside him only highlighted just how mesmerising his eyes were. James removed his hand and sat back in his chair, I lifted myself up. My cheek flushed with embarrassment. I want to apologise, but it melted away on my lips, besides, I doubted James wanted to hear it. By the time the horn blared, the laughter in the glass box had died completely and James and I hadn't spoken a single word to each other.
The crowd clapped excitedly as the first chariot appeared, it was silver and held two beautiful blond tributes from District 1, their Mentors clapped gently, obviously too stoned to react properly. The next tributes were much more interesting. Dressed like ancient Greeks, the District 2 chariot thundered ahead, flowers were thrown and the crowd cheered wildly as they roared past. The two Tributes looked smug and confident, but why wouldn't they? They were mentored by the best there was apparently, plus they were Careers, they had the best hopes out of everybody.
"Did you see Cato blowing kisses to the crowd? I taught him that!" The male District 2 Mentor shouted, Charlotte pushed him back to his seat and snapped
"Oh shut up Brutus, no one cares what you taught him, he learns from me." James scowled, sinking into his seat
"She's such a bitch." He growled, I nodded but he didn't look at me. I frowned, I had never felt awkward around James but now I had never felt so distant from him. It seemed like our enjoyable afternoon had been burnt away leaving the ashes of humiliation and hostility behind. The next few chariots were dull and boring stereotypes. As soon as the District 7 chariot rode forward, I hide behind a lock of my wavy dark hair. They looked like animals caught in a snare, terrified and weak. Cecilia gripped hold of the horse reins so tightly it looked like they would snap. Dill look slightly more confident, he waved and smiled but his eyes portrayed his fear.
"Nice Tributes," Charlotte sneered,
"Just like your sex positions." James growled. I froze in my seat as the other Mentors laughed awkwardly. I wanted to throw myself off the glass roof and fall into the crowd I felt so trapped between the sexual tension the two Mentors shared.
"Ignore her." I said quietly, James said nothing. The next Tributes passed by painfully slowly, nobody showing any hopes of interest. I made myself a cup of coffee from a drinks dispenser and drank it in the corner, needing to escape from James. The District 5 female Mentor, Lint walked up to me with a coy smile and said
"I'd need to escape as well if I was sitting next to one of those. It's the same every year. They begin by tearing at each others throats, and then they start tearing at each others clothes." A pang of jealous stabbed my stomach,
"How long have they known each other?" I asked, Lint frowned
"They've trained Mentors at the same time as each other twice; each time Charlotte trains District 2 they win. Every time James and Charlotte get together no one in the Training building sleeps at night. Oh, am I making you uncomfortable? Sorry about that, I'm terrible for not knowing when to shut up!" Lint said, she grabbed a slice of cake and with a wink, sauntered away. I sipped my coffee, wishing Diego was here to plant a snake under Charlottes chair to poison her to death. Diego was good at pranks like that, and he never got caught for them. I didn't know why I felt so jealous, I shouldn't care what James did with another woman. But deep inside, the idea of him being with anyone made me feel angry and sad. Or maybe that was just my reactions to being here? A collected gasp stunned me out of my swarming thoughts. I looked outside to be greeted by the sight of fire. I stepped forward, squinting to see what was ablaze. District 12; I couldn't believe it. They held their hands tightly together like they were the best of friends. The fire burning around them made them appear like the Phoenix, powerful and extraordinary. Never had I seen a chariot outfit that beautiful. A close up screen zoomed in on both of their faces' they were total opposites, one dark like a demon and the other fair like an angel, but together they seemed to balance completely. Ying and Yang I thought, my brain remembering a phrase I had heard a long time ago. Two opposite forces working together, and that's exactly what they were. All of the chariots stopped in a horse shoe around the glass panel and President Snow stood up to recite his speech.
"Don't rule out District 12." A gray haired man chuckled at the back of the room, he stood up and wobbled out of the glass box, probably back to the Training Centre. Once the speech had ended the chariots cantered away and the Mentors began to depart from the glass box. Charlotte left first, spitting and hissing about how pathetic District 12 were for showing off. James didn't wait for me, or even acknowledge my existence as he walked out.
"How is it so far?" A voice asked, just as I was about to walk out. I turned around, greeted by the poisonous eyes of President Snow.
"Dauntingly, sir." I replied politely. Snow nodded, pleased with my manners.
"Do you think you'll have a Victor this year, Cleo?" Snow asked, I smiled at the use of my nickname which i thought he would ignore.
"I know I should stay optimistic, but there's no use in lying to them and spoon feeding them false hope. My Tributes might last a night at the most, anything after that is a gift." I replied, maintaining eye contact despite the rising dread I felt staring into the soulless pits of his gaze. Snow nodded,
"I admire your honesty. Many people now a days are not as open with their thoughts. I don't think District 7 will be lucky this year, but District 12 is a shock to me." Snow scowled slightly, as if the pinch of hope District 12 had made him angry. Without another word, President Snow walked past me out into the dark night. I frowned, my mind trying to piece together what would make him annoyed about a simple chariot outfit.
"Come on Cleopatra!" An annoyed voice snapped, I gritted my teeth. Zion knew my nickname all too well, he just actively chose not to call me it to so how far he could push me until I snapped and baked him into a meat dish. I stalked across the glass box towards him, slamming the door shut behind me.
Authors note:
Did you like it? Personally I loved writing this chapter hence the length of it. I really am going to enjoy writing about Charlotte and James. If you could review and tell me what you think that would be amazing!
Questionsssss!
What do you think of Charlotte?
Why does Cleo feel that annoyed about James and Charlotte?
Why did James refuse to talk to Cleo after Charlotte embarrassed him?
Answer them in a review and I'll message you to see if you're right!
One other thing! There's been a big error. OH NO! Cleo won the 71st Hunger Games but so did Johanna Mason in the same year. So for the purpose of this really bad bit of research...although I think that's a new detail, message me if I'm wrong? Could you all just pretend Johanna won before Cleo did, it has no real importance to the story at all, but I just wanted it to be cleared up incase any of you were wondering. Thanks and I'll upload again as soon as possible
REVIEW PLEASE AND I'LL LOVE YOU EVEN MORE THAN I DO NOW 3