A/N- Okay, guys. I have checked the traffic stats frequently and to my surprise and delight, I have quite a few regular visitors. But please, please, please review!I have had like three or four reviews so far, and it is seriously putting a downer on me. Please, please, please review, I love hearing what y'all have to say! And sorry I haven't posted in a while.
At the Capital
District 9
Primrose Everdeen
That day I didn't stop hearing about Rimprose. They called it a ship name- I had no idea what it meant, but it sounds like a combination of Rye and I. Victoria Baning was smiling like a psychopath when she walked in with a flourish, and she called out "GREAT NEWS! ALL OF THE CAPITAL LOVES RIMPROSE!" I was absolutely mortified. I quickly finished my dinner and hurried to the back of the train, thinking Rye would finally come to his senses and realize I'm a freak.
"Hey! Prim! Wait up!" His voice called out to me. I turned to see Rye jogging towards me.
"Hey." I said weakly.
"What's a ship name?" he asked. I could feel my cheeks getting hot.
"Um…it's a…." I fumbled over my words like an idiot.
"It's what I think it is, isn't it?" He asked.
"Yeah." I could feel my face getting redder by the minute. His face got pretty red to, and he changed the subject.
"You know they might show us the apartment." He said casually.
"Really? Great! I have been stuck on this train for a long time and I can't wait to get off!" Since the Capital was even more rowdy than usual, it wasn't necessarily safe for us to get off yet.
"Yeah. I'm just hoping that the Capital saying 'rowdy' doesn't mean glugging beers and becoming psychopaths." He said. It was a joke, but it held a truth and finality with it. I yawned and could feel my eyelids getting heavy.
"With that happy note, I'm going to bed." I murmured sleepily. I could feel Rye leading me to bed, and I just fell in to its soft mattress (they had it moved in here) and slept like a rock.
I took my bow and arrow and knocked an arrow cleanly in the bow. Very stealthily I looked this way and that. The forest was unnaturally green and its leaves rustled tremendously with every little breeze. Then I saw someone staring at me from the leaves, and as he stepped out in the light, I shot him down, liquid red gravitating towards the forest floor, blood blossoming among his chest as his body fell with a lifeless thud.
And I laughed.
After that it was mayhem, people stepping out and me killing everyone without a shred of guilt. And then he stepped out of the light, and the dream ended as my arrow went through his heart.
I sat up in my bed and screamed. Rye burst in my room, looking frazzled. I was subconsciously aware of the tears running down my cheeks and me rocking back and forth. Rye rushed to me and sat on the edge of the bed and looked into my eyes.
"I have them to." He whispered.
"It was- it was horrible." I stuttered back to him. We sat in silence, wallowing in unwelcome memories and bad dreams. He got up and began to walk out the door, but I stopped him and completely surprised myself.
"Can you sleep with me, Rye?" His eyes widened but he nodded. He climbed in my bed and held my hand. For a while we just laid there, like that, before I spoke. "Thanks, for being there to comfort me." He nodded.
"Ever and forever, Prim." I looked at him.
"Don't you mean forever and ever?" He smiled at me.
"Nah, ever and forever." He answered. I paused before speaking.
"I like it."
"It could be our thing." He said to me.
I didn't tell him that he was the last person I killed, and the only one I felt a shred of emotion for.
He was the only one where I felt his pain.
At The Capital
District 2
Elise Fuir
That morning I woke up early. We would be having the opening ceremony today; I hoped my stylist was good. Samuel was sleeping soundly to my right, I felt like he needed to be pinched. So I reached out and pinched him on the pressure point on the neck. Hard.
"Ouch!" He rolled off the bed and glared at me. "What was that for?"
"Cause you a pain in butt." I snapped. He sighed.
"That is not true."
"Your mom is not true." I answered. He sighed.
"Whatever." He relented.
"What get-up you think we gonna be in?" I asked. He smirked.
"You just wanted to talk to me." I was stunned how quickly he figured out. I'm gonna have to kill this one quick. Too intellectual. Hey, maybe I can "accidently" kill him in the bloodbath….
"When you get ya head on straight it gonna be betta for all of us." I put an extreme accent on my words. Samuel said the accent annoyed him last night.
At The Capital
District 8
Riley
I stayed up all night thinking about my strategy in the games. I think I can use Refer's weakness strategy to my advantage. I ask him if we can stay together in the Games, and he can't say no 'cause it would lose him his weakness image. I'd hang with him, hiding. If someone bothered to attack, he would fight them and say that I did to keep his weakness image and it would give me street cred. Then when it came down to the last couple people, I'd come out my brilliant hiding place. Refer would be hard to beat, but I think I have an advantage because Refer might have physical, but I have speed, smarts, and I know how to use a weapon. After that if I hide out long enough the careers will get bored and play with each other. Last career I'll take care of. As I reran my strategy through my head, trying to find flaws, cons, anything. A smile built on my face as I settled on this.
I might have a pretty good chance.
At The Capital
District 11
Myra
I studied my list of tributes. The first thing I did when I got on the train was make a list of my competition. For guys, the most worrisome was: Tux, Scott, maybe Darrel, Jack, and Samuel. For the girls: Elise, Aurora, Riley, and Katie. A lot of my tributes I didn't know that much about them yet, so I was withholding judgment. I studied each and every tribute, piece of information, looks, and personality that had anything to do with the tributes or even past Hunger Games. One of the strategies worried me: playing weak. Johanna, a girl from District 7, won that way. I feel like that may be Jordan's strategy to, but I didn't know fro sure yet. As I said, withholding judgment.
"And I bet we have vines growing up all over us…." Ethen's voice rang out. I didn't even realize he was talking.
"And our chariot will sure be awesome!" I sighed; we would have to go through opening ceremonies.
"Time to meet your prep teams!" Our escort screamed shrilly.
At The Capital
District 12
Katie
I got off the train and was leaded to a room. Three people bustled around me, pulling hairs off my legs, scraping dirt off my face, pulling any nails that had connected with my skin off. I moaned.
"Be still!" Said a flurry of orange- Glittger, I think?
"It hurts." I moaned.
"Beauty hurts!" Replied a high-pitched voice- definitively Curtasia. After I went through torture, my stylist came in. She had unnatural arched eyebrow that were dyed pink, hair piled so high upon her head that it must be two feet tall, no exaggeration. She had a white gown laced with pink threads fading in to purple, then blue, then an orange bunny. Her entire face was a bright purple, and when she smiled her teeth had little bunny stickers on them. From behind her back she pulled a dreadful black dress, with coal sewn into the hem and neckline.
"Perfect." Her nose twitched a little when she spoke.
My final thought of her- a giant bunny married a plum and had her.
At The Capital
District 9
Rye
I had a golden shirt with faint outlines of wheat on it, with pants that matched the green of the grass. My blond-brown hair matched the fabric, my stylist had said delightedly. I waited for Primrose to come out, scratching away at the itchy fabric. I turned to scratch my back, and when I turned around, I saw Prim's back. She turned around, and our eyes met. The stylist had done a beautiful job. Her hair was braided with gold strands, and she had the slightest bit of gold eyeliner beautifully highlighting her green eyes. Her wrist had gold wheat bracelets. This girl made wheat look good. It seemed as if we were the only people in the world. She walked to me and whispered.
"Do I have something wrong with my outfit? Everyone is staring at me…."
"No you look beautiful." She smiled shyly and raised her eyes to meet mine. Green and brown never looked so good together.
"Everyone in the chariots!" screamed a Capital man, waving at us madly. I got in the chariot and offered my hand to Prim, and she took it. Her hand was warm.
"I'm so nervous."
"It'll be okay." I held her hand reassuring. Then blinding light centered and Capital started screaming.
"RIMPROSE! RIMPROSE! RIMPROSE!" We looked around. District 12 had ridiculous coal outfits. District 3 had wire outfits. Prim definitively took the stage. She smiled shyly, which caused uproar. She even blew a kiss, and the whole crowd stood up. The security guards were working double time. A Capital boy about my age threw a rose to her, and she smiled at him. Finally President Snow gave his speech, and we left.
Honestly, I can't remember the rest of the night. We were lead to our apartment and I conked out, Prim with me.
That day was the best.
At The Capital
Head Gamemaker
"No, no, no, NO! It is all wrong, all wrong. That cage is supposed to go there. And the pedestal there." I said exasperatedly. The younger Gamemaker always had trouble. This was going to be the best arena yet. Better than the clock arena! Better than that arena where knives came out trees! Better than that holiday-themed arena we did two years ago. What was the holiday again…oh yes, Halloween! That witch was hilarious...still better! We were doing something that was extremely popular before the glorious start of the reign of the Capital.
"Sir, do you want the dragon to go three places to the left, or four places to the left?"
"Of course 5.7 places to the right! Where else would it go!?" I screamed at the girl.
"Yes sir."
"Was that a capital s or lowercase?"
"Um…lowercase?" I slapped her.
"It is Sir, not sir!" I walked away and muttered something about little girls and their impoliteness
The arena was going to be awesome. And very deadly.