"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." -Albert Einstein
District Two's Helena "Howl" Draconix's POV
"What kind of score do you think you got, girl?" My district partner, Lucifer, asked me. I looked at him and gave him a smile that told him exactly what I thought.
"One that's better than yours. Remember our bet?"
"Yeah, I remember." He replied calmly. "But I still think I'll win." In your dreams. I poisoned the weapons and used them like a master, there was no way that he could beat the score I was going to get. You could match it maybe, but you couldn't beat it.
My sister and mentor, Elektra, flicked on the T.V in front of us. They were getting ready to announce the tribute scores, so we had shown up just in time for us to see what we had gotten.
"What do you think you kids got?" Our male mentor, a guy named Perseus Maddox, asked us as he fell on the large bright blue sofa to our right. Unlike my sister who planned out her strategy in the games and used her smarts and looks to her advantage in the arena, this guy's only plan was stab a tribute, stab another tribute, and stab some more tributes. That was a simple, but almost non-existent plan. If you could even call it a plan. If he tires to tell me a strategy for the arena, I'll just ignore him. I had a feeling it was kill, kill, and kill some more.
"Something good." Lucifer answered confidently. "One of the best maybe." Of course, we were careers, we'd get the best scores. After all, this is what we trained for.
"Something better than him." I said, pointing to Lucifer.
"We'll see girl." He replied. He wasn't worried at all, but he should be. We then turned to the screen and saw a picture of Griffin get shown before a number nine appeared below his picture. A nine, I expected as much. Him being a brute, much like Perseus, was probably why he didn't get a ten.
Next they showed Lynsa's picture before flashing her score of ten. A ten, that suited her, her archery was first rate. I think she took my advice and put in combat rolls to make her look even better than she already was. It had to be the case, otherwise I bet they'd of given her a nine, like her muscle brained partner.
They then showed Lucifer's picture before showing his score, a nine. "Nine." He said to me proudly. I tisked at him. Don't get ahead of yourself, we haven't seen what I've gotten yet. My picture then showed up before flashing a better score.
"Ten." I told him proudly. I had beaten him, just as I expected. "I win."
"Whatever," He said like it didn't bother him. "I didn't even try that hard."
"Neither did I." I told him. But the truth was, I did try, very hard. But I couldn't let him know that. Even if we were both lying, I still wanted to be the one that could talk him down.
I then saw our District Three ally, the giant. His picture showed him wearing his face muzzle, and he looked pissed, very. And below his picture, it showed that he scored an eleven. An Eleven!? That guy got a score better than us!?
"How?" Lucifer asked looking at the screen in disbelief. "How did he-" He said before he stopped mid sentence, unable to continue.
How was that possible? This guy was big and strong sure, but he didn't have any skills like us, did he? Griffin got a nine. If anything, this guy should have gotten a seven, or an eight, tops. How in the world did he get a fucking eleven?
"Good thing he's an ally and not an enemy, right?" Perseus asked. Yeah, guess it was good that he wasn't an enemy, for now. Next it showed that other twelve year old girl who people were feeling sorry for. I was twelve, and I volunteered, she shouldn't be crying, whining, or anything. And people shouldn't be giving her sympathy either. If all you needed to do to get sponsors was to cry and be young, it would make those that deserved those sponsor gifts go down a path that shouldn't be gone down. After all, it would look pathetic if a career, who had trained all their life, started to cry. Only for the sponsor gifts to go to whiny, crying kids that acted more like babies. Stupid. Anyone who gave her sympathy, was stupid.
She scored a six, a little better than average. Then up next was Shoney who scored an eight.
"Think reaped career girl will do fine?" Lucifer asked still looking at the screen.
"Probably not." I told him. Evaline was reaped, that meant she probably didn't train as well as us. And I was right, she didn't score as well as the majority of us, but she still got an eight. Well, she can hide behind our safety, for now.
Next, they showed that dumb girl from Five. She scored a two. Not surprising, she was probably too dumb to show them something worth while. Next came the red eyed freak. He scored a five, the average score for a tribute. There was nothing special about him, just his looks.
Then came the pale boy from Six. I don't even remember much of him. He scored a three. After him came that girl that Lucifer fought against, and won by default. Her multi blond hair flashed on screen before her score appeared. A ten.
What!? She had a score as good as mine!? How? That scrawny girl couldn't possible do anything like us careers. What had she done? She didn't deserve that score, she couldn't even hold herself against Lucifer.
"You've got some competition this year." Perseus told us. Not if I kill her in the bloodbath we won't.
Next came District Seven. The boy that Lucifer pushed around got an eight, even though he was a wimp. And the orange haired girl scored a six.
"Forget about that guy from Seven," Lucifer chuckled. "He might have shown some skill, key word might have, but we all know what he really is."
"He might be hiding his true abilities." My sister explained. "After all, he might have the skills to be a challenge, and will show them in the arena."
"No." I told my sister. "He's a wimp. He didn't even try to fight back or anything. If you were there sis, you would have seen that in his eyes was fear. He feared us, like he should. He's not a fighter, he had to have a couple of bitches come and save his sorry ass."
"Didn't he defeat you by sitting on you or something?" Lucifer laughed, causing me to glare at him. I didn't like him bringing that up. It made me look weak, and in front of my own sister no less.
"He got lucky." I grumbled.
District Eight came next. That fat boy scored a three while that curly haired girl scored a seven.
Now for our District Nine ally. His picture flashed before they showed a nine. He was useful, defiantly useful. The girl did good, but not as well as him with a seven.
The little District Ten boy didn't do as well as the other young girl, his ally, as he scored a five. The girl did slightly better with a seven. Unlike the District Seven boy, I think she deserved her score, because unlike him, she was willing to fight.
The boy tribute from Eleven scored good a score with an eight while the girl was less impressive with a five. Shame that he wasn't with us, but it was his loss. He wouldn't be safe from us once he got in the arena. He'll learn his mistake soon enough.
The last district, Twelve, was pitiful as usual. The boy scored a one, and Lucifer laughed out loud when he saw what the fat boy scored. He laughed like it was the funniest thing he ever saw, and I couldn't blame him, it had been a while since a one had been scored. The girl did good for someone from twelve though, a five.
"What do you think sis?" Elektra asked me as she turned off the T.V. All and all, most of the tributes were better then what you'd normally get in the games. I mean, how in the world did this year get so many tributes getting on the better side of five? Did they purposely rig the reapings of the non-career districts to get better than average tributes? That multi blond bitch scored a ten while lots of other tributes got six or higher. But still.
"Nothing we can't handle." I told her smiling confidently. Because even though they got good training scores, we'd still have the advantage in the arena.
The District Three girl was only twelve with an annoying kid as her ally. Even if I ran into them alone, I knew that it would be easy to get rid of them.
The District Five girl was stupid and the District Five guy didn't seem all that strong, or skilled.
The District Six girl was probably all show and her partner was no threat. Same with the District Seven pair who seemed scared of their own shadows.
Really, the only threats were from those within our alliance, and Aerin. That was it.
They might have gotten better scores than normal, but they were still the same non-careers that would fall before us.
Scores:
District 1
Griffin: 9
Lynsa: 10
District 2
Lucifer: 9
Helena: 10
District 3
Zap: 11
Nessa: 6
District 4
Shoney: 8
Evaline: 8
District 5
Alexander: 5
Valerie: 2
District 6
Ricky: 3
Rayne: 10
District 7
Bo: 8
Sami: 6
District 8
Dav: 2
December: 7
District 9
Arrowe: 9
Talliana: 7
District 10
Max: 5
Life: 7
District 11
Aerin: 8
Angel: 5
District 12
Colin: 1
Evanlyn: 5
A/N: Oh hey, look at that, interviews are next.
After interviews are two or three more chapters until the bloodbath. Then I can start messaging the people who originally submitted their tributes!