Foxx's A/N: Hey y'all! Enjoying the show so far? Hahaha. Happy days, happy reading. PS, I really like pie. Like, a lot. Especially the ones with potato on top. Yep, those are the best. The .
Subject's A/N: I love Foxx forever and always, to the ends of the earth and back. It's very true. Why thank you Foxx, for the loving introduction. I'm going to keep it here because it'll be the only memory of her until her 10-day hiatus ends. Cross your fingers for blood in this chapter. We'll miss ya Foxx!
Snev's A/N: Foxx decided it would be funny to re-do all of our A/Ns into a "slighly" flattering way of herself. You've seen Subject's. You really don't want to see mine, it would probably be censored on here. Now Foxx is gone for 10 days... FOXX IS GONE FOR 10 DAYS! Yay! Par-tay!
~SFSFSF~
Chapter 10 - Beam there, killed that, thrown that axe, Maia's POV
"Good luck," I muttered under my breath as Derryl left for his private session with the Gamemakers. Solemnly, I watched as he made his way over to the double doors that would lead him to the adjacent training room. His blonde hair was flicked off messily to the side as if he only just woke up. I had to admit, he was so cute.
Stop, Maia. Stop thinking about him like that. You know only one of the kids in this room are going to come back from the arena alive, right? A voice at the back of my mind was pestering me, pushing further thoughts of Derryl away for later. I cocked my head down, averting my eyes, letting my dark hair fall over my face and obscure my bright red cheeks from view.
One-by-one the tributes were called and Derryl's absence from the table made me feel more lonely than ever. I knew I shouldn't, but a part of me was desperately hoping he did okay in there. He had such an unsure expression on his voice that it was hard not to be worried. The rathead girl from six was called and I looked across to Saxon, knowing he was next. And then after that, was me.
I had no idea what I was going to do. Throw an axe around - my specialty, toss a few knives vigorously at dummies. I had to make an impression if I wanted a good score. A good score was key in surviving in the arena. And I needed the sponsors. Who else would save me? Derryl? He's just another one of those Capitol pawns.
"Saxon, from district seven." A piercing screech echoed throughout the room as his chair scraped along the tile floor. I couldn't help but wince at the sound. Slightly hunched over, he strolled across the room, all eyes on him, heading to the double next fifteen minutes was awfully prolonged; a painful wait. My mind reeled, uncertain. I had a nagging hunch that I was going to fail miserably, and I began to regret not attempting to train with any of the axes in the training centre.
"Maia, from district seven," called the name. My heart beat sped up instantly, my lungs were on fire, my whole body stiff. The built-up tension came flooding onto me and I froze, gaping.
It's now or never. I stood, ever-so slowly, taking care to not let the chair screech against the floor. Eyes were gnawing their way into the back of my head and I walked unflinching towards the double doors. A wave a musty, suffocating air slapped me hard as the creaking doors welcomed me into the training room to which I would give the Gamemakers a show.
My chest was thumping hard, my brain beating against my skull. For a moment I wanted to just stop then and there, and give up. Slowly making my way towards the weaponry stations, I instantly spotted the axes. A smile happily played across my face as I reminisced working in the woods. There was such a variety of axes here though, with countless shapes and styles. Their blades shimmered against the lighting and I paused, letting my fingers scroll along the tips.
My hand closed around a sturdy axe with a plain wooden handle, similar to those from home. At the hilt, a series of entwining leaves was engraved elegantly into it. My shoes tapping against the floor echoed throughout the room and suddenly it fell eerily quiet. I walked back over to the Gamemakers, noting only half were paying attention to my presence. The others were stocking up on piles of food.
I made an unattractive growling noise, which gained me a few attention points, but nothing that would get me the score I needed. A handful of Avoxes entered, presenting platters of food and alcohol. My mouth dropped, jaw scooping down the floor. How can they expect us to show them our skills if they're eating mountains of food in front of us once starving children?
Storming, I dragged a dummy into the centre of the room and expertly threw my axe at it. It was an inch off the bulls-eye, the Capitol axe's weight unfamiliar to my hands, but the Gamemakers didn't even notice. They were too preoccupied with stuffing themselves to no extent. I was fuming, smoke practically spewing out from my ears.
In a fit of outrage, I took a strong step, heaved my weight forwards and let my axe fly towards an oncoming Avox carrying a platter of meats. The instant the axe left my hand, I regretted it, for it was headed straight for the mute's head. Fortunately for him, he had a good enough sense of reflexes to dodge backwards, letting the axe hit the roast pork instead.
I was relieved, the Avox wasn't dead. I averted my attention back to the Gamemakers who were now very alert and muttering softly together in a huddled group. One pointed back to the Avox I nearly hit and I turned to see the roast my axe had hit had been pinned against the far wall perfectly. Now I had their attention. Without a moment's pause I snatched another identical axe and tucked it into my belt then glanced at the beams on the ceiling and knew what I was going to do.
I hurriedly scrambled to the top of the artificial tree in there; at least there was one advantage in living in a district surrounded by trees. I didn't even have enough time to think it through my glimpse of a plan properly before I had launched myself off the top and was flying through the air towards a ceiling beam. The beam hit my hands hard and against all of my automatic reflexes I hugged onto it tightly so I could keep up. Slowly, not wanting to fall down to the floor, I pulled myself up as elegantly as was possible for me and ignored the creaking beam's splinters digging into the soles of my feet as I slowly crept up onto my feet, trying to stay balanced. The moment I was standing up I realised that I had no idea what I was going to do when suddenly I noticed the axe I had tucked into my belt earlier.
I let the axe fly viciously through the air and watched it rotate around, cutting through the air like a knife would to butter. The axe plummeted at the wall and I could barely contain my laughter as I hit the meat on the wall in the exact same place as before. There were even more whispers coming from the Gamemakers so I decided to give them something to really whisper about. I dug my toes into the beam for a good grip and stretched my arms out into the air by me for balance. I could barely stop myself from toppling over and used my momentum to propel me forward. I ran across the beam as quickly as I could and just when it turned I launched myself into the air at the climbing wall. I managed to grapple onto it and found my feet's grip faltering so turned my heels backwards and slid down until I reached the bottom.
Then I not-so-gracefully collapsed on the floor until I managed to pull myself up and face the Gamemakers head first. I decided it was best not to get on their bad side so I did a quick bow and murmured if I could go. The head Gamemaker gruffly nodded and I politely bowed again and backed out of the room and barged right into that moron, Derryl, from four who whipped around and glared at me. He had slipped out of an alcove to the left, and I saw his eyes were red and puffy and he sneered at the sight of me.
"What's bitten you?" I asked.
"Leave me alone you bitch." he growled.
"Is that meant to be funny?" I snapped.
"Not as funny as your face." Derryl sneered.
Suddenly, uncontrollably, my hand wrapped around the base of a lamp that looked too comfortable sitting on a table. I threw it with as much force as I could muster, and it shattered a nearby window, shards flickering through the air. To my dismay, although I really badly wanted to hurt him, a shard caught Derryl on the arm and I saw blood seeping through his shirt. Before I could feel any pain in my heart, Avoxes came rushing to the origin of the sound, and I quickly faded into the background, knowing that, whatever was going to happen, the consequences couldn't be good.
Foxx A/N: If you review, I'll give you my pie. No joke. *sends sample of virtual pie*
Snev's A/N: Oh yeah I'm speedy, I wrote most of this chapter, I am so awesome! And all of you remember - while a chapter a day keeps the doctor away so does a machine gun...
Subject's A/N: Snev's making my craving for a machine gun grow higher. Enjoyed the little work I did? Good. You won't see any more. I'm kidding, I wouldn't abandon you guys! Please tell Snev to stop making Derryl look like a wimp. Please.