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XLVII. 69th Games
I've never been particularly fond of mentoring.
Marlene kind of ruined that for me, but now, as I sit beside her and Venala and in front of the two tributes this year, I'm reminded once again of why I don't like being in this position.
The tributes are infuriatingly annoying. And this year, they're not volunteers. They've both been reaped.
The sixteen-year-old boy, Gordan doesn't seem so bad compared to his female counterpart, who is someone I'm much too familiar with. This fifteen year old girl standing at a height of five foot nothing has an unhealthy obsession with me, and doesn't cease to make attempts on flirting with me. Patty Begula has always been the crazy, overdramatic girl in the Training Center who talks non-stop about any hot guy who even dares to spare one single glance in her direction. She probably still has the time I taught her how to wield a knife imprinted in the back of her mind.
Sensing my discomfort around the girl, Marlene had immediately taken the first opportunity to claim Patty as her tribute despite the fact that neither one of them are particular happy with the decision. But, I am completely fine with that.
Gordan grew up in the poorest section of the district. In fact, his family dwells in the house beside Marlene's ex-lover's house, and I assume that's probably the prime reason she had chosen to mentor Patty instead. Even for a kid from this portion of the district, Gordan seems relatively well-fed and while he leans towards the skinny side, he's not ridiculously skinny where almost all his bones stick out prominently.
He's annoying because of his unstoppable volcano-like mouth, which can't seem to stop spewing compliments and "woaaaaahhhh's" each time he sees a new object on the train and as of now, District Four's storey in the Capital's Training Centre. Of course, that's slightly hypocritical of myself to think like this considering the fact that as a fourteen-year-old, I was probably just like that - but just not that excited.
In fact, both of our tributes this year haven't stopped gushing compliments about everything and it seems that even Venala is losing her patience with the pair now, as she courteously stuffs a forkful of grilled chicken into her mouth before chewing slowly. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I close my eyes for a few seconds and before I can even blink once, a knife is flung across the room, narrowly missing Patty's ear by a centimetre and embeds itself into the wall. Venala seems to release a sigh of relief when the two tributes keep their mouth shut for longer than ten seconds for the first time.
Patty's terrified pants of breath seem to reverberate around the walls when Marlene glares at the girl with her blue eyes in utter irritation. "Shut up, would you?" she snarls at the two tributes. "If you don't, then you'll lose your head the minute the cannon goes off, and not just because you'll be too busy sharing compliments about how goddamned beautiful the arena is."
Finding the scene unfolding before me amusing, I watch as Marlene switches her gaze from one nervous tribute to the other. "Well?" she snaps. "Are you going stay silent, or eat and tell us what you can do?"
Gordan shifts in his seat uneasily, scraping the peas and mashed potato on his plate to one side, before dragging the prongs of the fork down the flat surface of the piece of china. "Uh, I can tie knots," he says.
Leaning forward, I cross my arms on the table, ignoring Venala's reprimanding comment, "No elbows on the table, Finnick!". Both Marlene and I both scrutinise our tributes - they're both blonde, scrawny and small. They could easily pass as twins, and the chances of either one of them surviving the Games is minimal. I hold back a sigh of frustration and disappointment. "Have you done any training at all?" I question, mostly towards Gordan.
Patty has been a regular at the Training Centre back in District Four, but that doesn't mean she's particularly skilled. Despite the strict regulations we enforce upon those who are registered and permitted to attend training courses, this girl has never excelled in anything and manages to go off-topic with all her juicy gossip of the week and what not. She's known to be one of the more snobby girls who prance around with nothing in particular on their mind and feel the need to make others feel inferior to her.
When Gordan shakes his head, the small sliver of hope I have inside of me decreases further.
The Opening Ceremony is a majorly unimpressive and is an utter disappointment for District Four. It's not that the costumes look poor because in all actuality, they look astounding. They simply don't match how District Four should normally look and how they're expected to appear in front of all of Panem, especially due to how small the tributes' frames are as compared to those of Districts One and Two.
Even during training, they turn out to be extremely unremarkable with their limbs flopping around flimsily and a very, very limited amount of hand-eye coordination. As Marlene and I watch the other Career mentors study our tributes with judgemental eyes, it barely takes a second for us to realise that we have no hope to collaborate with them this year. Patty makes a pathetic attempt to run a perverted hand down Ezekiel Marx's chest, smiling sultrily as she struggles to lift the axe up with her left hand properly.
"Guess who that reminds me of?" Gloss asks out loud, rhetorically.
"A female version of Odair over here," Brutus guffaws loudly, and I just can't seem to resist rolling my eyes. I hadn't been that obnoxious, had I?
After multiple conversations of reminding Gordan and Patty to stay away from the Careers and to associate more with the punier tributes, it seems that only Gordan knows how to listen. Patty drags her hand through her blonde hair, twirling a strand around her index finger and pouts at Ezekiel, Gloss' reaped tribute, who already seems whipped by her actions.
"Tell your pathetic tribute to screw off," Gloss ends up telling Marlene. "She's messing with our tribute's mind."
"There's nothing more pathetic than being fooled by what she's doing, Delgado," she replies, coolly. "So, tell your pathetic tribute that he should value his pride a little more if all he's going to do in the arena is to admire my tribute's cleavage."
A chorus of collective stifled chuckles is her main response. As much as Marlene despises the presence of Patty, she would never make herself look bad, even if others are dragged into the situation. Exchanging amused glances with Cashmere, I turn around to find an Avox by my side, his hand outstretched with a white slip of paper. Heaving a sigh, I manage to push myself back up to my feet and make my way to Snow's mansion, as requested.
This time, we don't converse about our usual topic of my clients and how they're doing, and how Marlene's doing. This time, he manages to slither his way around the conversation and question me about my supposedly rumoured relationship with Annie.
"The women here... they aren't happy with this rumour," Snow says. "This relationship will cause certain consequences if this were indeed true. Women will be dissatisfied due to guilt that you're... cheating on them with an immature girl. Additionally, your number of customers will decrease significantly, which will have an extremely detrimental effect on the nation especially with the loss of money..."
The fucking loss of money.
Drowning out the rest of his speech, I fume silently as I stare across at the wall behind him where a portrait of himself holding a white rose is hung up. It's the ugliest shit I've ever seen in my life - prominent wrinkles, a devious look in his eyes, sinister smile and the light tints of red that undeniably represent blood and death. Fuck, it's disgusting.
"With all due respect, sir," I end up interrupting, hopefully in a tone not too harsh, unable to take his monologue in anymore. "There's nothing going on between myself and Annie. She's sixteen, almost seventeen, and I've known her since we were children. I'm supporting her by allowing her a place to live where she can feel safe and secure, rather than allowing her to stay at her old house alone without any company."
When I get back to the Training Centre that night, I hang up on Annie before she can finish her greeting sentence and I make sure to do that for however long I stay in the Capital for.
As predicted by almost the entire of Panem, our district's tributes barely last two days into the Games. Gordan finds his skull being shattered within thirty seconds of the gong ringing and echoing around the desert, and I'm done for the year. Patty manages to survive a little longer, dying of an infected wound the next day, and Marlene and I find ourselves clearing the monitors and tables for our part of the Mentor Room.
It's a huge disappointment this year, and even that would be considered an understatement.
"Well, maybe we'll have better luck next year," she tells me that night.
The stronger tributes in the Games are evidently the Careers minus Cashmere's girl and the boy from Ten who bears a domineering presence around with him. This year, with the new Gamemaker, the Games end fairly quickly, on the fifth day. Approximately half the tributes end up dying of either heat exhaustion, infected wounds or thirst and those who have been smart enough to collect water from the Cornucopia or the tiny river in the centre of the arena manage to last a little longer.
In the end, it's Gloss who manages to bring his tribute back home after supplying endless bottles of water to him and only one at a time, a subtle message to the others that they won't sure what could potentially be his.
Ezekiel Marx, as I interact with for the duration of the Victor's afterparty, could perhaps be struggling already, after being crowned victor despite the fact that his Career group had barely witnessed any action as compared to previous Games. But, there is something fishy about him that both Marlene and I suspect. Whether or not he's pulling an act, we're not so sure.
A/N: I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I DESPISE WRITER'S BLOCK RIGHT NOW. My writing is just like 'lol what am i doing with life' and it's just URGH.
Next chapter will have major Fannie though (hopefully, I'll be able to pull off that chapter way better than this chapter and the previous ones).
Also, I've kind of been working on this side story about Gloss' life. I've decided that I won't make it like a typical story (like this), but instead, it'll be chapters of multiples snippets of his life. The scenes will jump and they won't flow, so they're kind of like a collection of one-shots :)