I get into the room, where I will see my brother for the last time along with Albert. Although I would try my absolute best to keep my promise with him, I don't know if I will be able to. This is the Hunger Games we are talking about and if I don't changer then I will surely be a bloodbath death, no two ways about it. I start pacing the room for what feels like forever. Eventually Benjamin is allowed in and I hug and squeeze every part of him. I tell him everything will be fine, that I'll come home and to ask Albert if he ever needs any help. Right as I am telling him I love him, he is taken away by the Peacekeepers.
It isn't for another ten- fifteen minutes that Albert comes in. He runs in and hugs and comforts me saying things like, "Amelia, I know you're scared but I will watch Benjamin for you while you are in there, you will be sly as a fox and steal supplies from the Careers and then you will hide some poison in their food and will win. That's all you need is one kill. You got this. Then you will come back and we will live together happily in your victor's village along with Benjamin, Eleanor, and George. Everything will be fine. Just remember, I'll be waiting for you back here and take one step at a time. Don't get panicked and one last thing Amelia."
"Yes?" I ask.
"I will always love you no matter what happens in there. Do you hear me? I love you forever and always." He says with his cheeks scarlet and a tear coming from his eye.
"Albert, I love yo…" I am cut off with a passionate kiss. It is probably my last kiss with him ever and it is completely desperate. I can't get enough and it would have lasted so much longer had it not been for the Peacekeeper kicking Albert out, so that I sit there all by myself in the lonesome room.
In the room I just let my mind drift off into millions of different scenarios. What am I going to say when I see my father, Seneca Crane, again? How will I make it past the blood bath? Is Albert going to understand why I snap if I snap? And the one scenario that keeps going through my head, who is my district partner?
I have seen his face. I am sure of it. But he was not in the orphanage. I am sure of that also. He is Asian with dark brunette hair. He had a mean face on when I shook his hand… but who wouldn't if they were just reaped? I guess to most girls he would appear attractive, I would think so if I had not known Albert and his sweetness and kindness to me constantly even when he is having a bad day. I guess he is pretty short but I am tall for my age so everyone seems short to me. But where do I know him from… My thoughts are cut short when my mentor comes to gather me from this small, enclose room.
"Amelia? Correct? You know what I don't care. I'm Phox Greenlaw, but you will address me as Mr. Greenlaw and only as that. I won the fifty-third Hunger Games and have been mentoring since. I watch kids go in every year and do not come back. At first it bothered me, not I expect it from all my tributes. So prove me wrong. I shall give you both nicknames because your real names won't be remembered in the Capitol because they are boring, quite frankly. Amelia, you shall further be known as Lucille Balle, she was a famous television actress before the rebellion that had striking red hair and her show is still watched in the Capitol. They will love it. And Jake you will be now known as Jackie Chan, also a famous actor before the rebellion who is still known and loved." He finishes then starts to go to his room.
"So, what else should we know about the arena?" I ask.
"Umm… it's deadly… what else do you need to know?" He says with a slug of alcohol.
"Some tips on how to survive maybe?" I say almost stealing the alcohol and throwing it out of the train.
"First worry about the Capitol. You can worry on the rest later. The Capitol is where you can get sponsors and be able to survive in there." He says then walks into his room, slamming the door behind.
"So Jake…" I say.
"Leave me the hell alone. Ok? I don't need you. I don't need anyone! Besides don't you have somebody to leave to fend for themself then get kidnapped at age seven?" He says with a huff and a slam to the door also.
So that's who he is. Jacob. Jacob, the one I left in the ally because we were being bullied by the older kids for not looking the right way. I mean I was a red-head with pointed features and at the time he was a short, stocky, Asian kid. I think back to that day.
It was a Tuesday, right after school, I was taking a short cut with my best friend, Jacob, down an ally to get to the where we would always go, the meadow. It was right near the fence but still inside and we would talk for hours about our family. His mother had barely escaped the explosion my mother was in. She had severe scaring that would never go away. Anyways, we were going back to go to our special spot when, eight fifteen and sixteen year old guys come up and corner us. I started running thinking that Jacob was behind me, but it wasn't until I got to the school I realized he was still back there. I knew if I were to go back, bad things would happen to me. Bad things that I could never get out of my head, besides Jacob was a boy, what would they do to him? He would be fine, if ever I was so wrong it was then. They humiliated him so bad; they gave him wedgies, hung him up on the school property upside down by his underwear, and then made him tell his most beloved crush he loved her. Unfortunately that was me and I was told beforehand to deny and humiliate him otherwise, they would hurt me but a million times worse, so I did. I denied him and worse I posted it all over the labs what a loser he was to ask me out.
That time in my life haunts me all the time, because he was my best friend. He helped me before I could even talk to Albert. I just wish I could apologize, but no in less than a week instead of apologizing, I would be killing my old best friend… or would I?