The Train
On the train, we all sit at the table to eat. Addis is stuffing her face.
"How many times did I call your name at the reaping, do you have some type of hearing problem?" ask Katiaa.
One of the mentors laughs at me. His name is Astrix; he won the hunger games twelve years ago. The other mentor is Rose. She is the most recent District Five victor and very beautiful in my opinion.
"He was daydreaming I think", says Rose.
I seem to be the butt of the joke.
"No," I shake my head, "With so many kids you never expect to actually get your name called."
"Oh! So you're not partially deaf. That would have been a disadvantage in the arena," says Katiaa.
Thanks for the concern, I say in my head.
I notice one of the Avoxes staring at me. He motions his hand towards his mouth, like he has an invisible spoon. I think he is telling me to eat. The food looks delicious but I really don't have much of an appetite at the moment. He continues to make the motions so I take a few spoonfuls of some creamy purple stuff to shut him up. It's really good too but I'm still not hungry. The topic of discussion turns to strategy.
"Show your strengths to the other tributes and try to get in good with the careers," says Astrix.
"Stupid! Don't show your strengths to the enemies, pretend to be weak and then strike when they least expect", yells Rose.
They obviously have two completely different strategies. They begin to argue, than it escalates to a full on food fight. Astrix accidentally knocks over a bowl of green soup. It gets all over Katiaa's dress. I'm curious to see what happens next but decide to hide under the table until it's all over instead. When I come up Astrix is on the floor bleeding from his head. Katiaa marches out the dining cart and slams the door behind her. Both mentors are laughing hysterically. I thought I was crazy but these two take the cake. I smile sincerely for the first time since that morning. I look over to Addis who is apparently full now. She glares back at me and I turn away.
"Well, I'm going to go lay down", I say as I stand up from the table.
"Wait!" says Astrix. "I think you guys should decide whether or not you are going to be allies. Forming alliances will greatly increase your chance for survival."
I've never seen the point of alliances when you have to kill each other anyway and besides I barely trust anyone back home let alone in the arena. "I don't know Addis so I can't trust her," I say hoping not to offend her.
"Well why don't you two spend the night getting to know each other better," says Rose in a way that sounds naughty to me.
All of a sudden Addis stands up.
"I would like to form an alliance with you Thales, if that's ok" she says.
It catches me off guard because I was sure she hated me for some reason.
"Fine," I say, "I'll get to know you than decide if we should team up, but remember there can only be one winner."
I exit the room.