Jet Campbell - District 1 Mentor
I get the short straw. Of bloody course. Which means I get to mentor this year's male tribute. Definitely one of my least favourite jobs as victor, and that's saying something. One good thing about being from District 1, there's always plenty others to take the job of mentor. The last three years in a row, though, I've been chosen every time. Every time. The odds are definitely not in my favour, or whatever.
In those years, I've only had one of my tributes win and honestly, not much of that was down to me. Granite White had this brutality about him that couldn't be taught. I honestly do not think he cared at all who he killed, which tributes lost their lives because of him. Even the 12 year old district 3 boy didn't seem to affect Granite; he slit his throat without hesitation, and carried on his way. All his kills were pretty brutal actually, and quite difficult to watch onscreen. In fact, if anything that year was more difficult for me than the rest; watching people die at the hands of someone who I'd given advice on how to kill them.
And now I have to live next door to Granite, which is even worse.
As I think this, the door of my house slams open. It's Emerald; victor of the 82nd Games when she was only 15, she's several years younger than I am, but that's never stopped her. We're more like friends than neighbours, so we each have a copy of the other's key in case of emergencies. I'm slightly regretting that now that Emerald sees it as an invitation to burst in whenever she feels like it.
"UGH!" she goes, before I have a chance to speak. "That Granite. Seriously, Jet, if you could have been slightly less generous with those sponsor gifts... told him to poke the other Careers with a stick or something... or to just go throw himself of the cornocopia..."
"What's he done now?" I ask wearily. Believe it or not, this is nothing new. Emerald lives on the other side of Granite's house, and she doesn't handle him nearly as well as I do.
"Apparently, I'm next year's mentor. Me! Again. Like I haven't had to do it enough times. Like Sparkle - flipping Sparkle, who never has to do anything but flick her beautiful blonde locks back and forth like the useless princess she is - like she isn't well due her turn. She literally never gets anything. I mean, do you think that's fair?"
"Um - no?"
"Exactly. And every year. Every year! Well. Not last year. But the year before that. And the year before. And a couple of years before that - "
"Wait, wait, wait." I try to stop Emerald mid rant. Not an easy feat. "So - what the heck does that have to do with Granite?"
"Well, see yesterday? I'm in the living room, watching a film, just minding my own business, right?"
"Uh... right."
"And then the doorbell rings. Not a short ring; one of those keep-your-finger-on-the-bell-to-annoy-the-hell-out-of-the-people-in-the-house rings. And so I open it. I have to. Anything to get rid of that horrible sound. And he's there. Just standing there. Granite. And he's all smug, like, "Oh, Emerald, I'm sure you won't mind, not like you have anything else to do with your time anyway." Well, he can talk. Why do you think he's round mine so often, being the annoying asshole that he is? And then of course I demand to know why I, me, Emerald, and not Sparkle, am on mentor duty again. And he does that awful smirk thing he always does -" she mimics him, "And says, "Well, I recommended you." All innocent. Like he's done me a favour or something. I am not even kidding. I mean, how the heck did none of his allies in the arena get tempted to twist his neck or something?" Finally, Emerald stops. I guess she's run out of steam.
There's a blissfully quiet pause, before Emerald looks at me pointedly. I guess that means it's my turn to say something.
"Um -" I go - "Maybe it's not that bad?"
"Not that bad? Not that bad? Are you actually being serious right now?" She looks at me like I'm completely insane, flicking her dyed green hair to emphasize the point. And flounces out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Then there's a pause, presumably as she thinks, before she opens the door again. This is causes even more hassle for me, I suppose, as it means I have to get up, walk across the hall, and close it myself.
Wow. Emerald, who described herself to me when I first met her as "like a volcano made of spiky exploding rainbows", is okay in small doses. Very small. She can even be fun, sometimes. Life with her is never boring, that's for sure. But she can quickly get too much, and I honestly don't know how I'm going to cope with her over several weeks, on top of all the other stress of being a mentor.
And I thought it couldn't get any worse.
So, I know this is a really short chapter, but I just wanted to introduce a couple more of the main characters. Which of the characters we've met so far do you all like best? Feel free to review and tell me what you think!
Also, I've had some great fan art sent in by Mland22 of their tributes, which I definitely want to feature on the blog. If anyone else wants to send in anything, feel free to PM me a link and I will add it to the blog! It would be so cool to have a whole fan art section as well as all the tribute info!