A/N: Hey guys. I'm back with another chapter. This time, it'll be a bit more exciting. The past few chapter have been a bit boring sooo yeah :P Please, if you haven't done so already, go vote on my poll on who your favorite tribute is! You can vote up to three choices! :)
Chapter 7
The Gamemaker Sessions
"I feel the adrenaline moving through my veins
Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break
I'm like a performer, the dancefloor is my stage
Better be ready, hope that you feel the same
All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus
When I crack that whip, everybody gon' trip just like a circus"
Circus – Britney Spears
Melissa Hemiss' POV District 2's Female Tribute
The Gamemakers are going to evaluate us soon. I'm not particularly nervous. I'm confident with my skills. We're one of the only ones here, so we have to wait a while for the rest of the tributes to arrive. Once they do, the head trainer comes to talk to us.
"Two days have passed. You've been training for these last two days and now, the Gamemakers will evaluate you. Before that, you'll have 15 minutes to warm up in the Training Center, you'll then be asked to leave and the Gamemakers will see you individually. We'll start off with District 1, and finish with District 12. The female tribute will go first. Good Luck." She leaves, and the doors of the Training Center open. We enter. I basically run through all the stations I'll be performing at today. It includes mainly weapons, a few survival skills, climbing, and the obstacle course. That should get me a solid 9 or 10. Good enough. Soon, we're asked to leave the Training Center and the evaluation begins. Claire stands up as the robotic voice calls her name.
"Good luck" I whisper to her
"You too Mel, good luck" She responds, and heads off. I sit silently next to Logan and Keaton. I'm excited. I'll finally be noticed. No one ever noticed me back in 2. I was always considered the quiet girl. No one really acknowledged my presence. I was invisible. But now, it's different. I will be noticed. When I'm a victor everyone will know my name, I'll be famous across Panem, I won't be the little "quiet" girl anymore. And I make my first step towards fame today.
When I snap back to reality, Claire's coming back from the Training Center with a smile on her face and Keaton walks in. My excitement rises by the second. I literally cannot wait to show those Gamemakers my skills. Once Keaton walks out, I go straight into the massive center. 2's Training Center is way smaller than this one. I only just realize this now. The Gamemakers tell me to begin. I head straight over to the axe station. I'm pretty good at using axes. Once I'm done, I pity whoever tries to use these dummies, because there's barley anything left of them. I walk over to the mace station. I'm fairly decent with a mace too. I do very well. Then I see a weapon that catches my attention. I wasn't planning on trying this with the Gamemakers, and to be honest, it's a huge risk. But the weapon is simply beautiful. I walk over to it. It's a spiked chain ball, but without a handle, instead the chain is very long. I pick it up and start swinging it as if it was a rope. I swing down the spiked ball onto a dummy and completely destroy its head. I destroy a few more things with this deadly weapon. I don't even know what to call it. I guess it's some version of a spiked chain ball. I'm having so much fun that I don't even realize that time's up and the Gamemakers are dismissing me. Crap! I got carried away! I forgot to go to the rest of the stations… Ugh, I'm probably not gonna get any higher than a 9. Oh well, that's fine, it won't stop me from winning these games. I leave the Training Center with a smile.
Silvia Heffernan's POV District 5's Female Tribute
The boy from 3 leaves the Training Center looking somewhat satisfied with himself. The girl from 4 enters. I won't lie, I'm slightly nervous. I mean, if I'm not memorable, sponsors will simply dismiss me and look for some other tribute to sponsor. But I know I won't stick out from the crowd, what's the best I can do? 7, 8? That's not enough compared to what the careers are going to get… 9's 10's maybe even 11's… I'm so screwed. The girl from 4 leaves the Training Center and her District partner enters. I'm next. I look over to Mai, who is anxiously sitting next to Evan. She sees me looking at her and gives me a genuine smile. I make a bad attempt at smiling back. I probably look like and idiot right now. Oh well, why am I worrying about all these little details. I'm most likely going to die in the near future. The odds are clearly not in my favor. I've got the odds of 1 in 24 of coming out alive. And that's if everyone is of equal skill and strength, which is clearly not the case. We've got trained killers here. But then again, we've got 13-year-olds like Evan.
"Silvia Heffernan" Calls out the robotic voice as the boy from 4 leaves the Training Center. Here goes nothing.
I enter the Training Center and head straight for the climbing station. I climb up as fast as I did in training, which isn't bad, but I'll have to do a bit more to earn my estimated score. I head over the traps station. I make a few basic snares, and then get to the more complex ones, it takes me a while to finish the level 4 snare, which is quite a high level, considering the highest level is 5. Once I'm done, it works perfectly, sadly, my time's up just after testing the trap. Damn, I didn't think it would take so much time to make the trap, I could've gone to the knife station, at least I could've proved some decency with a knife. I'm satisfied though, I did well. I leave the Training Center and head over to Mai to tell her how I did, just like Ariadna told us after she finished.
"How was it?" she asks before I can even speak. Lillian heads over to us as I prepare my answer.
"I did well. I got a bit carried away while making a trap and I couldn't go to the knife station. But I'm quite happy." I respond
"That's good!" says Lillian excitedly. I nod and head over to the elevator.
"Good luck girls." I say as I leave.
I'm a bit more relaxed now. I let my mind wonder on the next few days. Tonight they'll broadcast our scores, and tomorrow night will have the interviews. Which means that tomorrow morning I'll be practicing for them and coming up with an approach to take based on my score. Ugh, it's all so stressful.
Nathan Gould's POV District 7's Male Tribute
"Go to all the stations we practiced, alright? Remember, it's edible plants first, then climbing, and finish with the axe station. Got it?" I tell Abi before she enters the Training Center.
"I'm not stupid Nathan, I know what to do, focus on yourself. Your score is just as important." She replies as the doors close behind her. Typical answer from her, should've expected something like that. It is true that I need to figure out an order for my session as well. I told Abi to do weapons last so the Gamemakers' last impression of us is that we're fighters, which is more likely to get you a higher score. Essentially what the Gamemakers want is a good show, and how do they get that? Bloodshed. And how do they get that? Tributes that know how to fight, so at the end of the day, what they care more about, is you being able to put up a fight against a strong tribute rather than memorizing the whole edible plants booklet. I'm not sure if my theory is right, but it seems logical to me, and Abi, which is the smart one in the family, so hopefully it should benefit our scores.
Okay, so taking that into consideration, I should start with the survival skills, making a fire and traps & snares. Then move on to physical skills, climbing and the agility run. And then end with the axe station. I probably won't have enough time to do all of those though. Since the fire making will take a while, I won't do it. The agility run should take me under a minute to do, so that won't be a problem. Climbing won't take too long either. So I'll stick with that too. I run over the station order once in my mind and just then, Abi comes out of the training center and gives me a thumbs up. I smile at her as I pass her and enter the Training Center.
"You may begin." Says the head Gamemaker, and so I do.
I head over to the first station. Traps & Snares. This is the station that's probably going to take the most time, so I don't want to get carried away. I just make two basic traps and quickly test them, they both work. One of them didn't work as well as planned, but it trapped the object, which was the purpose of it, so I'm satisfied. I quickly move on to the climbing station. I climb up the level 4 wall, which is the second highest level, behind level 5. I do this in a minute. I feel that my legs are a bit tired, but I'll try my best at the agility run anyway. I do the agility run quite well, not my personal best. It was simply an average score, which is very good since I'm a fast runner. I'm a bit tired by the time I get to the axe station, but I give it my all considering it's the last station. I chop off a dummy's head and throw the axe on another dummy's chest. I finish off my smashing my axe down onto a third dummy. I would've done more, but my time was up. I look over at the Gamemakers and they seem rather impressed. I leave the Training Center satisfied of my performance.
Austin Pelikan's POV District 12's Male Tribute
I sit down on the couch as Haymitch turns on the TV. I'm slightly nervous, but not a lot. It's not like my training score will determine if I get sponsors or not. No one ever sponsors 12 tributes. So what does it matter? I probably won't get a high score anyway.
"After a period of close evaluation, the Gamemakers have decided on the final Training Scores" Caesar's voice booms across the living room. "I will now reveal the training score for each tribute to all of Panem. You will be able to know how your favorite tribute has been doing!" He continues. The District 1 seal appears on the television, and then the girl from 1 appears on the screen. "From District 1, Claire Cludiant, with the score of… 10" A big 10 flashes next to her. The boy appears, and the 10 fades away. "Also representing District 1, Keaton Gold, with the score of… 10" The same 10 flashes onto the screen, and then the boy and the score fade away. Well no surprises there, they were careers after all. The District 2 seal comes on now. The 16-year-old girl appears on the screen "Melissa Hemmis, from District 2, with a score of… 9" That's still a pretty good score, but I thought she'd also get a 10. She seemed better than the girl from 1. Oh well, it's still a good score. The boy appears on the screen this time. "Logan Voss, also from District 2, has a score of… 10" Once again, as expected, no surprise. These are a good bunch of careers, you can feel a bit of tension in the room. "Moving on to District 3." Caesar announces as the District 3 seal flashes on the screen. I'm getting annoyed. Everything's going so slowly… just show me my score already! We're only on District 3. "District 3's Ariadna Meyer, with a score of… 6." The boy appears on screen. "Darren Hacker, with a score of 4" Yeah, these two are bloodbaths. No offense, but they're not going to make it too far in these games. I mean a 4? How do you even get that? I'm no career, but the boy could've at least tried. District 4 comes on, another career District, both tributes score a 9. The District 5 seal comes on and I'm a bit relieved that we're done with the careers, but then I remember that there's still that boy from 8 that's a career. "Silvia Heffernan from District 5. With a score of… 7, and Braydon Serre, with a score of… 8" Wow, pretty good scores right there. I never really acknowledged the 5 tributes at all, I should probably watch out for the boy. "District 6. We're halfway there folks. Mai Kilson has a score of… 8" Seriously? An 8? I never payed attention to her either. How did she manage that? I'm a bit relieved when the boy scores a 6. But I'm still surprised. Definitely wasn't expecting that. "And now, time for District 7. Abigail Gould, with a score of… 8" I sink into my chair a bit as the 8 flashes next to the girls face. Where are all these amazing scores coming from? "Nathan Gould with a score of… 9"
"What the hell is this?!" Screams Autumn. "Where are all these amazing scores coming from?" She continues. No one responds, I would respond, but I have no answer to her question. The District 8 seal lights up the screen.
"Lillian Conner, with a score of… 7, and Hunter Lever, with a score of… 9" Well, he is a career after all. But the District 7 boy isn't a career and he also scored a 9. "District 9. Rylie Naples has scored a…" you can tell that Caesar has flash of disappointment while looking at the score on the paper. "3…" He says slowly. I guess not all the scores are good huh. "And Malik Stevens, with a score of… 5" A 3 and a 5? Those aren't great odds for District 9 this year. "District 10, we're finishing up." The small 14-year-old girl flashes onto the screen. "Iris Perricone, with a score of… 8" What? A 14-year-old scores an 8? What is this?! "And Andrew Stang, with a matching score of 8" Another 8… Wonderful. I probably should prepare myself for the big fat 2 I'm going to get. District 11 comes on, our allies. Makalya scores a 6… kinda pathetic, but then again, I might score that too. Tristan scores an 8. Finally we're on. I sit up straight and watch the screen anxiously. "Autumn Govern scoring a 7." I hear her sigh in relief, and now my turn. "And finally, Austin Pelikan, with a matching score of 7" A 7 flashes next to me and it soon fades away. I sit back. I'm disappointed but I probably couldn't of done any better. "This makes the average tribute score a 7.5, which is a fairly high score… We should be expecting some very interesting things from these guys." Great… so to top it all off, I'm below the average tribute score. Wonderful.
I directly head to my room not wanting to hear anything from Haymitch and Effie. It's been a long day, I just wanna lay in my bed and forget about the past events. Why do I care so much about training scores anyways? Odds are I'm going to die… so why does it matter? I throw myself onto the huge king-sized bed, and let sleep overcome me.
Her voice wakes me.
"Austin, get up, the scores aren't over yet." Autumn says to me as I sit up.
"Huh? What do you mean?" I ask… they've already broadcasted the tribute scores, what is she talking about.
"I mean that they're broadcasting our odds now." I still look at her confused.
"As in the odds we have a surviving Austin! You're so clueless…" she says as she walks out of my room. I quickly get up. How long have I been asleep for… not long I guess. I walk into the living room and see the big score board on the TV.
"Your odds aren't bad Austin." Says Haymitch as I get closer to the TV. The score board has a box for each tribute which includes the tribute's name, District, age, Training Score, and odds in winning the games. I look at the top of the list. Both of the tributes from 1 have the odds of 5-1 of winning, and the boy from 2 has the odds of 4-1 of winning. The girl from 2 has the odds of 6-1 of winning. I quickly look to the bottom of the list. I look at our allies first. Makayla's odds are of 35-1 of winning. Tristan's odds are of 14-1 of winning. Now my District, District 12. Autumn has the odds of 27-1 of winning and I was given the odds of 25-1 of winning.
"These odds represent better who's got a chance in winning than the Training Scores. Unlike the Training Scores, the Gamemakers take everything into account. That's your height, your weight, your alliance, the District you come from, and obviously, your Training Score." Haymitch tells us. I looks at the odds of the tributes that stuck out in my mind. The boy from 5 has the odds of 20-1 of winning. The girl from 6 also has the odds of 20-1 of winning. The girl from 7 has the odds of 22-1 and her brother has the odds of 15-1. The boy from 8 has the odds of 8-1. Then from District 10, the girl has the odds of 15-1 of winning, and the boy has the odds of 22-1. That boy had a high training score, yet he doesn't have great odds, probably because he doesn't have an alliance. All these odds are higher than mine though. It's like the Gamemakers are trying to guess how long you'll make it in the arena. It's all a game to them. I remember the 13-year-old girl from 9 that scored a 3. I wonder what odds she got. I'm surprised when I see them. She's got the odds of 50-1 of winning. Her District partner doesn't have great odds either. He's got 40-1 chances of coming out alive. This is sick.
"You shouldn't have woken me up for this" I say to Autumn as I leave back to my room. Even though, I am somewhat glad that I saw the odds of some of the tributes. This time, hopefully no one's going to wake me up!
A/N: There we go! I'm finally done with this chapter! :D I saw some of you have voted on my poll so thanks a lot! :) But remember you can vote up to THREE choices, one of you voted for only 1 tribute, which is fine, but I thought people would like it better if I gave you three choices instead of just 1. Anyways, here's the list of the tributes with age, training score, and odds of winning.
Tributes:
District 1:
Female: Claire Cludiant (17)
Training Score: 10
Odds of winning: 5-1
Male: Keaton Gold (17)
Training Score: 10
Odds of winning: 5-1
District 2:
Female: Melissa Hemmis (16)
Training Score: 9
Odds of winning: 6-1
Male: Logan Voss (18)
Training Score: 10
Odds of winning: 4-1
District 3:
Female: Ariadna Meyer (15)
Training Score: 6
Odds of winning: 29-1
Male: Darren Hacker (13)
Training Score: 4
Odds of winning: 35-1
District 4:
Female: Sophia Press (17)
Training Score: 9
Odds of winning: 7-1
Male: Dale Alderman (17)
Training Score: 9
Odds of winning: 6-1
District 5:
Female: Silvia Heffernan (15)
Training Score: 7
Odds of winning: 27-1
Male: Braydon Serre (16)
Training Score: 8
Odds of winning: 21-1
District 6:
Female: Mai Kilson (16)
Training Score: 8
Odds of winning: 20-1
Male: Evan Stein (13)
Training Score: 6
Odds of winning: 30-1
District 7:
Female: Abigail Gould (16)
Training Score: 8
Odds of winning: 22-1
Male: Nathan Gould (17)
Training Score: 9
Odds of winning: 15-1
District 8:
Female: Lillian Conner (16)
Training Score: 7
Odds of winning: 27-1
Male: Hunter Lever (17)
Training Score: 9
Odds of winning: 8-1
District 9:
Female: Rylie Naples (13)
Training Score: 3
Odds of winning: 50-1
Male: Malik Stevens (13)
Training Score: 5
Odds of winning: 40-1
District 10:
Female: Iris Perricone (14)
Training Score: 8
Odds of winning: 15-1
Male: Andrew Stang (16)
Training Score: 8
Odds of winning: 22-1
District 11:
Female: Makayla Zideck (15)
Training Score: 6
Odds of winning: 35-1
Male: Tristan Ray (18)
Training Score: 8
Odds of winning: 14-1
District 12:
Female: Autumn Govern (16)
Training Score: 7
Odds of winning: 27-1
Male: Austin Pelikan (15)
Training Score: 7
Odds of winning: 25-1
A/N: Okay so those are the odds and the training scores for every tribute! In case you forget them I'll post these at the end of the next few chapters. Once again, don't forget to vote on my poll. Just go on my profile and click on vote now and the poll will appear! :) Thanks for reading!
