Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own the Hunger Games.
I get my wish, thank goodness. We don't find anyone. While we walk, we snack on berries. We end up eating two whole bags. Anna shoots a few rabbits, so we put those in one bag. When I see a bush with edible berries, I put a few handfuls in the empty bag. While we walk around looking for other tributes, we talk about girl stuff, like boys and boyfriends (or fiancé, in my case).
"Do you know Finnick Odair, ViVi?" Maddie asks. "Yeah, he's my mentor," I reply dully. "OMG, he is soooo hot for an old guy," she says excitedly. I laugh, because I'm sure Finnick just loves being called an old guy. "He's only like twenty years old, Maddie," Anna says, defending him. "Well, he doesn't appeal to me all," I say, wrinkling my nose.
"Why not?" Maddie asks. "Well, I already have a boyfriend, thank you very much. Second, he is cocky to no end. And he's too hard to get. Or maybe it's just that he's too easy to lose," I say. Maddie and Anna nod.
To tell the truth, and I'm not kidding about this, while everybody else in District 4 was fawning over the newly crowned victor Finnick Odair, eleven year old Marlin and I were at the back of the crowd, trying to suppress our giggles. Even from twenty feet away, we could see the hickey on his fourteen year old neck. Anna pulls me away from memory lane by asking me if I have any siblings.
"Yeah I had a sister named Marina. I don't know what my parents were thinking when they named her Marina Marino. She died six years ago at the age of fifteen when she was bludgeoned to death by the girl from District 7, Laurel. She was Finnick's district partner,' I say. I don't mention that every time I look at Finnick I'm reminded of her brutal death.
"Then I have a twelve year old sister named Azula, and seven year old twin sisters. Their names are Coral and Pearl," I say. 'I have a one year old sister named Clove, and eight year old brother named Aeneas, and an eleven year old sister named Adair," Anna says.
"I have four sisters. Their names are Opal, Jade, Aquamarine, and Glimmer. And I have a brother named Jasper," Madeline says. "If you could have anything in the world right now, besides going home or winning, what would it be? I know I would have a letter from my family," Anna tells us.
"I want a full night's sleep on a super-soft bed," Maddie says. I know I'd want to have Marlin here with me immediately. On the other hand, I wouldn't, because then I'd have to kill him to go home to the real Marlin. Maddie and Anna look at me expectantly, waiting for my answer. "I want breakfast of something other than berries and rabbits," I say finally. We sit down on a wide part in the path as the anthem plays. We see Alistair, the girl from six, and the boy from nine.
I hear a dinging noise and look up to see a parachute with a basket attached to it. I open it to find a lot of food and a note. "Enjoy your wish, princess. From Finnick Odair, your mentor dearest," the note reads. I roll my eyes, but grin anyway.
Even though it's not really my wish, I thank the sky anyway. Hopefully they hear me, because I have great sponsors. I split up the food evenly on the little plates they sent us. There are three different small loaves of bread in the basket. One is shimmery, one is rock-hard to the touch, and one is green.
I grin and grab the green one. Maddie grabs the shimmering one, and Anna grabs the hard one. Maddie takes a bite out of here, and Anna does, too. I hold mine to my mouth, inhaling its salty aroma. My loaf is still warm, which is just how I like it. "Why's yours green?" Maddie asks with her mouth full. "It's from the seaweed and the salt content. It's a symbol of how dependent District 4 is on the ocean. Part of everything we make, even the bread, comes from the ocean. Why's yours sparkly?" I ask. She shrugs.
There's milk in the basket, too. I love milk, but we rarely have it back home. Only on parcel day, if someone from District 4 has one the games that year. The last thing in the basket is sugared berries. They're delicious, even though they're still berries. I know what my new favorite food is. We clean our hands with water from our bottles, and then we fill them up again and put the right amount of iodine in them.
As we're walking, I hear a hissing noise from where the path is covered by shallow water. I throw out my arms to stop Anna and Maddie from stepping on the giant alligator that I thought was a log. "That's the same alligator that killed Alistair!" Anna says.
Maddie huffs and barges past me. "Now you get what you deserve, you freakin' mutt!" she hisses. She kneels down and raises her knife, only to bring it down on the mutt's head a few seconds later. The blood spurts all over her, but she keeps stabbing it until Anna and I pull her away from it.
She stands up and wipes her bloody hands on her jacket, adding to the dried blood that was already there, from Alistair's hands. She brushes her hair out of her face. "Well, that was fun. I never thought killing your district partner could be so fun. Don't you think that was fun, Anna Banana?" she says giddily. Anna glances at her, then at me. "Uh, so fun," she says unenthusiastically. I giggle. She starts walking. I can tell Anna and I are both thinking the same thing. Maddie has gone insane.