After my five minute walk up the drive of the mansion I climb the fourteen steps up to the door of the mansion. I've heard there are fourteen resulting in one for each of the districts, and one extra for the Capitol. Before I manage to reach the door, it is opened and a man in a suit similar to that of the man this morning walks out carrying something that looks like a flattened baton.
"Name?" He asks me, inspecting my face, likely looking for any indication I'm lying my way into the mansion. I swallow hard before I answer.
"Anastasia Briggs." I say, trying to sound confident. The man narrows his eyes and takes a step toward me, adjusting his grip on the baton.
"Do you have anything in your pockets, ma'am?" He asks me. I shake my head.
"No, Sir." I say. The man looks me up and down as I eye the baton. He switched it to his other hand and then places it near my arm. He begins to move it over my body as the baton beeps steadily. I watch as he covers nearly inch of me.
"You're clear." He says after he straightens out, apparently satisfied with what the machine told him.
"There's someone inside that will show you where to go." The man says curtly, looking over a sheet of paper in his hands. I wring my own and slowly walk through the large doors of the Presidential Mansion. Never in my life did I imagine walking through these doors, especially not since I was sent into the games. I take one last look at the Capitol behind me before the doors shut as I walk through.
I'm standing alone in an extravagant entrance hall, decorated with the photos of other presidents and other artifacts of Panem. Everything here looks so rich, perhaps it's the gold coloured trim on the walls or the sparkling crystal chandeliers that hang above my head.
"It's quite a sight, huh?" This time it's a woman who greets me. I look at her and nod.
"I'm Sacha, the president's secretary, I'll be greeting all the new Presidential Peacekeepers today." The woman says, holding a golden clipboard close to her body. She extends a hand, which I shake in return.
"Follow me." She instructs as she turns on her heels and begins to walk down one of the many hallways.
As we walk she begins to point out things of interest such as artifacts of former presidents or famous paintings.
"This one was a gift to Madam Arevalo on her election day from Peeta Mellark, I assume you're familiar with the man?" Sasha asks me. The mention of my fathers name catches me off guard,and I have to quickly compose myself.
I plaster on a smile and nod.
"Quite the painter." I comment. I think back to the days my father would spend in his office. He'd go in first thing in the morning and sometimes we wouldn't see him until dusk, when he'd emerge with paint covering just about all exposed skin, including his face. My mother would get annoyed and order him to wash up, but Rye and I would always laugh. Another thing I'll never get to see again.
When Sasha finally brings us to a halt at a sat of metallic looking doors she takes a look at her clipboard.
"I've got to go, but just through here, some of the other recruits are already here. Your trainer should be here momentarily." She says with a smile before quickly scurrying off, her black heels clicking loudly as the sound echoes around the magnificent halls.
I turn to the door and place a hand on the smooth metal. I inhale deeply and push. The doors open and I walk through to find a large open room with enormous tables strewn throughout, dotted with chairs on either side. Each rectangular table has a set of two chairs, some of which have been filled.
Hardly anyone is speaking, likely because they'd have to nearly yell for their table partner to hear them. I watch as the dozen or so in the room turn to look at me. I quickly notice I'm the only girl. I suddenly find myself extremely shy and quickly walk along the wall to one of the tables. Behind me I hear chair squeak as it is moved and I hear whispers begin. I ignore them, if I can survive two dozen kids trying to kill me, I can survive a room of a dozen peacekeepers who want to gossip.
I notice that each table has a label in the center.
Investigations
Security
Knowledge
Technical
And then I see my table.
Survival
I cross the room to my table and pull out one of the chairs. I hear whispers but chose to ignore them, quietly surveying the room.
These continue for a minute until another person enters the room. This time it's another man, but much older than the others. He looks to be my mother and fathers' age and reminds me of someone you'd see in Twelve.
"Morning." The man greets and walks to the front of the room, where a large screen is mounted on the wall and a maple desk stands in front of everyone. He places a bag on the desk and takes a look at each of us briefly. He pauses on me and raises an eyebrow briefly. He's about to begin when Apollonia walks through the doors and quickly hurries into the room.
Apollonia sees me and smiles, but then she notices the cards on the table. I'm surprised when she doesn't come join me, but instead joins a man, likely around mid twenties, at a table labeled District Relations.
The man clears his throat band begins.
"First of all, congratulations on making it this far." The man begins, "You've proven yourselves to be the best of Panem, and that you're capable of protecting the best. That being said," He pauses as the screen behind him flashes up, "You're not done yet."
An eerie silence fills the room as everyone tenses with anxiety.
"To begin, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Gale Hawthorne, former resident of District Twelve and I've been working for the Capitol for nearly thirty years. I started as a weapons technitioan and was promoted to the Presidential Team ten years ago. Today, I'll be teaching you." The screen behind the man glows white and the seal of Panem fills the screen.
"Due to recent threats made on the president as well as the entirety of the government, we have made the decision to begin training a new fleet of Presidential Peacekeepers to ensure the president is never without security. That being said, let's begin."
The man opens his bag and withdraws several documents.
"As you see you've all been assigned into particular categories depending on your skill sets." He gestures to all the tables.
"You've all been trained and tested within your own skill, so we won't be conducting any training in that regard. Instead I'll be going over what you can expect working here…"
The day is finally ending when the man concludes the seminar.
"Now that we've covered the basics I'd like to speak with those in communications, intelligence, security, and district relations please. The rest of you can go." The screen behind him goes black and I stand, collecting the papers that had been handed out throughout the day. I follow a small group of others out of the room and glance over my shoulder at Apollonia as she and others listen to what Mr. Hawthorne had to say.
I follow the others as we're escorted out of the mansion and back into the afternoon sun. I shield my eyes at first, nearly blinded by the harsh yellow light of the sun. I see a line of black cars, identical to the one I was in this morning, lined up down the driveway leading up to the mansion.
Our escort begins to sort us into cars and directs me to one when Apollonia exits the mansion.
"Anastasia! Mind if I come with you?" She asks as she quickly makes her way over to me.
"Sure," I say as i open the car door and climb in. She joins me and pulls the door shut as the car begins to pull away.
"So what did you think of that?" Apollonia asks me, a smile on her face. I shrug.
"It sounds intimidating." I reply.
"But you're survival right? I'm not surprised." She says. I grin slightly.
"I guess I'm experienced." I say, but Apollonia's face grows serious. I furrow my brows, trying to see what changed her mood when she shifts her eyes slightly toward the driver. I nod in realization and change the subject.
"So what did Mr. Hawthorne want to talk to you about?" I ask her, but according to her face, this was not a good subject choice.
"Oh, just something the president has planned. He wants some of us to go." She says slowly, obviously trying to hide the truth. I narrow my eyes and question her further.
"What kind of thing?" I ask. Apollonia avoids my eyes and looks out her window.
"Apollonia." I say forcefully, trying to make her talk.
"Please don't ask me." Apollonia begs. This only changes my curiosity to worry as I question her one last time.
"Where do they want you to go?"
Apollonia sighs and begins to tell me.
"They want us to go to Twelve. The resident is making a speech at Willow Mellark's funeral. She thinks it'll help the situation there."
My heart drops. My funeral. Where my entire district, let alone my family thinks I'm dead. Apollonia will be within feet of my family while I'll be here, watching while I could have been with them.
I look out the window and see a building I recognize.
"Stop the car." I say and the driver slowly complies, drifting us to a slow stop in front of the building. I open the door and step out, despite Apollonia's protests.
"Anastasia, please don't do this!" She begs, but I close the door behind me. I walk up to the building and open one of the glass doors. In the lobby I find a woman sitting behind a desk. I approach her and she looks up.
"Can I help you?" She asks me. I nod.
"I'm looking for Dew? She told me to come here if ever I needed her." I tell the woman.
"I see." She says with a nod and a wink. This leads me to assume she too was a rescued tribute, but I don't dare ask in case she's not.
The woman picks up a phone and dials a number before handing it to me.
I thank her and wait as it rings. After a few moments I hear Dew on the other end.
"Hello?" She says.
"Dew? It's Anastasia." I greet her.
"Anastasia?" She asks. "Oh yes!" I hear her laugh to herself on the other end.
"How are you doing? You had your seminar today if I'm correct."
"That's what I need to talk to you about." I tell her.
"I see. I think I know what this is about." Her tone is somber, and I'm not surprised she knows.
"Get me on that trip." I tell her, not asking.
"Willow-" She begins but I stop her.
"That is my family. You get me on that trip."
"Willow I can't. There are some things that are simply out of my power." Dew tries to convince me. I feel the anger begin to well up inside me and I let it out.
"You have the power to make me do your dirty work but not to do me one favor? I never got to say goodbye to my own parents? Although I doubt I'll get any sympathy from you. You get me on that trip or I swear to god I will blow the cover on this whole plan of yours." I pause for a moment. "You don't know much about me Dew, but I promise you one thing: If there's anything on this planet I love more than my friends, it's my family. And I will do anything to see them. I don't care who I have to hurt." With that I quickly hand up and return the phone to the woman at the desk, who is now watching me with a fearful expression on her face.
"Have a nice day." I tell her and walk out, my mind racing.
A/N
Sorry guys, but it might be awhile again before another update, I've got exams coming up and really need to focus on school. I'll try to keep updating but it might be about two weeks, I'll try though!
Thanks!