Chapter 11- Keep Your Hands Off Me
Sorree this took so long! I is a perfectionist. WARNING: Will contain spoilers. I can't speel.
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN T.H.G!
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE A DIEHARD FANNIE AND/OR GATNISS. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER YOUNG KUMQUATS!
O.W.T.S!
...
When I wake up my entire face is frozen. After a few mineuts of burrying it into my jacket I'm just fine. After I wriggle out of my sleeping bag I glance around. Everyone is still here. I need to do something before it gets too boring for the Gamemakers. I scoop up some snow and dump it on Collin.
"Hey!" He shouts. Glamour looks up. Collin makes a snow ball and throws it at me. I let out a shreik. I run out of the Cornucopia and he follows. I make a snowball and throw it at him with perfect aim. We continue throwing back and forth.
"Guys you're going to give out our location!" Glamour hisses. Collin responds by sending a snowball into her face. I snicker and Glamour sends one flying back. Now the three of us are in on it.
"What are you doing?" Ringlet shouts. I freeze mid-throw.
"Um, having a snowball fight?" Collin says. Ringlet rolls his eyes. "So are we ready to hunt?"
"Yeah, we'll eat then head out." Ringlet says. "If Marshal ever wakes up from his dreamland." We all turn to see Marshal in his sleeping bag making loud moans. Sex moans. And we all know who he's dreaming about.
"I think I saw a bird over this way." Glamour says. "I'll see if I can get us some eggs."
"Wait for me Glam." I say trotting after her. Glamour starts whistling and the bird whistles back, it's not a mockingjay though. It's a robin when we finally find it. "This is great, we can't eat robin eggs." She says.
"Don't worry, we've got more than enough food at the camp." I say. "Maybe we can try digging for some roots." I offer. Glamour and I do just that. We shovel through the snow and then she uses her lighter to soften the frozen ground before we dig. I find several roots I'm familiar with, all of which would be dead in this cold and snow. But they aren't real, just part of the Games. Then we find a blackberry bush and strip it of it's berries. I even come across mint. I pop a few into my mouth and keep some for later knowing that later to day I'll start vomiting for no reason. I need to keep the taste out of my mouth.
"Any luck?" Marshal asks when we come through the trees.
"Nope, it was just a robin. We round some roots and berries though." I say holding out the blackberries. But he turns them away. I don't care. The taste of them reminds me of home. We eat up the first groosling, some dried fruit, and some blackberries. "I'll stay here with Gadget. Tommorow I'll hunt with you guys." Glamour picks up her pack and I give her a few extra knives, I've got about a hundred anyways. Marshal kisses my cheek, it disgusts me but I let him and remind myself he gets one more day.
"Do you really h-h-have a family of nine back home?" Gadget asks me. I've forgotten she's here.
"Yeah." I say. "Jasmine, Rose, Bailey, Bella, Christina, Emily, me, Travis, and my dad." Gadget's grey-green eyes widen.
"And it would be ten. If your mom didn't die?" She asks. For a moment she reminds me of Christina, with her black hair. Only Gadget's is cut short at her ears, Christina is trying to grow hers so she can sit on it. But they're both twelve, both strong, and I really do begin to she my little sister in Gadget.
"Yeah." I say in a daze.
"I-I-I heard you singing. Las-t-t night." Gadget says shyly. "It was beautiful. Really. Would you sing? For me?" I smile at her.
"Sure." I say. I start off with a few lullabyes, then move on to songs that tell stories. Eventually I change to humming. I hope that this is enough action for the Gamemakers, or that the rest of the Careers are hunting, I like this moment here with Gadget. I pull out my twine and begin making a net. I hand Gadget my extra coil of wire. She's so sweet and innocent. I notice tiny details about her. Like how she stutters slightly over her words. She continues on her bomb. Nimble fingers, and short twitching movements of her hands help the job get done faster. But I know that you can only be that good at such a young age if you've practiced. "Is this what you do for the Gamemakers?" I ask.
"Sort of-f-f." Gadget says. Her eyes stay glued on the chunk of metal in her hands. "I mean, there wasn't much to work with. So I used the wire from the snares station, then the flint from the fire making station, and a couple of spearheads. Then they gave me a six."
"You should've gotten a twelve." I say in a joking way. If I said it angry, like I feel then, who knows what the Gamemakers would drop on me. Gadget is doing pretty well with her bomb for a twelve year old with the insides of a flashlight, a coil of wire, some matches, and a knife. Hours seem to pass, my ball of twine runs out but the net is just fine. I'll use it to fish later. I gather a few pine needles and brew some more tea. If someone sees the smoke the would know at least one Career is here, so they probably won't challenge. Not yet anyways. I find a rabbit near our camp and kill it before it even sees me. Lunch is easy. By late afternoon a shower of sponser gifts come in. There are at least ten of them, I have no idea what lies inside but Gadget and I rip them all open. In the first one there's an assortment of strings, definatly for me. The second one has strange tools I've never seen and gears similar to one in clocks. Gadget squeals at the sight of them. The rest contain food, except for one with another sleeping bag. It's for me. Finnick has to be the only person who could've sent it. He wouldn't want me to sleep with anyone but him. Not even Collin. He's possesive like that. What I would give to see him again. Gadget quickly goes back to work on her bomb. She sets the hunk of metal down.
"Are you done already?" I ask.
"N-n-no. Just wanted to take a break. It's a time bomb I'm working on. The fire bombs are easier for me." Gadget says. I set up my sleeping bag, brew more pine needle tea. Sip, sip, sip the tea. Listen to the click, click, clicking of Gadget turning the new gears with her new tools. Looping, knotting, twisting, the new fish line into a net that will catch fish before they know what hit them. A cannon fires. All at once my vomiting hits me again and I loose my entire day's worth of food. Lucklily with all this tea I've been drinking it's not as awful in my mouth, and a lot more watery. Gadget rubs my back. Two minuets I cough up the last of it. I glace around and cover what I done with fresh snow. That's pretty hard since most of it is covered in blood or dirt.
"Who do you think it was?" Gadget asks me.
"What?"
"The cannon who d-d-do you think it was for?"
"I don't know. I missed the hovercraft when I was puking." I say. "Well besides us there's just Chip, the boy from 5, the boy from 7, and both from 12."
"I hope it-t's not C-C-Chip." Gadget says. "What if it's a Career?"
"I doubt it." I say but silently do a quick prayer in my mind that it's not Collin or Glamour. "But they should be back soon. It's getting dark." Gadget pokes the fire with a long stick. I do the same out of pure boredom. I hear rustling in the trees. I grab my knife, ready to throw. But to my surprise, Chip emerges. He looks at us, scared. He's lost and he accidentally came to the Careers' camp. His mouth is wide open, like the dead fish back home. He drops the small knife he had in his hands.
"Make it quick." He gasps. I can't do it. I won't do it. If the Careers were here I still wouldn't do it.
"Are you crazy?" I ask him. I throw the knife at his feet. Then another. Then grab the rest of the rabbit and blackberries. Chip stares at the knives, then me. "Go! Take it and go!" I hand him the food. He picks up the knives and runs. Gadget stares at me when I come back to the camp and sit down. I poke the fire.
"Angel?" She starts.
"Well, we know it's not Chip then." I say cutting her off. Gadget gets the message: I don't want to talk about it. The rest of our crew comes crashing through the trees. Marshal hoots and cheers like there's a celebration.
"The boy from District 7 was too easy. It's a miracle he survives after you stabbed him in the hand and Glamour kabobed him!" Ringlet says smiling. Collin sits on my left. Glamour sits on my right with Gadget to her right.
"Don't mind them, we got a sponser bottle of wine. They're acting drunker than they really are." She says. "Gloss, get your head out of your ass, we're hungry." She hollars. Three parachuets rain down from the sky. Steak with gravy, mashed potatoes, tiny sugary carrots, cranberry juice, and rolls shaped like roses are in package. I go very easy on the food, not wanting to puke too much tommorrow. The boys run around
"The Gamemakers ought to give us a break." Glamour says. "Today was pretty gore-filled. We cought Daniel, but he ran off. The boy from 5 challenged us, left with cuts. Then the boy from 7 was killed."
"Gadget got gear thingies and I got a sleeping bag." I say.
"Good, so the bomb will be ready soon?" Glamour asks. Gadget nods her head. Glamour and Gadget go on talking about the bomb, the Games, how Glamour will babysit tommorrow... On and on and on. I notice that Collin is eerily quiet. I nudge him.
"What's wrong?" I mouth. Collin's face is light green, he perfect curly hair hangs in his eyes, his ocean blue eyes hold a hurricane within. I grab his wrist and lead him outside of the Cornucopia, away from the golden glow of the fire and into the dark of the night, the moon is in the sky full and bright white. Last night the moon was full. the Gamemakers are obviously trying to play with our minds. Over half the tributes are dead and it's barely been two days, I have no idea how they're going to drag these Games out.
"I killed him." Collin says. I turn to face him. Because of the cold his words literally linger into the air, then evaporate intp nothingness. "I was cought up in the bloodlust, I gave them a good show, but destroyed myself." He turns to face me. "I don't want to become a monster Angel. I'm scared of myself, what if I lose control again?"
"You won't, I'll be with you. Just listen to my voice. Try and grasp what's real." I say. I turn away from him. "These aren't real trees, I didn't dig up real roots, this isn't real snow." I kick the bloody white canvas at my feet.
"It's real blood though." Collin says. I nod my head. "I miss my family." He says. "I wish I could talk to them." An idea hits me.
"Travis, if you're watching this get the rest of the family awake, you have two minuets. The twins too." I say smiling. "Trust me." Collin looks at me confused. I put up my hood and tug lightly at the drawstrings. I take his hand.
"What are you doing?" Collin asks curiously. I smile at him.
"You'll see." I say. The cameras MUST be on me. I just know it. I keep giving devious smirks and raising my eyebrows. By now my whole family must be watching. I take a deep breath. Finnick knows what I'm going to do, the Gamemakers are probably pestering him right now. "What's she doing?" They're wondering. I close my eyes.
"Deep in the meadow under the willow,
a bed of grass a soft green pillow
lay down your head and close your sleepy eyes,
and when again they open the sun will rise,
here it's safe here it's warm,
here the daisies gaurd you from every harm,
here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true,
here is the place where I love you."
There's no noise, even the birds stopped a few moments. Giving up their song to hear mine. That also means the other Careers were listening too. Because Marshal and Ringlet have stopped their prancing. My feet shift in the snow. The awkward silence fills the arena, it must be in the control room, and it's definatly in District 4. Maybe even all of Panem, the Capitol people who care about glitter and feathers must've stopped even for a moment to hear me sing. "Okay, if you guys behave I'll sing the second verse tommorrow." I say. I smile even though the pain of homesick is ripping through me. Then I begin crying what they'll think are tears of joy. "Travis, Emily, Christina, Bella, Bailey, Jasmine, Rose, and Daddy? I-I-I love you guys." Then I look down from the empty space I used to imagine their faces.
"Angel, that was beautiful." Ringlet- of all people- tells me in awe.
"Thank-you." I say, then turn towards Collin. "There's something to hold onto next time." Collin and I both smile.
...
AWWW! Yes, that was A Mountian Air, better known as Rue's Lullabye. Since my songs S-U-C-K I'll be using ones from the book (like last chapter's The Hanging Tree) or from the Hunger Games soundtrack. Chapter 12 means VIOLENCE...