"Looks more like a campsite than a district," I say.
"They only got here a week ago. This is impressive considering that," Freddy says.
"Ya, I guess," I say, still not impressed by the people who are willing to take on the Capitol.
We land in an open field next to the woods.
"Hello, I am Victoria, the president of district 13. Are you the Donners and Woodlinds?"
"Yes, we are, and that's Freddy and Hagger," I say motioning to the two of them.
"Fantastic, follow me," she says, and we follow her to three tents all lined up next to each other.
She hurries us along as if we're on a very important schedule that we can't be late for.
"This is where you'll stay," she says to my father and Eli and Jason's family, "and will Sophie and Jason please come for a little talk with me and the commanders?" Victoria seems in a rush.
"Um... sure, I guess," I say.
"Ya, why not?" Jason says, following me, obviously not overly fond of Victoria's "go go go!"ing.
We follow Victoria past a few tents to this wooden building with a sign on the front that reads "War Leaders Only." I didn't think I was a "war leader" just yet.
I walk in behind Victoria and feel Jason's presence behind me as we enter a silent room where people are sitting on the ground examining a big map.
"This is Sophie, and this is Jason. They are here to be our little sparks!" she says and walks off to talk to some guy in the back of the room.
"Sparks?" Jason whispers to me as we sit down.
"They want us to be the 'face' of the rebels, not to fight, thank goodness," I tell him.
"I kinda wanted to be helping the cause, not sitting around," he says.
"It's safer to stay out of it as much as possible," I say.
"It's more exciting to be part of it," he says.
"I guess, but I'd prefer to not be part of it and live, than to be part of it and end up dead," I say.
"I just don't want to sit around doing nothing, but I guess you've gotten used to that, haven't you?" he says and storms out.
"He wanted some fresh air," I say to answer the questioning looks thrown my way by the other war leaders.
"I'll just go see if he's coming back," I say and walk out, trying to figure out what I've done this time.
I walk outside and try to understand what he meant. Does he mean that during the games I stayed out of it and just watched? He doesn't think that, does he? It wasn't my choice what happened, is he...blaming me?
I start crying, and I walk over to our assigned tents and dive into to the one on the right.
"I'm so stupid. He only thinks of me as a dumb kid!" I yell at myself and throw a pillow at the sleeping bag on the floor.
"Hey watch it!" I hear Hagger yell and sit up from underneath the rolled up sleeping bag.
"Sorry, I didn't think anyone was in here," I begin to stand up and walk out.
"Wait, it's fine, so...who thinks you're a stupid kid?" Hagger asks.
"Jason," I say in almost a whisper.
"No, he doesn't, you know he doesn't. Why would you think that?" Hagger says.
"He blames me, for what happened," I say.
"Nobody blames anybody except the Capitol. It's their fault," Hagger says. "
"He says I sat around during the games, not doing anything," I tell him.
"You didn't sit around, don't believe a word he says. What the..- What were you supposed to do?" he says, with a hint of a smile.
"I don't know, but I guess he expected more than what I did," I whisper.
He thinks about this for a second.
He hands me a tissue and I take it gratefully, and after a while of sitting there in the quiet, I stand up.
"Thank you," I say.
"No problem, Cupcake," he says and puts a baseball cap over his eyes and leans back.
I still hate that name. I walk out and walk back to the building with the war leaders.
"Jason um...he needed some rest," I say.
Jason stands up from the many surrounding the map.
"I'm right here," he says.
"You came back," I say.
"I...uh...ya, I came back," he says and sits back down.
I assume Jason came back to apologize to me and excitedly wander to the side of the room near him.
"Now, we all know how important the J sector is, so we should all mark that area on our squad map as a must," begins Victoria.
Since I've got no idea what she's saying, I scoot forward until I'm right next to him, opening my ears for the apology I'm expecting.
"Why'd you come back?" I ask in a hushed tone, not patient enough to wait for him to talk first.
"Not for you. I could be ready for the front lines. I'm actually gonna help. So if you'd excuse me, I'm going to sit over there so I can pay attention," he says and walks to the other side of the room and plops himself down.
What's got him all worked up anyway? What did I do?! The fact that I'm not going to the front lines with the rest of the soldier guys? Excuse me for playing it safe, besides they'd never let a thirteen year old anywhere near a gun.
I walk out because there's really nothing for me to do here and because I don't want to be anywhere near Jason considering how mad he is with ME!
I walk into my family's tent and find my backpack and a few containers of food stacked in the center with some sleeping bags.
I unwrap the sleeping bags and lay them out and put the food in the cooler we brought. Then I pick up my backpack, and when I lift it to put it next to my sleeping bag, my old calendar falls out.
It opens up to the month of March, and my eyes close in on the 15th. I can't believe it.
This is the calendar I had before Maysilee left, and it was a two year calendar. I guess with all the stuff going on I forgot to keep one to keep track of the date. I realize that I'm not 13, I'm 14, and I forgot my own birthday.
"Happy Birthday to me," I say to the empty tent.
I count out the days and eventually figure out that right now it's March 25th. Maysilee went to the arena at about March 30th.
The next Deathmatch for the district is in 5 days.
The televised reaping is in 3 days.
The possibility of the Capitol coming here and destroying us is more likely every second we're here.
I put the calendar in my back pocket and walk back to the wooden house to talk to Victoria.
I wait until people start walking out, and I go in and find Victoria and Jason standing at the map talking.
"Now Jason, you're going to be in sector 5A. It's very important you get the radio tower to send your signal that means you've captured the area," Victoria says to him.
They don't notice me so I walk in, and I'm right next to Victoria when I speak.
"Victoria, could I speak with you?" I ask and make her and Jason jump.
"Certainly, I'll see you tomorrow Jason," she says.
"Ya, I should get over to the training grounds," he says and eyes me on his way out.
"What'd you do to him?" Victoria asks.
"Nothing, everything, I don't know..." I answer.
"That's the way it is with boys," she says and has a small smile on her lips.
"Anyway, I would like to sign up for my training courses," I say.
"The paper your father filled out said you were 13," Victoria says.
"I WAS only 13, now I'm 14," I say.
"It's your birthday? Or you forgot your birthday?" she asks.
My silence answers.
"It happens to the best of us," she says.
She hands me a big case that's marked "BB-A".
"A Bee Bee gun? Really?" I ask.
"For training, everyone uses a Bee Bee gun," she replies.
"Even... Jason?" I ask.
"Yes, even him, though he was quite upset that he wouldn't get to use a bow like our class of sharpshooters," she replies.
"A bow? For like... fighting? What good would a bow be?" I asked.
"Well, you saw in the DeathMatch how Maysilee used hers, didn't you?" It felt as if I was being questioned.
"Ya, I did, but..." I begin.
"Then you know what we plan to use them for," she says.
"Jason's been hunting with a bow since he could walk. Why didn't you let him start with it?" I asked, wondering.
"He... hasn't touched one since...We didn't want anything to distract him at a time like this," she said and went over to a large crate and opened it up.
It was filled with black and green clothes that looked thick and big and...bulky...
"Would you like to try some of these on to find a size that fits you?" she asked me, holding up a jacket to me.
"Sure, are these for practice or for the real thing?" I asked.
"These are for training," she answered.
"Oh," I said.
"Don't worry, if you get hit by a Bee Bee bullet with the armors, it barely hurts, just a bit, unless you have delicate skin, give me your arm," she instructed.
I handed her my arm and she felt it. It tickled, and I did everything I could not to pull away and giggle.
"Hm... you're going to need leg guards and arm guards," she told me and handed me some leg pads and arm pads from the crate.
"Thanks," I said looking at them, thinking how much I must just seem like a dumb kid to her.
"I think you're all set," she said.
"Yep, thanks, I'll be here for training tomorrow," I answered and walked out.
I went over to my tent and put everything away and organized it. I hate having a messy area, even if it's a tent.
I walk outside and find Jason and Freddy sitting around the fire pit talking.
I wander over, and I'm only a few feet away from Jason when I say, "Hey Freddy."
"Hey yourself," he says lying on a sleeping bag. He looks like he's attempting to tan himself.
"Trying to tan?" I ask and sit down.
"Uh...no, I am...looking at the sun...or trying to...look at it...?" he says.
"Have fun with that," I say and turn to Jason.
"Can I talk to you?" I ask.
He coldly looks up from his map, right into my eyes, then walks away into the field.
"What'd you do to him?" Freddy asks, just like Victoria.
"Nothing!" I say and walk off, away from Jason.
I begin to run into a field on the other side of the camp and keep running until I reach the woods. I'm so mad that I run right in and don't stop. I eventually get forced to a halt when I encounter a large drop that goes down to a river.
I walk down the side of the ledge to the river. I take a long, deep gulp of water and sit there for a bit. Then I get back up to the top and sit down.
I hear a rustling sound. I turn and see a big, brown bear looking right at me. He's only a few feet away from my face, and he looks as mad as I was before I saw him. Now I'm a statue. I'm frozen, if I move, I may anger it. My only hope is for the bear to get bored and move on.
I sit completely still for what feels like forever waiting for the bear to move along, but it doesn't.
I decide to attempt an escape. If the bear is confused about what I am, it might leave me alone until it figures it out. In that time, I can get away.
I slowly stand up and to my surprise, the bear comes toward me.
I back up, a bit farther, farther, farth... I get to the edge of the slope above the river. If I fall, I don't think from this position I could get back up. Then, of course, there's the bear above me to think about...
It keeps coming toward me. I have no option. I turn around, bend my legs and leap like a frog, trying to reach the other side, to get a grip on a root or something, no such luck. I fall down into the river and start getting dragged away by the current. I keep my head mostly above water, and eventually get to the edge of the river and pull myself up and sit by the river coughing out water and mud. There is no way to get back up there, no way to swim back, especially with this current.
The only way I could ever get out would be to get a rope and throw it up to the tip of the cliff and hope it snags on something, I have no rope though, so I sit and wait.
Someone will come looking for me, right?
At least there's one good thing about getting pulled so far by the current, the bear doesn't know where I went. He's probably gone.
I clean my hands and feet off and try to stay mostly out of the mud, but it's everywhere down here, so there's not much chance of really being all that clean.
I sit for another few hours. Then it becomes dark. When it's about midnight, I finally give up and tell myself someone will come searching for me tomorrow. As I fall asleep on the muddy bank, I realize I could be miles from camp. It'll take a while to get any help. Even if I could get further downstream, from here I see no way to get back up to the top of the ledge for miles. If I tried to go back I'd be fighting against the current, and that seems impossible at the moment. I'm trapped.
As I close my eyes, I feel my stomach grumble.
"Shut up stomach, I don't have food!" I yell at it.
That seems to do the trick, and I fall asleep.
I wake up to a symphony of birds. It's very pretty, but I have a feeling I'd enjoy it more if I didn't feel so bad.