Hope
"I'm Jesse," Jesse says, holding his hand out in Finnick's direction. They shake hands and Jesse looks at me. "An ally?"
"Yeah. If there's anyone I trust here its little Finny," I reply and pat Finnick's head. He slaps my hand away and frowns. I notice Jesse looks a little hurt by what I said and I open my mouth to say something when Finnick beats me to it.
"I'm only a year younger than you!" I laugh, happy that him being reaped hasn't changed him much.
"I'm going to try and get another ally. Haymitch told me to trust this guy," I say and point to Jeremy.
"He's a career," Jesse replies and I shrug.
"Haymitch suggested him. So why not?" I ask and not waiting for an answer I walk off and head in the direction of Jeremy. I walk until I'm right behind him, his back facing me. One of the five tributes talking to him points at me and Jeremy turns around. His lips spread into a huge smirk when he sees me.
"Hope Mellark."
"Jeremy Sheeley," I reply, keeping up his enthusiastic tone of voice.
"What can I do for you?" he asks, cockily.
"Do? Nothing. You could be something though," I reply and his eyes twinkle.
"Ahh, following in your parent's footsteps? You want me and you to be star-crossed lovers?" he grins.
"No." The twinkle disappears. "An ally."
"Hmm. Give me a reason why me, a career, would want to team up with you," he says.
"Why don't you give me a reason why you shouldn't team up with me?" I shoot back at him. He laughs.
"Sure, why not?" he says. Is that it? Well, that was easy. "I like a feisty girl."
"Good," I smile, ignoring what he said. I turn on my heel and head back to Finnick and Jesse. "Bingo."
"He said yes?" Finnick asks.
"Yep," I smirk.
"I don't trust him- he's a career," Jesse replies.
"Finnick is a career," I frown.
"That's different- you know him, trust him. You don't know Jeremy," Jesse says.
"We have three days to get to know him," I snap, my temper rising.
He opens his mouth to reply when out instructor speaks up and tells us the rules of the training centre.
"Come on," Finnick says. "Let's see what we can do. Dad told me to stay away from the tridents."
"My parent's told me to stay away from a bow," I reply. "So, where to?"
"Spears?" Jesse suggests and I shrug. We walk over to the trainer and he shows us how to stand and how to aim. We do as he says and I have to admit that I'm not bad.
Jesse would've had a good shot if he didn't trip when he threw it. I frown, I didn't see anything that could've made him trip but why would've he faked it? This guy gets more and more mysterious and it makes me want to get to know him more and more. But is that a good thing to do?
Jesse
I know how to do everything in this training centre so I'll have to pretend to be bad at things. I throw the spear, stumbling on purpose and turn to see the other's reaction. "That would've been a good shot," Finnick says and I look at Hope; she looks… suspicious? I'd love to tell her what I know, that Snow wants me to kill her but there are camera's everywhere and Snow will be suspicious and angry.
All I need is Snow to order a Peacekeeper to come and get me and then I can tell him that I plan to be-friend the girl and that I want to kill her. Obviously, it's going to be hard to protect Hope in the arena when I'm meant to kill her but I'm sure I'll find a way.
We stay at the spear section until we all have a good shot and then go to the nature and plants section. Hope, I bet, is great at it since I know she hunted with her mom back in 12. The man standing at the plant section desk tells us to point to the photo of the berry that looks edible. I frown, and pretending I don't know the answer I point the most poisonous berry of all: Nightlock. "Even I know that berry is poisonous," Finnick laughs and I shrug.
"I'm not good at plants," I lie.
"Yeah, well you better learn fast," Hope says, "Nightlock can kill you before you even swallow it." I knew that.
"Really?" I ask.
"Yes, really," she huffs. I have a feeling I'm annoying her. Either that, or something is on her mind.
"What's the matter with you?" Finnick asks her, reading my mind.
She looks confused. "Me? Nothing. I'm fine, why?"
"You seem… off?" I reply and she shrugs. The conversation ends there.
I don't bring her weird behaviour up until we are riding in the elevator back up to out floor. "Have I don something wrong?" I ask.
"Why would you think that?" she asks, not looking me in the eye.
"Because you've been ignoring me since I asked you if you were okay earlier," I reply and she puts her head in her hands.
"I'm just tired," she whispers.
"Bullshit," I hiss and she looks up in shock. "You are the worst liar I've ever met."
To my surprise she laughs. "I guess I follow my mom then, huh?"
"Seriously, what's the matter?" I ask again.
"How do I know I can trust you?" she asks and I frown. Is this what's been bothering her?
"You don't know," I admit, "But think about it. We both know I'm not going to make it past the bloodbath so how am I going to be strong enough to kill you?"
"Don't put yourself down like that," she whispers and I shrug.
"It's true though, right?" Ha, she's going to be surprised when she see's what I can do.
"Anything can happen," she finally says and I huff.
"Think what ever you want, believe whatever you want but don't, don't trust anyone. Not me, not Finnick and definitely not Jeremy," I reply and with that the elevator doors open and I leave her frozen to the spot.
The next two days pass faster than I wanted them to. It seems like only yesterday when Snow whisked me off to District 12 so I could play my part. I look at Hope sitting beside me fiddling with her hands, nervously.
Today we are having our private session with the Game-makers. I admit I do feel sorry for her. She really wants to impress them and get a good score while all I have to do is nothing. That's right. Snow has ordered me to act like I'm weak so I can surprise everyone when I'm in the arena.
"What are you going to do?" I ask, taking her hand to stop her from biting her nails off. Her prep team won't be happy if there's no nail left to paint but that's only part of the reason I took hold of her hand.
"I think I'm going to climb the wall so I'm up high and shoot some targets… I might even jump off of the wall," she replies and I shake my head.
"Don't jump off the wall I don't want to be carrying you everywhere in the arena," I reply and she chuckles.
"I suppose I could do camouflage or paint something," she adds.
"Remember what your mom and dad told you. They done crazy things and got good scores then the Game-makers focused on them in the arena. We don't want the Game-makers planning to blow us up or something," I reason and she nods.
"Jesse Davies," a Peacekeeper yells. "Your up."
I sigh and stand up. I walk in the direction of the double doors when Hope grabs my hand. She pulls my hand so hard that when I spin around to face her our chests touch. Our eyes meet and I find lots of different feelings in hers. Her warm breath on my face sends shivers down my spine and I mentally shake my head to stop the crazy thoughts that I have started getting about her often. "I know my parent's haven't been focusing on you much but please try your best," she whispers and I nod, unable to speak.
I step backwards and watch her as she steps forward and then backwards, clearly not sure if she should do something or not. She decides to do what she was thinking and… What? Hope Mellark just kissed my cheek!
AN: Please Review. I decided to skip the other two training days because I think it would've been boring and because I want to get to the arena as fast as possible. I have a plan in my head and I'm so excited to get it out!