Vika
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
She spent a lot of her time in the Training Center eating, sleeping, and crying. What else was she supposed to do? She wished she didn't have to go to training at all, but her mentor made her.
Hey, hey, field boy,
Have you any grain?
She was the second-smallest tribute of them all. The only one smaller was the crazy girl from Eight, the one who was fourteen even though she looked younger and liked to stab the practice dummies where a real person's private parts would be.
Vika was also the very youngest tribute. Her, sweet Nate from Four, and shaky Cogs from Six had all told their birthdays over lunch and figured it out. Phoebe had been there too, but she was thirteen already, and didn't talk.
Cogs asked Vika once, "I've seen District Nine on the television. What do you do with so much sky?"
"I don't know. Live under it, I guess."
Vika had seen District Six on television. She wondered what they did with so much ugly smoke, but didn't ask. She didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
She missed District Nine's big sky. The Capitol buildings and the surrounding mountains were too tall to show most of the sky.
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full.
They were cannon fodder, all of the younger ones, that's what the Careers liked to say. Nate and Vika's own district partners were older and didn't want anything to do with them.
"But outer district tributes are mostly cannon fodder, no matter how old they are," Cogs said. "That's what my dad says."
Vika thought he was probably right. Maybe the strong boy from Twelve or the giant boy from Seven or the scary girl from Eight had a chance. Strong tributes could survive better, and the Capitol liked scary ones, too.
Most of the older kids scared her a little bit. Even Lizbeth from Seven, who seemed really funny when Vika overheard her conversations with her district partner.
The pair from Eleven weren't scary at all, though. Salvia helped them at the edible plants station and seemed almost motherly. Herb seemed like he was daydreaming more often than not, but he showed the younger kids how to tie great knots.
The girl from Ten was nice, too. Vika rode alone in an elevator with her and was in awe of her incredibly long brown hair. Her name was Ava. She wished she could be friends with Ava, and Salvia and Herb too.
One for the baker.
Most of the Capitol people were scary, too, like clowns in all different colors. Not her stylist, though. Julia wore very colorful eye-shadow, but that was it.
Ty's stylist with the weird hair designed the silly wheat sheave parade costumes, but Julia made Vika an interview beautiful, shiny white dress decorated with gold beads and gold-sparkled tights to match.
She also gave Vika a big hug after helping her into the many layers of Arena clothes. "Based on these, it's going to be cold, so don't sit still too long."
Vika didn't think she'd get many chances to sit down at all, but she accepted the hug.
One for the king.
District Nine was a big place with lots of small towns, and Vika came from one of the smallest. Past the houses, including her aunt and uncle's where she lived with them and their creepy grown-up son, everything was just fields as far as the eye could see. Fields that turned the color of Vika's hair around harvest time.
She loved running through those fields, down to the irrigation canal where the best climbing trees grew. She and her friends would gather there after school, and on off days, pretending to hide from patrolling soldiers and playing pretend at being knights and ladies and dragons from the old stories their half-blind teacher would tell.
She wished she could show Nate, Cogs, and Phoebe that canal and those trees. She wanted the Arena to be full of grain fields. At least it would feel kind of like home.
It wasn't like that all. The Cornucopia was on a hill of icy gray rocks surrounded by a snowy forest filled with too-big trees.
The longer Vika looked at the Arena, the more scared she felt. The more scared she felt, the harder it was to move.
She barely made it off her pedestal before the girl from One, the redhead with the weird twisted grin, came running at her.
Then everything hurt, then nothing did.
Laying on her back, she could see the sky. Most of it was covered in clouds, but their were pieces of blue.
Vika wished she were home.
And one for the Peacekeeper,
Who lives down the lane.