Chapter 1: Trainee
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
In the eyes of District Two's upper echelons, eightieth decade of Hunger Games had been one of many unworthy Victors. From a conniving, disgraceful archer to a frail drug addict, from a Reaped great-grandchild of a Victor to a bully from the cloth slums, from a lowly field worker to a silent ranch boy. The latest, a loudmouthed teen from District Seven, had heaped insult upon injury with his vocal scorn towards the Career pack of the Eight-Ninth Games.
The last properly trained, truly loyal Victor had been from District Four and had won the Eighty-Second Games; Two's last Victor had won the year before that.
"Unacceptable," the Academy board members, all former Victors, would proclaim in the hearing of anyone and everyone. "Disgraceful!"
Clytemnestra Cairn, Victor of the Thirty-Fourth and headmaster of Steelcliff Academy, said little compared to the others. For decades, she had always had the last say on Two's volunteer tributes, and as the Ninetieth Hunger Games approached, she had a perfect specimen in mind for the female slot.
Crete Clayson would serve his purpose and have a reasonable chance; Brutus was partial to the boy, after all. But it was Eve Charades that Clytemnestra had her eyes on. She had been watching that girl for years.
Beautiful, with her dark hair and stone-gray eyes. Tall and swift and strong. Smart, charming, obedient. Loyal.
Clytemnestra saw gambling as a waste of time, but privately thought that if she ever could bet on one of her tributes, it would be Eve.
District Two children going to the district's training academy was normal. Rich parents paid the entry fees with no hesitation. Children of poor parents could earn themselves a place free of charge if they were gifted enough. An Academy education, provided the student receiving it didn't get expelled or accidentally killed, all but guaranteed respect and employment opportunities after graduation. For example, a considerable portion of the Capitol's top Peacekeepers were graduates of Steelcliff.
Of course, all that paled in next to the honor of being chosen to compete in the Games.
The Charades family owned a shoe store and were far from rich but not quite poor. Clem and Pyra always could have afforded to send a child to Steelcliff if they wanted, but for a long time they didn't truly consider the possibility.
Their son Elias was born with a malformed hip they could not afford to have fixed. Their daughter Eve, born not quite two years later, became their hope for helping Elias and gaining a better life.
They scraped together the entry fee and sent her to the Academy when she was ten. From the start, she excelled. She was intelligent, observant, both level-headed and fierce as needed. She also turned out to be naturally ambidextrous, giving her an advantage when it came to using many weapons.
She did talk back to instructors a few times in her first year. Headmaster Cairn personally oversaw her punishments, and after a few months, she never misbehaved again.
For Eve, passing the "final test" to be approved as Two's first-choice volunteer seemed easy.
To everyone else.
Her twin swords, her favorite weapons, had never felt so heavy.
The Ninetieth Reaping went smoothly in District Two. The fourteen-year-old girl whose name was called didn't even have to take a step before Eve called out the near-sacred words. She mounted the stage in a pretty floral dress that had been her mother's, her head held high and a wide smile on her face. She did finger the silver four-leafed clover pendant hanging around her neck while the escort moved onto the boys, but otherwise showed no signs of nervousness. Crete Clayson soon joined Eve on the stage, looking very handsome and strong, and Clytemnestra was pleased.
Eve and her brother didn't cry during the family goodbyes. Their parents did.
Watching the recap on the train later confirmed that the Reaping had gone smoothly in every district. Nobody volunteered in any districts besides One, Two, and Four. No disturbances occurred, and the only real standouts among the outliers were the powerful-looking boys from Ten and Eleven.
The girl from One stood out most of all, though. She all but danced onto the stage after calling out "I volunteer!" in her high, melodious voice. Her elegant, shimmery white-and-silver dress helped set off her shining green eyes and unusual-for-One dark hair. She bantered easily with the escort, smiled brightly for the cameras, waved happily to the crowd. Next to her, her gorgeous, muscular district partner seemed somewhat average, or worse.
"Allura is the one to watch," Clytemnestra told Eve. "The Capitol will love her charisma. But I doubt she is as strong as you."
"So what do I do?"
"In training, in the Arena...Keep her close, watch your back. In front of the Capitolites…Do not let her outshine you."
That last instruction proved to be difficult to follow.
District One had been lucky enough to get the famous duo of Cinna and Portia as stylists that year, and it was impossible to beat the magnificent, ancient-Egyptian-inspired costumes Prince Debonair and Allura Zircon wore for the parade. District Two's sleek, blue-accented black armor was excellent, but not enough to outshine the Ones.
Afterwards, on the ground floor of the Training Center, Eve bumped into the boy from Eleven and had a moment of almost-fright as he silently glowered down at her from his formidable height. Then he stepped around her and walked to the nearest elevator.
During training, when she wasn't subtly vying with Allura for control of the Career pack, she watched him and the boy from Ten as they often displayed their strength without even trying to show off.
"They're important to take out early," she told the other Careers. "Especially the Eleven boy."
Tide and Siren from Four nodded in agreement, but Allura said, "I think the Ten boy is more dangerous. He's quicker." Her district partner and Crete all but clamored to back her up.
Eve let it slide, along with multiple similar incidents over the course of those three training days, but only because she didn't want to wake up with a knife in her back too early into the Games.
She and Allura both got tens in their scoring sessions. The only other person to get a score so high was the boy from Eleven.
"Remember to be charming," Clytemnestra told her during interview prep. "Use that toothy smile of yours."
"I won't be as charming as Allura."
"Bah. She's faking it most of the time. You don't have to."
Eve just nodded.
Her prep team were most of the way through getting her interview-ready when her stylist stormed in, wailing about being upstaged. "I had the perfect red dress for you, perfect! But I just learned that that One girl will be wearing red! Unacceptable! I will not be accused of copying Cinna like everyone else! We need a backup plan!"
Eve went to the interviews wearing a black dress studded with diamonds and onyx beads. It was stunning.
Allura's strapless scarlet gown with gold embroidery and matching opera gloves was much more so.
The girl from One always had the very first interview, and Caesar Flickerman brought up Eve almost right away. "You two tied for the highest training score...Clearly you are both very skilled, so what was that dynamic like in training?"
Smile looking wide enough to break her face, Allura said, "Well, it's been a bit uneasy, but we're committed to work together at the start of the Games. Still, she'll surely be a formidable opponent in the end…" She trailed off into giggles, and Caesar and the audience laughed along with her.
Eve kept her expression unreadable as the cameras turned on her, and as she went through her interview with as many smiles but fewer laughs than Allura, she said of her temporary ally, "I've always been happy to admit when others are as skilled or even more so than me, and Allura has been very impressive in training." She let her smile become a smirk. "But training and the Hunger Games are two different things."
"And you believe you're prepared for the Games?"
"I know I am."
Not that she'd ever had a choice in the matter.