Dahlia Rhodes (D10 Female)

I waited impatiently on the couch, the rest all around me. Murray was pacing to the left, with Unnamed person scowling.

I shrugged and closed my eyes. I was so nervous, I really wanted to get a good score. It would basically determine life or death- whether the Careers would go after me or not. That made me almost hope to get a bad score, just so I wouldn't be targeted. But if I got a good score, I would also have more people want to be my ally...which meant more people as protection against the Career pack.

I sighed, shaking my head. It was no use thinking all of this. I would find out sooner or later. Then I could worry.

The screen suddenly flashed on and I jolted forward, steadying myself with the side of the couch. My heart was beating fast and I felt like I could run a mile without getting tired. Then they started showing the Districts.

First was Mark Seashire. They had taken a great photo of him- right after a fight- and he was depicted with a number: 8. You could get 1-12 for a score- one was the worst of tributes, twelve the estimated victor. I scribbled the math down on a random piece of paper, that meant he had a 66.64 percent chance to become victor.

They showed him for about thirty seconds, then moved on to the next tribute: Skyrah Labelle. She was smiling widely, almost seeming not like a Career because of her friendliness. A number began rotating like a dizzy tornado and then stopped. She got a 9, which surprised me because I hadn't thought her that aggressive when we were training. Maybe I had underestimated her.

Afterward, Two. The male, Felix Saunders, got a 9 as well, which made me think that perhaps Mark had just acted super confident to put everyone else on edge and maybe he wasn't as good as I had thought. Felix was pretty normal and sane, a simple smile across his face.

Persefone was next. She got a ten, which was the highest so far, but it wasn't like I had thought otherwise. The girl was tall and muscular, and very determined as well. It was kind of to be expected, in a way.

Then there was Three. Tyler, who looked kind of anxious in his grin, was kind of blurry to me. I had no idea what was expected of him, though I kinda got the feeling he might get something low. Surprisingly, however, he got a 7, which was a 58.31 chance of winning. Not bad, I thought, impressed. I wondered what he had done to get this score.

Calamity, the girl from Three, got a 6. Wow, apparently Three was doing pretty good this year. I thought since they were all about technology and all that, they wouldn't really be so great in this natural kind of thing, but they were nailing it. 6 and 7 were pretty good numbers.

Four I was expecting high from, and I was not disappointed. Algar made a nine like Persefone and Skyrah, which I presumed was from his ability to withstand all that torturing. His picture showed him worn out and panting, a fire in his eyes. He had only been tortured for a few hours, but the scratches on his arms and the blood literally indicated more that.

Azurine got the lowest score out of the Careers, a 7, the same as Tyler. Her eyebrows were down defiantly in the picture, as if she had already known she would get the lower of the grades. I figured maybe she was, like, better with brains than physically fighting. That assumption went to Tyler as well; either way, I couldn't imagine the redhead fighting.

Five began with Mica. His awkward grin lit up on the screen a 5, the lowest so far. I bit my lip, nerves crashing against each other and forming a big dark wave. I swallowed the onslaught of dread and wiped my sweaty palms together. Surely I couldn't get something so bad as Mica. But then again, I didn't want to be targeted..

Oh, why was the world so complicated?!

I barely paid attention to all the rest. Twyla got a 4, yadda yadda, moving on to Six..

I tuned out, the only thing I heard the hammering of my heart against my chest. I was so nervous, my fists were clenched, my breathing came ragged. I began praying, closing my eyes and not even paying attention to the TV, though the sounds still entered faintly into my numb ears.

Cameron an 11, woah..

Harriet a 3..well that was bad.

Then there was District Seven. I was barely paying attention, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the brilliant flash of an eight appear, complete with dramatic thunder strike sound effects. Spruce's face popped up, an image of him folding his arms and looking serious.

Alea wielded an axe in her picture, her short blonde hair looking almost red, green eyes standing out like two miniature flames. She got a seven.

District Eight included Rowan, who had his sword, and Lace, a determined, dangerously rebellious look on her face. Rowan's number was an eight, which was kind of not surprising because I had seen him practice and he was pretty good. Lace got a three, the same score as Harriet, likely because of her not caring at all attitude.

I felt an unexpected flinch of sympathy for her- it couldn't have been easy going down with all her secret plans when she was being hurt by it at the same time. Then again, they weren't very secret; about the whole world knew how much Lace's fire could grow. And it wasn't the same as Alea's fire at all.

Nine, the wheat District, was next. First came Cornell Wheaton(coincidence?). I didn't really know him all too well except that his parade outfit had stunk and he looked like some kind of jokester, with that glint in the eye. He got a seven, from what I didn't know.

Zahava Doita, the thirteen-year-old girl with her dark hair styled in a pixie cut, ended up with a seven as a training score. I hadn't expected her to get so high; rather, I had thought she would get something like a three.

Then it was ten. I had almost forgotten and my pulse began racing once more. Murray anxiously stood next to me, too nervous to sit. I could feel the tension thick in the air, almost like some kind of smoke. My heart clenched and I prayed for my life. I felt like I was on my deathbed or something.

Murray was first, and for that I was grateful. I carefully sat back, not letting my tension get away from me just yet, and slowly took a deep breath in, let the nerves all out. The sweat was beginning to make my hands cold again and I shivered involuntarily.

I wasn't even in the mood to try to make shaky conversation, I was that nervous.

I sneaked a glance at Murray and could see his eyes were almost shut, squinting slightly, and his fingers made a clacking sound on the coffee table in front of us, the nervous beat sending me on edge. I almost wanted to tell him to stop so that I could worry in peace.

"Murray..," I whispered quietly. I needed to let all these words out or else I would go insane.

He put his finger across his lips and shot me an annoyed glance. His expression told me, Save it, Dahlia! Not now!

I hushed, but then the wave began gushing out of me. Words were the things I revolved around, something I prided myself on, something that kept my going and was my connection to society. Suddenly, something inside me snapped.

"Oh, Murray, I know how you feel," I began in a cracking voice, not knowing exactly where this was going.

He cringed but he didn't have the heart to say aloud, "Shut up."

"I know that it's terrible and that the Capitol is terrible and all this is terrible and we shouldn't be going through this ordeal at so young an age- I mean, half of us are kids, Murray! Kids! Who in the earth would ever have the evil to make this happen to kids?

"All my life, I feel like all the anger I've ever channeled has come from the Capitol, whether a long way or short. The Capitol, it's their fault. Don't think that the other kids are your enemies cause they're not. The Capitol is."

"Are you talking about rebellions? We really don't need an extra weight, Dahlia, thank you very much."

I snapped, "No, I'm not talking about rebellions. I'm just saying that we should not let the Capitol put this fear and these nerves into us. By letting ourselves feel that way, we're practically giving up to the Capitol. They want us to feel scared, they want us to regret what we did long ago. The whole reason they put these Games here is to demonstrate how much power they have against us, that they can take away our children like this.

"But they can't. Don't you see? We need to make a stand on this. Even if we don't see a rebellion in our lifetimes, inwardly, we can't let the Capitol ruin things for us. The Capitol wanted us to fear them and the Games, even hatred probably. And that is what I feel right now. But we can't make it a big deal, because we can't give up. If we do make it a big deal, then they'll think we're succumbing to the Capitol's rules.

"We have to pretend it's nothing. We have to think it's no big deal even if it is, because that's the only way the Capitol will get angered- if we don't fall to their plan with the Games. If they have the Games and we still don't respect their power properly, starting by not letting them get to us with the Games, we will have really sparked a fire in this rebellion.

"And I don't even think Lace cares."

Well that was a bad ending to that little speech of mine. But it was true.

Murray stared. "What's Lace got to do with anything?"

"Just giving an example," I stated quickly.

"..Oh." He was silent, his head cocked. Thinking.

"That's cool, I guess. What he said," he said with a slight shrug.

I almost let a smile cross my face before I realized we were kinda still in the middle of the announcements. I quickly turned back to see Murray's number fade away, the faint image of a 5.

Murray sarcastically yelled, "Yes! A five!"

"Yayyyyyyy." I rolled my eyes.

"Now let's see what you got." Murray seemed way less tense than before, even sitting down on the couch next to me. I scooted over to give him some space, glad he was better now but more nervous than ever. My teeth were literally chattering within my mouth, even though it wasn't cold.

All my memories starting from the day I saw my mom's eyes glazed with pride as a baby came back to me. My back straightened, my shoulders lifted. I remembered it all. The fire. Rebuilding afterwards. Dad. Mom. Dating Hudson. Unexpectedly, my eyes began watering up, but I refused to let them fall and told myself to be strong.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

And for the first time in my life, I actually allowed myself to think about the rebellion openly. All the mysteries of the world were now something I was eager to sift through.

I didn't even care about my number anymore. I just wanted to get this over with. It honestly didn't matter. It was just a number, anyway.

But still, it was important to me. That number still determined whether I lived or died, whether the Careers would target me or not, whether I would have sponsors.

I looked at the TV, my fingers interlaced together, my heart a heavy trot in my chest. I could feel the tension knotting up in Murray too, but it wasn't even a fourth the amount of mine. He had gotten his score, now it was time for mine.

My picture appeared on the screen of me smiling. I felt a squeezing feeling in my throat. I didn't think I could ever smile that way again, when I gained and lost so much tonight. Those tiny words of information formed a snake that went into one ear and did not leave the next. They filled my mind until I could do nothing but simply look.

The snake of information looped into a circle, then coiled downward, then met the open string at the other side. Tying up the loose ends.

I leaned forward in anticipation. I was not disappointed.

Eight.

A/N: Enjoyyyyyyy y'all

QOTD: Any thoughts on tomorrow(or today)? (Friday the Thirteenth?)

Oml I feel like this chapter looks so short. Eh, oh well.

Keep on smiling! :DDD

(cheesy smile)

10/12/2017