Chapter Sixteen: The roof
It was evaluation day. Today the tributes would be called one by one in order of the Districts (males first) to be evaluated by the Game Makers. This evaluation was extremely important to attract the attention of Sponsors, and the scores would be revealed later in the evening by Caesar Flickerman. The hard part about it was that District 11 was always called second to last, she would be the twenty-second person evaluated (Cana the twenty-first) and by that point, the majority of the Game Makers wouldn't even be bothered to pay attention. Seeder had made it clear to them that they absolutely had to grab their attention in any way possible. Their mentors wouldn't be able to get them Sponsors this year unless they had scores above seven.
Maize wasn't too worried about what she would be demonstrating. Her knife-throwing skills had progressed wonderfully, she could run the obstacle course in under five minutes without tripping or messing up, build deadly snares for animals and humans, hold her breath underwater for a whopping five minutes (something that she had been practicing for hours out of the training room), identify edible and poisonous plants/animals, apply first aide like it was nobody's business, and successfully knock over the trainer with her bō staff. Cana, on the other hand, was like an exposed nerve. His knee bouncing up and down non-stop as he sat beside her. She hadn't been able to calm him down once since early in the morning. Maize could only hope that he didn't spaz out during his evaluation or his scores would suffer.
When Cana's name was finally called, his whole body flinched. Maize barely had time to place a comforting hand on the younger teen's shoulder and wish him luck before he made his way into the training room. After about fifteen minutes they finally call her name, she left behind two anxious and sickly looking tributes from 12.
"Maize Galloshire, District 11!" she announced loudly as she entered the training room, making the eyes of the Game Makers track her movements.
She immediately makes a beeline to the knife-throwing station and after moving a considerable distance away states what area she's going to hit before throwing the knife. Each throw met its mark. She dragged a couple of dummies into various positions around the obstacle course, grabbed a couple of knives and did the course all the while throwing the knives into the targets. She completed the course in six minutes, it wasn't her personal best record but she had hit all of her targets so she considered it a win. As soon she jumped off the platform she made her way to the plant identifying section, the hologram's unearthly blue light illuminated her face as she completed the quiz it generated of a two hundred different edible and poisonous plants in under two minutes.
Maize took a moment to glance up at the Game Makers and nearly jumped when more than half of them were looking down at her in consideration. She quickly grabbed the bō staff from the rack and got onto the fighting platform where the trainer was waiting for her, the woman's own staff clenched in her hand. What followed was a brief beat down between the two them. The hard smacks of the staffs' hitting one another and the occasional grunt of pain when the staffs' hit body parts. Sweat clung onto her back making the exercise shirt stick to Maize's skin. She ducked under a swipe of her opponent's staff before smacking the woman's hand with her own bō, making her opponent drop the staff before bringing her bō up to the trainer's neck.
"Yield." she stated as hard breaths panted out of her. The trainer raised her hands up and backed away. Maize let her stance fall before jumping off the platform and walking to the elevators without glancing back at the Game Makers.
She was too afraid to even see them.
Maize hit the button for her floor.
She was greeted by the excited and anxious voices of the stylists and Goldie before Cana ran to her side for a hug. Maize wrapped her arms around her District partner as the younger boy practically sagged into her.
"I tipped during the obstacle course." he mumbled. Maize rubbed his back softly before pulling the boy out of her arms.
"That's okay." she reassured him, "How did the swimming go?"
He sighed, but a small smile quirked onto his face. "Good."
They were ushered onto the couch before being handed their pre-dinner shakes by Seeder as they waited for the results to be announced. As soon as Caesar Flickerman appeared on the screen they quieted down. They started off by showing a picture of the tribute by Flickerman's head before the Capitolite read out the score and it flashed under the tribute's picture. The scores for the Career tributes were in the general nine-ten range except for District 4 this year. Annie Cresta only scored a six and her District partner, who was a year younger than Cana, scored five. They probably weren't going to be welcomed into the Career Pack this year and instead would be viciously hunted by them. Everyone else seemed to score between a five and seven, except for the poor girl from District Six that scored a three. Cana scored a seven, to their delight, and Maize scored a surprising eight.
Around them, their mentors, escort and stylist began celebrating their scores as they prepared to sit and eat dinner. Their meal was a lively affair as conversation flowed from one end of the table to the other, talks of Sponsors and what they would be wearing for their personal interviews with Casar Flickerman were the main subjects of the conversation.
Cana made his escape soon after the meal ended, deciding to go to bed early and relax for a change. Maize, on the other hand, was restless as hell. Seeder was kind enough to point her to the elevator and tell her to take out her frustrations on the roof. The woman had shown her the roof during the third training night when Maize was too hyped up on adrenaline to sleep. Maize took the chance of escape as it was and practically sprinted to the elevator. The moment the doors opened onto the roof, Maize let out a pent up sigh she hadn't known she'd been holding. The breeze felt nice on her skin as she leaned on the railing, her eye locked onto the horizon and the setting sun in the distance.
"Shady grove, my little love/ shady grove I know./ Shady grove my little love,/ I'm bound for the shady grove./ I wish I had a piece of thread/ as fine as I could sew,/ I'd sew much love to my side,/ and down the road I'd go."
The words bled out of her mouth as the song filled up the otherwise empty silence. It had been so long since she had sung anything. It was probably the thing she missed most about home. There wasn't a day that she hadn't sung in the fields. Work songs were what kept them busy and connected them with one another as they tended, tilled, harvested and boxed fruit and vegetables. She missed hearing the warbling timber of mockingjays copying their songs from the canopies, and the lisped notes from young children as they learned the lyrics of songs, the camaraderie of hearing her voice joined by her peers as she sweat under the sun while picking fruit...
She missed hearing the occasional crack in Birch's voice (he absolutely hated puberty), Brier and Piper's sweet tones, Hibis' attempts to finish at least one song without messing up the lyrics, Lilac's adorable mess-ups as the toddler sang her favorite lullaby, and her infant twin brother's wide eyes and smiles when Maize held them to her chest and snag them sweet nothings. She missed Amla's strong voice, her mama's familiar and soothing song and her baba's sure and steady way as he held a note. She missed her family. With that in mind, the ditty she'd been singing ended and the more somber notes of 'Fare thee well' filled the air.
"Hold on steady and strong,/ Here's the dawn coming on/ won't be long,/ Then the sun will come shining through,/ To show me the place I once knew" her eyes burned with tears that would never fall as she imagined the soft sound of flutes and whistles from mockingjays, "Fare thee well,/ Fare thee well and adieu,/ Fare thee well,/ With this song I'll be gone,/ Fare thee well..."
She had barely finished the chorus when clapping made Maize's head snap back in surprise.
Words: around 1,441
(Sorry I've been busy! Lots of exams! Enjoy!)