By the way, Daft Punk is AMAZING!!!!
The chariot is black and the horses are either black with tiny white spots, or white with huge black spots. I’m guessing the former. The other tributes stare and whisper about us, but Jake and I are in our own little world. Jake leaves me by the horses to get me some fruit because I wouldn’t stop complaining when the boy from District One comes over. Blonde hair, tan skin, blue eyes; kind of like Kade, but he has an air of arrogance about him.
“Nice little show you put on at the reaping. That your boyfriend?”
“Jake? No,” I say a little mental ew. I shake my head, and think the whole idea is really weird. Yet somewhere deep inside me, I imagine a world where it’s just Jake and me. That’s a pleasant world.
The boy scoffs. “Not him. Kade Young.”
“Oh, well . . . he was, but then this happened.” I gestured around us, remembering what Kade had told me.
He gets closer, only a few inches away from me, his hands on my waist. “Then you won’t have any problems with kissing me.”
Suddenly, a fist strikes out and lands squarely on his cheek. “Don’t touch her, you sick bastard!” Jake; good. I stand there stunned as the boy gets up and glares at us. “Watch your backs, District 12. I’m coming after you.” He walks away and when he’s finally out of earshot, I whack Jake over the head with an apple. “What was that for? I got that creep off of you! You should be thankful,” he grumbled and rubbed his head. I roll my eyes and began feasting on my fruit.
“You could have gotten in trouble, you idiot. Remember, fights aren’t legal . . . yet,” I say around bites.
“Hey, are you two alright?” Abel asks, completely sober now. We nod and he sighs. “Just hang out for another hour or so then it’s your turn. No more fights, please.” Slowly the chatter starts up again as he leaves.
I’m still downing fruit when Sam arrives to tell us it’s time. “Smile, wave, be friendly,” he directs. As we start to leave in the chariot, I look back and receive a thumbs up. It’s truly dark out, but the city lights shine everywhere, making us sparkle. The people go crazy over us. I look up at the screen overhead: I’m dazzling; blinding, even. Jake pales in comparison to my glittery appearance. By the end my arm is about to fall off and my face feels like it’s going to melt off. People were screaming our names constantly, and I was sure we were going to get some great sponsors.
Veronica cleans my face; Faye’s scrubbing my nails, and Lilith gets the color out of my hair as I doze in the chair. Lilith sends me off to bed when she’s done, leaving me with an orange. I’m awake at dawn and see a T-shirt and jeans are waiting for me. I’m the last breakfast, surprisingly, and everyone id chatting about last night.
“And there’s the shining star!” Abel says loudly.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I grumble into my plate. Those nightmares were terrible. Jake guesses silently, his eyes meeting mine and I know he knows.
“Well today is a training day. Stay away from District One and weapons you know you’ll be excel at.” Abel hints to us and we don’t question it.
Celestia makes sure we’re early and as it turns out, only half of the tributes were there. When all of us finally show up, a lady tells what there is and informs us that we cannot practice weaponry on each other. I glowered at that and got an elbow in the ribs. Jake and I split up to gather more skills, but I steer clear of swords and knives. Dad taught me how to use them with deadly precision when I was ten.
Lunch is called as I finish a lesson in hand-to-hand combat- which, unfortunately, I was great at- and Jake sits next to me at a table. “So, what did you do?”
“Knots, archery, fires, and combat; you?” I bit into my sandwich and wrinkled my nose in disgust: Mustard. Gross. Jake ate about half of his in one bite, which was sickening.
“Swords, knives, camouflage, plants. How come you didn’t work with blades? That would be a great skill to have in the Arena.” He ate his lunch and helped himself to mine.
I explain to him between the fruit on my plate. I smack his hand every time he tried to snitch a bit. We talk about what we’re going to for the rest of the day when the boy from One comes by.
“I’m sorry about last night. I don’t know what got into me. Will you ever forgive me?” He sounded pretty sincere, but I wasn’t buying it.
“No, now go away. I know you’re not sorry, and I know you knew what you were doing. Go away or else I’ll have Jake hit you again.” He didn’t leave. “I’m not going to tell you again. If I have to, it won’t be Jake: It’ll be me that’s hitting you.” I bit into my pear nonchalantly and he scowled at me.
“Fine then; but I don’t think you’ll like the consequences though.”
Lunch is called to close and we decide to work on knots for the rest of the time. We get to the point where our fingers bleed, but we know every knot the instructor knows. Once on our floor, Celestia flips about the rope burns.
“It was rope, smart one,” I say sarcastically. “Can I have some fruit? For some reason I’m still craving it.” A bowl of strawberries is brought to me and Jake tries to steal some. I cuff him upside the head with a laugh and go clean up.
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