The 71st Hunger Games: Purity

Chapter Five - Johanna

One of the tributes—from districts one, two, or four I presume, since he seems strong and genuinely happy to be here, unlike the rest of us—keeps staring at me. I feel his blue eyes drilling holes into the back of my head even when I turn away from him. And I was right. When I turn back around, he has the same lustful expression on his face. His red hair curls around his face, and I could almost imagine going up to him and slapping that lustful look off his face. But I'm going into the Hunger Games. And I'm trying to look weak, not strong. So I guess I'll have to deal with lustful redhead from district I-don't-know for now.

I climb on to my chariot, next to Aspen who I guess had finished getting dressed, and look over his clothes. He's dressed like me, the only difference is where I was wearing a brown skirt, he had brown pants. God, could our designers be any more basic? I roll my eyes, but quickly look down away from him. Right. Scared, innocent little girls weren't often sarcastic. "You look nice," I tell him, only half lying. For the crap they put us in, he did look decent.

"Thanks, you too," he responds, and I watch his eyes go up and down my body. God, even a few years difference in age couldn't stop guys from looking at my body. I really think if I hadn't been subjected to these games, I would've ended up alone, or some whore in the alleys of district seven. I mean, whatever. I'll end up alone anyways, when I end up being killed off in this arena, or when no one wants to date the Victor who lied her entire games. It's a lose-lose situation here, folks.

After a few moments of awkward silence, President Snow graces us with his speech. He starts off by talking about the dark days of Panem, and about how the Hunger Games was to punish us—as if living in the dirt of district seven wasn't enough. After a brief moment, I see the chariots in front of us starting to lurch forward, traveling through the dirt paved U shape. A few seconds later, we start to crawl forward, peeking out of the shaded tribute area. The audience cheers, as usual, excited to see which new kids are going to be slaughtered for their entertainment this year.

Remembering my character, I give them a shy wave, allowing a small blush to crawl over my face. My lips curl up into small, toothless smile that stays at my lips and doesn't spread to my eyes, like a true smile would. In the blink of an eye, our tribute parade is over, and now we're lined up, listening to President Snow talk again. His eyes, dark and condescending, scanned the row of tributes, probably looking to pinpoint his victor early, so he knows who to leave alone in the arena or some shit. I look away from him "nervously", instead looking at a capital citizen in the crowd and giving them a small, bashful wave. 

Within a moment we are whisked back to the inside of the building, our chariots lined up in reverse order. I look over at Aspen, who had small lines of sweat dripping from his thick afro. Most of the time, I would say 'try having long hair like mine', but I have a feeling that he knows what it feels like anyways. "You did good," I assured him, a small smile on my face. Truthfully, I had no clue how good or bad he did with the capital citizens, I didn't look in his direction once.

"Thanks, you too. They seem to like you," he gives me an awkward smile, and then we are approached by Blight and Cypress, who both had faces red as bricks, and steam coming out of their ears.

"Good job kids," Cypress mumbles, his hand on a bottle of capital-quality beer. I bet he was in his element here, because the alcohol back in district seven wasn't strong, and it didn't taste too good either, so I'm sure he was more than glad to be here and drinking something better.

Blight motions us off the chariot, nudging us toward the elevator. "Let's get some food in you guys before training, and we can talk about any skills you have," I nod my head, looking over at Aspen for his reaction. He seems as unreadable as I do, his face blank and staring off towards the elevator.