Sharp Objects

chapter one

After I have returned the knifes to the kitchen drawer, I sneak back upstairs, past miss cointoykes bedroom, to the dorm that I share with Harper and two other girls Mercedes and saffron.they dont like me. Because they are not career's and they will never be.

How it works in district 2 is that, as soon  as you turn 4, you are required to start school.but, and here's the catch, you can sign up to the academy aged 6, if your parents would like you to be a career- trained. The academy teaches combat skills, and the school teaches the usual academic stuff. If you are a career, then you have 3 days of training and 3 days of school per week. If you don't train,then you have 5 days of school, Mercedes and saffron were never signed up to the academy, and their parents died before they could,so they would never be careers.

I feel sorry for them really: Mercedes and saffron are sound asleep, so I don't have to listen to there insults. Harper is also asleep, curled up in her covers and snoring like a pig. I don't know how she can do it.

I am always hit with a bout of insomnia before the reaping. It just seems like every  single time I close my eyes and try with all my might to sleep, the unthinkable just pops into my head. But there's no use just sitting up until morning, I'll be too tired to go to the reaping otherwise. And,since it's mandatory, I don't have any choice. So I climb into my own bed, and try to sleep.

It's the repping, but I'm not watching it for myself, I'm watching if from above, as if I were a bird flying over the scene.

Tallulah frost. Our district escort, a woman with ice blue hair and eyes to match, clicks over to the glass ball in her heels, and pulls out a small slip of paper. She smooths out the white and reads out the chosen name in her high pitched voice.

"Clove kentwell". I see myself as the crowd around me parts,and I can hear the snickers in the crowd,the head-on laughs of the other girls. I step forwards, hiding my emotions from my face,and walk slowly but surely,up to the stage. The peacekeepers escort me forward,as soon enough,I'm no the stage in fron6of the hole district. When tallulah asked for a volunteers, you can almost her the wind whistling through the building. silence. It doesn't offend me. I know that they don't like me.

Tallulah trots  over to the boys ball,and pulls out another, equally bright white slip of paper.

"Albert kentwell" it takes me about 10 seconds to realise what's going on. And then I see my little brothers face,like a rabbit in headlights.

My own expression matches his both Paris of Green eyes held wide in terror. He walks towards the front, and steps up on to the stage, his steps wooden and rigid. We stand together, side by side, while tallulah asks for volunteers. Again,there is nothing. Nothing but sea of happy faces spreading out in the crowd. I like to think that they are all happy that they have been spared for another year. But in reality,they will enjoy watching me die.

Then the whole thing changes, and I'm me again. I must be dreaming. Now I'm standing on the  stage with my brother as the emotions flood through me, threatening to register on my face. I refuse to let them see. I am not weak, I am a career, and I am going to get through this no matter what. I scan the crowd again, maybe looking for one sad person,just one.

And that's when i see him. Those familiar bright blue eyes and spiky blonde hair. They stand out like nothing else in this whole entire scene. His is the only sad face among the happiness. No,not sad ; sympathetic. It shows clear on his face, no sympathy for me. And I, and I alone,know  why.

I sometimes think,that,if it hasn't happened, maybe life would have been better. But now,that changes. He is sad,no,sympathetic for us, because I think he still feels like he owns me or something. He doesn't:I've let it go, whatever happened that night.but I don't think he has. After all, you never forget a face of the person who was you last hope.
And, to him,the last hope,was me.

I was 13 at the time,my father had just left to become a peacekeeper, and Albert, Harper and I had just been sent to the community home.we were all depressed and mourning the loss of father. He wasn't dead, but it wouldn't have made any difference if he was: it was unlikely that we would be seeing him again.

I was outside in the garden,which was,and still is,the only part of the home that is actually  like. We had been outside all day, and I had decided to stay out a little longer. Miss cointoyke had told me to alert her when I wanted to come in to sleep.when she disappeared into the living room,I crept into the kitchen for some knifes,and took them outside to a little tree around the back of the Home,I sat there aiming endless at the tree, standing up to fetch them back when they were all gone,then returning and doing it all over again, just the same cycle over and over. It was dark when I heard it, a large growl from above me,somewhere in the mountains, and then, a distant cry for help. I don't know what made me do it,but suddenly, I was gathering up my knifes and heading for the mountain path.i clambered over the pathetic wire fence that 'protects' the home, and started up the winding path through the mountains, nearing ever closer to the cries and growls. Then i rounded a corner and came across the scene. A boy, a few years older then me , around 15 maybe 16, weaponless,and fighting a huge cougar with his bare hands. I recognized the boy from the academy, he was one of the arrogant,definite future career types,with the huge ego and all the rest. But now,he was helpless,and probably on the way to his death. He would never become a victor he so dreamed to be. But he would, and I made sure of that. Acting against my brain, I picked up my sharpest knife  and thew straight at the cougar, just as it pounced on the boy. The knife caught It right on the chest, and it slumped to the ground just short him out. He looked in my direction, astounded, and I hid behind a huge bolder. But it was no use: he'd seen me. I took of down the mountain path,sprinting, just incase he tried to catch me up.but, when I heard no pounding footsteps behind me, I slowed and walked the rest of the way back . I managed to get home just in time for miss cointoyke to summon me back inside. I ran into the building,shoved the knifes in the drawer as quickly as possible, and flew into the dorm. Then I slept soundly, wounding if the boy would see me differently now. And he did

The next day, while I was training in the academy with Albert and Harper, I noticed him. Surrounded by all his arrogant friends, he was centre of a massive circle of 'followers'. I didn't look at him, I just carried on throwing my knifes into a dummy like nothing had happened. But I kept getting this feeling, this strange sensation: someone was watching me. I swivelled around, and found his eyes trained on me, curiosity plaguing his face. Then something snapped and his eyes widened: he recognised me then, I knew it. I tried my best to ignore his started expression, but I couldn't, and so I kept looking back at him. Everytime, he was back talking to his friends , Laughing about something. But that feeling like someone  was watching me was still there, even after he had moved over to the other side of the training gym. And I knew that I was him. It couldn't of been anyone else, because everyone else ignored me. He was the first and only one that didn't.

"Happy hunger games everyone !" Shouts tallulah frost " and may the odds be ever in your favour!" I am escorted into the justice building by a crowd of peacekeepers. But, just as the  door Is about to close on me,shutting me off from my home ,I see him again, alone staring at me, his eyes saying one thing: thank you clove. The doors slam and I collapse, falling to the ground, one last thought hitting me as a fall: I have let go of the past. It is only he who cannot forgot