The Hunger Games

ᴇɪɢʜᴛ

"You know, if I hadn't trained so hard beforehand and tired myself out, I could've beaten you in that duel easily." Michael said, not looking at Aspen but focusing on cutting his piece of chicken at dinner.

Aspen, Charles, Michael and Plum all sat together, eating like they had started doing when they got settled at the training center.

"Oh, I'm sure you could have. Almost as easily as I got on top of you when you tried to make a fool out of me, right?" Aspen asked, putting her knife and fork down and looking over. Michael didn't say anything, just stared straight ahead. Aspen raised her eyebrows, expecting more of a remark.

"What? You have nothing to say all of a sudden?" She pushed.

Instead of responding, Michael had shoved another piece of chicken in his mouth. Aspen shook her head and picked up her fork, picking at her food.

"Dick." She mumbled. As soon as the word left her mouth, Michael spoke up again.

"You know, if you weren't such a bitch-"

"That is enough. God! I'm tired of you two bickering all the time. It's giving me stress wrinkles." Plum said, shaking his head and causing the two to jump out of their conversation. Michael nodded.

"Plum's right. If you guys want any good chance at winning this, you have to work together." Charles added in.

Aspen looked up and saw him glancing between her and Michael. Then, Michael let out a harsh sigh.

"Look, I'm just gonna be blunt for a second and I don't really care if you hate me for it. I said it once and I'll say it again; you're nothing but a pretty face here. All your meant to do is bring more people into watching because of your looks." He rambled, staring at Aspen. He then turned and looked at Charles and Plum, who were sitting across from them.

"She's not gonna last two seconds. There's no point in giving this one false hope." He finished, nodding in Aspen's direction and acting like she wasn't even in the room.

Aspen picked up her knife and threw it at the wall on Michael's left, purposefully missing his nose by a centimeter. Then, she quickly got up from the table and left, not trusting herself to not do more damage.

"Pen!" Charles called, everyone else growing silent from fear.

"I'm not hungry." She mumbled, heading to her room. Quickly, Michael did the same and went to his own room.

Plum and Charles were left to sit there in silence.
Although, after the events that just occurred, they lost their appetite as well.

"Remind me to keep the knives away from her." Plum whispered.

That night, Aspen avoided Michael as much as possible. She didn't want to risk running into him and getting into another fight. Instead, she chose to focus her energy on training and hopefully getting more sponsors like Charles on her side.

There was a knock on Aspen's door when she had finally got to laying down. She closed her eyes, hoping the knock would go away. Instead, the person outside just knocked again.

Aspen got up and opened up the door, seeing Charles leaning in the doorway. He was wearing sweatpants and a tshirt, and his hair seemed damp, signalizing he must have just showered.

He looked up at Aspen and let out a breath of relief.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright after dinner." Charles said, picking himself off of the doorframe. Aspen shrugged and turned around, leaving the door open for Charles to enter the room.

"Michael's an ass. I just decided Im going to try my best to avoid him the rest of the time Im here." Aspen said.

When she turned around, Charles couldn't help but notice the hoodie Pen was wearing looked familiar. Then, he put two and two together and remembered it was his hoodie, and she had had it from when he'd given it to her on the train before they arrived at the training center.

But instead of bringing it up, he only cleared his throat.

"You actually might have some luck with that. Tomorrow you guys will be brought in one on one to be evaluated." Charles began, gaining Aspen's attention. She walked over and sat on the bed, Charles leaning on the wall with his hands in his pockets.

"I need you to try your best to get as high of a rating as possible. High ratings mean more sponsors. Try to get your hands on a sword." He continued to explain. Aspen nodded.

"I saw you talking to a few sponsors as we were training. What do they think about me so far?" She asked. Charles chuckled.

"I'm really not supposed to tell you this, but they like you. A lot. They liked how you stuck up for yourself against Michael and the other tributes. And they think with a sword you could have an advantage. Plus...I've kind of been putting out a good word." He smiled. Aspen smiled slightly as well, which was something she hasn't done in a while.

"Thank you." She said, simply.

She down at her hands in her lap, and Charles watched her carefully. The room fell silent for a small moment.

"Try not to listen to anything Michael said." Charles shook his head, walking closer to Aspen. She didn't notice and continued to stare at her lap.

"I know." She said.

"He was right when he said you were a pretty face. But you are so much more than that." Charles said in a half whisper.

Aspen looked up and saw him standing over her. They stared at each other's eyes, and she took in the subtle compliment she was given.

Charles' eyes were pretty, but they were nothing compared to Gale's in Aspen's mind. She felt guilty for thinking about Gale in that moment, and it tore her apart. He was all the way in District 12, and her life would be doomed in a stupid Capital arena. After just confessing their love for each other, they could never be together.

Thinking about Gale deeply, a tear fell down Aspen's cheek. Charles furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, wiping the tear away with his thumb and placing his hand quickly back into his pocket.

"Did I say something wrong?" He asked. Pen shook her head and stood up.

"I'm sorry. I'm just...missing people from back home." She tried to explain. Charles nodded. He knew what she meant.

"Gale?" He asked. Pen looked over confused, so he decided to elaborate.

"You said you were friends with Katniss and Gale and didn't get along with your mom. Katniss is here, your moms in District 3, and Gale..."

Aspen nodded and crossed her arms over her chest in attempt to comfort herself. Some more silence fell over them, but Aspen didn't want to wait for Charles to break it.

"I should probably get some sleep for tomorrow." She said, going to open the door for Charles. He looked at the ground and nodded.

"Yeah. You should get some rest." He said.

He walked to the door and stood in the doorway, his back turned to Aspen. He then turned around, opened his mouth, and close it again.

Aspen nodded, and he nodded as well. That was all the two had left to say.

And then the door finally shut.