Firecracker: The 99th Games Book One

Arena, Night 2

It had been a fairly unsuccessful day of hunting.

Despite Piero's best efforts, locating and killing prey for the alliance to eat proved to be tricky. Fuyuko had figured as much, but she was still disappointed by the lack of monkey meat. For a jungle, this place was far too empty. It was as if the Gamemakers wanted the tributes to be the wild animals.

Fuyuko was starting to lose hope in their supply of meat when a beeping sound caught her attention. She looked up from arranging her mines in front of her, eyes catching on a silver parachute drifting down from the sky.

"Your Mentor really does like you," Piero observed. "That's definitely not for us."

"It might be for me," Marco said meekly.

"It might be for Marco," Piero relented, pushing himself to his feet. He stood in the path of the parachute's descent, grabbing it out of the air when it got close enough. Curious, he opened the attached package, checking the note. "...For Fuyuko. I had a feeling..."

"Wait, already?" Fuyuko blurted, standing up from her mines and going to collect the package from Piero. She checked the inside. "Oh! Fishhooks! He was listenin'! Fresh meat, here we come!"

"Are there even any fish in this river?" Marco asked, curiously watching the water. "I haven't even heard anything splash since we got here..."

"I guess we'll find out?" Piero shrugged. "What do we use for bait...? It's not like we have nightcrawlers in hefty supply."

"You two'll think of somethin'," Fuyuko decided, returning to her collection of technology. She pulled her note out of the package, realizing it was a folded piece of notebook paper. Flattening out the sheet, she read it over.

Fuyuko,

Got this to you fast because sponsors are going NUTS over your weird chemistry with the big guy. You should ask him to teach you how to fish. I think you two are a winning combination here in the Capitol.

I'll see if I can get you some tools next. Gotta play our cards right. Keep up the good work.

Asahi

Fuyuko blushed, mumbling to herself as she tucked the note haphazardly into her backpack. Trying to ignore the fact that she and Piero apparently had chemistry, she pulled out the fishhooks and tossed them in Marco's direction. "H-here. Y-you hold on to those."

Marco reached out to pull them closer, staring at Fuyuko for a moment. He smiled. "What did the note say?"

"N-nothin' important," Fuyuko muttered. "Just...s-said he'd get me some tools at some point. A-and stuff."

Great response, Fuyuko. You're a real charmer.

She snuck a glance at Piero, who settled down nearby Marco and began divvying up their dried food again. He looked up when he noticed Fuyuko watching him, meeting her eyes for a moment. Embarrassed, Fuyuko diverted her attention back to her mines.

What's he even talkin' about?! All we've done so far is fight and...and have one decent exchange! And then...

Suddenly nervous, Fuyuko scanned the note again, searching for a sign of what Asahi meant by "weird chemistry." Had the Capitol been privvy to their private conversation in the middle of the night? Did they know that her plan was to hack the arena?

There was no way, right? She never would have survived the previous day if the Gamemakers knew she was a threat. Their alliance would have been obliterated by a random natural disaster or a herd of mutts. Surely the cameras were turned off at night, or they weren't focused on this team, or...or something. Fuyuko decided to count her blessings and be more careful in the future.