Insanity ━ Peeta Mellark

━ six: peeta mellark

Wow.

For a second, Cora wonders if he's mocking her, or even cruelly teasing her. But his tone is so genuine and full of sincerity that she can't help but stare at him, aghast. How did someone so kind, so considerate, so pure manage to survive the brutality of the Hunger Games? A part of Cora thinks it's an act and that the District 12 couple have agreed to maintain their TV personalities to earn them sponsors.

Either way, Cora finds his kindness rather suspicious and she narrows her eyes at him.

"No it isn't," she replies, evenly. Cora doesn't want to offend him, but she also doesn't want to give off the impression that she's an easily-trusting fool. The Hunger Games didn't just include ruthlessly slaughtering each other, but also the more subtle art of trickery, of luring your prey in before you stabbed them in the back, digging the knife into someone you called a friend. Cora has seen it all too clearly in the Careers and she doesn't fancy suffering a similar fate.

The fanfare blows, signalling for the Victors to head into their chariots.

Cora decides to extend her hand before she leaves. "Well, it was nice meeting you," she says. His hand is cold and clammy, sweating from nerves despite his charming and collected manner. Underneath the cool-toned voice and brave face, Peeta is just as anxious as she is. "I hope to see you again sometime," she adds.

"Sure," he replies. "Maybe at Training or something."

As Cora turns back around to return to Blight, she can hear him telling Katniss, "Hey, I think I've found us our first ally for the Games."

Cora smiles at his words, but her distrust surrounding Peeta still remain. Was his sweet guy act a ploy to gain her trust or was he really just being genuine? Is he the one that Cora should be worried about in the Arena rather than Katniss? Peeta does seem like he'd be the brains of the mission, concealing his fox-like cunning with kind words and caramel-brown eyes.

Cora decides to brush off her feelings and thoughts surrounding the District 12 pair for now. She'd worry about allies later. What she needed to do was focus on the matter at hand, and that was getting through the rest of the day.

Should be a piece of cake, she thinks, grimacing as she greets Blight wearily. He sends her a weak smile, taking her hand as they both clamber into their chariot.

The horses begin to kick their hooves, forming a line in District order as the wide doors separating them and the rest of the Capitol are flung open.

It's showtime, Cora thinks, plastering on the most dazzling smile she can muster.

❆

After the Parade had finished, Cora had been desperate to return to her assigned quarters back at the Training Centre. She longed for nothing more than to scrub her face clean and get out of her dress, as pretty as it was. She had spent majority of the Ceremony fidgeting like a child in her chariot, the coarse material of her dress eventually itching her and becoming more and more unbearable to tolerate. Even the flower crown on her head started to bug her, and the first chance Cora got she had whipped it off and given it to Amethyst so that it could be returned back to Jax.

All in all, it's been a long day and Cora had been hoping that she'd get to spend the remainder of her evening in bed before the gruelling training sessions began tomorrow. But just as Cora is trying to wipe off the last remnants of glitter on her eyelids, Amethyst pops her lilac-haired head into her bedroom.