Flesh and blood

Chapter three

We had been in the capitol for about three hours most of it was being cleaned because God forbid a spec of dirty district 12 gets into the pristine capitol. A tall boy maybe 15 years old greeted me he looked nervous; he wore a simple black suit with a rose in the front pocket of it, the rose was delicate and beautiful, it was black near the stem, but the tips of the petals were rainbow it seemed like it was almost seeping into the black.

"You look like you shouldn't be here." I joked, he smiled, he seemed less nervous.

"I shouldn't but I'm your stylist-"

"A rebel" I cut him off smiling. "So, what you're gonna dress me like a coal miner for the tribute parade."

"Well, me and Cinna, a fellow stylist have a show stopping idea for district 12, but it's still in development, theres a chance that we'll have it done in time but it's unlikely, so our backup plan is coal miners but hopefully with a bit of a twist" he explained walking me over to finnick who was waiting for me at an elevator.

"Each district has its own floor, normally you'd be in the penthouse since you're a district 12 tribute, but since your being mentored by district 4, you'll join our tributes on the 4th floor." Finnick said "look, if you want to win then you need an alliance during the early to mid-game, the twins would make some good allies as well as the boy from your district, you're the youngest, use that, play the defenseless little girl act if you have to. You won't have many opportunities to talk with the boy from your district outside of training, so you have to get him to train with you, ask for help, ask him to show you how to use something and then use that as a gateway to an alliance with him. He'll probably feel it's unfair that you have more resources with being mentored by a richer district, he might even be angry at you for it, and he has every right to feel that way, so validate his feelings admit that you feel it's unfair. Tell him that you'll use your new founded recourses to help him, as for the twins, their kids just like you not much older. Their scared of losing each other so promise them that you'll do whatever you can to help them in that arena. Tell them you might not be the best in a fight, but you can find food and shelter and have the best tracking skills, even if it's not entirely true, you need them on your side." I zone out as finnick continues either hes the fastest talker in the world or this is the slowest elevator in the world. "Hey, focus, this is important your dad taught you how to survive the arena, I'm teach you how to survive the capitol. Outside of training theres two things that you need to do, your tribute interview and your individual skill assessment. The tribute interview is the easy bit, you really need to play up the sweet little defenseless girl, and the fact you're a victor's kid, I guarantee you Caesars going to bring up your dad winning the quarter quell, and how impressive it was considering double the tributes" seriously how long is this elevator, were only going to the fourth floor. It's like 3 times longer than it should be I look towards the button panel and notice the dumbass didn't press the button.

"You forgot to press the button dumbass." I said pushing the fourth-floor button.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Like I was saying." Great hes babbling on again about capitol stuff. The capitols the easy bit I know how to get people to like me, I have plenty of friends back home, the hard bit is the arena, everyone's already stronger than me not to even mention the careers. I'd survive 2 days if I'm lucky maybe 3 or 4.

I wasn't paying any attention to finnick at this point when the elevator finally reached the fourth floor. We stepped into the suite the twins and the other two mentors are sitting in the living room, they must have finished the cleaning stage before me, or their mentor knew how an elevator works. My guess was the former. Afterall District 4 was always much better in the capitols eyes, much cleaner, much closer, much richer. I seemed the closer the district was to the capitol the better it was treated, which made sense as to why district 12 was the poorest, it was the furthest from the capitol, I was on the wealthier side of 12.

All the victors had more then enough riches to last a lifetime, My dad said he didnt know what to do with all his money when he first won so he gave a big chunck of it away and wasted a bunch on alcohol when he learned the numbing effects it had on his mind. It was really bad for a while, according to him it got lethal at some point but he never really quit until he adopted me, he said that my eyes reminded him of his mothers gaze, a softness he said he had long forgotten. My father never talked much about his family, from what I know he had a brother and mother, according to Mrs. Everdeen, Prims mother they were killed by peacekeepers after the quarter quell. She said that he was never the same, and that he blamed himself for their deaths because of how he exploited the forcefield.

I don't blame him, I dont care if its not my place to assign blame or forgive, it wasnt his fault. He was a child trying to survive the arena. I saw his game once in school, I know how it ended. It was weird, not only seeing my dad 20 years younger but also hearing the kids whisper about it. After class I had overheard a teacher say to another, quote "they look nothing alike makes you wonder who her mother is or what orphange she came out of" comments like that bothered me, but not because of me being adopted. Ive known that since I was old enough to understand how it worked. I was also okd enough to understand that me not being my dads biological daughter doesn't mean he loves me any less, or we're any less family then say Paxton and his dad. What bothered me was that those comments always came with the undertone of "shes not his real kid I bet he doesn't actually love her like one" which is so wrong, and stupid, and nothing will change that. Not the stupid anxiety ridden thought that if I was his daughter by blood then he wouldn't have left the peacekeepers take me to district 4. Because at the end of the day thats all it is. A stupid anxiety ridden thought. Nothing more. Just my mind assuming the worse, thats all. But that almost parasitic thought worms its way into my mind everytime. I feel it might be gone its back but twice as bad, the thought itself isnt the worse part. The worse part is I'll never know why he let the peacekeepers take me, and I'll never know if it would play out any different if we shared dna.