The Hunger Games: Foxface

Chapter Nine

The first day of training ends, and me and Sean head back upstairs. I want to start chatting about basically nothing, but he’s obviously thinking about something far more important.

As we arrive on our floor, Jane is sitting in front of the fireplace. “Tomorrow is your ranking test.” We nod. The Gamemakers were there today in their fancy purple robes to observe us. Jane continues, “Try to impress them. Don’t tell anyone what you do. Not even each other. Soon, you guys probably won’t be friends. Sorry, but it’s the truth.”

We nod again (I suddenly feel like Jane on the train with all this nodding) and go back to our rooms without acknowledging each other. We part ways and silently close our doors. I drop onto my bed and pull the letter out from under my pillow, making sure no one has opened it. I even open it myself, take another envelope, put it in, and reseal it. I fall into a dead sleep.

I wake up at exactly 5:15 AM, with no alarm. I try to fall back asleep, but fail. I slowly get up and go to the shower, repeating the same process from yesterday. We’ve only been here for three days? Are you kidding me? I grab the jumpsuit off the counter and pull it on. As I exit my room, Sean is going into his. When he catches my eye, his expression just says, good luck. I nod in response and he goes back into his room. He’s avoiding me, that’s obvious. Now, it’s getting awkward. We know that one, but most likely both of us, will die, and that one might kill the other. We are separating. It’s for the best, but now I feel even more lonely, maybe even a hint of abandonment. It feels like one of us is already dead. I make my way to the breakfast table, grabbing an apple on the way out. I decide to stop in the library to get some intel on the animals that might be there. I spend about an hour in there, learning about homicidal monkeys, birds that peck your head while you sleep, and many other unnatural things. I go back down to see if Sean talk with me. I hear the shower on, so decide to leave and go wait for my testing. As I’m about to leave, I hear my name in an extremely high voice. Celeste has come down in the highest stilettos I have ever seen, with electric blue hair – which I swear was brown yesterday. Her dress looks like a hula-hoop, and is unbelievably ugly. How does she even move around? I just shake my head while saying hello and leave. I don’t want to be late, nor am I in the mood to talk to Celeste Lani.

As I enter the waiting room, I am surrounded by suspicious eyes glaring at me. I don’t know why. They saw my skills with plants, but that should’t make me a threat. I silently take my seat and look at the floor. My thoughts go to Phoebe.

Did she go through this same process? Was her head swimming with possibilities of how she might die? Or how the other tributes might attack? What about the Arena? Will it be hot? Cold? Desert? Jungle? Combination?

And how about fighting skills? Phoebe wasn’t a physical fighter. More mental. She’d built traps and tricked them into fighting each other. She never killed anyone. Asthma killed her without a touch of sympathy.

“Autumn Sillens” My head bolts up. While my head was swimming with questions, Districts 1-4 have already gone. I didn’t even notice that Sean came down, and we glance at each other across the room, with him closer to the door. We lock eyes, each pair saying, Good luck, to the other. While I walk past him, he whispers, “Down with the Capitol.” My lips start to curl in a smile, but a quickly straighten them when the door opens. 

I walk into the room. It feels like a lab – completely white, with the Gamemakers up in a balcony, watching me. I expected them to be inattentive, but they are all (except two) sitting in their chairs, eyes trained on me. I assume the later Districts won’t have as much attention as I do. I walk with purpose to the big screen. Two thoughts are going through my mind: go with what the library told me, or go with what I know. I open the screen. And now I sort.

I quickly make double of the plants and throw half off the screen. The pile left, I labeled “Original” then made Poisonous, Edible, Healing, and organized them, all within thirty seconds. I throw the pile off the screen, and grab the unnamed one. This, I named “Capitol’s Genetic Changes”. This time I split it into four segments: the three from the last pile, and one for the one’s I didn’t read about. Since I had to make two separate groups, it took me 1:05.001 to finish everything. I hit finish, and look at both piles. Almost everything is flipped in the Capitol pile than in the original. I’m going to have to be extremely careful with what plants I choose. I glance at the Gamemakers. They are crowded around the identical screen up in their balcony, whispering intently with one another. I keep my arms at my side so I look attentive and strong. The Head Gamemakers, Seneca Crane, breaks from the crowd and exits. I hear a door open to my left. He motions me inside. Oh, God. They know. I’ll be taken away before I even can help Katniss Everdeen. I walk in, and take a seat in a chair on the other side of the room. The Head Gamemaker slowly turns around, but then walks swiftly towards me with his purple gown surrounding him with the same amount of anger that’s on his face.

“Stand up.” I do. “How do you know that information? That is classified.” He’s angry. But there is also a small amount of wonder and admiration in his eyes.

“Um, I study botany as a hobby,” I begin. “And I’ve noticed how the Tributes eat plants that should be edible turns out as poison. And vise versa. I noticed birds that should be dead from berries they eat actually survive.”

“Don’t lie to me.” He snarls. He says one name, and my eyes narrow at the name.

“Cinna.”