Holly Forrester, District 7
Chopping things to a trillion pieces was fun- not for the object getting chopped into a trillion pieces, I assume- but sure as hell for me. I grinned as I watched about the 3rd dummy I had dismantled this morning crumple to the ground in pieces. I backed away grinning twirling my twin axes on my fingers like batons.
The guy trainor, Daryle, walked over to me scowling deeply. I suppose having to drag a 100 pound dummy from the supply closet every 5 minutes took a toll on your attitude, especially since it seems that the careers were unofficially competing with me to see who could mutilate the most dummies the fastest. The pair from 2 were on their 7th or 8th dummy which was more than terrifying, but I was beating the dumb bitch from 1 and the stick-boy from 4. The girl looked mildly winded but the guy looked on the verge of death. My grin widened, I chopped wood for a living, I could go like this all day.
I stepped over the pieces of the broken dummy and moved toward my next one, I raised my ax preparing to end the dummy when I suddenly became aware of someone behind me. My shoulders tensed in irritation, I already knew who it was. “Axel.” I shuddered.
“Oh ah hey. Fancy seeing you here.” He said shakily as if he was nervous about me implanting my ax into his scalp- which at this point was a valid concern.
I turned around dropping my axes and crossing my arms over my chest. “What do you want?” I demanded unable to keep the death glare from my eyes. Can I just take a moment to say it really sucks to be a bitch by nature? Like you have to intensely filter everything you say and even then you have no friends because bitchy stuff just slips from your lips accidentally anyway! Not that you need friends because most human beings irritate you as it is.
“Your really good.” He commented gesturing to the dummy.
I almost slapped him, “You would already know that if you’d let me join the damn ax throwing club back in District 7!” I yelled shoving him backward feeling the furry reignite itself in my chest. The sexist bastard.
He looked at me hesitantly, clearly not having the brains to run. “You're still sore about that?”
“Still sore? Seriously? It’s injustice and completely sexist not to allow girls to join the club! Girls get reaped into the games too, we need to have a place to practice our skills and simultaneously have fun!” I hissed, straightening my back. “Besides. The rules can’t be that strict. They let you join.” I sneered, mentally congratulating myself on the burn.
Axel looked like a deer in headlights, “You know what I think I heard someone calling me. I’ll see you later.” He whimpered like a scared puppy dog backing away slowly, then turning and sprinting towards the other side of the room. I looked away ignoring the sidelong glances that our conversation had gathered and taking a deep breath to calm down.
I looked at the dummy I had been preparing to dismantle and suddenly chopping up dummies just seemed very pointless. I remembered what the female trainor had said yesterday about being able to challenge people to a duel…. my eyes fell on the ring that sat in the middle of the room. Nobody had tried it yet.... Probably because they were afraid getting on the wrong person’s kill list. Personally I had no problem with burning bridges, my mouth was a freaking demolition team on its own, explosions followed me wherever I went. Besides I wanted to punch something that would try to punch back.
I turned my attention to the blond career, George I think. “Yo bimbo! Lets dance.” I yelled picking up my axes and gesturing to the arena. Her head snapped over to look at me, I swear I could see the fires of hell burning in her eyes. I had to do a double take.
“What did you just call me?” Her voice ringing out in raw furry. Okay maybe she was a tad smarter than I originally assumed. “You call me princess!” Yeah…. she probably wasn’t.
I pointed my ax at her, “I, Holly Forrester the 1st, challenge you, dumb bimbo, to a duel!” I said playfully in a fake capitol accent, lifting my chin upwards arrogantly.
The female victor clapped her hands walking over to us. “Wonderful! Our first battle, I was worried no one would take the bait. Daryle and I are going to take your choice weapons and put some safety foam over the blades.” She gently took my twin axes from my hands. I sigh, I should have expected this. Safety made everything so boring though….
I trudged over to the area sticking my hands in my pocket casually as George came to walk beside me tucking a blonde curl behind her ear. She smiled blissfully for a second before grabbing my collar and jerking me roughly toward her. “I am going to friggin beat the crap out of you! How dare you think you even stand a chance against me?!” She hissed venomously- then she let go and skipped blissfully away as if she hadn’t just threatened my life.
I shrugged, this made it more interesting. I reached the small ringed in arena throwing my leg over the side pulling myself in. Daryle walked over, pushing through the rapidly forming crowd of tributes and handing me my axes. I ignored him as he moved over to hand George her sword.
“Tributes, I, Cornelia Vestro, will serve as referee. This battle is between Holly Forrester of District 7 verses Georgette Channel of District 1.” The female victor said authoritatively leaning on one of the ropes.
“Oh. I thought her name was George.” I commented without putting much thought into it. “I guess I thought it was a peculiar name for a girl.” Georgette’s eye twitched and I found myself guessing that I wasn’t the first person to make this mistake, though it was safe to assume that I was the only one alive.
“Silence, Holly.” Cornelia snapped, “I want both tributes on opposite sides of the rings, I will do a countdown. The first tribute to hit the ground loses. Get ready.”
I lifted my axes and stared at the beautiful girl across from me. She raised her sword menacingly. I grinned, by the time I was done with her she’d be a troll. In theory anyway. In all honesty I didn’t expect to win, but I was crossing my fingers to mess her up.
“Three…. two… one!” Cornelia cried, her crisp voice echoing in the otherwise silent training room. I charged Georgette swinging my ax at her stomach. She raised her blade with agile ease and our blades clanged loudly. I brought my other ax around, speeding toward her face. She ducked and sent a kick toward my knees.
I stumbled backward barely maintaining my balance. Georgette leapt to her feet and thrust her sword at my scalp, I leaned to the side and I felt air rush past my face as the blade barely missed my head. “Bitch.” I grunted putting my foot behind me and regaining my balance. I shot to my feet swinging at the blonde with a newfound strength. She tried to block but I had one major advantage over her. She only had one blade while I had two.
My left blade barreled into her side with so much force she nearly fell. She let out a low growl and flipped backward to keep from falling. I charged her again swinging my axes with the same energy as before, realizing that Georgette and I were actually pretty evenly matched. I swung my blade at her head but she ducked a second time jabbing her sword into my stomach.
I felt all the air forced from my lungs as I doubled over gasping for air, nearly dropping my weapons. Georgette swung her sword at my knees to get me on the ground and claim championship. I jumped, my scalp cracking against her jaw. She stumbled backward with a yelp, clutching her jaw.
I forced myself forward. She called herself a career? She couldn’t even take a little pain? Ha, if they were all like this then a kid from the outer district certainly had it in the bag this year. Panting I drew my axes backward preparing to make the final blow- I barely was aware of what was happening, one second Georgette was pursing her lips the next a huge wad of spit hit my eyes. I pinched them shut trying to wipe it away. That was all it took for Georgette to knee me in the stomach and send me toppling toward the ground. My head cracked against the floor sending rivvets of pain through my head. “You bitch! You cheated!” I cried out rubbing my eyes.
Cornelia jumped the barrier and helped me to my feet. “What happened? It looked fair to me?” She said with concern glancing over at Georgette who was doing perhaps the dumbest looking victory dance I’ve ever seen…. it could only be compared to the mating dance of a labradoodle.
Georgettes eyes widened, “Huh? I didn’t cheat. I’m just better than her.” She said innocently. I suddenly wanted to rip her limb from limb.
“That whore spit in my eyes!” I yelled, accidently getting some spit on Cornelia's face. Wonderful. I loved it when that happened.
Cornelia looked from Georgette to me, me to Georgette. Finally she spoke, “Don’t be a sore loser, 7.” She turned around and strode away, her blond ponytail bobbing behind her.
Georgette sent me a knowing smirk before slipping through the strings of the arena and walking over toward her career pack who welcomed her with open arms, patting her on the back warmly. I frowned. They were morons, there was definitely more to Georgette that met the eye.
I hopped awkwardly around the barrier of the arena trying to ignore the shooting pains in my scalp. I rubbed my head slowly, wiping the sweat from my brow. I had been so wrapped up in the fight I hadn’t noticed how much it had taken out of me. Suddenly someone thrust a towel at me. I looked up slowly to find myself staring at a girl with thick black hair that fell to her waist. It cloaked one of her eyes like a blanket but the other one, a striking violet color, gazed at me piercingly. “I saw what Georgette Channel did.” She said evenly before turning away without another word. I squinted at the large 8 etched on the back of her suit.
Who the hell was that bitch?
~~~~~O~~~~~0~~~~~O~~~~~
Celesta DeLuna, District 5
Braven was acting oddly.
I was really worried about him, I noticed that he was very… distracted. I thought he might have a fever the way his cheeks would flush such a cherry red you could see it through his deep tan. I mean I was just so thankful that he was hanging around me, he didn’t have too. I thought maybe I could repay him by showing him some healing techniques that my momma had showed me a few months ago. I’ll admit that I didn’t know very many, but maybe I could help.
Braven had an nauseous expression splayed across his face as we walked away from the ring that the girls from 1 and 7 had dueled it out in. I grabbed his wrist, he smiled weakly glancing down at me. “What is it?” He asked softly.
I smiled back at him raising my eyebrows, “Look, I think we should go over to the plant section. I can show you some remedies my momma taught me.” I said trying not to let the worry I felt for him leak into my voice like a trickle of water.
He frowned at me, clearly confused. “We spent all day in the plant and survival section yesterday, I think we should work on mastering weapons. If we can’t defend ourselves we won’t last a second. We need a balance of skills.” He said glancing over his shoulder at the huge weapons section of the training facility.
The blades made me sick. They reminded me that in a few days I’d be in an arena and everyone around me… including myself would die. I looked around my eyes flitting from person to person imagining their dead mutilated corpses scattering the ground. I shivered and resisted the urge to cry. Weren’t we better than killing each other? Couldn’t just refuse to kill each other? Then the capital wouldn’t have a game and we could all go free? Right? “I’m not going over there.” I stated flatly. “Besides you look sick. I can fix it. I think.”
Braven smiled and let out a low chuckle. He bent forward so that we were eye to eye. “I’m not sick, I’m just worried…. seeing those girls fight just reminded me how real this all is. It’s okay though, we just need to be smart. Brawn will only get you so far.”
I frowned, “Braven you were acting feverish even before the fight between… umm….” I didn’t want to refer to them as ‘the girls from 7 and 1’, it dehumanized them. “Holly… and George. Your cheeks kept turning red. Its okay if you are sick. Like I said before, I can help. my momma showed me.” Why wouldn’t he just say he was sick? I was so confused.
Braven looked a tad strangled as his eyebrows shot upwards, “You noticed that?” He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortable and stood up squinting one eye as if this conversation pained him. “That wasn’t a fever… uh… that was something else.” He said shortly. “Look, I’m going to go see if I can pick up any weapons easily, like it or not we will need a weapon with us if we have even a shadow of a chance at winning. You can go over and play with the plants if you want. You’re okay on your own, right?”
I crossed my hands over my chest, “I’m not 11 anymore. Of course I’m okay on my own.” I said letting out a sigh. “That means you can also tell me what's wrong. Are you going through some hormonal thing that makes your cheeks turn red?”
Braven shook his head and then looked away brushing his brown curls off of his forehead. “I’ll see you later.” He said walking away toward the weapons. I was tempted to follow him, but it was apparent I was getting nowhere. It hurt me that he didn’t trust me enough to tell me. I had thought we were friends….
I looked away sadly towards the rest of the room. It suddenly looked a lot bigger than I remembered…. I felt small, tiny, minuscule. I glanced over my shoulder toward Braven who was picking up a shiny silver sword that glinted in the artificial lights of the room. I was so tempted to go over to him but I shook my head. I’d speak with him later, following him would only upset him further.
I cautiously took a step forward unsure of where to go, I didn’t want to be alone. I slowly moved toward an girl who looked only a little older than me with silky blonde hair. She was hunched over the knot typing station struggling with some rope. I paused trying to get the courage to approach her.
I knelt beside her and smiled trying to conceal my nervousness. “Umm, hi. I’m Celeste…. Your… Robin from District 12, right? I asked gesturing to the 10 that was stitched onto her training suit.”
She looked up at me and raised an eyebrow, her eyes traveling over my body sharply reminding me of how the mean girls at school would look at me. She was sizing me up like a panther who was about to go in for the kill. “Oh… its you.” She said simply turning her gaze back toward her ropes as if I was little more than a speck of dirt.
“I- I’m sorry…. Me? I don’t think we’ve met.” I stuttered hoping she had me confused with someone else.
Robin stifled a laugh, “Oh. We haven’t.” She turned her gaze back toward me, her green eyes were colder than ice. “I’ve been watching you all morning cling to that blushing buffoon- what is he your daddy?” She hissed, as if she was actually enjoying this….
I know I should have been upset with what she had said but instead one of the words she had used caught my ears. “Blushing?” I asked suddenly realizing that Braven hadn’t been sick at all.
Robin rolled her eyes as if she had never spoken to anyone who was as stupid as me. I felt a little pang of sadness in my heart. “Yeah. Blushing. Everyone can see he’s totally checking out the weird girl from 3. -Oh wait you didn’t notice? What were you raised in a cave?”
I looked down, “I know you're just being mean because you're scared. Nobody acts that way for no reason.” I whispered more to myself than her. I wasn’t even sure if she heard me as I rose to my feet crossing my arms and walking away.
The girl’s words stung in my chest. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to shrink into a tiny ball and disappear. I was really stupid for thinking Braven was sick…. And some of the kids in my District had teased me because apparently I was sheltered and a goody-two-shoes. I walked over to the benches on the side of the room and huddled in the shadows, pulling my legs to my chest.
“Are you okay?” A crisp feminine voice asked me from above.
I looked up to meet eyes with a small girl who had a thick mop of curly black hair on her head and an olive complexion. It was the girl from 3… She was very pretty. I didn’t blame Braven for thinking she was attractive.
I nodded slightly as the girl sat next to me. “Well thats good because I do believe I’m absolutely jaded- I’m Runa by the way.”
She instantly reminded me of a princess from some of the fairy tales my mother used to tell me. Runa seemed naive, rash, and utterly melodramatic…. but then again who was I to judge? I liked her either way though, she hadn’t lost her humanity like Robin had. “I’m Celeste.” I said after a quick hesitation.
“I thought I- wait. You don’t mind hearing me ramble, do you?” She asked looking towards me questioningly. I’ll admit I found it a bit odd that she was seemingly about to tell me something personal because I didn’t even know her. If she wanted someone to talk to though of course I would listen, I nodded my head slightly. She smiled “Thank you. I just need to talk to someone. You see I feel madly in love with the District 10 boy, I asked him to fall in love with me and he turned me down…. I just wanted to fall in love just once before I die.”
I expected her to go on just she stopped and looked longingly over towards Stag who was over by Braven. I bit my lip and then opened my mouth to speak, “You know…. if you really want to fall in love maybe you should just try acting normal about them instead of flat out asking them to fall in love with you…. Why don’t you go talk to my district partner?” My words were hesitant, I wasn’t used to giving advice especially to people older than me.
Runa shook her head, “No. I’m through with boys.” She frowned and leaned backward, resting her neck on the curve of the seat.
I gazed at her for a second wondering why she was willing to give up so easily, especially when Braven liked her! I looked down at the ground thinking back to the days at school when I’d sit alone listening to the other girls chatter about setting each other up with guys. It had all seemed shallow and pointless at the time but now it tickled the back of my mind like a feather…. “Oh well.” I said softly, still very unsure of myself. “Still, Braven and I could use an ally…. Would you like to join us?”
~~~~~~O~~~~~~0~~~~~~O~~~~~
Okay! Sorry this update took so long guys! I just had a lot going on in my life recently.... Long story. Anyway what did you guys think of Holly? I know a lot of you weren't sure what to think of her at first. (I'm sorry she has such a sailor's mouth)
I gave those of you who are were wanting Runa and Braven to get together a little moment, but obviously we can't have Runa and Braven in every chapter SO I AM GOING TO LET YOU GUYS DECIDE WHICH TWO TRIBUTES YOU WANT FEATURED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!! Let me know who you want to see in the comments below!!! v v v ^_^ The tributes with the most votes will be appearing in the next chapter!