Valentina Curtis POV
The train pulled into the District 10 station and I sighed, resting my chin on my hand. I had to decide who I wanted as an ally soon; otherwise I'd be in deep shit. The train stopped and I heard commotion as the District 10 tributes got aboard. Immediately the door between the 9 and 10 carriages flung open and both Phillip and Rosalie walked through. Phillip looked confused and was wandering around like a blind bat, frowning and glancing around. He saw me and walked towards me.
"Have you seen the guy that is from my District, he's the... umm...."
"Mentor?" I asked dryly. Phillip looked confused and nodded his head slowly. I sighed.
"Nope, sorry dude."
Phillip shrugged and walked away, and then all of a sudden Rosalie was standing in front of me. I blinked in surprise.
"Can I help you?" I asked. Rosalie rolled her eyes.
"I want an alliance," she said outright, leaning on the table. I raised my eyebrows.
"Hmm, depends," I answered, "What can you do?"
"You've clearly never seen me with a blowgun, have you?" Rosalie replied narcissistically. I shrugged.
"Well, I have been residing in a completely different District to you for all 15 years of my life so, yeah, I haven't. For obvious reasons." I replied crisply. Rosalie opened her mouth to say something, but bit her tongue. She looked pretty pissed at me.
"Fine, I'll ally with you. We should recruit one or two more people though," I said. Rosalie nodded and sat down opposite to me, twiddling her thumbs.
"How about Jay Mann from 11?" she asked, "Or Santana Higgins from 12?"
"Maybe," I pondered. I stood up from my seat as the train stopped again at the District 11 station, and walked into the District 11 carriage, snapping my fingers at Rosalie to follow me. I heard Rosalie grumbling in annoyance but ignored her, slipping into the District 11 carriage. Misty, Renee and Max were sat at a table in the corner, and Christopher was talking with Doug from my District. Caitlin was slumped in the corner, her eyes shut as she snored softly, and Jay was sat on a couch, his hands behind his head and a smirk painted across his face.
"Hey," I said, approaching him. Jay opened an eye and looked Rosalie and I up and down, then opened both his eyes and leaned forward slightly.
"What?" he asked rather coldly. I flicked my hair over my shoulder.
"We need allies, and so do you." I answered immediately. Jay snorted.
"And why should I ally with you?"
"We are some of the strongest competitors in this minigame, I'm not going to bother sugarcoating it," I retorted, "If you had any brains you would ally with us. You do have a brain in there somewhere, right?"
Jay opened his mouth to speak, but I interrupted him again.
"At this point you are one of our biggest competitors and a large threat, and if we can't recruit you, then we're going to do everything we can to hunt you down and knock you off. It'd be wise of you to join us."
Jay cocked an eyebrow at me, "Well you've got that tied up in a neat little bow, haven't you?" He sighed and sat forward. "Fine, it's a deal. I'll join up with you."
Christopher Chambers POV
The train screeched to a halt as it arrived at the District 12 station. I heard the shuffling of footsteps as people boarded the train, and then we began to move forward again. I turned to Doug.
"Wanna ask some people from 12 for an alliance?" I asked. Doug nodded and we stood up, walking quickly into the next carriage. Beth was muttering to herself in the corner, whilst Santana was speaking coolly to Valentina Curtis, Rosalie Wood and Jay Mann. Santana shot them a snarky smile as the three of them departed led by Valentina, with Rosalie glaring daggers at Santana. The girl smirked and leaned back on the couch she was on. Jeffrey and Eric were sitting next to each other, talking awkwardly. It was obvious neither of them were comfortable with the other. Camille and Rudy sat in the corner, staring out the window and talking conversationally.
"I think Camille and Rudy over there are our best bets," Doug said. I nodded and we walked over to the two of them. Rudy looked up as we approached, and it was only then I realized just how similar they looked. Both of them had blonde hair, but Rudy's was more of a sandy blond and Camille's hair was almost white. Camille had her hair chopped messily to her collarbones and Rudy's was short and ruffled. Both of them had brown eyes, although Rudy's were a light brown and Camille's was a darker brown, and both had fair skin. Merchants in District 12 were generally fair skinned and fair haired, both of them probably had blood relations in the merchant area. The two could probably pass as siblings.
"Hey," Camille said casually, shooting us a small smile.
"Do you two want an alliance?" Doug asked. Rudy cocked his head to the side and glanced at Camille. She shrugged.
"Yea, sure thing," she agreed. I smiled and slipped into the seat opposite the two, Doug following suit.
"So how did you guys get landed in the games, anyway?" I asked. Rudy sighed and looked down.
"Basically, we're both orphans. I never knew my parents, but Rudy did..." Camille trailed off hesitantly, and I immediately knew that she knew what happened to Rudy's parents, but I didn't push her on it.
"Our only family was Rudy's sister Millie, and we were treated like shit in the orphanage. So, we left," Camille said, running a hand through her hair, "We ran about a year ago, Rudy's sister was 8, I was 15 and Rudy was 16. We bought weapons from some dude in the seam who gets kicks out of making them and we went into the forest, never came back. We found a bunker about 4 hours away from the border and we stayed there. We found out that 12 pronounced us dead and called off the search pretty quickly. We stayed near the District and stole shit from the people living near the border so we could survive, and once we had gathered enough we planned to run off into the forest and completely leave Panem. That didn't happen. We got caught. And now we're here."
Rudy still remained rather silent. He stared at his hands on the table, his face set in stone.
"You okay?" Doug asked carefully. Rudy's eyes slid up to his and his eyes narrowed.
"No," he said rather boldly, "My little sister was just murdered, I'm far from okay."
"Oh," Doug stammered, staring down at his hands. Rudy shook his head.
"Sorry man, it's just a touchy subject," he murmured. An awkward silence descended upon us.
"So, erm, either of you good with weapons?" Camille asked. I shook my head.
"I farm for a living so I'm not great with weapons. I'm pretty resistant to pain though."
Camille nodded, then turned to Doug. He shook his head.
"What about you two?" I asked Camille and Rudy.
"I can fight with a fighting staff and knives, I'm better with the fighting staff though," Camille said, "Rudy's an archer."
I nodded. Although Doug and I were older than the two in front of us, I had a feeling that they would be the ones saving our asses in the arena.
Tatiana Whiteman POV
"So alliance?"
I nodded and Amaya smiled, showing off her pearly white teeth. She skipped over to a table in the corner of our carriage and sat down, gesturing at me to do the same. I sat down opposite her and she smiled.
"We need more allies," Amaya said. I nodded. Amaya glanced around the District 9 carriage, then her eyes lit up as they fell on Phillip Gilbert from 10. She looked over at me.
"How about him?" she asked.
"Sure," I answered politely, smiling slightly, "He'd probably be helpful,"
Amaya nodded then looked over at Phillip. "HEY!" she shouted, raising her hand. Phillip looked over, confusion written over his face. Poor guy.
"You wanna ally with Tatiana and I?" Amaya asked. Phillip hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and walked over to us.
"Sure thing," he answered, "Not like anyone else wants to ally with me." He slipped into the seat next to Amaya, then looked over at me with a smile on his face.
"I'll be right back," Amaya said, rising from her seat and carefully stepping over Phillip, "Gotta go do something."
Phillip and I nodded, and then Amaya smiled and waltzed away, leaving me alone with Phillip. I sighed and leaned back on the seat, looking out the window mournfully. How had this happened? I wasn't meant to be here. I was meant to be back home in District 9, with my mum and my little brother and with the kids at the daycare centre. This was all wrong. This was all so wrong.
I glanced over at Phillip, who now had his feet propped up on the table and was busy pouring himself a glass of wine. He caught my gaze and raised an eyebrow.
"What? Do you not approve of drinking?" he asked dryly.
"No," I said bluntly, "When your uncle gets alcohol poisoning it kind of puts you off the idea."
Phillip seemed surprised, but he shrugged it off and put the bottle of wine back onto the rack beside the booth, taking a sip from his glass. He made a face, but continued to drink.
"Alcohol's a slow poison, you know," I said, watching as he downed the last drop of wine. His eyes slid over to mine and a sarcastic smirk spread across his face.
"I'm in no hurry," he drawled. I crinkled my nose at him.
"Okay, sorry to interrupt whatever the eff this is, but we have to talk about our alliance," Amaya said loudly, waltzing over to the two of us. She plopped down next to Phillip and rested her elbows on the table.
"What do we need to talk about?" I asked. Amaya shrugged.
"I think we need more people, it's easier to stay alive if there are more of us to look out for each other. And one more ally means one less enemy."
"You don't know that, actually," Phillip butted in, pulling his feet off the table and downing the rest of the wine. He placed the glass back on the table and turned to Amaya, "If we recruit some sneaky bastard like Valentina you can be certain they'll decapitate you before you have time to say 'whoops!'. We have to make sure we're allying with good people."
Amaya stared at Phillip for a moment, blinking several times and leaning ever so slightly away from him. Then, a grin spread across her face.
"You are absolutely right, Einstein," she grinned. "So who should we recruit?"
"Will? He seems like an alright guy," Phillip said. I nodded.
"Anyone else?" I asked softly. Amaya and Phillip shrugged.
"Maybe Daphne, the little girl from your district," Amaya said, inclining her head towards Phillip.
"Both her and Will are from 10."
"Yeah, cool. Go get them." Phillip said. Amaya smiled and jumped out of her seat, twirling towards the door. Phillip smiled and looked over at me.
"So what's our plan for this 'arena'?" Phillip asked me. I looked up at him, focusing on his eyes. They were a dark green, like the leaves of a forest. I found myself lost in them. They reminded me of evergreens.
"You know, I didn't ask for you to stare dramatically into my eyes," Phillip said with a smirk. I snapped out of it and shook my head.
"Sorry, um, er, your eyes are green and I kinda got distracted."
"Distracted by my devilish good looks, eh?" Phillip winked. I felt my face heat up.
"No!" I snapped, "It's just they... I mean.... Evergreens...."
Phillip smirked, and I ducked my head in embarrassment. Thankfully Amaya returned with Will and Daphne, interrupting the awkward encounter. Will looked calm, and sat down next to Phillip without a word. Daphne looked nervous and waved at us awkwardly, plopping down in the seat next to me. Her crazy, brown hair was in a mess around her face, and she tied it up into a small, unruly ponytail. Amaya walked in, looking rather happy with herself.
"Scoot over," she said playfully to Will. He smiled and moved closer to Phillip, allowing Amaya to wiggle into the little space left next to him.
"So what's our plan?" Phillip asked again, "And what even happens in these games anyway?"
"You have amnesia, right?" Daphne asked hesitantly. Phillip smiled kindly at her.
"Yep. So what is this 'Hunger Games'?"
"Basically, we're being sent to our deaths," Will said abruptly. Daphne grumbled something and ducked her head, and instinctively I wrapped an arm around her. It was my instinct to protect kids, it came naturally now. Daphne muttered something and looked up at me, a thankful expression on her face. I smiled back and removed my arm from around her.
"Maybe Will laid that on a little too thick, but he does have the general idea," Amaya said, "Normally 2 kids from each District are picked, but this year it's 6. This year we have qualifying rounds for the final game, this is the qualifying round. There have already been two, only 8 people from each survive these games. Then the final 24 compete in a game at the end of the year and only 1 lives."
"So we're being forced to kill eachother?" Phillip said, shock in his tone. Amaya nodded slowly. Phillip looked to be in disbelief.
"That's bullshit," he snapped, "That is complete bullshit. They're killing 71 kids for entertainment?"
"Yes." I said, "That's the Capitol for you."
"Wait," Phillip exclaimed suddenly. He rose from his seat and rested his hands on the table, horror written all over his face. "My mentor did this to me?"
"What?" Daphne asked softly.
"At the reapings the lady reading out the names called out my name and it sounded so... hesitant. She even looked over to the mentor for confirmation on it. And before she called my name he talked to her about something and pointed to me, that can't be a coincidence."
"Phillip, drop it please," Will said tiredly, "It won't change anything."
Phillip looked angry now. I felt unnerved. I liked it better when he was being sarcastic, him being angry kind of terrified me. I reached over and placed my hand gently on his arm.
"Phillip, don't," I said softly. Phillip looked over at me, his gaze softening ever so slightly. He nodded to himself and sat back down, but he still had a haunted look on his face.
Misty Wolfe POV
"The three of us," Renee said, "Till the end."
Max and I nodded. For the life of me I still didn't understand why Max volunteered, but I didn't press the matter. Renee and Max were holding hands, although Renee looked slightly uncomfortable. I had a bad feeling that if it came to it, neither of them would sacrifice themselves for the other. Their relationship was a typical preteen one that meant next to nothing, although I didn't dare say that in front of them. They'd tear me to shreds.
Caitlin Sharp from our District staggered past us, the reek of alcohol radiating off of her. She glanced over at Max as she passed and her eyebrows rose. Before I knew what she was doing she suddenly leapt into Max's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. Renee flinched back, her eyes wide and full of anger. Max stared blinking at Caitlin, surprise written all over his face. I stifled a laugh as Caitlin snuggled up to Max.
"Caitlin?" he began hesitantly, sounding frightened.
"Your so cuteee," Caitlin smiled happily, clinging onto Max. Max cringed back, muttering that he had a girlfriend. Caitlin ignored him and cuddled up to him.
"Let go, please," Max said sharply, his voice sounded strained like he was trying not to freak out. Caitlin rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Quietttt, snuggles," she mumbled drunkenly.
"Oh boy, snuggles?" Max groaned, turning towards me, "Is that gonna stick?"
"I'm already making t-shirts," I grinned cheekily. I looked over at Caitlin and plucked her arm off of Max, shoving her gently off of him. She mumbled something and tumbled off his lap, then clambered to her feet and staggered into the District 12 cabin, muttering something under her breath about marshmallows.
"So," I snickered, "Snuggles, ey?"
"Oh dear god," Max sighed in exasperation. Renee didn't say a word, but a small smile crossed her face. I sighed.