I woke with a start. I had already forgotten my dream but it had left me with a dreadful and exasperated feeling.
I felt arms around me and instinctively kicked whoever it was.
“What the hell Scarlett!” I heard Arrow exclaim.
What was he doing here? Startled, I sat back in the hay remembering the events of yesterday.
Arrow had saved my life. Twice. Slowly, I started to remember all of it. It was Zane’s funeral and I had given the capitol something to remember. I was going to end Bloom’s life for killing Zane but it turns out Jessica, another tribute killed him. Then she was going to kill me but Arrow saved me. Cue bitter resentment. My life was like a soap opera.
I looked around for my horse trouble. She wasn’t where I left her and understandably I began to freak out.
Arrow probably spared my life so he could kill me another day. Trouble was my ticket out of here and he knew it. He killed her while I was sleeping.
I quickly got up and ran towards Arrow’s revolver gun. I remember district one gave it to him. I had no idea why, he was obviously mental. I fumbled to grab it and hastily put my finger on the trigger pointing it towards him.
“Get up!” I ordered.
Arrow was still on the ground clutching his shin.
“I said get up” I repeated loudly to him.
He groaned loudly and got up slowly. He limped his way in front of me.
“What the hell did you do?” I screamed indignantly, my voice sounding a little strained. I couldn’t believe Arrow had killed Trouble. I bet he thought I was next, that I was only a pawn in his game.
He smirked a little, putting his hands behind his head.
“C’mon Scar, I didn’t do anything” he lied, shrugging his shoulders quickly.
“You did! I’m going to kill you, you little-” I ran out of words. He killed Trouble! He was arrogant, dumb, annoying and he killed my horse! I should have killed him when I had the chance. I don’t care how many times he ‘saved’ my life. He was going to pay, just like Bloom was!
He laughed a little and let his hands fall to his side.
“Shoot me” he replied nonchalantly.
“You don’t think I will?” I fixed my stance and took aim so that I could shoot him easily. I had never shot a gun before, let alone really seen any aside from my father’s big shotgun. He used to go hunting with it in the jungle beside our district. He got caught by one of our peace keepers and they confiscated it. They could have killed him, but like I said, we had relatively placid peace keepers in our town and they knew that in poor districts like 10 we had to hunt to survive sometimes.
Arrow hunched his shoulders and hung his head dramatically.
“Do it” he sighed. I could clearly see that his face wasn’t reaching the sincerity of his words. He was laughing quietly to himself and I had no idea why.
I braced myself and pulled the trigger.
“Say goodbye” I shouted.
I heard it click. No bang.
“argwhuwha-?” I looked at the gun and opened the revolver’s cylinder. No bullets.
I dropped the gun in shock and Arrow burst out laughing.
I leaped over to him with my arms out stretched. It wasn’t the first time I tried to strangle my fellow tribute from district ten. We had a love-hate-relationship. Scratch that, it was just a hate-relationship.
I grabbed tightly around his neck and squeezed.
“First you kill Trouble then you go and make fun of me!” I screeched
He tried to flail his hands around, trying to point behind me in order to distract me.
I felt something nuzzle against my neck and I heard a loud neigh.
“Oh” I whispered, Trouble was attempting to cuddle me.
I let go of him in surprise and turned to wrap my arms around Trouble’s neck. She was alive! She had grass all over her and smelled a little dirty. I didn’t like the idea of her wondering during the night time without me to protect her.
I turned to apologise to Arrow.
He was rolling on the floor clutching his stomach giggling in fits.
I turned sour. There was no way was I apologising to him now.
I huffed, planning to get the hell out of dodge. “C’mon Trouble!” I beckoned attempting to lead her outside.
She wouldn’t budge. Instead she walked over to Arrow and nuzzled into his neck too. It only made him laugh more.
“What the hell is this?” my voice high in exasperation. I felt like I had been cheated on.
“Fine” I sighed and grabbed the bags. “I’m going to go get water”
“Can you get me some too?” Arrow asked between laughing.
I slammed the cornucopia barn doors in reply.
~
I twirled my chunky bracelet around as I walked to Zane’s river. The hover craft would have picked up his body by now and sure enough, the water was clean and pristine. There was no trace Zane had died or that I had coloured the water to say goodbye to him. The game makers must have removed the traces so that other tributes didn’t see. I wasn’t even sure if they televised the funeral. Last time they did that was in the 74th Hunger Games with Katniss and Rue.
There were now five people left in these games, myself, Bloom, a girl from six, Arrow and a boy from eleven. The games had been going for almost a month now and I still didn’t want to team up with Arrow, or anyone for that matter, especially so late in the games. They could turn around and kill me at any second and I wasn’t okay with that.
I wondered what the other tributes were doing. Were they hiding? Were they hunting? Did they know about Trouble and that I was in the cornucopia? Did their coaches sponsor them like Avery sponsored me?
As I continued to twirl the bracelet I felt it cut my wrist slightly. I was about to disregard the splinter when I heard rattling. I panicked and jumped into the water so that the capitol, game makers and other tributes couldn’t see me completely or hear my bracelet. I wasn’t on a camping trip after all; I was in a hunger games arena with only five people left. Things were bound to get intense.
I pretended to wash my legs but grabbed onto the bracelet instead. I tampered with the wooden clasp and felt it open. I couldn’t see what it was but it felt like a key.
My eyes popped open in surprise.
I quickly remembered the last time I saw Avery.
All the tributes were receiving last minute guidance from their coaches in the hall. Each group was in deep conversation, especially mine. Magnus was busy instructing Arrow on proper cleanliness and how to be fashionable in the games. I had begun to laugh at them but before I knew it Avery had roped me into a private conversation of our own.
“Above all” she took a deep breath and looked at Arrow “don’t die in the first 10 minutes if you do everything I told you then you’ll have a pretty good chance” she ordered.
I could hear Zane and Bloom talking happily close by but chose to ignore them. This was my last moment with Avery and I was going to cherish it.
“Thanks Avery” I whispered, my voice breaking a little.
“Oh honey, no! Don’t you start crying now!” she begged, wiping my eyes. She took off her bracelet and gave it to me.
“No I don’t want it” I couldn’t. It was hers. Besides, she had worn it in her own hunger games a couple of years ago.
“Fine” she sighed. “I’ll get you another one”.
She tousled through her bag and pulled out a similar looking bracelet.
“Why do you have two?” It was a little confused.
“It’s a family heirloom. It’s belonged in the family for many years but I want to give this one to you” she hesitated before handing it to me.
It seemed like she was reluctant to let go of it, like she was waiting for something. She frowned and then shrugged.
“I had other plans for it. I was going to give it to my sister…”
I didn’t know Avery even had a sister. No body mentioned that even during in her games.
Avery quickly brightened.
“But you’re my sister now” and then she pulled me in for a hug.
“This bracelet is important. It’s going to be useful if we don’t make it out alive” she whispered into my ear. It was barely a murmur and I wasn’t sure if I heard her right. She said ‘we’ but we both knew she wasn’t facing the arena with me.
I was a little confused but I hugged her anyway.
I was shot back to reality as I heard Trouble neigh. I quickly grabbed some dirt from the river and put both the key and the dirt back in my bracelet. I didn’t want it to rattle.
I saw Trouble splash into the water and once again witnessed her beauty. She had beautifully strong muscles and seemed to glide in the air as she galloped.
“No wonder you’re in the water. You stink” I heard Arrow yell.
I stomped out of the water and walked over to him.
“It’s called being inconspicuous. Why don’t you try it?” I retorted simply. He shouldn’t be yelling out in the open like this anyway. We had no idea where Bloom could be and for all we knew she could be watching.
He looked me up and down. I was drenched from head to toe and my hair was still dripping from swimming in Zane’s river.
In a rare moment of shared thoughts, Arrow and I instantly had the same idea.
He backed away.
I stepped forward.
He took two steps back.
I launched for him.
“No-argh!” he yelled before I tackled him to the ground and rolled around in the dirt with him.
I laughed easily as I rolled, drenching him in water too. With the added combination of dirt we were now rolling around in mud.
We were almost in the water and we stopped rolling for a second. This was when I truly noticed Arrow. I noticed his beautiful blue eyes and the way they lit up when he was happy. It was a brief moment which was inevitably ruined.
“Smoosh smoosh, you gunna kiss me?” He puckered his lips and I realised I was still lying on top of him.
Eugh, boys.
I shot up from the ground, shaking my head. The river was gushing around my feet and Trouble was still splashing about with no cares in the world.
He chuckled at his stupidity before adding “seriously though…” He was trying but failing to flick the mud off of his tribute 10 clothes. “We should probably go hunting. I think I know where the boy from six is hiding.”
I sighed. I held out my hand silently.
He grabbed it willingly and shook it. I wouldn’t admit this to anybody but it was full of electricity.
We both nodded and our eyes met again. I noticed he had a cute boyish smirk and looked away awkwardly. He seemed genuinely happy, and despite previous qualms and being in the hunger games, I was pretty happy too.
And that’s how Arrow and I decided to become an alliance.
He puckered his lips again making kissing noises.
I leaned in and his eyes opened in surprise.
I pushed him hard and he fell into the shallow part of the river.
“Pay back is a bitch Arrow! I’m not going to be a pawn in your game. Remember that”
(Shriek! Is that exciting or what? Like, Shrek and Donkey aka Scar and Arrow going on another wurl-wind adventure! And what about the memory about Avery and the bracelet! Do you think that explains why Bloom has always hated Scarlett? homg right. Also, I love the title of this chap. Bob Dylan actually made his INCREDIBLE song/story that's titled this detailing the life of Medger Evers. Pretty amazing. Like, vote, read, promote, comment, follow etc etc do your thang! xo)