The Girl With the Bread

The Scores

As he strides toward the elevator, he flings his bow to one side and his quiver to the other. He brushes past the gaping Airbenders who guard the elevators and hit the number twelve button with his fist. The doors slide open and he zips upward. He actually makes it back to his floor before the tears start running down his cheeks. He can hear the other calling him from the sitting room, but he flies down the hall into his room, bolts the door, and flings himself onto his bed. Then he begins to sob.

Now he's done it! Now he's ruined everything! If he'd stood even a ghost of a chance, it vanished when he sent that arrow flying at the Gamemakers. What will they do to him now? Arrest him? Execute him? What was he thinking, shooting at the Gamemakers? Of course, he wasn't, he was shooting at that apple because he was so angry at being ignored. He wasn't trying to kill one of them. If he was, they'd be dead!

Oh, what does it matter? It's not like he was going to win the Games anyway. Who cares what they do to him? What really scares him is what they might do to his father and Katara, how his family might suffer because of his impulsiveness. Will they take their few belongings, or send his father to prison and Katara to the community home, or kill them? They wouldn't kill them, would they? Why not? What do they care?

He should have stayed and apologized. Or laughed, like it was a big joke. Then maybe he would have found cone leniency. But instead he stalked out of there in the most disrespectful manner possible.

Iroh and Ty Lee are knocking on his door. He shouts for them to go away and eventually they do. It takes at least an hour for him to cry himself out. Then he just lies curled up on the bed, stroking the silken sheets, watching the sun set on the artificial Air Temple.

At first he expects guards to come for him. But as time passes, it seems less and less likely. He calms down. They still need a male tribute from District 12, don't they? If the Gamemakers want to punish him, they can do it publicly. Wait until he's in the arena and sic starving wild animals on him. You can bet they'll make sure he doesn't have a bow and arrow to defend himself.

Before that, though, they'll give him a score so low, no one in their right mind will sponsor him. That's what will happen tonight. Since the training isn't open to viewers, the Gamemakers announce a score for each player. It gives the audience a starting place for the betting that will continue through the Games. The number, which is between one and twelve, one being irredeemingly low and twelve being unattainably high, signifies the promise of a tribute. The mark is not a guarantee of which person will win; it's only an indication of the potential a tribute showed in training. Often, because of the variables in the arena, high-scoring tributes go down almost immediately. The boy who won the Games the previous year received only a three.

Still, the scores can help or hurt an individual tribute in terms of sponsorship. He'd been hoping to get at least a six or seven based on his shooting, but that chance has been thrown out the window. He'll have the lowest of the twenty four of them, he knows it. If no one sponsors him, his chances of staying alive decrease to zero.

When Ty Lee taps on the door to call him to dinner, he decides he may as well. The scores will be televised tonight. It's not like he can hide what happened forever. He goes to the bathroom and washes his face, but it remains red and splotchy.

Everyone is waiting at the table, even Suki and Satoru. He wishes the stylists hadn't shown up for some reason. He doesn't like the idea of disappointing them. It's like he's thrown away all the hard work they did for his opening ceremony without a second thought. He avoids looking at anyone as he takes small sips of fish soup. The saltiness reminds him of his tears.

The adults chit chat about the weather forecast, and something kicks him under the table. He glances up, and Toph's sightless eyes are locked onto his. She raises her eyebrows in a question. What happened? He kicks her back softly. Then, as they're serving the main course, he hears Iroh say, "All right. Toph, Sokka, how did your private sessions go?"