Sharp Objects

chapter fithteen

Today is the day I go into the arena. Today is the day I become a hunter. My heart starts to pound through my chest as my brain whirs with the thought of launch. Crystalline will take me to hovercraft at 10, then I go to the launch room with the peacekeepers and meet Cecilia, who will put my final finishing touches on my arena attire, then it's launch time. I can hardly wait.

"Clove?" She says, her voice low and barely audible "clove? Are you ready?"

I sit bold upright in answer, and shoot a sly smile in her direction. " never been readier."

She gives me a nervous laugh and bites down on her lower lip, her eyes leaking worry and anxiety. "That's good to know " she says,shaking." I have your clothes here. Cecilia will give you the others in the launch room." She passes me a large mount of neatly fouded garments, then tells me to go and change in the Bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, I set my clothes down on the floor and sort through them. The pile consists of a pair of khaki green combat pants, some thermal leggings to wear underneath, a reddish-brown t-shirt, some thick woollen socks, a pair of lace-up leather boots.

I change into my arena outfit, then examine my reflection in a small mirror above the sink, I look average,if not extremely small,and not very intimidating,in other words,I look nothing like a career. Especially not with long dark brown hair appearing to be some kind of curtain over my face. Right, it's hairstyling time!

I pull my hair back into a high ponytail and I secure it with a elastic band. I then gather up my old cloths a leave the bathroom.

Crystalline is waiting for me in my bathroom. I dump my pile of cloths on the bed and walk towards her." Right,now for breakfast." She says .I look towards the door, to find tallulah .

"Clove!" She says, running towards me in her heels " I just wanted to finish very good luck!" Then she leaves without says anything else.

Crystalline orders some breakfast from the holl in the wall and I just eat, not really comprehending what the meal is.

And now, it's time, I take a deep breath and say "I'm ready crystalline. I'm ready for launch." She looks down at me and stares at me with loose bright green eyes.

" do you have your token?" She says quietly.

"My what?" I reply,confused. What does she mean by token?

"Your district token clove."she says,almost immediately, though it hardly shows due to her solemnity " the one thing that you're aloud to take into the arena, to remind you of home, or something special."

"I don't have one." I tell crystalline, looking sheepishly at the floor " I didn't expect to be reaped, so I didn't bring my token with me."

" well,they're usually something that means a lot to you. What about one of your drawings?" She asks, reaching for my sketchpad and flicking through the leaves of paper. She comes to a stop at a particular one, and she rips it out of the book, then hands it to me.

It's the one of cato and I at the opening ceremony, as the warriors from district 2. It almost inspirational. And perfect for use for my token, I smile at crystalline, genuinely, then fold the paper into a tiny square and tuck it into my pocket.

" now,are we all ready?"she says,her lip almost quivering.

"Yes. I'm ready." I reply, glancing one last time at my room, before I take a deep breath and follow crystalline towards the hand of fate.

She leads me through the endless corridors and then, finally,into a metal elevator, nothing like the one that leads us up to our floor.all the way,she gives me hints to what's about to come, what yo do when the gong sounds. And then the lift comes to an abrupt halt, and the doors are thrown open to expose a large concrete plain, in the centre of which is a hovercraft. other tributes are already making there way towards it, appearing from other elevator doors in their different coloured t- shirts.