Firecracker: The 99th Games Book One

Arena, Day 3 Part 1

"Fuyuko?"

Fuyuko grumbled under her breath, curling up further into a ball. She sniffed, scratching at her ear.

"Fuyuko," a gentle voice repeated, "it's morning. Wake up. Marco found some worms earlier."

"So...?" Fuyuko mumbled.

"So, that's bait. We're gonna try catching some fish."

Fuyuko yawned, finally blinking her eyes open. She shielded her face with an arm, wincing at the sun's rays beaming down at her from the sky, then slowly peered out at whoever she was talking to. Piero looked down at her, smiling in amusement. "Do we gotta...?"

"Yes, we 'gotta,'" Piero replied with a light chuckle. "We can't just rely on dried food forever. Come on, upsy daisy."

Fuyuko groaned, rolling over to face away from Piero. "I don't even know how to fish. You two do it."

"You asked me to teach you, remember?" Piero pointed out, poking her shoulder. Fuyuko swatted at him. "...Has anyone ever told you you look like a d*mn cat when you sleep?"

"What?" Fuyuko lowered her arm to look at him over her shoulder. "The h*ll's that mean?"

"You curl up in a little ball like a kitten," Piero pointed out. "I don't even know how you contort your body like that. It's cute, actually."

Fuyuko felt her cheeks warm and hid her face with her arm again. "Sh...sh-shut up. I-I-I ain't 'cute.'"

"You are cute, actually," Marco piped up from somewhere nearby, apparently listening.

Fuyuko shot up abruptly, glaring at him. "You too...?! W-what's with you two...?! I-I look like sh*t!"

"I respectfully disagree," Piero declared. "Come on, let's get to work. Need help standing?"

"No, I don't need help standin'," Fuyuko insisted. "A-and you're wrong. Also shut up."

"Alright, no need to be so snippy," Piero said, chuckling. "I have no idea if the Gamemakers put jungle-accurate fish in this water. Or even any fish in this water. But we're going to try something basic and see if we can catch anything that happens to swim by. If not, we'll move down river and try to find where it ends, maybe drop a line if we see a splash. I don't want us going upriver, there's too big a risk of getting spotted by the Careers."

Fuyuko nodded, pushing herself to her feet. As much as she missed her flip-flops, she had to admit boots made walking in the mud much easier. "How will we know when it's time to move? Don't it take a while to catch fish?"

"Yes and no. Depends on the fish, your technique, and your gear," Piero replied. "For us? It's...hard to say. It all depends on how accurate the Gamemakers wanted to be."

"...Esteban told me after the interviews that they were going for sort of a fusion of jungle, rainforest, and mountains," Marco said suddenly. "So they might not have stuck to just jungle fish."

"Why did he tell you that?" Piero asked.

Marco shrugged evasively. "He tells you just about anything if you ask."

"You asked?" Fuyuko asked. "That was bold."

Marco smiled faintly to himself, shrugging again. "I mean, h-he seemed nice. I thought I could get more information out of him if I struck up more conversation."

Piero stared at him for a moment, expression flickering to a frown before settling in a proud smile. "Well, I'll be d*mned. Nice work, Marco."

Marco beamed, nodding. "Y-yeah, of course. I'll try to remember what else I figured out."