The Celebrity Games

Chapter 5

BANG!

My eyes flew open. Sitting up to check out what it was, I found that I had fallen out of my bed and onto the floor. Goddammit... I guess I just wasn't used to sleeping in the air.

There was no point getting back into bed, I was already up. Even though it was still dark outside and my clock read two in the morning, once I was up, I was up. Deciding to stay in my jammies, I traped down to the tv lounge and started to watch all the old celebrity games hi-lights from the start. I had really forgotten how brutal these things were, especially when there were only girls competing for the celebrity. Wincing in sympathetic pain, I watched one girl gauge another girl's eyes out with a tin opener... Ouch. This was the year of Taylor Lautner and the only time that the fighting was worse was when Canada was chosen with Justin Beiber last year, but I think I may have mentioned that.

"Now then Emily, tell me about how you found that tin opener in the first place..." A cream haired Sebastian Diamond asked the tall amazon-like brunette who was sitting opposite him in a vivid red fitted dress.

Sebastian always dyed his hair a different colour for each year, you can even bet on which colour he will dye it to. Of course, this year he opted for an emerald green when the favourite was a light lemon yellow. You see, he usually takes a look at the bookie's favourite and goes for something completely different at the last moment. I always quite enjoy seeing what colour he dyes his hair, in fact, the only one I didn't like was when he dyed it a midnight black. With his pale skin and darkish pink lips, he sort of looked like a smiley vampire. Although the fact that I was six at the time might have had something to do with that.

Soon after that, my eyelids began to droop and I felt I needed to go back to bed again. Climbing into bed, I saw that it was five in the morning. I figured I didn't really need to get up until nine anyway so as soon as I shut my eyes, I was fast asleep. Really, the next thing I remember was behind my closed eyes was the sunlight streaming in through a crack in the curtains that annoyingly was positioned so that at a certain time would dance about on my face and force me to open my eyes. Groaning, I turned on my side. I shall not be defeated by the fascist sunbeam!

Randomly, my phone started buzzing. What the juice? Since when do I get weird texts at... Hang on, what time is it? Slowly, I completed the arduous task of opening my left eye to take a peek at the time. At eight in the morning!

Rolling my eyes, I picked myself up on one arm and reached over to get my phone. It was a text from Jess.

'Hey Fran, hoping you're enjoying the luxury. I'm rooting for you!'

Smiling, I switched off my phone, turned on my other side and closed my eyes. When I was good and ready I got out of bed only to find it was half nine anyway and went to get some breakfast.

"Hey Fran, good morning!" Nicole chirped, buttering some toast.

Offering an indifferent grunt as a reply I poured myself some tea and grabbed a bowl of cheerios. Can you tell I'm not a morning person? Surprisingly, it looked like Nicole and I were the only ones up at that moment in time.

"Is no-one else up?" I asked once I had finished my breakfast, my spirits lifted a little after eating.

"No, just us two. Well, Damien staggered through here an hour ago to get a drink then went straight back to bed." She mentioned, shaking her head slightly in a disapproving manner.

"Hmmm, well I guess if we're going to be spending a lot of time together before the games we had better get to know each other first. So, what's your family like?"

We spent the next few hours chatting and laughing and getting to know one another. It turned out she had this crazy mother who she usually got into fights with and said the funniest things to her, a dad who basically let her do what she wanted and a brother who locked her out of the house when she was on the phone to someone. In return, I told her all about my mum and dad and two brothers who were both married with kids who I loved, but could really get on my nerves at times. I actually quite liked Nicole, I don't really know why I never talked to her before.

"So why do you usually hang out by yourself at school and everything?" I asked, actually wanting to know.

"Well, can you keep a secret?" She asked, getting all hushed and anxious.

"Yeah, sure. You can trust me."

"...I'm really shy around people I don't know that well."

"How come you could talk to me?"

"I dunno, I just felt I knew you and you always tried to be nice in school but I always ran away or something. I've always wanted to talk to you, but I guess I never really pushed myself to it."

"Well I'm very honoured. I guess you always seemed strange and I got a bit miffed whenever you ran away from me."

"Yeah, well..."

"And do you remember that time when you ran away and then fell in the bin?" I laughed, reminiscing about that hilarious memory.

"Oh yeah! That was really embarrassing!" She cracked up, pausing for a second to compose herself. "Thank God it was only a plastic recycling one!"

"Yeah, the result could've been disastrous!" I giggled lightly, my laughs now subsiding. Looking around, I realised we were still the only ones up after about two hours. "Is still no-one up yet?!"

"Seems not..."

"Tell you what, how about you go and wake up Lizzie while I wake up Damien?" I suggested, a mischievous glint in my eye.

Creeping silently through the door, I could hear heavy snores emanating from the centre of the dimly-lit room. I fumbled along the wall for the light switch, but deciding the hunt was futile, I strode over to the curtains and flung them back, letting the welcome sunlight cascade around the room.

"Wakey wakey Damien!" I cooed, turning round to face the stirring body on the bed a few metres away from me. Groaning, he turned on his side to face me and gave me a little glare.

"Do you know what time it is?" He growled, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the light.

"Yeah, its time you got up! I brought you some tea and there's food in the kitchen. Come on! You need to start getting us ready for the arena!" I chriped, walking out the door.

"Urgh, usually they're not so damn eager..." I caught him mumble as I went out of the room. I just smiled to myself and went back to the living room to find a disgruntled Lizzie Girdling sitting on the table drinking coffee.

Well, Damien. This year I will be eager and this year it will be different because this year region 12 is going to win.