𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧 | 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟏𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬

[6] - Each Other's Best Chance

^President Tantalus Snow, who we saw in the Parade in the last chapter.

~ ~ ~

Simon is silent when we arrive backstage. For the first time, Laurentia is too - her lips are pressed shut, but she's worse at hiding her anger than Simon is.

"Time for bed," Simon says quietly to me. His face is neutral, but I can see the fire blazing in his eyes.

Laurentia places a firm hand on my shoulder, pushing me through the crowd of tributes disembarking from their chariots. Most of them are staring at Damien as their mentors murmur in their ears. One of the girls from Two glares at me as Laurentia leads me past her, and I want to shrink away from her gaze. This Parade was supposed to be her moment; the girls from Two are all anyone's been talking about since the Reaping, and this was their introduction to the Capitol. I've stolen that from them, and I will pay for it eventually.

I hear shouting that night coming from outside my room. It seems that Simon wasn't able to keep his cool once I left with Laurentia.

"Think about more than just yourself, boy!" Simon roars as a beeping sound rings down the hallway - they must have just arrived in the elevator. It's been almost an hour since Laurentia shut me in my room.

"Tell me how else I could have gotten them to give a shit about us," Damien bites back. He's never been one to back down from anyone, even someone as respected as Simon. "Nobody goes anywhere in the Games by playing it safe."

"I know more about going somewhere in the Games than you do, Damien," Simon points out, and I can hear Laurentia's heels clicking past my door. "Your life isn't the only one on the line here. Everything you say and do reflects on me, Damien! And what about your sister?"

I lift my head, straining to hear Damien's response. Does he really care about how all of this is affecting me?

I don't get that satisfaction, though. Laurentia cuts into the conversation, dragging Damien to his room. A door closes with a slam, and the suite is silent for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Damien pretends that nothing's happened. Maybe to him, nothing has. Simon is more uptight than usual, but he's always been hard to read, so who knows what he's thinking. He doesn't have anything to say to us as we eat breakfast, and Laurentia is the one to send us to our first day of Training.

As the elevator doors close behind us, Damien turns to me for the first time this morning.

"So," he says, his eyes darting around us. "We need to work together."

I'm startled at Damien's sudden change of heart. I was expecting to handle training alone; this was not something that I anticipated.

"Okay," I say, trying to be as convincingly nonchalant as I can.

"Well, don't make a face about it," Damien says, crossing his arms. "Simon thinks it's best. We have to make them think we like each other."

I can't hold back my laugh. "Oh, so now you want to do what Simon wants to do? Did he scream at you enough to convince you?"

Damien looks pissed now. "I can do what I want, Luna. Simon's our mentor. It would be stupid to upset him."

"Well, I'm glad you see that now, after everything that you've done to upset him last night," I tell him. "You know what? It's fine. I can train by myself. You'd probably just abandon me in the end - wouldn't be the first time. The others can think what they want about us. They probably don't think we're a threat anyway."

Damien shoots me a glare, but he doesn't have any more time to respond as the doors of the elevator slide open.

The training center is much larger than I expected - it looks almost as big as District Five's entire town hall. The massive space is filled with an overwhelming number of stations, and I can see weapons at most of them. I follow Damien to the center of the room, where the other tributes are surrounding a lifted platform. A bearded man watches us approach; Damien immediately separates from me, standing next to some of the older boys at the other end of the circle.