𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐊 ... 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗸

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

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𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 : 𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘵𝘴
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the training center was cold, dim.

as hattie walked in, she had seen katniss talking to mags, and peeta by himself. she walked up to him hesitantly. "you want some help?" she asked over his shoulder, seeing he was fumbling a pocket knife in his hand. he jumped and spun around, seeing it was just the young girl. "oh, yeah, yes, that would be nice."

hattie glanced down to peeta's legs, and as she suspected, peeta's artificial leg poked out from the end of his sweatpants. she had watched every hunger games to exist, and when she saw peeta's injury on TV, she had to run to her bathroom and throw up in the toilet. that must've had to amputate it.

hattie reached for another knife, and held it in front of both of their faces. "hold it like this." peeta looked from her hand to his, and adjusted his own. "yeah, good. wanna know something funny?" she turned her head to him. "sure." he smiled. "i once cut off one of my mentor's fingers clean off with a machete." peeta looked at her with a surprised look. he wasn't expecting that, that's for sure.

"did he...?" "he didn't make it to the hospital in time, so he has a short middle finger. it's hilarious whenever he flips someone off. you can tell katniss that story when she decides to talk crap about my machete skills. okay, want me to go first?" he nodded at her with an amused grin, "sure." she nodded back and walked up to the practice area, typing in some details. duration, 30 seconds. selected difficulty, hard. then, the faceless holograms started to appear and run at her.

the first hologram ran towards hattie with a trident in hand, and she barely dodged the trident before slitting the knife across its throat. as the hologram dissolved, she looked around and turned her body when she saw a hologram jumping down from thin air with a machete in hand. hattie reassessed her grip on the small knife, and ran head on towards the 2D body. shortly, she slid under the legs of the hologram, and harshly stabbed the computer in the back while still on the ground. it melted. she quickly got back onto her feet as another one ran right at her, and it stopped as it drew an arrow back with a bow. hattie thought fast and just looked at the knife before throwing it right into the stomach of the hologram.

finally, the lasers faded away, and hattie let out a breath and retrieved the small black knife. while she walked out, she watched as peeta clapped his hands together.  just as she was about to let him follow promptly, hattie realized others were crowding around the bow arena. instead of hitting peeta, she called, "hey," and nodded her head to the crowd, starting to walk towards them. peeta quickly followed. soon, they realized that it was katniss. of course, it was katniss. she quickly maneuvered the course, hitting the holograms one by one, until the lasers faded, similar to how they did for hattie just a minute ago.

wiress clapped excitedly as katniss looked out to the bunch of people.

« « « » » »

as haymitch and hattie waited for katniss and peeta to return, hattie sat in her room, scribbling words down in the same grey notebook. she had been keeping the notebook hidden behind a painting hung in her room, and as a draft flew into her room from the partially open window, she dropped the notebook and rushed over to it. aggressively shutting it closed, she sighed once more before falling back to the bed.

since hattie had gotten to meet katniss and peeta, she had to confess that it had been weird that she wasn't the center of attention anymore. sure, she knew what it was like to be hated. but the center of attention? it's all she had ever known. yet, peeta and katniss and all the other tributes were now in the spotlight, and she had to deal with being pushed off to the side. is this what all the districts felt like? she couldn't know. so...