the ruler [THE HUNGER GAMES]¹

Seventeen.

THE other victors don't approach Jacinth and I once over the month between the announcement and the reaping. I watched by as Jacinth slowly realised that these people who had once been friendly quickly turned their backs on him. It was quite heartbreaking. I know it's because he's stayed by my side, training with me and picking me as his ally, but he refuses to believe it.

All of us have been training our bodies to their limits. The academy actually opened a special section of the lunch hall specifically for the victors to go back and work on their skills. I can quite comfortably say that age is getting to ninety-nine percent of my fellow cohort. They're still skilled and would win a regular Games easily, but when the competition is our fellow victors, I'm not sure as many of them would succeed. My confidence is boosted when I'm the only one who can successfully hit all the targets in both knife and spear throwing fatally. Jacinth scores the highest in sword fighting and hand to hand combat. We're still fresh and our bodies still youthful. The only victors I know I would watch out for is Enobaria, a woman named Jade who won a few years before Finnick and maybe Brutus.

Today is our last session, tomorrow the reaping. For the past few weeks training has been taking my mind off the Games but it's now in the forefront of my thoughts, demanding to be looked at. If I don't get reaped, how will I mentor somebody who hates me? If I do get reaped, how do I fight against my friends? Jacinth reminds me that the possibilities of me getting called are low and it calms me for a short while.

"What do we start with?" I ask my blue eyed friend stood next to me. We're both wearing tight-fitting clothes that don't get in the way when we're trying to do things. Mine is my academy uniform that is only a little too small, Jacinth's a tight black shirt and similar shorts.
"I say we throw some knives," he pulls me over to the makeshift station with hand-drawn targets. Technically this is even more illegal than the academy itself, but Snow turns a blind eye to that so he will to this too.

The rest of the hall is fairly empty. We've chosen to train late today so we can be left alone. The academy has been closed since the weekend because there's no point forcing the children of the district to train when they don't have to worry about the Games for another year. I pick up a set of sharp double-sided blades and get a feel for them, my arms getting the familiar buzz they get from my one true talent. Out of the set I pick a long, scary looking knife with a round ring at the end to keep it on a belt or finger. Jacinth stands well behind me and presses a timer which beeps to let me know I can start. The first knife flies into the target right in front of me, slicing through what would be its nose. The next hits right in the chest and the third and fourth are a perfect bullseye also. Finally, I throw two at the same time at the fifth target and the knives lodge themselves in the heart and right eye of its victim.

"Fifteen seconds for five fatal hits!" Jacinth beams and presses the timer again to stop it, "you've beaten your own record by three seconds."

He walks over to a board and wipes off the bottom name which had said 'Enobaria: 24.87secs' and moves all my previous records down one so my newest can take the top spot. All five entries on the board now sport my name and records all under twenty seconds.