Sea Green Cove

Winner

Individual training sessions are coming soon and I still don't have a specific weapon. "But Finnick, do you know how heavy a trident is? I could never carry that around with me." "You would if you wanted to live. But maybe we should go down a few scales." He insists on me at lest trying it. I walk to the weapons area. There are weapons that I've never seen before in my life. Yet know how to use. I come upon a plate with spikes sticking out of its thin outline. I pick it up out of its metal stand. Its little. It's reminds me of a frisbee. I used to play it with my friends right before we relocated because of work. They're literally using child's play to kill us. Only a 'little bit' modified. I try throwing it a few times. I might be able to use this but who knows if they'll even supply this. I haven't seen any of the other tributes use it. It must have some flaws. Or maybe they're just using it wrong. I try to use Finnick's advice and use something less difficult than a trident. A spear. It's not the best but it seems ok to throw. The thing is to keep it balanced in your hands. It'd make it easier to throw. The majority of Justin's training time is socializing. He's already met half of the tributes. The two tributes from 7 and the crazy girl from 12. The 7's are both polar opposite. The boy, Henry, was a professional tree climber back in his district. Then the girl, Abby, is the speaker for both of them. By what I've learned, they've known each other since they were little. "Woah woah, put that stick down!" Henry says panicky. He's standing right in front of the target. "That's what she said!" Abby says jokingly. "Or he..." "Ok ok no need to get sassy with me. Well shrimp boy, what are you waiting for. Shuck this wimp in the chest." Henry is more panicked now. Abby is the jokester. "Isn't that against the law? Hurting other tributes before the Games?" I ask. "YES!" Henry gives Abby an ugly stare. Her smirk straightens. "I'll just have to do it myself in the arena then." Another voice from the right says. I turn around to see the crazy girl from 12. Damn these tributes sure are nosey. "Uh Becca! Yeah hi." "Calm down! That whole reaping thing was an act. Acting out equals more sponsors. More sponsors equals more time to live. You should try it." They're rude too. Who taught them manners? "I think I will" Henry ponders. "I want to break something." "You should try smashing the guy from District 2's face. Matt." Becca suggest. "But save it for the Arena." She says sarcastically as she turns to me. I smile. Then I think. I haven't seen any of the male tributes around. Maybe they're trying to find some sort of way to cheat themselves into the system. "I call him Blow Job boy." Becca says out of the blue. "He has a tattoo on his right bicep. It says 'BJ' so why not?" We all look at Becca. "What? Got anything better?" We all shake our heads in unison. Because honestly, we don't. Soon we all break away from our little group and begin to wrap up. I'm going to try my best in the individual sessions. Which are in just a few hours. My skills are limitless but I know what skills I've gained the most. My social skills.
Finnick calls Mandy and I for a meeting. We tell him about each of the tributes. "Allies are fine. All you need to do is trust them. I see that you both have some relations with Justin." We both nod. "Well do you know how he got her?" "His name got pulled like the rest of us." Mandy says. She read my mind. "He purposely took several amounts of grain. Which added his name more times." My stomach drops. He wasn't kidding. I remember him talking about how dying in the arena is better than dying in his district. I shouldn't care but, I do. It's our time to go. All of the tributes line up to take our final evaluations. I'm nervous by the time the door shuts behind Mandy. My time is running out. I want to run. I can't. I cannot outrun the Capitol. Plus the other 16 tributes are behind me. I can feel their heavy breathing surround me. Seconds feel like centuries. What's taking Mandy so long? A few moments later, I hear a voice call out above me. "Jerry Romans. District Four." Chills spread throughout my body. I slowly walk through the metal doors. The training center is so empty without everyone and all of the equipment put away. I see the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, standing high on his royal balcony. His guest acknowledge that I'm here. They all pull their attention on me. I nod. I look around for the disk that I most recently found out that it's named a sphliser. I pick it up and locked my eyes on my target. One throw. I throw another. And another. They all hit in the torso area. One final sphliser left. I throw. I watch as it slices through the air. And finally hitting the dummy in the chest. The free me. I know I sucked. I'm screwed. I want to run. But I can't. We all meet Finnick, Syriol and even Q in our living room area to watch the scores. Ceaser Flickerman's face brightness us our TV screen. Time rolls by fast. "District One female, Eri, a score of 9. 10, 9, 9, 5, 5..." My heart drops. "And now for the District Four male, Jerry Romans, with a score of... 7." I was expecting worse but I can somewhat work with that. "And for the District Four Female, Mandy Delta, with a score of... 8" everyone claps, even Syriol. I'm happy for her. I need someone stronger to protect me. Right? My mind tunes out until I hear Twelve. Becca receives a six "...Justin, with a score of... 10" I guess the careers have themselves another team member. Time passes by faster now. Less than a few days until the games. I'm not physically or mentally prepared for this. So many rules that we have to obey. So much sass between Syriol. I just want this to be over. We get to roam around some. That's when I hear a knock on the door. "Jerry open up." A familiar voice calls out. I open slowly. It's Stacey, Eri and Justin. "Ummmm hello... Isn't that against the rules?" I ask. "Not if we don't get caught." Eri says. "Listen, we need you and Mandy to become our allies in the Games." Stacey says. "Um sure, I guess." I say hesitantly. "Wow, I thought we would have to start begging." Justin says with a sigh of relief. "You guys should go, before everyone else comes back." I rush them out of the room and shut the door. Allies with the careers? What is this shit? They must either be very desperate or they just want to be nice. Or maybe they want to use us. Maybe they'll just stab us in our backs while we're sleeping. Literally. Or drown us. Suffocate us. Or even worse. I trust no one. Even if it's an alliance, I'll do whatever it takes to save myself. Even if it cost a life.
Mandy is still gone. I don't know where she is. I haven't seen Finnick and Syriol either. I ponder around the living room area. The thought of being useful is still barring on me. I don't know why but I feel better, free even. Now this means that I have to try. Not only to keep myself alive but, keep others alive too. Maybe it'll make me look good to be brave or be like the hunter of the group. My only hopes is that there's either a lake or something so I can be myself again. I want to feel the waves crash against my ankles. The sweet smell of a summer day. And the most beautiful thing ever. The way the sun sinks into the ocean at the end of the day. Knock knock. I hear chattering at the door. It's Mandy of course. I can also hear Finnick arguing with Syriol. I'm afraid to open the door. But I don't have to. The Avoxes do it for me. It seems kind of cruel that they have these slaves to tend to our needs. So we don't use them. Finnick says that one helped him out when was a tribute. One of them looks my age. Her blue eyes matches her uniform. They are not aloud to look us in the eye but I let her. Her eyes are full of fear and she turns away quickly. Everyone settles in. "Alright you two. Now tonight is one of the most important nights of your life. This is when you really show your amazing personalities to Sponsors." Finnick says. Syriol glances over at Mandy and she smiles sarcastically. I can't bother not to laugh. "Now," Finnick continues, "First we need to talk about speech. Yes of course we need to talk while we're being interviewed." Mandy and I gasp sarcastically. "Yes I know what a game changer. Anyway, try not to reply with 'yes, no, I don't know', or whatever. You want the audience to love you. Make them feel like you're their best friend up there." "I don't think Jerry has any problems with that." Mandy adds in. "Everyone adores him. I overhear things. Sponsors will be pouring their love at you." "At us. I don't care what others think. We are together and nothing will change that." Syriol looks touched. Finnick sits in between Mandy and I. "Thanks for the pep talk but we have some other things to talk about: Humor, Focus, Dressing..." Finnick has us in there for about a few hours more. I'm tired I don't think I can make it. But I have to. Tomorrow are the Games and I don't know if I'm ready or not. I better be. I kind of want to live. It's time to walk out of the door. Outside of the door is another avox. His head points down as soon as I walk out the door. He guides us to the elevator. While he pushes the buttons, I feel something on my shoulder. It's a hand. It's th eh and of the avox girl I saw before. In her other hand is something I couldn't believe I forgot. My bracelet. I thank her and I think she smiles. I'm not sure because her mouth is covered by some type of metal. I confirm that she is smiling because her cheeks are lifted. I smile back but our connection is cut off by Mandy walking pass us both. I realize that we are running late according to Syriol's high pitch screeching. We move quickly on the elevator. Syriol hits the 1 button repeatedly. I shuffle towards the front of the elevator. "Thank y-" I am cut off by the elevator door. We zoom pass each floor. 3. 2. We land on 1. The loud noise of Caesar Flickerman's laugh echoes through the whole building. It hurts my ears because these speakers are more amplified than ever. We run down the walkway towards the backstage where all of the other tributes are. We have one advantage of being one of the first to be interviewed. Getting it over with. There are bunch of bad ones but I don't want to burden myself. Stacey is up next. I can't believe they already started. I don't pay attention to anyone. I try to think of what I need to do and what I need to say. Time is flying fast. Mandy is up now. My heart skips multiple beats. I'm after her. I don't want to go up now because what if I get up there and forget everything I need to say and what if I trip and fall off the stage or even worse shuttering on a very easy word like feather. I take a single breath in. And then I breath out. I need to stop worrying. I got this in the bag. I feel bad for ignoring Mandy's interviews but they're all the same. I'll just wait here. Nervously. I hear clapping. That means Mandy is done. I watch her walk down the stairs like a badass. She hugs me right before I go up. "Next we have a very adorable shrimper's boy from District 4. Jerry Romans" The whole world is clapping for me right now. My family, Fellow people of my District, the Capitol. Everyone in Panem waits for me to sit down next to the legendary Caeser Flickerman. "Hello Caeser" "Hello Mr. Romans." "Please, call me Jerry." The audience laughs. It wasn't funny at all. Caeser goes straight to the questions. "So Jerry, how is it being a shrimper?" "Oh it's very hard work. Some days you have to wake up so early, sometimes even earlier than some Peacekeepers wake up." Caeser coughs "You must never sleep because our Peacekeepers are never off duty." This isn't true. I glance at Finnick in the crowd and he shakes his head. I clear my head. "That's right... I barley sleep." I think I covered that up a bit. "Then how do you look this sharp by rarely sleeping?" Caeser asks. "I guess it's in the genes!" Everyone is laughing. Even I'm laughing. "You're funny Mr - R I mean Jerry." "Whoops you almost slipped there." The interview goes on about my life and what I want to do if I ever win. "I want to share my gift of shrimping to everyone in Panem." "We'll see. Thank you Jerry." The rest of the night is a blur. All I remember is hitting my head on my pillow really hard. I wake up with drool everywhere. Today is the day that I dreaded since the day of the reaping. Now there's no time for games. I get up from my bed to see the living room empty again. No one is here. Did They leave without me? "Jerry, it's almost time." But I Just woke up! I rush to get dressed and Gris something from the dining table to eat. Syriol didn't tell me THST the hovercraft was going to be full of food anyway. The ride was very long. I can't think straight. Time is going by really fast. I can't think straight. I can't. Walking. Walking. Walking. Stop. Sit. Waiting. Walking. Tube. I don't even look at Q. I'm done with everything. Then I remember. I can't quit. My family is out there waiting for me to get home. I tense up. I'm ready. But again I'm not. I need to live. Then o think about my alliance. MY ALLIANCE. I haven't talked to Mandy about our allies. I have to find her quick. Then I remember that I'm in a tube. I've been standing for so long. Then it's like they heard me. I start to lift from the ground. The hatch opens and I automatically feel the cold against my cheeks. The Capitol isn't very efficient with dressing their tributes. I look at my right hand. My bracelet is there of course. I can feel it. My head peaks out if the tube. White. Everywhere is white. 60 seconds. Until I die. Until I'm released into the white blanket of an arena. 55. I can imagine what everyone at home is thinking. 'I'm glad I'm here and not there.' I'd know because I say that every year. 35. I have to win this. I need someone to help. I think the cold is getting to me. I start to shiver. We haven't even started and I'm cold as hell. 15. I need to find my friends. Stacey, Eri, Justin and Mandy. 5. My family 4. 3. I have to win 2. 1. I have to win for myself.