Through A Mentor's View

Chapter 3 - At the Zoo

As all mentors gathered at the main exist, discussing their very first meeting with their tributes, Livia felt almost bad for the fact she'd gotten so little information out of Facet. Fortunately, some of her classmates had an equally uninspiring meeting.

"Mine wouldn't speak. Not a word!" Clemensia cursed. "All I've got is what I had after the reaping. His name. Reaper. Can you imagine naming your child Reaper and them ending up in the reaping?"

"There was no reaping when he was born." Lysistrata explained. 

"Mine spoke." Arachne cursed. "I almost wish she hadn't. It seems like she spends most of her time in District 10 butchering hogs." she acted like she gagged. "What am I supposed to with that? I wish I could make up something better."

Livia hesitated and wondered whether she should give Arachne the advice of just using her tributes' skills as something that could be used in the arena. But then Arachne had already began talking about how she visited the districts during her childhood and had seen what District 10 really is like, saying she had some great ideas for Brandy in mind - that she didn't want anyone to know about. Arachne maybe wasn't as competitive about the Plinth prize as others but she was competitive about being the best student and receiving the most attention. 

"My tribute cried for fifteen minutes straight." Pup complained. "My hopes for District 7 are all hanging on your tribute, Vipsania."

Vipsania, almost dreamily, spoke about her tribute Treech in the kindest words. Almost too kind. Livia recalled the way Vipsania and Treech held hands and if she had to guess, she'd say Vipsania had a crush on Treech. The thought made her cringe. Someone as rich and wealthy as Vipsania, who always appeared to class perfectly styled, would fall for some District boy? Maybe Vipsania didn't have the best taste when it came to love interests but to fall for a district boy? 

"Treech has good chances but he needs to let go of his friendship with his district partner" Vipsania said, the smile having vanished and being replaced with a cold expression, "She'll only hold him back. He needs to forget about her in order to get out of this arena."

"Coral's mentioned about wanting an alliance with Treech" Festus spoke up. "Maybe that's not a bad idea. Eliminate all the weak tributes and then give a spectacular fight between all the strong ones."

Persephone grimaced at these words. "Coral wants to protect Mizzen. He's like her younger brother - he's only 13 after all. I'm not sure if she could kill him if she had to."

"Well, he can hardly kill her so one has to make the move" Felix replied dryly. "My tribute is so poorly, she just coughed at me for fifteen minutes." he shrugged. Livia thought of a good insult but couldn't find one. Felix didn't need to worry about whether he could win the Plinth prize or not. His father could buy him his way to the most important jobs and besides, Felix was the future president of Panem. If someone didn't have to worry, it was him.

"Ginnee is so sweet" Diana said, "Shame she stands no chance. She's only 15 years old but already works all day. Her family is too poor to have her attend school so she has to work. She's one of ten kids - can you imagine? I thought Arachne with her four brothers is a lot but ten kids?"

"Excuse me?" Arachne asked, looking up from her notes. "My family's hardly big. Besides, my father wanted several kids to help him taking over all those hotels - that was before the war came."

Arachne, similar to her classmate, had been a small child when the Dark Days came. The Dark Days that not only destroyed so many plans and hopes but also destroyed entire families. Despite all of them had gone back to their wealth, some families weren't the same anymore. Nero Price, Persephone's father, was the prime example.