When The Canary Sings

Sandy-Sally

Third Person Point of View: 

* 

It did not take long for the rest of the victors to realize that every little thing that Becca did had both a rhythm and a rhyme. From the tap-tap-stomp of her foot under the table as she chatted with sponsors to the click-click-clock of her tongue. Each moment with her was never quiet, whether her voice was filling the air with a melody, or a quiet rhythm was echoing from the back corner of the mentor's lounge.

Right now, she quietly clicked her tongue in the rhythm that resembled the countdown of a clock. Day three of the games, and Katniss and Peeta were still separated, although they did run into each other. Just before dawn on the second day Katniss, who was hoisted up in a tree, watched as the Careers killed the girl from District Eight. But after that, Peeta and the careers left. Becca couldn't shake the eerie parallel between Peeta and Picker. Both Peeta and Picker were able to play the audience, then went off with the careers.

Now on the third day, Katniss is so dehydrated she's stumbling around like a mad woman.

"We have to send her something, Haymitch!" Becca hissed under her breath, passing him slyly and whispering it in his ear. In a short time, she mastered the Capitol and District alike art of whispering secrets in passing steps.

"No." He stated simply, "not yet."

"Haymitch, she hasn't drinken a thing in three days!" She whispered through a smile and gritted teeth. To any bystander, it would be like she was joking with her former mentor. "We have the money." She said.

"We're not wasting it."

"How would it be wasting it?" She asked, "you made the deal with–" Her sentence was cut short as he planted his hands on her shoulders and spun her around to face the screen.

"Look." He said, and she peered at the screen. Half was Katniss wandering around, the other was Thresh hacking at a tree with a large machete. Becca scanned the picture of Katniss, she was leaned up against a tree, her face pale and her hands digging into the muddy earth.

The sponsor's lounge quieted as they watched what could be the end of Katniss Everdeen. This was it. Katniss was dead. Her hands gripped the muddy ground as her fingers dug some of it up.

Mud!

Becca and Katniss seemed to realize it at the same exact time. Mud means there's water nearby. Haymitch watched Katniss realize and squeezed Becca's shoulders out of relief. Soon after that, Katniss finds the pond and almost collapses into it. She purifies it, drinks slowly, and rests.

Becca swivels back to her mentor, "how–"

"You forget," he teased, "I've played the game much more times than you have." He states. Technically, they have both played the game once, but he's talking about mentoring. He has been mentoring for 24 years, versus her not-even-one year.

After an hour of the cameras not showing anything of Katniss and just taking aerial shots of the arena, Haymitch and Becca retreat back to the mentors lounge.

"They're planning something." Beetee spoke as Becca took a seat on a pristine white leather couch. "The aerial shots. That means nothing is happening right now in the arena. Everyone is too far apart."

"They're gonna push them together." Johanna asserts, taking a shot of whiskey. Becca eyes it up and down, wondering if the whiskey smelt like the hob.

"It won't happen until tomorrow." Seeder adds, "the party tonight. They won't let anything important happen while the victors are at a party. While everyone is at a party."