The Catastrophic Century: a Hunger Games fanfiction

03.

Flint Loggs

I LOOK IN the mirror for the first time after I got dressed and my prep team did my makeup, I didn't make a deal out of that either, which I'm pretty shocked about. They even contoured my muscles, which sounded ridiculous to me. And now I see myself standing there, with a lot of strands of seaweed draped over my shoulders and torso and a fishtail starting from my hips to my feet. I feel ridiculous, but I know it will be worth it. Because Candice has shown me what happens when I push the button on the side of my tail.

I waited for Tori and together we walked to the chariots. "Any last advice to be likable?" I ask Wick, only half joking. He grins but replies anyway, "Everybody likes somebody who is hard to get." I'll have to figure out what that means for myself, because we are called to get on the chariot. The doors open and District One leaves first. When we do I feel different. I'm playing to be the hot guy, whose smirk and wink can make any girl swoon.

I smirk towards the crowd on the right as they chant my name. On the left a woman screams my name and I wink in her direction, I believe I saw somebody literally collapse but we're going way to fast for me to know for sure. I continue to smirk and wink at them, occasionally waving and sometimes even smiling at the crowd. All the districts are out now and I nod at Tori as a sign. She nods back and we both push the button. Our fishtails pop to bubbles and water and the seaweed is gone as well. We both have a lone strand strapped over our shoulder. Tori looks like a blonde Little Mermaid with legs.

The crowd goes wild for us as we now have more skin on display, especially me, revealing my whole torso. I'm smirking and winking, the tactic seems to work, considering that people are literally feinting. We come to a stop and I see some Tributes staring and some are glaring. The president has his usual speech and welcomes us to the Capitol. I keep a smile on, but on the inside I'm throwing up. I despise him, how he got his power is a mystery to me.

As we're getting off the chariot our whole team showers us and our stylists in compliments. Oh how wonderful we were. We should have seen ourselves. I thank everybody and mainly point at Candice because she worked her magic on me. Everybody is over the moon with how well we 'preformed'. I see the boy from Two looking at me, when our eyes lock he smiles at me. Wick takes my attention, "You exactly did what I wanted you to do! How did you know what I meant?" I smile at him, "Well I've seem enough guys in our district walking around like they are Neptune's gift to the world. So I just tried to mimic them." Wick laughs at my response.

We walk to the elevator and we get to the fourth floor. Tori and Mahogony go to sleep after dinner, trying to save as much energy as possible for the first day of training. Wick and I decide stay up for a while. "You know, I've been mentoring for over ten years now, and you are one of the most promising Tributes I've ever had," Says Wick after a while. I look at him, "Thank you. That really means a lot to me." Wick smiles, then glances at the books scattered around me, "You should get some sleep," He says. I nod and go to bed as he said.

This time Cailo does wake me up, "Wake up, wake up, wake up. It's a beautiful day and don't you dare miss it. Also, first day of training!" She eventually leaves and I take a quick shower before going for breakfast. I'm the last one to arrive. After that we go to the training center, wearing simple training gear with the number of our district on the back.

A woman starts to speak once everybody is here and she talks about what we shouldn't forget. The fire building station, for example, or the poisonous plants. Then she tells us what we aren't allowed to do, which is pretty obvious to me, we aren't allowed to fight other Tributes. We'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. Everybody leaves to a station and I head to the combat with an axe. A boy from Seven is there too, but, even though he's from the lumber district, he doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing. We both listen to the instructor and I start to get the hang of the weapon as I go. I start to practice swinging axes at dummies and eventually throwing axes at them.

I feel like I have the basics after thrifty minutes, it isn't the hardest weapon to master if you've had experience with other ones. I head to the knives throwing station where the Careers are too. They look at each other, smirking. I look them one by one in the eye, clearly not intimidated by them. "Oh, Four is trying to be cool," Says the girl from One. The girl from Two laughs, "Well, let's sea what he's got," She adds, clearly finding herself very funny. "Whatever floats your boat," I shoot back while gathering the knives I want. I pass one from my right hand to my left one. That feels good to start with.

I throw the knife with so much force it's at least halfway buried into the dummy. I throw another one, then turn quickly, hurling another two knives into the other dummy next to the first one. I look the girl from Two dead in the eye, "Sea you around." Then I walk off to the trident station, knowing that their eyes are still on me. I ask for hologram dummies and have some practice but there's nothing they can really teach me. I turn around to see the boys from One and Two looking at me. I smirk at them and then I head to the station about poisonous plants. I stick to that station until lunch.

During lunch I planned on sitting alone, but the Careers confidently strut towards my table and seat themselves around it. "Look at those pathetic losers," The girl from Two gestures towards the table that the tributes form District 12 sit on. "They look like dead rats," Gossips the girl from One. Both of them burst into a fit of giggles. I give the boy from One a questioning look, he shrugs in response.

Nothing special happened during lunch. I learned their names, which was a good thing, considering they might be my companions in the arena. After lunch I tried to get to as many survival stations as possible, and I would save any other weapons for later. Cedric, the boy from Two, asked me why I stayed away from the weapons. "I didn't have years of training to prepare myself for this, so I need to know how to survive." Was my answer, I said it with an annoyed undertone, but he laughed it off, thinking it was a joke.

It wasn't a joke to me. Every year I'd be so annoyed with the Careers winning the Games, because the others just didn't stand a chance against them. Because the Career's parents were rich enough to put them in that school and train them from a very young age. The idea of people training their children to be vicious killing machines disgusted me. It still does, and yet here I am, preparing to be exactly what they are. Cold, merciless and lethal.

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