The Tribute and the Victor

Chapter 9

I skipped back into the lounge where my nervous mentor sat fumbling around with the bottom of his shirt."It went amazingly well!" I exclaimed as I practically leaped up onto the couch. "Oh thank heavens!" He said as he let out a long gasp and hugged me. After i had finished explaining exactly what had happened in the training centre, Axe stormed in and charged straight upstairs towards his room. "That surely has to be a bad sign" Caleb said nervously. "I'm not sure, it could just be him being his usual self" I said hopefully. But Caleb wasn't so sure. I watched him as he stared at where Axe had just charged through. His hair sat perfectly in place and his eyes seemed a much deeper blue than usual. I started to get the heavy feeling in my chest again. I couldn't be falling in love with my mentor...could I? Suddenly my prep team and Pheonix came bursting through the doors demanding all the details about what had happened. So I had to explain the story for a second time but I didn't mind, as I was proud of myself and didn't mind boasting about my achievement.Later on that evening, Caesar Flickerman popped up on our television screen to announce the scores that the gamemakers had given us. We all dived for the couch and made sure we didn't miss a single tributes score. Both Hemlock and Chalice got a score of 10 out of a possible 12. The girl from district 4 got a score of 8, a tanned boy with medium length, straight, jet black hair from 5 that I soon learned that his name was Raven got a score of 11. And then it came to district 7. I noticed Axe lean forward a little closer to the screen. "Darcy Quinn!" He said with a slight pause. "With a score of...Ten!" He exclaimed. My heart suddenly lifted. I felt Caleb's hand squeeze mind as i made a relieved gasp. "Axe Arch!" Caesar continued. "With a score of...ten also" he exclaimed. Everyone turned towards him and gasped. How did he manage that? We all thought he'd done terrible by the way he had gone off about it. He didn't say a word though, he just sat back in his seat with a smug grin on his face as if to say "you didn't expect that did you?" But he was right...we didn't! That evening i sat staring at the blank tv screen on my own in the darkness, still trying to picture the wonderful 10 that had shown up on the screen earlier that evening. I sat for a while with slightly more positive thoughts about the games. Maybe I was in with a chance of winning, after all I did get one of the highest scores. I felt Caleb sit beside me in the darkness."Well done" he whispered. "Thanks" I whispered back. Before anything else was said I felt him come closer to me. "I'm going to do everything in my power to bring you home, back to your family, back to your friends, back to me" he said softly. I couldn't help myself, I leaned in closer resting my head against his and let him kiss me properly for the first time. And I kissed him back.