A Blooming Rose (hunger games fan-fic)

Chapter 21 (the Mentor's Room: Before the 52nd Annual Hunger Games)

Rose walked into a room full of mentors. The mentors were victors from previous Hunger Games. Each district had one mentor and it was always the latest victor who would be mentoring. That meant Rose was mentoring for the tributes of District 11. She walked towards a line of comfortable seats and sat in the one labeled '11.' Rose knew some of the mentors from the victory tour, but she did not feel like talking to any of them at the moment. The games would be starting soon and Rose needed to work on keeping her tributes alive. If her tributed survive the Bloodbath, it was Rose's job to watch over them and sending them supplies from sponsors, if they got any at all. The tributed from 11 this year were small and weak. They were scared out of their minds. Their training scores were 5 and 4.

Rose had tried the same tactic as Chaff had: getting to know her tributes, knowing their strengths. The only strengths that they had were farming and gathering food. She knew they wouldn't last long in the arena, but she had hope for them.

Rose listened to the conversations around her. Mentors were catching up, picking up on conversations that they had started during the last games, bragging about their tributes. Rose chose not to speak up. She just watched the screen where the games would be showing.

Suddenly, a hand landed on her shoulder. Rose jumped and spun around in her seat. Haymitch stood over her with a smile on his face.

"Nice to see you again," he said.

"You too, Haymitch. How do your tributes look this year?"

"Worst than last's. Kids were scared to death. Not sure if they'll survive, but that all we can do for them; keep them alive throughout the games. But that's only if we get sponsors. The poorer districts normally don't get many sponsors unless they're in the last few remaining tributes."

Rose nodded.

"I know what you mean. My only parachute came after that tiger attack."

"I was really impressed by that. I wasn't sure if you would make it out or end up like Affron."

"Well, I made it out alright. Not a scratch on me."

"Yeah, thanks to the Capitol."

Rose smiled slightly and looked back at the screen as Haymitch sat in the seat next to her marked '12.'

"Why do they do this to us?" she whispered. "They make us come back every year to train and help kids our age, sometimes older or younger, and watch them die. You can't go back to your district with the pain of letting two innocent children die, but the Capitol does it every year. It's so painful."

Haymitch took her hand.

"It'll be alright. The tributes of Eleven have a great mentor this year."

Rose blushed. She looked at Haymitch, but his expression was very surprised. Rose realized what had happened and closed her eyes, taking her hand away from Haymitch's. Her eyes had turned a yellow-green color.

"Rose," he said, his voice full of surprise and bits of humor.

"Haymitch, you can't tell anyone. No one can find out. I'm usually so much more cautious than this."

Haymitch took her hand back. She opened her eyes and looked at them.

"I think they're wonderful. You shouldn't have to hide them."

Rose smiled.

"Thank you, but I can't afford to do that."