The 200th Annual Hunger Games - The Ultimate Games

The Ultimate Games - Day 2 (Morning)

Valentina Curtis POV

I laid on my side, my cheek pressing gently into the dirt as I picked at the grass absentmindedly, listening to my allies arguing above me.

"Aria, you need to calm do-"

"Shut the fuck up, Al, this isn't about you."

"Don't tell my brother to shut up, you bitch!"

I sighed, staring out at my surroundings in my lopsided view. We had decided to hike up one of the cliff, and were camping in the forest, just a minute away from the clifftop. We could see almost everything from that vantage point, one of the main reasons we chose this as a spot. Perhaps one of the disadvantages was the threat of being pushed off by one of our 'allies', but I wasn't fussed about that. If anything, the ones to go that far would be Aria or Xenia, who had developed an extraordinarily strong mutual hatred for each other in mere hours.

If they kept up their bickering, I'd probably shove the lot of them off the cliff just to shut them up.

"Did you really just say that?" Aria screeched, startling me out of my stupor and probably alerting every life form in the arena to our location, "For fucks sake, please just punch yourself in the face so I don't have to."

"Wow," Xenia snorted, "Leave the snarky comments to me, sweetie. They don't suit you."

"Oh my god," Aria muttered, turning away from Xenia and running a hand through her hair. She stood still for a moment, her hands clasped at the back of her dark brown hair and her face rapidly turning crimson, then all of a sudden turned around and marched back up to Xenia, her eyes filled with anger.

"You think you're all that, huh?" she snapped, "Well guess what? There's the cliff, bitch! Do us all a favour and throw yourself off of it."

I cocked my head to the side. Aria's face had gotten very red. Very very red. It was not a good look.

"The only person I'd be doing a favour is you, Aria. Why don't you jump off that cliff, huh? It'd save us all a headache, that's for sure. And it's not like anyone at home would miss you."

"I'll have you know I have a family at home that actually cares about me," Aria snapped, "Unlike you."

I pushed up from the ground, settling into a seated position and watching the scene in front of me.

"What, your mother who's devolved into a drug addict?" Xenia leered, taking a step forward, "Your little sister who's being watching her big sister slaughter innocent kids, who's watched you become a monster? Now what was her name again... Elinor, is it?"

"Don't you talk about my family like that," Aria snarled, "Don't you bring them into this, you bitch," Despite her hard tone, I could hear her voice shaking slightly.

"You're the one who brought up family, sweetie. Not me."

Aria stood still. Never in my life had I seen someone's face go from red to white to purple to red again that quickly. Then, Aria shook her head as if to shake herself out of her stupor, glaring down the raven-haired girl that stood in front of her.

"We don't want a stupid, obnoxious bitch like you leading our group," Aria snapped, "Right Valentina?"

I rested my chin in my hand, barely taking notice that both Aria and Xenia were now staring at me. Aria's face was still tomato red. It didn't suit her.

"Valentina, I'm talking to you," Aria snapped. I blinked, broken out of my stupor, and looked Aria in the face. I hadn't been listening to a word she and Xenia had exchanged. I cocked my head to the side with frown, my eyes drawn back to Aria's red face. Her face tended to go fire engine red when she was angered.