Forever in the Games- UNDER EXTREME EDITING

Chapter Nine

When we get back from training, I take a very long warm shower, and scrub myself head to toe in my favorite smelling soap. When I thought about training yesterday night, I thought it would just be the boring old training like the past years, but no. This year, I think, is going to be completely different. First off there was Cato, who's brother I killed in the final battle last year. I've already wound him up by making little Rue take his knife, but of course, he doesn't know I was the one behind it. Oh, and then there was little Rue, who I'd made do my dirty work for me, although she didn't seemed phased by it. I have to admit, the little girl was cute, I suppose she might survive a day of two in the arena.

I step out of the shower, and dry myself, before changing into black leggings, a flowy grey top, black flats, and head into the dining room. When I arrive, Haymitch, Effie, Katniss and Peeta, are already in a deep discussion.

"They train in a special academy until they're eighteen and by that point, they're pretty lethal" Haymitch states, taking a spoonful of soup after.

"Is this the Careers we're talking about?" I smile, as they all turn around.

"Yes, we are Lucinda. Come sit" Effie tells me, gesturing towards the seat next to her. "But they don't receive any special treatment! in fact they stay in the exact same apartment as you do! And I don't think they let them have dessert, and you can!" I give a silent laugh, as poor Effie begins to dig into her plate of food.

"So, how good are they?" Peeta asks, finally looking away from Effie.

"Well, obviously they're pretty good, they used to win it almost every year before Lucinda came along." I smirk, and turn my head towards Katniss.

"But that's the careers problem, they can be arrogant, and arrogance, can be a big, problem." I state, resting my chin on my palm of my hand, still looking at Katniss, who's giving me a horrible look.

"I hear you can shoot' Haymitch interrupts, causing Katniss to break the eye contact.

"I'm alright"

"No, she's better than alright, my father buys her squirrels. He says she hits them right in the eye, every time." I nod my head slowly in approval

"Peeta's strong" We all look at him, and he's got a look on his face as if he doesn't have a clue what she's talking about

"What?"

"He can throw a 100 pound sack of flour over his head, I've seen him."

"Okay, well I'm not going to kill anybody with a sack of flour." Effie and I's heads swift left and right as they both argue.

"No, but you might have a better chance of winning, if someone comes at you with a knife-"

"I have no chance of winning! None! Alright?!" Peeta raises his voice, causing us all to fall into silence.

"Well it's true, and everybody knows it" He says calmly.

"Yeah but Peeta, that's what I thought, but look-" But he cut me off.

"Don't even try and cheer me up Lucinda, going against you, we all know we won't stand a chance!" Again, he raises his voice. I look down at my food, my appetite suddenly vanished.

"You know what my mother said? She said District Twelve may finally have a different winner, but she wasn't talking about me, or her in fact" He looks at me, and then turns to Katniss "She was talking about you"

An awkward silence overcomes us. Did she really say that? Looks like I really have some competition this year, and who could have guessed it would have been from my own District! We usually have weaklings come to the arena, clearly not this year.

"I'm not very hungry" Peeta announces, tossing his napkin onto his plate and walks out of the room. Katniss seems to be thinking incredibly hard about something, Haymitch and Effie are just messing around with their food. Yawning, Katniss throws her napkin onto her plate.

"I'm done too" and she walks out of the room.

"Well that was intense!" I say, as I lean back in my chair, and the other two let out a sigh of relief, almost as if they'd been holding their breaths.

"It was my dear, it was" Effie says, taking a sip of wine.

"Peeta shouldn't be thinking like that, I mean, I might get killed off before he does, so I don't see what his problem is."

"Oh come on Luce! Seriously! You've been part of these games for six, now seven years! I'm sure if your destiny said it was your time to go, then it would have done it years ago" There was a pause.

"I guess I get to choose my destiny" I sigh "So what's the plan tomorrow?"

"Training, and I think it's your private sessions with the Game makers." I've never liked them sessions, they watch you like a hawk, but not all the time, sometimes they're too drunk to even remember.

"Sounds like a plan" I stand, and walk away. When I walk down the corridor, I see Katniss, standing be the glass window of the corridor, her hands on the window sill, she looks as though she's trying to breath.

"You know people usually open the window to get some air, not just stand by it hoping it's gonna open." I say, making her head snap up in my direction.

"Yeah, well not all of us have been here as long as you have to know that the window opens" I smirk, and open the window for her. I lift myself up, so I'm sitting on the window sill, legs crossed.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, wouldn't someone want to jump from up here in attempted suicide?" She asks, as she peeks over to see the drop.

"Oh yeah, it's been done, well, attempted. They've put a force field at the bottom, you'd just bounce back up, you might even land on the roof, it's incredibly powerful, look, I'll show you." I jump down, walk into Katniss' room, grab a pen, and come back out.

"You're going to demonstrate with a pencil?" She raises an eyebrow

"Pen" I correct her "this will probably some back up in bits, if you're as small and fragile as your sister then she'd probably end up the same." Katniss tenses up.

"Don't talk about my sister like that"  I raise my hands with a sigh, and let go of the pen, as it plummets to the ground. We both peek over the edge for a quick second, but that second was enough to see tiny bits heading straight back towards us.

"Mind your head" I say, slightly pulling her back when I move away. The sound of tiny raindrops fall into the window, sure enough, there lying in crumbled pieces, was the pen.

"Jesus, that's powerful" She exclaims, examining the bits carefully.

"Yeah it really is, but if it was a human size like you and me, it's probably give you a concussion" I tell her, rising to my feet "As much fun as this has been, but I'm going to go now, and please for the love of Effie, don't jump out of the window" I hear Katniss laugh, as I begin to walk away.

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning it" She replies. I give a tiny chuckle, and walk to my room. Leaving Katniss alone on the floor, staring at the tiny bits of pen.