Author's Game Entries

Task 1: First Impressions

 "Andie I highly doubt you should be drinking that. You're underage." When I finally speak up, it happens to be the first thing I've said since boarding the train.

Glancing to the girl I'd addressed, I find her tilting her chair back dangerously far at the table adjacent to mine, her feet propped up on the surface while she drank hard liquor from too large of a glass.

"Fuck you, Hedroe, I can do what I want." She snaps, giving me a glare before taking another defiant swig. It seems as though the little punk has finally realized the situation she's gotten herself into. Won't make it any easier on me though.

Making it through a Hunger Games? Easy enough. Mentoring a self righteous brat? Even harder. Honestly this job would have been better tasked to someone who gives more than the fucks I do about this little turd's survival. There are enough other victors from One, is it really that hard to find someone else?

Apparently.

Sighing, I stand up from my seat. The chair makes a scraping sound against the wood of the train car floor as it's pushed back, serving to catch Andie's attention. "Alright listen here you lil' shit, I'm only going say this once; I'm your mentor now and you're going to do as I say. So put the glass down and listen to me."

Andie finally looks over to me fully and she stares for a long moment before she lets out an indignant snort and drops the glass to the ground. She gives me a smirk as it shatters, and I can't keep the hand from my face, or from dragging it down in a clearly exasperated manner. Do all tributes from One have to be such brats?

"So if you're my mentor than actually mentor me, don't just tell me what I already know." Andie remarks, still watching me with that puckish look or her's. I couldn't tell if she was drunk or if she was just trying to annoy me, but either way she's doing a good job of it.

Abruptly I grab one of the chairs across the table from her and roughly pull it out, sitting down again. I'm still rubbing my forehead tiredly and my response ends up coming out as a grunt. "Get your feet off the fucking table. And sit right you lil' snob, if you fall back and crack your skull on the floor you're still going to have to compete in this game."

"Bite me." She retorts, sticking her tongue out at me. After a second's pause though she reluctantly does as she's told, taking her feet off the table and letting the chair tilt forward so all four legs were on the ground.

"Any other wise suggestions you can give me, oh magnificent mentor?" She jeers before I can say any sort of 'thank you', and the snarky tone is enough to finally make me lose it.

My hand drops to the table with a thump and I stare at her with an almost disbelieving look. Oh the arrogance, how could she even be so confident? "You think this is just a game, don't you. That it doesn't really matter that 23 people are soon to be slaughtered and one of them might even be you!" I harshly snap.

Andie seems stricken at the sudden outburst, her jaws opening and closing for a moment like a dying fish. She clearly has no idea what to respond with.

"Of course you do. All of you do." I don't even stop to give her time to come up with a response. "Do you know why tributes from One don't win every single game? Why there's even a competition? It would certainly make sense if they did win all the time wouldn't it, you're all the most trained and capable, hell, no one is as prepared for the games as One.

"But you don't always win, do you, and you know why that is? It's because of how arrogant you all are, how conceited. You're just like the rest of them, Andie, every single tribute from One went into there believing they were going to come out the victor. It didn't even cross their mind they'd die. Have you even considered how many people you're going to have to kill now to make it back here alive? Have you?"

The girl's lips curl down in a snarl and as soon as I pause she already has some haughty response to bark back at me. "Of course! I'm not some dumb little-"

"Not some dumb little what? Tribute from 11? From 12? Is that what you were going to say?" I'm interrupting her immediately, not finding her defense valid at all. "Well let me tell you, Kendall, all those kids from lower districts are just as clever as you, if not more. For all you know one of those very kids could be the death of you. And you know what you'll be then? Just another dead tribute from One; just another face marked by a cannon."

I stop my own angry rant abruptly then only as I see the girl's expression. Andie seems somewhat stricken, and is in a shocked silence, unable to come up with some rude or snarky comeback. I hadn't realized I'd been scaring her until now. Oops.

Giving her one last onceover, I make the choice to allow her to keep her pride by keeping the rest of my spiel to myself. Believe me when I say I wasn't nearly done yet.

Andie takes note of this silence and she clears her throat before she stands up. "Thank you for your advice." She says curtly before swiftly exiting the train car, leaving me sitting here by myself.

I don't try to follow her of course. Instead I reach over the table to the discarded liquor bottle Andie had left, taking a swig of it myself. Hypocritical as I am, hopefully I managed to knock some sense into the stupid kid. If she doesn't learn, well, she's sure to actually be just another face marked by a cannon.