Midnight Azalea-A Story of the 34th Hunger Games

Chapter 10-May the Odds be Never in Your Favor

The Training Center, a giant dome some four hundred feet under the Tribute Center, packed with targets, weapons, stations, and everything to prepare for the Arena. I weigh my options. Maybe the rope tying station is my best bet. I head there as Natiel turns on his heel to practice spear throwing. I glare at him like what are you doing as he joins the boy from District 7. Elsewhere, the Girl from District 1 wields a sword and chops up a few dummies. Soon she's giving me a grin and I turn my head and peer at the bows and arrows. About fifty yards away from the dummy is the girl from District 2, piercing the heart with her arrow. Then I see the survival station, where the tributes from 3 are building fires. I examine their work, and then I see a pillar of smoke billow up, and following comes the flare. "Good work, Hazel," says the.boy. They notice my stare and look at my eyes, but I retort and head to the tying station over by the Camoflauge station, where the boy from 4 is painting himself as if he was a canopy of leaves. Beautiful work. Soon the girl from his District has come to call him over.

"Athena?" He asks her. She nods her head and they move to the bows and arrows, where the girl from 2 has just finished piercing the end of her arrow.

I then see at the station I am heading for stands the girl from 12 and 8. They both distance each other, and 12 makes a square knot while 8 makes a noose. The ties show their personalities, so I head for Distirct 12.

I grab a rope and head to her table. "hi," I say to her, the first word I say to a tribute that is not Natiel.

"hi," she responds. "Um...are you one of those shining farmers?"

I didn't know that was my name. "My name is Azalea." I peer over at Natiel, who is getting in a skirmish with Maximus, a Career. "Wait a second," I say. I run to Natiel as Maximus demands a knife from the girl from 1. "Hey!" I scream at Maximus, which may sign my death sentence.

He smirks. "Petty shining farmers...what the hell do you want?"

"Here." The girl from 1 hands him a knife. He takes it generously.

"You honestly think you can kill us yet?" I say to him, but before I can say anything else Natiel's burly arm pushes me behind him. He stands up to Maximus, who grins. "Really?" Maximus says. "Really?"

Everybody around is laughing, even 12, who goggles but at my gaze moves on to her attempt at a noose. The two from 4, who frolick in the water poo with tridents and nets, laugh as well. Their laughs are at us, the shining farmers. Then they taunt us with hearts and assume we love eachother. "Shut up!" I yell.

Natiel turns to me, and Maximus drops his knife, grabs me, pushes me hard to the ground, the impact of the floor knocking the wind out of me. Natiel pulls me back, and soon security takes the awnry boy from district 2 away, resulting in spits and silence from the Careers.

Natiel shakes his head in dissappointment at me and goes to the axes station.

So much for acting like a bird, Natiel could've taken Maximus on, but I panicked. Now I'm the center of death, the one the Careers want.

I finish up tying a noose, the girl from 12 applauding me then telling me her name Aris. I tell her my name Azalea then the day I end in the survival station.

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The next day I try climbing, making it to the top then jumping down, my knees buckling and my ankles firing on impact, but I pretend through my damaged gait I felt no pain.

Next I head to the empty bows and arrows station, where I shoot and miss three shots, the last two dedicated to the forehead and thigh.

Finally I paint little swirls on my body at the camoflauge station where I spend the most time at. Apparently,when I was young, I used to draw all day with the chalk set I got on my eighth birthday from the Sector Shop, and some peacekeepers came and took me home when I started coloring people's houses on multiple occasions. So I enjoy this station, until the tributes from 6 come. They're fairly nice but quiet, so I never catch their name, and when I begin to try a conversation they just proceed to painting eachother into the gold of the Cornucopia.