The 67th Hunger Games

The Capitol

{Fredrick's POV}

We got on the train and went to our designated section. We made 7 more stops at each district to collect the tributes. I was quiet most of the time but I at least tried making friends with Portia. She was really cute actually. But I knew I couldn't get attached to her. You know, going into an arena and fighting against each other and only one can live isn't the best scenario to be in. But she was so pretty. I had never really seen her before the reaping, I mean when I went to school. She told me that she lived in a town that was and hour away from mine which is why I had never seen her. She had golden long hair and was a perfect blend between wavy and straight. I sounds like it doesn't make sense, but I don't know how to explain it. She had beautiful blue eyes and the perfect smile....

No. I can't do this. There are only three scenarios that could happen 1). I die, she lives 2). She dies, and I live and 3). We both die. We can't both live which is what kills me. I'm fine. It's just a crush right? For the first 3 districts we stopped at, we didn't talk much. But when we got around to District 9 she started talking to me. I know it sounds weird but I kind of got nervous when she talked to me. I felt like if I said something weird I would ruin our friendship. It was stupid. I felt like a helpless child. One time, she was talking to me about going into the arena and wishing me luck. She grabbed my hand and my heart stopped. This wasn't some crush. It was more than that. Much more than that.

The rest of the train ride was just small talk. Like stuff about her family and friends, about my family and friends. It really got me thinking about Jonathan. He was such a good brother to me and George and Lily. I really missed them all...

We met our mentors Jeeder and Rover on the train. I had thought that all of the tributes who had won the Games were our mentors but I guess it was just the previous two. Jeeder and Rover usually talked to us together but there were times when Rover would just talk to me personally about the Games. He told me about how he had won the 57th Hunger Games by making allies with Careers and then killing them one by one when they were sleeping. See, they slept in a cave so they didn't use a lookout (stupid) and he killed them by snapping there necks so it would be quieter and no one would wake up. The next day he would persuasively blame it on another tribute and they would be killed anyways because they were traitors so it was two birds with one stone.

So we get into the Capitol and started training around the day after we arrived. The first day there was okay. It felt like they were treating us like royalty or something. Kind of odd because you know, they're going to murder us. It just felt like they were trying to get us comfortable and then just at the right moment they throw us into the arena to be killed. The Capitol was full of sick people. This isn't even a remembrance of our rebellion anymore. It's a TV show to watch innocent kids be murdered and slaughtered. This is what our world has come to.

That night we watched all of the reapings with Jeeder and Rover along with the rest of Panem. We looked for the kids that could possibly be threats. Of course Districts 1, 2, and 4 were all threats because every tribute volunteered. Meaning they wanted to play in the Games. They wanted to fight. They were prepared. They were called Careers. They usually traveled in packs and rarely let any other districts in on the group. But, as I said Rover managed to take down the Careers one by one and he went completely unnoticed. I thought about the 57th Hunger Games (Rover's victor year) a lot because his strategy might come a lot in handy. Manipulating the Careers in to turning on each other. Plus, most people might not even think much of it because when a Career tribute doesn't win, people just think of it as a fluke, a mistake. They don't pay attention much to how the other people won. And now, it's 10 years later so some of the people playing now, in these Games, were only 2-8 years old when that happened so they probably don't remember. I could make alliances with the Careers if I tried hard enough. I would just have to show my strengths. Working at the electrical facility in District 5, since I'm only 16 and I'm some what built, I carry heavy things around in there. I would also hunt sometimes just for extra money to make at the market. I feel like I would be good at bow and arrows because thats what I used when hunting. We made our way to our first day of training. When I got off of the elevator I just about pissed my pants.