Hide and Seek

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A/N: Please comment, vote, suggest, and support! ♥ 

Here's Ari3ll3Erica's silver parachute containing a special message: "I dedicate this to JellyBomb. Funniest girl I know, we can crack inside jokes all day long. She's got this direct line to my funny bone, I swear. Her sense of humor fits the shell with mine. She is a sweet and friendly person and has been one of my best friends since sixth grade. I thank you for sponsoring Skyler Odair! Hope you never give up on her!"

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A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.

I wake up and dont know where I am. I'm staring at solid white and for some reason I think I've gone blind, until the shock wears off. My head is burning and especially my eye. I reach up and touch the skin around my eye and know immediately it is bruised. I moan and role over, finally realizing that in a bedroom.

Everything comes back to me. Me waking from my fall in Sebastian's arms, tripping up the stairs on the way up to the stage, tripping over air on the way up to the train. How clumsy and simple minded I must look to viewers and Capitol people. At least I'm working my way up, out of view from people who want to pursue me in the arena.

I look around the room I'm in. It has white walls with a creme colored frame. There seems to be some kind of dressing area and private bathroom from where I'm laying on the bed. I get up slowly, just with a small headache. On top of a drawer is a note.

Sebastian picked Rita as his mentor, so I suppose you're stuck with me. Be down in an hour for supper. Everything is at your disposal.

                                                                                                                                               -Nikolai Benson

Nikolai Benson. He won the 84th Hunger Games at age fifteen. I remember watching the television that year when he ripped open a tribute's chest with his bare hands. I shudder and wish I didn't have such a remarkable memory.

I decide to take a shower. I have a bathtub at our home in the Victors Village, but it is nothing like the bathroom here. Water cascades down from the ceiling. There is a panel to the side that holds a variety of soaps and ointments. I take about ten minutes, water still streaming down my body, to pick out one, vanilla sugar and crushed almonds.

When I get out, I smell like a fresh bloomed flower. I then go to the drawer in my bedroom that is filled with fine clothes. I pick out a simple white peasant blouse and black shorts.

Soon I am just sitting on the silky bed, playing with my father's bracelet. He'd never told me he had it or where it came from. He passed it down to James without telling me, and now James has given it to me. If it has some sort of special meaning, I don't know.

Petra Crowner knocks on my door to summon me to supper. I follow her down a narrow corridor to a huge dining room. The walls have some kind of swirly blue pattern printed on them that only remind me of sea waves at home. A chandelier hangs above, with small glass birds hanging from it. Rita and Sebastian are both seated at the table already, including Nikolai.

The supper comes in courses. A pink, frothy, cranberry soup is our starter. Following is a green salad with breadsticks, barbecue ribs and mashed potatoes, cheese and fruit, and a chocolate cake. Petra Crowner keeps reminding us to save space because there's more food to come. But I'm stuffing myself because I've never had food like this, so fatty and rich. Even as the daughter of two victors, we eat normal everyday food. The only thing we don't need to worry about is starvation.