‘Say what?’, I reply within the second, ‘Pregnant?’. I look at her with disbelieve and try to stand up again. It doesn’t go as smooth as I want it to be, but eventually I succeed at storming out mad enough. Unfortunately, she follows. Of course, lucky me. ‘Didn’t mean to offend you, sweetheart.’ Without thinking I grab the thing closest to me, a little bowl I think, and throw it at her, with all my force. Luckily, she ducks away just before it would hit her right in the head. ‘I’m so sorry.’, I say, shocked by my own action. She’s going to hate me, while she and Ivan probably are the only people who can give me any chance of surviving. I feel so ashamed I immediately stare at the ground, just so I don’t have to look in her eyes.
She puts a hand on my shoulder and forces me to calm down. ‘Listen, let’s not get all dramatic. And I’ll forgive you for the sudden attack. We haven’t got the time for anger, do we? We’ll just blame it on the nerves.’ Obviously, she isn’t convinced and honestly, neither am I, but I refuse to spend any time thinking about what can and can not be, especially when I’ll probably be dead in less than a week. ‘Doesn’t really matter, does it?’, I say without any emotion and instinctively take away her hand. As if I did something amazing, her expression suddenly goes from calm to fascinated. But I no longer – or rather never did – feel the need to talk to her and walk away again. When I’m a few metres away from her, she suddenly yells my name. I look at her, but am surprised by the small, yet sharp decorative stone she throws at me. Without any difficulty I catch it. ‘Are you freaking crazy?!’, immediately I start yelling, but she just smiles at me. ‘I knew it.’
‘Knew what?’ She doesn’t answer. Instead, she walks towards me, while still smiling mysteriously, and again puts her hand on my shoulder, leading me to the dining room. Her firm grip lets me know that she’s not going to let go that easily. Pretty sure she thinks I have mental problems and am a risk to flee. Though I would love to say something about it, I decide not to, mostly because it wouldn’t do me any good if she starts to – probably already does – dislike me.
Both Kayla and Ivan look up when we enter the room and ask whether something is wrong. Rela simply ignores it and lets go of me, to walk to her seat. I just nod. Not really in the mood to talk about my ‘friendship’ with her, I guess. Although they both seem curious about what just happened, they don’t ask any further questions, for which I’m grateful. Instead they focus on the richly filled table in front of them. All sorts of food are displayed, many I have never seen before. I put a hand on my empty stomach and immediately go sit down somewhere.
‘Where’s Zachary?’, Kayla looks around as if she’s annoyed by his absence and sighs several times. ‘He’ll be here any second.’, I say softly , in hope she says we can all start eating. Then suddenly the door opens and he walks in. ‘You’re late.’, Kayla immediately says and surprisingly, he apologizes. That obviously satisfies her and she gives a signal we can all enjoy dinner now, while she again starts her never ending speech about the Capitol. I immediately fill my plate with a bit of everything. I begin with a bowl of delicious soup, then some lambstew and rice, with which I refill my plate twice and for desert we get a fruit salad covered with warm chocolate sauce. By the end of the meal I’ve eaten so much I can’t even sit up decently anymore. I look up to Zachary who’s sitting between Rela and Kayla and notice he’s staring at me. When our eyes meet, he suddenly looks away. ‘Can I go to my room?’. Without waiting for the answer, he stands up leaves. ‘Did I do something wrong?’, I ask confused, but Kayla says he’s just a bit overwhelmed by all this luxury.
‘Perhaps some rest will do him good.’, Ivan says calmly, ‘I suggest you go do the same. Rela and I have some things to discuss about your training, plus you need to get any sleep you can get.’ I’d rather stay and listen, but stand up and drag myself to my room. Rela’s probably going to say something about my ‘great’ personality and so going to reduce my chances of getting a proper training. Awesome. I search for some comfortable clothes in the drawers, put them on and let myself fall onto the bed. Now I feel how tired I actually am, yet the day is far from over. But since I’ve got nothing to do I don’t fight it when I’m starting to fall asleep.
Loud knocking on my door awakes me again. ‘Is it time already?’, I mumble, but no one answers. I stand up and curiously walk to the door. ‘Who is it?’ My attempt to sound friendly and cheerful immediately fails, so I open it. Shocked by the person in front of me, I take a step backward. ‘Zach, what are you doing here?’
