The Hunger Games: Adulation

Chapter 9: Katniss' POV

Stay alive? I'm planning on it! It's not like I want to die! I never would have volunteered if it weren't for Prim!

I quickly pulled away out of Haymitch's grasp and boarded the hover craft. As soon as I stepped foot on it, I was blinded by the light shining but my eyes quickly seemed to adjust. I looked around the room to see if Cato and Peeta had snuck on the flying contraption while I was talking to Haymitch. They didn't. I slowly crept to the two seats marked with the number twelve. I decided to sit on the edge one instead of next to the female tribute from eleven, and waited. It seemed like hours before Peeta arrived even though it had only been minutes and Cato followed shortly afterward. Peeta had a black right eye and Cato had a huge slightly bleeding cut on his cheek.

"Oh my god, what happened to you?" I asked as Peeta sat next to me and the small child.

"I fell." he told me while turning toward I think Rue was her name? I always caught her staring at me during training.

"What about Cato?" I questioned.

"Same thing Katniss!" he half yelled at me.

Offended I turned away from him and toward the door to the capitols cage entrance. I sat there staring at every button next to the door and wondering what they all do until a peace keeper came by. All of a sudden a rancid smell poured over me.

"Give me your arm," the woman told me while motioning for it. I pulled my arms up to my chest.

"What is that?" I asked, the woman quickly grabbed my wrist and straightened my arm. She then shoved a metal dispenser into it, I winced. When it pulled out I expected it to be gushing blood but somehow there wasn't even a drop. I suspected there was some type of goo on the tip of it that caused skin to rapidly heal. When she left the awful expired milk smell left with her. I was looking straight forward when I realized I was looking straight into the eyes of Cato.

"What happened?" I mouthed while pointing to my cheek, so he would know what I was talking about. He nudged his chin toward Peeta.

"Ask him," Cato mouthed, after the words left his mouth his jaw quickly tightened. It was kind of sexy, the way he did it. I shook my head at him.

"He said you guys both fell" I said silently putting fake quotation marks around fell. He quickly rolled his eyes.

"I'll tell you in the arena." He whispered, "What do you need?"

Was he trying to figure out my strength? Of course he was, Katniss, get a grip! In thirty minutes everyone in the whole world will know your at your best with a bow and some arrows! Wait till' then, don't let him know! Cato can not know, even if you do think you might like him, there's only one of us coming out of there, and it has to be you!

"Katniss?" Cato half yelled half whispered. I shook my head.

" I'll get it, it's fine." I told him crossing my arms.

"No, I will its a bloodbath out there and chances are you don't remember how to use this mystery object very well, because I know you didn't practice it at least not well in the training sessions!" He said, his voice was getting louder and Peeta along with the girl from eleven and clove were all listening in on our conversation. He's right. I only practiced once, in the shadowy corner.

"I need to get sponsors some how Cato, and this is my chance, I'm getting it by myself and that's final." I told him turning toward Peeta.

I leaned in toward his ear and got so close I'm pretty sure he could feel my lips on his ear, "You better not have told anyone or I will make the next few weeks hell." I said and slowly pulled away. Peeta sat there facing me with his jaw opened slightly. I saw his head slightly shake from the left to the right, then back again. I smiled a little bit and turned back to the front of my seat. Cato was still staring at me, so I stared back. I saw a slight smile tug at the corner of his mouth.

When we finally landed, Cinna was waiting for me. He quickly showed me to our launching room and had me put on an outfit. It was a form fitting black shirt and a pair of tan shorts that just barely covered my rear. He then handed me a jacket that was a dark red with black lining, probably for our district. Every district had their own color, ours was usually red but the past two years it was a purple like district two's color just a lot darker.

"Since when did girls wear shorts?" I asked Cinna

"Since there were two men that have crushes on a certain girl," Cinna said winking at me.

"Ten seconds," Said the familiar robot voice from evaluations. I slowly turned and walked to the glass tube that would soon enough send me into an arena of children waiting to kill or be killed.

"I'm not aloud to bet, but if I could I'd bet on you, Girl on Fire" Cinna said half smiling. The tube slammed shut and I could feel the scared part of me rise to my face. Cinna slowly nodded as the tube lifted me up to the arena.

This is it you will either die today, or keep on living.

I quickly looked around the area, we were outside. Only once before had the arena been inside. The light almost blinded me, so I had to lift my hand above my eyes to see. We were all spread apart in a circle with the cornucopia in the center. My eyes skimmed it to see if there was a bow. If there was I couldn't see it. I could tell my face looked shocked. We had thirty seconds before we could jump off of the platforms we were on or we would be blown sky high. The next thing I looked for was where we were exactly. There were beautiful rolling hills all throughout the arena or at least as far as I could see. There were also small patches of green forest maybe every twenty to thirty feet apart from each other. Each patch seemed to be about the size of half a football field. Peeta and Cato! My eyes frantically searched the platforms for Cato, and Peeta. I couldn't see either of them. Clove was to my right and Rue was on my left. Marvel and Glimmer were both fairly far away from me as well, but at least I could see them!

10, 9, 8

Come on! Where's my effing bow?!

7, 6, 5

It has to be in the center of the cornucopia where I can't see it if its any where!

4, 3, 2

Great...

1

Into the bloodbath I go!

A/N I hope you guys liked this chapter! I felt like doing a cliff hanger, haha sorry guys! Vote it up, if you liked it please! Thanks guys! I've decided that I'm going to stop writing this book if you don't start voting because really whats the point if no one likes it! At LEAST fifteen votes and I'll continue! Thanks!!!

XOXO -- 13Fire