Isolated Together | Panem's Past Hunger Games

Chapter 5

Jessica

Wow, the Capitol is shiny. How do they get it so sparkly like that?

I blink, amazed, as we glide through the center of the glorified city. I close my eyes and imagine myself diving into cool, silver waters, just as we are now, except in a train. Diving into the capitol. I catch myself smiling, and try to suppress my excitement. Everyone else is really depressed, and I don't want to make them feel bad.

It doesn't work.

Visiting the Capitol has been a dream of mine since I was first introduced to it, back when I was young. Not that much has changed since I was young, though. I'm still the same old Jess; pretty, smart, friendly, etc. You really can't go wrong with being my friend. Honestly I'm the best choice out of all of my friends. I'm probably the reason they're friends to begin with!

The word friend seems to be bouncing around my head a lot today.

I hum to myself as I watch the city surrounding us fall behind with each passing second. Lights and shimmering buildings dazzle my sight and I have to blink to recover. One day, I'm going to live in the Capitol. I'm going to be a singer, right after I get a really good education.

I'm going to be famous.

And of course, the best way to do that is by winning the games! It'll be easy, especially since I have Reyna and Serena on my team. Everyone knows that they're fighters! It would have been harder on my own, but I guess if that had happened I would have just made friends with the other tributes and then out lasted them with my awesome survival skills. Father taught me how to light a match the other week, which was a bit scary but I was actually really good at it. Like I keep telling Sheena, I'm born to be famous!

And then, once I win, I'll have heaps of money that I can spend on education and then I'll get scouted by some famous celebrity and then I'll become the most famous singer Panem has ever seen and then Father will be so proud of me! He says I can do it, and Father's always right, so why should I worry?

I click my tongue and can feel my excitement rising with each meter that the train covers. We are so close to the train station that I can see it up ahead through the pristine glass windows in front of me. I glance over at my friends, who are mostly sitting in silence. They look sad. Maybe they're scared we won't win? But why would they be? Our team is unstoppable! Who's going to be able to beat a team of besties?

Sheena looks back at me and tries to return my smile. Her midnight black eyes are flicking back and forth and the moment her smile vanishes it becomes a frown. Is she nervous? What about?

Sheena is hardly ever nervous. She's the one person who I know won't go all emotional or depressed on me. Everyone else is so serious all the time, more so Serena and Reyna. Gosh, Reyna is the worst. She only really talks to Serena and Sheena and I don't even know why they bother with her. She never smiles, which is a shame because everyone knows that smiling is how you're supposed to present yourself. Otherwise no one will ever like you and you won't make any friends. 

I guess Esmẽ isn't all that serious, but she doesn't care about her future enough. When I tell her about my plans, she just gives me this look that says, yeah, right. Good luck with that.

She doesn't believe in me like my Father does. It's annoying, but I guess some people are just born close-minded.

Sheena walks over to me and I turn away from the windows, making sure to erase the smile from my face or Reyna will probably get mad at me. For what? For being happy.