Crown Jewels: Cashmere's Story

Chapter 7: Let the Games Begin

I never knew that stuffing your bra with protein bars was so easy.  

Frankly, I'd never tried before today.  

But who knew what we would find in the arena? A toxic wasteland? Icy tundra?  

The Capitol is the one with the power. They can supply us with an endless array of food, or they can leave us to starve.  They can bless us with clean water, or infest rivers with parasites to kill us by disease. 

I can't trust anything inside the arena, but I can trust things outside. 

This is my ultimatum. I'll come back either way.  In a coffin or in a hovercraft. With my wit and my pride-or my mutilated corpse.  

I don't care what I have to do. I will kill. I will maim. I know it's wrong, I know it's of a poor moral standing. 

Call me cruel. 

But this world is cruel, and we must do what we can to stay afloat.  

This win is mine. Not Marshall's, not Beatrix's, not my family's, and  especially not Jasper's. 

I'm in the spotlight now. Let the games begin.  

************ 

I cannot let Cashmere Tanner win. I cannot let Cashmere Tanner win. I cannot let Cashmere Tanner win. 

I keep repeating it to myself  as I wolf down a plate of eggs, get ready, fix my hair in the mirror. She seems to be everywhere now.  On TV.  Next to me at meal times. Passing me in the training room. In my house, which is supposed to be mine and mine alone but she's taken that too. 

It started in fifth grade, when we ended up in the same class.  

"I'm Cashmere," she introduced herself. She was pretty then too, same blonde hair, same green eyes.  

"I'm Jasper," I had said.  

We ate lunch together that day, and got along well. 

And I thought that was it. We'd be friends. Go to Training together. Hang out after school. Maybe be shortlisted for the Games, even. (We had different Training times).  

But after the first week, it became very clear that she was an obstacle in my path. 

She did problems on the board in math, wrote vivid essays in English.  Cashmere was the one thing standing between me and being the top student. The one person who could beat me in tests. 

Interestingly enough,  we still supported each other. Helped each other.  We were becoming fast friends. I had never met someone who could stand their ground against me.  Never met someone I had so much in common with, someone who understood me so well. And it was great.  Great until the word spread.

Our District 1 neighborhood wasn't big and of course my parents found out about her. 

And soon our dinner table conversations became: "I heard Cashmere got straight As again. Better watch out, Jasper! You've got competition." 

"Nice work on your science project! Don't slack though, the Tanner girl is catching up." 

Said lighthearted, yes. I could dismiss it. We were friends after all. But Training was when it got worse.  

Her knives seemed to cut through the air effortlessly, hitting targets with pristine accuracy. She had a keen mind that she used to her advantage in combat. Her one "weakness", her strength, she made up for with speed and strategy.