My Games: Johanna Mason

Chapter 1

"You're on in a minute, Johanna," said Chlora. "Don't get too nervous, okay? You look great in your tree costume!" I almost rolled my eyes. Tree costume - ugh. Chlora was such an idiot. Suddenly the loud voice of Caesar Flickerman rang in my ears. As the large but shy male tribute from District 6 walked past me, Caesar exclaimed, "that was Titus everybody! Now, please welcome Johanna Mason from District 7!" As if Caesar had said something hilarious, the Capitol crowd laughed and cheered as I walked in stage. Sticking to my strategy, I pretended to be nervous.

"Hello Johanna, you look very nice tonight. A tree, very original!" I had to cough to cover my laugh. District 7 tributes have been dressed as trees for over thirty years, thanks to Chlora. I looked at the floor, hoping to look pathetic. "Johanna, tell us - have you a special strategy for the games? We are all dying to know." For a second, I was worried. How did he know? Then I realised that it was just the sort of question they would ask a seemingly helpless tribute. "I...I don't know. Maybe...maybe I'll just hide," I muttered quietly, hoping Caesar didn't hear. "Sorry, could you repeat that, Johanna?" I scratched my head and whimpered. I looked at the crowd to find my mentor. I wanted to see if my act was working. Eventually, I found Blight's eyes. He nodded in approval. A smile almost crept up upon my face.

Caesar, sensing the awkward silence, tried to lighten the air with a joke. "Well, that strategy sure has helped many other tributes win!" Caesar laughed hysterically at his own joke, causing jovial shrieks and cheers from the crowd. As the buzzer rang to signal the end of the interview, Caesar grabbed my hand. "Johanna Mason everybody! Good luck to her!" As I walked off stage, I could almost hear him saying, 'she'll need it'.

As I returned to turned to my stylist and my mentor, Cyprus, my district partner, was preparing to go on stage. He was the only person who knew about my strategy other than Blight. As his shoulders brushed mine, he whispered, "now I'm not even sure you're pretending," and I laughed, silently. After sitting through the rest of the interviews, I could tell that my stylists and escort looked at me with disdain. However, Blight was beaming the entire time and that was all that really mattered.

A few hours later, as I went to bed, Chlora grabbed my arm. "Be up by eight tomorrow, okay? The games start at ten. Be ready." I sighed and nodded. I was annoyed that Chlora was the last person I could see before the Games, but otherwise, I was actually feeling quite confident.

As I laid in bed, I thought: I can win these games. So far, my plan had been executed flawlessly. My training score had been a 2, which exactly what I was aiming for, and I seemed completely weak to the other tributes, especially now after that interview. Cyprus, however, was another story. He had a training score of 7, the highest of any tribute save the careers. He had declined the offer to join them, and I was confident that when it came down to it, he could take most of them out.

In fact, there weren't many tributes I was worried about either. If I had an axe, I could kill them all in a matter of hours. But I wasn't even sure there would be an axe.

There were some tributes that, deep down, I really didn't want to die. Whilst pretending to be weak, I of course attracted the attention of the weaker tributes - most of which I actually wouldn't have minded as allies. There was Noel and Lana from district 3, and the girl from District 12, Terri, had turned out to be very nice. I never realised why tributes from 12 were so disadvantaged until she told me that they couldn't work in the mines (and becomes used to pick axes, shovels etc) until they were 18. I was pretty sure that only two people from District 12 had ever won - and one of them died thirty years ago.

Just as I felt I was drifting into sleep, hope filled me. I have all these idiots fooled, I thought. They think I am weak and helpless. Soon, they will be the helpless ones. Just they wait. In the second I lost consciousness, I whispered, "I've won this."