The Hunger Games: Bad Beginnings

Chapter 11: Astraea

A/N: That's Astraea⬆️ She's portrayed by Dove Cameron.

Day 11

Name: Astraea Kellet
District: 1
Initial Scoring: 8
Weapon Of Choice: Sword
Weakness: Empathetic
Judges' Comments: Astraea is well trained in wielding a sword, and she has successfully embedded herself into this year's career pack. However, her strengths do not match those of her fellow alliance members, and her tendency to let her emotions cloud her decision making can pose as challenges for her in the games.

* * *

I woke up to the sun, piercing through the side of Iris and I's tent. As I unzipped the entrance flap, the sound of scraping metal rang in my tired ears. The other girls were huddled up in front of the Cornucopia, sharpening their weapons and eating packages of dried fruits.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to join the party," teases Phoenix.
"How long has the sun been up?" I ask, worried I've slept through most of the day.
"As far as we know, 5 hours," Iris says. "But it was sunny when we woke up, so it should be about noon."

Not a moment later, the mockingjays started going bezerk, just like they do every day around this time.

"I hate those freaking birds," Venus groans. "Anything that loud can't be good for the environment. They'll have deers killing themselves before their dumb song's even over."

I just begin to open my pack of dried apple slices, when I notice a black cloud out of the corner of my eye.

"What is that?" I say, looking across the field to see a plume of smoke floating above the distant trees.
"Looks like a campfire," answers Phoenix with a sudden grin. "Where there's a campfire, there's a tribute."
"There's one over there, too!"Cavalla points, looking both excited and scared at the same time. "What do we do?"
"We go after them, obviously," Iris joins.
"Nope," says Venus, without even looking up from her package of dried bananas. "Do you think these were sprayed with pesticides?" She examined the bag.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"I'm just saying. Bugs like bananas, the Capitol hates bugs. You do the math."
"Not the pesticides, Venus! The campfires. Why shouldn't we go after them?" I shout.
"First of all, lose the lip," Venus starts. "Second of all, you really think that two tributes on opposite sides of the arena just happened to start fires at the same time? Not likely."
"She's right," Phoenix agrees.
"Of course I'm right. Try to come up with a time when I was wrong," Venus laughs.
"So then what do we do?" asks Cavalla.

I think for a second, but then realize that I'm a career. I was trained for moments like these, and so was everyone else here, except maybe Cavalla.

"I say we go after them. We can take on whatever pyromaniac lit those fires," I say, standing and grabbing my sword.

Cavalla jumps up to the thought of going on a real tribute hunt. "Agreed. Come on guys. We're careers. This is what we do."
"Correction," Venus says, pointing to everyone except Cavalla as she speaks. "We're careers, she's a moron, and you're gonna get yourself killed listening to her."
"Well, I'm in," says Iris.
"Me too," Phoenix agrees, being inspired by our enthusiasm.
"Then it's settled," I start. "Phoenix, you and I will pair up and take the fire on the left. Cavalla and Iris, you guys take the one on the right."
"Phoenix and Iris," Venus chimes in again. "You guys look out for these two. Make sure they don't die."
"What? You don't think I can handle myself out there?" I ask.
"Not in the least bit," she replies, getting up and walking back to her tent. "If my sister ends up dead, I'll kill you all," she calls without looking back at us. Only Phoenix finds this funny.