A Matter of Luck (The 25th Hunger Games)

Chapter X

            Guinness

            Winning my fight made me feel the same way Etch felt when he lost his: pathetic. I have respect over attempting to hurt someone. I didn’t like how I was led by my frustration to be here. I don’t want to stay close to Mags, I don’t want to be friends with Placiduc because one of us will die and I don’t want the wrong people to think that I am powerful. I am not. I just want to… I don’t really know what I want to this point. Etch might have more changes of staying alive through this. He has the mentality of a fighter. Mine is simply the mentality of a sister. A sister that desperately tries to comfort herself by lying and saying she is strong enough to save someone that will already be able to make it. I will just slow him down, draw a cross on his back, and lead him to our deaths.

            Examination time is over and we can finally sit down and eat. We don’t have a room to go eat into, they just bring plates with food to us. I feel like I am in prison and that’s exactly where I am. I go for a meatloaf with some simple tomato sauce and mashed potatoes. Etch opts for a bigger meal of meat and bread. I haven’t seen him so much before. When we sit apart from the tables, all I can manage to get from him are sound replies. He stuffs his face, a spoon at the time, without swallowing the mouthpiece he had before.

            “You eat like a pig.” Mercury says as she sits down in front of us.

            She is right but I still shoot her an angry look. I don’t really have to ask the question to him to know that he’s just taking some weight to then turn it into muscles. It’s a good idea but I don’t stick to it. I notice him finishing his plate faster than I can start mine. I take the empty plate from his hands and shove mine at its place.

            “I’ll take you some more.” I say and get up.

            I walk lazily to the group of people. District One and Two are sitting and talking together. What a surprise. Making sure to add some vegetables to his plate, I grab everything he chose before.

            “You fought well.”

            I drop the spoon in the serving and see it sink down in the sauce. The sound startled me. The only person I know liked my fight was Orloff. The thing is that I can’t hear arrogance in his tone. Every time Orloff has opened his mouth during training was to brag or to point out someone’s flaw with pride –not even behind his words, but splattered over his words. I slowly look over my shoulder and see Phox. I can’t help but smile. I feel glad that it isn’t Orloff and that it is Phox specifically that talked to me. I instantly forget about the spoon that sank down like a ship in the sauce.

            “You were better than I was.” I compliment him.

            He must have been living poorly in the District but I can recognize a million dollar smile when I see one. His cheeks look like they gain a shade of red to his usual pink face. He plays with the hem of his sleeves and looks down at his feet. All I see him doing is swing from his toes to his heels and constantly smile. I seem to lack of words to tell him. He started to conversation but I have a need to tell him something but I don’t know what. I stick to what I know and look behind him. As expected, Charatina is looks protectively over him from a small distance. From how I am positioned, I know that she sees me looking at her but she is missing the interest to do so, so she keeps on looking at Phox.

            “Oh, this is Tina, do you want to go talk to her?” Phox says as he turns around and points to Charatina very obviously.

            It’s then that she looks at me. I feel quite embarrassed of having get caught staring by Phox. I don’t want to be impolite to him so I nod. He takes my arm like a gentleman and leads me to the table.