The Hunger Games: A New Journey Begins

Chapter 8

We practiced targets together, well, at least I did while Benjamin pretended to stab himself.

"You see, the Hunger Games is broadcast to the whole world, and to make it extra dramatic, I need to practice my acting." He had told me, very confident in himself. While I was aiming the axe, he screamed "NOooo!" I looked over, my arm releasing and the hatchet completely missing the target. All the tributes had gone silent. He shoved the sword in between his arm and body, and pretended to fall down. The tributes began to laugh, then continue in their activities. I could feel my cheeks automatically turn red as I saw the careers look at me. I was so dead.

I helped Benjamin up.

"That is what I call good acting." He said, brushing himself off.

"Maybe you should try targets." I said, trying to avert attention from the guy.

"Ok," he replied. I got him to pick a weapon. He chose a trident, but he called it a pitchfork. He was half-decent. We continued practicing until agreeing to go to the location station. After putting our weapons back, we headed over, seeing the careers heading there too.

"Um.. maybe we should go somewhere else." I nervously asked. I saw Cyrus smirk at me in a teasing way, and then the rest started chuckling with her.

"Oh. You're afraid of THEM. Don't be discouraged Archer." He patted me on the shoulder, then walked over. I grabbed his arm.

"I don't think you want to do that."

"Eh, whatever." He walked up towards them, super embarrassingly said: "What up folks!"

"Ah, I see you've gotten quite the ally." Maximus cooed, the rest chuckling. They walked away.

"You see, they're just jealous because they have to go up against me; the sweetheart of Panem." He awkwardly posed. We strolled to the location station.

An avox began giving us a tutorial on how to locate water here without even speaking. Well they couldn't speak. They had holes cut in their tongues by the cruel capitol, where they were the 'blue collared' workers. I felt bad for the young man. Soon after the presentation was over, they gave us the materials and motioned for us to try it.

Draining a cactus, I asked Benjamin;

"What happened to the girl tribute in your district?" I asked. He thought for a moment before replying.

"Oh, Ethyor." He realized. "Yeah she ditched me because she didn't think she was pretty enough for me. You know girls are weird." He said. I pretended to laugh.

We continued draining the cactus with the ziploc bag. It was hard, and by the time we finally managed to finish, some type of whistle went off. The lady that told us of the stations came in, clasping her hands together. I didn't notice until now her bioengineered self. She had some kind of dark circles under her eyes that were hard to see unless under a certain kind of light. She opened her mouth, revealing unusually sharp canines.

"Ok guys, one by one by your district number you will be pulled in to show off your skill to the gamemakers." She continued on explaining the thing. They went by order of the districts, ladies, then gents. I was relieved when they called Suki in, her small stature shoved out of a more visible door, her curly bobs bouncing around. Fourteen more to go, I still have time. Benjamin and I stood up, deciding what to do next.

A bunch of the district numbers and names soon passed and it was finally my turn, I went right before Cyrus.

" Archer Green, District 7" As I stood up I could hear a glimpse of Benjamin cheering.

"You got this; hit a bullseye!" he whooped. I rolled my eyes as the doors slid open and I walked through. I was guided back to this area next to the training place. The room was very small. There was a group of people and I'm pretty sure that one of them was the gamemaker. They were behind some kind of plexi screen because before there were rumors of someone who had shot their food and they didn't want that happening again. I picked up an axe lying on a very small table surrounded with swords and other various weapons and items. I waited for them to watch, but at this point I was losing patience.

"Archer Green, District 7!" Finally, I got their attention. They all stared at me like I was sick. I looked at the target and held the hatchet behind me, then chucked it. I watched as it went flying into the target like it was in slow motion. Then I heard the bang of the bullet hitting the target, almost splitting it. I looked closer to see it hit right in the bullseye. They all bordely clapped except for the head gamemaker, who wore an unimpressed face. His jazz hat barely shaded his eyes, making him also look edgy. "Ha! That was pure luck!" one of the others called, bellowing with laughter. I'll show you pure luck. I grabbed another ax and quickly threw it at the glass, right in front of Sidero Kennedy's face, although it only partially cracked the shield. He nodded in respect while one of the people watching fell right into the chocolate cake due to not wanting to get shot. I did a little curtsey and said out loud;

"At least this time I'm not crying" After that I walked away to where the peacekeepers would have escorted me back to my room. I didn't even think to look back at the gamemaker, who seemed to have recalled something.