| THE LOVE HE HATES | HUNGER GAMES | COMPLETED

5 | THE SCORES

     "IN TWO WEEKS, twenty-three of you will be dead. One of you will be alive. Who that is depends on how well you pay attention over the next four days, particularly to what I'm about to say. First, no fighting other tributes. You'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. There are four compulsory exercises. The rest will be individual training. My advice is, don't ignore the survival skills. Everybody wants to grab a weapon but most of you will die from natural causes. Ten percent from infection. Twenty percent from dehydration. Exposure can kill as easily as a knife."

Athena noticed that as the tributes trained, the game makers would watch them. Many of the tribute seemed to excel in the compulsory exercises, while others showed off their own skills in their individual training.

Stella Vonner seemed very skilled with a spear, showing off her skills with a smirk to all the other tributes. She acted like she knew she would be the winner.

Jayne Alpyn showed off her camouflage skills, letting everyone know she would be a hider until it was near the end of the games.

Another tribute who was good with a spear was Desmere Wool, he was quick with it but didn't seem as smug as Stella.

While Athena trained, she kept something Bellona had told her on her mind, 'don't show off your skills'. She had told them that showing them off could make them targets as the other tributes could think of ways to attack them using the disadvantages of their skills. So, she picked up a few different weapons, confusing the tributes as they would never know what she would grab in the arena.

Jason had been doing the same, mainly practising with a bow and arrow, which he wasn't too bad with, and barely touching the weights that he could easy throw at his opponents.

Athena had also been aware of a few of the alliances already being formed, especially with the careers. But that was usual for every games, the careers always formed alliances almost up to he end of the games. The girl knew she would be sticking with Jason as much as she could, wanting to protect him, otherwise she didn't socialise with any of the other tributes.

By the end of the four days, Athena had successfully confused the other tributes, none of them knew her weapon of choice, none of them knew her possible plans to win. All they knew was she was good with most weapons. But now it was time for individual evaluation by the game makers, they would be given a score which can help the other tributes decide if they're a threat or not.

However, the individual evaluation was very different from the training. Bellona told the pair to show off their skills, even if it meant that they could be considered a threat by other tributes. It meant more sponsors.

Athena walked into the room after her name was called. Her eyes immediately landed on the sword that stood proudly in the middle of the room. However, her ears overheard the chattering of the game makers as they sat in their stand, watching her. When she looked at them, her eyes focused on the familiar face of Aeschylus, who was watching her with a smile.

The girl walked over to the sword, gently running her hands down it before picking it up. The weight was perfect in her hand and she spun it to view it. The chatter had died down as the game makers watched her actions. She walked over to an area that gave her fake people to fight, it was easy for her to defeat all of them, but by the end, everyone had lost interest. Except one, of course.

Athena grew slightly mad at the game makers, if they wanted a show, she would give them one. There was a target not to far away, possibly to be used for another tribute to show their talent, but Athena launched her sword to it and it landed with a loud thud. All the game makers looked to see the sword imbedded into the target, some of it even poking through the back of it. The girl gave them all a fake smile before turning and leaving the room.

When Bellona and Valencia heard about what the girl had done, one was livid and the other was proud.

"She did something stupid!"

"She did something amazing! I don't think I've ever met someone with the strength to put a sword almost halfway through a target."

The girl smiled slightly as she watched them argue, Jason was also chuckling. "And you said you could barely pick up a baby cow."

She shrugged. "I just got angry, I gave them a show."

The TV blared some music before Caesar Flickerman appeared on their screen, ready to announce the scores of each tribute to everyone in Panem. Bellona and Valencia stopped their bickering and sat down to watch, then a presence sat beside Athena, Chy had come to watch beside his tributes.

"As you know, the tributes are rated on a scale of one to twelve after three days of careful evaluation."

Athena barely paid attention to the other tributes, but she was aware of those with a high score.

Lorkin had a 7

Stella had a 10

Jann had 9

Tyger got a 6

Jordyn had a 7

Tamara got a 3

Brett landed a 5

Hadie got an 8

Robett managed a 7

Jayne got an 8

Jetta got a 3

Dane got 6

Frei got 8

Madi only got a 6

Desmere managed a 9

Idris had a 2

Garret was given an 8

Holly a 5

And next was Athena and Jason, so their attention was fully focused on the TV. Chy smugly sat beside them, already knowing what scores they had been given.

"From District Ten, Jason Malcom with a score of...nine. Also from District Ten, Athena Rake with a score of...ten."

The group cheered for the pair, happy that they had scored to highly. Athena looked at Chy, who smiled back at her. A smile appeared on her face as she mouthed a thank you to him, there was no doubt that he had a say in her score and persuaded something higher.

Suou got an 8

Robiy got a 6

Monte only got a 2

and Wren got a 7

Only two tributes got a ten and Athena worried what that meant for her, was the game going to end with a battle between her and Stella, the two highest scores.