Starve On Pixels

Chapter 5: Childhood Memories

Sunny's POV

"Do you know what you're doing for your talent?" Vivian asked me, Emily X, and Vanessa.

"I could really do anything," I smiled confidently, "I'm just that amazing!"

Vanessa snorted, "Yeah, right! That coal midget beat you on the first day!"

"I let her," I replied defensively.

"Sunny Sun, you're up next," a voice spoke over the speakers.

"That's my cue!" I was grateful for the interruption from our awkward conversation, "TTYL."

I headed towards the judging area. Before they could even tell me to start, I launched myself into my gymnastics routine. I sprinted into an aerial, landed on my feet, then sprang into a back walkover. Reaching for a knife, I jumped to reach a high bar, and hung there upside down on my knees as I threw the knife, straight and true, and hit the bullseye. I leaped gracefully down in a backflip, and immediately launched back up to do a series of flips, handstands, cartwheels, and handsprings. I did a bridge, grabbed another knife, cut down a rope, and used it as a ribbon. I leaped and bounded until I climbed onto the highest rope, crossed over to the next rope, then shimmied half way down until I fell into a graceful pirouette after landing.

The judges hadn't even paused their eating when I finished, out of breath.

One of them cleared their throat, "Thank you," she paused to look at a clipboard of names, "Sunny."

"That's it!?" I cried in outrage.

I had been planning this routine for years, until every millisecond was perfect- it had been the only time my parents were ever proud of me. I felt all my frustration boil over.

"Next please," the judge said in a monotone.

"YOU CAN'T EVEN DO A FRONT WALKOVER! WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE ME, YOU SPOILED CAPITOL BRAT?!" I threw a knife that grazed her ear and embedded itself in the wall before I walked out.

"How was it?" Emily X queried.

"Don't talk to me," I snarled back.

I strutted off, heading straight to Vivian and told her all about what happened. Vivian didn't really seem to be listening- she had a far off look in her eyes. Whatever. I didn't really care. As long as we were allies in the arena, nothing else mattered.

Natalie's POV

"Natalie Tsang!" a voice boomed from invisible speakers.

I bounded into the evaluation room, which was a carbon copy of the training room.

"Please begin," a judge drawled in a bored tone.

I was about to fix that. I raced up the rock climbing wall without a harness to reach the ropes dangling from the ceiling. I swung from rope to rope like Tarzan until I was on the judging platform.

"Hello there!" I grabbed some meat rolls off of a gaping judge's plate, "You're going to attract flies with all the food waste you make. Here, I'll help finish it for you!"

I dropped into a freefall to land in a crouch on the ground. I didn't even wait to be dismissed- I had better things to do with my time.

Later that night Helen and I were scanning the news for our evaluation scores. Sunny's face flashed across the screen with an 11 out of 12- I wonder what she did... When my face lit up the screen, it came with a score of 12 out of 12. The judges must be trying to put a target on my back.