Snowdrop

Chapter 13

  "So, how'd you get so good with that bow?" Ember asks.
Cella weighs the weapon in her hands. "Leisure hunting. In District Ten, especially in winter, a lot of animals aren't healthy enough to send to the Capitol or to eat. So the Capitol gives us a small selection of weapons and we're allowed to hunt them every weekend when we're not working."
"So you're basically a Career district then," my brother replies, raising his eyebrow. Even though I can usually tell if he's joking, I'm unsure this time.
Cella shakes her head. "No. I mean, it's only the richest of us who can do it. We have to be able to pay for the weapons for the day."
"So you're a rich girl from a not-quite-Career district. I'm a little surprised you're so keen on this." Now I know Ember's not happy. His features are drawn and he's tense beside me.
"Why do you say that?" Cella asks, cocking her head to the side.
"Rich girl? Shouldn't you be dressing up in fancy clothes and pinning your hair back in curls?"
"Ember, stop it," Bailey says, warning him.
Cella just looks slightly confused. "No... if anything I'd be wearing overalls and boots and my hair would be tied out of my face. Just because we're well off doesn't mean we get a life of luxury. My family breeds pigs and it's not exactly easy."
"Oh, of course. Not having to worry about whether you'll get your next meal and being able to prepare for the Games must be so difficult." Ember rolls his eyes, his grip tightening on the spear. What's happened to him? I get that he's not too happy about being dragged into an alliance with a girl who seems awfully skilful with ranged weaponry, but he doesn't have to be so rude.
"You know, for someone who's usually so kind you're not too brilliant at trying to keep alliances, are you?" Cella says.
"Just forget it," he snaps.
"There's no need to take your name quite so literally. Don't want things to get too heated out here, I like the cool." She's baiting him now. My fingers curl into fists and I try to refrain from flying at her.
"Cella, don't start. Let's try and keep things calm," Bailey says, raising her arms defensively and desperately trying to diffuse the situation. "I don't fancy blood splatters on my coat from you two coming to blows." She laughs awkwardly.
We walk in silence for a little while. I keep looking up at Ember, trying to will him into a better mood, but it's hopeless. Sometimes he wakes up in a sulk and I just have to accept that today's going to be one of those days. Despite his laughing and messing about earlier, he's not coming out of his bad mood any time soon. So I stare at my boots, at the swinging laces and the worn leather. They're streaked with dirt and slightly waterlogged, but they've held together well.
"Hey Melia," Cella says, jolting me from my train of thought. "What have you three been doing these past few days?"
As she looks at me I feel Ember take my hand. I glance up at him before answering Cella. "Well... just sort of wandering... I mean, we were caught up in the poison and only woke up yesterday. We found Bailey quite late in the evening. What about you?"
"I ran into Haymitch before. He was fending off three Careers on his own; they were the cannons you heard. He nearly died but, I killed the last one. Offered him an alliance but he declined."
"Haymitch is still alive?" Bailey says, sounded somewhat relieved.
"Yeah. He's really good with a knife. He managed to kill two Careers by himself. It was only luck that the other one got him in a chokehold. I heard him struggling and shot the last one. I guess it's better to have less Careers out here, right?" she shrugs.
"Did you see who they were? The Careers, I mean," I say. "Did you see him fighting off the last girl from One?" She shakes her head and my heart sinks.
I know it's awful to want Rouge gone, but right now she seems to be the one that poses the biggest threat. A girl who's probably got sponsors lined up to bestow gifts upon her, a large and well-stocked alliance, is exceptionally skilled with weaponry, and has a vendetta against me because of one slightly smug look? I don't really fancy running into her.
Cella keeps her arrow nocked all day, much to my discomfort. She could skewer me in a heartbeat – but each time I catch her eyes she beams at me. She seems friendly enough... but can I really trust her? Out here, where death could come knocking at any moment, where each choice could determine if you live or die, is it really a good idea to be extending our alliance to people we don't really know?
Of course, she did save you from that boy. You'd be dead if it weren't for her. I won't trust her fully, not yet. But I'll do my best to make her welcome.
By nightfall, we learn that the fallen Careers are boys from 1 and 2, and a girl from 4. That leaves Rouge and the other boy from District 1, Artemis and both boys from 2 – Bailey seems to relax at this – and the last girl from 4 in the Career pack. They're dropping like flies. Half gone, only six days in. I wonder who will kill Rouge.
And Bailey.
And my brother.
And me.
We decide to guard in pairs. I'm on first with Cella, and Ember whispers a warning in my ear: "If she tries anything, you scream and wake me up."
But she doesn't. She leans back against a tree, polishing her arrows until she's sure Bailey and Ember are asleep. The temperature is dropping more dramatically the further we get into the Games, and I tuck myself under Ember's blanket and try to keep from shivering.
"He seemed grumpy today," Cella says.
I bite my lip. "Yeah. I guess he's not comfortable about letting other people into the alliance."
"But you're allies with Bailey?"
"Because she's my best friend, good friends with Ember. We've known each other since we were five; we've basically grown up together. Of course we're all allies."
"Ah." She doesn't speak for a moment, but then something seems to occur to her. "Ember and Bailey... they're not... you know..."
"...what?" I ask, suspicious.
"They're not... a thing. They don't like each other, like, like like each other, do they? They're not dating? Courting? Going out?"
My eyes widen and I shake my head violently, strangely horrified at the very thought. "NO! Why would you think they are?"
She grins. "You're what – fourteen? So they've known each other nine years, since I'm guessing you were pretty close to both of them when you were little. It's only natural that feelings would start to develop between them. And Bailey didn't jump in to defend me when we nearly had that argument. She just sort of let it slide."
"You're not suggesting that they've decided to start dating and they didn't tell me? Imagine that though, my big brother doesn't tell me he's my best friend's boyfriend, then it all comes out on national television. I don't think there'd be much point in him winning and going home then. Our oldest brother Burnet would just be patting him on the back and probably egging him on, but my sister and Mother would have his guts for garters."
We both laugh and Ember stirs beside me. He snuffles, murmuring something unintelligible, then sighs. It's as though he's heard our conversation.
"So what are your family like then? Your mom, your dad?" Cella says, tucking her hands inside her jacket to keep them warm.
"Father died when I was twelve. That was a hard year. Usually he was the one who made me feel brave when I didn't want to, so it was awful going to the reaping knowing he was gone. Mother, we've never been particularly close, but this past year things have changed. She was so much kinder to me, taking me out on Sunday afternoons to the square when everything looks bright and happy, trying to show me how to cook, doing my hair all special and giving me one of her dresses for the reaping. I never even said thank you," I realise. Tears burn behind my eyelids and scrunch up my face in an effort not to cry.
Cella reaches out and places a comforting hand on my arm. "I'm so sorry."
"No, no. It's all right. I hate this cold, and I hate the dark, and I hate not knowing if I'm going to live to see tomorrow. I miss my family. I just want to go home. But I'm going to go home regardless, so I guess I have to deal with it until then. I don't know how Burnet does it, but he always goes out for a walk at night. He's taken over as man of the house, but Kaitlynn thinks he's too relaxed to take that responsibility."
"Kaitlynn seems a bit stuck up," Cella says. "Is she?"
I shift uncomfortably. We're probably being shown onscreen right now, and I know that Mother and Burnet and Kait are going to be watching. "Well, no. But she's very set in her ways. Very responsible. Protective. Like a Mother Hen. I suppose it's fitting that she's training to be a teacher now."
And then it hits me. Kaitlynn a teacher. If it weren't for the Games, I'd have had children who would be taught by her. I would've met a man and married him. I would've grown up and got a job at the Justice Building, doing something with my life instead of waiting for death like I am now.
I must have said this out loud because Cella then laughs mirthlessly and says, "Wouldn't we all. I'm pretty sure we've all thought that at some point, Melia. Every tribute who's ever been in the Games has thought that. You know, my when my mother came to say goodbye to me, she did something I never imagined her doing. She screamed that I was being punished for something our ancestors did. Most people don't even remember the Dark Days, but her little girl was being dragged into it because the Capitol found a way to control us. A way to strike fear into every single one of us. My mother, she threw things across the room. She smashed the flowerpots and the ornaments in the Justice Building. She tried to lash out at the Peacekeepers when they came to take my family away. She knew, before any of us, that the Capitol is unjust. I mean, we all knew, but there's something about having your child go away to fight to the death that makes it so much more real."
Our conversation is probably being edited out now, or else the cameras have cut away. Speaking badly about the Capitol is like playing with fire, an invitation for the Gamemakers to kill you and claim it's an accident.
Cella's expression has darkened and she glowers at the ground. Eventually she says, "It's getting late, we should switch with the other two."
As I lay back on the ground, tucking my backpack beneath my head, I'm left wondering why, then, Cella looked mildly amused during the reaping.