Rick Riordan's Hunger Games [PJO AU]

Ep 11 - "Trick"

"Young love," Rick swooned. "This is my favourite. I can't wait to break them apart."

President Clair was off doing meetings, but he pictured her beside him, angrily yammering on about how Maria is Bianca and that it meant Nico couldn't be trusted.

"We're working on it," he groaned aloud. "I'm waiting for a good story, alright?"

◼▲◼

Percy and Annabeth had made camp in the meadows. It was freezing cold at night, and they bundled up in jackets and blankets under their sleeping bags.

Neither of them felt warm enough to fall asleep yet, so they stayed up talking, drifting from topic to topic.

He confirmed that Annabeth was scary smart. She was really into architecture, and had picked up some understanding of it through watching construction in her district.

She had also seen every single Hunger Games in preparation, and every time she mentioned doing something after the reaping, nine times out of ten it had to do with increasing her odds.

Annabeth was an absolute mastermind. It should have scared him, but he could only be impressed.

They started talking about life in their respective districts. Percy was stunned that District 8 was that bad. People worked long hours. Air pollution hung in the air or blew to District 12. The water was poisonous, and people's hands were always bleached or dyed in different colours.

She held up her hands. "Even when I wore bandages, my fingers still bled from weaving. My stylists took away all my scars."

Percy couldn't believe that there hadn't been a rebellion. Income getting viciously cut when his people didn't catch enough fish was nothing in comparison. Even his abusive stepfather didn't seem so bad, because at least that was just one person. "Aren't the people there angry?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, we are."

Soon she got quieter and closed off, and he tried to keep the conversation going. Maybe they should talk about more positive things.

"Do you have a favourite animal?" Percy wondered. "I like horses, but the closest thing District Four has to them are seahorses."

She suddenly laughed nervously, "Oh no, my favourite is embarrassing."

Percy was confused. "How so?"

Annabeth pulled her blanket out and threw it over them, blocking out any cameras. Her voice lost all giddiness as she whispered, "Percy, I plan to escape the arena."

He balked. "Wh-what?"

She giggled, "I know!" Then she went serious again, "Yes. I want to see if it can be done. My mother wanted to start a rebellion, and I want to follow in her footsteps —"

"Rebellion?" Percy spluttered. "Wait, wait —"

"— and I can't do it as a Victor. I'd be a mentor always in the public eye, and I don't know if the president trusts me anyway, with what my mother did. So I want to escape."

Percy was still trying to catch up. He didn't know what he was going to do tomorrow, and this girl was planning a revolution?

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked finally.

"Well, do you want to join me?"

This whole thing had been sprung on him out of nowhere, and his mind had whiplash. "I, um, I'll have to think about it."

"That's fair." She brushed her dirty hair behind her ear. "You could win," she said seriously. "You have a very good chance, so you wouldn't have to risk coming with me."