Five Feet Of Fury (THE HUNGER GAMES)

CHAPTER EIGHT

Lunch brought with it not so nice memories of school.

God, it was the awful process all over again.

After collecting her tray and food, Amy-Jean turned around and realised she didn't know where to sit.

There were no more empty tables left as most tributes seemed to take the approach of sitting by themselves or with their partners, save for the careers naturally who sat around one table, assessing the room of tributes and smirking.

She cleared her throat and shifted from one door to another awkwardly.

She felt stupid, standing there for such a prolonged amount of time so she ultimately decided to join Jeremy who had sat with the boy from District 3.

She set down her tray on the table which caused the two boys to look up in mild surprise but they didn't comment on her appearance.

She bit her lip nervously as she slid into the empty chair and stared at the boy from three.

"I'm Ethan Wilder." He blurted randomly and offered her a halfway smile.

In surprise, she blinked up at him and struggled to swallow her food.

She attempted a smile. It didn't feel right to be making friends with someone who would most likely look to kill her.

"I'm Amy-Jean, you-um, can call me AJ." She said after a moment. It was a little strange to refer to herself at her nickname but, she supposed, it was a way to make friends.

He smiled a little brighter at her.

He was about her age with black hair and green eyes, a youthful but handsome face with long lashes.

Jeremy looked awkwardly between the two, "You, err, thought about alliances yet?" He asked eventually.

She snapped out of her thoughts, "Oh- Umm, not really yet." She said then frowned, she probably should get on that.

Ethan lightly tapped his bowl with a fork, "You can join us if you'd like." He offered kindly, "You're an amazing climber after all."

Amy-Jean looked shocked and her eyes widened, someone wanted her as an ally? She lowered her cutlery slightly and looked over at her District partner.

Jeremy seemed fine with the expansion.

She forced a smile onto her face, from what she'd seen, Amy-Jean thought Ethan seemed to be a solid competitor, he did well enough in gauntlets and monkey bars and seemed somewhat decent in using a spear, but then again her bar was pretty low.

"Yeah, that would be great." She said somewhat genuinely.

She wondered how long alliances really lasted in the arena.

Ethan ended up being quite a bright boy. She felt awful that he would probably die by next week, he seemed like such a nice guy.

He told her about his home, District 3. District 3 was quite a grey area between the careers and the rest. They trained occasionally but usually didn't have seasoned competitors.

She listened and smiled slightly, though she made a point not to say anything about her home, finding it easier for her not to tell Ethan. She didn't want to grow attached to anyone, it wasn't a good process

The trio was awkward but soon felt comfortable enough around each other, well enough to have a decent conversation.

Jeremy had been on the middle of the story about his crippled leg when it happened.