The 70th Hunger Games: A Little Love

Chapter Thirteen

Dear Diary,

I wake up, and rub my eyes. My eyes! It doesn't hurt to touch my eyes! I feel my shoulder, and instead of a bloody mess, I feel a small gash that is covered with bandages. My ribs don't hurt, and my face feels normal. Wow!

"Good morning sleeping beauty," a voice booms, ringing through my ears. And for a second, I think it's Finnick. Instead, I find myself looking into the dark eyes of Cicero. I smile sheepishly, a small blush coming over my face. "This is what helped heal you," he hands me a small bottle that must have come from a parachute. Inside, there were two pills left. And there was a note on top.

A LITTLE goes a long way, my LOVE - F

F. Finnick. He helped me to get better, he sent me the medicine I so desperately needed. I'm not dead! And why did he bold certain letters? Oh! A little love. He's referencing the last words I said to him before I came in to the games. So many thoughts are running through my head, so much I'm thinking about and feeling. But Finnick. How hard must he have worked to gotten me that magic medicine? I feel a blush creeping over my face, and I smile as I look up at Cicero.

"How long was I asleep?" I ask, my voice sore. I guess that's what happens when you don't talk for a few days, when you're passed out for a few days. It doesn't help that I was basically dead before I got any medicine, with an infection spread far on my body.

"Not too long," Cicero begins, before Desdemona shakes her head.

"Two days. While you were out, the girl from three died. That was about it. We could've killed more if we weren't busy sitting here and taking shifts watching you," she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her face. Desdemona had a typically angry face, and she was very buff. She had strong muscles and dark skin, her curly hair pulled into a tight bun on top of her head. Her eyebrows seemed to fit her face, and personality, well. They looked beautiful, yet cold, unforgiving, and willing to murder you in a minute.

"Oh hey, you're up!" Sparkle says excitedly, crouching down beside me and helping me to sit up. "Do you want some food? Gunner and I just got back from hunting," she motions to Gunner who was carrying a large deer over his shoulders. Despite the fact that I hadn't eaten in days, the thought of eating any sort of meat repulsed me.

"Um, do you guys have anything else, maybe just an apple or something small? Well, I'm a vegetarian," I mumble, rubbing my neck sheepishly, my face lighting up in a soft pink color.

"Oh come on, she's so much more trouble than she's worth. I think we should just kill her," Desdemona huffs. Sparkle instantly wraps her arms around me protectively, pulling me close, into almost a hug, if I had been facing her. Cicero likewise sits down beside me, throwing his arm around my shoulder in a way that makes me think about Finnick.

"It's so cute that you're a vegetarian," he whispers in my ear, pushing some hair aside so that he can whisper properly. While he speaks, his tone seems different than the whispered conversations between Finnick and I. Instead of sensing a little love, I feel something else.

Lust.

After he set down the deer, Gunner tossed me an apple, and that was the first time I really got to look at his face. One of his eyes was green, like mine, like Finnick's, and his other was brown, as dark of a brown as the bark of a black birch tree. Suppressing a gasp, I take the apple that was just thrown to me, noticing that this one was deep red like the ones Marietta gave me. I hope that Percy is doing okay with the food, and the drink I left him. He had the rope and the sleeping bag, the matches, the extra jacket. I left him with practically everything, so I just hope that Percy is doing alright.

As the careers cook their deer, I eat my apple and make small talk with Sparkle about everything from the games to her hair to her life back home. Turns out she has a boyfriend back home that she's hoping to return to, and a twin sister named Shimmer that wants to volunteer next year, when she's eighteen. She has two other siblings, a brother, Gold who is fourteen and a sister, Glimmer, who is thirteen. She's an amazing person, and I just hope that she gets to go home to her family.