Another Tribute

"Good morning Auden, time for breakfast!" I hear a cheerful voice say through the voice box. I really hate that stupid thing.

As I get up, I notice that Eli must have given up. Ha. I suppose I'll have to try and look decent, so I go explore the bathroom and find myself in the shower getting a massage while some kind of mechanical hands rub shampoo in my hair. This I could actually get used to.

"How did you sleep Auden?" Harpon asks me as he puts down his coffee mug. And this wasn't a friendly inquisition, it was tinged with murderous acusation.

"Fine," I say, confused. Eli walks in just as I finish my reply.

"Oh, and I suppose Eli slept fine as well?" he asks me. Eli looks just as confused as me.

"How am I supposed to know that? We sleep in separate rooms!" I reply, angrily. But then I have one of those lightbulb moments.

"It doesn't seem like either of you are bothering to abide by that," Harpon says. Eli suddenly gets it too.

"Eli, did you fall asleep in my room?" I ask him. He sighs.

"Yeah, I did."

"Well, atleast you're both honest."

"But it's not what you're thinking!" I protest.

"She's right, I'll explain...," Eli says, but Harpon interrupts him.

"Look, getting all cosy before the games is not going to help you win, so do yourselves a favor and quit it," Harpon says, abruptly leaving the table for the second time within twenty four hours. I'm starting to think that guy has anger management issues. It almost makes me wish I could have my dad's friend as a mentor, but then I immediately take back that though. Although he won, it was a miracle. He happened to have stumbled to the opposite side of the arena than all the others and the Gamemakers let loose a ravinous pack of porcupines on the other end that killed all the other tributes. You're laughing, but when you run into a mutated, carnivorous porcupine see if you still have a sense of humor. Truthfully, my dad's friend is kind of a weakling. He got super lucky.

"I disagree with Harpon," Eli says.

"I agree. It'd be easier to enter the arena with nobody tieing you down. No friends is my philosophy," I tell him matter of factly. He suddenly seems more cheerful.

"So that's why you suddenly started being all bitchy."

"What? And I am not a bitch!"

"You don't want any allies." he says, ignoring my outburst.

"I don't want to feel guilty about having to kill you!" I say crankily.

"Can we think about that part later? I think that if we go into there together, we could be a great team. We might not die right away!" he says optimistically. I make a face.

"I just don't want any friends. It'll be harder."

"Entering the arena with a partner should give you hope. Two is always better than one," he comments. This shouldn't have moved me, but it did. Thisbe said the exact same thing to me the day we met.

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"Hey, can I sit with you?" she asked me at lunchtime. I hesitated to say yes.

"You sure you want to sit with me?" I asked her. She smiled.

"Two is always better than one, right?" she asked. I nodded, and we'd been best friends ever since.

****************************************

"Auden, do you want to?" he asks me, looking confused. I must have spaced out.

"Sorry, what?"

"Do you want to be allies?" he asked earnestly. I looked at his friendly face and I couldn't find the word no in my mind.

"It could be for the best," I say, holding out my hand to shake one it. He has no problem grasping my hand to make the pact that would either help us survive or initiate our doom.