Trust Me

By the time morning came around, I was dreading going back into the training arena with the other tributes. I’d become something of a laughingstock. Nobody had said anything to me, but they made whispered jokes, and I could see the chuckles they shared as they watched the pathetic little girl from District 4 as she did nothing but practice painting herself like a tree or try to remember which berries were poisonous. As far as they knew, I hadn’t even touched a weapon.

I got to the arena later than most others, and it wasn’t an accident. I wanted to put off my time in the arena as much as possible. I’d sliced up several dummies the night before, and I was feeling rather pleased with myself. I now was able to make a kill – or at least a very debilitating wound – with every single weapon that was available in the training arena. I wasn’t perfect with the bow and arrow if I tried to make a quick shot, but if I took a few seconds to perfect my aim, I could get a good mark on the bulls-eye. Granted, I’d stayed up half the night working on my combat skills, but in my mind it was worth it.

When I walked in, I could feel the eyes of some of the tributes trailing me. Most of them had tuned me out, though. Ingrid was constantly in her own little world. She hadn’t even touched anything but the bow and arrow – nobody had managed to get a chance with the bow and arrow, as she’d laid claim to it. I took a seat at the knot-tying station, which – much to my disappointment – was right next to the archery station. Ingrid grimaced at me as she saw me, and I tried to act like I didn’t notice, but seeing her vicious expression struck fear into my core. Adri was mulling about in the corner, watching everyone practice with a distant look on his face, and I was glad that he hadn’t seemed to notice me.

My relief was short-lived. “Adri. I have a proposition.” Ingrid declared. Everyone went silent and glanced up to see what was going on. Adri and Ingrid, the two most feared tributes in this year’s Games, would be a nightmare if they teamed up together. But it looked like that was exactly what was going to happen.

Adri walked over to her, his arms crossed. He didn’t even speak, just raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“I’d just like to ensure that we’re going to be in an alliance. I don’t think all the Careers should get together, as some of the Career tributes this year aren’t exactly acceptable.” Ingrid shot me a dirty look as she spoke, and I grit my teeth to keep from throwing the rope I was holding at her.

Adri paused for a moment. “You’re best with a bow and arrow, yes?”

Ingrid plucked an arrow from her sheath and shot it right in the middle of the heart bulls-eye on the first dummy she laid eyes on – all in less than two seconds. She turned back to Adri with a smug look of satisfaction on her face and crossed her arms, very pleased with herself.

“I don’t care about that. I’ve seen you do that all day. I asked if that was what you were best with, I didn’t ask you to show me what I’ve already seen.” Adri scoffed, and Ingrid’s smile faltered.

“Well, what do you want me to do?” She demanded.

Adri waved his arms open, gesturing to the entire training arena. “Show me one other weapon you can use.”

Ingrid flung her bow and sheath at the ground and stormed over to the nearest station, which happened to be the knife station. She grabbed a knife from the rack and flung it at the dummy. It missed by a mile, landing so far away from the dummy it was comical. I couldn’t help it, I burst into laughter at her furious expression.

Big. Mistake.

Ingrid whirled around to glare at me. “You think this is funny, 4?” She hissed. She stormed back over to the archery station and picked up the bow and sheath, as though she were fighting the urge to put an arrow through my head right then and there. “I’ll kill you first. I’ll mutilate you. They won’t be able to recognize you when I’m done. And there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t even walk without tripping. You can keep on learning about poisonous berries, but it won’t help. I’ll kill you before you even have a chance to think about food. I feel bad for your mentor. All he’s got to work with is a sorry excuse for a Career like you.”

That did it. I was up on my feet before I knew what I was doing. I stormed over to her and snatched the bow from her hands and an arrow from her sheath. I loaded it up and fired it, and it struck in the center red mark of the bulls-eye, though it was a little on the left side. I threw the bow down and marched over to the knife station. I grabbed one knife in each hand and flung them both simultaneously at two different dummies, and each knife found the center bulls-eye of the heart. I grabbed a spear and flew it at the head of a dummy, hitting it in the center of the skull-bulls eye. I headed over to the machete combat section and sliced the head off several dummies before jabbing my machete in the heart of a dummy. I hoped I looked as impressive as I felt. I turned back to her and gave her a stony glare.

“Good luck catching me.” I said simply, crossing my arms over my chest as every single set of eyes in the room watched me. I could hear the Game makers chattering away excitedly in their private box, but I was more focused on Ingrid. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth was hanging open in a silent ‘O’. Everyone in the arena was watching the two of us as she tried to deal with this new revelation.

Adri laughed, and it took me a moment to realize that he was laughing at Ingrid. “Pathetic,” He muttered. “You can take that as a ‘no’ to the alliance, by the way.” He turned to give me a sly grin before walking away.

I knew I needed to talk to Finnick. He’d surely be furious over my sudden outburst, and I figured it was best to find him before he had time to let his rage boil over. I shot one last condescending glare at Ingrid, who still looked frozen with either humiliation or shock, before I spun on my heel and walked out of the arena. I sat down for a few moments in the hall, just gathering my thoughts before I stood again and headed for the mentor’s section of the arena, where they could watch the tributes train.

I didn’t have to walk far. Finnick was already running down the hall, and he nearly ran into me in his haste. “Winnie! What did you do?” He demanded.

“I lost my temper.” I admitted sheepishly.

“Well you did a damn good job of shaking things up. The girl from 1 and the boy from 2 both have already had their mentors ask me if you’ll form an alliance with them. Plus, Kip’s come crawling back and is begging for you to include him in whatever alliance you’re forming.” Finnick said. “This is exactly the break you need.”

“But the archery and machete thing wasn’t even me. It was mostly just luck. I couldn’t even hit a bulls-eye yesterday.” I protested.

“It doesn’t matter. You’ve got most of the Careers begging to be your ally. You’ve got them eating out of your palm. Ingrid is already screwed, so don’t worry about her. Adri is a bit of a wild card, though.” Finnick said dismissively.

“Wait, how is Ingrid screwed?” I asked.

“Not only has her danger rating been marked down because the only thing she can kill with is an arrow – and her hands, probably, but she hasn’t proven that in the arena yet – but she’s also made herself look like an idiot because you showed her up. She only had power because she was feared, and you’ve taken all her power away from her. Plus, none of the Careers want to form an alliance with her – not if they could have you instead. Everyone’s completely forgotten about you tripping and cracking at Adri’s little mind games. You’ve just made the game your own.” Finnick informed me. In his glee, he grabbed my face and pulled it up to his, kissing me quickly. “I’ll say it once again, you’re a remarkable specimen, Winnie.”

I felt a little dizzy from all this news, and from the fact that Finnick had just kissed me when he wasn’t playing mind games. I didn’t know what to say about the kiss, so instead I said, “Oh. That’s a lot of pressure,” and forced an airy laugh. I decided it must have been a celebratory kiss, nothing more.

Finnick wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go have lunch. And you should take a nap. You lied to me last night, you said you’d be coming back early.” He lead me through the halls with his arm still wrapped around my shoulders, like he thought I might collapse. It was then that I realized that I was shaking slightly. I was exuberant with the revelation of this new information, and it was clearly getting to me. Once we were on our floor, Finnick told me to go lay down and he’d bring my lunch in. I obediently headed to my room and changed out of my now-sweaty training uniform and into my pajamas before slipping under the covers. I felt like I should be practicing, but I was too tired and hungry to even think about training. I knew I’d have to do a private demonstration for the Game makers later this afternoon, and I decided to rest up for that. Finnick returned with a tray filled with food, and he placed it on the bed next to me before pulling the covers over my shoulders, tucking me in.

“You’re babying me.” I pointed out.

Finnick chuckled softly. “Am I?” He mused, thinking things over. “I guess I’m just so pleased with the way things have changed for you.” He paused before shifting the topic. “You’ll have to eat lunch with the other tributes tomorrow. That will be the last day you can form your alliances. The Careers are definitely a good option, but as for whether or not you want to keep Kip along with you, that’s your decision. He’s not much use without a trident, though, so he might just slow you down.”

I nodded, but decided to change the subject back again. “You have so many different personalities. It’s strange.”

“I’ve been told that on multiple occasions. I get more and more serious as the Games get closer.” He said. “Or maybe it’s just because I get to know the tributes better.”

“If I get out of this alive, I want to know what you’re like normally. When you’re not playing mind games or worrying about the games.” I said with a yawn.

Finnick pushed me gently back onto the bed, forcing me to lay down. “Don’t say ‘if’ you get out of this alive. When you get out of it alive, I’ll be sure to answer any question you have and bare my soul to you, okay?” Finnick said, smoothing the covers out over me again.

I could only nod in my state of fatigue, and Finnick left the room as I started to fall asleep, the tray of food still on the bed, untouched.