Return to the Games

Rosalind’s POV

This morning I awoke from a shrill voice sounding near my ear.

“Rosalind, dear, wake up! You’ve got to eat a hearty breakfast if you expect to do well in training!”

“Go away,” I mumble grumpily, flinging my arm to the side in an attempt to push her away.

“Come along, now. Your father and brother are waiting for you down the steps at the dining table.”

I slowly move the fleece blanket from above me and raise my arms in an unnoticed protest. A quick yawn escapes before I can mask it and I untangle my legs from the mass of sheets and covers I surrounded myself within during the night. The wooded floor is chilly when I place my feet on it, and I quickly sit back onto the bed before realization of today’s events can sink in. I nearly make my way back into a light sleep when Everett flings a pillow onto my head.

“Hurry up, Rose. We have to get out of here pretty soon. I can’t stand hearing her voice another hour.”

“Yeah, I’d rather go into an arena to die than eat pancakes, too.” I shoot back, annoyed about being woken up yet again.

“Just hurry up, okay? I want to see our competition.”

I hold back my snide remark because he’s my brother and slip on a robe before making my way down the steps. The smell of pancakes, bacon and eggs fills my nose until I almost don’t need to eat it. I can already taste the greasy pork sliding down my throat and the cake-like pastry sticking to the roof of my mouth after each bite. I give in to my rumbling stomach and pull a chair out next to my dad.

“Morning, Rose. How are you feeling about today?” My dad asks.

“Better now that I see all this food!” I say, sounding more excited than I mean to.

“That’s my girl. Eat up, kiddo. You’ll need it in a few days.”

I clear my plate and wait for an Avox to take it into the kitchen. I can’t quite wrap my head around the idea of them; we’ve never had servants before. We’ve definitely never had servants who couldn’t speak.

“Ready, everyone? The first training session begins in fifteen minutes.” Ashby says excitedly. She fluffs her colorful hair and reapplies some bright blue lipstick before opening the door and motioning the three of us out.

“Where’s Flux?” Everett asks.

“He’ll be joining us shortly.” Ashby answers quickly.

“Why hasn’t he already joined us? Shouldn’t he be wishing us good luck before the first day of training?”

“Don’t be critical, Everett. He’s doing the best he can by you two.”

“We’ll see how long I last.” He says sullenly.

“Don’t you ever say that again!” I yell at my brother. “Don’t you ever doubt that you and I will make it out of this place together. I won’t let you give up now.”

“Your sister is right, Everett. You two can do anything you set your mind to, and don’t forget that for a second. You are both very talented people and your mother and I are so proud that you’ve been this strong so far. We have no doubts in you two whatsoever.”

My dad wraps his arms around Everett and I and gives us a famous dad hug. We used to love them when we were younger, and although recently I haven’t appreciated them, I haven’t felt safer in a long time.
As we walk down the hallway in the building we've been staying in, I notice several other tributes I hadn't seen before. There’s a short boy with spiked brown hair who looks to be about my brother’s age. I also see a girl with wavy light brown hair who seems to be teasing her fellow district mate. I make a mental note to ask dad about them later. I think they might be from district six or seven.

Once we reach the last floor of the building, we are able to read a large red sign with bubble letters reading ‘Training through here.’ Ashby and my dad aren't allowed in with us, so Everett and I slowly make our way into the large gymnasium where we see several other kids around our age: the other tributes. We also see a few adults who are standing on podiums and waiting to tell us what we have in store for us the next three days. They tell us we can spend our days at any station with whoever we want, as long as there aren't any arguments.

“You’ll have plenty of time to fight in the arena,” the dark haired woman says. I immediately feel a chill run its course through my body as I imagine my parents standing here hearing the exact same speech so many years ago. “We want to see your strengths, so feel free to express yourselves at each area. Everyone has a talent, but it’s up to you to discover it.” She finishes and steps down.
My eyes fall directly on the bows and arrows and light up. That is my, and my mother’s, specialty. She taught me to hunt when I was young, even though I never came close to starving. I’ve been hungry, of course, but never frightened of dying of hunger. I look around farther and see giant boulders to throw to show off strength, knives to cut with and aim at targets, and a rope course to practice agility. I look over to my brother only to find him socializing with three people I’ve never seen before this week. As I look closer, I realize they are the ones we saw on the roof; they’re the ones who think my brother is just some easy kill. I rush over to his defense, but before I can get a word in I hear Everett laughing.
“I don’t care what we do first; I’m saving my skills for the game makers.” He says lightheartedly.

“I think we should go by the swords,” a boy offers.

“You’ve never touched a sword in your life,” the girl from his district retorts. Before they get into a full-fledged argument, I cut in.
“Excuse me, Everett, but I thought we were in this together.”

“We are. I was just talking to these guys, you know, trying to get to know the people we’ll be spending the next couple of weeks with.” He says quietly.

“You mean the people who will be trying to kill you throughout the next two weeks?” I shoot back at him.

“No, Rose, listen. This is Ovid and Thorburn and Pliny and Laurel. We’re going to work together to win this.”

“There is no together except you and me, Everett. You know the second you turn around one of them will slice you in half without a glance back.” I pull his arm and start walking towards the bows.

“Wait, Rose. I can’t use a bow to save my life. Can’t we go do something else?”

“Fine,” I say, agitated. We walk towards the rope course to try our hand at some agility. I make it about three rungs up before twisting over and landing sharply on my elbow. It was a short drop, but it still stung a little. Everett, however, climbed up the latter with nearly no difficulty. He easily jumped down and looked at me with empathy.

“I don’t know what you’re staring at. I can hunt anything with a single arrow. I doubt there will be any ropes to climb in the arena.” I regret my remark as soon as I see my brother’s face fall completely. He turns from me and starts walking towards the plant identification table.

I follow him, as to be expected, and it turns out he’s more talented than either of us thought. He quickly moves through the simulated forest and finds plenty of edible and deadly plants. I try to follow him, but I nearly pick a poisonous sprout twice. The other tributes are looking at me like a hunk of meat they can just stick a fork in and move on from. I move quickly towards the bows when a whistle blows and we’re told it’s time for lunch. That can’t be, I think. We were only there for a few minutes. I glance at my watch and realize it’s been over three hours. How could I have spaced out for that long? I remember the ropes, the knife throwing and the plants, but other than that I continue to draw blanks.

Throughout lunch I’m quiet, as we are eating at some colorful restaurant right outside the training center with all the other tributes. I don’t want to discuss strategy or skill and run the risk of being overheard. I wolf down the honey turkey and quickly gulp my bubbly drink. My stomach doesn’t feel up to too much, but after everyone finishes eating and asking me what’s wrong, we get to go back to the second half of training for today.
I walk briskly past my brother and set my mind to focus on pure survival skills. First, I grab a spear and try to catch herring. I expect there so be some sort of water source in the arena, and finding fish is easy food. I don’t want to waste arrows on such a slim chance of dinner. After trying, and failing, to catch several white fish, I grab a net off the wall and try to catch them that way. I do succeed in catching three, so I put them back and move on to the fire making station. Although my parents did tell me not to start a fire at night when the bright flames and smoke can easily be seen, I still need to practice to insure that I won’t be eating raw squirrel and killing myself before anyone else gets the chance. As I rub two sticks together in frustration, I feel a presence near me. I look up and hear a feminine voice chirp something out I don’t quite catch.

“What?” I ask, dumfounded.

“I said, my name is Laurel. Our parents met in the quarter quell a long time ago. After I got reaped, my dad told me to look out for the name ‘Mellark.’ I heard it twice while watching the district thirteen reaping. Was that boy your brother?”

“He still is, even though he’s avoiding me. I’ve heard about you career districts and I know you don’t actually want to make friends with him. I’m going to keep him alive no matter what, so if you and your friends want to mess with him, you better be keeping an eye out for me because I do not go down without a fight.”

“Hey, calm down. I’m just trying to make an ally in this whole thing. I don’t like Thor and I barely know the other two. I don’t trust any of them.” She looks at me innocently, but I think I catch a glint in her eye.

“I don’t want to watch out for anyone except my brother, okay? He’s enough of a handful and I have to make it out just like my parents did.”

“You think I don’t feel the same way? My dad was in the Hunger Games twice, just like yours was. My mom’s crazy, for God’s sake. She doesn’t even know who I am half the time. If I don’t come back, my dad won’t have anyone and my mom won’t even know I’m gone.” Laurel honestly looks sad when she says this, and I start to feel bad for her.

“Listen, I get it. Even though we’re in the same situation, doesn’t mean we can be friends. I can handle this all on my own and so can you.” I try to walk away but she catches my by the hand.

“I can help you, Rosalind. I’m sure you’ve got your strong points, but you sure can’t use a harpoon. I saw that over there. It was tragic.”

“I don’t need any harpoon to catch my food, okay? I got them with the net, didn’t you see that since you were watching me?”

“Yeah, I bet there will be plenty of nets sitting right there when we get to the arena. Let me help you, Rosalind. I’ll teach you how to make a net, and you agree to be on my team as long as you can be. Deal?” She asks me. I argue it in my head for several seconds before finally coming to a conclusion.

“Deal.” I agree.

Laurel and I walk over to the knotting station and she shows me a dozen types of knots I can use to make a net. I make two completely different ones before Everett walks up to me with a black eye shining on his face.

“What the hell happened to you?” I ask him before I start worrying like a mother would.

“Nothing, I just fell off the obstacle course earlier.” He boldly lies.

“That’s horse --- and you know it. Which one of these meat heads hit you?”

“No, Rose, honestly! We were just fighting over there, trying to practice, you know? It got a little out of hand and Thor slugged me. I hit him back, but I missed and only got him in the arm. One of the training officials came over and made us move to a different station. That’s why I decided to come see what you’re doing.”

“I’m learning how to keep us alive while you’re out there trying to get yourself killed, that’s what.” I say curtly. I turn to him to say more but a whistle is blown and we are told to exit the training gym. Everett calls after me but I run out before he can catch up. I’m too worried about him to even worry about myself. My head starts spinning and I sit down just in time for someone to catch me. I look up gratefully, expecting to see my brother or my dad. I’m unpleasantly surprised to see someone I’ve never met in my life. He has longer straight hair and a grim look on his face.

“Are you alright?” Aster Mason asks me.

“I’m-who are you?” I ask.

“I’m Aster. Who are you?”

“Rose. Rose Mellark.”

“Nice to meet you, Rose.” He smiles before gently setting me down on a nearby bench where I see my brother, father and Ashby staring at me.

“Nice to meet you too…” I reply as he skirts away into the crowd.
“He seems nice!” Ashby trills near me. She’s too close for comfort.
“I’m sure he’ll seem nice before he tries to put an axe through my head, too.” I retort as I get up and walk to the elevator. “I’ll be in my room if any of you need me.”

As if they could read my mind, no one bothered me that night. My dad knocked on the door to put a plate of food next to it, and that’s all I heard until this morning.