Chapter 11
1304 Words
Olivier Fowler POV
There's nothing like a crowd of people just waiting for your next move. Ever since I was a little kid I'd loved putting on shows and performing for an audience. I loved the drama and the action. I loved life, and I could never understand how my parents gave it all up when they got sick. They faded away like someone slowly erased them, and then they were gone. Lorenzo and I were on our own, but we didn't let it get us down. We could have worked for a living, and we did for a while. Once we realized it was easier to get others to work for you, we had it made. A little flash, a little flair, and the money came pouring in. I held up a wooden ball with a flourish.
"Look sharp," I said. I mimed putting it under one of three cups on the makeshift table in front of me, though of course I actually palmed it. I tapped the cup again so everyone could see it, then scrambled all three cups back and forth with quick and flighty movements.
"Where is it?" I asked.
"I know where it is," a tall man said from the middle of the crowd. I flashed him a smile.
"How sure are you?" I asked. He stepped forward and laid two coins on the table. It was enough to buy a loaf of bread for me and Lorenzo.
"Is the man right?" I asked the crowd. Most of them cheered, though a few pointed at one of the other cups. I tipped the cup back and revealed an empty space. The man gaped and the crowd gasped. I picked up the cup next to it as I slipped the ball back underneath.
"Tough luck, old man. Try again?" I asked. The man scowled, looked at the crowd, and smiled.
"You got me. I'll quit before I lose any more," he said.
"All right, fair enough," I said. "After all, it could be anywhere." I palmed the ball and addressed the crowd.
"It could be... behind my ear," I said, and I produced the ball again. "There could be two of them," I said as I clapped my hands together and opened them to reveal a pair of balls. "Or there could be none," I said. I closed my hands and reopened them to show they were empty. Then it was time for the big finish.
"There could even be two of me," I said. I grabbed the old cloth that covered my table and my twin Lorenzo sprang up, holding the sheet of cardboard he'd been crouching under. The people went wild with cheers and applause, and we both gradually dispersed, and I was somewhat miffed that they didn't toss any coins our way. I'd put on a great show, after all.
"What's our take?" Lorenzo asked as he folded up our supplies.
"Lunch," I said. I showed him the coins.
"That's it?" he said with a grimace.
"No one was going to play after they saw what I could do. I'm just too good," I said. We set off for the bakery to see if we could score some cheap day-olds. Life is what you make it. When things get hard, you have two choices. You can give up and die, or you can face the world with zest and flair. If you do that, you give life all the magic it needs.
Anise Haeffle POV
Other people have it harder than I do. Sometimes people pitied me for being an orphan. I always thought that didn't hurt me as much as it hurt my parents, since they died. My brothers and I weren't as hungry as some people in Eleven, and we had a home. It was weird, but I always felt privileged. I felt like it was my duty to bring other people up and give them the privileges I had.
Bean and Hull were still too young to worry about the Reaping, so it was me and my cousin Ainslee. She took it a lot harder than I did, and I tried to make things better.
"They're a bunch of cowards. They can't even fight someone their own size. They take the kids," I said. Ainslee looked behind us and shushed me.
"You're going to get us killed," she said. After that I kept my thoughts to myself and just held her hand. I rolled my eyes when Snapdragon came out. She was just like everyone else from the Capitol. She wore her rainbow dresses and her bejeweled accessories like she'd earned them and didn't get them from the backbreaking labor of people she'd never care about. She smiled that huge, fake smile of hers as she pretended her annual murders were a big show.
"Ladies first this time!" she said. I squeezed Ainslee's hand.
"Anise Haeffle!" she called. Ainslee screamed and grabbed my arm. I was so stunned I forgot to be scared. I concentrated on Ainslee instead.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I should volunteer for you," she blurted. Her face was pale and she looked out of her mind. "I'll volunteer!"
"No, don't!" I said. She turned to the stage and opened her mouth. I slapped her to get her to stop. She seemed stunned.
"Please don't. I'll be okay," I said. She started to cry and let me go. I wanted to scream and cry and throw up as I walked to the stage. I was so mixed up I didn't know what to do.
Snapdragon called Olivier Fowler to go with me. He seemed nonchalant about the whole thing. He was waving to the crowd as he came. He shouldn't have been on his way to die. Suddenly I couldn't bear it.
"This is garbage!" I yelled. "Is this all you-" I stopped myself before I said something that would get my brothers killed. If it hadn't been for them, I never would have shut up.
"Feeling down?" Olivier asked. He flourished his arm and pulled a rose out of nowhere. He handed it to me and the crowd went nuts. Snapdragon looked back at the noise and gawked at the flower. It was all so crazy I couldn't help but laugh.
Bean and Hull didn't say much when they came to see me. They were crying too hard. Ainslee was crying too, though she also looked about ready to kill me. I asked Bean and Hull for a minute alone with her.
"What was that?" she asked.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to get hurt," I said.
"So you hurt me," she said.
"Sorry," I said again.
"I shouldn't be mad at you. You're probably going to die," she said, and she started crying all over again. And I was about to make it worse.
"Uh yeah... I'm definitely going to die," I said.
"What?" she asked.
"You know how I always used to talk about helping someone else. I'm not going to try to win. I'm going to help one of the younger Tributes win," I said. It seemed natural, and I knew I'd been planning it from the second I got reaped.
"You can't. You have to try," she said.
"It's okay. Everyone always says they want to be a hero. I'm actually going to do it," I said.
"I want you to come back. I hope you change your mind, but I'll love you no matter what," Ainslee said, and then it was time for her to go. It felt weird knowing there was no chance I'd live longer than a few weeks. It was like I'd already started mourning my own death. I almost hoped I'd change my mind too, but I knew I wouldn't. It was time for me to walk the walk.
- Writer
