Survivor: The Forty-Seventh Hunger Games

Chapter 6

Lancia is the same, but I put her here so Six would be balanced and I could sort the chapters out later.

Trent Buchanan, 16 (D6M)

One of the coolest days in my life was when I finally learned to lucid dream. Some people might have used that for prurient ends, but for me, it just meant my nonstop motion carried over even when I was asleep. The only difference was that I could do cooler tricks, like running up walls and across ceilings. Though I had tried a few times in real life, my efforts had never netted anything better than a giant bruise across my head.

Even though I didn't use an alarm clock, I always woke up on time when I had something to do that day. I suspected it was because I was naturally energetic and submitted to sleep only when it became completely necessary. For me, waking up was much more natural than settling down.

It was still early when I got out of bed. It was barely light out, and my parents weren't up yet, or at least they were still in bed pretending to sleep while they really worried. I was a morning person, since getting up earlier meant more time to do things, but I got up extra early on Reaping days. Most kids were too scared to sleep much and spent the whole day in a sort of daze. I took the hours before the ceremony as a chance to do something really cool in case it was one of the last things I ever did. I made myself a bowl of cereal and slurped the milk out of the bowl before running over to Trace's house.

Trace and me had been friends ever since kindergarten, when we discovered we had almost the same name. Since we still had the same names, we were still friends. That, and one other reason: we both loved parkour. Six was the perfect environment for an inner-city sport like parkour. It made us both grateful we lived in a stinky, smoggy, crowded city. In Ten, the only thing to jump over was fences and cows. I waited outside as Trace snuck out. It wasn't that we weren't allowed to go out. Trace's parents were just still in bed too, and they preferred to see him off the night before the Reaping when they could still hold themselves together.

Ostensibly, me and Trace were walking to the Reaping center. We just took a really roundabout and really flashy route. We traveled in a circle around the center, jumping across stairs and flipping over bicycle racks as we converged on the center. I jumped up and grabbed a fire escape, pulling myself up the side like it was a set of monkey bars. When I reached the fifth story of the building, I walked along the railing and looked at the ground far below. Trace was about to follow me up, but he dropped off the bottom bar in surprise when I jumped. I grabbed onto the bars of the fire escape on the neighboring building, across a drop seven feet wide and fifty feet tall. I heard Trace's feet hit the ground as I hauled myself up. I looked down at him to make sure he'd seen it and he looked back up with almost grim acknowledgement.

It had been a terribly stupid thing to do. If I had missed, made a false start, or slipped, I would have hit the ground like a garbage bag filled with eggs. Normally I wouldn't have done something that reckless, and normally Trace would have called me an i***t. But I had nothing to lose today, and Trace felt the same way.

When I jumped, I hadn't been scared at all. All I remembered feeling was the rush of doing something dangerous and exciting. When Otho picked my name out of the bowl, I was only scared for a heartbeat. The shock that should have turned into terror instead became fury, and I barreled to stage like I needed a running start. Without thinking, I called Otho a horrible name that hadn't been relevant in Panem for decades, since no one cared about gender anymore. As soon as I said it, I hoped my mother wouldn't watch the recording, but I still wasn't scared. Even if the Capitol got mad, they couldn't kill me any deader than dead. I had nothing to lose.

Lancia Audren, 17 (D6)

Structure and discipline are the difference between an efficient or wasted life. It doesn't have to be military school and robotic obedience, but if you know what you can do and constantly put effort toward being your best, procrastination and laziness won't be such a problem. Or at least that was what my parents said, and that was why I was in gymnastics. I wasn't the best in the District- some of the poorer competitors killed themselves trying to get picked for the Capitol athletic teams. It happened about once every two years for one Districter in Panem, but it was the only way out for them. I was just in it for the lessons it taught me.

"Let's take five," Kathari said. I jumped down off the parallel rings and clapped the chalk of my hands, raising a cloud. Jessie and Allegra went ahead of us to the grassy curb outside the gymnasium. Kathari stopped in the doorway and saw I was still behind everyone.

"Coming?" she asked/

"I'm just going to do some cooldown," I said. I knew why they were all going outside, and it wasn't for me. A lot of people in Six felt differently, but I was my parents' child. I didn't quite share their opinion that people like that were scum, since some of those people were my friends, but it was hard for me to accept, and I tried to ignore that part of them.

"There's plenty for everybody," Kathari offered. I didn't know why she still thought I used. I was an athlete, and I wanted to take care of my body. That didn't stop her, though, so maybe that was why. I'd always kept quiet about it in the past. I didn't want to seem like I was judging her.

"I should get ready for the next meet," I said.

"You've been ready for months. Take a break already," Kathari coaxed. We went back and forth a few times until the truth came out.

"I don't do drugs," I said. I thought Kathari might get mad, but instead she laughed.

"What, you're too good for us?" she asked.

"I've seen a lot of messed-up people, you know? I don't want to end up like that," I said.

"You think we're going to turn into morphling bums?" Kathari asked, not laughing anymore.

"No! I just don't want to mess around with that," I said. I would have said something about being afraid I didn't have the willpower, but she'd have seen right through it.

"No wonder you're good at gymnastics. Your back is strong from always looking down your nose at people," Kathari said. "Have fun by yourself." she went out with Jessie and Allegra.

It shouldn't have hurt. I was just being smart and responsible. But when I wiped my hand across my cheek, a tear smeared the chalk.