rising from the ashes || a hunger games story

chapter six

willow's pov

the next two days in training went by like nothing. the incident between violet and griffin were never brought up again. besides the fact that peacekeepers had to follow behind violet to every station she went to to make sure she didn't kill anybody else. the gamemakers had announced to panem that griffin died unexpectedly, completely ignoring the fact that he was murdered.

district 5 had to hold another reaping. this 15 year old boy was chosen. his name is ace. he seems like a fragile kid. all of the tributes saw him on the second day of training. we all looked at him and he was shaking.

he was able to get extra time in one of the seperate gyms after training to make up for day one. i'm not too worried about him. my main threat is violet. i don't know if she'll even make it that far into the games to get the chance to kill me though. it all depends on what the gamemakers have in store.

and it also depends on the score i get in individual sessions today. if i get a low score, i'm gonna be the last person on her list. if i get a high score, i'm going to be number one on her and the career's list.

after lunch time we were all told to stick around. our names were being called in order of our district for individual sessions. the female tributes would get called first. i don't know what i'm going to do. haymtich told me to show off my shooting skills so maybe i'll just shoot some targets? i zone out and the next thing i know it's just will and i left.

i sit there staring at my hands for 15 minutes when i hear my name.

willow mellark.

i start walking when i hear my name from behind me. i turn and see will. "shoot straight" he says. i smile and i walk away. if you walk in and turn to your right and look a few feet up the wall, the wall turns into this room-like thing. that's where the gamemakers are hanging out. they're all laughing and conversing. they don't even acknowledge my presence.

"willow mellark" i get their attention when they hear my last name. "district 12"

i walk over to the shooting station and grab a bow. it's doesn't feel the same as the one i use back at home. i found that one under one of our floor boards along with some arrows. it looked old and beaten up. i was able to fix it up and it looked brand new.

i get as used to the bow as i can before grabbing an arrow. my eyes goes to the target across from me and i aim. when i let go of the arrow, i'm appalled. i missed. i never miss!

i hear the gamemakers laugh. i grab another arrow and feel my blood boiling. i aim for the target again and this time i get it straight in the head. i look over to the gamemakers and none of them are paying attention.

they're all laughing and talking about who knows what. i start getting angry. i spot the head gamemaker holding a martini. an olive with a toothpick through it sits in the glass. the olive is at the very top of the toothpick leaving the olive above the glass. the olive looks loose on the toothpick because it's on the very edge of it.

before making my decision, i check for a force field. i remember my mom telling me they had a force field that seperated them and us for the 75th games. i find no transparent, almost glowing, square so i grab an arrow and take aim.

i release the arrow and the arrow goes flying. it pierced straight through the olive and sticks to the wall. the gamemakers gasp and look at me the same way i reacted when i missed. some of them even looked scared.

one of the gamemakers spilled his drink on himself and he was covered in wine. i drop the bow, look at the gamemakers with a look that says "don't mess with me" and i walk out.

once i arrive on my floor, my prep team, mason, haymitch, and effie are all sitting at the dining table waiting for me. "so how'd it go?" haymtich asks me. "i shot an arrow at them" i blurt out.

effie smacks her palm on her forehead and says, "you what?" "well not necessarily at them. at an olive that sat in the head gamemaker's martini," i say.

"that's actually a better shot than your mother's," haymtich says. i look at him confused. "she shot an apple from a pig's mouth," he says. i laugh at the fact that i pulled an act like that just like my mother did.

then haymitch starts laughing too. "how did they look at you?" he asks me. i laugh looking back at the moment. "they looked pretty scared. one of them even spilled wine on himself." haymitch, mason, and even effie and the prep team start laughing.

"now we just have to wait and see what you get," haymtich says. will soon arrives from his individual session and we catch him up on the conversation we had when he was gone. he doesn't say match about his sessions though. i don't keep a track of how long it takes until i see cedar flickerman on the screen. cedar is ceaser flickerman's son. ceaser had passed away about 10 years ago and even if he was alive, i doubt he'd be doing the interviews anyway.

cedar starts reading the names and scores off a piece of paper. he starts with district 1 and makes his way up.

shimmer- district 1: 9
jet- district 1: 9
crystal- district 2: 9
merlin- district 2: 9
aspen- district 3: 7
cole- district 3: 6
millie: district 4: 9
finn- district 4: 10
piper- district 5: 7
ace- district 5: 5
violet- district 6: 10
carter: district 6: 7
ivy: district 7: 10
tyler: district 7: 6
winter: district 8: 5
marsh: district 8: 4
sadie: district 9: 6
mitch: district 9: 6
eve: district 10: 7
pluto: district 10: 5
june: district 11: 8
falcon: district 11: 9

when i saw my score i think i almost spit my juice out.

"from district 12, willow mellark with a score of 12"

everyone in the room gasps. the only other people to get 12's in the history of the games are my parents. "good job sweetheart" i hear haymtich say. i smile at him.

will got an 8. "i can work with that." haymtich says. good thing he didn't get a higher score so he didn't have to worry about a target on his back. my problem now was going to be trying to stay alive while i'm number 1 on everyone's lists.