Percy’s POV

You know, I might as well be signing a death certificate.

And why, WHY did I agree to play this by Haymitch’s rules (yes, the I-have-a-crush-on-Katniss is his idea..)? I think it’s got to do with the sponsors. Love story? You have got to be kidding me! Okay, I don’t deny that I do have a crush on Katniss but admitting it (more like pretending to) in front of the whole citizen of Panem? And the fact that said person doesn’t have any clue?

Yeah…I think I may have signed my death certificate…

    “ Oh….” was all Caesar could say.

    “ Yeah. Oh,” I repeat, smiling grimly. “ Definitely an ‘oh’.” I could feel the cameras training its glare on me. And I have a feeling it’ll go to Katniss, showing the whole country how she looked.

  “ Dear me,” Caesar said, patting my arm, “ that is an extremely bad piece of luck, Percy.”

  “ Well, I have a knack for attracting bad luck. Good luck rarely happens to me. Truly rare,” I say, grinning.

   “ Well, you don’t know whether or not that is true,” Caesar say, reassuring me.  “ Maybe, just maybe the rules could be tweak just a little bit, right? And maybe the both  of you can go back home!”

I laugh at that. “ As if!” I snort. “ That, my friend, is excellent luck and as good luck rarely happens to me, excellent luck will never, ever do.”

The audience laugh some more and Caesar laughed probably the loudest.

“ And I take it the young lady doesn’t know?”

“ Nope. Not until I decided to be a Romeo on this stage,” I tell him. “ And I’m not exactly the only one,” I add.

“ The only one what?” Caesar asks.

“ Um…,” I could feel myself blushing by now, “ Well, um…”

“ Oh, do you mean you’ve got competitors back home?” Caesar asks, his grin widening. I nod. “ Oh, dear me! Our dear Percy Jackson has competition for the heart of the lovely Katniss Everdeen back in District 12! What a shame!”

“ I know. It sucks,” I say, grinning.

The audience laughs.

“ Oh, ladies and gentlemen, wouldn’t you just love to pull her back out and have a response, ladies and gentlemen?” A roar of approval can probably bring the building down.  “ Sadly, rules are rules. And Katniss Everdeen’s time has been spent. Well, Percy Jackson, best of luck to you, even though it rarely happens to you, and  I think I speak for all of us when I say our heart goes with yours.”

The roar of the crowd is deafening! I think I did good with the interview. Yay for me! Of course, I’ve got Katniss to deal with after this….but other than that, they absolutely bought  the whole sob love story. Tee hee….

***************

Well, what did I tell you? That Katniss is going to flip?

She did…right after she pushed me down and send me tumbling into an urn…

…and now my hands are bleeding like crazy!

“ Ow,” I say, pulling out bits of the ceramics out of my hands. “ And why did you decide to attack me?”

“ How dare you!” she shrieks. Personally, aside from being scared of her fiery rage, I am quite grateful the other tributes don’t share the same floor with us. Or they’ll think we are having an argument which will lead to a break up which would probably lead to horrible death in the arena. “ You had no right! No right to go saying those things about me!”

Saved by the bell! Or the elevator, whichever you prefer. Because now, the whole of crew are here: Effie, Haymitch, Cinna and Portia.

“ What’s going on?” says Effie, a teensy weensy note of hysteria to her voice. “ Did you fall?”

“ Yeah. Right after she shoved me,” I say, letting Cinna and Haymitch pull me up.

“ Shoved him?” Haymitch turns on her.

“ This was your idea, wasn’t it? Turning me into some kind of fool in front of the whole country?” she counters him.

I hold my hand in a higher position to slow down the bleeding. “ No, it was  my idea,” I say, inspecting my wounds. Yeah, I know. I’m lying but I don’t really want to be murdered by her, you know? Or possible being send into the arena in a very, very mangled state. “ Haymitch just helped me.”

“ Oh, he is being so damn helpful to you!” she says scathingly.

“ Ouch. That really hurts,” I say, pulling a face at her. “ Don’t be such a baby, Katniss,” I add nastily.

She opens her mouth to retort but Haymitch cuts her. “ You are a fool,” he says in disgust. “ Do you think he hurt you? The boy gave you something you could never achieve on your own!”

 “ He made me look weak!” she snarled back at him.

“ He made you look desirable!” he yells. “ And let’s face it, you can use all the help you can get in that department. You were about as romantic as dirt until he said he wanted you. Now they all do. You’re all they’re talking about! The star-crossed lovers from District 12!” says Haymitch.

“ But we are not star-crossed lovers!” she hisses. Oh, how I wish I could smack her there and then! But of course, she could do worse to me.

Haymitch grabs her by the shoulders and pins her to the wall. “ Who cares? It’s all a big show. It’s all how you’re perceived. The most I could say about you after your interview was that you were nice enough, although that in itself is a miracle. Now I can say you’re a heartbreaker. Oh, oh, oh, how the boys back home fall longingly at your feet. Which do you think will get you more sponsors?”

She steps away from him, her face full of disgust. Well, I would too, if Haymitch had been pinning me to the wall and his face inches from mine. Obviously his breath stank. Yeurghh….., I think to myself, shuddering slightly.

“ He’s right, Katniss,” Cinna says gently as he puts his arm around her.

There is a hint of red to her cheeks. “ I should have been told, so I don’t look so stupid.”

“ No, you’re reaction was perfect. If you’d known, it wouldn’t have read as real,” Portia says in a really soothing voice. I would have loved to have a dig at Katniss but I accidentally (no, gratefully!) glanced at her and she was looking at me from the corner of her eyes and is probably sending me a secret message : SHUT UP! Buuuuut…I’m gonna risk it..

“ And anyway, you didn’t say you neither love or like me, so I don’t think you’ve made any declaration. And Gale would probably have noticed it was a hoax or something,” I say.

“ What’s Gale got to do with this?” she snarls at me.

“ Nothing,” I say innocently. But she starts to advance on me, so I say , “ It was a joke, Katniss! Sheesh, get your humor checked!”

I could see she relaxed a little bit. Phew…thought I would have been a goner.

“ And anyway, Katniss, they eat up things like a sob story about star-crossed lovers here in the Capitol,” I add, for good measure.

I could see the gears in her head whirring, thinking about what I had said. She looks at the stylists and asks, “ After he said he loved me, do you think I could be in love with him too?”

“ I did,” Portia says. “ The way you  avoided looking at the camera, the blush.”

Everyone chimed in, agreeing with her. I didn’t say anything, merely glare at her.

“ You’re golden, sweetheart. You’re going to have sponsors lined up the block,” Haymitch says to her.

She looks pretty embarrassed now.

She looks at my hands and probably winced a bit. “ I’m sorry I shoved you.”

“ Yeah. But I’m glad you did. You could’ve done worse,” I shrug. She smiles a tiny smile.

Effie squeals (what is wrong with her?) with delight and shepherds us into the dining room. I would’ve start right away on all the food but my hands are bleeding way, way too much. I look back and see that I’ve left a pretty large trail of blood, all the way from the lift.

“Oh, come on, Percy. We need to get you patched up,” Portia says.

“ How could you, Katniss?” I  say, in a mock, sad voice. “ How could you do this to me?” She tries to get an aim at me but Cinna manages to pull her back. To my surprise, she is smiling.

“ Stop with the theatrics, Jackson. You were always a terrible actor,” she says, showing her – small – fists.

I poke my tongue at her before I finally let Portia take me to the first-aid room.

**************

After dinner, we watch the replay in the sitting room. She thinks she seems frilly and shallow (shh…don’t tell her but she does look a little bit shallow. Tee hee…), twirling and giggling ( I never thought I’d see the day when Katniss Everdeen would  twirl and giggle in front of public. Shh…don’t tell her that too…or she’ll have my head) in her dress, though the others assure her that she was charming. I didn’t comment anything, because I had a very hard time trying to maintain a really straight face.

And I couldn’t even hide the smirk when the others say that I was charming. Absolutely charming. Well, at least I didn’t roll on the floor laughing my guts out. And I do look as though I am truly, madly and deeply in love with the girl on fire.

“ And who said I was a bad actor? Oof!” I say, as she dug her elbows into my ribs. “ Cinna, soon I will be send into the arena badly damage already if she doesn’t stop this,” I complain. The others laugh as she stomps on my foot. “ Hey!”

“ Shut up,” Katniss says, her eyes glinting. “ Or I’ll do worse.”

“ You have,” I mutter as I lean back into the couch.

When the anthem finishes and the screen goes dark, a hush fell on all of us. Oooh, goody..the Games will be starting tomorrow. How exciting! ( I know, you must be thinking I should go and see someone because I am seemingly mad..) We will get up at dawn and get prepared for the arena. Well, the Games doesn’t start early because most of the Capitol residents aren’t early risers. Well, you can sleep in if you have no work to do. But because of the travel to the arena, which only the Gamemakers know where, is long, we have to make an early start.

I’m glad Cinna and Portia are going to be with us to the very spot from which we will be launched into the arena. I’m afraid that I would do something stupid like try to escape or something. But we don’t have much time to say goodbye to Effie and Haymitch after this. So, this is the time and place for farewells.

I was quite surprised when Effie suddenly took us by the hand and, with actual tears ( I was definitely shocked at this point), wishes us well. Thanks us for being the best tributes she had the privilege to sponsor (yeah, Effie…thanks for being our escort. We were really privileged..). And then, she had to ruin the sob-sob moment when she said, “ I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I finally get promoted to a decent district next year!”

Then she kisses us both on the cheeks and hurries out, overcome with either emotional parting or the possible improvement of her fortunes. I’m gonna go with the latter, you know. How about you?

Haymitch, on the other hand, probably looked so sober you’d possibly think that someone had died.

“ So,” he says, looking at us.

“ Any final advice?” I ask him.

“ When the gong sounds, get the hell out of there. You’re neither of you up to the blood bath at the Cornucopia. Just clear out, put as much as distance as you can between yourselves and the others, and find a source of water,” he says. “ Got it?”

“ And after that?” Katniss asks.

“ Stay alive,” says Haymitch. It’s the same advice he gave us on the train, but he’s not drunk or laughing this time. And we only nod.

“ Nice knowing you,” I say, grasping his hand.

He nods, looking grimmer than usual. “ May the odds be ever in your favour. The both of you,” he adds, before departing.

I went straight back to my room after that. I would have loved to exchange a few words with Portia, maybe even Cinna….but the thought that I might be seeing my family back this soon, in just a couple more hours…it’s overwhelming.

Of course, I will be seeing my family back if I’m lucky enough to be killed within the few moments after the gong has been sound. But then my thoughts flew to Prim and Mrs. Everdeen. They are my family, too. Hmm…

Well, I’m going to bed. Let’s just turn all of this thing into a nightmare and I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed, if not frightened to death.

*************************************

Well, so much for sleep..

And so much for waking up refreshed….

Damn…

I must have OCD…just like that guy back in District 12…what’s his name again? Ter…Ter..oh, yes! Terminus! He’s convinced that he is the Roman god of boundaries, or at least, an incarnation of the Roman god of boundaries. He would bug us whenever we want to go under the fence and into the woods, claiming that we shouldn’t bring weapons into the Pomerian Line, whatever that is. Okay, back to the problem : I may have OCD because I’ve been imagining horrible death scene (well…that’s an understatement, actually…), how the arena looks like…whether it’s a swamp, a forest…a desert? Okay, maybe the desert won’t happen because  they once did that and the Games ended sooo quick. So, no deserts anymore. Or a wasteland.

“ Oof!” I fell down as I ran into someone. “ Who’s there?”

“ Who’s there?” the stranger say.

“ Percy,” I say, getting to my feet.

“ Oh,” the stranger say. “ You can’t sleep too?” the stranger asks as s/he steps into the light. It was Katniss.

“ No…I was having nightmares,” I reply. “ Where are you going?”

“ To the roof. Where are you going?”

“ Same.” Silence. “ Shall we go up together? It would definitely suck if it was only me up there,” I say. She nods and we climb the staircase together.

The roof is not lit at night, which I am very, very thankful or we’d have a lot of questions to be answered. There’s quite a commotion going on down in the streets, music and singing and car horns, none of which could be heard if I were in my room with the soundproof walls and all.

“ Are they having a party?” Katniss asks.

“ Maybe…looks like they are in costumes,” I reply.

“ How do you know they’re in costumes? They’re costumes are crazy!” she exclaims.

“ Lower you voice, you idiot,” I hiss at her. “ Ow!” I yelp as she smacks me on the head.

“ Are you a smarty pants?” she growls at me.

“ A bit,” I reply, to which I received yet another blow, this time gentler and on my shoulder.

“ Why couldn’t you sleep?” she asks me, after a moment of silence.

“ I kept thinking about my family,” I reply. She didn’t say anything, so I went on. “ I mean, I don’t know how to react if I am going to see them this soon,” I  say. “ I….I didn’t actually plan on seeing them this early, you know.”

“ Then why did you volunteer?”

“ I don’t actually know why I volunteered,” I reply, staring into the dark Capitol skyline. “ I was angry, upset..and I just kept thinking that life is just not worth living, you know? I lost my mother in the mines and then my sister died because of a disease. My father left us way long before I could even remember…I don’t have any sole reason to live.”

“ Is that why you volunteered for Peeta? Because you don’t have any family members left?” she asks. I didn’t answer. “ Is this some crackpot suicide idea of yours?”

I laugh. “ Gale used the same, exact words when we were taken away after the Reaping. And I said, maybe.”

“ So, this may be your crackpot suicide idea?” she asks, grinning.

“ Pretty much,” I admit.

“ You are sick, Jackson,” she says, laughing. Then, she stopped. I see her eyes travelling to my bandaged hands and guilt spread all over her face. “ I’m – “

“ Shut it,” I advise her. “ I’m fine, okay? Don’t get too worked up over this,” I say, waving my bandaged hands. “ I’ll live.”

Silence. It’s not the awkward silence, more like we enjoy each other’s presence silence.

“ You know, I hope I won’ t become a monster in the arena,” I suddenly say. 

She didn’t reply at first. “ Do you mean you won’t kill anyone?” she asks.

I laugh at that.” That would be quite impossible, considering that everyone in there will try to kill me. Including you, let’s not forget that.” She snickers at that. “ But I don’t think I want to be someone that can be used by anyone. I mean, this is basically a game of chess and I don’t think I really like to be one of the pawns.” I pause. “ I really want to prove to everyone that  I am of my own free will. That I don’t belong to anyone.”

“ But you don’t actually have your own free will, right? You volunteered and now here you are, getting ready for the real Games,” she counters me.

“ I know,” I say. Since that was the only thing I could say.

We sat in silence together on the roof until nearly dawn.

**********************************

“ Percy.”

Oh, man….is it time for me to go to the mines?

“ Percy.”

Please let me sleep in….

“ Percy!”

“ Nooo,” I moan groggily. “ Let me sleep in, Mrs. Woodlum…..”

“ Percy!” My eyes snap open. “ It’s me, Portia.”

“ What are you doing here?” I say, quickly getting into a sitting position. I pull the covers high until it covers my head, only my face is poking out. “ I’m not decent!”

“ I’ve seen worse, Percy,” she says, smiling. “ Come on, get up. Get showered. It’s time,” she says, before going to leave the room.

“ Time? Time for what?” I ask, feeling a little bit panicky.

“ Time for the Games, sweetie,” she laughs. “ My, my…you are mighty nervous, aren’t you?”

“ Oh, oh…that,” I say, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “ Okay…I’ll be ready.”

“ And hurry…I’ll be waiting to take you to the arena.” And she left….

Perfect…I can get some more lie in.

“ And don’t go back to sleep!”

Yeurghhh!!!

**********************

We’re on the roof now.

“ So we take a helicopter to the arena?” I ask Portia, as a helicopter appears out of nowhere. “ Sweet!”

“ It’s not a helicopter. It’s a hovercraft. Slightly bigger than a helicopter,” Portia replies.

A ladder drops down and I immediately climb it. Only, of course, I couldn’t. Because I’m frozen on it. Well, at least I won’t fall down if I accidentally let go of the ladder. The ladder lifts me into the helicopter. Though, it didn’t let me go when I’m safely inside. Instead, a beefy man in a white coat approaches me with a syringe.

“ What’s that?” I immediately ask him.

“ Oh, this? It’s just your tracker. I’m going to inject it into you so if you could just keep still,” he says as he jabs the needle into my arm. I grit my teeth, stopping myself from crying out in pain. “ There you go.”

Now the ladder releases me.

“ Come, Percy.” I jump slightly, not noticing when Portia was fetched. “ Let’s get some breakfast. You must be hungry,” she says.

“ Starving, actually,” I grin, following her, with an Avox in the lead. Soon, we are in a dining room, just as fancy as the one at the Training Centre, maybe a little bit small. But that didn’t distract me from the food.

So, despite the feeling of doom lurking in my stomach, I shovel every bit of food I can get my hands on. Hey, when you’re about to go into the Hunger Games, you try to stuff yourself in hopes that you won’t need feeding for the rest of the Games. Which, is like, totally pointless since all of it would be digested and would be used as fats and would be gone within days. So, yeah…but it’s nice to know you have one thing to put your hopes on. Even if it does seem a little bit foolish and childish.

Anyways, the ride was like for half an hour before the windows went dark, signaling that we are really near to the arena. It really drives me nuts because I would love to get a glimpse of the arena. It’d be neat, to know things your opponents don’t. But of course, that’s cheating. Then, the hovercraft lands and we go to the ladder, which leads into an underground tunnel.

The tunnel would probably lead to the catacombs (even the name is scary..) that lie beneath the arena. There were instructions (thankfully)to my destination, a chamber for my preparation. Capitol folks call it the Launch Room. In the districts ( I heard this from Katniss), they are called Stockyard. Neat…it really goes with its official function : to prepare the animals for slaughter.

I explore the Stockyard, taking in everything. Who knows, this might be the last thing I see before I die. Everything is brand new because I will be the first and only tribute to be using this Stockyard. Since the arena changes every year, so does the Stockyard. And it’s also because the arenas are preserved historic sites (why it is a historic site remains a mystery to me) and the Capitol folks come here every year for vacations. Katniss told me that they would go for a month, rewatch the Games, tour the catacombs, reenact deaths (again, why?)and of course, visit the sites where the deaths took place. I shudder when I think of that : maybe, long after the Games are finished, people would go the scene where I was killed!

“ Percy.” Again, I jump in shock when Portia placed her hand on my shoulder. “ Sorry,” she says. “ Here,” she hands me the tribute clothes. “ Get ready.”

“ This is one ugly outfit,” I comment, pulling on the green t-shirt. I pick up the long, hooded black jacket. “ What’s the material inside supposed to do?” I ask, running my fingers through it.

“ It’s supposed to reflect the body heat. Expect some warm nights,” Portia says. I nod.

“ The boots are pretty good,” I comment again, testing and flexing my legs. “ Really good, actually. I feel as if I can be the fastest tribute in the arena,” I exclaim, grinning. Okay, I know. I sound really stupid and a little bit conceited but really, I’m doing this because I am so, so, nervous….

“ Well, since you are already ready,” she signals at the Avox who was standing by the door, “ do you want to have something more to eat?”

I grin. Yes, that’s the only thing that could make me forget about my nervousness.

I had just started on a roll of bread when a pleasant female voice announces that it was time launch. I immediately feel as if I wanted to puke.

“ I think eating was a bad idea,” I say, grinning weakly to Portia.

“ It’s okay. You only just had a bread,” she says soothingly.  “ Come,” she says, leading me to a circular metal plate. “ It’s okay. You are going to do well. You are a survivor. I just know it.”

“ Portia, thanks for everything. And I’m sorry for bugging you and the team so much,” I manage to croak.

“ No, thank you for giving me the privilege of turning you into my guinea pig. You know, with the fire as your cape and all,” she says, taking my hands and cupping it into hers. “ Good luck.”

And then a glass cylinder is lowering around me, enclosing me in some sort of tube. Next thing I knew, the tube was already rising. Higher and higher it went. Until finally I could feel dry and hot air hit my face. I was temporarily blinded by the blazing sun but after several more seconds, I could see how the arena was designed.

“ Holy cricket. We are so dead meat,” I mutter to myself and the closest tribute to me, the crippled boy from District 7, Grover looks at me, terror in his eyes.

The arena…

Our worst nightmare….

Has doubled…

Then, the voice of the legendary announcer, Claudius Templesmith booms all around us.

“ Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games begin!”