Three's Company [Serelis/Safina]

Three's Company - I

Overwhelming was the best word to describe how I felt as I paced through the training center filled with unfamiliar faces. I had never considered myself to be shy or timid before this. I mean, sure, compared to someone like Dina who was always surrounded by a handful of friends and always fleeting off to some plans she'd made, I could be seen as hermit a week or so out from their last contact with civilization, but people tended to enjoy my company and my conversation back home. I could just picture my little sister laughing at me now with her signature contagious laugh, urging me to just go on and make a friend alread-

Pang. Shit. The unbearable weight of yearning to be back home, have one more conversation with my dazzling sister, threatens to buckle me right here in an environment so hostile to vulnerabilities. I need to stop thinking about her. No more thinking of family. Not here.

Besides, it's very hard to compare anything from District 3 to this… madness. How do you start up discussions with anyone here, knowing that in a manner of days most of us will be nothing more than a pang of longing in someone else's chest? How do you just ignore the sights we've been setting over each other's hearts? How do you pretend your finger isn't resting on the trigger, waiting for the safety to come off?

If only it wasn't necessary. I've seen it done before, where people survive so long in the arena without the need of anyone else. Only relying on their own strength, resourcefulness, speed, luck. I know better than to think I have enough in those categories to do this on my own. I need to suck it up and start connecting, or I might as well lay down and wait for death when that gong sounds.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, and wipe out the faces of imaginary loved ones, imaginary lives away from the games that have popped into my psyche and broken my heart at the sight of the others. I cannot do this with emotions. Logic must take over the controls.

Minutes pass while I sit there, willing myself to close off the heart and let the mind be in control. For a split second I worry - what if it's too hard to forget the lives I'm choosing between? - when I finally feel the blinders come on, directing my attention only onto the problem at hand. When I open my eyes, I'm looking at the tributes as if they were materials scattered across my desk back home, waiting to be assessed and judged, how they may be useful in my new creation. Which to keep, which to discard. The pieces of the puzzle that is my survival, and not all of them are going to fit.

I begin my scan across the room. A boy I don't remember well throws a couple punches at one of the training dummy. There's barely an impact. Next. One of the Career girls has hit a bullseye with a knife she's chucked with barely a movement. Something about her suggests I'm more likely to be on the receiving end of that knife no matter what our interactions here may be. Next. I continue down the line with my scan, identifying a couple possibilities, ruling out a couple others. I'm about a third of the way around the room when she's already next to me. As she speaks I'm startled - how did I not notice her arrival?

"So… what do you make of the others? I mean, the other Tributes?"

I turn to face the other girl from District 3. In a sea of strangers she's the closest I have to a familiar face. I stare at the girl, one of the younger ones in this group. Even in our training suits I can see the telltale look of the working families that make up most of the District. An image of the girl smoothing out her dress as she climbs the stage flickers before my vision, and then her name is there - Serelis.

My brain is already making its quick calculations of the girl. Sure, she's young, and that might be a drawback. Then again, she's in pretty good shape for a girl her age. There's some muscle to her legs, which means she might be able to outrun anyone she can't outfight. There's something about the way she carries herself too. A look in her eyes. Drive.

My interest is piqued. This piece of the puzzle has promise.

"Honestly? Half of them seem like they've already decided the best places to stick a knife in me," I respond with a wink. "Then again, I don't think most of them have the brains we do in District 3. What about you?"

Three's Company - II

I let myself take in the offer Sera has made, me eyes scanning over the body of my potential new ally. I appreciated her directness: no verbal dancing to be done, no leaving me trying to figure out some hidden meaning behind the words she's saying. She was brave enough to say the words that had been etching themselves into the back of my mind since the Reaping. District Three hasn't seen a victor in a quarter of a century. Many tributes with more promise than either of the two of us couldn't find a way to stay alive. It's hard not to feel like I'm already marked for scrap, waiting in this training center for the time when I can be torn apart for anything useful before thrown away as another memory of the Games.

I can't ignore that Sera is one of the youngest. Many of us are already at the doorstep of adulthood, developed or muscular or wiser with the few short years we've got over her. I realize I have no idea what secrets Sera has that might help her out in this arena. If she's ready to be this direct, she doesn't strike me as the secretive type. I can feel the logical part of my brain trying to steer me away from her, urging me to choose someone with obvious strength or survival skills or weapon mastery who can be convinced to use them to help her instead of hunt her.

Then another voice speaks up. You can trust her. It hadn't escaped my awareness how much lighter I was feeling as this young girl pitched her case to me. A tension I didn't know I was carrying eased itself off of my neck, my back. Plus the directness and the earnestness of her offer gives me a warm feeling. She almost reminds me a bit of sweet young Tevin, always looking to keep our family together.

I realize then that I share her sentiment. Should I die in that arena, my next choice to survive would be this girl from home. Perhaps she'd be able to talk to my family, pass on any final words I may have for them. Bond over the trauma of my death. Perhaps it would make dying worth a little bit more.

District 3 is overdue for a winner.

"I like how you think, Sera." I grin and offer out a hand to shake. "You've got yourself an ally. Let's give District 3 a long overdue Victor." No sooner than the words are out there, I feel a rush of satisfaction that this was the right move to make. No matter what skills the others might have, I'm not sure I'd be able to trust them the way I feel I can trust this girl who knows our District ways so well. I also realize though, that we aren't exactly the prize pick of the barrel.

"So, my new ally, is there anyone else that's caught your eye in here?"