thelastseptember

          The next day I'm roused by my prep team.          "Wake up, sleepyhead!" Tally exclaims, jolting me up from my bed. His fluorescent green tank top hurts my eyes, so I try not to look at him as he rips an orange feather boa from his neck, throwing the thing on a chair next to the bed. His constricting snakeskin pants remind me of a boa constrictor. Maybe that's why he wore that atrocious feather thing.          "It's a tad bit cold outside today," Moon says as she takes off her powder blue jacket, laying it across the armrest of the same chair. She flattens out her angular paper white dress, which flares out at the bottom. "Hopef

          My fingers release their grip on the metal handle of the sword and it hits the floor with a thud. I look down as blood begins to flow from my nostrils, falling through the holographic blade of the sword to the mat below.          "Oh God," Sonia lets out as she grasps my shoulder and back, helping me off the mat. I glare at Victor, who doesn't look fazed at all, and I'm helped through the crowd of other tributes as they all stare at me—they probably think I'm a little wimp. Sonia helps me toward the exit, when I see Domni at the knife throwing station, her attention on me. I look at her as I hold my face, blood drenching my

          It's the next morning and Domni and I are eating breakfast at the dining table. Rose sits across from us, while Valient, Claude, and Alise eat their breakfasts on the couch, watching some television show that I don't have any interest in. "What stations have you two done so far?" Rose asks us, sipping from a mug of coffee.          "Just the station with the plants and a little bit of weaponry," I reply, taking a bite of an omelet that a chef made at a bar that was rolled out when we got to the table. I added three different types of cheese and green peppers and the chef cooked it in front of us. I had it varnished with more chees