When The Canary Sings

People in the Pockets

First Person~~Haymitch Albernathy

 I sat in the mentors lounge with the other mentors whose tributes hadn't died yet. This year had a huge bloodbath, with ten dying in the first few minutes. Due to this, something told me these games would be short.

Next to me sat Beetee and then Wiress. Across, Johanna Mason, Finnick Odair, and Mags sat talking and drinking, not even paying attention, probably nothing was happening as of now. It was night, meaning most of them were sleeping. The screen was split four ways, one screen on the sleeping careers at the cornucopia. Another on the girl from seven making her way to the outer rim of the city. Another on the boy from ten going through his materials, and the last screen focused on the basement hatch Trixie, Chip and Becca were in. Chaff sat on my right, pouring me drinks every now and then, but right now the main goal was for me to stay sober, to help Becca.

Picker had already abandoned her, and since she locked herself in the basement with the tributes from three, she thinks he's dead, so far, she had no idea that he completely betrayed her.

"Haymitch, look." Chaff muttered, pointing to the screen where the basement hatch slowly opened, and all three came crawling out. The screen enlarged, so the alliance was on the full screen.

"Here they are! This is the alliance some are calling the constellations, because the stars are rooting for them!" Caesar said, his analogy not making any sense. The kids ran towards the building across the street. They hiked up five flights of stairs, then took refuge in a small room. Chip stayed up for watch, and Becca and Trixie fell asleep, Becca's head on Chip's shoulder. They made sure to show footage of the Capitol citizens watching it at bars and shops wooing and awwing over the cuteness of it.

Love in the Hunger Games? Who would ever be stupid enough to try that?

That night, I slept in the mentor's lounge.

The next morning, Chaff woke me up early, and we sat down, the screen was back to being split four ways, but so far nothing was happening. That is until the screen enlarged and showed the careers leaving their post, and leaving the girl from district four hidden in the rubble to take on whoever came to forage. This was really setting up the poor girl for failure, she was 14, the same age as Finnick when he won, and she was arguably the weakest member of the careers, so when someone did inevitably come, she would probably be killed. Really, it was a sacrifice to get rid of the weakest link.

Once the careers got going, the mentors came flooding in.

"So, Haymitch," Finnick started, "what'd we miss besides the drinking?" Finnick asked.

"Well you missed your girl being left alone to fight anyone who comes to forage by herself." I said nonchalantly, knowing that it was an unfair deal. Finnick jumped up, but Mags calmed him down.

I laughed at the situation, but the new screen on the TV made me worried. It was the career pack, including Picker, walking past the building Becca and the others were hiding in. After a bit of arguing, they decided to come back to it, saying it would take too much time to search it.

Then, a third screen popped up, and It was Chip waking up Becca.

"Hey, hey, Becca," Chip whispered, practically sitting on top of her, "wakey, wakey princess," He whispered, now fully waking her up, when she jumped, he said, "Woah, you always wake up like that?"

"You sure Beetee mentored him and not Finnick?" Johanna remarked, laughing as she sipped her drink.

"What?" Becca groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes

"Come on, the careers have already passed here, Trixie heard them, we gotta get to the cornucopia now." Chip said, grabbing her hand and pulling Becca to her feet. When she got up, they all rushed down the stairs and made a break for the cornucopia. They must have been severely dehydrated since they haven't found water yet. She did the exact thing I told her not to do.

"Hurry, hurry," Chip huffed, running ahead of Trixie and Becca. "I'm talking to you, pretty girl." He yelled to Becca, but she scoffed it off, rolling her eyes.

Beetee leaned over towards me, "I think someone has a crush," he whispered, but went back to the TV.

"Chip, wait."Becca yelled, "there has to be a catch, maybe we should take a lap and scope it out." There it was, she could finally use things she learned in 12 in the games.

"We should go." Trixie said, "they might be back soon."

Ultimately, they decided to head on, Becca ran towards the cornucopia, while Chip and Trixie started digging?

They took the lead, and once they crossed the field safely, the kids from 3 dug up the mines, and she climbed the cornucopia to gather resources.

Shit.

Both Finnick and I leaned forward, both our eyes glued to the screen.

"How's it goin' over there, handsome?" She yelled to Chip, Chip laughed and gave her a flirty remark back, but right in the middle, a hand rose from the rubble, grabbed her arm and pulled her down.

Becca fell on her side, scraping up her arm and leaving blood on the rubble. All her things came toppling down the rubble, leaving Becca with a short dagger, and whatever she could grab quick enough. The girl, Sammie, came climbing out of the rubble holding a katana type weapon. She was sloppy with it, but it was still a deadly sword.

"Becca!" Chip screamed, rushing towards the rubble, he picked up the scythe and climbed up the other side. "Trixie! Shut your eyes!" He yelled.

Becca crawled down a bit, and managed to grab a rope before the girl from four swung the sword, the blade sliced diagonally down her back and onto her arm. Becca let out a sharp cry, then backed away, going further down the rubble. She threw the rope over to Chip, distracting Sammie, who didn't know Chip was there. When she turned around to face Chip, Becca rushed up the rubble and stabbed Sammie with her dagger.

Sammie cried out, and she slashed the sword backwards, landing it in Becca's leg, but the scythe landed in her neck, and the cannon sounded.

The room was silent.

Becca collapsed from the injury to her leg, and tumbled down the rubble, Chip threw the scythe down and ran after her. This was when I should go out and get some sponsors.

"I guess that makes us even." Finnick said, catching my attention.

"What?"

"When you sold your tribute chances to keep Annie alive." Finnick said, shaking my hand, "I'm rooting for your little one now, not the career." He said, putting emphasis on the word career.

"All in good spirits," I said, then left the room, Beetee and Wiress followed.

"We're going to help with the sponsor situation." Beetee said, walking with me, "Chip wouldn't stop talking about Becca, telling us how much he had learned from her. And I'm sure many will want to sponsor them if Chip loves her like this." Beetee said, and I wondered what was going on right about now in the arena.

When we got to the sponsor's lounge, all eyes were on us. When they got a good look at us, they all started clamoring over each other over who would get to sponsor our kids. Good to know that we had this many people in our pockets. 

A/N:

Hey guys! Sorry this one is so short! I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! Please feel free to leave comments and votes on the story. Thank you so much for reading! I love you all, and may the odds be ever in your favor! 

xoxo, 

regina