23. A Dreary Day

My nose wrinkled as a drop of rain poked it. I burrowed my head under the blanket, but I could feel drops hitting my head.

I popped my head up, frowning. I shook my head. I saw I was too close to Bane. He was leaning away from me, looking peaceful in sleep. Still, even he, Jenna, and Victor had to be woken up by the rain, too. Wait a second...

If it was raining...we could fill up the water bottles! Without hesitation, I shrugged out of the blanket, diving for the bottles. It was a steady downpour, no thunder or lightning attached. I caught as much rain as I could. Sure, it wouldn't taste as good, but it was water nonetheless. I'd drink rain any day if it meant I got to live longer.

The bottles weren't filling up like I expected, they were filling up too slow for my liking.

A good amount of rain sprayed the three in the blankets. They woke up, scrambling. I laughed, nearly dropping the water bottles.

"Morning," I chirped between dying giggles.

"Don't tell me you did that," Jenna hissed, shaking her wet hair. "I will get you for that if you did."

"Oh no, I didn't," I assured her. I blinked rain drops away from my eyes. "I think we better get a move on. I don't know about you three, but I'm sure we can find a better campsite by the end of today."

"Someone sounds optimistic this morning," Bane mused, smiling. "What brought this on?"

"She's just happy because we nearly drowned in water whereas she didn't," Jen said bitterly.

"Ugh, I hate the rain," Victor snarled. He was trying to flick off the drops that clung to his clothes and his skin.

"You're just going to have to deal with it," I snapped. I sealed both water bottles when they were nearly full.

"Good thinking," Bane said. His hair was plastered to his head. He tilted his head to catch rain drops. Jenna and Victor looked at him oddly.

"What?" I asked them. "You both never caught rain drops on your tongue before?"

"It rarely rained in Two, and when it did, I stayed inside," Victor explained. Right, he hates the rain.

"You must've had a different childhood. I used to do that a few times when my parents let me go out in the rain. Look, I know it's the Hunger Games and all, but we've got to have a little, non-hunting fun."

"Hunting is the only fun I've known once I stopped fishing," Jenna muttered.

And on that note, we packed what was left and headed out into the rain.

The visibility wasn't very good considering the rainfall was very thick. It pelted us, some drops felt like I was being stabbed with a knife. There was no point in trying to shield ourselves with the blankets or the packs, because they'd get soaked in a minute flat, which wouldn't help us anyway.

It seemed, for a while, the rain showed no signs of stopping.

Victor was trying his hardest to endure the continuous rainfall, but it was obvious to see that he despised every drop that fell. Bane, Jenna, and I embraced the rain, or completely ignored it. I personally found it hard to ignore rain. At first I thought this was a blessing from the Gamemakers; the water wasn't poisonous nor did it burn off our skin. Still, it had to eventually go away. Seeing no sun and being soaked wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.

"Is there any chance of shelter?" Jenna roared over the downpour. I shook my drenched hair. Jen gave a screech of pain. "Watch where you fling your hair!"

"Sorry," I said. "Bane, can you see anything?"

"I think I can!" he boomed. Bane tore off, Jenna, Victor and I on his heels.

With the water making us shiver and seek warmth, we were at the trunk of another tree. Bane crept over to it, crawling under. Jenna and I exchanged hopeful looks. Victor didn't hesitate to go under the tree. Jenna and I squeezed through. It felt better, but the water had a tendency to leak down into the area.

Down under the tree was a huge area. It was uninhabited, which was both excellent and a shame. Victor was shaking himself like a dog, hoping to feel somewhat dry. I wrung my hair out, ruffling it. Bane decided to at least strip off his shirt and let it dry—if that was even possible.

"I think he's doing that for a reason," Jenna sang. She wiggled her eyebrows at me, I rolled my eyes.

"I don't think Bane is trying to get my attention," I said lowly. I shrugged off my jacket, shaking it out. "He got yours first."

"But he's not in love with me."

"He said he's not anymore." I shrugged.

"He may say he's over you, but we all know he's not. Who is he trying to fool? Himself?"

"I say let's wait this rain out," Victor suggested, shaking his wavy, black hair. He and Bane seemed to not have heard what Jen and I were talking about. Good, I wanted it that way.

"And not get food?" I retorted. Victor stared at me. "It's not storming out, just raining. We're not going to melt if we go back out there."

"Don't jinx it; the Gamemakers might just make that happen."

"The rain will let up soon, but right now, I want to get something to eat."

"Crystal, I don't think you've got to worry about that," Bane said distantly.

"Why?"

Bane crawled to the entrance only to slide back down with a sponsor. I hadn't even heard the beeping noise the sponsors usually made. We four exchanged looks as Bane opened it.

It wasn't exactly a feast back in the apartment, but it felt like one just looking at it: bread, cheese, and crackers. It was a goldmine at this point. I thought Ross would hate me for letting Shane go.

Shane...

Where was the boy from 12 now, since I spared him? Was he hiding or planning an attack? He doesn't seem like the type who would kill, though. Hell, I bet that he went into these Hunger Games not wanting to kill anybody, but in a way, he did. He and his district partner killed Aubrey and Ben after throwing grenades at the split earth around the Cornucopia. I shuddered at the memory; it was still freshly imprinted into my brain.

When the food was laid out, I pushed Shane and the Cornucopia out of my mind. The bread was a little dry, but food was food at this point. Whether it was dry, slimy, sweet, spicy or sour, I'd eat it. In times like these, I couldn't be picky.

"I miss our pile so much," Jenna sighed as she nibbled on another cracker. "And the weapons..."

"We all do," I murmured, ripping my bread apart and savoring its dryness slowly. I wanted to trick my stomach into thinking it was getting a full course meal; I didn't want it to complain to me an hour or two later.

The rain didn't seem like it had any intentions of letting up. This bummed Victor down despite having food in his system. Jenna got him out of his mood with a little play fighting to help him perfect his skills. Bane and I watched, my gaze shifting towards the weather outside the tree a few times.

I rubbed my moon charm. I was so thankful it hadn't broken. I was thinking of Mom, Dad, and District 1. Were they missing me as much as I was missing them right now? I wanted to be back home, knowing that my family wouldn't be torn apart. As much as I loved living this dream, my new dream was to be back home in 1, with Mom and Dad.

But I didn't just think of 1; I thought of Sienna and Demi, and my entire prep team. They had to be watching the Games, just because it was a yearly thing and the fact that I was in it. I bet Sienna was a nervous wreck with each day that she watched. I could imagine both Bane's and my prep teams and stylists all together, watching.

I never wondered how a tribute dying would affect their stylist, their prep team, and even their district escort. Everybody always thought about the family and the mentor, never anybody else.

Hope you guys are rooting for me, I'm hanging in here. I looked at my nails. More polish was chipped off. One nail looked almost completely normal again.

"Missing home?" Bane whispered.

I looked up into his green eyes, his face was near mine.

"Just a little bit," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. I saw Jenna and Victor circling, trying to egg the other on to make the first move. "Am I that obvious?"

"I just thought since you were messing with your necklace that's what you were thinking about." His eyes seemed transfixed on something.

"What?"

"What's this?" He tried to touch my face, but I pulled away. He put his hand to his side. "Near your eye, what is that?"

"It's my birthmark." I rubbed the crescent moon. "You've never noticed it?"

"No, I've been too caught up in your eyes most of the time."

Yikes, he's doing it again, crossing the boundary.

"Okay, okay," Jenna croaked, making Bane and I look. Perfect timing. Victor had Jenna pinned, a smug look spread on his face. "You beat me. Happy?"

"Very," he said. He let Jenna squirm out from under him. His eyes shifted to Bane and me. "Either of you want to have a go?"

"Sorry, I save my skills for real battles of life and death," I said.

"I'll give it a go. We've got nothing better to do, right?" Bane said, shuffling to his feet.

"We could be out hunting," Jenna pressed.

"We won't, Victor's too much of a baby to go out in the rain," I snickered as she sat where Bane once did. I felt more relaxed, not having Bane sitting near me. "And I doubt we'd leave him here all by himself even though he's more than capable of fending for himself."

We watched the boys wrestle for a half hour before a deafening silence made us all look. I crept out of the opening of the shelter, knife in one hand. Sunlight was peeking through, shining on rain drops that flung themselves off of leaves, slithering down trees. There was a muggy feeling about the air.

"Finally," Victor whispered. He was behind me.

"Good, so now that Victor has no chance of melting when water touches him, we can go hunt!" Jenna squeaked.

Victor shot her a nasty glare; he quickly regained control of himself when we started out on the hunt.

* * *

It turned out that when the rain had stopped, the sun was starting to set. So, really, it had rained all morning and pretty much all afternoon. We would have never known since a storm had been booming in the distance last night. I bet the Gamemakers tried to scare us towards other tributes so we could fight but realized we wouldn't budge. If we're going to encounter any tributes, they've got to herd us better than that.

Jenna and I tried to find the berry bush again, but we had no luck. We stuck together during the night. We managed to find a large snake and almost considered killing it, but we weren't sure if it was venomous or immortal. Victor thought the idea of an invincible snake was ridiculous, but the Gamemakers could make anything they wanted to in this arena. They had all the power.

The sun fell faster than we had all anticipated, and as the sun dropped, so did the temperature. It went from being damp to cold in a short amount of time. We managed to find the tree we took cover under during the shower and made it our temporary camp. We couldn't get a fire going, only because the ground was soggy and what we gathered was damp as well.

It was times like this when we really needed matches or flint.

When the anthem played, no one decided to go take a look at who had fallen, because nobody had died today.

We were all shivering. My teeth clacked together. I put my hands over my mouth, trying to warm them with my breath. Insects made their voices heard as soon as the anthem was put to rest until tomorrow night.

"H-how are we g-going to make it through t-tonight?" I stuttered. "W-we've got no f-fire."

"We've got b-blankets," Bane reminded me. He whipped out the two we still had. "We're just going to h-have to huddle together to k-keep warm."

I disliked that idea. It was bad enough I had to spend last night close to Bane, which had been very uncomfortable for me. I couldn't imagine enduring another night of it, knowing that he was still in love with me.

"I-I'll take that second blanket, Bane," Jenna sputtered. She snatched it from him, wrapping herself in it tightly.

"I won't need i-it," Victor said. "I can deal with the c-cold."

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm."

"Jenna, do you mind sharing?" I asked.

"Nah, this one's all mine. Sorry," she said.

I frowned. I saw the blanket quivering around her.

I laid down against the increasingly cold ground; my cheek almost froze on impact. I pulled myself together, trying to conserve as much heat as possible. I closed my eyes, waiting to sleep.

I felt something get draped over me. A low growl rumbled in my throat as I heard someone—and I knew who it was—lay beside me.

"There's no way you're going to be stupidly stubborn like him," Bane murmured. I almost jumped out from under the blanket, but I felt safe under it. That was saying something, feeling safe in a televised fight to the death.

I flinched when I felt Bane's arm loop over my side. His fingers brushed mine, I scooted mine away.

"This is just a ploy to get closer to me, isn't it? This whole huddling-for-warmth thing?" I growled.

"No, it's to help you," he said. His breath was warm on my ear. I shivered. "Unless you want to freeze to death, you better stick with me for tonight."

"This isn't going to be fun."

"I'm trying to keep you alive. If I wanted to, I would let you freeze like Victor."

"But you won't."

I folded my arms close to my chest,making sure Bane would never get the chance to hold one of them sometime duringthe night. I knew this night was definitely going to be a long one, and sleepwould definitely come and go for me.