sawed off shotgun. {sinead/cedric}

[bailee]

sinead williams

If she had learned anything from the 75th games, it was to never falter. Even throughout the terror he endured, Affron never once faltered. He never once let the audience know what thoughts spiralled through his mind.

But Sinead knew her brother. She knew the thought of taking a life scared the shit out of him. She knew that even with all the trauma and hardships he endured, being the underdog for the first time in his life had taken a toll on him. In the Seam, he was the alpha. He was fearless - of life, of Peacekeepers, of others in the District. In the arena, he was a nobody in comparison to the likes of the other tributes.

As she wiped her tear-stained cheeks, she wondered how he felt standing in her position. She was porcelain compared to him - so vulnerable and easy to crack. No matter how much she lectured herself, she could not shake the anxiety. It was an entity of herself that loomed over her - like a gnat that refused to be squashed, buzzing in her ear with every second that passed.

They had barely left District Twelve, and she had already felt like she was failing the Games. She knew she needed to cease her fear - even if it still ached inside of her, reminding her of the limited time she had left.

Her mother's advice ran through her mind.

Facades are everything.

She fixed her hair, which had knotted from her mothers fingers running through them as she reassured her about the events prior. Just be smart. Remember what I've taught you. She licked her chapped lips and wiped the remaining of the tears away as she picked herself up off the floor, walking through into the next train car where the rest of her entourage remained.

What lay beyond the car doors was the sight of someone who was dealing with their situation a lot better than she.

She didn't know Cedric Hardin personally, but in the populace of such a small District people spoke. The name Cedric Hardin was dripping with rumours of deliquinacy, even talk of a stint spent in the Detention Centre. First impressions meant a lot to Sinead - and to her, he was more to the likes of Affron than she ever was.

But to say she was shocked that he seemed perfectly content at the buffet of confections in front of him, with no worry in sight, would be an understatement. 

She thought maybe she could be more like him. Maybe impressing her district partner would be the first step to accomplishing something, anything, in the Games. After all, facades were everything, and she doubted that someone to the likes of Cedric knew much about Sinead herself. She could be an entirely different person if she wanted.

She approached Cedric, her chest puffed and shoulders straight with the most fake confidence she could muster. She cleared her throat as she grabbed an apple, taking an obnoxiously loud bite out of it as she spoke in between her chews.

"So... uh... this trains pretty nice, huh?"

She somehow doubted that her fake confidence was an impenetrable act. 

[Python]

Sparks prickled his skin, goosebumps drawing constellations of anxiety across his arms, but not in a way that described fear or defeat. This was the elation of an adrenaline junkie, a pleasure-seeker who had just signed his soul away to the ultimate thrill. Maybe he was wrong, and maybe he would regret ever speaking his name to the sea of sullen faces - yet he had stared death and homicide in their dead eyes before, and neither had the power to scare him. He expected the same of this, only the Hunger Games tended to add twists and turns that Cedric might not anticipate.

At this moment, he couldn't complain.

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but Cedric's parents were of another forest entirely. In the Justice Building, they wore the same hollow-eyed expression every parent from Twelve did. There were no tears to spare. Had they predicted this from the start, or was it a loss of unconditional love for their son? Cedric knew all of that parenting bullshit was a myth. Not all people could love their children unconditionally, especially a parasite like Cedric.

He didn't know what to say to them. "Sorry" was a lie, "I'll miss you" was an exaggeration.

"See you on the other side."

They didn't smile.

His first thought on the train was about the Capitol - when they would leave, when they would arrive, who he would meet, how nice his bathroom would be. The pitter patters of his weary heart made him feel alive. It wasn't normal to smile at trays of food in the wake of a death games, but there he stood, a goofy grin plastered across his face.

"So... uh... this trains pretty nice, huh?"

He turned and raised his eyebrow at the crunch of her apple and the puff of her chest. The posture didn't suit her. "Yeah, but wait til we see the Capitol," he said, grabbing a bowl of grapes. "You didn't volunteer, right? So you're probably scared."

[bailee]

sinead williams

"So you're probably scared," he says, with a maniacal grin on his face. Cedric was truly happy to be here - and Sinead was starting to think he had no other agenda to volunteering besides true boredom. Sure, she couldn't judge if the guy was bored, but usually when she was bored she would just go on a walk or go hang out with friends or something. 

Cedric and her were clearly two different people, but she hadn't ruled him out as a potential ally yet - although these days, it was few and far in between when tributes from the same districts would ally together. 

Maybe if she plastered the same goofy smile he had on, he would be impressed. People liked that, right? 

"Scared?" She echoed, as she swallowed her apple and tossed it into the garbage. It bounced around the rim and landed with a thud outside of the tin. She smiled sheepishly as she bounced over to the garbage and placed the core back in the garbage where it belonged. Didn't matter where you were, littering was wrong.

"I mean... not really. There's some aspects that are a bit scary... like seeing all the tributes and what we're up against..." she took a seat across the train car from Cedric, "or getting our training scores..." she pondered once again before adding, "or actually going into the arena..."

She piped back up with a sheepish, half smile, "but I still feel like it could be fun." 

She wondered if Cedric could read through her, knowing exactly how she felt. She was terrified. And she had already heard whispers around the train car about the other reapings. Supposedly, there were a lot of volunteers this time around.

Sinead leaned back in her seat before asking the question she was sure she already knew the answer to. "Are you scared, Cedric?"