I Just Can't Wait to be King. | Mr. Leate

The reaping. It was, what, a week away? So you couldn’t really blame April for being just a teeny bit completely freaked out. It wasn’t that she was nervous-April just didn’t want to get chosen this year. She was only fourteen, so she still had a good three years of training ahead of her. If everything went according to plan, April would volunteer as a tribute when she was 17, then clean out the rest of the competition in a day-two days, tops. But if she was chosen for this year’s games, well, it would probably take her a while longer to kill off the rest of the competition, which wouldn’t be nearly as much fun (this, of course, was just April’s humble opinion).

But even with her gigantic perfectly sized ego, April knew it was important to get in as much practice as she could before the reaping-just in case one of the measly three slips of paper with her name on it was chosen. Which was why she found herself in the District’s gymnasium. The building looked like a normal gym, but it was no big secret that it was used as a training facility for all the careers. Sure, it was technically illegal, but nobody ever seemed to care. At least, nobody April knew seemed to care. After all, without super awesome career tributes, the arena would just be filled with a bunch of wimps who couldn’t handle an axe or a sword, and what was the fun of watching that? She did wonder why the other districts weren’t smart enough to train their kids, though. It was kind of pathetic how weak they were compared to 1, 2, and 4.

Fortunately, though, April was not from one of the pathetic districts. She was in District 1, and she was looking for a fight. The short but strong fourteen year old leaned against a wall, idly twirling the handle of her dulled sword and looking for a suitable sparring partner. She was bound to find someone soon, what with the reaping rapidly approaching. Her sword was dulled so as not to actually slice someone open (she would save that for the games, thank you very much), but it could absolutely still leave a nice bruise, or even break a bone if she hit hard enough. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen, though. A week before the reaping was not the time to go around breaking bones – that would actually kind of defeat the purpose of practicing, because she would be useless. Or would the Capitol heal something like that before the games? Surely they would, right? Maybe it would be best not to take any chances….she would just have to be sure to lay out the rules with whoever she was fighting. April tapped her foot impatiently. No, she was not going to go find someone herself; she was much too popular for that. She was going to wait stubbornly until someone who had heard of her amazing fighting skills approached her. And no, she definitely wasn’t full of herself.

With every second that ticked by, Sasha grew more and more worried. The Games were barely a week away. This was his year to shine; why wasn't he happier than he was now. The answer was obvious, even to someone who didn't know him. He was afraid to die. He was sixteen years old; if he didn't volunteer like he planned to, he had his whole life ahead of him. He could marry, have kids, and live his life. But if he did that, he had no chance to get revenge for his mom's death. When he had been 10, his mom had been killled, by accident, by a Peacekeeper. Even though the bullet landing in his mom's chest had been from a warning shot to a troublemaker, Sasha wanted revenge. He needed more money and power to do that. The only way to do that was to win the Hunger Games. He could then take down the system of Peacekeepers easily. It was a risky plan, but he had a good chance of succeeding. He had been trained by his dad ever since he had been 5. He just had to win. If he lost, Evan would be alone with his dad. Evan would be forced to train, too, and Sasha knew that Evan wouldn't last a second in the Games. Sasha couldn't protect his 12 year old brother from the grave, so he decided to train harder. He strolled out of his lavish house and made his way to the gym.

The gym had been the unofficial training center for all the Careers in the district since the beginning of the Games. Sasha was one of them, unforunately. He had watched the Games since his birth. He had seennhow the Careers operated, and he sort of doubted that he would join the pack. They were savages, killing gruesomely. Emily kind of doubted he could straight-out kill someone. He had seen the damage to a family when someone was killed. It was horrible. Evan had been too young to understand, and his dad had seemed to become crueler after that. He, though, had been devastated and had stayed in his room for a month. If someone attacked him, though, he would easily kill them. No doubt about that. Sasha shook himself out of his thoughts and opened the large doors to the gym. It looked the same as usual, except for one thing. Someone else was already in here. A girl younger than him, someone he didn't recognize. She might know him, but he had know idea who she was. He was popular in school, due to his joker side, but he didn't really make it his business to socialize with younger girls. Older ones, though- those he definitely knew. They sure knew him, too.

Sasha noticed that the girl in front of him was holding a sword. To most people, the idea of a young girl holding a sword would be strange, but to him, it was just a part of life here in District 1. He decided she was definitely one of those Careers. No one else would be holding a sword. She seemed to be a suitable sparring partner, which he happened to need at the moment. He cautiously walked up to the girl, hoping she wouldn't attack him or something like that with that sword of hers, and said,"Hello there. I'm Sasha Leate, the hot guy I'm sure you've heard of and loved before." Sasha grinned and mock-bowed. He always loved kidding around with people, even those he didn't know. He had never had a problem with shyness. He continued,"I don't know you, though, so would you care to introduce yourself? So, by the sword of yours, I would assume that you're a fellow Career. Want to spar? I'll be sure not to beat you too badly." Sasha laughed his deep laugh and said, looking nervously at the sword,"So I didn't bring my sword today, so would you like to go fists to fists?" Sasha started stretching, just in case the girl agreed. He might as well be loose. Then he remembered another important point he might want to touch on. "If you don't mind, could you not injure me badly? I'm heading to the Games next week." Sasha smiled cautiously at the girl.

April was not exactly a patient person, so when a boy who looked vaguely familiar (then again, who in the District didn’t look somewhat familiar?) finally entered they gym she couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face for a brief moment, before she remembered exactly why she had been waiting for someone in the first place. Right. Practice. Aaaand he was walking up to her. Perfect! April straightened up as he approached, tightening her grip on her sword in case he decided to attack her-it wouldn’t be the first time she had been ambushed. Not that she hadn’t ambushed a few people herself at one time or another…all in the name of practicing for the games, though. Never because certain people thought they could make fun of April’s height. Nope, never.

When it became clear that the older boy was not going to immediately attack her and that he wasn’t (visibly) armed, April relaxed slightly and cocked an eyebrow at his…erm…confident introduction. She couldn’t deny that he was rather good-looking, but so were most of the people in District 1. And yes, she had seen him at school. Loved him, not so much, but she was pretty sure he was joking about that part. And now he was bowing? Fine, April could go along with that-she had never had a problem with shyness either. April gave him a curtsy and a winning smile while replying, “April Adams, the cute girl I’m sure you’ll be hearing about soon enough.” Since he apparently hadn’t heard of her already. Hmph.

At Sasha’s next comment, April widened her eyes and said in the most innocent voice she could muster, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Training for the Games is illegal.” The bubbly girl couldn’t keep the grin off her face for long, however-that law was such a joke. And she was just going to ignore that comment about him beating her. They would see who was better soon enough. Except…he had no weapon, so how…

Oh. He wanted to fist fight? Ugh. April much preferred using weapons opposed to fists. For one thing, she was short for her age, so even though April was strong, unarmed combat wasn’t exactly her strong suit, and she would be at an even greater disadvantage against this older boy. Also, she was much more likely to get blood on herself this way. But, she had wanted a sparring partner, and now a very nice-looking one was presenting himself to her, so April really had no choice but to agree. She had taken care of her stretching before her arrival to the gym (because of the whole ambush thing), so she reluctantly laid down her sword, eyeing Sasha carefully before deciding that it was highly unlikely he was concealing a weapon. Were she in the Games, April would not be so trusting, but right now she was safe enough. Besides, all other thoughts flew from April’s mind as the boy stated oh so casually that he would be entering the games. April’s eyebrows flew up. He seemed pretty confident-he must have been planning to volunteer. Well then, he probably needed to practice even more than April did. She smirked. “No promises.” This was going to be much better than she originally thought-who knew, if Sasha won the games, she could say she had sparred a victor. And it would be even cooler if she could say she had beaten the victor a week before the games. And if he didn’t win…well, April didn’t like to think about that. It was always upsetting when the victor wasn’t from their own District. Especially when she knew the tributes personally, like Sasha (in April’s mind, one good conversation automatically made someone her friend. Although she did have a rather loose definition of the word.). So, April would just have to make sure they got in a really got practice session so he could win, wouldn’t she?

April eyed her opponent carefully, waiting. She didn’t want to just randomly attack while he was stretching, that seemed unfair. Plus, April much preferred to dodge than to run at people with attacks, so she would leave this one up to him.

The girl introduced herself as April Adams, the girl he would be hearing about soon enough. Sasha grinned. So apparently April was pretty confident, too. Not all people would have the guts to introduce themselves like that. Sasha laughed and replied,"Cute? Definitely. Hearing about soon enough? Nope." The last part wa supposed to be joking, but Sasha had a chilling realization. If he didn't make it out of these Games, he would never hear about April. He would never live his life. He would never get the chance to ask that cute girl in his year out. Never would he kiss a girl. Well, that part had already happened. Several times. A couple of dares, a couple of overeager girls, and a few girlfriends had cured him of being not kissed. But regardless of that, he would be missing out on a lot of everything. It was a kind of depressing thought. And it wouldn't be just him who would suffer. Evan, all his friends at school, and maybe even his dad would suffer in grief.

Sasha shook himself out of those depressing thoughts. He had a girl, even though he had no romantic attraction to her, in front of him and a spar probably waiting for him. he couldn't afford to lose his concentration now. If he got injured in this spar, his dad would kill him. Not literally, but a whole angry rant would await him. Sasha's thoughts, after a few moments, were now at peace. The girl played stupid on the whole training for the Games thing. He knew that both of them knew well that training for them was "illegal" but not really. Down here in District 1, training was encouraged, and if you didn't train, you were looked down upon. It was considered a huge honor to win here. People volunteered all the time. It was common for someone to volunteer themselves in the Games. Sasha was thankful that none of his friends had volunteered yet. He didn't want to have to attend another funeral. his mom's had been bad enough.

Sasha said,"Let me let you in on a secret. it's not." Sasha knew that girl already knew this, but it was sort of a joke in District 1. They all laughed at how none of the other districts trained their kids. Maybe that was why the Career districts always won. They were the gutsier group, the group who was smarter. The other districts were kind of stupid if they didn't train. Well, that meant their all their kids' deaths were sort of their fault for being nonpractical. Sasha felt bad for them, though. Every year, their kids were reaped and sent off without a chance to the Hunger Games. It was probably a little depressing for them. Sasha made a quick second decision. In the Games this year, he would spare at least one non-Career kid. That would make him feel a lot better, even though it wouldn't help him much in the way of sponsors.

Sasha had a feeling that he could get plenty of sponsors regardless. He had a lot of things going for him. He wasn't shy, pretty good with people, and he wasn't the stereotypical career. He wasn't brutish and evil. That could help him prove he was different and more likely to win the Games. He was funny, not to be cocky or anything, and finally, he was pretty good looking. He was physically adept and was hot, if he may say so himself. Sasha laughed silently at his own thoughts. Here he was, thinking he was the greatest person in Panem. That was more than a little cocky.

Sasha turned himself back towards April and watched as she lay down her sword. He found himself trusting that this girl wasn't hiding another weapon. She seemed pretty trustworthy to him. She was sort of like him, and he liked that. Maybe he would talk to this girl a little more when he got back from the Games. If he got back, of course. Maybe they could be friends if he survived. That would be pretty cool. April made no promises about the not hurting him right before the Games thing. He would just have to trust that she wouldn't injure him so badly that he coudln't participate in the Games.

Sasha finished up his stretching and decided that it was time to fight. The girl looked ready enough, so he decided to just start the fight. He aimed a punch towards her face, while at the same time was bringing his foot towards her stomach. It was a pretty complicated maneuver that he had practiced for years. Hopefully, it would work on April.

April frowned slightly as Sasha denied the fact that he would be hearing about her, but she decided to let it go since he had agreed she was cute. Besides, she would prove him wrong when she won the Hunger Games and became rich and famous. Maybe she would let him come visit her in her mansion afterwards, so long as he didn’t beat her up too badly today. Not that she thought he could beat her up too badly. So what if Sasha looked to be about two years older than her and over a foot taller? She had fought against worse odds before (what was the point of practice if she only ever fought people who were the same size as her?), and April had enough stupidity confidence for her entire district, so she was not at all fazed by these facts.

She couldn’t help but laugh at Sasha’s ‘secret’. It was such a joke that only three districts were brave enough to break the rule. April truly could not wrap her head around how those other districts could just send their kids into the arena to die, with no training whatsoever. Not that April was complaining-the fewer careers she had to take out, the faster she would win. She would have to remember to thank the tributes in her own Games for making it so easy for her to win. Just then another thought occurred to April: would she be helping the other districts if she hurt Sasha before the Games? The last thing she wanted to do was send one of her own District’s tributes into the arena with an injury. But April was stubborn to the point of stupidity, so she wasn’t backing down now. Besides, she reminded herself, Sasha had come here looking for a fight; it wasn’t like she had just randomly decided to attack him.

While April had been preoccupied by her internal dilemma, Sasha appeared to have finished stretching. Perfect. “Bring it on, Leate.” She braced herself for his attack, adrenaline pumping through her veins. April saw his arm moving toward her face and immediately raised her own to block it-that wasn’t exactly a surprising first move. What she did not expect, however, was the kick that accompanied the punch. April moved sideways as quickly as she could, but not quickly enough to stop Sasha’s foot from making contact with her side. Ouch. It didn’t come as much of a surprise that the boy was strong, but that didn’t make her side hurt any less. Still, April had been hit plenty of times, so she winced and bit her lip, determined not to show exactly how much she hurt. April was going to have a bruise tomorrow, that was for sure. But for right now, she was going to grit her teeth and make absolutely certain that Sasha had one to match.

April reached for the arm he had attempted to punch her with and turned, planning to pull him towards her and flip him over. She had flipped people before, but never someone this much bigger than her, so April honestly had no idea how well her attempt was going to work out. But that was why she was trying it out now, where her failure would mean a few more kicks or punches, rather than in the arena where her failure could result in death. Still, she hoped she would at least knock him off balance or something, because it would be quite embarrassing if nothing happened at all.

Sasha grinned as April laughed at the so-called secret. At least she had a sense of humor. That was one of the qualities he liked in girls. Serious girls never were his friends. They were just so... boring. Honestly, their life was lame. Sasha didn't get why they would want to live like that. Sasha could definitely see himself becoming friends with April. She was pretty funny and didn't look half-bad. It was kind of prejudice and all, but Sasha didn't hang out with ugly girls(or boys). Ever. It was just who he was. If someone was just normal looking, he was perfectly okay with that. But teens with an unnatural condition just kind of freaked him out. He didn't mean any offense to those unfortunate, but he couldn't help but avoid them.

Good thing April was cute. She had that natural blonde hair, which he absolutely loved. He hated dyed hair and didn't believe in all those surgeries meant to make people look younger and all. They looked plastic after getting a lip enlarger or dyed skin. They looked like total freaks. Every time he saw some Capital man or woman on T.V who had done that, he looked away. It kind of scared him, to be honest. He decided that when he hopefully won the Games and became famous, he would never do that to his body. He would rather look ugly and old rather than look like some mutt. Sasha shook his head in disgust at that thought and turned back to the semi-intriguing April.

April appeared to be ready, so he used his signature move. It was a kind of lame signature, but it was almost always effective. People never suspected the punch/kick combo. They always thought that an attack would come one attack by the next. It never did when he operated. Ah, the beauty of ignorance. Unsurprisingly, the girl blocked his punch. Only an amateur couldn't. April certainly did not seem like an amateur, especially considering the sword she had been holding when he had met her. His kick landed, thankfully. It would've been a little embarassing not to have been able to land a single move. His foot struck her side, but April didn't seem to e much fazed by it. Huh. This girl was a lot tougher than she looked.

Sasha studied April closely with his deep brown eyes as she grabbed at his punching arm. What was she planning to do? He realized a split second too late. She pulled him towards him and made as though to flip him. She was partly successful. He was pretty well-built and tall, so it was hard to flip a guy like him. His body didn't turn like most people's would in the case of someone trying to flip them. Instead, his body went flying backwards, and he fell hard on the ground. It was quite painful, to be honest. He landed straight on his butt, so now it was a little sore to walk. He winced and stood up carefully. He joked,"Was that the best you could do?" He smirked at her and walked close to her. Here he would make his next move. He mulled on this for a moment and decided to do something unusual. He jerked his foot back and swung it towards April's ankles. If successful, this move would knock April off her feet.

April couldn’t possibly know what Sasha was thinking about, but had he told her she would have definitely agreed that nothing good ever came of having ugly friends. Unless, she supposed, if one was using that ugly friend to make themselves look prettier, but April was obviously pretty enough that she didn’t need to worry about a thing like that. And, in her opinion, neither did Sasha. They were probably going to look awesome sparring together. Thank goodness he didn’t know she had dyed her hair pink last year though. She ran a hand through her curly hair, thankful that it was back to its natural color. The pink had only been temporary, but as much as she wanted to keep up with the Capitol’s trends, April didn’t think she would be dying her hair again anytime soon. And she would certainly never even consider dying her skin. Gross.

Even though her side was still hurting like crazy from the older boy’s previous attack, April still refused to show her pain as she attempted to flip him. She had taken worse hits before, and she was fairly sure that she would receive some worse ones before the end of today’s fight. The fourteen year old gritted her teeth and put all her strength into what she was doing, hoping against hope that her maneuver would be successful. She really didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of anyone, especially not a hot older boy who would possibly be the next Victor of the Hunger Games.

April blinked as Sasha hit the floor. Wait, what? Had that actually worked? April couldn’t stop the brief look of surprise that passed over her face as Sasha flew backwards and landed on the ground, but she quickly wiped it from her face and replaced it with a smirk. Of course it had worked-April was just that good. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t exactly flipped Sasha, but still. Knocking him over was pretty impressive if you asked April. (Although if you asked April, everything she did was impressive). Apparently, Sasha didn’t seem to agree with her own self-evaluation, though it seemed to her the boy had hit the ground fairly hard. Was that the best she could do? April grinned back at her opponent. “Oh, I’m just getting warmed up.” Despite the fact that she was joking, there was a small amount of truth to what the young girl was saying; April Adams never backed down from a challenge.

As Sasha made his way towards her again, April couldn’t help taking a few steps back, watching him cautiously. She didn’t want to get caught off guard by another double attack again. Missing the attack the first time was okay, but making the same mistake twice would be pathetic. Before she had time to register exactly what Sasha was going to do, April found herself falling to the ground, and she realized too late that he had just kicked her ankles. She landed right on her butt, not unlike how Sasha had hit the ground a few moments earlier. She couldn’t keep herself from wincing as pain shot through her tailbone, and she knew that it was going to hurt badly when she stood back up.

Deciding she might as well get it over with before Sasha decided to attack her again, April forced herself to stand up, doing her best to ignore her increasing amount of pain. This was nothing compared to what she would probably feel in the Games, so if she couldn’t get up from this she was doomed. April contemplated her next move for a split second before she approached Sasha again and aimed a kick right at his stomach before quickly attempting to move behind him. If he didn’t block her kick, April was hoping she would be able to kick out his legs from behind. If he did block her kick, she was probably going to be in serious trouble since she was now so close to him, but what was life without a little risk, right?

“Oh, I’m just getting warmed up.” Sasha rolled his eyes in disbelief and fake mockery,"I kind of doubt that. You look like it took a lot to try that. Warm-up- you wish." He smiled at her to show that he was kidding around, not trying to insult her or something. Doing that would be the last thing on his mind anytime. He hated insulting other people, even if it was complimentary trash talk. He was more of the sarcastic joker than the insult joker. He didn't hate people who were of the insult joker group; he just chose not to practice that himself. It was just against who he was and how he acted. He could be counted on to act the same way he always did almost everyday, except on the rare occasions where he was in a bad mood.

Sasha raised his eyebrows in an unspoken question as April backed away as he stepped towards her. He decided to voice his question and make it a friendly joke so it would be off his mind. He called out playfully,"Scared, Adams? I don't blame ya. I'm a very intimidating person, I know. It's okay to be scared of me. I won't hold it against you. Well, perhaps I'll hold it against you for a while. It's a shame you backed away now. I had you pegged as a girl who didn't back away from a challenge." He shrugged his shoulders at her and continued,"I guess I was wrong. A pity, really. I thought I could judge people pretty well." He smirked at her after delivering his comments. Oh, this was going to be interesting, seeing how she would react to his speech.

He wondered for a moment if she was one of those people who backed away from challenges. He kind of doubted it, even though he had said the opposite just moments before. From what he had seen in the past few minutes since he had gotten here, April had seemed like one of the toughest girls he had ever met. First of all, she had taken a kick from him and recovered pretty easily, from what he had seen. Secondly, when he gave his joking remarks, she gave them right back. Not many people he knew could do that like he had seen her do it. It was pretty darn impressive if you asked him. She was different from some other girls, who were total weinies.

He attacked her again after his moment of thinking, this time aiming at the ankles. Most people never expected this kind of move, because in most fist fights, people used their fists, cue the name fist fight. When he was in fist fights, he liked to use every part of his body. It may have looked stupid using his legs and back and head, but it was an advantage over other people. His problem came in when other people fought the same way as him. He wasn't nearly as good on defense as he was on offense. He tended to use his strength more than his wits, which made him pretty defenseless when someone fought like him. He could easily get hurt like that.

Perhaps that's what would kill him during the Hunger Games. He would definitely have to work on his defense. Sasha winced a bit when his move worked. The younger girl fell staight on her butt. It took everything he had not to try to help her up. This was a fight after all, not a pity contest. Still, he couldn't help but look at her with a bit of sympathy in his brown eyes. He wasn't one of those bloodthirsty Careers who loved revelling in other people's pain. He wasn't like that at all, even though he was a Career by name alone. Sasha nodded his head in approval as April got up; this girl was tough after all. He was too busy completating this to notice that she was about to kick at him. Her foot landed squarely in his stomach. He fell to the ground in pain and groaned. God, that had hurt. He looked up at her and said,"Well, you certainly don't fight like a girl." He slowly pushed himself up, pain shooting through his body. He stood up shakily and looked at her hesitantly. She could make the first move this time. He needed a bit of time to recover from her painful blow.

((Sorry for being so late in replying. :/))

April cocked an eyebrow at her opponent’s mocking and grinned at him. In her opinion, a little taunting always made a fight more interesting, and she could certainly take a joke. Okay, so maybe it was kind of true that flipping Sasha had taken a good bit of effort, but no way was April going to admit it.“Maybe something like that would take a lot of effort for you, Leate, but if you think that’s the best I can do you’re in for a surprise.” Ha. What did he have to say to that?

Aaaand then he noticed her take that step back. Wonderful. She couldn’t help the small scowl that formed on her face at his words. April was no coward, and she didn’t like the idea that taking one step back made Sasha think of her as one. “I’m not scared.” Feeling the need to prove her point, April took a large step forward. “And I love a challenge.” She glanced around the empty gym, quickly passing her gaze over him. “Too bad I don’t see any around here.” She grinned, once again back to taunting him.

But maybe that big step forward had been a bad idea, because that had probably been what caused her to get knocked over so easily. To be perfectly honest, Sasha was putting up a great fight. A lot of the girls her age that April had fought freaked out when they broke a nail, and if April tried to so much as make a teasing comment, they would get mad at her and quit. It was a shame Sasha would be going off to the Hunger Games so soon, because regardless of who was going to win their fight today, April would have loved to have a rematch at some point. She would just have to wait until he won and came home. Because now that she had sort of gotten to know Sasha, April didn’t really want to consider the alternative.

Much to her surprise, April’s kick hit its target perfectly, but before she could even attempt to get behind Sasha and try to knock him over, he had already fallen over. Huh. Well, that was effective. April made a mental note to kick people in the stomach more often, and shot a quick sympathetic look down at the older boy. She had wanted to knock him over, but she hadn’t really meant to hurt him that badly, so she was happy to hear him speak to her. She didn’t fight like a girl? April supposed that meant she had earned a little respect from him, which was a good thing, but she wasn’t exactly thrilled by his implication that girls can’t fight. She smirked at him and replied, as he stood, “Actually, Sasha, I fight exactly like a girl. You clearly just haven’t fought any good girls. Until now.” To prove her point, April took advantage of Sasha’s hesitation to aim a punch straight at his face.

((SO SO sorry for the slowness! I guess we're even now ))