District 2
At fourteen, she's third in her class. In swordsmanship, and two disciplines of hand to hand fighting, she's first. She excels at discipline. Her sword goes exactly where she means it to go.
The "training accident" isn't.
Max is fourth, right behind her. He insists that strength and size are all that matter. She proves him wrong. Late that night he comes to her room, angry. Payback. Pain for pain, shame for shame. He jams thick fingers into her until she bleeds. Next time, worse.
The next day her sword goes exactly where she means it to go.
Tribute
She's first in her class this year. The odds are in her favor. She has three minutes to say goodbye.
"Stay in control." Her father's hair is gray; he spent twenty years in the Peacekeepers before she was born. Everything she knows about discipline she learned from him. "When you're frightened …"
"I won't be frightened, sir."
"…or angry, remember your training. You know what to do. Stay in control, and you'll come home safely."
"I will, sir. I promise."
"Fight well, Bari." His voice trembles, just a little.
They shake hands. Neither of them wants to let go.
Teeth
All anyone wants to talk about is her damn teeth.
She fought beautifully at the Cornucopia. She was in control in the middle of that frenzied bloodbath, disciplined movement and a razor-sharp sword and arteries precisely severed and six bloodless bodies on the ground around her.
Caesar Flickerman showed three seconds of that fight.
He showed three minutes of the desperate struggle with the boy from District 1. There she is on screen, biting, sticky blood all over her face.
Her father saw that. She winces.
To the audience she's just a vicious animal. That's what they really want.
Sharpened
She's on her knees and the man runs soft Capitol fingers across her face. "Ooooh, so very dangerous. But you can't hurt us." His wife giggles.
"Of course not. You bought me." Her father is safe from the Capitol only while these people are safe from her.
"Show us those deadly teeth of yours."
She pretends to snarl. They jam their fingers in her mouth, pretending to be frightened.
They want her to be frightened. They believe that only their money matters. She cannot prove them wrong.
She needs sharper teeth.
These people will make her bleed tonight.
Victor
No one asked her to fight for the Capitol. If they had, she might have said yes.
They needed soldiers. Not vicious animals, but disciplined, skilled fighters. She remembered her training. She could prove them wrong.
District 2 is loyal to the Capitol. She has hundreds of admirers there, all eager to touch the points of her deadly, dangerous teeth.
No one asked her whether she wanted to escape the Arena. If they had, she might have said yes.
Her father is safe from the Capitol now. He died four years ago.
Johanna Mason said they'd kill her anyway.
Author's Note: I worked ridiculously hard to follow the exactly-100-words drabble form. Then decided that markup and formatting somehow added 108 words, so I put this note in and now it's even longer. This should have been a round 500 words. Really.