Chapter One
The Outcasts
I walk home from my Training Gym. I was only 11, but I specialize in throwing and handling knives. I have very few friends because there are very few kids willing to take up knives as their weapon of choice. In District 2, there are many people who are willing to. But not in District 1. At school there are many after school groups. There's the Spear Squad, Sword Fighting club, Ax Club, and even a Trident and Archery Club. Even more people join Trident Club than Knife Club. There's barely any fresh water sources in District 1. The Capitol sends us most of our water.
There are about maybe 5 or 6 kids in the knife club. I know all of them and they were my friends, but the person that I know best was my little sister Cashmere. She was the only other person that I could relate to. Even my Mom and Dad I can't relate to. They say we should take up the Spear and Mace like they did. But I didn't. Cashmere thinks she mastered knives, so she took up the mace as well.
We also specialize in knot tying. That helps because part of our school curriculum is to be able to survive in the wilderness for days at a time. They drop us off in the woods, and give us 3 weapons. Then we all have to survive in the wilderness for 5 days. Cashmere and I stick together always. We always perfect our knot tying skills by making hammocks so we don't have to sleep on the ground. We also sometimes make hammocks in the trees so that bears can't attack us. Everything in the woods is animatronic. So if a bear does attack us, our teacher stops it if were about to die from an animal attack.
But that doesn't mean we can't get food either. The animatronics are stuffed with meat. Plus, there are edible plants.
No one ever teams up with us because they thought we were a little…different. We always complain to other people about how no one ever does knife throwing, and they need to realize how it's really a good skill learning how to throw knives. I even try to tell that to my parents every so often.
I come to my driveway to my house, and I step on it, feeling the gravel crunch beneath my feet. I walk along my house. I knock on my door, and my mom shouts "Who is it?" in a dull tone.
"It's me, mom. Gloss."
I hear footsteps on the other side of the door and then the turning of the door knob. My mom opens the door.
"Gloss!" she says. "How was training?"
"Pretty good." I say.
"Come on in Cashmere's in the back."
"Ok, thanks Mom"
"You're welcome."
I walk to my back door, and look through my door's window to see Cashmere in the back yard with her knives as usual. She's throwing them at our dummy targets"
"She really has mastered throwing knives." I think as she gets five knives into the heart of the dummies in 3 seconds. I open the door and step outside to train with my little sister.