I started Career training when I was 6 years old. It's hard work. We have been running for about 5 miles, until I start to slow down. When some of the boys pass me, they laugh a little bit and run a little faster to beat me. My legs feel like jelly, and the finish line is about a mile in front of me, so I speed up my pace to a sprint. I'm one of the youngest Careers that is really strong. I pass the boys and race them to the finish line, smirking. I pass the white line that marks the finish line, seconds before them. I'm very excited when our trainer announces that station training is next to do on our list for training.
This is the part of training I always beat everyone in. We can go to different stations for fighting, and I usually stick to knife throwing. People always try and beat me in throwing knives, but I get it exactly in the middle every single time. Every single time. I'm just a little bit nervous. Tomorrow is the reaping day. People only volunteer when they think they're absolutely ready, and not many of the District 2 girls like volunteering, pretty much only boys do that, weirdly.
When I was busy throwing knives into the chest of a moving dummy, Cato Hadley, walks up to me and puts his arm around me.
"Hey, Clove," He says, casually.
"Hey," I respond, casually.
We both decided that we were going to volunteer this year. We decided we were both ready, plus, the only way I could get my parents to love me. The only way they would love me is if I won the Hunger Games. I'm going to be a very young volunteer and a very young victor. Just the thought makes me smirk and do a special knife throwing move which I do two times, hitting the moving dummy in the head, and chest. I throw one more and it misses the middle of the chest by an inch. I get mad and throw a knife at one of the bigger tributes, hitting it centimeters away from his head on the wall.
He gets furious and paced angrily forward, grabbing a large knife on the way.
"Want me to kill you?" He says furiously.
"Want me to kill you?" I say, mocking him.
"Break it up you two!" The trainer, Azalea, yells.
I look at the clock on the wall, and there's about five minutes until training is over. I sneer, since training was very easy today. Plus, everyone is sweating and panting. I hurl a fancy throw with my knife and hit the running dummy in the chest. Perfectly on spot. When the bell rings, everyone files out in a line and the sun is setting when I walk outside. I knew my father has been drinking, because every night I come home, he is drunk. Cato puts his arm around me and says,
"If anything goes wrong tonight, come to my house."
"Alright," I reply, staring off into the sunset.
"Remember, if you don't volunteer, I don't volunteer."
"I will volunteer," I say, laid-back.
As soon as I walk in the door, my father grabs his whip and hits my back with it.
"You're late," He says harshly.
"We got out late!" I say, upset.
One day, I'm going to grab that whip with my hand and whip him back.