"Zari, catch!" my best friend, Elza, yelled at me as she threw a long, thin, silver spear just above my left shoulder.
"That's not funny! What would you have done if it hit me?" I shouted in reply.
"It wouldn't have, I'm not that stupid, and you know how good my aim is"
Elza ran over and collected the spear from the green plastic dummy it hit, a few yards behind me. I'd known Elza for 4 years now, since I was ten and we'd grown really close. I met her on the first day on training in district 4; we got put in the same spears and knives classes. She's tall and slim, with long blonde wavy hair that flows right past her ribs. She can throw spears better than anyone I know, even better than most of the boys.
"Come on, it's lunch time, hurry up I'm hungry!" she whinged as she tugged my arm towards the lunch hall.
The training school was a posh newly built building, made of slick silver walls and never ending corridors with an uncountable amount of doors for rooms in every different aspect of training. There were rooms for spear throwing, hand to hand combat, archery, knives, and pretty much any weapon you can think of. It was what district 2 specialised in; Weaponry. Well, also training peacekeepers, but that's a different part of the building.
I'm glad I was born in district 2, it's by far the best district, and everybody knows that. We are known to have the strongest tributes and the most amount of victors. We get rewarded by the capitol with luxuries for our dedication towards it, and we have special facilities to train children from the age of 10-18 to prepare them if they get reaped to go into the hunger games, which in my mind is a brilliant idea, to separate the weaklings from district 12 and a few more, from the strong powerful ones from the good district like 1, 2 and 4. We're known as the 'career tributes' because we're the best.
"Zari, you will never guess who smiled at me after I threw that spear at you. Go on, guess!" Elza giggled as we got our food from the canteen and sat down at the table. Today we have ham and cucumber sandwiches with strawberry yoghurt and a carton of pure apple juice. Here at the academy we're given our food in portions according to our height, weight and strength. We done have a choice in what we get, it's already prepared.
Also on our table was Willa and Jeana two 10 year old girls who started a few months back, Jono a 16 year old boy who was sat talking to two 15 year girls Clove and Aidriana and then me and Elza.
"How would I ever guess who smiled at you when there are hundreds of people in this academy? Go on; tell me since you're so excited about it!"
"CATO!" she shouted, maybe a little too loud. "Cato, you know, the really hot 16 year old. Oh, I really want to speak to him!"
"You're so blonde, you know that?" I laughed "ok, I'm going to be late for archery, bye" I say as I rush to the bin to dump my leftover food then out of the large metal doors, down a few corridors and into a huge square room, resembling a woods with its artificial trees and bushes. The walls are painted in 3D to make the room look that much bigger than it already is, and wind and bird singing is played quietly into to room to make it more realistic.
Olga, a middle aged woman with short ginger hair and baggy camouflage styled clothes waits in the entrance surrounded by children of all ages.
"You're late Zari, and I don't tolerate it. Now grab your bow and get shooting."
Archery is my best talent by far. My dad, who works in 'the nut' in district 2, which is where all the weapons you can think of are made, first worked with archery designs, and he learnt me how to use a bow and a sheath of arrows from a very young age. Olga knows how good I am therefore lets me go on my own to shoot plastic birds and rabbits, so I don't have to listen to the theory side of it.
"Are you scared for tomorrow?" I quiet voice whispers to me.
I turn around to see a small girl, around the age of 12 I guess, sitting on a low branch of a tree. I think she's called Amie or Amber but I can't really remember. She has mid length black hair that falls past her shoulders in spirals and ringlets, each perfectly curled with no bits of hair hanging out.
"You know what I mean, tomorrow, are you scared? It's my first" she said shyly, trying to disguise her voice so nobody but me hears.
"Not really" I lie "It's nothing to be frightened of, you should be proud"
But really what I want to say is that I'm petrified for tomorrow, because I know what's going to happen, and I'm going to have to volunteer.
For tomorrow is the day of the reaping.