Raised to Fight, Born to Die: The District 2 Tributes

Hey everyone, this is my first published fanfic so feedback, comments, and suggestions are appreciated! Thanks and enjoy!

Cato

"You have trained all your life for this," she says. "But so has everyone else in this district. You must be the first to volunteer, you understand?" She has me by the shoulders and shakes me so as to make her words sink in.

"I will," I say. "I will go up before all the other boys."

"Good. You'll make District 2 proud, you hear me?"

I start to answer, but she cuts me off. "And don't go soft on the other District Two tribute at the last minute. Promise me that. It has to be you. You are skilled, strong, determined and bloodthirsty. It has to be you."

"Yes, Mom," I say, this time with a smile sneaking across my face. "I want this just as much as you do."

She nods excitedly. "It is a great honor. No one will forget you," she says.

Clove

Thump! Thump!

Each time one of my knives or another student's hit the target, there was a thump!

"Nicely done, Miss Sevina," Raoul says, complimenting me. As everyone stops throwing to pull their knives and spears out of our targets, I smile at his words because he hardly ever compliments anyone. I walk back to the throwing area and pick up another knife. I start throwing again. And every time my knife hits the moving targets dead center. Like always.

I think about the upcoming Reaping Day. I hope I do not get picked. If I get picked, someone else will, no doubt, volunteer for me. I hope with all my heart and soul someone else gets picked so I can volunteer for them. No, not for them. For me. I must win. I will win. I will kill every last tribute, no matter what. I will be the winner of the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games. I will.

No matter what.

Cato

"Welcome, students, to the Simulation Center," the trainer says. "As you have been doing so your whole lives, you will be put in the Practice Arena, where you must kill other students. Well, not actually kill, obviously. Don't forget, this is only to train you for combat in the Hunger Games! Here we go!"

Each student is given a random weapon. This is supposed to simulate your chances at the Cornucopia because the chances of you getting whatever you want from there are pretty slim. Unless, of course, you're a Career. That is what I am going to be.

I get a small knife. We enter the arena, which is a large, circular (fenced-off) platform. Teachers and trainers sit in elevated chairs surrounding the platform.

We stand on our plates. The arena is so large that the student on the plate across from me looks like an ant because he is so far away. Then the gong rings.

I run to the tribute on my right. I think he will be an easy conquer because of how skinny and uncoordinated he looks. I am wrong. He has a knife too, and before I know it I feel small slash on my left arm. I ignore it and aim for him, but he jumps and twists out of the way at the last minute. I still get him, though. I see a cut on his leg and blood flowing out.

I set my target on another tribute and throw my knife. It is going to hit!

Then a girl jumps in front of the knife and her hand shoots out, grabbing it before it hits her face. My mouth gapes open. How did she do that?

But I have no time to wonder.

The girl charges at me, with a knife and a spear. I don't have a weapon anymore, so I will have to use my strength against her. She raises the arm with the knife, but I grab it and pin it behind her back. She grunts in pain, but tries to fight back. At the same time, my other arm slaps her other hand back, and the spear falls to the ground. I kick it away so she can't reach it. Now I have both her arms pinned down, and she is panicking. I think I have her, but then her leg shoots up and knees me in my groin. I double over in pain, and she wriggles out of my grip, grabs the knife and spear, and darts off.

Then the gong rings, signaling the end of the training session.

The same trainer who brought us here makes an announcement. "As usual, any wounded go to the hospital wing downstairs, and all weapons must be turned in to one of the trainers. Thank you for joining us today." He says the last sentence like we just walked out of a meeting, not a fighting arena.

I walk downstairs with the other students and stop at the hospital wing so they can bandage up my arm. Then I walk outside and across the small courtyard and into the mess hall to get something to eat.

I walk with my food tray to my usual table and I sit down next to Ronan, one of my best friends. I see he's also brought a group of new girls to the table today, and one of them I recognize as the girl who kneed me in the arena. I nod at her, and she nods back.

Ronan raises his eyebrows. "You two know each other?"

The girl says, "I kneed him in the groin today at school." She laughs.

"Not before I stopped you from stabbing me," I say, sounding stupid. What a horrible comeback.

"Not before I caught your knife in mid-air," she says with a smirk.

Ronan raises his eyebrows even higher. "Don't take it personally, man. Clove here is the best of the best." He turns to her. "Any chance you're thinking of entering the Games?"

Only one word comes out of Clove's mouth: "Absolutely."

"Well, if I am the boy for District Two, please don't kill me," Ronan fake-begs.

Please don't kill me, either. I decide that on the rare off chance I do not win, I want Clove to win. Not because she's tough, because she's from District Two. But that doesn't mean I will hesitate if I come across her in the arena.