Chapter 4-Training

Clove's POV

I wake up still feeling bitter about the night before. 12… of all people… 12? This makes no sense, but either way, stealing out spotlight means they'll just die sooner. I know they won't be a threat, being from that district and all, but I think I'll watch them today, though really I should focus on Glimmer and Marvel… every games needs a career pack, and they're district one. Hopefully they should be worth it.

Walking into the dining room I see Cato already sat there, talking to Enobaria whilst taking a bite or two from his toast every now and then.

"Ah. Clove, good morning. I suppose you know what you're going to do today?"

"Form the Career pack."

"Good. Cato, show off your skills as a swordsman and intimidate them, show them you're not to be messed with. Clove, show your ability on the assault course in the morning, save the knives until the afternoon either showing off to your allies or showing your enemies why they're going to die."

"Understand." Clove and I nod our heads respectfully at her, before our escort comes in and quickly pushes us towards the elevator.

"Oi! Push me again and I'll-"

"Cato!" I bark a warning at him, if we annoy the escort, no sponsors, he should know this! But…. It's true Cato hates idiots pushing him, unsurprisingly, though the escort does avoid confronting Cato or doing anything that may bother him from that point onwards.

When the lift doors open and we walk towards the training room, we're happy to see that we're the first ones there. I nod at him and we go to our different places, him to the swords, and me to the assault course, as instructed earlier. I complete it with ease, and the peacemakers are obviously impressed, though not surprised. On my fifth completion of the monkey bars, the doors open and district 1 and 9 come in.

The girl looks at me intently, but I ignore her, for now, and keep working on the assault course. She heads to the bow and arrow station, and then slowly goes around the others. She seems to be good at most things, though with the bow and arrow she misses the target by about 10cm. Not good enough in my opinion. The boy goes over to the spears, and instantly it's obvious that he's got a knack for it. It's like me with knives, just on a larger scale. I look to Cato across the room who was also subtly watching and he nods at me. Well, that's that confirmed, we're making a pack with 1.

I finish the course and land calmly, and then take a look around the room, all the other tributes are here but my eyes are immediately on 12. They're at the plants station… What losers, so it's confirmed, 12 are no threat at all; they're just good at upstaging us.

I look to the cloak above the doors, nearly lunch; I must have been around the course more than 50 times.

Turning around, I see Cato beckoning me with a twitch of the head and calmly make my way over to him.

"You asking them or am I?"

"Asking? We're telling… and I'll do it. Come on." I watch as Glimmer walks over to Marvel, flicking her hair out of her face with an elegant swish, causing many of the other tributes to swoon at her, though this only confirms what I suspected, she's a typical blonde district 1. Sexy, enthralling, probably incredibly stupid… yet knows how to handle a weapon. Not the best opponent as there's a high chance you'll end up dead, but a useful ally.

I make my way towards them, Cato's hulking figure looming behind me and see the other tributes part before us. The little 12 year old from eleven see's us and nearly screams in fright before sprinting off for her food. Stupid brat.

"Oi. District one."

At my voice Glimmer turns. The boy throws his last spear, spearing the target right through the centre, and then turns also, an eyebrow raised. He quickly shifts so he's next to Glimmer, as if in a slightly protecting stance, what an idiot.

"Yes 2?" Wow… even her voice is annoying, high and musical, yet also a feint hint of bossiness behind it. No doubt she'll drive me insane in the arena, let's hope we kill the others as soon as possible so we can turn on them.

"Alliance, every games needs a career pack, are you in or not?"

"Oh? What's in it for us?"

"I don't kill you obviously." At this she bursts out laughing and I look to her annoyedly though Cato smirks.

"She's not kidding 2. Clove. Go throw a knife." At his command, although told to refrain from it earlier, I head over to the knife station and pick one up. I weigh it calmly in my hand, before spinning and flinging it at the target. It zooms through the air twisting perfectly around before it embeds itself in the dummy's head, exactly where the centre of the brain would be on a human.

"Again Clove… show 'em it ain't just fluke." I smirk at him but do so. The thrill and adrenaline instantly fills my body, I'm in my element, and I'm doing what I do best. Knife after knife after knife, every single one hits its target, the neck, the eye, the brain, the heart. With my last one I even close my eyes, showing off I know but hell, why not? I'm a district 2 after all, I say I could do it in my sleep, I may as well prove it.

I walk back to Glimmer now, the dummy that was in front of me covered in blade hilts at all the dangerous points on the body. "Satisfied?"

"What can your boyfriend do?"

"Beat yours to a pulp with a sword if you're not careful, though sadly we can't fight you yet, so we in an alliance or not?" Glimmer looks to Marvel, and smirks, as f wanting his opinion though it's obvious she's the more dominant of the two. At least with Cato and me we share dominance… or at least we kind of do.

"We're in. I'm Glimmer, and this is my district partner, Marvel."

"Good to have allies… I'm Cato, and the knife girls Clove." I smile sadistically at her.

"Knife girl indeed… don't worry I can do moving targets too."

"I'll take your word for it… should we get something to eat?" We nod and then head towards the cafeteria, Cato and Marvel seem to hit it off, talking about the best places to kill and things like that, whilst I turn my attention to Glimmer. She tells me about district one and all the beautiful things there and how she can't wait to go home a victor, thrilled about how she was reaped. Well, you won't be thrilled for long will you? I smile and nod at all the appropriate points, keeping her satisfied, until I finally have to give an answer.

"Should we get district 11?" Cato looks up at Glimmers words and pauses for a moment.

"I was watching him… he may be an 11, but he's strong, besides… we can kill him in his sleep a few days in." I look towards Marvel as he says this in the most casual of tones. Most districts are appalled that we can look upon the deaths of others so easily, but they don't really that it's life, we were trained so that we could win this, so that we could live in happy glory, not our fault they don't work hard for it, don't grab the opportunity when it's dangling before them… another reason why they're so pathetic.

"Hm. Alright. Let's watch him for the rest of the day, if he's good, we'll check him out tomorrow morning and invite him, agreed?" Yep, Blondey sure is bossy, though this is what I would have said too… but it didn't come from me, that's my only issue. Oh well, may as well let her live out her days doing what she does best

After lunch I go to the knives station, it's time to intimidate the others. Within 10 minutes I've already used up 50 knives, only missing one, if you can call being 2cm off target missing, but I do. I stop and sigh, pretending to be bored of my knife work, though when I turn round I can already see the other tributes, the young ones mostly, looking towards me in total fear, they know I'm going to be a threat. Too right in my opinion.

I go over to Cato and spend the rest of the afternoon session going around stations, us and one slowly taking it in turns to be at the station next to 11. It's obvious that he's going to be a strong ally just by the presence he gives. Nearly everyone in the room is frightened by him, except for probably his district partner, though I must admit I've not seen her for the whole duration of the training...

At the end of the day we hang back and then walk to the elevator with one.

"So, we're asking 11 I take it?" I ask, an eyebrow raised.

"We can kill him a few days in anyway, wouldn't surprise me if he turned on us if we didn't turn on him." Adds Cato.

"Hm. Yes. Yes I think we will, don't you agree Marvel?" Marvel nods at Glimmers words, it's pathetic, it's like he's her stupid little puppy, being blindly led into war.

"Good." The elevator stops at the first floor and Glimmer and Marvel step out. The doors close and begin to rise again and Cato and I step out onto our floor. "I swear if she's that bossy in the arena I'll kill her."

"Who are you going to kill?" I look up and see Enobaria stood there an eyebrow raised. She must have just walked in.

"Glimmer from one… bossiest career I've ever seen." Enobaria smirks at this but then speaks sternly to me. "Don't kill any allies until they've stopped being useful Clove, you know that…" I sigh but nod, before walking slowly towards my room, Cato following me.

"So… umm… well done in training. Really… intimidated everyone."

"Umm... Thanks?" Well… that was weird, why would Cato tell me that? I admit I'm flattered… ish, but he's seen me train for years. Oh well. Nothing important. I smile weakly at him, if a little but confusedly, then step into my room, I need to get out of these training clothes before dinner or my escort may just kill me, or lecture me, either one's as bad.

Cato's POV

"Really intimidated everyone" Yes well done Cato, did great there. Not. I sigh and head to my own room, pulling off my clothes and stepping in to the boiling hot shower. Why do I feel like this anyway? She's my friend… but we hugged yesterday… have I ever properly hugged anyone before? I know I haven't ever hugged my parents, or my siblings, I guess affection doesn't really exist back home, but was that affection? I honestly don't know. I try to push it out of my mind, she's going to have to die anyway in order for me to win, and she'll have to. I hate that it's true but it is and there's nothing I can do about it, be it at my own hands or someone else's, she's going to have to die if I'm going to come home a victor.

I step out the shower and get dressed again before heading out the door back to dinner. Only a few days left, then they begin.


"He said NO?!"

"Glimmer calm down!" I turn and raise my eyebrow at Clove, who returns the look. Seriously, these are our allies? A quick to temper bossy blonde, and her oh-so-faithful puppy? But I had to admit, I wasn't the only one who was annoyed.

We had approached eleven earlier this morning. As we expected, 11 was here early, so not all the other tributes had arrived yet. He went to the fire-making station and as he was about to move we went and cornered him.

"Oi. 11"

"What." The four of us were around him now, leaving the space behind him as the only escape route, any other tribute would be cowering by now, even if we're banned to hurt them, but Thresh stood tall and just looked at us, almost menacingly.

"We want you in our alliance." That was Glimmer; she was smiling at him as though this should be one of the highest honours.

"Yeah that's right, you, me, Glimmer, and both from two." As marvel said 'two' Clove and I both nodded once.

"No thanks." He turned to go and Glimmer blinked before calling out to him.

"No?"

He paused. A fist clenched, then turned, and looked straight into her eyes. I swear I saw her flinch as he did so. "Correct. No."

"Cato… this isn't a good thing at all you know… he'll be no easy target." I turned to see Clove who was muttering to me, Glimmer was throwing a fit and Marvel was still trying to calm her down.

"I know Clove… I know. We'll try and get him at the bloodbath, he'll be there, he'll fight, and he'll want supplies. We'll pick off the weaklings, by then the rest will have scarpered and we'll gang up on him before he can get away. Deal?"

"Alright. Come on, let's calm Blondie down."


"Yo. Clove. Get up"

"Huh… why? I was having such a nice dream…"

"Our escort wants you obviously… interviews tonight."

"Uh, already?"

"Yep." I walk out of her room as she gets out of bed slowly. My escort hurries up to me and quickly starts firing questions at me "is she coming? What state was she in? Does she need help?"

"No, no, and why would she want help getting out of bed?" seriously how pathetic are these capitolites.

Clove's POV

Dragging myself out of bed is much harder than I thought it would be. A steaming hot shower is the only thing that seems to awaken me from my sleep state yet it also awakens me to the fact that I have to spend half a day with our escort… great.

"Oh Clove how marvellous to see you!" One sentence and already I'm agitated and I know it will only get worse. And of course, I'm right. For the next four hours I am forced to walk up and down in heels, practice my 'etiquette' learn to sit up straight, smile like a true lady and blah blah whatever. For once I'm thrilled when I'm told that I next have to see Enobaria, because in all honesty, she scares the shit out of me, but at least I respect her.

Cato and I eat lunch together, we only have half an hour break and he tells me nonchalantly that all Enobaria does is go for your angle, and ask about what you've planned for the arena, little is planned for the interview. I nod, taking in the information and then smirk at him cruelly as I explain the hell that I've just been put through.

When I leave for Enobaria, I can't help but feel a satisfied smirk twitch at the corner of my mouth as I see Clove walking off as if he's about to fall into his worst nightmare, but for Cato, this is probably true.

"Clove. Do sit" I nod respectfully at Enobaria, it's practically a custom back in district 2, and then take my seat.

"So Cato tells me you are already allied with district 1, and that yesterday on your last day of training you allied with the girl from 4? Correct?"

"Correct. We attempted an alliance with 11 on the second day but he turned us down."

"As I expected. How do you plan to deal with this?" I had a feeling she'd ask that.

"Cato, myself, and our allies will go to the cornucopia as planned. Due to 11's skill and build we are united in the belief that he will be there too, fighting for supplies and picking off the weaker tributes. Once we have dealt with those who stood in our way we will quickly turn and go after 11 before he gets the chance to run. If he begins to run before all of those in the cornucopia are dead, we agreed that I, Marvel, and Cato will go after him, whilst Coral and Glimmer take on the rest. They should make short work of them."

"Interesting. I hope this works… if not I have no doubt that we will be the biggest threat in the arena, even if both from 12 manage to triple the amount of sponsor money across all others." Yes… I expected that too. There's no doubt that 12 will get all the sponsor money, that's a certain, everyone in the capitol goes wild for the 'girl on fire'. It's pitiful really.

"How do you plan to split the watches?"

"Two with the lowest scores." That's another thing; we get our scores last night. Cato and I both got 10's, though neither of us have any idea how 12 got an 11… "So that leaves Coral, and someone from 1 as she got 8 and Glimmer and Marvel were tied on 9." I wonder what Glimmer's skill actually is… she never really showed anything in training to any of us. Maybe Marvel knows.

Enobaria nods and then we simply talk about my 'angle' for the interview as well as other strategy plans. I cope with it pretty well, I'm used to Enobaria and I know what I'm talking about and so am happy to have had the fortune of having her second. This feeling is amplified when I then see Cato. As soon as he comes out of the room he looks like he's going to kill someone whilst our escort titters behind him. I smirk at him an eyebrow raised; didn't he believe me when I said it was hell?


"Welcome! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, fellow viewers across Panem, welcome to the final night before the 74th annual hunger games begin! Tonight we have an assortment of tributes, a great 24 who tonight will tell us all about themselves and tomorrow will fight for the chance to be crowned victor!" There was a loud burst of sound from the crowd as they began cheering and shouting, some calling names some simply shouting for Ceasar to get on with it and bring on the tributes.

"So without further ado let us get these interviews under way! Let me introduce you to Miss Glimmer from district 1!" There were cheers and whoops from the crowd as Glimmer walked towards the chair beside Ceasar blowing kisses to the crowd and winking. Well it as obvious that she'd gone for the sexy approach. I sat calmly in my dress, a simple orange dress that went down to just below the knee, and waited calmly for my turn. Soon they were finished with district one and I heard my own name being called.

I walked towards the seat smiling sweetly, I was to be determined, but likeable, the first was easy, second not so, but I was 'determined' so I was determined to make sure they liked me. I needed sponsors after all.

"Clove how lovely to meet you!"

"And you Ceasar I must say it is a pleasure" I smiled at him happily as he laughed happily and told the crowd how much of a 'charmer' I was.

"So Clove, enjoying the capitol?"

"Oh yes it's fabulous!" –ly annoying. "The architecture, the decorations, it's so beautiful, it's a shame I can only look outside my window, you can only see so much from one glance you know."

"Quite, do you think if you'll win you'll come back and look around properly some day?"

"Oh yes, definitely" -not.

"And do you think you'll win."

"Ceasar, I was born to win, I assure you now that anyone who puts their money towards me will not waste it and I will come out a victor." I couldn't help but smirk arrogantly at him, to be honest it was true, who was going to stop me? "The only challenge for me will be my district partner but I'm sure I can handle him" I quickly wink to the crowd, slightly cheekily.

"Haha! How excellent, excellent, well our time is up but I have the utmost confidence in you and if you do win I can't wait to see you again!" I smile at him and graciously stand and curtsy to the crowd. Well, that was painless, except for these heels which are killing me. I wink at Cato as I return to my seat and he simply smirks at me before going to take his place by Ceasar himself.

Cato is asked near enough the same questions as me, how's the capitol, does he think he'll win, can he really take on me, that one made me nearly burst out laughing, controlling myself was much more difficult than I expected it to be. The last question catches me a little off guard though and I quickly pay attention, though I'm not sure why.

"So Cato, got a girl back home?"

"Well as much as everyone wishes they were, I don't have a girlfriend Ceasar." And then his time is up.

I watch the rest of the interviews go by without much attention, save for my allies and 11. 12 nearly fluffs hers entirely, not even paying

attention to the first question. He asks about her sister, and how she's feeling, and it's true that she wins over most of the crowd. Bitchy sponsor stealer. And then it's her district partner 'lover-boy'. I sigh, when will this end? Oh well, only one more.

"So Peeta, got a girl back in district 12?"

"Oh I'm afraid not Ceasar."

"But a charming man like you must have your eye on someone."

"Well there is this one girl… but I don't think she's ever noticed me."

"Well perhaps if you came home a victor, I'm sure she'll notice you then."

"That's… not possible."

"Oh, why?"

"She came here with me." And it's there, that last, stupid, undeniably annoying sentence, that truly set's me on edge. 'She came here with me' it rings in my ears over and over again as the crowd 'aww's' and gasps, some even seem to cry.

They are so, dead.


Okay yeah sorry this is a litte late had a lot on at the weekend, my teachers are still obsessed with essays! But I got a really good mark in my english exam and felt like it was an omen saying that i just had to put up the next chapter. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and i'll try to put chapter 5 up as soon as I can! Please Review :D!

-Tara

xxxx