4

Cambria's POV

"Great job you two." Sasha squeals. "The audience just loved you Conan."

"They better have, that took all of my energy." I hear Conan say weakly.

Breakfast is on the table and it makes my mouth water just looking at it. Even in District six food wasn't nearly this nice.

"Today is the beginning of training, and you have to practice everything." Olin starts. "I don't care if you make snares for a living, do it."

"I'm going straight to Survival Skills." I say positively.

Having never tried to survive in the wilderness other than the occasional camp out with Conan and Garret, I am going to need all of the survival skills I can get.

"And remember don't show all of your best skills until your private." Olin says strongly. "The Careers will use you as a weapon if they see all of your skills."

The thought of this made me absolutely sure I would not do hand to hand combat in the Training Center.

The Training Center is a huge, bright room full of weapons and agility courses and stations with camouflage. All of the tributes are in red and black suits with our district number on the back. Seneca Crane, the head Gamemaker is sitting in a balcony room with a buffet that overlooks the Training Center.

"The Training Center is designed to help tributes train in survival, and be prepared to fight to the death." … says "There will be no fighting with other tributes, there will be plenty of time for that later on."

With that, we are dismissed into our session. I run strait to the climbing course to strengthen my arms for the climbs that will most likely save my life in the arena.

I can feel the eyes of the Careers burning into my neck as I make my way up the ladder.

"She's ok." I hear the boy from District One say. "Maybe she won't be our first kill."

"Yeah, but can she run?" the girl from District Two asks.

At the top I swing down nimbly and land hard on the mat below, wobbling slightly before I regain my balance. I turn my head to flash a grin at the Careers but they have moved on to slicing the heads off the dummies.

"I told Olin I would go to Survival Skills first." I groan.

So I sprint over to the edible plants station and try my skills, which turn out to be almost none.

"Maybe you should work on that before you poison yourself." a voice mocks behind me.

The girl from eight is standing behind me with her arms crossed and a look of disapproval on her face.

"Isn't that the point of this station?" I mutter as I walk away to snares.

Maybe if I could catch food I would make it through my first day without killing myself, since I can't exactly shoot. The girl at the station was watching me work a simple snare. Eventually I moved onto more complicated knots, and I was certain I could at least catch a rabbit.

I spot Conan over at the agility course dodging everything that the trainers are throwing, while making his way up the spaced out steps. As well as I know my best friend, there are things he might have forgotten to tell me that he can do. Conan will be a tough competitor in the games.

Conan's POV

Two days of training have passed and I have mastered the agility course, learned how to make a snare, and strengthened my hand-to-hand combat skills. If it comes to fighting the Careers my skills will falter, but any other tribute would be an easy match.

I sit at the breakfast table across from Cambria and listen to Olin's daily preparation speech.

"As you know, today is the day you will have your private with the Gamemakers." I hear Olin say out of one ear. "You will be awarded a score that may or may not secure sponsors for you."

"One to twelve and anywhere between a seven and a twelve is sponsor material." Cambria says.

She has been listening harder to Olin than I have. Olin advised me to start in Survival Skills in the Training Center, but I did the agility course instead. I plan to work my edible plants and fire starting skills in the time we have today, since I have worked a lot with Garret on our camp outs. My mom said many times back home that I tend to tune certain people out and make my own decisions.

"Conan, what are you going to show the Gamemakers in your private?" Olin asked pointedly.

"I am going to throw knives at the targets." I state my plan slowly, still thinking it over, "targets have always been my strong suit."

There was no response, only a nod. Cambria is obviously Olin's favorite and I know why.

Cambria's POV

Cambria Everett

My turn with the Gamemakers is up and my score will make or break my sponsors.

When I emerge into the room I walk strait to the ladder and start my climb to the top. The Gamemakers, still relatively focused, watch my ascent closely. I catch onto one of their conversations:

"Not many tributes go for that every year." one of the people said.

"No, it's tough, she's a climber." Seneca responds quietly.

They clap in unison when I swing down from the top and land on the mat. Only a few weren't watching so I let it slide and take a bow, waiting to be dismissed.

"Thank you District Six." Seneca announces.

I walk back into the waiting room and wait until Conan's name is called, watching the six on his back reflect the light. Our friendship is slipping away, but his attitude toward all of this hasn't stopped impressing me.

"How did your sessions go?" Sasha asks.

"I climbed the rope ladder and landed on the mat." I start. "They clapped…"

"I watched her in the Training Center, she's better than everyone." Conan mutters.

"Great, how did you do Conan?" she asks as enthusiastically as ever.

"I hit the human target with a sword." Conan says, "Seneca seemed pleased."

I zoned out of the conversation about what Sasha thought Conan's score might be, and began to think about the look in his eyes on the day of the tribute parade. There is something behind those always caring hazel eyes, but I can't put my finger on it.

Conan's POV

It is time to see all of the tributes' score and me, Cambria, Sasha, Olin, Leon, and Yolanda gathered in front of the flat screen TV. Leon has his head in his notebook as usual and Sasha is pacing back and forth in her heels. She gets worked up over everything, I mean how important could a number really be to you?

"And now for the overall scores from each tribute's progress over the past week." Caesar says with a flash of his overly white teeth.

"From District One, Inferno, with a score of 10… 9… 10… 8…" Caesar started.

"District six, Conan, with a score of… 9." Caesar's words echoed off of my head.

"Oh Conan, wonderful job!" Sasha squeals

"That's sponsor material." Olin congratulates me. "We can work with that."

Yolanda smiled as she sipped her blue drink.

"And Cambria, with a score of 10," Caesar says with a grin.

I didn't hear the rest of the scores because of the noise and talking.

"You scored higher than me." I managed to say before retiring to my room.

The games start tomorrow and I have to pick up my game to face the challenges of the arena. I'll make sure that the victor this year isn't a Career.