The next morning Delvin knocked on her door to wake her up. These beds are so much nicer than the one she had at home, and if she could she would have stayed in this one the whole day.
There is amazing buffet of food waiting outside for her, and she and Delvin spend the morning trying almost everything there. Haymitch starts the morning off with his usual drink, but instead of keeping his distance as he usually does, he sits close to Peeta and Delvin. They are both surprised when he wants to talk strategy. Neither think they have a particular talent, so they decide to try everything when they go down for training. Haymitch doesn't have any advice except to stay alive when it actually comes to the games. When he leaves the two, they can't help but think of how he seems different from the person who fell off the stage at last year's reaping.
"Do you think he actually cares about us?" Delvin finally asks.
"I don't know. I think it would be too painful to care about the tributes you train. They're going to die." Peeta suddenly understands his drinking a little more.
"His last two didn't." Neither of them mention that his current two will.
They finish eating and Delvin ties Peeta's hair up with the ribbon. Peeta finds some string and they put the ring around his neck for training. "Now it's closer to your heart." Peeta says with a smile.
They head down to training. Everyone, excluding the careers, look malnourished. The few days eating well really won't change that. Before she can get to caught up in people watching, Delvin is pulling on her elbow. They check out a few of the more empty areas first.
Peeta learns that she is quite talented at camouflage, it reminds her of decorating cakes. Both blondes are surprised to learn that Delvin was good with a spear. While he wasn't anywhere near career level, he could throw it and move with it quite well. They were given a break to eat. Peeta found it strange that only the careers sat together as a group. Delvin and her sat at the same table and talked quietly.
Soon they were back to the stations to try new things out. They decided to split up since they had different interests. Peeta went to the giant screen for identification. She watched as the tribute for District 5 tapped through all of the different pictures, getting all the identifications right. The girl suddenly turned towards Peeta.
"Can I help you?" Her tone of voice proved help wasn't what she wanted to give Peeta.
Peeta shook her head quickly. "I was just watching. Trying to see if I recognized anything." The tribute glared. "But now I'll stop doing that." Peeta backed away right into someone else.
"Watch where you're going." Peeta found herself face to face with Cato, one of the careers from District 2.
"Sorry." She said quickly, but the male was already walking away towards another station. She sighed; she should've just stayed with Delvin. He would've kept her away from everyone. Peeta looked around to see where he was. It looked like he was practicing sparring.
There were treadmills open, so Peeta decided that's where she would head. Running was always a skill that would be useful in the Hunger Games. Eventually the female tribute from District 1 ended up on the machine next to hers. She did not seem to like Peeta.
"So are you and that boy doing the same dumb lovers thing your district did last year?" The shorter blonde asked as she started running next to Peeta. Peeta shook her head. Glimmer made a face and adjusted her speed so it was faster than Peeta's. The baker's daughter didn't know if she was trying to challenge her, but even if she was, Peeta wasn't going to race.
Quickly the pretty girl seemed to notice this and decided Peeta was a waste of her time. She gave Peeta one more dirty look before she left the running area. Peeta sighed again. Barely a day in and she had a feeling she had three separate targets on her. She tried to find where Delvin was. She located him near Rue, the youngest tribute in this year's game. The two were both using the sling shots. Delvin was watching Rue shoot and probably trying to figure out how to use one. Unlike the girl from 5, Rue wasn't glaring at Delvin and trying to get him to leave. Or maybe it was just because it was Delvin. He definitely probably seemed a lot less threatening than Peeta.
Not that Peeta thought anyone should find her threatening. But even with her soft features and polite nature, she was pretty physically imposing. She was just as thin as any of the other tributes. While she might have some muscle in her arms, that was only from having to work in the bakery, and it was nowhere near the toned brawn the careers had. What really set her apart was her height. She was taller than most of the boys in her district. Even here, she was right up there in height with some of the tallest tributes. Her mother had always loved it because Peeta could reach everything she couldn't. But it had always made Peeta stand out when Peeta would much rather have blended in.
Peeta could understand why Rue was willing to put up with Delvin's much more calming presence over hers. So instead of going to try and work with Delvin again, she steeled herself against it. She was determined to spend the rest of the day alone. The next station she went to was the weight lifting area. She kept her weights at what she would assume was average. Peeta was happy to find that it didn't feel too hard to lift the weights. Perhaps working in the bakery did more than just keep her fed.
Soon their first day of training was over and they were escorted back up to their rooms.
That night Peeta and Delvin ate in silence, because they were both very tired. Soon Peeta was back in her bedroom. She had a mug of chocolate milk and feel asleep quickly. Once again she had no dreams.
