Gertrude knocks on my door in the morning to wake me up. I open my eyes slowly, blinking a few times as they make out the image of the tree. I slide into a sitting position, letting the blanket drop from my shoulders. I pick it up and set it back on the bed, as well as the pillow.
Sighing, I press the power button on the remote and the screen turns black altogether. I see a training uniform hanging on the wall; I don't recall it being there before, so I assume I must have just missed it. I go and take it off the hook, hanging it up in my bathroom before taking a shower, admiring the fanciness of the technology. With a stab of annoyance, I realize that they probably have a surplus of things like this here, yet the districts, the ones who actually provide for them, don't get anything.
Shaking my head, I let the water rush over me, the scalding heat waking me up from my drowsy state. I don't even have to do anything but press buttons. I merely stand in the shower and it washes my body and hair, even combing through my hair with faster-moving streams of water. Eventually, the water stops, and the shower blow-dries my hair, sweeping it back into a soft flow when the dryer turns off.
I step out of the shower and dry off, changing into the training uniform and putting my hair up. I then walk out into the main room, where Cato is sitting with Eva, Gertrude, and Haylei. I sit next to Cato, as usual, and we eat a quick breakfast. Then Gertrude looks up and speaks up.
"Training starts in thirty minutes. You'll train until three, with a fifteen minute lunch break. Dinner is at four thirty, and you start getting ready for interviews at five. Prep for the interview is at six, interviews start at seven, alright?" I nod.
Eva looks up and says, "If I can suggest something, when you two are training, start with things you are good at. Show off a bit. Make the other tributes fear you. Then, spend as much time as you can on things you aren't good at. Everything you can do is important in the arena."
"Thanks for the tip, Eva," Cato says, smiling politely. I sit still in polite silence; it still unnerves me how they acted at dinner the night before. I don't think I can shake the thought from my mind, ever. I wait for everyone to finish up. When we do, Gertrude stands up and looks at Cato and me.
"Well, we ought to head to the training room. Shall we?" We exchange a glance and stand up, following her out and to the elevator. She presses a button and we start going up. After a few floors, the elevator stops and two people step in; then it continues on. It's the little district eleven girl and the boy. Subconsciously, I move closer to Cato, and I feel his hand rest softly on my back.
When the elevator opens again, we all step out into the training room. I look around and my eyes immediately catch on the area where there is a set of gleaming knives and dummies practically begging to be hit. But I know that I'm not to start practicing yet. I see a few others hanging around in a corner, waiting for our instructor. Cato and I walk over to them.
The tributes from one are there. The girl walks over to me as soon as we stop and smiles brightly. Already, I feel slightly sickened. Her lips are glossy, and it looks like she put on way too much makeup for training. She has a glint in her eyes that makes me shudder. She holds out her hand and speaks.
"I'm Glimmer! And you're Clove, right?" I nod, taking her hand and shaking it. Her smile grows wider.
"So, I guess we're already allies without even asking," I say calmly. She giggles and nods. She seems naïve, nice enough, but I know not to fall for something like that so quickly. But, I decide to give into her kindness for the time being; she can't backstab me if the games haven't even started yet.
We stand as more people show up and walk over for a little while, and then Glimmer nudges me and points to the boy from her district, snickering as he looks away quickly when I look over.
"Marvel won't admit it," Glimmer says, "but I think he likes you. Or at least, he likes what you come off as." I grin and look back from Marvel to Glimmer.
She's grinning as well and I say, "Wonder how he'll like me when I'm throwing deadly knives." We both chuckle a little and then I realize that all of the tributes are here. I see a woman and a few Peacekeepers walking up. The woman smiles as she approaches us. The talking and laughter dies down when she clears her throat.
"Hello, tributes, I'm here to set some ground rules for the training sessions, and give you some pointers. In two weeks, twenty three of you will be dead. One of you will be alive. Who that will be depends on how well you pay attention over the next for days, particularly to what I'm about to say. First, no fighting with the other tributes, there'll be plenty of time for that in the arena. There are four compulsory exercises. The rest will be individual training.
"My advice is, don't ignore the survival skills. Everyone wants to grab a sword, but most of you will die from natural causes; ten percent from infection, 20 percent from dehydration. Exposure can kill as easily as a knife." I smirk a little; I shouldn't have that problem; the Careers always end up with most of the things in the Cornucopia.
With that, she walks off and watches from the sidelines, and we break off to practice. I walk over to the knives first, of course, and look at the rack with all of the knives on them. There are so many… ones with special designs, some with special handles. I take four plain, small knives and turn to the dummies. I glance at the people behind me and my smirk grows.
They're looking at me with amusement in their eyes; they think I must not be that good; after all, I'm small, and I chose four basic knives. I must be insane, they probably think. Oh, but they're wrong. Quickly, I throw two of the knives. They hit two different dummies' targets, dead center, almost simultaneously. I then whip around and throw the other two, hitting two different dummies- one of them with a moving target.
When I turn back to the people in line to practice with knives, they have looks of shock and bewilderment on their faces. I give a soft chuckle and feel especially proud when I see the girl from twelve looking at me fearfully. A brave girl fears me. The girl on fire is afraid of me.
I'm snapped out of my pride when I hear Cato yelling from the next station over, "HE TOOK MY KNIFE!" I glance over and see Peacekeepers trying, to no avail, to hold Cato back from murdering a boy from another district- a Career district, too. I rush over; the Peacekeepers don't know Cato like I do.
I place a hand on Cato's shoulder and can practically feel my eyes turn icy. I look at him and say softly, "Cato, calm down. He didn't take your knife, its fine; they have doubles of almost every knife here." Cato still has his teeth gritted, but the wild look leaves his eyes and he calms a bit, nodding at me in thanks. I smile back and walk back over to the knife-throwing area.
I spend quite a while there before moving onto other stations. The day goes by in a blur; I'm good at pretty much everything. I'm clever, quick, and I have good aim; Plus, I'm no idiot when it comes to herbs and how to find water and shelter and making traps.
We have a quick lunch and its right back to training. Before I know it, I'm standing with Cato and the rest of our allies, watching the boy from twelve making a fool of himself. I see the girl kneel down beside him and he gets up and walks over to the heavy javelins. He picks one up, and throws it with surprising strength.
Marvel mutters, "If we ally with that boy, we could get to the girl on fire faster, and kill them both." Cato nods slowly, seriously considering it, and then nods quicker, showing that he agrees. I have no comment; I decide that I'd better not point out that he may try to get us away from her instead; I don't want the rest of the Careers turning against me. I'd be screwed.
Glimmer and Marvel leave to talk to Peeta and the other Careers disperse to different areas. I realize that it's the first time all day that I've been alone with Cato. I look at him and see that he's looking at me. He sighs and murmurs, "I'm worried Clove. The tributes from the outlying districts seem good this year."
"They do," I agree softly. We stand for a few moments longer before turning towards each other and sharing a hug that lasted only a fraction of a second. We exchange a glance and go in different directions to different stations. Not long later, we finish up and head to our rooms.
When we get there, Cato and I notice that Eva and Gertrude aren't back from wherever they are- probably a bar- yet, and that Haylei is probably off talking with our prep teams. Finally out of view of other tributes, Gamemakers, and cameras, we hug. I bury my face in Cato's chest, hugging his waist tightly, and he rests his head on my shoulder. After seeing the skills the other tributes had, neither of our confidence levels is as high as they were before.
"We'll get through it. Together," Cato says softly. I nod, clinging to him as though for dear life. We break apart when Gertrude and Eva enter. Eva stumbles into her room drunkenly and Gertrude looks at us as she walks in.
She yawns and says, "Well you two, I'll go take a quick nap, you wash up and change and we'll eat dinner and head down to the prep rooms, alright?" She then stumbles into her room too.
Haylei walks in a few moments later, not so drunken, and gives us a strange, curt nod before walking off into her room as well. I look back at Cato and he looks back at me.
I say awkwardly, "Well, uh, we should probably go wash up- like she said." Cato nods in agreement and hurries into his room. I follow more slowly, remembering the screen with the tree. Sighing, I get a white sundress from the dresser and a pair of white flats. Something simple and easy to work with, I think, since the prep team is just going to change it. I change out of my training uniform into the dress and flats.
I go to the sink and look at myself in the mirror. I see a girl glaring back at me… a tough girl, gritting her teeth; her eyes narrowed in anger… a monster. I am a monster, I realize, I was born to be a monster, raised a monster, trained a monster, and I volunteered… a monster. That's all I am. I stumble back from the mirror and look away. With shaking hands I take my hair out and let it flow down my back. I run a brush through it and wash my face without looking in the mirror again before hurrying out.
I walk out and sit down on one of the couches in front of the television. Cato comes out soon later and sits next to me. I draw my knees up to my chest and hug them, resting my head on them. I stare blankly forward, not bothering to acknowledge Cato's presence.
"Well," Cato says after a few moments of silence, breaking it, "You look nice." I blush just a little and grin, looking over at him, breaking out of my forlorn trance. He's smiling at me with his lopsided grin… it's so darn cute… wait, what?
I shake my head inwardly before responding, "Thanks, but, then again this is the Capitol. I probably look underdressed compared to most of the people here." He shrugs, nodding in an agreeing manner.
"I wonder what that makes me look like," he jokes and I smirk. He's wearing jeans and a nice shirt. But it's still on the average side.
"That Glimmer girl's really pretty," he murmurs, and I feel a stab of anger and disbelief and… something else, but I can't put a finger on what it is. I look at him with a surprised look and I can tell by his equally surprised look that he didn't mean to say it out loud.
Before the situation can be made more awkward, Gertrude walks out, looking a lot fresher, with a new outfit on- a bright orange dress with long fishnet sleeves and her hair is in two bright orange pigtails. Eva comes out soon later, looking decent. Thank goodness; she has to try and help us get sponsors while we're being interviewed. Haylei comes out too, wearing a subtle but nice dress.
The Avoxes come out and set food down on the newly set table, then hurry out. We sit down at the table and begin eating.
"So, Eva," Cato says in his calm and even voice, "Any tips for how we should go about the interviews?" Eva looks up smiling, her eyes shimmering, as though she's honored to be asked a question like that.
She says, "Well, I'd say just be as natural as possible. Be yourself. Choose your best aspects and apply them to the interview. Make them like you." I roll my eyes slightly and when I see her wondering glance I decide that it's best to explain why exactly I rolled my eyes.
"Well, obviously we have to make them like us," I say slowly, "but I don't know how." I laugh bitterly. "I'm no good at making people like me!" Cato looks at me with a mischievous grin and Haylei smirks. Gertrude and Eva exchange an amused glance.
I glare at them like I'm about ready to kill them and Haylei says calmly, "Clove, my dear, don't let your insecurities get to you. You're a natural at making people like you! Why, you've grown on us three in less than a day." Gertrude nods in agreement and I see Eva giving me a curious smile.
Cato pipes in after Haylei finishes speaking and says, "You're totally likeable Clove. I usually don't stick around friends, you know that, and I've stuck around you my- well, my whole life, really. You're amazing at making people like you."
I look down with a soft blush and mumble, "I'm not insecure." Even as I say it I realize I'm contradicting myself; but they can't know that, now, can they? I'm tough knife-girl Clove; I'm not supposed to feel anything but the need to kill; I'm especially not supposed to feel insecurities.
To my relief, though they shake their heads, they decide to drop the subject and save me from the awkward situation I've been put in. I let out a breath I wasn't aware I'd been holding and then I stand up, Cato doing the same, and Haylei soon after. Eva and Gertrude, who had been drunk, seem to be struggling to finish their food.
"I'll head down to the prep rooms with them, Gertrude; neither of you overstuff yourselves. We don't need district 2 looking bad. District 2 doesn't, and I mean DOESN'T look bad." Haylei says, though she is grinning lightly, clearly not completely serious.
She walks out and Cato and I follow her. When we leave the room, Haylei says, "I hope you two will be as pleased as I am with your outfits for tonight's interviews. I tried to fit each of your personalities with them- Clove, your hidden kindness but still fiery personality, and Cato, your charming confidence. If you two are totally natural, I'm sure you can blow them away."
I smile and say, "I bet they're great." Cato nods in agreement, and soon, we're down in the long hallway with rooms labeled for each district; girls' rooms on one side of the hallway, boys on the other. We each go into our rooms, and Haylei continues on down the hallway, probably to make sure the outfits are ready and such.
I sit down and immediately, Rocky, Tessa and Terra get to work, brushing my hair until it shines, clipping my nails with careful movements, and other things like that. Terra and Rocky are quiet, for the most part, but Tessa can't seem to keep her mouth shut as she works. She didn't talk much when preparing me for the tribute parade, but that has clearly changed.
"Such pretty hair," she coos, "so soft and shiny, you're such a lovely young girl, and with so much spirit too, you'll make your district proud. And just look at that face! You have the prettiest eyes and the cutest little nose, I just want to squeeze those little cheeks of yours, sweetheart, but Haylei would have my head if I did! I bet you have a lover back in your district, with a face as positively adorable as yours!"
"Why," she continues, "I suppose Caesar will bring that up in the interview though, won't he? He does enjoy getting into the tributes' love lives, doesn't he, Terra?" Terra nods, smiling, but I don't really see her. My face has gone pale. I've frozen and I begin to feel slightly dizzy. What if he asks about my love life? What if I mention that I might feel something for Cato? I close my eyes and pray that that won't happen.
Sorry for the wait for this chapter, guys. I started writing it and then got really busy and couldn't finish it! But here we are. I was going to try to squeeze the interviews into this chapter, but I like chapters to be around 3,000 words, and the interview would have taken up at least 2,000 which would have been more than my liking. So, the next chapter will be interviews and the next night, then the good old scoring assessment thing. =D
Be sure to review and share, I love it when you guys give me feedback and give me suggestions, and I also love to see new followers! And please bear with me; I will try to update at least once a week if not more, but we have a lot of end-of-the-year projects coming up in school. I won't let you down though!
Xoxo
Leafdrift