Chapter 7: Training
Lauren's POV
I was wandering down the forest path, all alone. The sun shone brightly, filtering through the leafy canopy above my head to grace my head and shoulders. The birds were singing, small animals were rustling through the bushes, the scent of pine permeated the air.
I was home.
I just wandered for a while, winding my way through the woods on a never ending path, until the trees ended and a green, gently sloping hill rose in front of me. At the crest of the hill sat a tree. Quickly scaling the hill, I settled at the base of the tree, resting my back against the rough bark.
"Hey, Lolo." Brian stepped out of the trees, a huge smile on his face. I grinned back with equal enthusiasm, thrilled to see him in this peaceful, beautiful place.
"Hi, Brian."
He came to sit next to me. I leaned my head against his shoulder, his arm encircling my shoulders. His other hand clasped one one of mine.
It was perfect.
BAM BAM BAM
The world was breaking apart, the tree gone, the sunlight shattered, Brian torn from my side.
"BRIAN!" I screamed, my words torn from my mouth by a sudden, viscous wind.
"LAUREN!" I heard Brian yell.
BAM BAM BAM
Thrown from my peaceful world with the tree and the sun and Brian, stolen by chaos and terror, ruled by wind and storms. Twisted, thrown, over and under, up and down.
Suddenly, everything was still.
"I love you."
"I love you."
"I LOVE YOU"
A whispered promise in the face of uncertain fear, twisted and transformed into the wail of the wind as it battered against my ears, my face, my entire body.
"LAUREN! WAKE UP!"
I jolted awake with a start, tangled in the silky sheets of the Capitol, the banging that had torn my dream to shreds coming from the locked door, which was shaking with the force of the blows.
"LAUREN! DO I NEED TO FIND SOMEONE WITH A KEY?"
I throw myself out of bed and stumble to the door, unlocking and opening it, deftly stepping out of the doorway as Avarya careens through it, still shouting my name.
She stumbles to a stop, spinning on her heel and scowling at me.
"Well. Now that you're up, maybe you would care to join us?" She snapped and stalked out of the room. I stared at her retreating back, mouth agape, before groaning and throwing open my closet doors.
Ten minutes later, I was stalking into the dining room, where everyone was clustered around a table laden with food. I slumped into my seat and began to stuff myself with everything that smelled good, determined to put on as much weight as I could before going into the Arena.
Jed began to talk. "Today training starts. We need to talk strategy, which we could have done earlier if the girl hadn't been late."
Johanna cleared her throat. "So, um, do you want to be coached together or separately?"
Jed snorted. "Of course they want to be coached separately, brainless. Nobody in their right mind would want to give anything away."
I felt my face flush in anger. "Well, actually, Kory and I formed an alliance. So, as long as Kory is still willing, we would like to be coached together." I looked to Kory for support, and he sat up straight, nodding his head.
"See, this is why you're going to die. You've got less brains than the trees you cut down" Jed sneered.
"At least someone wants to by my ally." I countered, "nobody would team up with you if you were the last person on earth."
Jed lurched to his feet, his face angry and threatening. "Y'know, there's no rules about fights between mentors and tributes, want to see if those witty comebacks protect you in a fight?"
"Jed!" shrieked Avarya, horrified. "We help our tributes, not hurt them!"
"This little twig is just asking to be hit" Jed growled, glaring at me. Nonetheless, he slowly lowered himself back into his seat, staring me down the whole time.
"So…um, what can you do?" asked Johanna after a sufficiently long awkward silence.
Kory is the first to talk. "Well, I can use an ax. I'm pretty sure I could throw one or two if necessary."
"That'll come in handy, I think" said Johanna, nodding. "What about you, Lauren?"
"I was a watcher" I say, "I can climb, and shoot a bit."
"Great!" she responded, "that'll be helpful."
"So, what should we do in training?" Kory asked hesitantly.
Johanna's eye's widened. "Oh. Um…you should…try to hide your skills?"
Jed snorted. "Don't be stupid, stupid. That's basically your strategy from last year. It'll be expected. And, if they're weak, they'll get no sponsors. The gamemakers will give them a lower number, and everything will crash and burn. Show your strengths. If you're so determined to form an alliance, make some friends. It can't hurt to have more people on your side, if you're so determined to ruin your chances by doing that. Show off."
Johanna flushed. "Um, ok. Just do what he said."
"Time to go!" cut in Avarya. "We don't want to be late, now do we?"
She pulled us from our chairs, sweeping us behind her and into the elevator. Soon we were whizzing down to the basement.
We were among the last to arrive, some stragglers from 9 and 12 coming in behind us, but, otherwise, the other tributes were clustered around a trainer.
She began to talk about the various stations, but I let my eyes and mind wander. Some stations were unfamiliar, some I recognized from similar weapons and tools from back home. I saw a station filled with different types of plants. I assumed that this was to determine our skill at knowing which were edible and which were poisonous, and internally scoffed. Any child from 7 could pass that test in their sleep. The sight of the axes was strangely comforting, a reminder of home. I could almost smell the pine, hear the chopping wood, the friendly taunts from one worker to another. Soon we were released to wander among the stations.
Kory and I drifted towards the weapons, picking them up and examining them. Kory grabbed an ax, hefting it in his hand and twirling it around. A quick scan of the room showed that he held the attention of many of the tributes.
"Throw it" I hissed, standing on my toes to get as close to his ear as I could.
"What?" he asked, looking surprised.
"Throw it. They're all watching you. Show them what you can do."
He stared back at me with wide eyes, and I gestured to the target set up a short way away.
"Throw it."
Kory took a deep breath and got a tighter grip on the ax. Releasing his breath, focusing on his target, he moved forward, the ax an extension of his arm. Suddenly, it was out of his hand, spinning and speeding across the room to land with a thunk in the very center of the target. I grinned up at him. "Nice."
"Thanks" he grinned back. "Now it's your turn."
"With the axes? Geez Kory, I don't even think I can lift one of those things."
"No, no! With something that you want to try!"
I thought for a minute, glancing around the room. The bows would be the easy choice, more familiar to me than my own hand. But I didn't want to reassure myself in a skill I already knew I had. I wanted something new, something different. My eye caught on the knives.
I strolled over and picked one up, then another. turning the two over in my hands. A Capitol worker wielding a long, heavy sword paced up to me.
"Would you like to practice?"
"Yes, please."
We squared off, him swinging the sword in practice. The knives fit squarely in my hands, fitting better than almost anything I had ever held before.
The Capitol assistant raised the sword, bringing it down in a quick slashing motion that would have cut me in half, had I still been there. But I was behind him, having spun out of the way as soon as I read his intentions in his body language.
We continued like this for a while, him twisting and stumbling around with that heavy sword, me quickly and deftly stepping or ducking out of the way, attacking or parrying with my knives whenever possible.
This is almost like dancing, I thought to myself as I leaped over a low cut aimed at my knees, lashing out at the assistant's padded collarbone, tearing a gash in the material.
Spying a break in the now exhausted assistant's rhythm, I lunge forward, placing myself too close to him for his sword to be of use, and plunge one knife into the layer of padding protecting his stomach, while my other hand presses the second knife to his throat.
I step back, grinning with satisfaction, and it is only then when I realize how silent the room is. Glancing around, I see that every tribute has their attention focused on me, blatantly staring. The only noise comes from the disgruntled assistant trudging to a corner and stripping off his shredded pads.
Suddenly self conscious, I turn red and make my way back to Kory, who is looking at me with his mouth open.
"Where did you learn to do that?" he whispers as the room erupts in noise again, the other tributes going back to their previous activities.
"I took the dancing class for a few years, and that's sort of similar. I don't know, it just seemed…natural!" I explain, my cheeks flaming.
The rest of the morning passes quickly. We try our hand at different weapon and survival stations. I laugh at Kory when he attempts to shoot a bow, he returns the favor when I try to throw a spear. Soon, it's lunch time and we're being corralled, with all the other tributes, into a large room dotted with tables.
Kory and I cover our trays with food and claim a table for ourselves, looking around at the other tributes, interested. The tributes from 1 were, as usual, well fed and healthy looking. This applied to those from Districts 2 and 4 as well, though the girl from 4 lacked the sneaky, self-satisfied look of the others. She looked younger, as well. The boy from 2 was huge, at least a foot and a half taller than me, and 2 times as thick. The girl was also large, though a bit slimmer than him. The tributes from 12 looked scrawny and underfed, huddling by themselves in a corner. The rest were nondescript, none really standing out in my mind.
The girl from 4 approached us hesitantly. She was taller than I was, but shorter than Kory, about average height. Her hair was dark brown, almost black, and she watched us with green-blue eyes. She had to be around 13, there was no way that she was older than Kory.
"Can I sit with you?" she asked quietly.
Kory smiled up at her. "Of course!" he replied, moving over to make room for her at our table.
During lunch, we chatted, getting to know her better, "making friends" as Jed had said. Her name was Emily Bay. She was 13 years old. She had 6 older brothers at home, most too old for the reaping.
Soon, the bell was rung and we were ushered back into the training room. This time, however, Emily stayed with us. We found that she could easily weave a net out of almost anything, was proficient with a trident, and could wield a spear like it was a part of her body, fluid and beautiful and deadly. She, in turn, discovered new things about us. At the end of the day, we were joking around like best friends, teasing each other and easily making conversation.
The rest of training passed like this, working with the weapons and survival stations with Emily and Kory, then talking with them at lunch. We were slowly discovering each other, forming a bond of friendship.
Kory was stupid, however, if he didn't think that I saw the way that he looked at Emily. He didn't want to be just her friend. A part of me wanted to talk to him, to warn him about the dangers of creating lasting feelings for someone when both of you were likely to die. I held back, though. Maybe it was the blatant hope that I saw in his eyes when he looked at her. Maybe it was my subconscious acknowledgement that, if I yelled at him for having feelings for her, I would be contradicting my own friendship with both Emily and Kory, not to mention my jumble of confused emotions about-
Nevermind. I would just leave him alone, see what he did by himself.
Soon, it was the end of training, time for the individual sessions with the Gamemakers. Emily went in before us, her face set. Soon, they were calling Kory. He entered the training room, fists clenched to stop the shaking of his hands. Fifteen minutes passed, and they were calling my name.
I walked into the room with my head held high, determined to show them what I could do. Making my way immediately to the knives, I grabbed two and beckoned to an assistant. I easily beat him, ducking under his sword after several exchanged blows and digging the knife into the padding over his side.
Glancing up at the Gamemakers, I saw them nodding, impressed with my speed and accuracy. But I wanted more. I wanted to wow them, to show them what I could do. An idea popped into my head and I grinned.
I headed over to the archery station, selecting a dependable looking bow and quiver and slinging them over my shoulder. I walked to the wall, examining it. The Gamemakers watched me in curiosity.
Whoever had designed this room had been making an effort to be pleasing to the eye, and had covered the wall in a complicated pattern of ridges, which suited my purpose perfectly. I took a deep breath and began to climb.
Soon I had reached the ceiling, at least 20 feet above the ground, and the Gamemakers were watching me with amazement. The lights in the training room were evenly spaced, hanging on wires to dangle above the ground. Carefully judging the distance, I did what I would only do in drastic situations back at home; I leaped.
In the forest, sometimes, a worker would forget which tree they were to be chopping, and would instead begin to hack at my tree. Usually I was able to alert them or the Peacekeepers before anything drastic happened, but sometimes they would manage to fell the tree before I could make them stop. Because of this, sometimes it was necessary to leap from the tree to another before you went crashing to the ground. This is what I did when I jumped onto the hanging light. I landed lightly, the light groaning and swinging a bit beneath me. I steadied myself, then jumped again. When I grew more comfortable with jumping across the ceiling, I began to fire off a few arrows as I leaped from light to light.
Finally reaching the other side of the large room, I scurried back down and stood expectantly in front of the Gamemakers.
"Thank you, Ms. Lopez, we will consider your display. You may go."
I nodded and made my way to the exit, breaking out in a smile as I stepped into the elevator. I had to be getting a good score.
Brian's POV
That night I stayed in the square. I had always scoffed at those people, the ones that brought their mattresses and blankets and friends and would stay in the main square, eyes haggard, barely sleeping. Now, however, I understood them. I had become one. I wouldn't miss a moment. If Lauren had to go through this, the very least I could do was to stay up with her. It made me feel closer to her.
Tonight the scores would be announced, and the next day would show festivities until the night, when the interviews would be aired live. That would be the last time I saw her before she was fighting to the death.
The sun began to lower itself behind the horizon and I huddled down on my mat, clutching my blanket around my shoulders and settling in among the puddle of friends. Julia bumped me gently with her shoulder.
"You ok?" she whispered.
"Fine." I muttered back. Fine. I am fine.
Who am I kidding.
There is no way I'm fine, or going to be until she comes back home. And if she doesn't…
I just won't think about that now.
The huge screen flickered to life, showing Caesar Flickerman in his creepy, orange makeup and blue suit. He joked around for a few minutes, before getting down to buisness.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen, the announcements you have all been waiting for….the announcement of the scores!"
The first few scores flicked by without sticking in my head. The young girl from 4 caught my attention, however, with the timid fire in her eyes. She got an 8, a score surprisingly high for one so young.
Soon, we were at District 7.
That infuriating boy whose hand Lauren had held got a 7. How did he manage that? He was so skinny and awkward. She would never go for a boy like him. Not that I'm jealous. Because I'm not.
Suddenly, Lauren's face was flashing across the screen. Her beauty caught me by surprise, though she looked uncomfortable and trapped, like a wild animal in a cage. She didn't belong there.
A number popped up beside her. 10! 10! Lauren had gotten a 10! I knew she had it in her! I knew it!
Julia and everyone else began cheering, hugging each other and me. I just sat there, a stupid grin covering my face, filled with an emotion that I hadn't truly felt since I saw Lauren step into that train: hope.
She could come home.
