Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in what they say or do, just in what they are.
After the endlessly long, and hopelessly boring lecture the head trainer gave us, me and the other careers rush off to the weapons station, eager to show our skills. Cato heads off to where the sowrds are laid out and I am left with Clove and Marvel as we make our way towards the spears, bows, and throwing knives. When we reach the station I immediately grab a bow, and watch as Clove carefully examines all of the knives. She picks them up, weighing them, and then runs her fingers along the blade. At last she finds a few that she takes a liking to and we head over to meet Marvel who has already picked out a spear. I've seen Marvel throw before, back in district 1. He's talented thats for sure, and he will certainly be a threat in the arena, but he's nothing I can't handle. Clove pushes past the both of us.
"I'll go first." she confidently states, "watch and be amazed."
I roll my eyes at her obnoxious attitude and step back to watch her throw the knives. She studies the target for a momment and then curls her fingers around the blade. Her hands move so quickly that I can barely see when the knife leaves her hand. She is reapeatedly throwing them, again and again, and she hits the bullseye every time. In less than thrity seconds shes thrown ten knifes, all of them exactly on target. My eyes widen and I will admit that I was very impressed at the shroter girls skill. Maybe I had underestimated her before? She looks over to the both of us and smirks, knowing that shes left us both in awe.
"Your turn." she says to me, and I step up to the line.
I take hold of the bow and grab an arrow. I posistion my hands, and pull my elbow up far to reach my ear. Its a perfect archers stance, anything less would be unacceptable in district 1. I take a breath and let the arrow go. It flys and hits the target, dead center. I quickly repeat this several times, whipping the arrows so fast that I even see Clove show a small sign of being impressed. I don't hit the bullseye every time, but I'm pretty close and they all are fatal shots. I step back from the line and let Marvel take his turn. Clove walks over to me, looking somewhat pleased by my show of skill.
"Nice job barbie. I guess you won't be totally useless in the arena after all."
I sigh and ignore her, turning to watch Marvel. However, I am distracted by a flash of red in the corner of my eye. I focus my sight on it, and see the dazzling tribute from yesterday. She's standing in front of a keyboard and typing things that are highlighted on a large screen in front of her. Its a test of smarts, and I watch impressed as her hands fly across the keyboard typing in answers so quickly that I barely have time to see what the question was. The screen is designed so that it lights up as green, when the correct answer is chosen, and as blue when the wrong answer is chosen. My eyes focus on the screen and I examine the accuracy of her answers. Green, green, green, green...the entire time her fingers touch the keyboard I don't see one flash of blue. Stunned I turn to Clove,
"Whos that girl, over there by the computer screen."
Clove seems surprised by my question, "Oh her...I'm not really sure. I think she's a tribute from district five. Why do you ask?
I look down, embarassed by the fact that I'm so captivated by this red haired tribute.
"No reason. She just seems smart, thats all."
Clove nods. "Well, it won't help her that much if she can't weild a weapon, and so far I haven't seen her do anything of the sort."
I shrug and accept her reply. I try to turn back to focus my attention on Marvel, but my eyes keep drifting over to the red haired girl. I'm hugely impressed by how clever she is. It pains me to admit it, but I'm really not the brightest tribute there is. Sure I know how to survive, I know all the basic knowldge of weapons, but I only know the knowledge that would be considered useful in district 1. I don't even know how to read or write, school was never important where I came from. I doubt any of the careers do though. Marvels not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, and although Clove and Cato seem smart they look like they spent their whole life around wepaons. Needless to say, I'm fascinated by what the girl from five is doing. Marvel snaps me out of my thoughts as he saunters over to us having finished with the spear.
"They're probably going to call a lunch break soon. I say we finish up quickly." Clove and I nod in agreement. We spend the rest of the time trying out various wepaons and talking strategy with Cato. Soon enough the lunch bell rings and we exit the training hall to make our way down toward the dinning room.
