Hi! Lalala... I was writing some of this in writing class - I finished my argumentative essay, so my teacher said I could free write! Yay! Free writing = more chapters! *grins like a madwoman* Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Like Suzanne Collins would ever write this!

I spooned another spoonful of soup into my mouth.

"You ready for Training?" Beetee asked, and I nodded.

I looked at the clock, and got up. "See you," I called over my shoulder as I walked to the elevator.

I jabbed the button, and it arrived in seconds. I got in, and jabbed the TF button.

-o-O-o-

I stepped out, and walked to the huddle of tributes. I stood next to Sheeshey and Uniqua as Delly repeated the stations and rules. When she was done, I walked to agility, Sheeshey walked to survival, and Uniqua to weapons.

Frowning, I decided to do the rock wall first. It would be useful, in case I had to climb something.

Walking over, I noticed that numbers 23, 24, and 25 were there as well. After observing them for a couple minutes, I decided they were in an alliance.

-o-O-o-

"May I join you?" I asked as I stood next to number 23.

"Sure, I don't care," she responded, talking really fast. "My name's Kara," she added. I nodded, but didn't tell her mine.

After number 25 jumped down to the net, I went up to start.

There were four walls - a door was in one of them. The one I was facing was the third most difficult - on my right was the hardest, on my left, the second easiest, and behind me, the easiest. I grabbed the first stone I could find, and hauled myself up. I placed my foot on another stepping stone, and I continued on my way.

-o-O-o-

I was breathing heavily, but I smiled. I made it! I looked at my time, disappointed that it had taken me six minutes and forty-two seconds. I looked around, and decided to take the short way down - I jumped down to the net, landing sort-of gracefully. I got onto the floor, and saw Kara climbing the hardest, number 23 climbing the easiest, and number 25 - whom I remembered Kara calling Vivian - climbing the second easiest. I sighed, then turned and bumped into Sheeshey.

"Hi, Sheeshey," I said.

"We need a healer, right?" she asked, grinning.

"It would be nice," I admitted. "But don't spend your time on medical stations if you don't want to."

"Too late!" she replied, grinning again.

I grinned back at her. "That's great! Now I feel guilty that I didn't hit those stations." I lightly punched her arm.

"Don't worry. Is it okay that I hit some of your stations, in case the person who can do it gets, say injured?" she asked me. I had, somehow, become the leader in the group.

"Yeah, sure. Could you tell Uniqua she can hit whatever stations she wants? I'm might have to hit some of yours," I said, waving as I went to the obstacle course.

"Will do!" Sheeshey called back, and I headed to the tree climbing station.

-o-O-o-

I climbed five different kinds of tree before the lunch bell rang, and I dropped out of the elm tree I had begun to climb. I dashed over to the lunch room.

-o-O-o-

I slumped down on the chair, and Uniqua immediately started talking. "My weapon of choice is the blowgun, but I can also use the slingshot," she said. We nodded.

"Hey, I can use the blowgun too! I forgot to mention that, sorry," said Sheeshey. I shrugged, and leaned close to them.

"Grandpa taught me to use the ax. But shhhh. Grandpa told me to use it as my surprise weapon; no one but you guys know about it." I murmured, voice as quiet as a voice in a movie theater.

Both my friends looked at me excitedly. "But remember, tell no one!" I reminded them, and we pulled out of our huddle.

"I'm pretty good at medical plants, I can recognize edible and inedible plants, I can start a fire, and I took a little survival skills test; I got an 88%." Sheeshey informed us. Uniqua and I both nodded.

"I know I saw you earlier, but what did you do, Katrina?" Sheeshey asked.

I felt guilt flow through me. "I just did the rock wall and some tree-climbing. I learned how to climb reasonably fast; I can climb, and I learned something about an alliance - with 23, 24, and 25."

"So, how many alliances do we know of?" Uniqua asked, raising her eyebrows, which happened to be bright green.

"Well, those two girls I ran into yesterday, Ashley and Annie, are in an alliance. And number 23, 24, and 25 are too," I said.

"Number 1 and 2 are in an alliance, I think. I ran into them together yesterday as well. I think they might even be boyfriend and girlfriend; I saw them kissing." Sheeshey said, smirking.

"Wait a sec... do any of you remember their names? One and two? I remember hearing Octavia saying it would be a nice twist to have a daughter of a guard and her boyfriend in the arena..." I trailed off, pursing my lips.

"Wasn't number two's last name Simmsion?" Uniqua asked. My eyes widened.

"That's it! Number 2's related to First Guard Simmsion!" I nearly shouted.

Sheeshey's eyes widened - she lived very close to me; her dad was a guard. Uniqua used to live in the Districts - District Two - but she moved here with her family. She probably hadn't heard of the First Guard.

"He's the boss of all the guards," Sheeshey explained, and I nodded. Then, Uniqua's eyes widened.

"Well, we're in an alliance, so that leaves..." Uniqua trailed off; she'd never been good at math.

"Let's see... everyone but numbers 1, 2, us, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 25," Sheeshey replied, scrunching up her almost non-existent eyebrows.

"Yup," I confirmed. "Should we stick together for this half?"

My allies nodded, just as the bell rang again, and everyone rose. (I feel as through this would be a proper place to say this: Dun, dun, duuuuun! Even through nothing bad's happening... probably...)

-o-O-o-

"Should we go to some weapons first?" I asked.

Sheeshey nodded. "We should all go to all our weapons of choice."

"Blowgun first?" I asked; both Sheeshey and Uniqua could do something there.

"Sure." And we headed over.

-o-O-o-

When we got there, we saw that numbers 4 and 5 were there as well.

"Alliance?" Uniqua asked quietly. The girls spun around; Uniqua had whispered, but apparently they'd heard.

"What makes you think that?" Number 4 glared at us.

"Ellie! Calm!" Number five shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. My cousin's kinda angry." She sighed.

"I'm Seemoi. This is my cousin, Ellie." Number five - Seemoi - said. We waved.

"How old are you guys? I'm 10, and Seesee here is 19," Ellie told us.

"Thirteen," all three of us said at once.

Seemoi nodded. "Sorry, but I don't really see an alliance here, so we're going to go."

"'Kay, bye!" Sheeshey called, as they headed to fire making.

-o-O-o-

I sat down; I had tried the blowgun, but it just wasn't for me. I watched as Sheeshey and Uniqua hit the outer ring, and then missed, middle ring, eye, bullseye, wall ten feet away... Uniqua is better at this than Sheeshey, I thought to myself. Finally, they turned, and Uniqua suggested we go to swords.

-o-O-o-

I picked out a sword, and so did Sheeshey and Uniqua - they wanted to at least try this. I called out a trainer slightly more advanced than the one than I practiced with before.

Slash, stab, parry, block, roll, OUCH, duck, feint, stab, YES, disarm, back up. Try again, BOOM, pin, done.

I looked up, and saw that Sheeshey and Uniqua were both waiting for me. I grinned, and looked at the clock. We only had about half an hour left, so I walked over. "What next?" I asked.

"Well, you had fun at swords," Sheeshey said. "And Uniqua and I had fun with the blowgun. How about we go to spears, then swing over to throwing knives? Tomorrow we can do half the time at survival, plan for a bit, and do agility with the remaining time."

"Well, we'll be all tired from agility, and might not perform our best. How about we switch survival and agility?" Uniqua suggested. I nodded, looking at the clock. I waved them over, and we all walked to spears.

-o-O-o-

I was okay at spears, but they were just... so heavy! Sheeshey was the only one in the group that could lift them - even Uniqua was struggling. Finally, I sat down; Uniqua next to me. We watched Sheeshey hitting target after target, missing every, say, one out of seven.

Thwak! Thwak! Thwak!

I glanced over to see who else was at the station, and saw the two we saw before - Seemoi and Ellie. Ellie was using the spears, and she was really good. We would have to watch out for her. I didn't know what Seemoi could do, but she was nineteen, probably older than all of us. I sighed, and looked back to Sheeshey.

-o-O-o-

"Nice one!" I heard Sheeshey call as I hit a bullseye. We were doing throwing knives, and I was the only one doing it.

"Thanks!" I called, then grabbed another knife. That one hit the middle ring, and I smiled.

I threw more and more, because this was the last station we were going to do today.

-o-O-o-

I heard snickering; I had just hit the shoulder. I turned and saw Ashley and Annie.

"Is there a problem?" I asked, hands on my hips. I glared at them, and they glared back.

"Yes. The problem is that you are really, really bad at throwing knives. Remind me how you expect to live?" Ashley asked, her voice dripping in venom. Annie snickered, and I groaned.

"It was just a bad shot. I can do better. Besides, it would wound someone!" I all but yelled.

Ashley smirked. "Show me. Then I'll show you how a good knife thrower throws."

I grabbed a knife and whipped it at the dummy. I felt the eyes of Ashley and Annie boar into me, and I shivered inwardly.

When I saw where I had hit, I felt like melting to the ground. I had hit the elbow. I heard snickering, and again I turned.

"Honestly! A two year old could do better than that!" Ashley said. Annie snickered again.

"If it were swords, I could totally beat you. But instead, I get to watch Ashley own you in throwing knives," Annie told me, and Ashley smiled a fake-sweet smile.

I stepped from the platform, and Ashley stepped on. She grabbed a knife, and threw it at the dummy I was aiming at. And she hit the wall three feet from the dummy.

I laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Ashley blushed furiously, and grabbed another. This time, Annie walked away; I didn't know why. However, I saw her approach swords.

When I looked back at Ashley, I found her glaring at me. "Ready?" she asked, and I nodded, waiting for her to screw up. She didn't.

-o-O-o-

I sighed. Wasn't one knife enough? I had spent the last ten minutes - of today, and of training - watching Ashley make bullseye after bullseye. Now, I was watching Sheeshey and Uniqua each throw one knife - I already threw mine.

-o-O-o-

"Well, that was interesting," Uniqua said as we walked up the stairs to our floors.

"No kidding. Told you she hates me," I replied, shrugging my pink hair back as I watched them.

"So, a review." Sheeshey was all business. "Tomorrow we will do a bit of time at agility - maybe just one round at the obstacle course - plan for a bit, and then do survival until they start calling names."

"Thanks for the plan, Seashell." I heard a voice and turned; I saw Sheeshey and Uniqua turn as well.

"Her name's Sheeshey, Ellis," Uniqua growled. I was pretty sure that Ellis was Ashley's last name; I hadn't bothered to learn it. However, Uniqua has always had a good memory.

"You know, you talk pretty loud. Anyone could hear you and learn your strategy. Try toning it down a bit," Annie informed us. I sighed, hiding my burning rage.

"You're digging your own grave, Ellis. You too, Jenson." Uniqua growled. Again, I had no idea where she had learned their last names.

"Well, just be sure to tone it down a notch in the arena. You might get killed," Ashley said, smirking.

"Actually, keep that volume," Annie contradicted. (Wow, never knew a Snow could use big words!)

"Why?" I asked. They had just told us to keep it down a notch, and now Annie was saying this!

"It'll get you caught," Annie told us, before dashing on ahead with Ashley.

I'm sorry. I really am. It's been nagging me - you should update! - but I was sick, and I had some major writers block.

Also, this is the longest chapter I've written for HG. So... I hope you liked it. Questions!

1) Did you like the added amount of interest for their fellow tributes that the trio is displaying? Or should I cut it back?

2) Do you think that Snow would train Katrina in a weapon?

3) Who's your favorite tribute so far?