Hey. Sorry if I haven't posted anything in a while, but sadly my grandmother moved on to a better place and I haven't had much time for anything. Thanks to:
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Chapter Eight - Climbing Past Textbooks
Wow. I thought the train was snazzy, but our floor in the Training Centre... now that's what I call modern! We're on the fifth floor up in the tower, which I guess would be natural, as we're from District 5. All the walls and floors here are crystal-white, and the stairs that lead to the bedrooms... sort of float. They stay still though, so maybe there's some sort of glass underneath. My bedroom is the furthest down the hall, and inside it's about the same size as my whole house, maybe bigger. And everything comes at the touch of a button here. There's a panel on the wall with a zillion different foods to order, and within a minute, hey presto, there it is. And the shower in the en-suite is just dreamy, you program in whatever you like and it just gets to work, and when you're done you don't even need a towel because it just blow-dries you off. The first shower in my life was certainly a pleasant one. But it makes me sick to know that all of this comes at the expense of the districts.
It's the first day of training today and I'm glad because it means there'll be something to do. Since last night, all I've heard about is 'District 12 this' and 'District 12 that'. Especially about Steal-a-name-niss. It's everywhere. The others talk about it, the television constantly shows it, I've even heard Capitol people in the street shouting about it. Not that I was peering over the balcony or anything...
I couldn't get to sleep last night at all. That's why I might have been peering over the balcony. Not because I was going to jump off or anything, that would be stupid. They've probably got shields or something to stop that happening. But I only went on there because it smelt like home. The fumes from all the chimneys and what-not smell just like the fumes from the power plant that coat our district in revolting smell. So it doesn't smell too nice, but I'm used to it and it's familiar, so it makes me feel good. I bet the Capitol people all have some sort of injection up their nostrils to make everything have a hint of rose to them or something.
Tyranny drags us into the elevator a full twenty minutes early. Unlike when we were going up, the lift now goes super-fast as we descend to the main training room. It moves with such speed that I'm afraid I might actually fly up and get stuck at the top, before it stops all at once and sends tremors through both my legs. When the doors open, I can see a massive black room with lots of stations around its edges. Stations where we shall learn how to kill and stay alive.
As me and Ivan enter, we see that there is a white circle drawn on the ground, which shall seemingly be a circle of tributes eventually. As of yet, there are only ten sat there. The six Careers. Geeks. I bet they've been here since nine. Then there's Reena and Jay from 6, and Rose and Raven from 10. The Careers sit together, talking in a little hubbub on one side of the circle, with the sixes halfway round and the tens opposite. I decide to go sit next to the District 10 tributes, just because I don't like the way Jay looks at me. Ivan follows. If I'm a fox, then he must be a sheep, as he does seem to follow me around a lot, and to be honest, it would suit him, what with his light, curly locks. No sooner have I sat down next to Raven, than there is a jeer from the Careers' side. It's Caspian from District 4.
"Ooooooo, look at foxy, going to join the cows! Watch out she doesn't try to eat you, cows!" Then the Careers all laugh. How idiotic.
I turn to him before simply saying, "Shut up, fish." This takes him by surprise, judging by his face, but it doesn't stop the Careers looking over. I turn to Raven.
"Okay," I say, smiling, "Now pretend I'm saying something really interesting, then we'll look at them and back, then laugh like I've made a joke about them." We both do as I've suggested, and it seems to unnerve the Careers, as they turn their heads back violently and continue their conversation. "I hate people who think they're bigger than everyone else," I say.
"Same here," Raven replies, "but you sure showed them! Seems you're pretty good at manipulating people."
"No, no I'm not, well, I guess I-, well, I've never really thought about it that way, but-" For a minute, I just stop and think about it. Do I really manipulate people? Images rush through my head of times I've made people do certain things, or react in certain ways. There are lots. Maybe I'm more cunning than I thought.
"Yes," I say, "yes, I suppose I am." We talk for ages whilst waiting for the other tributes to arrive, in between a glaring Rose and a whistling Ivan. Before long, it's five to ten and almost all of the tributes have arrived. The head trainer, a tall, athletic woman called Atala, steps forward into our almost-full circle. She counts us, before asking, "Who's missing?" The Careers groan.
"District 12," they say.
Then, as if on cue, Peeta and Steal-a-name-niss burst out of the lift, obviously not expecting to be the last ones in here. They look like twins being made to wear identical clothes. They're the only ones dressed alike, apart from the trainers of course; they're in uniform.
Now that we're all here, Atala explains the training schedule and what shall happen over the next few days. I wonder what it's like to be a trainer here, teaching twenty-three children how to die every year? Is it fun? Do they receive bragging rights when one of the tributes they helped wins? I just don't know.
Before I know it, Atala's finished her explaining and has told us all to move out. I don't even know which station to go to first. What did Lillian say? I think she just said for me to go to the stations I need to stay alive. Right. Well, that narrows it down.
After mulling it over in my head, I decide to go to the edible plants station. That'll help me stay alive in the arena, after all, I'll have to eat. Naturally, sheep-boy Ivan follows, but I don't mind. He's good company. The trainer at the station welcomes us, then shows us some screens with lots of pictures of plants on them. She quickly shows us how they work. Her hands move in a blur as she sorts nine levels of plants into edible and inedible in just 54.96 seconds. I am determined to beat her. My fingers fire away at the touch screen, while Ivan does the same thing on his own. When katniss roots come up, I am so tempted to put them in as poisonous to match her personality, but I don't, since I suppose appearances can be misleading.
After some time, I finish the 'game' on the screen, only to find I've scored less than thirty percent, and in over five minutes. I knew I'd be bad, but not that bad! But I've got to get this right. So I try again... and again... and again, each time getting better than the last. Ivan gets bored and moves on after a while, but I stay, wanting to get it perfect. Eventually, I can get one hundred percent in just 48.26 seconds, which I'm pretty chuffed about, and the trainer's shocked to see, too. But before I leave, she tells me to remember something:
"Never eat anything unless you're a hundred percent sure it's non-toxic."
I'm sure this will be winning advice for when I'm in the arena. I'll try to stick by it.
At lunch, I sit at a table with Ivan, Raven and Rose, though Rose is only really here because she's with Raven. She doesn't actually appear to like him very much, it's just I don't think she wants to sit alone. It wouldn't be hard for just three days. I've had to sit alone every day of my school life.
We don't talk much at our table, but it's good to be able to share company while we're eating. The noisiest table is by far the Careers' one, but that doesn't annoy me so much, because it's a constant sound. What does annoy me is Peeta and Steal-a-name-niss' table. Or strictly-speaking, just themselves, their table isn't the annoying part. But they just lean over to each other, whispering, and then burst out laughing terrible fake-laughs. I can tell they're faking at being friends, especially the girl. She's just over-dramatic with everything she does with him. The boy's better. He doesn't over-play it, makes it look natural; he's probably a good liar, too. But I can't help thinking that deep down, they do like each other, they're fooling themselves.
On the second day of training, I decide to go to the climbing station, and Ivan follows, because that's just what he does. I've never climbed anything before, there's never been anything to climb in District Five. I walk up to a net and slowly study it. I watch Ivan climb up a rope with no knots in it gradually; he's not finding it hard, but not particularly easy either – I knew they must have been teaching the boys something different when we had gym lessons.
I ready myself with deep breaths. It's so high. This is where being small shall definitely NOT come in handy. I'm one of the smallest here, second only to Rue. But then again, I did see her scale this with ease yesterday, so maybe being small is actually better for climbing? I doubt it.
I grab hold of the ropes just above my head, then place my foot in one of the holes below, just higher than ground level. The part of the rope taking weight from my foot sinks more than I thought it would, and the vertical ones by it move too tightly together, so that I have to let go. I can't do it. It's impossible. And the netting stretches up nearly all the way to the roof of the room, and it's a warehouse-high sort of roof. How can I, the red fox from District Five, climb that? Red foxes can't even climb, I've read it in text-books in school, while I should have been revising on how the electrolysis of fragnosium can be doubled by adding the products of... no, I never did pass that test. But I can't climb.
No, Menny, I tell myself, you can climb. It's just physics. Simple, logical, physics. Without the endless parts on electricity, and chemicals, and ya-da-ya-da-ya.
I close my eyes, grasp hold of the same high ropes as earlier, and quickly pull myself up, standing my feet on some lower ropes. But that means... I did it! I climbed! I look down over my shoulder, and to my 'delight', find I'm about two inches off the ground. Well, it's a start I guess. Slowly at first, I begin to reach one foot higher than the other in a pattern, doing the same with my arms and using them to hurl the rest of me up higher. I've just got a momentum going when I hear some sort of sound from behind me, and make the mistake of looking back. And looking back means looking down.
I'm about three or four times higher than usual, and it's terrifying. The floor zooms in and out, my vision blurring, and I can see too much, too much. I feel so big, and it's not right, not right, because I'm the small one, but then everyone else is so small and- My panicked thoughts are interrupted as I am tipped round upside down, hanging by the bend of the underneath of one knee. The breath is taken out of me by the force of the fall and I can't think as the blood begins to drain to my head. My hair clings onto the rough ropes from static, and I can feel my top gradually folding round and falling down. How I wish I had tucked it into my combats when I had the chance.
Looking at the world upside down, it all seems so different. For a start-off, everything is the wrong way up, but I suppose that would be obvious. And it's harder to close your eyes because being at the wrong angle seems to make your eyelids heavier. I feel a little woozy, maybe from the height or just because I'm the wrong way up, but either way I manage to tightly squeeze my eyes shut.
I'm hoping I might be able to just fall asleep like this, when I hear a familiar voice.
"Whadda yah hangin' there for, little Foxy?"
I don't open my eyes to speak to him, "I'm practicing being a bat, so enough of the fox business."
"A bat? But isn't that what people call a 'flying fox', Medea?"
He remembered my name.
"Shut up."
"Are you learning how to fly? Will you swoop between the trees? Can you fly, Medea?"
"No, but you'd better hope you can for when I kick you off here. Spread those wings, Raven."
"Ha-ha. I'm laughing my head off. Have you got super-glue over those amber eyes of yours or something? 'Cause you haven't opened them once."
"Maybe there's nothing worth looking at." I say, but then open them politely, to see Raven's face right over me, the wrong way up. No, the right way up. I'm the wrong way up. "Ewww. Were you going to snog me upside-down?"
"Well, I guess we'll never know," he replies, plucking me off the net, rotating me, and then sticking me back on it, like I were no more than a loaf of bread.
"Wow, strong much?"
"Well, you are quite light."
"Not that light!"
"Well, I tend to rely on my arms more than my legs, what with this old thing." He lifts up his crippled leg.
"I guess you would," I say, feeling bad for bringing the subject up.
"Oh, no, don't feel bad," he says. Do I have a readable face or does this just happen to him often? "It's my own fault it's like that." Raven shakes his head, "I never should have tried to milk that bull." I pause for a moment, just looking at him, before letting out a load of laughs. The idea just seems so preposterous. I can't imagine someone like Raven doing something so... well, stupid.
"You're not serious?" I manage to let out between giggles.
"Does this face look serious to you?" he says, sticking out his tongue and crossing his eyes so I laugh even more. But my laughing soon ceases when it forces my legs to bolt and I only just manage to hold on.
"Uh, Raven, I don't suppose you could teach me how to climb?"
"Sure I will, little Foxy," he says, then laughs, "Let the grey fox teach the red fox, eh?"
I smile up at him as I remember what the old schoolbook said.
Red foxes are small omnivorous mammals, though they are the largest of all fox species. They are closely related to dogs. Their binomial name is Vulpes vulpes, which just means 'fox'. A red fox's natural habitat is amongst trees in a forest or wood, or on the plains, where they will prey on such animals as rodents, insects, birds, and other small animals, but they also eat berries, nuts and other fruits. Most red foxes will live in a den, not a burrow or a sett like rabbits and badgers. Red foxes cannot climb trees or other steep obstacles, as their blunt claws prevent them from getting a good grip, like with a dog's. However, it has been found that red foxes that live in the same area as their cousin, the grey fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), often do obtain the ability to climb trees, as they learn from the nearby grey foxes.
I guess I'm just an abnormally-small red fox, and Raven's an abnormally-large grey fox.
I hope you guys liked this, I know it was a bit long, but oh well :-) Don't forget to say if you have any suggestions! Now review! :-) It really does make me happy
