Chapter Eight
I woke up staring at the ceiling. Last night had not been my best nights sleep. When I hadn't been dreaming about murdering children or my own death images of what could have happened to Cato in the arena would make random appearances. After the time a bear ripped him to shreds I had given up on sleep and headed to the living room. I admired the bookcase; it was lined with books I'd never heard of. They were beautiful though, all of them old looking leather bound copies with golden fancy looking letters on them. I had run my hand along them, as if I could absorb their knowledge through simply touching them. Eventually settling on something called "The Importance Of Being Earnest" I hurried back to bed. I was confused at first; it wasn't like a usual book. It seemed to be set up like a show, but not like a television show where there could have been as many takes as possible but a show with a live audience it seemed. In spite of this I had continued reading but had only made it to the end of "Act One, Scene One" before drifting off into a much happier sleep. Well when I say happier, I really mean dreamless, but I figure that's as good as it's going to get now.
I pulled myself out of bed and into the shower in the en-suite. This whole dying thing wasn't as bad as I'd thought it was going to be, well minus the fact that after out chat last night Cato had seemed even weirder if that was possible. Now he was just silent, sulking around the apartment like the world had ended. I mean I get why it's going to be difficult for him, he was clearly far more affected by the Games than the rest of us, but I still kept wishing he'd just snap out of it.
I did love showers. We'd had them at home but they couldn't compare to the standards of the Capitol showers. I exhaled as the water warmed my back, instantly making the front of me feel colder, I turned around and allowed the water to trickle over my face, removing the final traces of sleep from my eyes. I ran my hands through my hair and went about cleaning myself, removing any traces of the night from me. What was at least half an hour later I emerged from the shower and wrapped a towel around myself. I headed into the bedroom to get some clothes and nearly dropped the towel in shock.
"Jesus Cato what are you doing here?" I screamed at him. Confused and depressed he may be but there are still limits to what I can deal with at six in the morning.
Naturally he didn't answer. Because that would've been far too useful for me. He simply got up walked over took my head in his hands and kissed me. Of course naturally I didn't resist; my Cato was back! He remembered! He felt the way he had in the Games! I allowed his lips to part mine as the kiss deepened, I wanted so badly to wrap my arms around him, but it meant losing the towel and well I didn't think we were ready for that yet. So instead I let his hands do the wandering. Let them explore the nape of my neck, let his fingers run through my hair, let his fingertips tickle down my back. When he pulled away I almost pulled him back in, then I remembered it wasn't my place to do that. I had to do this at his pace if I wanted it to happen at all. He was looking at me, not smiling but like he was trying to work something out before walking off.
"Good morning to you too then sweet cheeks," I muttered at the doorframe he'd just departed through.
"OK class the next three and a half weeks are going to be fairly exciting for you. What we'll be doing is fairly similar to what you went through in the Hunger Games training. We will have different stations set up and you will be expected to work through all of them. Over this time we will assess your skills and your weaknesses. Then we will spend the next few years bringing your weaknesses up to scratch and then move onto the next step of training. You will move around the stations individually, so that you don't become distracted and so that the instructors can assess you to the best of their potential. We have labeled each of the stations with a name. Find the station with your name and wait there to begin. You will stay at that station for the duration of the morning. After lunch you will be taken to your tactics class clear?" The man, or rather boy, spoke as fast as he could; clearly having somewhere better to be. We all nodded once. "Excellent, on you go then."
Looking around the room most of the stations seemed to be survival orientated, map skills, shelter building, fire starting and things of the sort with very few actual weapons stations. I found myself at the other end of the room, and I couldn't hide the smile on my face when I realized my first station was with the knives.
"Hi there Clove," the girl at the station greeted me like an old friend.
"Hello, umm…" I didn't recognize the girl; if she had been in the games it had been before I'd fully started watching it.
"Topaz," she quickly informed me, seeing the puzzlement on my face. "Don't worry, I'm actually 50, wouldn't expect you to recognize me." I took a moment to really look at her. 50? She looked a few years older than me at a push… but 50?
"Wow. So when they said they help us look younger…"
"Oh they really deliver. When you go for lunch you'll get these pill thingy's and so long as you take them you just stay as you are," the woman sounded thrilled by this idea, I couldn't say I blamed her. I mean Capitol people looked young generally but they had nothing on this. This was sheer madness, or genius depending on how you looked at it.
"So what happens if you stop taking the pills?" I asked, more out of curiosity rather than actually planning to not take the pills.
"I dunno, I guess you start aging again. Anyway we're meant to be doing knives! Not that you need much help with that I hear," she winked at me. So she'd seen the games then.
"Yeah, I love knives. I don't even need to hit anything, just throwing them helps relax me," I admitted, not sure why I felt like I could tell her this.
"I totally get that too! There really is nothing like the feeling of power after you let it out of your hand," she practically screamed at me. I could tell that this was definitely the high point of the year for them. Getting to meet the new tributes. Getting to see the new kids for themselves. "Now, let's start with some stationary targets," she practically glowed with happiness as we headed over to the target range. It was a lot more advanced than the one from the Games.
The morning went by quickly after that, with a few impressed comments from Topaz as I hit every stationary target right in the center. As we moved onto moving targets, which I never trained for at home, my aim was a little off but I was always close enough to make her clap and jump up and down with joy. I usually hated people like her, too over-excited and easily distracted, but when she was admiring my talent I suddenly had a lot more tolerance for her. Plus it was obvious she knew what she was talking about, her advice was flawless and when she threw the knife, even when it was spinning and heading for a moving target and she hit it every time. I felt better for finally getting to throw something.
I watched as Cato violently used the sword to tear up what could have easily been 100 dummies. Even his trainer looked a little on edge at his rage against the inanimate objects. I hadn't spoken to him since his random display of emotion this morning and we'd made our own way to the training center. He barely seemed to be taking notice of anything, just tearing things to shreds. It couldn't be healthy. I was glad we had mandatory meetings with a psychiatrist tomorrow, it could definitely only do him good.
Author's Note: Ok firstly I must apologize for saying that I would upload a chapter a day and then failing to upload one yesterday. Unfortunately my mother's idea of spring cleaning took A LOT long than I originally anticipated :( On another note in case any of you are curious there really is no significance in the fact she chose "The Importance Of Being Earnest" as the book to read, I just really love that play! Also hope you are all still enjoying and keep reviewing :D
