9. Ridiculed and intimidated.

Cato has left it to me to organise our next secret meeting, where we can once again enjoy the wild passion that he and I seem able to spark in each other. My idea is to use the muddle and confusion during the training sessions to enable Cato and I to spend half an hour by ourselves. So far my idea lacks sufficient detail to call it a plan. Our meeting place needs to be somewhere where the chances of discovery are fairly low. It's a gamble on several fronts, but fortune favours the brave, as they say.

"Can you persuade the other Careers to join us at a training session later this morning, or early this afternoon, in Training Room Four?" I ask Cato. "It'll need to be a session that can take all five of us."

"Hmmm, that should be possible," replies Cato. "The four of us normally train together. My presence here now is simply because the crossbow training session could only take three tributes at a time. Room Four is combat training, you realise? I can't promise you'll not be ridiculed and intimidated by the other Careers."

"I'm relying on it," I reply. "In fact, I want you to do so as well. Let me know which session you can arrange. I'll be in room Five or Six for the next session or two."

The trainer walks over to where Cato and I are practising tying knots. We halt our conversation and behave like two tributes from different districts are supposed to behave. I look at my handiwork and compare it to Cato's work. Both of us seem to have mastered the various knots. I must remember not to allow Cato to tie me up again.

The session ends and to my surprise I feel as though I've learned something useful. I promise myself not to dismiss some of the other subjects quite as readily as I did earlier. Cato and I part company for now. I go to find a session for one of the compulsory subjects which still has a vacant slot. There's a choice, so I pick the one on first aid in room Six. I know some basic first aid already. It's essential knowledge while out hunting alone in the woods at home. It's just that I get a bit squeamish when I'm tending to wounds ... especially my own.

Once again, the compulsory training is fairly basic stuff, but I pick up a few useful tips. There's a more advanced first aid session among the optional subjects but I'll probably give that a miss. For those who have pre-booked their sessions, the five minute break between sessions is a chance to grab a quick drink or to answer a call of nature. For me it's a matter of finding a new session to attend. Sometimes I feel I should be more organised, but somehow I feel more comfortable doing things on the spur of the moment. Cato tracks me down in the main corridor while I'm assessing my options for this next session.

"The session after this next one," says Cato, as we walk close enough together so as not to be overheard, but not too close that would attract suspicion. I notice his mentor, Brutus, is watching Cato carefully. "The five of us are booked for the judo session in Room Four. I hope you know what you're doing."

I don't really, but I'm feeling quite rebellious and the prospect of outsmarting the gamemakers' rules has a huge appeal. The thought of being alone with Cato has an even greater appeal. I've never done judo before, so I'm already at a disadvantage against the Careers. If my plan works though, then I'll not be doing more than ten minutes of it today.

"Thanks. Follow my lead when we get there," I quickly reply as we go our separate ways again.

The prospect of doing judo in the last session before lunch prompts me to join the unarmed combat session in Room Five during this session. It also means that I'll have done three of my five compulsory subjects already. To my surprise I'm the only tribute attending this session. It's possibly due to the choice of optional subjects available during this time-slot. Two of the sessions which were fully booked before we started this morning are being run now.

Being the only tribute here doesn't present a problem. As with all training sessions involving contact with another person, the gamemakers provide sparring partners rather than allow two tributes to come into physical contact with each other. I've done a short self defence course at school, and this session provides me with a good refresher, as well as teach me a few extra moves. Again, though, it's all basic level training. My next session is intended to take my skills to the next level.

The trainer seems impressed by my performance although I didn't realise I was doing anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps she compliments all those she's trained in order to boost their confidence. I use the five minute break at the end of the session to get a drink and freshen up. It's a rush, but I get to the judo session in Room Four with a minute or so to spare. The four Careers are already here and they seem surprised to see me. Even Cato acts surprised to disguise whatever may come next in my plan. My first gamble has paid off. Haymitch said that the Careers normally train as a pack, and all the other tributes give them a wide berth. He went as far as to say that no sane tribute voluntarily trains at the same session as the Career pack. I'm going to be the exception. There was a risk that another tribute may defy the norm and appear for this session, but anybody who might have planned to attend has clearly changed their mind. So far so good.

I've deliberately chosen Room Four because of the layout of the dividing screens between the different disciplines taught in this room. There are several areas where it's difficult to see what is going on behind the screens from the security guards' observation platforms. There's a risk that the security cameras are operating, but I'm fairly certain the gamemakers' desire to keep each tribute's skills a secret means the cameras are switched off. Additional security guards are on duty, but they can't be everywhere at once and they tend to remain stationed on the high level observation platforms inside each room.

"Hey, Cato!" says Clove in a loud voice. "It's the slut who flashed her assets at you when we were leaving the railway station. Here's your chance to show her what you think of her."

Marvel and Glimmer from District One think Clove is highly amusing. None of them prevent me from placing my hand on the device to register my attendance at this session. If anything, they seem delighted that I'm here. They're obviously planning some entertainment at my expense.

Clove doesn't waste any time starting the verbal abuse. She's obviously had previous experience at this sort of game. Marvel and Glimmer refrain from insulting me as a person, and instead make fun of my lack of skill and technique at judo. Being a complete beginner means I'm a soft target for their withering commentary. Cato laughs at the ease by which the trainer counters my feeble attempts, but he refrains from making any comment.

After a few minutes, the trainer takes me aside and suggests that I withdraw from this session. The almost non-stop barracking from one or other of the Careers is making the trainer's job impossible and his pleas for quiet are ignored. By rights it should be the Careers who are ejected from this session, but they have been careful to keep within the permitted code of behaviour. Not that I mind. It's exactly what I was hoping would happen. Perhaps I should thank Clove for the speed at which we've reached this point.

I leave the others and go behind a dividing screen at the other end of the room. Nobody is expecting me to find another session before lunch. Indeed, there is no requirement to attend any training sessions at all. But even the well trained Careers don't pass up the opportunity for more training.

I find a secluded spot among a number of exercise mats. This end of the room isn't currently used for a training session and it's out of sight of the guard's observation platform. I just hope Cato can find a plausible reason to withdraw from the judo session and join me.

"Where are you, Katniss?" comes Cato's voice a few minutes later. Far too loud for my liking.

"Over here," I reply. "Ssshh!"

Cato reaches me and we embrace. Neither of us are in a particularly amorous mood at the moment, so this meeting may be no more than proving to ourselves that we can confound the gamemakers and meet in secret.

"Good plan," smiles Cato. "Are you sure we can't be heard or seen?"

"I can't guarantee it, but nobody has come running to separate us so far. How did you manage to get away from the judo session?"

"As far as the trainer is concerned, I've jarred my shoulder, so have had to withdraw from the session. Clove and the others think I've come to give you what you deserve for your stunt at railway station."

"And what is it that I deserve for getting the better of you at the station?" I tease.

"Where I come from, a girl who makes an offer like you made at the station is expected to deliver," says Cato.

"An exactly what offer am I supposed to have made? I only recall asking if you liked what you saw."

"Don't play the innocent. You knew what you were doing, and why. Everyone on television knew what you were doing, although perhaps not why. Nobody will blame me if I claim what you publicly offered."

"Really? What about a girl's right to change her mind? Are you saying that you can take what you believe is your reward without my consent?"

"I could. But I won't. I could because we enter the Hunger Games arena in three days time and there are no rules inside the arena. Well, apart from the unwritten rule that eating each other isn't tolerated. As long as you are fit and healthy enough to stand on your podium at the start of the Games, then nobody is likely to worry too much about what happens to you in the seclusion of the Training Centre. After all, what punishment can the gamemakers inflict? Any sentence which disqualifies me from the Games is hardly a serious option."

Unfortunately Cato is more or less correct. The concepts of law and justice are suspended for the tributes now we are inside the Training Centre. It's one of the reasons the gamemakers and mentors try to keep us under close supervision during training. However, Cato has more to lose than he admits. He has trained hard to be Hunger Games tribute, and he has a real chance of winning these Games. His goal is the wealth and accolades that go with being a Hunger Games victor. Disqualification is more than an empty threat against him, and I think he knows that only too well.

"Like your inability to tell the truth, your fake nobility doesn't ring true, Cato," I laugh. "You'd ravish me and any other girl in a moment if you thought you could get away with it. What I don't understand is why am I being treated with such consideration?"

"Again you slander me, Katniss!" says Cato in mock outrage. "Do you wish me to seduce you with sweet words, or would you actually prefer for me to simply jump on your delectable body and take my pleasure?"

"Hmmm ... that's a difficult question to answer. Were we courting lovers with all the time in the world, then I'd undoubtedly want you to make me feel special. But we don't have all the time in the world. In three days we must become enemies despite what we may wish otherwise. So any courtship must be brief and to the point."

"You're evading my question."

"Yes. And you've got your hand inside by shirt."

"Well, there's more than one of us guilty of that crime."