Training Day 1! Enjoy!


Danylo Sepia, 17

District 3 Male


My eyes lazily flutter open, and without warning, I fall off of my bed, even though it could fit five more people. I tenderly rub my head, which is throbbing from the impact of hitting the floor. I glance at the clock, which reads 8:14. I know training starts at nine, so I have a few minutes. I get up and crawl to the bathroom to take a shower.

I walk into the shower, and see the wall of buttons in front of me. There's roughly three hundred buttons there, each one probably performing a different function. I look closer, and see the buttons have different coloured rings around them. These colours create three columns. I press the top blue button, and a freezing cold jet of water blasts at me. I press it again, turning it off. I press one in the middle of the column, and a warm stream of water flows down. Good, that's one thing sorted. I press one of the red buttons, and an orange foam erupts from the floor. It smells like oranges. I try a green button, and various sponges begin to wash me with the orange foam. I'm then rinsed off. I open the shower, and something's off about the room. I look closer, and see one of the tiles on the wall has slightly shifted diagonally, and something is reflecting the light. I step out, and more tiles open, warm air blasting my head. It stops after a minute, and I grab a towel just as one is thrown at me. So even the bathrooms are rigged with unexpected secrets. I walk back into my bedroom, and find the training outfit. I look around my room, searching for some way it could have gotten in, but find nothing. I put it on, as an Avox comes out of nowhere and collects my sleeping clothes. I yelp, which causes the Avox to make a frantic gesture of apology.

"It's okay," I try to tell him but he starts to sweat heavily, shuffling out of my door as quickly as he came. I still don't know why they are so scared of a positive reaction. I guess I don't know what the Capitol does to them.

I finish combing my hair and open the door of my room. I stride down the hall, passing another Avox, into the dining room. Gratiana, my new ally, is already there, alongside Digita, eating their breakfast.

"Danylo, as much as this is going to make me sound like an escort, rising late isn't good when you have training." Digita says as she takes another bite of her breakfast, a steaming omelette. I take a slice of toast, and begin to gnaw on it, thinking about how training's going to go. I might only stick to survival based stations today. I'll try my hand at a weapon tomorrow.

"So, what are you going to be trying in training?" Gratiana asks, her voice shaky.

"I'm just gonna do survival. You can join me if you want." I say, and she smiles warmly at this. Our escort then bounds into the room, looking slightly irritated.

"We should have left for training ten minutes ago! How did I manage not to stick to my schedule?! Finish up, you two!" I eat the remainder of my sweet bread roll, placing the empty dish in front of me.

"You there! Take this tribute's plate and dispose of it!" I'm about to ask her what's going on inside her tiny head when I'm aware of another presence. I glance to my right, and standing right next to me is the same Avox from my room. He picks up the plate, then, as silently as he arrived, he leaves.

"This is disastrous! We should have arrived at training five minutes ago! How on earth did I manage to not stick to my schedule! Come on, before the day is over!" She drags Gratiana and I to the elevator, and furiously punches the buttons. It flies down at a remarkable speed, stopping abruptly at the training centre. We're pushed out, and the elevator closes. Already the tributes have dispersed around the various stations. I look at the survival stations and find the camouflage one free.

I run over to it, as if it'll vanish in the next few seconds and pick up a paintbrush. I begin to paint my arm to match the rocky backdrop. At first, I have the wrong shade of grey. I try several lighter and darker shades, but to no avail. I look closer, and finally see what's missing from my paint. There's a faint hint of red in the rock. After washing my last failure off, I grab the red paint, and add a small splash of it into my current mixture of paint. I grab the brush again, and carefully apply the paint to my arm. Once my forearm is covered, I put it next to the backdrop. It blends almost perfectly. Satisfied, I wash the paint off and leave the station. I walk across the training room, just as the lunch bell rings. Gratiana joins me at a table nestled in the corner, away from the Careers. She is eating some kind of stew, while I had gotten a chicken breast smeared in a dark sauce.

"What did you do, Gratiana?" I ask her curiously. She sways herself a little.

"I had gone over to the snares station, and she said I was a natural with traps. I'll probably present that in training." she says cooly. I nod, taking another bite of my food. I glance over to the Careers, who are laughing and joking as usual. Other tributes are sitting in clumps together, but there is one tribute who is sitting alone. Incense from 8.

"What do you think she's doing by herself?" I ask Gratiana. She shrugs and immediately continues eating. I'm sort of interested in that girl.

Ring!

After around fifteen minutes, the bell announces that lunch is over, and I see that the assault course, the nearest Career on the other side of the room. Now is my chance. I approach the trainer, who is a tall man with spiky blue hair. He tells me that I have 2 minutes to make it across the course. It ends when I fall off.

"Ready... go!" he shouts, blowing a piercing loud whistle that attracts the attention of almost everyone. Just great.

I sprint down the first stretch, jumping over the obstacles with relative ease. I turn to the left, keeping my pace, and receive a club to the face. All feeling in my face turns to agony, and as I stand, I notice the flow of blood from my nose. I cover it with my hands, but that just succeeds in dying my hands blood red. One of the trainers gives me a small pill. I swallow it, and the bleeding stops immediately. I make my way to the bathroom, and wash the blood off my hands and face. As I walk back into the training room, I see the Career tributes staring at me, and laughing. But the girl from 1 looks at me sadly. Instantly I feel the blood rush to my cheeks.

"Well, you certainly made an impression," Gratiana mutters, who has appeared out of nowhere. I just grunt at her, and decide to hide at the edible plants station. But someone else joins me shortly after; Incense.

She wordlessly begins toying with different bugs, and I start up a giant computer, and a yellow insect with black dots shows on the screen. Three options are shown. Safe, Deadly, or Varies. It looks like a ladybug. I don't think they would be poisonous because they are so small. I hit Safe. A giant red 'X' flashes on the screen. I hear a dry chuckle from behind me.

"Eating that would kill you faster than nightlock," she says flatly. The next bug shows on screen, an identical one but red instead of yellow. She clicks Safe, and a green check mark shows.

She backs away from the screen and heads over to the camouflage station I was just at. I smirk at the girl. She seems smart, but unfortunately, her wits would probably go to waste in the forsaken bloodbath. As will mine.


Tiger Kaley, 17

District 4 Female

I try to keep my distance from Calix and Cerys, because I am really starting to get sick of them. Victoria announces that she is going to try some survival stations because she is pretty confident with her weapon of choice, a whip. I nod to her, passing Oakley and Grover doing an ax throwing station. Oakley nearly hits the center, but instead hits the red around it. I ask Iridi if I'm in the Careers, but I don't receive the answer I exactly wanted.

"To be in the Careers," he starts, "you have to prove yourself."

I just shrug, heading off on my own. What does that mean, proving myself? I knew it meant scoring high, but I don't know if I can do that. Gleyn, who has been trailing me, tells me that he is going to the tridents station. I want to try with a weapon, too, but not a trident. I want to be different. I spot an empty spears station in the corner. I'm a little surprised it's vacant, but some of the Careers, including Iridi, Calix, and Cerys, have migrated to the sword fighting station. The outliers are huddled in various survival stations, where Victoria is instructing a scrawny outlier from 6, the girl. I stride over to the spears station, where a trainer waits.

"Hey," I say to the trainer as I approach the spears station. The trainer is a tall woman, with midnight black hair and red tattoos on her pale skin.

"Ready to train?" she asks, and smile deviously.

"Hell yeah, I am." I spit out, and grip the cold metal spear, a little surprised from it's weight. She snatches it from my hands almost immediately, though, which angers me.

"Do you know how to work a spear?" she asks me, but gasps as she sees the silver '4' on my arm. She apologizes, and we get to the good part right away.

"You're the expert, can you tell me if I'm doing it right?" I ask her.

"Of course. I'm more than happy to assist you," the woman replied as she walked across to the other side of the station, and after careful examination, selected a spear from one of the many shelves. She walked back to me, and gave the my eager hands the weapon. My left hand closed around it, welcoming the ice cold metal.

"Thanks," I utter to the woman, and began to walk towards a collection of targets, when the trainer placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I have to inform you that you may only train with the spear alongside a partner," the trainer said.

"Oh, wonderful," I mutter under my breath. And then, to the trainer, "Really? So, will you bring in some person to train me?"

"Normally for novices, yes," the trainer said. "You are a trained Career, of course, so I believe it would be beneficial if you were to directly engage with me."

I'm guessing she doesn't know that I'm not a Career, but I feel like getting this show on the road.

"Huh," I replied, before my face settled in to a cocky grin. "Fine then, let's do this!"

"As you wish," the trainer replied, pulling out a spear of her own. And then, without warning, she jabbed the spear at my body.

I barely had time to dodge as the trainer advanced. I ducked in order to avoid another blow from the woman, before tightening her grip on her own spear. I leaped up, and flung her spear to the trainer, who parried her blow with her spear. The two of us were locked in combat, neither side showing resistance. And I quickly recognized how similar this was to the sword fighting I tried before lunch, only it was easier to deliver a decisive blow, which meant it required you to be on your feet at all times if engaging someone in spear-based combat.

The trainer weakened her grip, and I took this opportunity to thrust forward my spear. But the trainer gripped it mere inches before it would have impaled her face. I grinned, and pulled back, panting for breath.

"Heh, this is actually kinda fun!" I said, eyeing up the trainer's every motion.

"I'm glad you think so," the trainer replied. "Although, just remember that in the arena, this won't be a mere exercise; your life will be on the line."

"Blah blah blah, got it!" I said, before moving out of the way of the trainer's thrust. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and dripped off my face. This was more exhausting than it looked. In fact, I was considering giving in, when I heard voices from behind me. It was a boy's voice, but I couldn't tell who it was.

With a hardened resolve, I rush towards the trainer, and shove my spear forwards, but my blow was blocked yet again. I cursed under my breath, before pulling back, and whilst the trainer was still deciding her next move, rammed my spear forwards with all my strength.

I knew I had made a huge mistake when I heard the groan of pain from the trainer. I looked up, and saw that my spear was digging into the side of the woman. Blood dripped from the wound onto the floor.

"Oh my god..." the trainer uttered. I immediately pulled the spear out, causing more blood to spurt. The trainer backed away, and, whilst still groaning in agony, pressed a button on the wall. Almost instantly two Avoxes came scurrying from seemingly nowhere, and carried the trainer away. I just stood there, awe-struck at what I had done.

"Whoa," a voice from behind me said. I spun around, and dropped the spear into the small puddle of blood on the floor. It was Iridi. "That was pretty awesome there." I froze for a moment, but my brain was whirring at a hundred miles an hour.

"Really?" I shrugged. "It wasn't that big a deal, really."

"No big deal?" he replied, smiling. "Man, having the guts to actually injure a trainer? Color me impressed. You're in, Teila."


Prosperina Dew, 28

Head Gamemaker for the 110th Hunger Games


I nod approvingly as the Careers excel at the swords stations. Cerys effortlessly beheads a dummy and Calix dismembers it to finish it off. I snicker as they kick it to the ground, the same way some outlier's life is probably going to end. My fellow Gamemakers are already creating odds for them, and by the time the final bell rings, they should be up for me and the tributes to see.

Turmeric from 5 is laughing with some outliers around a fire at the cooking station. He presents a perfectly cooked turkey, which the tributes applaud at. I scribble down some notes about him.

Culinary experience maybe.

"You all should try," he tells the outliers, "because you all seem like cooks to me!" Laughter erupts, attracting the Career's attention.

"Trust me, I can't cook," says the girl from 10, "but I can carve a turkey like nobody's business." Turmeric giggles at her, slapping her on the shoulder playfully.

"Well, if you run into me during the Games, I can fire that bird up for you." His group continues to joke and I decide to focus my attention on someone else, maybe a loner.

I spot the female from 9 attempting to blend her arm in with a tree, but it doesn't blend in that well. The rest of the Gamemakers snicker at her failed attempt, and she shoots them a deadly glare. I just roll my eyes at them, and begin to pick at the food from the banquet provided. Suddenly, I hear a moan of pain, and it seems the girl from 4 has sunk her weapon into a trainer. Two Avoxes carry her away, and I stare at the girl, stunned. This girl wasn't a volunteer, but she seems capable of it. I remind myself to observe her closely.

"Prosperina," says Marc, a fellow Gamemaker. "You have to handle the bets, remember?" I yelp out loud as I realize that. I was supposed to present the first odds today, and he would seemingly handle that tomorrow.

"Crap," I mutter, grabbing my purse and sprinting out of the loft overseeing the Training Center. "I'll see you all tomorrow. I trust you will handle everything up here?" I ask them. They all nod eagerly.

"Of course, Miss Dew, we will take excellent notes of every tribute." muses Laurel, the Mutt designer. I scurry out until I reach the end of the hall leading to the training center, to the main lobby of the Training Center, where people are already betting on their favorites. I enter a room marked "Gamemakers Only" and identify myself to the guard.

"Hello, my Lady," says a guard. I giggle, walking up to him.

"Must we be so formal?" I ask him, and he relaxes a little. I head over to a giant computer, tussled in the corner, and click it on. I sign into my account, and a tinny voice sounds.

"Welcome, Prosperina."

I open up a file with all of the tributes' names, ages, heights, weights, etc. Their slots are empty, for now. I start with the female from 1. Her bets, sent to me by the betting managers, are 5-1. Now it's the boy from 1.

...

After hours upon hours of copying and pasting, my work is done. I click a button with an arrow on it, sending the odds to the database. I push open the door back into the lobby, where the impatient citizens are presented with the first odds of the Games.

1F- V. Rochas, age 16: 5-1

1M- I. Lotu, age 17: 4-1

2F- C. Asana, age 18: 4-1

2M- C. Livianus, age 18: 3-1

3F- G. Brindle, age 17: 22-1

3M- D. Sepia, age 17: 21-1

4F- T. Kaley, age 17: 10-1

4M- G. Bersond, age 18: 5-1

5F- T. Woods, age 15: 31-1

5M- T. Saucer, age 17: 19-1

6F- K. Ruun, age 13: 49-1

6M- S. Gasket, age 16: 25-1

7F- O. Gunderson, age 16: 26-1

7M- G. Ridley, age 17: 3-1

8F- I. Vasquez, age 16: 28-1

8M- L. Orange, age 16: 48-1

9F- C. Kenyie, age 16: 30-1

9M- A. Faux, age 16: 28-1

10F- A. Landers, age 14: 27-1

10M- K. Avrett, age 18: 14-1

11F- Q. Auberine, age 12: 50-1

11M- G. Clearcreek, age 17: 16-1

12F- L. Onne, age 16: 40-1

12M- H. Sarafian, age 16: 29-1


Alliances:

Careers: Victoria, Iridi, Cerys, Calix, Teila, Gleyn, Oakley, Grover

Meric and Tyssa

Atticus and Citlali

(sorry if I forgot any)

Training Day 1! Sorry it was so short, but there will be more training to come before the private sessions. And sorry for the wait! School has been catching up to me. Also, although I've gotten some requests, don't be afraid to ally with someone outside your district! Alliances aren't essential for a Games, they are just fun to write. Oh, and if you wanna name the alliances, just let me know. Expect Day 2 of training soon!

-Maia