Aspen Harper, D7
I ride in the elevator along with my fellow district partners and the pair from Ten. It's a large elevator but with seven people it's a tight squeeze. Leaf and Catclaw stand close together whispering. Hope talks to Doe and Wallace, they're in an alliance and talk about what stations they plan to go to today. Luke stands beside me in awkward silence. The doors slide open. It's not the Training Center but instead the apartment for District Four. The small girl looks shocked at the large group of people crammed together, "I'll just take the next one." I press the door close button and we ride down to the bottom floor. The doors open again and we find ourselves in the Training Room. I quickly walk out of the elevator the closeness made me claustrophobic. We are one of the first to arrive. The other tributes already here include those of One, Five, Six, and Twelve. I come up to Sheen and smile.
"Finally! Someone to talk to," He says with a laugh.
"How long have you been down here?" I ask.
The ding of the elevator sounds and the girl from Four along with the tributes of Eleven and Three. "Oh, only about three minutes."
I roll my eyes, "You should learn to be more patient." I look around the room and notice the tributes forming into groups.
"There are going to be a lot of alliances this year," Sheen says. There seem to be a lot of small alliances which will make these games interesting. "Speaking of allies, where are Gabe, Florence, and Ezekiel?"
"Now who's being impatient," Sheens smirks.
I punch him in the arm. "Ow!" he whines. The doors open once again, this time Ezekiel and Cyrus walk out. About two minutes later Gabe and Florence enter the room. Javaad makes his way to the middle of the room, "Nice of you to join us District Eight," He glares at Florence and Gabe but they don't seem fazed by it, "Now that everyone is here I would like to announce the second day of training. I would like to remind you to focus not only on the weapons but also on survival stations. Also, no sparring between tributes a trainer will be at each station to assist with this. Any questions? Then let the second day of training begin!"
Doe Galloway, D10
Once Javaad releases us to go to the stations I immediately head over to the large blade station. Yesterday I practiced with the bow and arrow but I never really could get comfortable with it. Today I'm going to work with blades because I've had more experience with them. My mother's brother worked at a butcher shop. I only saw him slaughter a pig once, but maybe I somehow inherited his knife skills. There is only one other person at the station, Gadget. He listens to the instructor as he demonstrates the basic moves. I walk up and stand beside Gadget.
"Hello, nice of you join us. I was just showing how to get the most force out of a swing." The instructor swings the blade above his head and brings it down in a wide arc. The blade impacts the dummy in the chest. "As you can see, these blades are mostly used for swinging and hacking. The weapons that are most useful for this are machetes and cleavers. If you want a weapon mostly used for thrusting or piercing, you may want to check out the sword or spear stations." I nod my head.
"I think the cleaver will do nice," I walk over to the rack and pick up one of the cleavers. Gadget grabs a machete.
"Nice choice. The machete may be too bulky for your size and the cleaver can create effective damage." The instructor moves over to the next dummy. Gadget and I watch as he shows more moves. After a few minutes of teaching, he lets us take a few swings. Gadget seems bored and after a few minutes of practice leaves to go to the next station. I spend almost an hour practicing on the dummies and then sparring with the instructor. I'm soon drenched with sweat. I thank the instructor and move on to another station.
Richmond Clarke, D9
I watch the other tributes as they move from one station to another. I feel like I haven't accomplished anything in training. I have gone to a lot of the weapon stations but I couldn't find a weapon that I was comfortable with. I was okay with the throwing knives but isn't everybody. The survival stations seem promising. I went to the edible plant's station and did fairly with it. Maybe I could poison other tributes. A spark of fire catches my eye. I look over and notice one of the boys from Twelve has started a small fire. I walk over to the station to get a closer. The boy has a smile on his face and adds more kindling to the fire. The fire grows to a large flame.
I decide to try my luck. I squat down a few meters away from the boy and try to start a fire. I gather a few dried twigs and grass. There are two ways to start a fire, one way is with flint or fire starter and the other way is through friction. Flint seems like the easiest way. The two pieces of flint feel cold in my hands. I strike the two stones together and a few sparks fly onto the pile of debris. None of the sparks catch. I attempt this a few more times but without any luck. I look over at the boy. He throws dirt and water over the flame to douse it out. As he gets up to leave I call out to him, "Hey, do you mind showing me how you did that?"
The boy shrugs his shoulders, "Ask an instructor that's what they're here for."
The boy walks across the room to the obstacle course. I turn back and strike the flint together again. I hear a soft melodic hum. I look over and spot a young girl. The number pinned to her back indicates her as being from Twelve. How long has she been here? She has a pile of sticks as well and strikes two pieces of flint together. The sparks fall on the pile and she carefully blows on it and the sparks catch. "Yes," the girl whispers. I stand up and kick at my pile of sticks, "Useless!" I shout. A few tributes look at me but don't seem to care about my outburst.
"Are you all right?" The girl stands behind me, "Would you like me to show you how to do it?"
I nod my head. "Okay! It's simple really. I mean I can do it, so surely you can too!" The girl flops down on the ground and piles the sticks and grass back together.
"Thank you for showing me. You're a lot nicer than your district partner that was here earlier." I say sitting down beside her.
"Sage is peculiar, but you just have to get to know him first." The small girl grabs the flint. "Remember you want your driest pieces on top. You just rub the stones together and then blow on the sparks to help them catch. Like this." She demonstrates and a small flame burns. She forcefully blows and the flame goes out. "You have to be careful and not blow too hard or the sparks won't light. Here you try." She hands me the stones and I try. It takes a few tries but I finally get a flame. I easily get the flame to grow. The girl smiles, "Congratulations! I'm Wanda by the way," Wanda holds out her hand and I shake it. "My name's Richmond." The lunch bell then rings. Wanda turns away and quickly skips over to another young girl and they walk together towards the cafeteria and I follow behind.
Hope Wilde, D7
After lunch, the other YC's and I meet in the middle of the Training Center. Our alliance is made up of five people; Cyrus, Jacqueline, Doe, Wallace, and me. During lunch, Wallace asked if we would be willing to add another member to our alliance. Cyrus and I both agreed that we shouldn't have. Mostly because we have enough members as it is, and I'm not quite sure who else we would ask. Our mutual alliance with the Careers will make it a hard competition for us to find tributes to kill.
"All right everyone, let's focus on our own individual skills this afternoon. I think we should work with what we are best at to put fear in the other tributes while also impressing the Careers." Cyrus says this with a strong voice. He has become the unanimous leader of the group and I believe he will keep level-headed in the Games.
"I agree," I say.
Cyrus nods his head at me in approval. "I'm going to work with the bow and arrow. If anyone would like some tips than they can come with me." Cyrus looks to the pair of tributes from Ten. Doe and Wallace are the weakest links in this alliance, even Jacqueline has more prowess and skills than them.
"I will go with you. Might as well learn a few things just in case." Jacqueline tightens her ponytail and walks over next to Cyrus, "Besides I worked with knives this morning."
"What about you two?" I ask Doe and Wallace.
"I may go back to the cleaver station," Doe says.
"And I guess I will go to the camouflage and trap stations," Wallace says shrugging his shoulders.
"Camouflage and traps so intimidating," I think to myself but instead say, "Good idea, I worked with axes quite a bit yesterday so I will mostly focus on my climbing skills."
"Sounds good to me! Let's go and shoot some arrows, Jacqueline," Cyrus and Jacqueline walk away. Doe and Wallace also walk away and I turn and go to the climbing station.
The only other tribute at the climbing station is the tall boy from Twelve. I think his name is Marvin…or something like that. I go and stand next to him and we both look up at the thirty-foot-tall climbing wall. I look up over at the boy's face expecting him to be shaking in his shoes but instead, he has a look of determination. I don't even think he has noticed me yet. "Do you want to race?" I ask.
The boy looks down at me, "Yeah, sounds like fun," He flashes a smile, "My name's Miles."
Miles, not Marvin. "Alright, cool. My name's Hope, let's go!" I race to the wall and place a foot on a ledge.
"Hold up! You need to put a harness on before getting on the wall." A trainer quickly approaches, holding out two harnesses. Miles and I quickly put on the harness and line up to the wall.
"On your mark…get set…go!" Miles and I start to pull ourselves up the wall. His long body is beneficial for grabbing the next hold, but I'm light and quick. About halfway up my arms and legs start to burn, and Miles starts to pull ahead. Miles looks over his shoulders and laughs, "This is a little bit tougher than climbing trees."
"I didn't know cave rats could climb so fast," I shout at him. I bite my lip and shake my head, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that." Cave rat is an old derogative term used to describe the weak tributes of Twelve before their industry changed to medicine.
"All good, at least I'm not a tree-hugger." Miles reaches up for the next hold but his foot slips and he starts to fall. He falls past me and the rope catches a few feet from the floor. He gives out a grunt. I turn my attention to the buzzer at the top and quickly climb the rest of the way up. I smash the buzzer and start to descend down. When I reach the bottom, Miles is already out of his harness. I take mine off and hand it to the trainer. "Not too bad tree hugger."
"Not bad yourself cave rat," I say and walk away to another station.
Yvonne Esmeralda, D5
Wanda and I decide to train separately that way we can both learn as much as possible before hand. I watch the instructor spin around and thrust a spear into a nearby dummy. Back in Five, I trained with staffs and spears with Dexter and the other boys in his basement. I'm the only one at the station and the trainer asked if I would like to try. I nod my head yes and he hands me the spear. It's bigger than the homemade ones that I've used before. I don't try to throw the spear, I don't have enough upper body strength to throw it very far. Instead, I do what the trainer showed and thrust the spear into the dummies. After a few minutes of thrusting, I decide to add a little bit more flare. I spin the spear above my head and force it into a dummy, and rolling across the floor and come to a kneel and impale another dummy.
"Not too bad, Yvonne."
I blow my hair out of my face and look over and see Anya standing there with the girl from Eleven. I stand up panting and wipe the sweat off my brow. I feel intimidated by Anya; her piercing eyes always seem to be calculating a hundred different ways to beat you. "If you think that was good, watch this." I firmly grasp the spear close to my body and take a few steps before doing an aerial. I flip through the air, land and thrust the spear into the dummy and shout, "Hiyaah!"
The girl from Eleven claps and Anya smiles. Not a devious smile but as if she is pleased. "Mind showing us a few tricks?" the girl from Eleven asks.
"Umm,…sure why not?" I demonstrate a few basic attacks. I learn that the girl's name is Aster and her and Anya are in an alliance. Aster is much better with the spear than Anya is and I can tell that it bugs her. Aster asks to spar with the trainer and Anya and I stand on the side of the mat.
"She's pretty good," I say.
Anya huffs, "She really is…and so are you. If you want do you want to join our alliance?"
I'm shocked by her question and snort with laughter. I cover my mouth. "Don't act so surprised."
I clear my throat, "I mean, of course, I'll join your alliance, but Wanda has to be able to join as well."
"Which one is that?"
"The girl from Twelve," I scan across the room and spot her at the camouflage station, "Over there."
"That's fine." Anya and I both turn to Aster and the trainer. Aster ducks the trainer's attack and spins and sweeps his feet out from under him. The trainer falls and Aster crawls on him and pins him to the mat.
"I think we all will be pretty good," Anya says.
Leaf Sarill, D7
I stand in line with Catclaw. We're waiting to take our turn on the obstacle course. Marina and Wallace are ahead of us, and Gadget is running right now. He leaps across pedestals and stumbles but catches himself and races on. "What about her?" Catclaw points to Valentine. She stands over the edible plant's table. "She is so fine, I give her an eight."
"I agree," Catclaw gives a whistle. Wallace turns around, "Mind your own business Ten," Catclaw waves his hand. Wallace rolls his eyes but obliges.
"Out of the Careers?" I ask. Catclaw searches throughout the Training Center. "Florence most definitely. Her red hair is to die for." Catclaw responds.
"Aspen has red hair too, though?"
"She's too muscular for me." I laugh at his comment, "But her tattoo is cool."
"Haha, you're crazy Catclaw."
Catclaw laughs as well. "I need a delicate girl."
"Because Florence is so 'delicate'," I emphasize with air quotes.
"No, but someone like her." He points to Marina as she finishes the course and her time of 1:31 lights up on the board placing her in fourth.
"She's pretty but the hottest girl here has to be Jacqueline or Valentine," Wallace turns around and says. He the turns and sprints onto the course.
I start to laugh, but Catclaw gives him a disgusted glare. Javaad walks out into the middle of the room and announces, "Tributes there are three minutes left of the second day of training. Please come to a stopping point the final bell will soon ring." Catclaw and I start to walk to the elevators. There isn't enough time for both of us to do the course, but we can do it tomorrow. There is a loud smack and we turn around to find Wallace sprawled out on the mat. He must have fallen off the monkey bar portion of the course. "That must have hurt," Catclaw says. We get in line for the elevator and the final bell rings.
Sorry for the wait but I hope you all enjoyed. If the last POV offended anyone because of the objectification of the female tributes, then I'm sorry but you need to remember that these are young teenage boys. Anyways, I'm not going to do another training day but instead do private sessions and then an interlude chapter of tributes strategizing and talking to mentors. Then the interview chapters will begin followed by the Bloodbath! We are getting closer to the games. You can still vote for your favorite tribute on my profile. I will keep this open until the games start. Also, if you want a specific question asked to a tribute you can pm me or leave it in a review. I've gotten some interesting ones so far. Thanks again for reading. Review any comments!
Careers Alliance
Sheen Carver, D1
Ezekiel Pierce, D2
Aspen Harper, D7
Gabe Amarillo, D8
Florence Javier, D8
YC Alliance
Cyrus Bronze, D2
Jacqueline Voltage, D5
Hope Wilde, D7
Doe Galloway, D10
Wallace de Brugge, D10
District Three Alliance
Gadget Mordhix, D3
Harmony Haven, D3
Girl Power Alliance
Yvonne Esmeralda, D5
Anya Evans, D5
Aster Oakley, D11
Wanda Butron, D12
Tall Kids Only Alliance
Valentine Ford, D6
Miles Tuure, D12
Old Time Friends Alliance
Leaf Sarill, D7
Catclaw Ruddock, D7
Loners
Marina Walters, D4
Luke Melilot, D7
Richmond Clarke, D9
Sage Stone, D12