Allies

My second day of training was not at all like the first. Well it started out the same; Caden and I travelled down the elevator to the huge training gymnasium and found that once again we were almost the first there. Luckily however this time we didn't have to awkwardly hang around and wait for everybody else so I headed over to the knife throwing station again to practice with as few people watching me as possible. After I had been throwing for maybe five minutes I started to feel eyes on me, lots of eyes. I slowly turned around and noticed three Gamemakers standing behind me, watching me and whispering to one another. I hadn't even noticed them yesterday, in their long regal looking purple robes. I tried to completely forget about them but it was unnerving to know that they were watching me so carefully. When I couldn't take it anymore I decided it was probably time to move stations and head over and try the camouflage station. Well that was until I literally bumped into Jett.

He had obviously intended to come up and join me but since he hadn't announced himself I didn't know he was there and turned around and walked straight into him. And of course him being the much bigger of the two of us he wasn't the one to get flung straight in the direction of the floor. I guess it really is a matter of opinion whether it was lucky that he had abnormally fast reflexes and caught my arm to hold me up before I fell. He beamed at me, although he didn't pull me up.

"Are you seeing a pattern here?" he asked mischievously, "This is the second time in three days that I have had to stop you falling flat on your face."

"Ok first help me up for heaven's sake," I said because I didn't like having him completely in control of me and also quite literally almost every single pair of eyes in this entire room were on the two of us and I didn't like it. He hesitated for a second, as though he was contemplating whether to leave me hanging in his arms, let me up or just drop me. Eventually he reached out his other arm, took my hand and helped me back to my feet. I took a moment to readjust to the feeling of being on solid ground before starting again.

"Number one," I started, pausing to catch my breath for a second, "The first time was due to a horrible combination of a shift in gravity and a general lack of coordination. Secondly you can't claim to have saved me then considering that you were the one who made me fall in the first place."

He put on an extremely innocent face, his big brown eyes wide, "I'm so sorry."

I glared at him and he smiled at me. It was so hard not to smile when he smiled at me like that.

"Well since you're obviously so eager to go throw some knives you can have this station all to yourself," I said with a curt smile, "I'm going to the camouflage station."

"You know that sounds like a great idea," he said, "Perhaps I'll join you."

"Fancy that," I said with a smile and the two of us walked over to the camouflage station.

I was starting to feel exceedingly inferior to Jett because it seemed that he was so good at so many things that a normal human like me could barely compare myself to him. Camouflage was no exception to this rule. Unlike Jett, who could weave disguises out of all kinds of muds and leaves and berries, I do not have a creative bone in my body and instead just got my arm covered in some horrible sticky concoction that greatly resembled, well, dirt. Eventually I got so sick of seeing the instructor clap her hands in delight at his beautifully designed vine camouflage that I threw a huge clump of berries right at his head. Was it childish? Maybe. Was it unsportsmanlike? Probably. Did it feel great to see his overachieving face covered in thick, purple juice? Definitely.

I probably would have got in an awful lot of trouble if Jett hadn't burst out laughing. He wiped all the berry juice from his face and came up and smeared it all over me. I gasped and accidently gave a girlish squeal. He then grabbed a huge bucket of water, that was probably there to clean all the mud and dirt off people's arms, and tipped it over my head. I was going to do the exact same thing to him but he beat me to it, drenching himself from head to toe.

"Well we're clean now," he said with a chuckle and then handed me a small hand towel that was sitting next to the bucket.

"Gee thanks," I said as I took the tiny towel.

From that point on the day started to become less and less like the previous one. Sure Jett still stuck to me like glue and the two of us practiced together but it was at the staff combat station that things started to get interesting.

I didn't even know what a staff was, so when Jett suggested we go learn how to use one I was just a little bit concerned. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a staff was actually just a long, thick wooden stick that people use to hit each other with. Personally I thought that if I was close enough to hit someone with a stick then I'd much rather have a weapon with a blade on it but I suppose that if I didn't it was probably a good idea to learn how to hurt someone with the damn stick.

After fifteen minutes or so I started to like the stick-I mean staff- a little bit more. It was probably the first larger sized weapon that I could actually see myself using, because it wasn't that heavy and was so well proportioned that it seemed to balance really well when I swung it. I was feeling pretty confident when heard a light voice behind me.

"You need to hold it further down."

I turned around to see the blonde girl from one, whose name had totally escaped my mind at that moment, standing behind me. Up close she was even prettier than I had thought. Her long blonde hair fell in perfect waves down her back and her pale skin was absolutely flawless. Well actually there was one little black mark about a centimetre below the corner of her right eye. I knew they had a name for something like that, was it a freckle, a birthmark? No, a beauty mark. Trust.

I looked at her with a puzzled look on my face.

"The staff," she said with a small nod in the direction of the stick in my hand, "You're left hand is too far up. If you want to be able to manoeuvre it properly you need to hold it further down."

I looked back to my staff and moved my left hand down a couple of inches. I then quickly thrust it out and hit the punching bag I'd been beating up with even more force and speed than I had before.

"Your names Eora, isn't it?" she asked with a small flick of her perfect golden hair, "I'm Velvet."

Velvet. That was it. Damn. It's a little bit embarrassing that everyone I meet seems to know my name but I can't remember theirs.

"Nice to meet you," I said awkwardly. Luckily Jett saved me from any further awkward chit chat by choosing that very moment to stop beating his assistant to a pulp and come join the conversation.

"Hey Velvet," he said with a smile.

"Jett," she said, blushing and suddenly completely oblivious to my entire existence.

"How've you been?"

"Oh it's been alright," she said looking him up and down. She gasped quickly, "How did you get so wet?"

Jett laughed and quickly glanced at me, "Just got a little carried away at the camouflage station that's all."

Her eyes didn't leave his and she let out a horribly girlish and annoying laugh.

"That's so funny!"

"Well," I said to fill the silence, "I'm going to go." I looked at Jett and could hardly contain my laughter. "You two have fun."

"Actually I'll come with you," Jett said smoothly, "I think I'm just about done here anyway."

"Ok then well I'll see you later Jett," Velvet said with a quick wave as the two of us walked away.

As soon as we were out of earshot I couldn't hold my laughter anymore. I started laughing so hard I was literally crying.

"Don't even say a word," Jett said, barely able to contain a smile.

"I don't think I have to," I said once I'd caught my breath.

"I did warn you. I told she wasn't bright."

I laughed again, "Yeh but you didn't say she was completely fawning over you."

He smiled, "A mere oversight on my part."

"Well she is very pretty," I reminded him, seeing if he'd take the bait a second time around, "You could do much worse."

His smile slowly faded, "Beauty isn't just skin deep," he said seriously. When I awkwardly looked down at my toes feeling embarrassed he laughed, "Besides I don't think I could do much worse."

I looked up and smiled again, "Agreed."

Over the next few stations that Jett and I visit at least half a dozen people introduced themselves to me. I met both Tripp and Dahlia from two, they were both completely self righteous and unpleasant, and both seemed completely disgusted that they were talking to me. After that I met Knox, the boy from three and Luis, the boy from eleven. The two of them seemed nervous and intimidated by me, which, although it was a confidence booster, I doubt actually had all that much to do with me and more with my strong, blonde, career stalker. Porter, the little twelve year old from ten was actually my favourite. He was surprisingly calm and confident, talking so much that I learnt more about him in five minutes than I could have learnt about anyone else in a year.

The biggest surprise however came when Jett and I were at the shelter station, which was one of the last stations we visited before lunch. I had just started weaving a shelter out of grass when a huge, bulky figure came and sat in between Jett and I. I didn't need to look up to recognise her, nobody else was that big.

Angora didn't say anything; she just sat down and started roping some vines together. I pretended not to notice her, not to be intimidated, or terrified of her and focused really hard on weaving my grass. I decided it was probably a really stupid way of making a shelter, I mean seriously if I had enough time to weave some damn grass why couldn't I have just gone and found a cave? Once again I was inferior to my career counterparts who both finished their shelters much fast than me. Jett's woven grass was tight but when the instructor checked to see if it would hold out water it let quite a bit of water through. Angora's vines didn't do much better in comparison, still leaking enough to be annoying if you were trying to sleep under it. The two of them went back and tried to fix their shelters just as I finished. I couldn't help but give Jett and Angora a cocky little smirk when my woven grass literally didn't leak a drop.

"Pretty good," Angora said her deep, masculine voice catching me off guard, "I'm Angora," she said her hand extended.

"Eora," I stammered as I reached out and shook her hand, which was easily twice the size of mine.

She shook my hand, recoiled and then walked away as though nothing had happened and I'd never been there. Whatever Jett's reason for hanging around me he had obviously put me on the map. Whether or not I wanted to be on that map I wasn't sure but I guess that wasn't up to me anymore.

"Weird," I said as I watched her walk away.

"She's not exactly the world's best conversationalist," Jett said smiling, "You should be extremely proud that she introduced herself to you. Quite the honour."

I glared at him and he smiled back.

"You're not much of a people person are you Eora?" he asked lightly.

I frowned, "What makes you say that?"

"I am a people person, we can tell." He said with a playful grin.

"Oh really?"

"Yes. And me being a people person and all, I can tell that you and I would make a great team."

Ok, that took me by surprise.

"Pardon?"

"You heard me."

I was completely unprepared for this. Did Jett seriously just ask me to be his ally? Macie, Haymitch and Rubin all thought he would but they hadn't actually seen or met him. Why would he want me as an ally? As far as he knew I wasn't particularly good at anything, well I did kick his ass at that obstacle course and the agility station, but besides that he'd beaten me at practically everything we did.

"You want me to be your ally?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes."

"As in working together?"

He laughed, "I think that's what's implied by the term 'ally.'"

For me, as the others had reminded me over and over last night, Jett would be a very useful ally. He was strong, smart, likeable and generally good at everything. I would be an idiot to say no. The only thing that was stopping me from accepting was how desperately I wanted to know why he wanted me as an ally.

I breathed in a huge breath of air.

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"Ok, I'll be your ally."

He beamed at me, "Really?"

I frowned, "No you idiot I'm joking."

He laughed and stretched out his hand, "Partners?"

I smiled, reached out and took his hand, "Partners."