I get the elevator to training alone with Nick. Finnick said it would be better if we arrived on our own, it would make us appear stronger, because most of the other mentors would insist on dropping off their tributes. Apparently he's right, as when we get there everyone turns to look at us and their eyes show something caught between awe and fear. I want to smile, but I don't. It would ruin the effect.

We're one of the last pairs to get there, and we join everyone else on the mat until District 7 arrive, the very last pair. I notice that the girl looks pale today, and she's got dark circles around her eyes. I avert my gaze as I see her watching me. The head instructor starts explaining all the stations to us, telling us what we can do today, and that the Gamemakers will be observing at all times. I glance up at the Gamemakers on their little balcony. Observing at all times? Yeah, okay. Right now, they've all got their backs to us and are drinking already. Glad to see they take such an interest in their job.

Once we're finally released, Nick stops next to me, evidently waiting to follow me to a station.

'Finnick said to make friends,' I tell Nick. 'so… I guess you can go find whoever you want.'

'And where are you going to go?' He asks, his voice laced with concern. I don't like his tone, I don't want another person trying to look out for me.

I shrug, like I don't know. 'Well, I might head over to edible plants, he said to go there, right?' But really, it's because I've just noticed District 7 head over there, and take a seat on the mats on the floor.

'Oh,' Nick nods slowly. 'okay. I think I'll go to…' He glances around for a moment, then notices District 1 at the knife station. 'Knives.' I knew he'd pick something like that, and I don't stop him. Finnick was right about him. But, if that's the way he wants to go, then what's it to me?

I sit down at edible plants, and it appears that the boy from 7 was only seeing his female counterpart off, because he's moved on to the climbing wall now. The girl looks up at me, nibbling on a leaf.

'Alright?' She asks casually, partway through mouthfuls of plant.

'Sure.' I nod. The instructor seems pleased that he's got two people at his station, evidently he wasn't expecting many. He shows us a few plants that are common, that we can eat as much of as we like, and don't require any sort of treatment. After that, he shows us the difference between berries, one's that will surely kill us in minutes, and one's that make quite a tasty snack. They do look very similar.

'Those are the most likely one's you'll get in the arena,' he says, after he's told us pretty much everything. 'but… if you stop by tomorrow, I'll have more of an idea what's going to be in the arena.' He says, quieter this time, like the Gamemakers would be listening. They were still engrossed in their own conversation, so I don't think they're that bothered.

'Thanks,' I smile back at him. He nods and sits back, like we ought to move on.

'I'm just gonna chill here, if that's alright.' District 7 says calmly, still nibbling on her leaves.

'You're meant to leave some for the others, you know.' The instructor tells her with a smirk. She gives him a look. 'You're right, who am I kidding? You'll be the only ones who come here.' He pushes a bowl of strawberries towards me. 'Might as well have these. I'm going to go and get a cup of coffee.' He gets up and walks over to the other side of the room. I notice that District 7's eyes have lit up somewhat on hearing the word 'coffee'.

'Coffee,' She mutters, her hands mindlessly running over her leaves. She shakes her head and snaps herself back into reality. 'I'm Anika.' She says to me quickly.

'Oh, I'm Annie,' I reply, a little taken aback by her quick change of pace.

'I know who you are,' She gives me a smile I can't read. 'how's your mentor?'

'Erm… fine?' I don't really know how to answer that, because it doesn't really seem like a question that requires one.

She surveys me for a moment, before her eyes widen slightly. 'You don't know, do you?'

'Know what?' I ask quickly, putting the half a strawberry back into the bowl, suddenly feeling like there's something I don't want to hear about to materialize.

Anika laughs quietly before speaking. 'All the other mentors have been talking about it… Saying how it was only a matter of time before Finnick got bored of chasing women and got with one of his tributes.'

'What?' I spit back, glad I'd decided not to eat the other half of that strawberry, because it would be all over the floor by now.

'I thought you knew…' Anika mutters, scrambling across the plants for a moment, before finding a bowl of blueberries and starting to eat them now she's run out of leaves. 'It was those pictures when you arrived. He was holding your hand, and people just started talking. And then Johanna told me that some of the mentors that have known him a while, expected nothing less from him.'

I'm speechless. I don't even know if there's anything going on! How on earth can everyone be talking about this like it's set in stone?

'I don't… it's just…' I bury my face in hands, trying to find some words. 'I don't even know what's going on myself!' I say finally.

Anika studies me for a moment, then places a friendly hand on my shoulder. 'Don't worry about it. From what Johanna's said, it's got everyone talking in the Capitol, they love it.'

'Really?' I say quietly, lifting my head to meet her gaze. 'Well, I wish some of those mentors could inform me as to what's going on between me and Finnick, because I don't know.'

Anika nods comfortingly, and retracts her hand. 'Bet he's not sure either. I mean, he can't get too attached, can he? You might be killed in less than a week.' That stings like a tracker-jacker. I look away from her for a moment, urging myself not to cry. I cannot look weak, especially not here. I don't cry, and finally manage to look back at her.

'Yeah,' I agree eventually. 'probably.'

'But, if you had your way,' Anika continues. 'would you want to be with him? Like, say all this wasn't happening, and you could just be with him…'

I stare at her. 'It's irrelevant, isn't it? Because I am here, and I probably can't just be with him.'

She finally drops the topic, realising that I really don't want to talk about it. It's making me feel quite sick, because I don't have answers to the questions she's asking, and yet, I'm in quite the habit of sharing a bed with this guy. It's very dysfunctional.

The instructor returns, a mug of hot coffee in his hand. Anika's head snaps around and she stares at the cup intently. He looks quite startled by this, and glances at me for an explanation. I don't have one.

'Anika?' I say quietly. She shuts her eyes for a second and turns back to me.

'Sorry,' She mumbles. 'sorry. Got a bit… lost…' She twists her neck slightly and averts her attention to the room around her. 'Fancy doing something else now?'

'Sure,' I answer, although she seemed perfectly happy to just sit at the plant station eating until the session finished, a minute ago. 'where next?'

She shrugs, but gets up, and I copy her. 'How about we go and join Oz at the climbing wall?'

'Okay.' I don't really have any objections about that, even though I don't know Oz. He's her district partner, though, so I guess she knows him fairly well. I let my eyes take a quick wander around the room as we walk over to the wall, and I notice that Nick is now at target practice with his knives, and he seems to be enjoying some kind of joke with the District 1 boy. They almost look like friends. It sickens me a tiny bit, that's he's managed to get in with the Careers, and here's me wandering around with District 7, who seems to have a strange aversion to coffee, and her half-monkey counterpart. Ah, well. Finnick said to get District 7, and I have done.

'Alright, Oz?' Anika shouts up to him. He glances down at her with a grin, although he's fairly high above us now.

'Perfect, thanks!' He says in a laugh. Oz is quite tall, and he's well built, doesn't look like the kind who'd be good at climbing, but he is. Evidently. 'Who's your new friend?' He asks, going a few pegs higher before looking back down at us. The height he's at would make me ill if I was looking down.

'Annie Cresta,' Anika informs him, with that same strange look in her eyes, like it's funny but in a secret kind of way.

'Oh, really?' Oz replies quickly, scrambling a couple more pegs above us. 'How's the mentor?' He asks with a grin.

'Already been there.' Anika says in a bored tone.

'Oh, fine,' He laughs, then grabs the rope that's hanging above him, connected to the belt around his waist, and abseils down the wall, before dropping nimbly to the floor beside me.

'Hey,' He smiles at me, extending his hand. 'Oscar, but you can call me Oz.' I shake his hand, he has a firm grasp.

'Annie,' I say similarly. 'and you can call me… Annie.' He beams at me.

'Great.' He answers, unhooking himself from the belt, and stepping out of it. 'You're other half seems to be making some pretty powerful friends,' Oz says quietly, nodding towards where Nick is now being taught to shoot arrows by the girl from District 1. He seems to be enjoying himself a little too much.

'It would appear so,' I reply slowly, still observing Nick.

'Would have thought you'd have been with them… y'know, being a District Four Career, and all.' Oz says casually. My eyes flick back to him, a little shocked to actually hear him refer to me as a Career.

'I'm not a Career.' I say quickly, before I can stop myself. They'd best be my allies now, because I'm done for if they're not. Oz exchanges a confused glance with Anika, before he addresses me again.

'Oh,' He says finally. 'my mistake.'

'Everyone's mistake.' Anika snorts, but she grins back at me. 'Seems like you've fooled everyone.'

'Right…' I say slowly. 'I'd appreciate if you could keep kinda quiet about that, though… please? I probably shouldn't have said that.'

'No problem,' Oz says quickly, and gives Anika a harsh look. 'is it, Anika?'

'Nope.' She answers with a shrug. 'None of my business, is it?'

'It should be,' Oz almost growls back at her, before restoring his friendly tone and returning his focus to me. 'be nice to have you as an ally, Annie, if that's cool with you?'

This is exactly what Finnick told me to do. Brilliant.

'Yeah,' I smile at Oz. 'yeah, that's cool with me.'

We don't have time to discuss anything else, because the head trainer has now commanded everyone's attention.

'Hopefully you've all made use of today's session,' She says loudly, as everyone is still dispersed all over the room. 'and just to let you know, there'll be a swimming pool open tomorrow, if that's something you're interested in. We're not having an instructor though, so you'll have to find someone else to teach you, if you can't swim.' She studies us all for a moment, and I can feel a couple of people's eyes start to find me, and other people start to look for Nick. They know we'll be able to swim.

'See you all tomorrow.' She finishes, and dismisses us all for lunch. I decide I probably ought to wait for Nick, but he's engaged in a more than close conversation with the District 1 girl, and I'd feel bad interrupting him. So, I stick with Anika and Oz as we head towards the elevators.

'Lunch is all together, isn't it?' Oz asks to no one in particular.

'Yeah,' Anika answers him. 'staying with us, District Four?' She asks me, a cheeky grin on her face. I nod, hoping that's okay with them. 'Perfect. You'll help us in the pool, tomorrow, right?' She asks in a hushed tone, as we get into an elevator by ourselves, and the glass doors slide shut.

'Yeah, sure.' I answer with a vague nod. I don't mind teaching them, even though I've never taught anyone to swim before. Anika exchanges a pleased look with Oz before draping her arm over my shoulders.

'We're gonna make a great team.' She beams at me before letting me go again. I smile back, although I do feel like they've got a few more motives for wanting to have me around than just being able to teach them to swim. I'm not sure what they are yet, but I'll find out.

We get to the cafeteria, and queue up to get out trays of food. Anika's eyes seem to be scanning for something else, and finally, they light up when she sees it. At the end of the queue we're offered a drink of our choice, and Anika seems very pleased when she's allowed a cup of coffee. I opt for orange juice, because I've never had coffee, but it doesn't look particularly nice.

Oz walks on ahead of us, to the table right at the back of the room, and Anika and I follow him, then sit down. Nick's still hanging around with the Careers, who've taken the big table in the centre of the room. His eyes find mine and he grins at me, then tilts his head to indicate I should join him. I pretend I haven't seen him.

Anika completely ignores her food, and drains the cup of coffee in what seems to be one swift movement. She sighs happily and leans against the wall behind her.

'Might just sleep tonight, Oz.' She tells him, a satisfied smile on her face.

'Great,' Oz nods back at her, and this seems to relieve him as well. 'so might I then, without you screaming to yourself.'

'I can't help it!' Anika shoots back. 'You have no idea how much my head hurts when I don't get that caffeine!'

'Alright, alright!' Oz puts his hands up in surrender. 'Don't shoot.'

'Caffeine?' I ask curiously, not really sure what that is. Anika gives me the sort of look you give to a small child when they ask an obvious question.

'It keeps you awake, but it's easy to get addicted to,' She explains. 'I've been hooked on it ever since I can remember.' She says sadly. 'My parents used to use it to keep my awake to send me to work double shifts when I was a kid. They used to inject pure caffeine into my system. I've managed to wean myself off the injections, then there was pills, but since I've come here, they're hard to come by. I've got to make full use of coffee and energy drinks.' I can't quite believe what I'm hearing. What kind of parent does that? And now they've put her at such a disadvantage in the arena, when she's got withdrawal from lack of caffeine and can't think straight! Although… what kind of person have I allied with now? She's going to be such a liability if she's sick already when she gets into the arena.

'Yeah, sickening, isn't it?' She continues. 'Hope my folks are happy when they see my guts splashed across the screen because someone's managed to stab me while I'm crying out for caffeine.' She mutters darkly.

'Ignore her,' Oz tells me softly. 'she has bad days.'

'Every day is a bad day, Oz.' She growls at him, her dark eyes narrowing to glare at him across the table.

'You might get sponsors to send you caffeine pills, though,' I suggest, because if she has sponsors, then that'd be the best thing they could send her.

'Sponsors?' Anika asks a little coldly. 'Yeah, right. We don't have a mentor to fuck in our spare time.'

'Anika!' Oz hisses at her angrily, and she suddenly jerks backwards, as it becomes apparent he's kicked her under the table. 'Sorry,' He says to me. 'she doesn't mean it.'

I quickly take a glance back at Anika, who seems to have calmed down a little, and she shakes her head slowly.

'I don't mean it,' She sighs. 'I'm sorry. I'm just… on edge, right now.'

'It's okay.' I tell her quietly, not wanting to set her off again.

'And you have to admit,' She continues. 'you will have a ton of sponsors already, won't you? They love your little affair, even if it's not entirely true.'

'It's not true?' Oz can't help himself now, as he leans forwards on the table to hear more. I don't really want to tell him more, but I feel compelled to do so, especially after Anika's story about her addiction.

'I don't know, Oz,' I tell him honestly. 'it's confusing. I don't really understand what's going on between me and Finnick, so I can't really tell you the truth, because I'm not sure what it is.'

Oz nods slowly and leans back again, possibly a little disappointed that their isn't more gossip to hear. 'I see.' He says finally. 'Well, it doesn't matter, does it? If it's getting you sponsors, then you're doing something right, aren't you?'

'Have you slept with him?' Anika asks suddenly, although her tone sounds more like she's asking if I've seen the weather today.

'Anika!' Oz exclaims again, clearly assuming she's stepped out of line again.

'No, it's fine,' I tell him, and he relaxes a little, but he's still glaring at Anika. 'And no, I haven't.' I say specifically to Anika.

She shrugs. 'Just wondering. Johanna told me that Finnick said he wouldn't mind, that's all.'

'What?' I'm not really sure how loud my voice is, but I've merited myself a warning look from Oz.

'That's just what she said. She said that during the parade he had this look in his eyes that he couldn't wait to get you out of that foam. He said he didn't know what she was talking about, then when she asked if he'd say 'no' to you, he said that's not what he meant.'

This is too much. I can't believe he'd say that! I thought he was nice, I thought he was genuine. And that sob story about prostitution, and business and pleasure? He knows I'd want to take it slowly! I feel like crying, and I think they can sense this.

'Shit,' Anika mutters. 'I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry, Annie…' I shake my head, not allowing myself to speak because I know my voice will falter. She puts her arm around me comfortingly, and I just hope no one else has noticed this. 'Maybe Johanna heard him wrong,' She tries to backtrack her statement, but I know it's only to try and make me feel better, she doesn't actually believe she might be wrong.

'I need some air,' I say quietly.

'Yeah, good idea,' Oz answers gently. 'want some company?'

'No,' I reply quickly. 'thanks.' I add, then get up from the table and leave as quickly as I can. I can feel eyes on me from everyone, because I've left before lunch is even over, but I don't care anymore. I get into the elevator and press the top button, and feel myself travelling upwards at such a speed I have to shut my eyes. I'm heading for the roof, and all I want is to be alone. However, when the doors open, I realise I'm not going to be alone.