'Come on Vogel! Get up! You've got training in an hour's time and you need breakfast!' Haymitch yelled, banging his fist on her door as she stirred awake. He waited two minutes, before hearing an audible groan and then a huge thud hit the floor, and he walked away to the huge breakfast table, satisfied that she was awake. He didn't know what to do with this girl; first of all, he comforted her, then he got angry and drunk because of her, and now he had a thumping headache because he hadn't touched alcohol in twenty four hours because of her. Plus the fact he had kissed her.

That had been a basic mistake.

Didn't mean he hadn't enjoyed it.

Because he had, and now he felt incredibly guilty because of it. He couldn't go around doing that, because she was going into the arena, she was probably going to die, and he didn't want to become emotionally attached to someone he knew he was going to lose. He was finding it difficult though. She ignited something in him that no one had been able to in the last four years, and he really felt like he needed to at least try and save her. But even he couldn't perform miracles, and the Careers were really, really strong this year.

He wondered how long she would last. At the moment, he was guessing a few days. She wasn't stupid, but she wasn't strong. She wouldn't be able to kill someone, even if in self-defence, without breaking down, and he wouldn't be inside the arena to help her when it happened. He hoped that in her three days of training, beginning today, she might be able to toughen up so she could last a little longer.

Inside her room, Albany managed to crawl from her knees to her feet and stumble to the bathroom. Her face was still covered in the make-up from yesterday and a lot had rubbed off onto her pillow and then smeared down her face. She spent five minutes splashing cold water onto her cheeks, using some of the scrub by the sink to get all the gloopy stuff off her eyelashes, before she looked less like a mockingjay and more like a human being. She used a piece of loo roll that she put under the sink to wipe the lipstick from her mouth.

She, for the first time, looked through the huge wardrobe in her room for what she wanted to wear for training, only to find that Aaron had already set something out for her. There were dark blue leggings and dark brown leather boots that were moulded nicely to her petite feet, and a long forest green pinafore with a belt which looked very fetching against her hair. She tied her waist length locks into a ponytail and quickly checked her appearance in the mirror in her bathroom before leaving for breakfast.

It was on her way down the corridor of their floor that Albany realized she didn't have a token from her District. Annie had made a little star from some sparkly paper they had somehow managed to get hold of from District Seven, but she must've forgotten it or not been allowed to bring it with her when she visited. It made her feel a little empty, like she was unwanted by her District and that no one really cared. Trey probably had a billion tokens.

She entered the breakfast room, and greeted everyone amiably before taking a seat opposite Haymitch and avoided his eyes. She simply took a mug of hot chocolate - a nice hot drink Mara had told her about on the train a few days back - and sipped at its sweetness, and dunked a bit of bread inside it, testing whether the taste was right or not. She decided it was, and kept to the rolls.

'Albany, you've got to eat something other than bread,' Mara pointed out concernedly, offering her some fruit, and a plate of egg and bacon. Albany just shrugged her shoulders and responded slowly with, 'I'm okay thank you.' Mara raised her eyebrows, but then shrugged it off, knowing that she didn't really have any power at all. She turned to Trey, who was consuming sausages and egg like there was no tomorrow. He had donned a completely different outfit to Albany - something Haymitch had asked Aaron to do. He didn't want Albany and Trey to be seen as a "team", it didn't work.

An Avox boy placed a bottle of rum in front of Haymitch, and Haymitch began to shake before raising his hand and telling the boy to take it away before he succumbed to the drink he had been consuming for the past four years. Mara actually dropped her fork onto the floor, and let her mouth, still full of food, hang open in surprise. Haymitch smiled good-naturedly and winked at Albany. She was, too, in a state of shock, but not as bad as Mara. In fact she smiled back at him.

'So, Haymitch, no alcohol this morning?' Trey asked, and Haymitch grinned and started shovelling food down his throat. 'Nope, I've decided you two aren't completely hopeless cases and I'm going to help you.' Trey looked surprised at this, but dropped his hard-man act for a second and said, 'Thanks mate. We could so with some help.' He turned to Albany and raised an eyebrow, motioning her to agree with him, which she hastened to do.

'Is everyone ready for training though?' Mara asked intently, setting down her cutlery to demonstrate the seriousness of her question. Trey nodded, but Albany stopped dunking bread in her drink and hesitated. 'I-I don't know if I'm going to b-be very good at it,' she stammered nervously, not daring to look up out of embarrassment. Even though Trey was a boy, and had been working in the coal mines for two years already, he was still two years younger and it was humiliating for her to be more useless than him.

'But here's some advice: don't make allies with any of the Careers. Trust me, two years ago that girl Taranee...' Haymitch began, giving the tributes the first bit of knowledge they could possibly use, but Trey interrupted him. 'Yeah, she got in with one of them and then he killed her in her sleep.' Haymitch nodded in approval, feeling something that wasn't annoyance for the boy for the first time. At least he was taking it a bit more seriously now, and was doing some actual research into the Hunger Games.

'Now, I want you two to split up and train separately. I know it might not seem like it now, but you won't be working as a team inside the arena, and you may end up having to kill one another.' At any other time in her life, Albany would have laughed, but she knew he was being deadly serious. She nodded sombrely, but could not help but look in Trey's direction, who was also looking at her. He gave her a lopsided smile, but it was something kind rather than vicious or paralysing.

Ten minutes later, when Albany had had all the hot chocolate she could stomach, and Trey was finished shovelling food down his throat, Mara accompanied the two into the glass elevator so they could travel down to the training room. The last thing Haymitch had said to them was, 'We'll discuss everything at dinner tonight. Try your best, and if that doesn't work then improvise. Make yourself look good, but not too good.' He had then looked directly at Albany for the first time since last night and mouthed the words, 'Good luck.'

Every time she closed her eyes, she could picture the moment he had leant towards her and brushed his lips against her own. He still had that really faint taste of whiskey, but she had liked it. It had stunned both her and Trey, who had given her a questioning look as they rode into the arena, but she had been too shocked to do anything. When they had stepped out of the carriage, the kiss flooded her head, and her true reaction to it had shone. She smiled brightly, for the first time since before the Reaping, and waved boldly, but not letting her sudden joy overpower her image. She had had to remain silent, only waving in direction of the extreme applause she had received.

She seemed to doze off slightly inside the lift, and when they reached the bottom floor, the training level, Mara had to tap her on the shoulder to alert her to the fact that they had arrived. Around eighteen of the other tributes had already arrived, but none of them recognized her from the night before. They had all been stunned by the Black Swan, but this flimsy girl was a nobody. She was almost glad for that. Mara pinned the number 12 on her front and back, wished the two of them good luck, more audibly than Haymitch had, and then left, waving as she travelled upwards in the elevator and then out of sight.

Oh boy, it just got real. Forget last night, this was where the real Hunger Games began.

-HungerGames-

'This is where your training really begins. You have three days of training, and on the third day you will have your private session with the Gamemakers. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour,' Tilly trilled loudly, the main Trainer in this room. She was a woman of around forty years old, but she looked about half that due to the cosmetic surgery she had probably overdosed on. She dismissed all the tributes and everyone headed to where they felt their skill was best tried.

Albany had spent the whole time here just staring at all the other tributes. The twins from Ten were both quite plump, having a mother as a Victor, but were completely silent. The little girl from Eleven was quite tall, but still looked a lot younger, and she had a very fragile frame. The boy from Two was absolutely huge, about three times the size of even Trey, and there was a boy in a wheelchair from Seven. Albany had the funniest feeling he wasn't going to last very long. The only other person who stuck out from the crowd was the girl from Eight; she looked relatively normal until you saw the huge scar running down her right cheek. It made her immediately distinguishable.

When Tilly sent them all off, the Careers, as was probably usual, went sprinting off to the sword and knife and other sharp weapons section, and began chucking everything around and hitting the targets perfectly. That was not a reassuring thing to watch, Albany thought faintly as her feet directed her towards the first station she could find, which turned out to be archery.

Great, time to make a fool out of herself. She had never used a bow before; some of the girls in the Community Centre used to go hunting the woods, but it had never really appealed to her. The boy in the wheelchair, who Albany had automatically ruled out as a contestant, was already started, and had hit the centre target immediately. Okay, don't rule anyone out, Albany thought nervously as the tutor gave her a bow and arrow, fixing her stance to what was best for a shot. The first release missed the target board completely.

The second arrow hit the outer white ring, and she presumed that was bad, but Albany didn't really have the first clue. The third arrow hit a bit closer in the inner blue ring. That was a lot better, even the tutor told her. So for the next hour and a half, until lunchtime, Albany practised her non-existent archery skills until she really began to feel confident that she was getting quite good. A multitude of people joined her, all them already being quite excellent, including the girl from Eight, who tried to engage in conversation. Albany briefly answered her, but made it clear she wasn't looking for acquaintances.

At lunch, Albany filled her plate with two sandwiches and some fruit, and went and sat in a corner in the canteen by herself. People tried to join her and speak, but she just ignored them, on Haymitch's orders, and sat in silence.

'You know, if you want to be the one everybody goes after, you're going the right way about it,' someone suddenly said, sitting down opposite her, slamming their tray on the table loudly. Albany jerked her head up and stared at the person sat there. It was the boy twin from Ten. He smiled briefly at her, although she felt a little patronized by the thought that he was actually only fifteen.

'What do you mean?' Albany asked before she could stop herself. She dropped her sandwich onto her plate and waited for the answer. 'Well, by distancing yourself from everyone, you're making yourself seem really stuck up. People aren't going to ally with you, and by what happened at your Reaping, you're the obvious target,' he explained simply, continuing to eat like what he had said didn't impact him in any way.

Albany didn't quite know what to say to that. Instead she nodded, in a half kind of thanks, and the boy left without even telling her his name. Haymitch's advice was a lot of rubbish then, apparently. Maybe she really did need to talk to people, make some allies so inside the arena she wasn't completely alone. But going against what Haymitch had specifically told her what to do? That was going to take some guts. And Albany didn't know if she had them. But then again, was she going to take advice from the boy trying to kill her, or the man trying to save her?