Training Day One

Arcturus "Arty" Sharps (12) D11M

I tossed and turned in my bed. It was too luxurious, too soft, too comfortable. I was in the habit of sleeping on straw mattresses so this was a bit too much to take. I couldn't sleep at all. Gradually, I fell asleep at around two in the morning but woke up again at five, drenched in sweat. I had a dream. It was fuzzy when I woke up but I knew it was a horrible nightmare. The Careers were there, then Martin being shot and then something happened that I didn't remember. Now, it was six. Tired of kicking at my covers, I swung my legs off the bed and stood up. Today was the first day of training. It sent shivers down my spine. What would I do? I couldn't even speak! How would I get allies? I was so scared that I started trembling. I grabbed the bedstead for support and told myself to calm down.

I wasn't up as early as I had thought. When I went to have breakfast after shower, which was a luxury unheard of back home, I saw that Ayra and Eda were already there. I scowled. Ayra was always being bad to me. I nodded at Eda and sat down beside her. She was a nice woman and talked to me in a loving way. She kind of reminded me of mama, even Elphia. Tears welled up in my eyes. I hoped I would be able to see them again. And then I couldn't help but wonder what life would be like after death. Would I meet Martin? Would I meet some other people who were flogged to death? I didn't know and for the time being I didn't want to either.

"Arty," Eda said kindly, "Have some breakfast dear. Otherwise you will get weak."

Ayra snorted. "Weak, right. Eda, people don't weaker than that."

Eda and I both glared at her. She glared back at me.

"What is it, kid?" she asked roughly.

If only I could speak! I would have given her a nice smart reply that would shut her up.

"Ayra, you're not teasing him," Eda said firmly.

"Yeah you're right. I shouldn't do that," she said, "Teasing a boy destined for bloodbath is wrong, I guess."

My jaw dropped. Did she just…?! I got to my feet, tears making my vision blurry and pointed a finger at her.

"Ayra stop it!"

The older girl pushed away her plate and walked off, hands in pockets and whistling.

"Make it quick, little boy! We have to go for training."

I wolfed down some fruits and cake. They were…bliss. I had never anything like that before and I was soon craving for more. That's what I did. I dug in and half the food on the table disappeared.

In the elevator Ayra did not even spare me a glance. I was okay with it. I wished I had a better partner. But the enclosed space was scaring me. I felt trapped. So when it came to a stop I was quite glad.

When we got out of the lift and into the hall, I froze.

There were Peacekeepers there. My heart started racing, I felt I was suffocating. Martin's death flashed in front of my eyes. I shook my head and started backing away slowly. No, not them!

Ayra glanced at me. Her expression softened.

"Why are you afraid?" she asked.

I shook my head and kept on stepping back. The Peacekeepers… they would kill me. They would kill me the way they killed Martin. They might even kill Elphie.

Ayra followed my gaze and saw the Peacekeepers. Realisation dawned on her expression.

"Kid," she said, in as soothing a tone as she could muster, "They are only here to make sure that the tributes don't fight and hurt each other. They won't do anything right now."

I looked up at her. She nodded at me and beckoned me to leave for a station. I tried to gather my courage and nodded at her.

I thought for a second where I should go. I was good at climbing, very good actually. I decided to head for the slingshot section. It might be a good weapon for me. It was small, just like I was, and I supposed it wasn't that tough to use. So, trying to ignore the presence of all those Peacekeepers, I trotted towards the slingshot station. I saw quite a lot of tributes there, though everyone wasn't there. I passed the boy from Two, who smiled at me. I was wary of him so I fixed my sight at the wall behind him. I was shy and I had the habit of of fixating on something when strangers talked to me. Devon laughed lightly and walked up to me.

"Hey kid!" he said, ruffling my hair. I turned my eyes fearfully to look at him. He seemed nice though, with a friendly smile and twinkling eyes.

"Going for the slingshot station, eh? Well, focus hard!"

With that the huge boy walked away to where his District Partner was.

At the slingshot station I found that the boy from Ten was present. He was wearing glasses now, which he didn't have during the reapings. The trainer showed me how it use the slingshot. I tried using it. It was nice and comparatively easy. Jasper was trying hard too. He missed a lot though, even with his glasses. After some practice I got a hang of it. I hit the dummies almost near the target. It wasn't that bad. Jasper too was doing better now.

After some practice with this I planned on visiting the archery section. Maybe I would be able to do that properly too.

Virgo Ryans (17) D4F

I wanted to smack Cress after I had the shower. The reason? That boy stole a purple hair colour bottle from the prep team and mixed it with my shampoo. Naturally, when I washed my hair they turned completely purple. My beautiful hair!

I confronted the boy about it later and he, in a very unabashed manner, admitted it. He even laughed! But then he saw my gloomy face and told me it wouldn't last more than a day. I decided to reply to him in his own style and rubbed all the cake on his face. He grinned impishly.

"We're even now," he said. I laughed. He looked so cute then!

When we reached the Training Hall, most of the other tributes were already present. They looked at us when we arrived and a few even laughed.

"Stop laughing. Purple is cool!" I said defensively. Still grinning, they returned to whatever they were doing.

I saw the other Careers near the sword station. Carmen and Devon waved at us. I waved back and then walked up to them.

"Hi guys," I said.

"Oh Virgo! I was eager to meet you!" Carmen said and threw her arms around me. I was a little surprised at that but laughed all the same.

"I hope you don't mind me asking but… what happened to your hair?" Silver asked. I rolled my eyes.

"My little friend here loves playing tricks," I replied, flashing him a smile.

"Hi Cress?" Carmen said, looking at me questionably. I nodded at her.

"He'll be with us," I said in a determined voice, "He's a Career too."

Adela, who had been quiet all this while, spoke up.

"Are you sure Virgo?"

"Yes," I replied.

They exchanged glances with each other, all except Devon. The boy beamed at both of us and pulled Cress in a bear hug.

"Of course he is in!" he declared, "What good is a group if it doesn't have a nice lively kid who makes everyone smile? And it will be a relief for me, having someone my own age."

Cress grinned at him. "Thanks man," he said, "I didn't think you guys would have me."

"So yeah, who's the leader?" I asked.

All the good mood was thrown out of the window. Silver and Adela glanced at each other.

"Undecided for the time being," Carmen replied, "We're thinking that the one who has the highest score should be the leader."

"Yeah. I thought that would be the best way. I mean both Carmen and Silver are competent. And Adela is boss. I am sure you have a lot of skills too, Virgo. And we need a skilful leader. So that's why we've kept it that way."

"What if I get the highest score?" Cress wondered aloud.

Adela smiled. "Well then, we'll follow your word."

"Don't worry. You won't get the highest score," Carmen said, "I assume you don't have much knowledge about weapons?"

Cress shook his head. Girls made him nervous and the way Carmen was looking at him… my partner had to be careful around her.

"No worries!" Devon said kindly, "I can teach him how to use a sword or spear. I am not the best here but not the worst either."

I looked at him closely. Devon seemed to have not even a trace of the ruthlessness that tributes from his District usually had. It seemed as if he genuinely wanted to help.

"Yes, we can all help you," Silver added with a smile. Cress grinned.

"Thanks! Thank you all so much," he said. Devon gabbed his hand.

"Come. I'll teach you how to use a spear. Anybody, care to join us?" he said.

"Sure," I replied. He smiled at me and the three of us headed for the spear station.

Edith Blackwood (16) D7F

Throwing knives was relatively easy.

Okay, I didn't get every hit as bulls-eye but they were pretty close. In fact, I felt an ease when I threw one. It impaled the dummy straight in the heart.

I felt really sad though. Could I really kill? This was just a dummy. What would I do if I had to stab actual people? Stabbing reminded me of the time when I had accidently dropped an axe on my foot. Luckily it was just the handle that had hit my foot. My parents had been very worried and when they saw that I hadn't hurt myself too badly, they scolded me really hard for being so absent-minded. I sighed. I would prefer that scolding any day to this ordeal.

I decided to try out the swords next. As soon as I geld one, I thought I would drop it on my foot. It was too heavy. I swung it at a dummy. It missed royally.

I heard a laughter behind me. I turned around and saw that model girl from Ten, Misaya.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

She laughed again and looked at me as if she was sorry for me.

"Poor girl…having to work so hard, getting your hands rough holding that sword. Why don't you understand that I will win this thing? Why does no one understand? And you, kid, can't even hold a sword!"

I frowned. What did she know about swords?

"And you do?" I asked.

"I don't need to, Kedith! It is for you common bloodbath tributes! Anyway, you are a full time day-dreamer. Everyone has noticed that. I'm sorry that you won't even survive the bloodbath!"

Now I was angry.

"Firstly, my name is Edith, not Kedith. Secondly, I am NOT a bloodbath!"

"Everyone says that," Misaya looked at me with pity, "But only talented people like myself can get the work done. And I am the only one who is like me! Anyways, a prince on a horse would come to rescue you? You are so dead, you crazy little girl!"

Nobody ever talked to me so badly. I felt like crying then. She was laughing at my expense. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was a bloodbath…

Before I could register what happened, I saw a figure push Misaya hard, so hard she stumbled back and almost fell.

It was Tyler.

"If someone intelligent and strong would have said that," Tyler growled, "It would have meant something. But such words coming from the mouth of a girl as foolish as you seem good enough only to be laughed at."

"Oh you _! You don't know whom you are talking to!"

"I know who you are, Misaya Despain. And stop acting all smart before I CHANGE MY MIND AND YOU MEET AN-"

"Tyler!" I cried and stopped his yelling. His breathing seemed to have deepened and he looked really angry.

Misaya was quiet for a while. She just could not accept the fact that someone had yelled at her. She blinked.

"Did you talk to me like that?" she asked in a dangerously low tone. All the tributes were staring at us now.

"You are stupid as well as deaf," Tyler replied.

"Tyler calm down!" I said, "You'll get in trouble."

Misaya was trembling with fury. She pointed a finger at both of us.

"You two! You are so dead at the bloodbath. I will make sure of it," she said. I was actually scared by that. She was famous, she would have sponsors. What if…

Tyler pointed away from the station, towards the lift.

"Don't show me your horrible plastic face."

Misaya clenched her fists and then stormed off. Tyler was about to walk away too but I grabbed his wrist.

"You could have got in trouble," I said.

"Doesn't matter," he replied.

"Tyler, thank you so much," I said, my voice low and smiled at him. He nodded stiffly and extricated his wrist from my grip. Without a word, he walked away.

I smiled. My District Partner was not as bad as I had thought. In fact, he was good in his own way.

Avalyn Bellona (17) D5F

"Hey!" I called out to the girl from Eight. Kinnie turned towards me.

"Hello," she said.

Ciera and I smiled at her. I met Ciera early in the morning and after a nice conversation I had gotten her in the alliance with Astreus and me. It was pretty easy actually. I noticed how Carlor didn't stay around her and she told us he refused to be her ally. So when I offered her to be our ally, she happily accepted.

"So Kinnie, I was wondering, will you like to join our alliance?" I asked directly. No need to drag out this conversation more than I had to.

She tilted her head and looked at me sceptically. "Amari is my ally," she replied.

"Well, why don't you both join us?" I suggested.

"Yeah! It will be fun! Avalyn is very sweet and nice!" Ciera added with a smile.

"How will that benefit us?" Kinnie asked. I smiled at her.

"I am good with combat and Astreus is doing decent with swords right now. Believe me, being our allies will benefit both you and Amari."

She smiled. "Okay, we're in," she replied, "He will agree too. I'll just go and tell him."

With that she kept her dagger in its place and walked away to where Amari was practicing with blow darts. I glanced at Ciera.

"I think we should fare well. I mean we are five people already. If we could get in Carlor-"

"No," the girl said, "He is bad. I don't want to see him."

"Okay! Okay! Calm down," I said laughing, "Fine. Whom do you want to include?"

"Can we take in the little boy from Eleven?" she asked hopefully. Ciera was a nice girl. She wanted to help the boy, I got that. But wouldn't that weaken us? I was about to refuse but I stopped myself. No, it was not a good moment to have your ally dislike you, or to boss over her. I nodded.

"Okay. Let's ask him."

We went to the archery station, where the boy was practicing with a small bow and arrow, the size suitable for someone as young as him. He looked really weak. Oh well, he wouldn't be doing us any harm. And maybe he might be able to use that cute appearance of his to get sponsors for our alliance.

"Hey Arcturus!" I greeted brightly. He shyly turned towards us and then turned his gaze down.

"Uh, we just wanted to know whether you are interested in being our ally?" I asked.

His large eyes widened at that. He looked astonished.

"Um, Arcturus?" Ciera asked.

The boy nodded vigorously. He looked so happy it made me smile. I brought my hand forward and shook his.

"Good to meet you."

He smiled widely at that. Then I noticed it. I asked him why he wasn't speaking. He became sad at that and produced a notebook and pencil, writing furiously. He was mute.

Great. Out of all the people we could have got, we got a twelve year old mute boy who looked starved. Amazing.

I didn't show my disappointment though. No reason to anger a kid and an ally of mine. I ruffled his hair playfully.

"So that's settled," Ciera said happily, "Arty is in! Now we're six people. We're a strong team, Avalyn. We are." I nodded at her. Maybe we were a strong team. I just had to see what Astreus had to say. I had told him not to come with me to gather the allies. His unsocial behaviour would discourage them in a second. I turned to Arty who was staring at me with a thankful expression. I wouldn't want to hurt this boy.

"Welcome Arty. Welcome to the alliance."

So here is the first day of training! Sorry it was short. And thank you all so much for your reviews! I am glad you liked the costumes! I thought no one would. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Alliances:

Silver/Carmen/Adela/Devon/Virgo/Cress

Avalyn/Astreus/Ciera/Kinnie/Amari/Arcturus

Roland/Jessika

Have a good day!