Sorry it's been so long. Life has gotten the best of me again and what's worse I had temporarily lost my fanfic notebook =( but it's back now so I can continue. I hope you all like it. We're getting into the training process. As I have mentioned a few times throughout the story so far the training schedule has been changed. It will be explained during the training week orientation.

Training Day One

POV of Rose

"Get up, you start training today." A strange man says to me. Slowly the voice begins to change into one I recognize and the vision of the man fades into darkness. I open my eyes to see an unhappy Johanna staring back at me.

"You look much better as a woman." I mumble.

"What?" She paused looking puzzled. "Never mind that, I'll deal with it later. Right now you need to get your lazy ass out of bed and get ready."

"What time is it?"

"7:30. You need to shower and eat breakfast. Orientation starts at 9:00. So hurry the fuck up. You don't have all day you know."

"I still have time. Why do I need to get up now?"

"Because I said so! Now you can either get out of bed and into the shower your way or my way. What will it be?"

"Alright I'm up, I'm up." I quickly sit up. Johanna chuckles and leaves the room. "I wonder what the other tributes are like." I dismiss the thought. I know that if I get to know them too much I'm going to screw myself over. It's already going to be tough enough killing Elm I don't need any more guilt in this.

Still feeling groggy I slide my legs off the bed and stand up. I almost lose my balance, but a catch myself before my face personally greets my window. I know that the glass is reinforced so there are no suicide attempts. All that really means to me is it would have hurt like a bitch to fall into. I make my way to the bathroom when I hear my bedroom door open. I look behind me to see an Avox cautiously step in. I nod my head as I close the bathroom door. I wish they would knock.

I turn on the hot water and it's steaming in seconds. That is one thing I enjoy a lot. The water actually gets hot and quick. As steam fills the room I undress and slip into a luxury I only dreamt of until I volunteered. The hot water feels so nice on my back and the different scented soaps delight me. When I win my whole family will know how it feels to take a real shower.

I turn the water off and step out into the steamy room. It looks as if the whole room is filled with dense fog. It reminds me of the woods after a rain storm. When the water is evaporating into the air, but gets trapped by the canopy. I smile as I lay my hand on the machine that dries you instantly. I open the door and watch as some of the steam slowly creeps into the bedroom. With a towel wrapped around me just in case someone else walks in, I head over to my bed where I find the cloths I will be using for the next week.

The pants are stretchy and look pretty tight, and the shirt has what looks like little holes in it. There is a second layer of fabric so no skin will show through the holes, but it does look comfortable. There is also a weird looking bra type thing. Johanna walks in again.

"What now? I'm up, I showered and I was about to get dressed before you barged in."

She chuckles. "The thing you're staring at like it's from a different planet is a sports bra. It helps hold your boobs still while you work out. It also flattens them a little so they're a bit more manageable. It will feel tight and probably uncomfortable the first time you wear it, but trust me it's worth it when you want to move quickly or hold things close to you." With that she leaves me alone again.

I'll never admit it to her, but that was helpful. She's not a bad person, just a little cranky and sexual. She acts as if the world is a joke and then at the most random times she takes everything so seriously. I guess it's just her way of handling all this. It's got to be tough. Caring for 2 kids just to watch them die. It must be hard.

I finish getting dressed and look at myself in the mirror. My name is on the back and district 7 is printed on each sleeve. It's pretty comfortable, well except for the bra. That feels kind of weird. But I trust Johanna, and if she says it will help then I guess I'll keep it on. I look myself over one last time before heading out the door and to the dining room.

"Hey Rose, you're finally up." Elm says as he gives me a hug. "We start training today. I'm kind of excited. Blight told me all about the training center and how it has tons of weapons and weight machines and survival stations. After this last week we'll be an unbeatable team. So the way I see it, you're my only real competition now." He laughed. "Let's go eat. We need to keep up our strength, if not; training is going to kick our asses."

"Well then let's go. This is the first time I haven't slept through breakfast. I'm kind of really excited."

"It's really good."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I laugh. "Race you." I begin to run through the hallways with Elm right behind me. His legs are longer than mine so within a few minutes he's caught up with me, and narrowly beats me through the door. I stop to catch my breath. "Damn…you're fast. Now let's eat."

POV of Eric

I don't really bother eating much. I mostly push the food around on my plate. I know I should eat, but I'm really nervous. So far all I've really had was a few bites of toast and some eggs. Other than that the spaces on my plate is because I've been playing with my food. My parents would be pissed if they saw me doing this. It's always been a pet peeve of theirs.

"Eric, you've barely touched your food. Its 8:50 eat some more quick before you need to head down there. You don't want to be late." Resin says forcing a roll in my mouth. I reluctantly chew it to make him happy. I know he's right, if I don't eat enough then I won't have the strength for later, and I need all I can get to win over an ally. As I swallow I stand up and head over to the elevator.

"I'm not very hunger. Plus today isn't much of a hard day. We have orientation for an hour, then 2 hours of training and then lunch. After that it's only a few more hours then we're done. I'll make sure not to over work myself. I'm just nervous because it's day 1, that's all. Tomorrow I'll eat plenty. I promise." I say. Resin nods at me. He understands how I feel. After all he was in my place once.

"Then let's go. Being early has never hurt anyone." Calla and I nod in response and we finish walking towards the elevator. As we step in and the door close in front of us we all stand there silently. "Are you 2 nervous?"

"A little. I know that seeing what the other tributes can do is going to help me, but it's intimidating."

"I'm not nervous. I'm excited to see what everyone can do and to improve my skills." Calla says.

"You're so brave you know. You're going to kick ass in the arena."

"Thanks Eric. I mean this as a compliment, but I hope you don't make it to the final 2 with me. I don't want to kill you."

"I feel the same way. But at the same time I'd rather be killed by a friend or know that you died honorably."

"You guys would make a great team. I don't get why you're going it alone."

"Because if I can't survive on my own I don't deserve to win." Calla said firmly. We've talked about it before and yeah I am a little bummed about it, but what can you do?

The elevator ride was a little longer than what we're used to because the training center is underground. We hear the ding and know the doors will be opening in a minute.

"You both follow the rules, work your asses off and scout the competition. Eric find an ally. You're still at a disadvantage so you need to find someone that helps cover your weaknesses. It's better to have a few people know you flaws then for everyone to know them." I know he's right and it sucks. I hate knowing I'm the weakest one going into the arena. It's kind of scary. The doors slide open and I can see we're not the only early ones. "I can't go in there with you so here is where I say goodbye. Make me proud kids."

We step out of the elevator and the doors close behind us. Not having Resin there with us made me nervous. As we slowly walk over to the small circle of tributes I look at Calla. She doesn't seem nervous at all. I wish I was more like her. Looking back over to group of tributes I see that 7, 4, 5, 1 and 2 are all here. So we're waiting on 12, 11, 10, 8, 6 and 3.

"Half of you are already here and it's not even 9:00 yet. I'm impressed." The head coach says as we join the circle. I look at the careers. The boys have huge muscles and look very intense. The girls look scary too. Within a few minutes everyone else is in here. "Alright, now that everyone is here I can get things started. This year training isn't free for all like it usually is. The Gamemakers have decided that in the past not all of the tributes were prepared well enough. So now the day is going to be split into sections, and each section is going to be for a certain area. There are 3 main areas with sub-stations in each. There is the strength area, the survival area and the weapons area. You will have an hour in each, switching every hour on the hour. We start at 9:00 every morning and end at 5:00 with an hour lunch break around 12:00." He paused for a moment. "Here are the rules. No fighting unless you are on the sparing mats and it is okay with all parties involved. No teasing or intimidating. There are only 5 spots in each station; if a station is full you must find a new station to go to. You must be in the area the time slot is assigned to; you cannot go to another area. You can mingle and try to gain allies at this time. If there are any unauthorized fights you will be penalized by the Gamemakers." He pauses and points to the balcony area where the Gamemakers are. "I'm going to walk you around the center so you can see where everything is." He begins to lead us around the center. "The locker rooms are to your right. There are bathrooms in there and if your training suit gets ripped, stained or shrink you can find a new one in there." We walk through a pair of double doors. "This is the lunch room. During lunch you can choose to eat in here or use this time to work on a skill. I would recommend using this time to relax, eat and make alliances." We exit the room and he leads us to the area that has a lot of weight machines, weights, a small running track and a few sparing mats. "This is the strength area. You can use your time here to work on any of these machines, or any of the other stations here." Next we start to walk towards the weapons. "This station is clearly the weapons area. As you can see we have every weapon you can think of. If you are already good with a weapon I suggest training with a different one. If you can't use more than one weapon you might struggle in the arena." He pauses again. I look at the careers eyeing the weapons. They look excited, and it scares the living hell out of me. "And this is the survival station. Here you will learn essential survival skills such as fire starting, shelter building and what plants are edible and what ones are poisonous." I need to learn as much as I can about survival. That's my best hope at this point. "Alright, that's about it for the tour. So you have a bit of a break before training really starts."

I grab Calla's hand and pull her close to me. "We should stick together for the first day. If everyone knows we're on our own then they're going to think we're weak."

"Let them think I'm weak. They'll learn otherwise."

"Please Calla. You're strong, and confident, and have a personality that is going to get you sponsors. I need to impress someone here, but I'm worried they won't approach me at all if they think I'm weak and alone."

"Fine, I guess you can tag along with me for the first day, but tomorrow you're on your own. We talked about this remember." I nod.

"Alright tributes, your first time slot is for weapons." The head coach announces.

"Alright kid, what do you want to practice first?"

"Daggers, and maybe throwing knives after that."

"Sounds good to me." We begin to walk over to the daggers and catch the last 2 spots. Faith from 6 is there, so is Hazel and Garnet from 10. There are robotic "opponents" with foam on them so you can practice close-quarters combat with them. They have foam daggers, try to stab you and block your attacks. It's kind of cool.

After the instructor showed us how the robots worked Faith was ready to go. She got a few stabs into the arms, but no "fatal" blows and she got knocked down a few times. I could see Calla studying her mistakes trying to make sure she did well and didn't make a fool of herself. When she was done the instructor brought forward a new robot for Hazel to fight while the other robot got the holes filled with more foam.

Hazel fell down repeatedly, she never getting more than a scratch on the robot with the dagger before hitting the ground again. She was persistent though, she refused to give up. The instructor had to tell her she was done before she would stop.

I look over at the throwing knives station to see the girl from 8 hitting the circle right outside the bull's-eye every time. She's good, really good. Before I know it, it's Calla's turn. She doesn't do great, but she does alright. She gets some decent hits, then she hits a "fatal" spot and the robot stops.

"Good job Calla."

"Thanks, your turn." She hands me the daggers. "Kick ass kid. Show them how hard you've been training." She winks at me. I nod.

I feel the blades in my hands for a moment, trying to get used to the weight. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I can do this, I just need to focus.

"You ready champ?" The instructor asks. I nod.

"You bet I am." I look at my target, remembering how Calla and Faith did, the movements of the machine. I charge at it, but when it goes to block me I duck and get it in the abdomen. Not very deep, but it's a start. I forget to pay attention to the robot and it catches me off guard. It stabs me in the chest and the instructor shuts it down. DAMN IT! I hear some people laughing, but I hear others complimenting my first blow. It helps me regain some confidence. "Let's go throw some knives."

"Alright, let's go."

POV of Slate

Lunch time at last. Onyx, Diamond, Titanium and I pick a table to sit at. All of a sudden the girl from 5 walks over to us.

"Can I sit with you?" She asks. I look at Onyx and give her a quick nod.

"Sure. You were impressive this morning. I saw you working with the mace." Onyx says. The girl sits down. "Your Electra right?"

"Yeah. I used to live in district 2, but my father is a peacekeeper so we moved to 5 a few years ago."

"Cellis…..what a minute do you have a brother my age?"

"Copper."

"He was in my class before you guys moved. So is the mace the only weapon you're good with?"

"No. I'm great with daggers which comes in handy since I like hand-to-hand combat the most." I look at Titanium and he seems impressed. Diamond looks agitated, but that sucks for her. "I really want to join you guys. I've always dreamed of being a career. That's why I volunteered."

"Well I think you're good enough to be a career. What do you think Slate?" Titanium asks.

"Yeah. What about you Onyx?"

"Definitely." Electra looked so excited.

"Well I don't think we need a 5th." Diamond said with a bit of an attitude.

"The more we have the sooner we can pick off the weak ones and we can get down to the people that deserve a chance at winning." Onyx said glaring at her. "Besides 3 out of 4 of us agree on it. So it's settled. Electra you're one of us now."

Diamond looks pissed. "Fine, whatever." For the rest of lunch she ignored us and ate her food. I didn't mind the lack of her voice. She's been getting on my nerves lately. Constantly flirting with me and ignoring the fact that I am in love with Jade.

Before we know it lunch is over and the 5 of us walk back into the training room.

"For the next hour I want you all to be focusing on survival training." The head coach says.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Electra asks.

"I think she should split up for now, 2 of us go to one station, 2 to another and then the last 1 will go somewhere else. That way we'll learn more skills. We'll all end up going through the different stations anyway but this way we'll ensure that someone in our group can help keep us alive. I'll go with Electra." Titanium says.

"Come on Slate we'll go practice fire starting." Onyx says. Diamond once again looks pissed. "Oh look that leave Diamond all alone."

"You could always come with us." Electra offers.

"I'd rather be alone." Diamond snaps. Then she storms off.

"Well I guess we should get started." I say.

POV of Stephan

"So how do you think training is going?" Ambrosia asks.

"I'm not sure. I wonder what the new schedule is." I ask.

"Back when I was a tribute they didn't give a fuck what we did, as long as we killed everyone else." Haymitch scoffs.

"That's how it's always been. I wonder why they changed it." Effie chimed in.

"Because only the fierce competitors make it past day 3, the Capitol is getting bored. They want to see the underdogs win again and have some of the careers blindsided." Johanna butted in as she walked through the doorway.

"You think so?" Katniss asked. "I never thought I'd see the day when the Capitol wanted it keep the tributes alive."

"Live tributes are more entertaining than dead ones, even if they love a gruesome death." Johanna commented.

"I guess you're right." Peeta says. "I hope Tess does well."

"We all want Tess to do well. It's never fun when a victor's family member gets pulled into the games." Blight says. "We're all routing for her, and for your friends Stephan. You lost so much last year, we don't want you to lose more." He put a hand on my shoulder. My body tensed up knowing all eyes were on me. It makes me feel sick thinking about why they all feel bad for me.

"I'm a victor, I survived the games, we need to worry about the 24 that are going to be fighting for their lives in just over a week!" I snap a little bit. "I'm so sorry…..I just…..don't like talking about….what happened."

Chaff walks over to me. "Come on let's go talk a bit." I don't say anything as I stand up and follow him to a different room. "You alright kid?"

"I guess. It's just hard. I thought being a victor would be easier than the games, and then I won. Oh boy was I wrong. It's a living hell. The victory tour killed me, seeing the family members of the tributes I killed. And now I have to send 2 more tributes into the arena. How do you all do it?"

"Your first year is always the hardest and for you it's, worse you have someone from the victor's family and 2 friends in the arena. I don't think I would have made it here sober if I was you bud. This year is going to be the hardest for you, unless you have kids…." He trails off remembering that the love of my life died even after I tried my hardest to keep her alive. She should be here not me. Wait no. I couldn't wish for her to be in this position. Ugh, I never knew being a victor was this hard. I knew it would be tough. I live with 2 victors and my mom is a total mess, but I thought that living with it I would be able to be stronger. But I'm not really. I feel like I'm made of glass and at any moment a word or touch could shatter me.

POV of Tess

Finn and Angel went to learn about plants just in case we get separated in the arena. I decided to practice camouflage. It turned out to be a good idea because I'm more than a little rusty at it. I haven't helped my Uncle in the bakery in a year or so and that's affected my artistic "talent".

After a half hour there I'm back where I'm comfortable. I will probably come back to it later in the week. Alright I have time for one more station. I should practice making hooks. I know they both know how to make them, but once again I want to make sure I'm set just in case we're separated.

Wow this is a lot harder than it looks. About halfway through Angel came over and knocked out 5 while I struggled on my 2nd or 3rd.

"Don't try to just do one bend if you're not used to it. Make a small bend about here and then move your fingers over and bend again. Trust me. That's how I learned. After a while it will only talk 1 or 2 bends to create the perfect hook." She coached me. It did help a lot. I know me and Finn are trying to keep her alive, but right now she's helping keep me alive.

"Alright tributes, day one is now over. Please leave the training center." The head coach said standing in the middle of the room.

"Let's find Finn and head up to my floor. Everyone is up there waiting for us." I said with a big smile on my face.

"Okay." She paused. "Tess, can I ask you something?"

"Sure anything Angel."

"Are you using my brother to make Ricky jealous?"

"No. Why would you think that?"

"I heard the mentors talking about it. I also heard them talking about you and Ricky fighting."

"I do like Ricky a lot, and he did hurt me. But your brother is my best friend here. Well after you of course." I stop to smile at her.

"Do you like Finn, you know like…as a crush?"

"I'm not sure. I feel different around him than most other boys, but I'm still stuck on that jerk over there." I say nodding my head towards Ricky. Angel giggled. "Why does he like me?"

"I think so, but he says no." Oh...I really thought he liked me. Why do I care so much? I just said I don't know how I feel about him and I'm hurt that he says he doesn't like me. Wow I'm backwards.

"Hey girls. How was hook making?" Finn appears out of nowhere.

"Angel helped me out a lot. What were you doing?"

"Snares and traps. I could have used your help there." He began to laugh. I start laughing too.

"You guys we need to go." Angel says. Finn and I caught our breath. "Hey look Ricky is waiting by the elevator. Hi Ricky!" He looked up, smiled and waved. He's in a much better mood.

"How did you guys do?" Ricky asked.

"Good. I learned how to make knots and I brushed up on my camouflage. Oh and Angel here helped me to make hooks."

"That's cool. Hey I wanted to talk to you about how I treated you before. I know what I said isn't completely true. You're too good of a person for that to be true. I'm a little jealous about how much time you spend with Finn. And to be honest Finn I'm jealous of how brave you are. You know only 1 person can win and you're still willing to make connections. I couldn't do that. Take care of Tess in there."

"I will. She's one of my best friends." Finn smiles at me and I smile back.

"Want to ride up to the floor with me?" Ricky asks.

"Sure." I say. I grab Angel's hand and she squeezes mine tight. The doors close and I'm stuck in a small space with the guy I really like and the guy I sort of like. This feels really weird. I feel something brush against my free hand and when I look down I see Finn's hand. I look up at him and he's smiling. He brushes my hand with his again and I grab onto it. Holding his hand helps me calm down. It's almost like he brings me back down to earth. He leans over to me.

"Are you okay?" He whispers in my ear.

"Yeah. It's just a little weird for me."

"Do you want to talk about it later?" I nod. "Okay. Your room?" I nod again. The rest of the ride up is silent. I felt so awkward standing there behind Ricky, holding Finn's hand. What am I doing? Angel squeezes my hand and I look down at her.

"Breathe." She mouths to me. I guess she can tell I'm freaking out a bit. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. It makes me feel a little bit better. I look at her and smile. The elevator doors open and I feel like I can breathe again.

"We'll be right back. I'm going to tell Finn what's going on." I lean down and whisper in Angel's ear. "If my family asks where I am tell them I'll be out soon." She nods and runs off to find the mentors.

I grip Finn's hand tighter and run to my room. Once we're there I close the door and lock it behind us.

"So what's going on? You were freaking out in the elevator."

"I have a huge crush on Ricky and the first night on the train he kind of broke my heart by telling me that he didn't want to have anything with me. The worst part is he told me he liked me too so it really hurt. I get why he doesn't want it, but it still hurt. And the other night he freaked out before you guys got here and told everyone I was using you to make him jealous." I paused to take a breath. "It's not true though. When I'm with you I feel different, but I don't know if I like you or not. I'm still really hung up on Ricky. But I love being around you." I pause again. "You have some kind of effect on my though. When you're around I don't think about him, and when you hold my hand it brings me back down to earth. And I feel calm. And…well…today it made me….kind of….really sad when Angel told me you said you didn't like me. So I don't know what's wrong."

He stood there silent for a while and I could feel my heart in my throat. Even if he walks out of the room right now I don't care. I just want him to do something. And then he does something I didn't expect. He grabs me by the waist, pulls me close and kisses me.

So what do you guys think about Finn and Tess' little romance? I know it's been sneaking in there for the past few chapters so I decided today that I was going to give you all the first taste of what's to come. I'm not sure how far this is going to go. There are some twists that can either help or hurt them. So far we have 2 "couples" and I would love to know who your favorite is. Review, review, review!

Careers: Diamond, Titanium, Onyx & Slate (for now)

Scarlet & Crisis

Finn, Angel & Tess

Rose & Elm

Alone: Eric, Calla, Riley, Carter, Faith, Electra, Falon, Hazel, Joseph, Gigot, Garnet, Ricky & Isis