Alex Trent's POV

I stand in a semi circle in the training center in between Natasha and Hayden. I'm wearing the usual training outfit, a black track suit with a dark red ten printed on the back. Even though this year, the tributes were allowed to wear whatever they wanted as they trained, I stick with the norm. It seems like Marble, Mace, Edward, Crystal, Dannin, Gertrude, Phan, Starr, Tash, Hayden, and Heaven have the same idea as me, as they were all in the normal training suits. We're all chatting quietly in small groups until a tall woman with long brown hair begins to speak.

"Good morning Tributes! Today is the first day of a week of training. There are many stations ranging from weapons to survival. Here, you will learn to survive in the arena. My advice is to not ignore the survival stations. Many of you will die from natural causes from the environment. There is one rule in the training centre, no fighting with your fellow tributes. You'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. Now good luck and train hard!"

Tash and I start at the hand to hand station. We climb onto a platform where we face two dummies. I start by round housing one in the face and punch it in the gut. Trash sticks with her kick boxing strategy and high kicks one, knocking it over. In seconds, both dummies are laying on the ground. This is way too easy. Tash wanders over to the throwing knives where Crystal is training also. I watch in the background as she picks up a sliver dagger with a gold handle and hurls it at a dummy and it hits it in the shoulder. Tash picks up another but hits the dummy in its left leg. Sighing with frustration, she tries again but hits its hip. I turn to see Crystal, who hits her dummy in the heart, head and neck, perfect shots.

"Whatevs, I guess daggers aren't my thing," Tash says tiredly, "So let's talk strategy. I was thinking that we get a pack, much like the careers. And then, I'll get one of them to kill off the rest. Then, we'll backstab the backstabber and easily get kills. But only outer districts, the inner ones are too smart. So, just keep your eye out for some good people. I've already got my eyes on Eleven."

"The little kid?" I ask.

She glances over at the District Eleven girl who is struggling to lift a sword.

"No, duh. She'll die in the bloodbath. She ain't worth our time. I meant the guy, Hayden."

I peek at the kid with the spiky orange hair who is tying knots with amazing speed.

"Works for me," I reply.

Tash and I therefore strut over to Hayden. Who jumps at our sudden appearance.

"Hey there, Hayden," Tash says flirtily.

"Um... Hi?"

"I'm getting an alliance together and I was wondering if you'd join?" Natasha asks, batting her eyelashes.

"Sure, I guess. Who's in it?" Hayden asks.

"Oh, just me, you, Alex and maybe a few other guys. So what do you say. Please join. For me?" Natasha always has a way of getting what she wants. She uses her looks and flirting skills to get her way.

"Uh... Yeah. Why not?" Tash does a flirty little victory dance.

"Great!" She chirps, "meet with us at lunch!" She winks and walks away.

"One down! Come on, let's hit the traps." Natasha rushes over to the trapping station where I follow.

James Rivers' POV

I don't know how I managed to do it but I've been accepted into the career pack. I guess Mace and Marble, who seem to be the two leaders, wanted strength in numbers. In the pack, it's me, Crystal, Mace, Rora, and Marble. The District Two girl seemed to not want anything to do with us, for she was training alone at the bow and arrow station. I'me surprised Mace didn't get on his hands and knees for her to be in the pack, it's probably because of her cold attitude to everyone here. Rumor has it that the psycho girl from Seven asked her to make an alliance last night after the parade and she declined. If I were her, I wouldn't want to be enemies with Jazmine.

Crystal and I are at the throwing knives station casually practicing as the girl from Ten comes up and throws a few daggers. I try to suppress a giggle as she fails, hitting the arm, shoulder, and hip. Clearly, she couldn't throw knives. However, she was amazing at kickboxing, same as her brother, Alex.

As the two of us are practicing, Heaven, who I met last night, comes skipping up to us. We became fast friends last night and talked for hours. I'm working on building up the courage to ask Marble and Mace if she can join the pack. But I'm afraid that they'll get angry and kick me out.

"Hey James! How's it going?" Heaven asks me.

"Good. How's training so far?

"Oh, it's alright. I've already done hand to hand and plants," Heaven replies.

The three of us walk over to the fire station where we gather in a semi circle as the instructor approaches us.

"We'd like to learn how to make fire," Crystal tells the man. He's wearing a black and red jumpsuit with the word, trainer, on the back.

"Alright, so here's what you need to do..."

For another half hour, we work diligently on preparing the fire. Finally, I have a frame built and I quickly rub two sticks together until I have a small fire roaring. It wasn't long until Crystal and Heaven had theirs going.

We are about to head over to the trident station, my specialty, as a trainer rings a large bell.

"Time for lunch! All tributes must report to the cafe!" A trainer shouts.

"Alright, Heaven, here's what I'm going to do. I'm gonna ask Mace if he could let you into the pack. Let's hope for the best!" I tell Heaven.

After waiting in line, I am finally served a dish of chicken and a side of fruit salad. Nervously, the three of us walk to the table where Mace, Marble and Rora are sitting. We sit down across from the three of them.

"Hey, um, Mace. I was wondering if Heaven could join the pack? She can fight, especially hand to hand," I mutter to the careers.

Mace glares at Heaven as he sizes her up.

"Fine," he sneers. But I have a feeling that things weren't going to be fine.

A/N

Duh, duh, duuuh. What will happen with Heaven and the careers? Here are the alliances so far.

1. Careers: Mace, Marble, Rora, Crystal, James, Heaven

2. Alex, Natasha, Hayden

Here's the trivia.

Describe Justice's and Trevor's chariot costumes.

Don't forget to review!

Angelofmusic4ever.