"Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable."
Finnick and I move to the centre of the room, where there are no station or any other things that can get into our way. I take a deep breath and I just can hope I don't flip this time, I don't really want to hurt Finnick, not like if I could. I fought and beat kids my age, not a grown-up man that has already won the Hunger Games, I could leave a bruise or two but not really harm him.
Finnick is the first to attempt to punch me, but I move my head just in time. I was still in my own little world thinking about not being able to harm him when I see something coming my way, I move out of instinct, I think. I reacted a bit too late but I managed to move unharmed.
Finnick keeps throwing punches at me but I find the way to dodge everything. He is so quickly that I can only dodge, I can only defend myself, I can't attack him. He throws another punch to my face, I put my hand in front of his fist to stop him just in time. This isn't working, he's too fast for me.
About twenty minutes have gone by, and I haven't really done any harm to Finnick. I don't really want to do that but I'm supposed to do it. Finnick has hit me a few times, not with a lot a force though. Except one in which he sent me to the floor, my lip is also bleeding a bit and I know I will have a few bruises tomorrow.
By now I'm really tired, I don't know when he will decide to stop it or at least let me rest for a bit. Sweat is covering my face and most of my body. Right when I feel like I can't even keep defending myself, Finnick throws a kick to my left side and I'm sent to the floor, I fall with an ugly thud. I don't even have time to think, Finnick is coming at me, I react before my brain does and swing my feet around to Finnick's direction as fast as I can, I hit him around his ankle, which makes Finnick fall to the ground as well. I crawl quickly to his side and get on top of him and right when I'm about to punch him in the face, I stop. I just stare at him with my right arm raised next to my head, ready to punch him, my hand is in a fist but I don't move.
"Go ahead."
For a moment I forgot we are just training, my life is not really in danger. But then I snapped back into reality and that's when I stopped myself from hitting Finnick. It almost happened, but I managed to come back just in time.
"No." I say, making sure I don't say I kind of flipped and I'm afraid of actually hitting him like crazy, without being able to stop like all those times back in my District. "You said I couldn't hit you in the face."
I get off of him and stand up quickly, offering my hand to Finnick. It doesn't really help him since he's too heavy for me but we both pretend it did help.
"I'm sorry about your lip." He says.
"It's nothing." I say. "It doesn't even hurt."
"It will."
Finnick searches for something inside his pockets, he finds it quickly and throws it at me. I almost drop it but I react quickly. I look at the small plastic bottle trying to figure out what it is. I look back at Finnick to ask him what it is but my words get stuck in my throat, I'm quite shocked to see that Finnick has taken his shirt off, something I didn't expect at all.
"Uhm, this, uhm…" I stutter, trying to look as normal as I can.
"It's for your lip." Finnick says. "And for any other injury I made, it will help heal the bruises as well."
"Thanks."
"I can't let the beauty of District 2 walk into the interview with Caesar all beaten up and bruised, can I?" He says, and as he does my heart skips a beat. I have forgotten about it. "We won't train any more because I want to talk about that."
Probably I unconsciously forgot the interview because I have been dreading that moment. Caesar is supposed to help the tributes during the interview but I'm still really nervous about that, I have to talk in front of hundreds of people plus the people that will watch it at their houses all over Panem, something I'm not good at.
"Caesar will for sure ask about your score. We can't play the innocent weak girl anymore, since you got a twelve. But I don't really want you to be too fierce. I don't know what we can do yet." Finnick says. "You can act like a nice, down-to-earth girl. A girl that is confident about her skills but still humble."
"I can do that, I think." I say. "I don't want to talk too much, though."
"Just act natural, be yourself." Finnick says to me. "Pretend it's just you and him. All those people aren't there, imagine they aren't."
"Okay, I will try."
"And don't say what you are good at." Finnick says. "Or what you aren't good at. That will only bring you problems, and the other tributes will know and that won't be good."
I only nod at him as I finally remember to apply some of the ointment to my cheek and lip. It smells really nice, I can't really tell exactly what the smell is though, like a mix of several different scents.
"He will probably ask about your family and something about your life in your district." Finnick continues. "Try to talk a lot about that so time runs out and he won't have time to talk about your score or anything related to that or the games."
"Talk about my loving family?" I chuckle. "Of course."
"Make something up if you want." Finnick suggests. "Use some more of that ointment in four hours and if the lip isn't cured by then or you see some bruises that are not healing, then use a bit more. You can use it every four hours."
"Okay, thanks."
"I am the one that made those bruises, you don't have to thank me."
"We are training, I know the risks and I accepted them. Don't feel bad about this."
"I hit a fourteen-year-old girl." He says like he can't believe it himself.
"Don't feel bad about it." I repeat. "I'm okay, it doesn't even hurt. Seriously, Finnick, I'm good. Thanks for training me."
"It's nothing." Finnick says.
"Of course it is not nothing. It may be the difference between life or my death." I exclaim. "So thanks."
"It's my pleasure." Finnick says winking at me going back to his normal flirty self. "Hey, you never told me why you were late today."
"Sorry about that." I say. "Ryle was awake and I had to hide behind a couch for like ten minutes."
"He went to sleep then?"
"Not exactly. I had to walk across the living room as cautious as I could, he turned around and almost caught me and I had to hide again, but behind a vase. Then he wasn't facing me anymore so I ran out of there and came here. It's weird though."
"What is weird?"
"He was crying."
"Maybe he misses his family."
"I don't know." I say. "He was hurting way too much. I think it's something else. Maybe he doesn't want to be part of the games. He seemed like he was good and even proud about being picked, but maybe it was all an act."
"Maybe." Finnick says shrugging. "Don't think about it too much, okay? Maybe it was nothing."
"Yeah." I say nodding. "At what time will I see you later?"
"What about 11:00 a.m.?" Finnick says. "That way you can have enough time to rest after that. You need to rest, or in the arena you will get exhausted for not resting."
Finnick grabs his shirt and puts it over his shoulder. He sighs and takes about three steps to stand right next to me.
"Let's go." He says to me. "It's a bit late and that wet shirt might make you sick, I didn't bring a jacket this time to let you borrow it."
"I'm sorry I haven't given you your jacket back." I say. "I will give it to you later on our other training."
Finnick puts one of his arms around me like he always does but this time I feel my heartbeat raising, maybe it's because he doesn't have a shirt on, but that shouldn't really affect me. We start to walk out of the gymnasium, as always Finnick turns off the lights and we exit the room.
"It's alright, you can keep it."
"I can't do that but thanks."
"I'm serious, accept it as a gift."
"Tell you what, I give it back to you and once I win." I say, it feels weird saying I will win for sure, I hope I don't jinx it or anything. "You can give it to me, it seems fair to me."
"Alright." Finnick says as he presses the button to call the lift. "But you will give it back to me until Monday, before the games. And feel free to use it, it's yours now."
"Not yet, I'm only borrowing it."
The lift doors open as it makes a bell noise announcing it has come. We enter the lift and this time I press our floors buttons.
"Don't feel nervous about the interview, just be charismatic and smile the whole time. You want to win those people so they will sponsor you during the games, but I'm sure you already have enough sponsors by now."
"You think?"
"You got some at the Parade and with that twelve you got more." Finnick says with a lot of confidence as the doors open. "It's obvious."
"Hope you are right." I say as I walk out of the lift.
"I'm always right." He finishes his sentence just before the doors close, leaving me staring at my own reflection.
I sigh, turn around and walk into the apartment, I'm thinking of taking a shower, only to wash my body.
QOTD: If you were in the Hunger Games, what would be your chosen weapon?
How do you think the interview will go?
please comment! :D