When Factions Collide
Chapter 34: Wren
An early morning was never fun. Well, compared to a late night. They had made an exception for the tributes' curfew to be extended so we could stay out and party like the Capitol, meaning staying awake and drinking until four in the morning. Capitol parties were serious parties, and running on three hours of sleep for the last day of training was not good.
When I woke up, Theo's face was in my hair. He must have kept it there all night, otherwise he would have moved. I was glad for that, he still loved me. I wasn't too sure if he would have after last night, but I'm also glad I told him what Adam did to me. It wasn't like I was trying to get with Adam anyway, I loved my boyfriend.
I got up, trying not to disturb him, and went to shower. While my hair was still wet, I put it up into a braid to get it out of my face. Today was the last day of training, where we would go and get judged on our work. I would most likely be throwing knives. But I would also be teaching Cali and Aeryn, and they us, so there was that choice as well.
Down at breakfast, Anita, Adam, and Caroline were all siting down, very quiet. I guessed that Theo was still sleeping, I didn't look for him in the bedroom coming out of the shower.
"Good morning, Wren." Anita smiled at me. I got a roll and eggs, sat down, and ate.
"Where's Theo?" Adam asked. How dare he have the nerve to speak to me.
"Still sleeping. I left him in bed, I didn't want to disturb him."
"How nice!" Anita loved hearing about our romance. Weird for an Erudite. Not weird for a Capitolite.
"Hopefully he'll be up soon. I'm so lonely without him." I sighed for dramatic effect. Caroline rolled her eyes. Adam frowned and stopped eating for a moment. Anita looked sympathetic.
I got up again after I finished eating and went to the room. I heard the shower going and saw the bed empty. Good, it was about time he woke up.
"Morning," he smiled over at me, only wrapped in a towel. Somehow it didn't bother me.
"Morning, love. Ready to kick ass in training?"
"I love it when you call me love."
"Doesn't answer my question."
"Yeah, let's beat some butt in training today!" he fist pumped the air and rolled his eyes.
"Just wondering!" I nudged him.
"Would you care if I asked Adam to a fight?"
"Theo!" I shouted with mock concern. "He was our ally!"
He drew in a gasp. "I know! But the key word here, my dear, was 'was'."
"I suppose you do have a point." I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "Go for it."
"Thank you for the permission." he kissed me with chaste and left to got something to eat. My lips turned up into a relaxed sort of smile. The feeling of his lips was warm and familiar, and wanted, almost craved, unlike Adam's.
I sat in the bed, looking through all the screens and scenery. We still had about twenty minutes before we had to be down at training. I felt the spot over my neck. What was the chip for? I knew why we had it, but I didn't know what it did. I had hoped my life didn't absolutely depend on it, but I couldn't help but be grateful for the technology. In the midst of my thinking, I heard a knock on the door. Not Theo, he would have just barged right in.
"Who is it?"
"It's me." Adam. What did he want?
"Thanks for stopping by, really. But I would rather not hear your voice, see your face, or breathe any air within then feet of you, lest a combination of the three."
He chuckled. He laughed at my blatant form of 'no'. How dare he have the gall-wait, the door was opening. Christo.
"Sorry for last night. I shouldn't have grabbed you."
"Did I ask you to come in? Just because you say sorry doesn't mean I want you in here. It doesn't mean we're friends. What if I don't forgive you?"
"Weren't we though? I thought the other night-"
"That was a fluke. I felt bad for you. I shouldn't have given you any kind of hope. I knew nothing was going to happen." I deadpanned.
"Then why-"
I cut him off. "Because you were willing to die for me."
"That still stands true."
"Go for it." I ushered him out of the room with a single glance.
"Down, girl." Theo came into the room, seeing my Look of Death as Adam backed out. "I really do not trust him." he said loud enough so Adam could hear.
"Neither do I." I said, folding my arms.
"We should head down?"
"Hold on," I got up and stood touching him, snaking my arms around his neck. He put one hand on my side around my waist and the other cupped my cheek, bringing our lips together again. We could not get enough of each other. It wasn't normal for us to be this sensual, but we had limited time alone together. Surely these weren't our last days, but if we did win, the fame and publicity of our relationship would be almost unbearable, so I heard from Cali and Aeryn, who had victors at home. Live and let die, I guess, when it came to inhibitions.
"You're right," he said in between kisses, "Maybe we should just skip training and-" he suggested, but never finished the thought as his hand grabbed at my hip.
"Not gonna happen. That's all you get." I pulled back. We had five minutes.
"Later?"
"Most likely." I winked at him. No, we weren't like that. Procreating for fun was more like something Caroline and Adam would do, but we could still be close without it. It had only been about six weeks together, anyway.
It amazed me how much time we actually did spend together, and we still weren't tired of each other. He was definitely not like the trainer I met in Dauntless. We would survive the fame of the Capitol if we won, I was sure our relationship would stand the test of time. We were holding hands in the elevator, the last four tributes down to training. Our confidence as Dauntless outshone the rest of the tributes as well.
"HEY!" Cali yelled, interrupting everyone's training. She waved us over.
"How's it going?" I high fived them.
"You ready to learn how to fight?"
"I'm from Dauntless," I taunted. "I know how to fight."
"Ever shot a bow and arrow?"
"Hah, no, I tend to stick with knives and guns."
"Okay, well, both of you go get one." she pointed to the rack on the wall.
"Which one?" Theo asked. He was about as familiar with this as I was. We didn't do bow and arrow in Dauntless.
"They're all the same. But they suck compared to what we have home."
"Welp," I felt the bow. It was heavy in my hands. "I guess this'll be it. What do I do with it?"
Aeryn chimed in. "You have to pick up a set of arrows too." she giggled.
"Of course I do. I forgot, sorry."
"You're okay! Alright, so hold the bow so the curve is shoulder height. And hold your hand like this." she positioned my hand so I would get the feel of it. I practiced getting into the grip.
"Like this?" I held it up, minding all her moves and demonstrations. She nodded after inspecting it.
"Yeah, okay, now push the arrow into the string. Pull your elbow back straight. It's not so much about the wrist, like I'm sure you're used to." she released hers. "And let it fly." it hit the centre. I pulled back after her and let mine go. It his the edge of the target.
"You hit the target! Not bad for a first shot!" Next was Theo. He hit his closer by a couple inches, actually getting inside the target. Once we got the hang of it, we just continued practicing while they coached us for the next couple hours until lunch. I was finally able to get it accurate, picking up the skills quickly, although not as quickly as I picked up knife throwing.
By the time lunch rolled around, I was able to defend myself in three ways: knives, hand to hand combat, and bow and arrow. Two of these things were going to serve more purpose because I was actually able to do them.
Our group of Allies sat together, and we watched the rest of the tributes. The other two from Dauntless sat over with the Capitolites. Hadn't realised they had made friends. Cute. I thought about the knife in my hand. My mentality went to a kill streak. I thought about gashing her neck, mutilating her body. I thought about killing her. Never had I ever seriously considered killing someone until now, but as the Capitol girls braided her hair and she stuck out her chest to the boys in front of her own goddamn boyfriend, I gripped the knife.
"Wren?" Aeryn asked, seeing my contorted face.
I tossed the knife up absentmindedly and caught it, coming back from my thoughts. "Huh?"
"Time to get back to training. You wanna try a simulation really quick with Theo?
"Sure." so I did.
When we went in, we stood back to back. We would be in there for ten minutes, trying to test our skills and what we learned. I picked up the bow and aimed my first shot. It hit the leg of the figure coming near me. I had to be faster, this was about speed as well. The next one went through the right side and another hit a chest. Now I was starting to get more comfortable, the practical application of my skills did more help than the theory and stationary work. Theo also picked it up within the ten minutes. Surely I wasn't as good as the girls, but I was better than I was before lunch.
"That went really well!" Cali complimented. "I would stick with knives, but really, you have another weapon under your belt, which will be good.
"Thank you so much for teaching us." I smiled graciously. "You wanna learn combat or knives?
"Probably combat." Cali answered.
"I'll learn knives." Aeryn came with me.
Theo walked over to me really quickly. "You know I'm not going to teach them everything. I don't want them turning on us."
"Neither do I. Teach the basics, though." I told him.
Aeryn and I went to the targets and picked up a set of knives. She was definitely better than Adam on her first try. Although it was not as accurate as mine, she was consistent with her movements, unlike he had been. We laughed and played around with the simulations. I rated her as good as knives as I was with the bow and arrow. I only taught her the basic throwing though, didn't want her having a one up on us.
It wasn't until I heard the punches from inside the rink that I got worried. For a second, I thought Theo was hurt. Then I realised it was the opposite: Theo was hurting someone else. And that someone else was Adam. He really did challenge him to a fight. I put a hand over my mouth to stifle a giggle. Cali and Aeryn came over and sandwiched me as Caroline gave all three of us a glare. We waved back at her and the two blondes laughed.
"Really, she thinks she's gonna kill us with a single look. You should see the looks Paige gives us back at home."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. This is nothing."
Theo came out of the rink with sweat dripping down his face. I wiped some of it off near his lips and gave him a peck.
"You actually fought him," I shook my head in disbelief.
"You didn't think I would? I thought you had more faith in me! I thought you would be happy!"
"I am. I'm even more so that you didn't get hurt." I gave him a playful slap on the cheek and sent him off to clean more of the sweat.
"You guys. Are so freaking cute. Like really." Cali got really excited about our relationship.
"Thanks." I swayed a little bit. I never realised people actually paid attention to us. I also never realised that I would make good friends here. Hopefully we all stayed alive by the end.
Training ended that day around two, about three hours earlier than usual. Each tribute would get ten minutes to demonstrate their strengths in front of the panel of Gamemakers. As always, we were the first. The girls presented, then the boys. Caroline would be first, according to last name.
"Good luck!" Adam made the effort to kiss her with his lip, still raw from the fight.
"Oh God," I sneered.
"Hey Wren," he pointed to the knives as the door shut to the training room. "See those knives?"
"Yup."
"I know where they're going in about two seconds."
I smiled knowingly at him. "Me too." Theo looked at him and made a slicing motion on his throat, sound effects included.
"I was kidding, Wren. I don't want to hurt you."
"Pity," I fought. Since when did I become so argumentative? "Because that's all that I want to do to you."
"I'm not arguing."
"I am." My life revolved around arguing and fighting now. If the Hunger Games were a verbal attack to the death, sign me up as an automatic victor.
"Wren Tailor." The voice spoke over the intercom as Caroline walked out.
"Wish me luck." I kissed Theo.
"Wait for me?" he asked.
"Of course, love." and I went in.