CHAPTER XXII. TRAINING DAY I

"It has always seemed that a fear of judgment is the mark of guilt and the burden of insecurity."

-Criss Jami

ARES KRISHNAN (17) - DISTRICT 5 FEMALE

Ares woke up with a cold sweat dripping down her back and a pit in her stomach. She'd had another one of those dreams, the dreams she always had about her. Dreams of Dowlette kissing her, holding her, making her breakfast in bed, and yet after all that, the dream once again ended with Dowlette, scalpel in hand, tearing Ares into pieces. It hurt, but Ares was used to it. Every thought about Dowlette hurt. Well, they'd start all happy but then slowly they'd unravel, revealing Dowlette to be a monster with every passing thread.

"Are you okay?" Ares opened her eyes to see Clancy Dietrich in all his skinny glory towering over her bed. How long had he been there? "Solis heard screaming from your room so he wanted me to check to make sure you're alright."

Fuck, that was embassing. She looked at her clock, which read 7:34, four minutes after the time Solis had told her he'd be outside her room in the Capitol Hotel to take her and Clancy downstairs for breakfast.

"I'm fine, sorry," Ares said, falsely enthusiastic, "I assume we're going to breakfast now?"

"Not if you're wearing that," Clancy gestured to the blue linen pajamas that the Capitol had provided for Tributes that Ares had on, "Go change into the training clothes that should be in your bathroom, I'll wait for you."

Ares waited for Clancy to leave the room before stripping naked of the pajamas and entering the bathroom where there was a pair of black leggings and a blue shirt with the number "5," on it. She tried her best to comb her hair with the flimsy comb that had been provided to her, and while it looked somewhat messy, Ares accepted it was the best she was going to do for the day so she walked outside where Clancy was waiting, just as he had promised.

He'd been somewhat pleasant over the past day, which was a major surprise to Ares, but maybe it was just him trying to suck up to the Capitolities. No, it was definitely that, what was she thinking?

"Your hair looks like shit," Ah yes, there it was, Clancy being back to his old self.

"The brushes here weren't exactly made for people with thick hair, you know," Ares eyed his hair which actually looked equally if not more like a rat's nest, "And also I don't think you should be the one to talk here."

"Whatever," Clancy began to wall away, rolling his eyes, "I'm hungry."

The two met Solis by the elevator where they were accompanied by other Tributes. The Hotel was a pretty small building, tributes on the second floor, mentors on the third, food on the first, so Ares couldn't help but wonder if anyone else heard her verbal reactions to her nightmares.

"Do you want me to save a seat for you?" Ares offered once they arrived in the dining hall, a beautiful gold room with fancy window curtains and a giant buffet, "Just get me pancakes or something."

"Sure thing," Clancy's stomach was growling wildly, "See you in a bit!"

As Ares awaited his return, she looked around the room and all the other people in it. There was an interesting ambiance for sure, some people chatting loudly and others nervously looking around, much like Ares. Surely the chatty kids were the Careers, the trained tributes from Districts 1,2, and 4, since they were way too enthusiastic to be on the verge of entering a deathmatch despite the fact only one of them could survive, if that, and Ares would be happier if none of them did since she wanted to be the one who made it out of the arena alive, but surely that was everybody in the room's desire.

"Clancy, what the hell is that?" Ares asked as Clancy returned to the table with a large machine.

"It's a coffee machine," He seemed rather proud of himself, "I asked an Avox if I could have it but she didn't say anything, probably because she can't, so I just took it."

Clancy truly was one of the oddest people Ares had ever had the pleasure, or rather displeasure of meeting, and it was particularly apparent that morning.

"Can I have coffee then?" Ares was rather tired from her rather sleepless night, "You can't drink all of it yourself, you know."

"I totally can!" Clancy laughed his somewhat obnoxious laugh, "But sure, you can have a cup if you help me plug it in."

Ares truly could not believe what she had gotten herself into. Somehow she willingly decided to ally with this boy, as though he wasn't, well himself. The coffee was good though, as was the other Capitol food. It was an odd situation, that was perhaps the only certainty about it. She never imagined she'd be fighting for her life alongside one of the people she despised, or at least, somebody she thought she despised. Ares didn't know what to make of Clancy anymore.

LANA LOTUS (18) - DISTRICT 4 FEMALE

Lana was pleased to have her District Partner Kingston right where she wanted him, in the palm of his hand. She knew she wanted to integrate some of the rituals from The Collective into the Career Pack when she entered the Games, but she didn't think it would be this fucking easy. Granted, Kingston seemed to be in a compromised mental state, as he should be since he just killed his sister, though she probably didn't have much longer anyways, but she was dumbfounded by the fact he performed the Ritual of The Salt before they even arrived at the Capitol.

"I think Lana should lead us," Kingston declared while they were gathered in the Training Center alongside Eros, Fila, Bell, and Moira, the other Careers, "She seems to know what she's doing."

Lana wasn't sure what to make of the bunch yet. They seemed somewhat weak compared to the Career Pack from last year, none except Bell showing any real muscles, and the other girls seemed to lack the spitfire personality that led to Sapphira Starlett winning the Games.

"Why should I listen to you?" Bell certainly was snappy on the other hand, "I just met you an hour ago and now you're telling me who should lead us in a death match!"

"Simmer down," Lana snapped, getting the increasingly agitated boy to shut his stupid mouth up, "I'm going to have to agree with Kingston here."

"Of course you are," Bell rolled his eyes, "He just said he wants you to lead."

"Well unlike you, I actually care about us getting far in the arena," Lana put her hands on her hips and stood up, further asserting her dominance, "And I don't think we can do that with somebody who's lost his temper on the first full day of us being here."

"She does have a point, Bell." Eros, the other boy spoke up, somewhat slurring his words as if he was nervous, "You seem cool and not horrible, but Lana does seem to be well organized."

Of course Lana was well organized. She'd written a daily agenda the previous night in her hotel room, and she intended on keeping the crew on it so that they wouldn't have a single wasted second of precious training time, despite the fact they did all have experience.

"What do you want us to do then, oh mighty Lana," Even though Bell was sarcastic, his word choice deeply pleasured her.

"We should all get to know each other for an hour or so," Lana exclaimed, "We're going to kill people together and personally I'd like to know a bit about the people I'm ending lives with."

The rest of the group stood up as Lana neatly arranged them in a line, kissing them all on the lips.

"What the hell was that for," Bell wiped his lips.

"Was I supposed to enjoy that?" Moira seemed equally confused.

"It's her way of greeting people," Kingston quickly corrected them like the good obedient servant he was quickly becoming, "I thought it was weird at first too, but I got used to it."

"It's how we greet each other back in 4!" Lana declared, "Or at least that's how it goes on my side, Kingston's a bit different."

Technically Lana wasn't lying here. The Collective usually greeted each other by going straight to sex, and that did involve kissing if it was to be any good.

"I liked it," Fila smiled, probably a closeted homosexual, "But I really don't know how I feel about you keeping us on such a tight schedule."

What the whale? Did she think they were here to play games or something? The only game they'd be playing was one of death and they needed to be prepared for it, which involved major scheduling.

"Do you think this is a fucking summer camp?" Lana boasted in disbelief of Fila's incompetence.

"Well it is summer, so," Of course Bell had to make some stupid commentary, something Lana assumed would become typical of him.

"Lana knows what she's doing," Kingston sighed, "Just please, listen to her."

Lana was quickly getting frustrated at the Bell kid, so she did what she felt was extremely necessary to successfully mediate the situation. She walked over to the wall of weapons, looking for something that seemed powerful and dominating, and finally settled on approaching Bell with a large wooden staff, one that reminded her of home.

"Now will you take me seriously?" Lana raised the staff over her head roaring, "I don't want to use this but I will if you continue to crack these stupid jokes."

Bell nodded his head, somewhat in fear, as he should be, since Lana wasn't somebody to be messed with. Moira and Fila smiled, somewhat enjoying the fact they weren't the ones in trouble with Lana, at least not yet. Eros had no real reaction, almost as if he was shell shocked.

Kingston gave her a pat on the back, "That's my girl."

Oh, what a silly boy. Lana wasn't anybody's "girl," except for her own, and that was why she was going to win. The Pack was shaken up, right as she wanted them, and they were all ready to follow her schedule, as they should be. It would be hard, but one thing was for certain…

Lana Lotus was just getting started.

CORIOLANUS SNOW (33) - PRESIDENT OF PANEM

Was Coriolanus to trust that Clemensia and Lysistrata were doing a proper job in preparing for the 26th Games? Probably, as he was the one who appointed them Head Gamemakers. Did he? Of course not.

"Open up, it's me," Coriolanus slammed on the door of their office.

"Yes?" Lysistrata's voice was heard from inside the room, "How can I help you, whoever you are?"

"It's Coriolanus," He knocked harder, "Please open up!"

Coriolanus heard a "click," meaning the door was unlocking and he took that as a sign that he should open the door.

"What the hell are you doing?" Coriolanus was displeased with what he saw going on in the office. Clemensia had her head in an old book and there was a large sketchpad on Lysistrata's desk with rough designs on it.

"We're working," Lysistrata peaked her head up from under the book, "We've been designing some mutts."

Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. He was an absolute buffoon to trust them with such an important job when all they were doing was reading and drawing.

"Want to see?" Lysistrata grabbed her sketchbook, aware of Coriolanus' mounting rage and brought it over to him.

"Fine," Coriolanus snatched the book from her hands and sat down on their green leather sofa in the center of the room, taking off his blue jacket and draping it over the edge.

Carefully, Coriolanus began turning the pages of the book, and he was actually quite delighted with what he saw. These weren't mutts, these were monsters.

"How the hell did you two come up with this all on your own?" Coriolanus doubted their creativity.

"Actually we didn't," Coriolanus was impressed with Clemensia's honesty, "Lys, do you want to tell him how we came up with the ideas."

"Sure!" Lysistrata hopped over to one of the chairs by the couch located across from Clemensia, "Have you ever been to that vintage bookstore a couple blocks from here?"

"Why would I?" Coriolanus laughed, as if he had time for reading these days.

"Oh I definitely recommend it if you ever have the time," Lysistrata sighed in disappointment, "Anyways, Clemmie found a really neat book that's a couple hundred years old. What's it called again?"

"D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths," Clemensia held up the book she was reading, "It's like these old stories that really old people used to tell and they're really neat."

Coriolanus sighed, "What does this have to do with mutts?"

"I knew you'd ask that!" Lysistrata chimed in, "Clemme, show them the drawings, love."

Clemensia opened the book to reveal beautiful art, somewhat similar to the drawings Lysistrata had made. There were all sorts of odd things, from horses with wings, to people with the bodies of horses. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Coriolanus was genuinely fascinated by something other than himself.

"How are you going to make them?" Coriolanus picked his gaping jaw up off the ground, "These are neat and all, but how will you make them?"

Obviously the Capitol had the technology to make them, but Coriolanus liked testing the girls, and maybe through answering his questions, he'd get a timeline of when he'd be able to actually see them in person because he was just so utterly fascinated by the existence of the beasts, and he needed to see them in the flesh.

"Give us a few days," Lysistrata said, somewhat lost in thought, "We can show you to them soon for sure, as they're already being made."

Excellent.

"Define a few days," The phrase did have many definitions. Could it be the day after tomorrow? Right before the bloodbath? Coriolanus needed a solid answer.

"Not tomorrow but the next day for sure," Lysistrata was nervous with excitement, "You'll love the one that we made first."

Coriolanus was actually somewhat confident that he would love whatever their first mutt was, "Can you give me a hint?" for some reason he was actually deeply curious, "I'm being genuine here."

"It's large," Clemensia laughed, "I have no idea what else to say except for that it's large."

Large? That could mean so many different things. He considered himself large, but he had a feeling that the girl's definition of large was way different than him.

"Well then I'm excited to see whatever large beast you've created," Coriolanus actually smiled for once, "I'll see you two around, I guess."

They waved at him and then Clemensia got back to reading and Lysistrata got back to drawing. How embarrassing that Coriolanus actually doubted them when he had very much seen what they were capable of in the past. The giant flying snake he made for the 25th Games was actually something they executed themselves, and they even let him take the credit for it. Perhaps they'd let him take the credit for their latest crazy ideas too. Either way, Coriolanus sure was glad he'd trusted them for what was probably the thing that made him most nervous for when he decided he wanted to be the President. If only he could somehow get in on all the fun himself.

LIANA TAYLOR (15) - DISTRICT 3 FEMALE

Liana was utterly fascinated by all the people she had met so far. Even her District Partner Edison, who was a bit of a ditz was oddly intriguing to her. He wore a tophat a lot, or rather at all times, which was rather quirky of him and Liana had yet to decide whether or not she meant quirky in a good way.

"Liana, do you want to train together?" He kindly asked her in the breakfast hall in the morning of what was their first day of training, "I think we would make a pretty good team."

"No, not really," It was blunt of her, yes, but Liana planned on winning the Games and she couldn't really do that if she was allies with somebody who thought it was funny to Volunteer for himself, just so he could steal a ring. There wasn't time for jokes in the Hunger Games.

In the Training Center itself, Liana was somewhat lost on what to do. She really didn't see the need in finding allies, since that would just be more people to take care of in the arena, and additionally she didn't like the concept of sleeping in close proximity to people who could easily kill her while she was asleep, so there was no point in her participating in the social aspects of the training process.

Instead, Liana opted to do one of her favorite things for a while, observe people. She sat on a bench by the water coolers, took out the notebook she had brought with her as a token, and started writing notes on people and their behavioral patterns.

The first person Liana noticed was the boy from District 11. He was strong, lifting weights with ease, but if Liana remembered correctly, he was just as old as her, fifteen, so he couldn't be that much better than him. He definitely appeared to lack Liana's intelligence, since she noticed him counting on his fingers a few times. There was no time for counting in the arena.

District 11 Boy - Minor Threat, not that bright

Next, Liana noticed that Edison had actually been talking to people. He was with the boys from 8 and 9 and they were laughing in a corner. Just as Liana expected, they weren't taking this seriously at all. Something interesting happened after that though. The girl from 11 approached them, and they oddly stared her down before ultimately laughing at her, which caused her to walk away looking a bit sad. Liana almost felt bad for her but then she remembered, as sad as the girl looked, she was their competition and that meant that her feeling bad would only help Liana to survive. Either way, both her and the boys didn't seem serious enough, especially since they were still laughing.

Edison - Minor/no threat, still trying to be funny, has allies as follows:

District 8 Boy - Not a threat, seems young

District 9 Boy - Maybe a threat, joking with boys, may not be serious about this

District 11 Girl - Would not be shocked if she dies first, why is she crying? Calm down please

Liana did notice some people that were major threats though, and those people were none other than the Careers, the Tributes from Districts 1, 2, and 4. They looked polished, prepared, and they were running laps in the back of the room at crazy fast speeds. Liana previously saw them sparring with each other, and they looked murderous even though they were just practicing.

Districts 1, 2, 4 - Major threat, avoid at all costs

Liana knew it was very possible she'd be in deep shit if she ever crossed their paths, so she decided that hiding was her best bet. Again, this was a reason why her having allies was bad. Hiding was way easier if it was just her by herself.

Liana closed her journal after her encounter with the careers and decided to do something that appeared to be productive in the instance that people similar to her were also observing her. Weapons, though, Liana knew she'd likely be horrible with those, so she went over to a station with complicated diagrams regarding different poisonous berries, and took a few seconds to look those over. She absorbed the information rather quickly, so she nodded at the signs for a bit longer. She couldn't have people thinking she was too smart or else they'd see her as a treat. Liana Taylor did not want to be seen as a threat, even though she deeply thought she was one.

It was hard for Liana to not be nervous in all honesty. She was fifteen and was on the driveway approaching death's doorstep. It was daunting for sure, but Liana knew she had to do something bold if she wanted to make it out alive. Do something, explosive, rather.

Wow, she better get to studying.

DEPHRA KIRK (17) - DISTRICT 11 FEMALE

Dephra detested bullies, and they were all she had encountered in the Capitol. Her stylists? Bullies. They called her hairy and short and waxed the hair off her body in a rather painful and aggressive fashion. It hurt, deeply. The chefs? Bullies. She went over to the food station at breakfast asking for her usual soft-boiled egg, but what did they say? They said that they didn't make soft-boiled eggs, only scrambled eggs. Dephra then asked if she could make her own soft-boiled egg and they said that she couldn't, so for the first time in who knows how long, Dephra ate something besides a soft-boiled egg for breakfast. She had a scrambled egg, so at least it was still an egg, and she put salsa on it too, but still it wasn't the same. The one thing Dephra thought would be the same as at home when she got to the Capitol was the eggs, so she was devastated that the one thing that had the capability of making her feel less like a foreigner was gone. It hurt in a weird way, since yes it was literally just eggs, but at the same time they were much like her, scrambled.

The other Tributes were also bullies. She had tried making allies with people, but it simply wasn't happening the way Dephra wanted it to be happening. In fact, they were actually rather mean to her.

"Hey guys," Dephra approached a group of three boys, "I'm Dephra from District 11, who are you all?"

Dephra was shy when she first met people, so she was quite proud of herself for stepping out of her comfort zone.

"I'm Edison," A boy wearing a top hat said, "I'm from District 3 and these are my allies Challis from District 8 and Alarico from District 9."

There was no way in hell Dephra was going to remember those names. She already forgot the name of her District Partner. She knew it sort of sounded like "piss," but it wasn't that, thankfully.

"What brings you to us," Asiago or whatever the boy from 9's name was asked.

"I was wondering if we could be allies," Dephra jumped up and down, hoping her enthusiasm would be contagious.

"What do you have to offer us?" Catalyst or something like that asked, "We're not just allying with anybody who asks us."

What a stupid and rude question! Dephra had no idea what she had to offer since she hadn't done anything with weapons or whatever because she was too busy looking for allies. The Career Pack was especially mean to her, that girl Lana called her a "neophyte wannabe," which was rich coming from somebody who's name is "Anal" backwards. Also, what the hell was a "neophyte?"

"Honestly," Dephra said to the boys, "I really don't have experience with weapons or anything but I'm a pretty good cook!"

"So you don't know any survival skills or things like that?" The boy from 8 rudely questioned her.

"I told you, I can cook," Dephra was agitated.

The boys stared at each other for a moment before delivering their final verdict, the one that broke Dephra's heart.

"I'm sorry but I don't think we can ally with you," The boy from 8 said without an ounce of regret, "It's just that, we're kind of trying to not die and we don't see you helping us with that."

Rude.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Dephra was insulted, "I've tried to be allies with so many people and nobody has said yes or even seriously considered what I have to offer."

"I'm sorry," The boy from 9 sighed, "Bueñas suerte."

What the hell was a bwenas swear-tay?

"Alarico, she doesn't know Spanish," The boy from 8 cackled, "He means, may the odds be ever in your favor."

"You too, assholes," Dephra screamed before starting to tear up.

She really thought those boys were innocent. They seemed nice, but they were just such assholes it turns out. Dephra wanted to scream so loudly. Not only did she not have her eggs, she could just feel herself dying already. It was so humiliating.

Dephra went into the bathroom and grabbed a roll of toilet paper, blotting her eyes in the mirror so it didn't look like she was crying when a girl walked in.

"Do you want to be my ally?" Dephra quickly asked the girl with a big 6 on her shirt.

"Not really," The girl sighed, walking into one of the stalls, "I hope you find someone."

Ah fuck. There truly wasn't anybody for Dephra to ally with which meant she only had one option. If nobody wanted to be her ally, she could just be her own ally. It wasn't like there was some kind of rule against that or anything.

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the first day of training. Sorry it took me a while to get it posted but I start school tomorrow (8/18) so I was taking some time this weekend to vibe before summer ends. Honestly though, I don't see school slowing my update speed by much since like I said a few chapters ago, it's online and my principal said she's trying to get teachers to limit homework and this is my coping mechanism anyways. Also, yesterday was the one month anniversary of when I posted the first prologue for A Perfect Union and it's so crazy that we're already in training (and exactly 69,000 words in, which I planned) which means this fic will probably be a longer than We The People by the time we're in the arena. I was looking back at that fic yesterday by the way, and it is wild how much my writing has improved even though it was literally a month ago. Also crazy that the world has gotten to the point where I'm probably doing most of my senior year of high school online but tbh I've always hated my school so I don't really mind missing out on prom and all of that stuff. I also never thought I'd spend my last day of summer writing Hunger Games fanfiction but here we are.

Hope you're all well,

Lindsay

Current Alliances:

Career Cult Pack: Eros Fortuna (D1M), Fila Ollaris (D1F), Bellerophon "Bell" Cristos (D2M), Moira Mikkel (D2F), Kingston Havlock (D4M), Lana Lotus (D4F)

Academic Rivals: Clancy Dietrich (D5M), Ares Krishnan (D5F)

The Fraternity But Less Toxic: Edison Montparnasse (D3M), Challis Lam (D8M), Alarico de Oro (D9M)

Lone Wolves: Liana Taylor (D3F), Dephra Kirk (D11F)

Unknown: Camber Yaw (D6A), Sperry Holster (D6F), Palmer Adams (D7M), Marcel Hemlock (D7F), Teresa McClean (D8F), Saffron "Saf" Aldeniz (D9F), Alabastor Contreras (D10M), Piper Sanderson (D10F), Pith Plastid (D11M), Morgan Barrow (D12M), Etta Wiseman (D12F)