"Tomorrowmorning is the first training session. Meet me for breakfast and I'll tell you exactly how I want you to play it," says Willow to me. "Now go get some sleep while the grown ups talk."
Monty and I walk together dwon the corridor to our rooms. When we get to Monty's room we stop and I wish him a good night and he politey smiles back at me and enters his room. Letting out a sigh I head to my room.
I quickly lay down in the bed wishing that when I wake up this will all have been a bad dream. My slumbers are filled with disurbing dreams instead. Gory imagaes of the Hunger Games and with my mother watching not caring that I am about to die. I bolt up screaming and sweating.
Dawn is breaking through the windows. The Capitol has a misty, haunted air. My hand aches and I must have bitten into the side of my cheek in the night. My tongue probes the ragged flesh and I taste blood.
Slowly, I grad myself out of bed and into the shower. I arbitrarily punch buttons on the control board and end up hopping from foot to foot as alternating jets of icy cold water and steaming hot water assault me. Then I'm deluged in lemony foam that I have to scrape off with a heavy bristled brush. Oh well, at least my blood is flowing.
When I'm dried and mositerized with lotion, I find an outfit has been set out for me at the front of the closet. Tight black pants, a long sleeved burgundy tunic, and leather shoes. I put my hair in a single braid down my back. This is the first time since the morning of the reaping that I resemble myself. No fancy hair and clothes, no gold outfits. Just me. Looking like I could be headed for the fields outside of my house to work. It calms me.
Willow didn't give me an exact time to meet for breakfast and no one has contacted me this morning, but I'm hungry so I head down to the dining room, hoping there will be food. I'm not disappointed. While the table is empty, a long board off to the side has been laid with at least twenty dishes. A young man, An Avox, stands at attention by the spread. When I ask if I can serve myself, he nods assent. I load my plate withe eggs, sausages, batter cakes covered in a thick orange preserves, and slices of pale purple melon. As I gorge myself, I watch the sunrise over the Capitol. I have a second plate of hot grain smothered in beef stew, it reminded me of home. Finally, I fill a plate with rolls and sit at the table, breaking off bits and eating them.
My mind wanders to my mother. She must be up. My mother getting her breakfast of bread and berries. Just two mornings ago, I was home. And now how empty the house feels, even from a distance. What did she say last night about my golden debut at the Games? Did it give her hope, or simply add to her terror when she saw the reality of twenty four tributes circled together, knowing only one could live.
Willow, Nolan, and Monty come in, bid me good morning, fill their plates. It calms me to find out that Monty is wearing the same outfit as me. At least I know I won't be alone. I'm nervous about training. There will be three days in which all the tributes practice together. On the last afternoon, we'll get a chance to perform in private before the Gamemakers. The thought of meeting the other tributes face to face makes me queasy. I turn the roll I have in my just taken frim the basket over and over in my hands, but my appetite is gone.
When Willow has finished several platters of stew, she pushes back her plate with a sigh. She leans her elbows on the table. "So let's get down to business. Training. First off, we can coach you separately if you like. Decide now." She spoke and Nolan nodded his head. I turned to look at Monty and he was the one to speak.
"Sparately." He tells them and I am shocked. I didn't mind being coached together, it would make it easier to protect him if I knew his strengths. They both look at me for comfimation and I quickly nod my head. It is not what I want but I will not take that away from Monty if that's what he wants. So much has already been taken from him.
Him and Nolan stand up and go out onto the balcony while Willow and I say at the table. "All right, so give me some idea of what you can do," says Willow.
"I can't do anything, unless you count knowing which plants are edible." I tell her, fearing her reaction. I never held a weapon, a real one at least. The tools that we use in the field could be concidered a weapon, but I doubt those will be in the arena.
"Well, that will come in handy, but you need to have a weapon." She thinks for a momnet before continuing, "There will be all sorts of weapons for training today, make sure to try them all out. See which one seems like the best fit for you. My guess is that you will be goood with a sword, but don't take my word on that.
I nod my head at her words becoming more nervous. I know that I have no chance of coming out of this alive but now the reality of it is here and I realize just how scared I am. I head back to my room shortly after. And before long ten has come and I clean my teeth and smooth back my hair again. By the time I meet Mica and Monty at the evlavtor, I catch myself biting my nails. I stop at once.
The actual training rooms are below ground level of our building. With these elevators the ride is less than a minute. The doors open imto an enormous gymnasium filled with various weapons and obstacale courses. Although it's not yet ten, we're the last ones to arrive. The other tributes are gathered in a tense circle. They each have a cloth square with their district number on it pinned to their shirts. While someone pins the number 9 on my back, I do a quick assessment. Monty and I are the only ones dressed alike.
As soon as we join the cicle, the head trainer, a tall, athletic woman named Aya steps up and begins to explain the training schedule. Experts in each skill will remain at their stations. We will be free to travel from area to area as we choose. Some of the stations teach survival skills, others fighting techniques. We are forbidden to engage in any combative exercise with another tribute. There are assistants on hand if we want to practice with a partner.
When Aya begins to read down a list of the skill stations, my eyes can't help flitting around to the other tributes. It's the first time we've been assembled, on level ground, in simple clothes. My heart sinks. Almost all of the boys and at least half of the girls are bigger than I am, even though many of the tributes have never been properly fed. You can see it in theri bones, thei skin, the hollow look in their eyes. I may be smaller naturally, but I have an advantage to already know which plants are deadly and which you can eat. I stand striaght, and while I'm thin, I'm strong.
The expectations are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 tradionally habe this look about them. It's technically against the rules to train the tributes before they reach the Capitol but it happens every year. In District 9, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. And like it or not the winner will be one of them.
I'm thinking that it's lucky I'm a fast runner when I see Monty walk up to the fire building station. I smile thinking that in the arena I will be able to show him all that I know, which isn't a whole lot. I just want him to live, he deserves that.
I look around at the Careers who are showing off, clearly trying to intimidate the field. Then at the others, the underfed, the incompetent, shaily having their first lessons with a knife or an ax. I do not know where to start, none of the sations are empty and I would prefer not to get to know any of these people. I let out a sigh before I make my way over to the knife throwing stations. It is the one station that the Careers are not at. Taking Willow's advice I will test out most of the weapons today and tomorrow and then for the skill stations, the ones for testing our knowdelge of the environment and how to hunt or build fires.
I quickly pick up a knife and watch as the girl from five throws it at a target and it bounces off. I hear a few laughs behind me, and it makes me scared of how they will react to me. They will think I am weak and I will become a target. Soon it is my turn to throw the knives and as I hold the knife in my hand I begin to question whether I should hold the blade or the handle when I throw it. I can feel the stares of all the pople behind me and I quickly decied to hold it by the blade and I quickly held out my other arm in front of me to get a sense of aim and then I throw the knife. It sticks into the target but not where I wanted it to go. It hit the wood beside the painted figure of a person. A few laughs are made in my direction and I walk away decidign that knives are not my weapon.
Remembering what Willow had said. I head over to the weapon rack and grab one of the many swords. The weight of it is heavier than I imagined and again I do not think this is the weapon for me. I swing it around in the air, trying to get a feel for it and actually end up liking it. Maybe Willow was right after all. I walk up to one of the dummies and swing the sword at it slicing the stomach of it open. Despite that I will have to do this in the Games, I smile, happy that I may have just found my weapon. I quickly put the sword back on the rack and look for another station, I wanted to try them all before I made a decision.
My eyes land on the axes, and I am almost certain that they will be too heavy for me to swing around. I watch as the male from 10 picks up an ax and throws it at the dummies hitting it in the head with the ax sticking out of it. I push down my nerves and walk up and grab an ax, and as I figured it was really heavy. I barely have enough strength to swing it, but nonetheless I swing it at the dummy and only end up hitting the arm of it, cuting it off.
Putting the ax back I walk away knowing that I will not be using an ax again. The next weapon that cathces my eyes is the machete, it looks similar to the sword but a little smaller. I grab one and me and the girl from 7 practice at the same time. "First time using one of thse?" She asks and I turn my head over to look at her.
Holding out the machete I nod my head, "Yeah, I had no use for them in my district. You?" I ask her doubting that she had used one before, her district was known for trees.
She shakes her head, "No, so let's learn together." She says and I know that she is just trying to make an ally before the Games begins and I'm grateful that she chose me. I smile at her and the two of us take turns using the same dummy, learning how to swing it in order for it to land where you wanted it to.
Before I relaize the training for today has come to an end and me and the girl form 7 who I remember from the reaping as being Calyptus. I walk out of the training room knowing that I have made a friend, or an ally. I have to remind myself that these people are not my friends, they want to kill me. I meet back up with Monty and Mica at the elevator and we get into it and ride up to our floor in silence. Tomorrow I will try out the different weapons that I did not get to today and the other station that the tributes tend to ignore. The surival ones. But for now I am ready for bed, I am tired.