Electra busied herself in training, trying her hand at all sorts of activities: plant and bug identification, fire-starting, knot-tying. She was hard at work, trying to study up on as many survival skills as possible.
But she had to come up with some impromptu survival skills of her own in order to avoid Pietro's stalking presence. For example, she never took her eyes off of him for very long. Every second that she wasn't watching him was an opportunity for him to creep closer to her.
She changed stations frequently to stay away from him, having to sacrifice her learning time so that she wouldn't be caught in his clutches.
And after a while, when Pietro turned his gaze onto the girls from One and Two, Electra silently went to the climbing course, climbed to the very top, and stayed up there, out of sight, for as long as possible.
During mealtimes, Mara and Isaac sat between their tributes, keeping them separated. And during the rest of the night, Isaac kept guard outside of Electra's door.
Electra could steadily feel her temper rising. How dare Pietro act like this? How dare that bastard think that he can get away with all this? How dare he act like he's all that?
On the second day of training, Electra was hiding at the very top of the climbing wall. She lay flat on her stomach, twiddling her thumbs, when she started to tune in to a conversation down below. It was Pietro, sitting at the fire-starting station, chatting to the nearly-as-vile boy from Eight. They were talking about which of the female tributes they'd like to have. Fuckers, the both of them. Disgusting.
Electra cautiously peered over the edge, eyes narrowed. Her stomach twisted this way and that, and she felt a spike of resentment towards District Five for saddling her off to the Hunger Games with that monster as her partner. If she wins, she'll give them hell for doing that to her.
"Are you okay?"
Electra nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned to see that it was the boy from Twelve, a half-starved thing with wide blue eyes and limp blonde hair. He was lying right at the very back, concealed by the shadows, with only his face peeking out.
"Jesus," Electra commented, "you nearly gave me a fucking heart attack."
"Sorry." The boy shuffled closer. "But what are you even doing? You've been up here for ages."
"Hiding."
"From who?"
Electra elevated a cautious finger in Pietro's direction. "Him."
"Why?"
Electra snarled in distaste. "Because he's a sick fuck who likes to prey on girls. And right now, I'm at the top of his list."
"Oh. Is that why he got voted into the Games?"
"Yes. And now the stupid fucker won't stop following me around. Fuck my life."
The two of them fell silent for a moment. Then the boy quietly cleared his throat.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, why did you get voted in?"
Electra shrugged one shoulder. "My own shit luck, I guess. What about you?"
"I tried to set fire to the mayor's house. He's a really horrible person." The boy rolled onto his side and looked at Electra. "He set the Peacekeepers on a friend of mine because she tried to get food from his garden."
"That's no good," Electra said idly.
"Yeah. Her nose was all weird and lumpy because it got broken. She had trouble breathing for ages." The boy huffs out a breath of simmering anger. "Anyway, the mayor managed to convince everyone that I was a no-good arsonist who'll only cause trouble. I mean, he's not entirely wrong about that, but I only cause trouble when it's necessary."
The boy fell silent for a while after that. He lay on his stomach next to Electra, following her wary gaze across the room at all the other tributes: the Careers, the drug dealers from Six, that downright terrifying beast of a boy from Ten. He shivered. "Some pretty scary tributes this year, eh?"
Electra hummed in agreement.
"We'd probably have a better chance at taking them out if we, uh, teamed up." The boy looked over hopefully as Electra glanced at him from the corner of her narrowed eye.
"Do you at least know how to throw a punch?"
He nodded eagerly. "We get into a lot of fights at the Community Home."
Electra breathed out through her nose. "Well, all right, then. I guess I've got nothing to lose if I have someone with me."
They each extended a hand and shook on it.
"So, what's your name?" the boy asked.
"Electra."
"Nice. I'm Ash."
For the last day of training, Electra and Ash stuck together. They did their mandatory exercises, then retreated to the top of the climbing wall. They stayed up there for hours. It was a small relief that no one ordered them to come back down.
The privacy and the bird's-eye view was nice. It made them feel protected from the others. It made them feel better, if only a little bit.
But unfortunately, that had to end. Private sessions began and, much to Electra's dislike, she had to sit next to Pietro. Twice he tried to slip his hand somewhere he shouldn't, and both times she elbowed him sharply. She scooted away from him, so much so that she was practically in the lap of the boy from Four, who looked every bit as uncomfortable as she felt. Ash leaned out from his seat to watch Pietro, making sure he wouldn't try anything else.
He did. Right when Electra turned her head, he reached over and tried to grab her breasts.
Electra gasped loud enough to catch Ash's attention, who immediately waved at the Peacekeepers standing guard at the back of the room. "Hey, he's assaulting her!" he called to them. The Peacekeepers couldn't ignore it any longer, and were over there in a flash.
One of them jabbed Pietro's shoulder with his rifle. "You. Get up."
Pietro obeyed. He was many things, but rebellious against Peacekeepers was not one of them. He let himself be led over to another seat away from Electra, and didn't dare say anything when one of them stood by him, watching him.
When Electra was finally called into the next room, her chest relieved itself of the tension she didn't even realise was there.
She spent the next fifteen minutes diligently showing off whatever skills she had learned: knot-tying, fire-starting, plant identification, and of course, scaling the climbing wall with ease.
She left for her floor when she was finished and immediately locked herself in her room. Almost instantly, Mara knocked on her door.
"Electra? Are you okay?"
"Just peachy," came Electra's gruff voice from the other side.
"How did your private session go?"
"Fine."
Mara paused. "Did Pietro try anything again?"
"Of course he did. He always does."
And that was that. Electra refused to divulge any more information on the subject.
She didn't come out of her too for the rest of the night. She watched the score reveals on the television in her room. She watched impassively as she got a five, Pietro a six and Ash a three. She ordered dinner herself and ate separately from the others.
And she barely slept at all that night. She was too wound-up and anxious to do so.
Fuck Pietro. Fuck that bastard.
