Training Day 2
Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, District 3
As I walk through the training center doors, I can see that I can't win this. The boy from 1, Jason, is demonstrating how well he can chop off a dummy's head with a spear, the boy from 6 is hitting the target every time with his arrows, and the girl from 11 is throwing extremely heavy stuff around. Only they are in the training center, and today's about making allies. I head over to the girl from 11, because I want to also throw a metal ball. I take the heaviest one on the rack, and it drops next to my feet. A mass of laughter comes over from where the careers just arrived. I feel my face turn red as I pick it up again.
"What are you going to do with that? Drop it on your toes?" The boy from 2 shouts, and earns a massive round of laughter from the other careers, even though it wasn't that funny.
My face is boiling with anger now. I heave the metal ball over all the racks, until it comes crashing down on the boy from 6's foot, who has seemed to join the careers. He yelps, then starts groaning.
"Hey!" Eddie, the spear throwing instructor says. He and the fire making instructor, Gary, walk over and steer me out of the training center. On the way, I catch a glimpse of the boy from 6's foot. It's smashed flat. On the way out, I have a thought. I could kill with those things.
In an hour, I'm back in the training center, but the boy from 6, Lee, is taking the rest of the day off with the medics. None of the instructors are letting me train with the metal balls, so I'm working with tridents. I'm not as good as the kids from 4, but I can do better than most. I can throw tridents and stab a dummy, impaling them every time.
In fact, the only kids who are better than me are Thalia and Nico from 4, and Percy from 12. Tridents would probably be my weapon of choice, if they don't have metal balls in the arena. While I'm throwing tridents, Percy and his district partner, Annabeth, come over to me.
"Hey," Percy says.
"Hi," I say, not stopping throwing tridents.
"You have to hold the trident looser. It's sticking to your hand, so you don't have maximum power" Percy points out. I look at my hand and notice that my knuckles are holding the trident so hard, they're turning white. I loosen my grip, and throw. The trident goes all the way through the dummy.
"Wow" Percy, Annabeth, and I say in unison.
"Thanks." I tell Percy.
"Anytime" he says.
The rest of the day we help each other with stations. Percy's good at swords and tridents, I'm good with spears and heavy metal balls, and Annabeth is smart with survival stuff, like plants and berries. Annabeth makes a fire in 12 seconds.
We go to lunch, even though most tributes stay training. I finish, and leave by myself because Percy and Annabeth are still eating. I wander over to the knot tying station, where my district partner, Travis, is. He's constructed a whole net using some kind of knot. Now, he's using more knots to make a snare.
"Hi!" He says when he sees me. "Can you hold this rope?" he asks, and shoves a rope into my hands before I can answer. I hold onto it as Travis jogs to the other side of the room. Then he runs over to me, and steps in a circle of rope that's been connected to the rope I'm holding. It doesn't do anything.
"Darn it!" Travis says. He examines the rope that was in my hands, as I walk away.
I might not be able to win this, but at least I can try.