Chapter 18:

Major Emerson-Ness, 18, District One

Major was the first one up on the District One team, wanting to get down early so he could watch all of the tributes arrive and study them all, picking out their weaknesses so he can exploit them. But part of him just wanted to have a moment alone in the training center before everyone else arrived to take in the enormity of this day. Years of hard work has brought him here. And he wants to take it all in, every little detail, so when he gets back home, he can tell his parents everything. He wants to share every detail about the entire Games with them to let them in on the victory they were stopped from achieving. Him being here today is so important to both of his parents and he can't afford to let them down.

And when the doors of the elevator open on the training center, Major is left a bit awed by the room. Every victor has stepped through these doors, just like he has, some scared and unsure while others feeling confident in their abilities. And Major knows he's going to be the next victor. He's going to make his parents so proud of him for achieving what they couldn't because of Emilio.

And to do that, he's going to use every bit of manipulation skill his parents have taught him over the years.

Major takes a deep breath as he takes one last look around the center, studying the details, before putting on his cute smile to make the others underestimate him. He heads over to the side of the room to watch the others arrive while taking the time to stretch before a day of training.

The others are going to have no clue what hit them. He's already winning them over. Demarcus reminded him of Pad, another person desperately needing some reassurance that they can do this. Major is confident he can bring down Demarcus. Just look at how successfully he was with Pad, and that was five years ago. He's learned many things since then, skills he is ready to apply to the other careers. He can see the rage in Delta and knows she must be a ticking time bomb. He just has to find what will set her off. Now the District Two pair, those two will prove to be a challenge, one he is very up to. Both confident in themselves and far from the animosity seen in last year's pair. But, everyone has a weakness. He'll figure out theirs. And then there is Anastacia. He thought she would have given up on training after Pad's death, yet she came back with a greater fight in her. At the time, Major felt disappointed in himself that he failed at taking out two trainees, but over the years he realized that she would just be a bigger challenge for him. While he could have gotten her out of training – and nearly did by getting one of the others to damage her hearing – why not get the other careers to turn on her in the arena?

None of them suspect who he really is, the person his parents trained him to be to finish the legacy they started: win the Hunger Games. So why not have a little fun along the way?

Major smirks a little to himself as he works on stretching his arms first. This is going to be fun.

Slowly the other tributes start to arrive, some on their own and some in pairs, while Major keeps stretching his limbs. Major smiles at each of them, even giving some a wave, like the pair from Eight as the girl drags the half-asleep boy over to the wall to lean against it, far away from him. He chuckles to himself at their reaction, before switching to stretching his legs. He stands up, giving his shoulders one more stretch before going into downward dog, situating himself so he can still watch the tributes arriving while also making sure that they also have a clear view of how fantastic his ass looks in these training pants.

And that's how Anastacia finds him when she steps off the elevator, shaking her head at him as she walks over to him. He picks up on hand to wave at her cheerfully before leaning further down to stick his ass even farther up in the air, getting an eye roll from him. "Morning, sunshine!"

"Don't talk to me," Anastacia answers coolly as more tributes start to arrive as the time draws closer to the start of their training.

Major gives a laugh at her response, unbothered by her being standoffish to him. It's only going to work better in his favor when the others see how rude she is to him. "I guess I'll just talk to our allies then."

"You!"

Major turns his head away from Anastacia to better see who is yelling at who, and finds one small angry girl storming over to them, pointing her finger at Anastacia. "I hate you!" Sky screams up at Anastacia, making a confused look appear on his District partner's face and an amused one form on his. "You bastards killed Marek! I-I-I'm gonna kill you all!"

Sky gets close enough to touch Anastacia with her pointed finger and that's when a trainer steps over, quickly pulling Sky back as the girl struggles to hold in angry tears. "That's enough, you're not to fight with anyone during training!"

Sky yanks her arm away from the trainer, still glaring at Anastacia with more anger than he expected in the girl. "I'm going to kill you."

"You'll have to get in line," Major mutters under his breath and starts to chuckle at this, hiding his face so any others won't see his reaction. "OOF!" He lets out as he's suddenly pushed over and he barely catches himself from slamming harshly against the hard floor. Sky storms off from them, the trainer following after her to make sure she doesn't cause any further trouble, as Major starts to pout at her knocking him over. But when he sees the pair from Two heading over, he quickly puts his adorable smile back on and resumes stretching as if he was never interrupted. "Hi guys!" he waves at them before laying on his side and bringing up his leg, pulling it all the way up to his shoulder. He watches them, waiting to see how they react to him exposing himself like this and when he catches them looking him over, he gives a wink at them. But he doesn't miss the look that Bellona briefly gives Odyssey, tucking away that look for later. He has to figure out what that means. "How's it going? Ready for some fun today?"

"Of course," Odyssey responds with a grin, seemingly not flustered by Major's stretching, which just makes him want to keep stretching in the most suggestive ways possible.

"Should be a good time," Bellona adds as the elevators open once more and the District Four pair step out. They look around for a few seconds before heading over to them, with Major giving them a cheerful wave.

But before he can say anything to them, a whistle is blown, bringing everyone's attention over to the Head Trainer as she steps towards the group. "Listen up, everyone," she says, and Major does the opposite of that as he stands up. He half listens to the Head Trainer, more focused on looking around at the other tributes and studying them. He doesn't need to be told safety and to focus on survival stations. These are things he's been taught for years.

Finally, she's done talking and some tributes start to head out towards the stations right away while others linger. Major skips in front of the group, putting his hands on his hips and grinning at them all. "Let's go show them all what we're made of!"

They don't all respond enthusiastically to him, but he doesn't let this bother him as they turn around and start walking towards the stations. He drifts over towards Odyssey as the others start branching off to their own stations, knowing his focus today is going to be figuring out how to manipulate the District Two pair. They're strong and he needs to figure out if he can turn them against each other. And Odyssey seems like the easier of the two to get close to, having already established something they both enjoy. "So where are you headed off to first?"

"Bows and arrows," Odyssey responds, nodding his head over at the station.

Perfect. "Oh that's my favorite too!" Major grins over at the boy, getting a similar smile in return. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Odyssey answers, not suspecting anything at all about Major's true intentions as they make it over to the station. Odyssey takes his time picking out just the right bow, but Major picks up the first one, wanting the boy from Two to think he doesn't know that the bow is just a little too small for him. After all, he can't let them know just how skilled he is yet. "It's good to have more than one person in the alliance that uses a range weapon."

"Oh I completely agree," Major responds as he watches Odyssey pick a bow and take aim for a second, holding his breath as he lets the arrow loose, striking dead center in the target. "Anastacia likes her swords, which can be fun, but nothing like hitting a target dead before they have a chance to even get close to you," Major says as he lines up his shot before pulling it down just a little so that when he releases, it strikes off center. "What about Bellona?"

Odyssey pauses as he aims to glance over at Major before bringing his focus back on the target and hitting just next to his first arrow. "What about Bell?"

Huh, he calls her Bell. Interesting. Major sets the end of his bow down and leans his arms on the top of it so he can watch Odyssey closer, knowing he's on the right track here. "What does she like to use?"

"Oh," Odyssey says with a chuckle, turning to look over at Major and brushing his hair back. "You know those District Two girls, always loving their spears and knives."

"I don't really know them, not as well as you do," Major responds with a laugh, but still making sure to watch Odyssey carefully. The laugh that Odyssey gives him is just a bit forced compared to the laughs from last night, and Major knows this is somehow a delicate subject for him. Major briefly looks around the room as Odyssey lets loose another accurate arrow and finds Bellona talking with Anastacia, but looking over at Odyssey. She gives Major a small smile at him noticing her before quickly looking away, but not before he notices the faint blush spreading on her cheeks.

Bingo.

"You and Bellona seem really close. What, are you two, like, dating or something?" Major teases him as Odyssey is ready to fire another arrow, and his comment makes Odyssey jerk his arm just enough to make the arrow hit off target, the very first one to not hit the bullseye. Major holds in his smug smile at this and takes the time to fire another arrow that he doesn't let hit the bullseye. "I wouldn't blame you if you are, she's a pretty girl, but maybe not the best choice in partner considering, you know, the whole Games thing."

"What? No, no, no, we're just friends," Odyssey answers quickly, a little too quickly, turning so his body is angled a bit away from Major. "Kat didn't want a repeat of last year so we were forced to work together or not be allowed to volunteer."

Major is glad Thetis didn't make them do that in One. He would have had a miserable time pretending to like Anastacia more than he has to pretend now. "Oh, sorry, it just seemed like it from how close you two are!" Major laughs at this, trying to diffuse the tension in Odyssey's shoulders as he aims again, but lands off center again.

"No worries," Odyssey answers, turning to give Major a smile, but he can see how it doesn't reach his eyes like his grins at his jokes last night did. "You know, I think I'm going to go work on, uhh…something else. It was, uh…nice chatting with you!" He says the last part quickly before setting the bow down, barely putting it on its stand before trying to all but run away from Major.

"Bye!" Major says cheerfully and waves after him, still smiling to himself over the information he learned. He leans against his boy again, keeping a relaxed smile on his face as he looks at the pair from District Two. Bellona is still glancing over at Odyssey, who has thrown himself into the spear station, clearly trying to keep his mind off of something. Something is there between the two of them. Major just hasn't quite figured out what yet, be it close friendship or maybe romantic feelings, but he will, and he is going to use that information to destroy them. But he isn't worried or in a rush. No, the best deceits always come from the slow ones that he really has to work towards. Those were the ones his parents are the most proud of him achieving. And why rush when he has several days in the Capitol to observe them and learn their weaknesses? Major isn't worried about it at all.

He picks up his bow again, considering moving to another station where one of his allies is working since there's no point in him being at the archery station any longer. But, he can't resist firing off one more shot. He notches the arrow and aims, before glancing around him to see if any of the tributes are paying attention to him. But anyone nearby is focused on their own station, so Major takes his aim and fires quickly, satisfied with his shot.

Major sets the bow down and heads off towards Delta working on the spears, knowing no one else is going to notice the additional arrow hitting the center of Odyssey's target. But as he walks away, cute smile on his face, he glances over at the Gamemakers and knows from the knowing look of the Head Gamemaker that someone has noticed him.

Major has an extra skip to his step as he goes over to Delta, knowing that he has the attention of the Gamemakers, and he will not disappoint them.

Arthur Bramble, 17, District Eleven

Arthur keeps telling himself that he's just learning how to distinguish between plants that are safe and poisonous to protect himself. He doesn't know what plants will be in the arena compared to in Eleven, so he's just learning more about what's safe to eat. He keeps telling himself that the traps he's learning to make are for catching animals to eat in the arena. But he knows he's just lying to himself. Identifying a poisonous plant can be just as useful for avoiding to eat as it could be to poison a tribute. The deadly traps he is making are really meant for catching tributes. Despite everything his mentor told him…he just can't bring himself to go over to the weapons, even if he knows survival will mean eventually having to kill. He can't knowingly pick up a knife to learn how to bleed someone out the fastest way or which vital points to hit someone with an arrow.

He can't bring himself to think about hurting others. It goes against everything his father taught him and the mission of the survival group he runs back home. He's dedicated his whole life to saving people, but now he's supposed to just…kill them, people his age or younger. People with families waiting for him back home, all of them hoping their loved one will be the one to make it out alive. What makes Arthur deserve to make it out alive more than anyone else here? Even the careers that volunteered for this have families rooting for them. They're just a bunch of kids, forced to fight to the death, all for the Capitol's sick entertainment… Just thinking about the death to come that he won't be able to stop makes his stomach churn and he has to stand back, afraid he's going to lose the lunch he ate earlier.

Arthur takes this time to glance around the room at the other tributes, not to assess which ones will be threats, but which ones need the most help for survival. It's certainly not the careers, who have spent all day honing their weapon skills, surely in an attempt to intimidate the others. And Arthur will admit…it's working. He's terrified watching Delta repeatedly stabbing targets in all the spots that will kill a person almost immediately, or Odyssey strike targets in the bullseye with their arrows every time, or Bellona taking down the trainer in hand to hand combat, all while blindfolded, or Demarcus lifting more than Arthur ways, or Anastacia expertly stabbing at a trainer with daggers in both hands, or Major show off his skills at killing in the agility course. These are people that aren't afraid to kill like Arthur. Those are the people he must avoid at all costs.

But they aren't the only ones trying their hand at weapons. Others are much braver than Arthur is and more willing to accept the idea of killing. The most willing is Sky, the small angry girl just destroying dummy after dummy with her knife, all while glaring over at the careers. The three girls that already had an alliance before training started have spent time learning weapons and training to fight, unafraid to work at separate stations but still gather to discuss things they've learned. The boy from Six – Elias – the one with the prostheses, is moving surprisingly well as he fights against trainers. He keeps getting knocked down, yet it doesn't stop him from getting back up and continuing to fight against them, not even stopping to acknowledge the pain he must be feeling. Carameuse keeps anxiously looking around and up at the Gamemakers as she tries her hand at using an axe, but keeps struggling to hit targets deep enough to cause a substantial injury, unlike Genesis doing much better with an axe in a direct fight.

But at least Arthur isn't the only one that has stuck to the survival stations. Davy has been at the survival stations all day, especially one about navigating using the stars that Arthur hadn't needed. Some time after lunch, he started to have a shadow following him around. Eliot has been excitedly following Davy all afternoon, asking lots of questions, and Arthur can see the surprise and confusion on the older boy's face at the young boy looking up to him for answers. Jessamine keeps looking over at the pair nervously as she works nearby and Arthur can only hope that she finds the courage to talk to them soon. Otherwise, he knows he'll take his District partner into an alliance and do his best to protect her. Over at the firemaking station, Atropa works hard at building a fire while Fete sleeps next to one already built. Arthur can't believe Fete has spent most of the day sleeping. And then there's Adam and Fox…they had approached him earlier and been friendly with him, yet Arthur had to leave as soon as he could. He couldn't stick around with the two dads and wait for them to ask him to join their alliance. Because he would have joined in a heartbeat if he let them ask him. How could he not protect two fathers trying to survive for their children? That was precisely what caused his own father's death and he doesn't want to be responsible for more kids growing up without a dad.

No…that was one alliance Arthur could not let himself get into, even if he wants to. He would die protecting Fox or Adam if he did.

It seems that most of the Outer District tributes today are focused more on learning the skills to survive, rather than forming alliances. Something Arthur is doing the same, despite Pinova stressing to him how important it will be to have at least one ally to balance out whatever sense he might lose.

Arthur realizes that he doesn't see one of the tributes and he looks around in confusion, before turning back to the plant identification station and jumping slightly at Calvin leaning against the podium, staring at Arthur. "Can I…help you?" Arthur asks politely, not knowing why Calvin is staring at him so intently.

"I think so," Calvin says after a moment of studying Arthur. "Cal Tailor," he says as he sticks his hand out towards Arthur.

"I know," Arthur says as he takes his hand, but starts getting embarrassed by Cal giving a weird look for knowing who he is. "I mean, I learned everyone's names and…well…everyone knows who you and Amelia are…" Arthur trails off into an awkward silence before clearing his throat. "I'm Arthur Bramble."

"I know," Cal repeats and Arthur smiles a little bit at him. Cal crosses his arms as he leans back and looks at Arthur, studying him for a few moments. "So, you seem to know quite a few survival skills."

Arthur nods his head in agreement as he looks back down at the plant identification station he was working on. So far, he's gotten over 85% correct every round. And he knows he has survival skills from helping out in Eleven. "Yeah I know a bit, just things I've picked up from running a rescue team back home."

Arthur looks up in time to see Cal raise an eyebrow at this before nodding his head in approval. "Rescue team?" Cal confirms and Arthur nods his head this time. "Excellent. I thought from the start that you would be a good choice for ally but didn't realize just how good you would be."

"Wait…ally?" Arthur asks him, wanting to make sure he heard that correctly. That Cal really wants to be his ally without knowing anything about what he's like aside from knowing a thing or two about survival. "I don't mean to be rude at all, but you don't know anything about me."

"I know that you can easily identify plants that are poisonous," Cal starts listing off things, counting on his fingers as he stares at Arthur, and that's when Arthur starts to notice the bags under his eyes and the red piece of cloth wrapped around his forehead. "You have built really sturdy traps. You built a fire and lit it in minutes. I'd bet you can also build a shelter in a short amount of time that wouldn't let rain in."

Arthur stares at him in shock, realizing these are all things that he has been doing today during training as he avoided the weapon stations. "You've been watching me," Arthur finally says, ignoring the praise he just received. He wasn't doing anything special, he was just learning things he was already comfortable with.

Cal shrugs at him, not seeming bothered that Arthur knows what he was doing. "I'm not dumb, I know I need to have an ally or two in these Games. I've grown up in Eight and now live in Three. My knowledge of plants and survival comes from books while you…you have first-hand experience. And that's invaluable in an ally."

"I don't know what to say," Arthur tells him honestly. He wasn't expecting anyone to just come up to him and want to be his ally. He was ready to join up with his District partner if he didn't find anyone. And to have it be Cal? One of the two tributes that's already known by the Capitol? One that is surely going to get sponsors. And he's smart, too, for getting into the District Three University summer program. Smarter than Arthur is. And he's seen Cal working at weapon stations earlier…

"Say you'll agree to be allies," Cal tells him and Arthur knows it's what he should say. "We'll balance each other out – you with your survival skills and me with my strength and brain. Look, I don't want to pretend this is something it isn't. I'm looking for someone to balance out skills I'm missing. So what do you think?"

Everything Cal has said is true and good points, yet Arthur is still hesitating to just agree to be his ally. And he knows it's hesitation to get to know anyone in these Games. He's afraid to get close to anyone and eventually have to choose between them and surviving. But…Cal said he just wants to be strictly allies, nothing more. And Pinova had stressed to him that if there was only one thing he did in training today, it should be to find at least one ally. "Okay," Arthur finally says and hopes he doesn't eventually regret it.

"Great," Cal says, giving Arthur a friendly nod before gently hitting the podium twice and stepping back. "I'm going to keep learning fighting skills and you should keep learning survival skills. Tomorrow we can meet up and teach each other what we've learned."

"Sounds good," Arthur says with a forced smile, trying to stay polite to his new ally while also dreading having to learn how to fight. But at least for the little time that remains in training today, he can keep doing the things he is comfortable with. Things that won't harm other tributes, unless he intentionally tries to hurt them.

Cal starts to pull down the red cloth around his head so his eyes are covered, but pauses to look at Arthur one more time. "Also try to get some practice with one of your senses taken away. It's…a lot harder than you think it would be."

Arthur nods his head as Cal pulls the red cloth completely around his eyes before realizing he can't see the action. "I'll try," Arthur tells him, knowing he should try but has avoided it out of fear of finally admitting to himself that in just a matter of days, he'll have one of his senses taken away.

Cal gives him a thumbs up before starting to walk away, turning his head a bunch to listen around him and nearly bumping into one of the adjacent plant identification stations. "Oh," he says and turns back to face Arthur, but ends up looking to Arthur's right instead. "Also think about other allies."

"Sure," Arthur agrees, but he really doesn't think Cal will want to be allies with any of the tributes Arthur wants to protect.

He watches his ally walk back towards the fighting stations before turning away, wanting to avoid them for just a little longer. But he can't bring his focus back to the station he was working on. He's too worried now having to accept the Games approaching.

Arthur takes a moment to look around before finding Jessamine still working alone and looking sadder by the minute. He starts walking over to her before he can help it, making sure to approach from in front of her to not spook her on accident after doing that on the train and feeling guilty about it for a while. Jessamine looks up as he sits down and he smiles at her and gives a wave of his hand in greeting. She smiles in return before sighing and writing on the piece of paper next to her, before passing it over to Arthur. "I see you have an ally."

Arthur glances up from the note to find Jessamine looking over at Davy and Eliot again. He quickly scratches out a response to her, hating feeling like he abandoned her by agreeing to be Cal's ally. "You should talk to them." Jessamine shakes her head at this and Arthur keeps writing, wanting her to have allies like he does. "Come on, they'll love you! And you have an advantage that no one else here has."

"I don't believe that," Jessamine writes back to him before wrapping her arms around herself.

"You already know what it's like to not have hearing – that's a huge advantage in this Quell."

Jessamine stares down at this last statement for a while. Arthur only hopes she realizes what he said is true. After a while, Arthur can see the moment when she finally realizes this is true and she sighs as she writes out a single word to him. "Tomorrow."

Here we are, the end of training day one! I wanted to make sure we at least saw a little bit of what everyone is doing and also some hints at alliances. Don't worry, we'll see more of that in training day two! There's still lots of time for alliances to form and I have more plans. Also I know I originally had Elias here, but I decided to swap him with Arthur because I wanted to split up the D11 tributes.

So what did you think? Will Major be successful in his manipulation of everyone? Is Arthur going to be successful at not trying to save people? What other alliances do you think will form?

And as always, it's time to make a list of alliances! These are only the ones we've seen confirmed in this chapter:

Look at us being friends this year! - Major, Anastacia, Odyssey, Bellona, Demarcus, Delta

STEM Queens - Amelia, Eva, Courtney

D8 Squad Game Strong - Fete, Atropa

Sweet young ones - Davy, Eliot

The Dads - Adam, Fox

Strength and Survival - Calvin, Arthur

No confirmed allies - Elias, Holly (Carameuse), Sky, Genesis, Jessamine

Alrighty, see you all soon with Training Day Two! We'll be checking in with Elias and Jessamine next!