Katniss and Clove: Chapter Three
In the younger age groups we are so populated that we are considered a burden and are exploited, as we achieve higher degrees of proficiency and skill, our value begins to increase. There are not so many of us at this elite level and my trainers know I am special, I am not the only special one, but we are few. I know that if I ask for something I will receive it.
Unlike the others, I don't ask for anything that is not directly related to my training or development. I do not need anything and I do not desire anything, I have no wish to be distracted. The others ask for and get all sorts of things; elaborate personalised weapons, luxury items, illegal and black market articles, drugs and alcohol, sex and parties. That's how I know what it feels like to have cocaine coursing through my veins.
No one would think to look at me but I am quite a square, I have been to a couple of their parties but only to get the others off of my back. I prefer to go to bed early, pleasure myself and wake up when it is still dark, with a clear mind and an unimpaired desire to train. I am too close now to allow myself to become distracted. While others think they are invincible, I always remember that I am one broken bone or one drunken dare gone wrong away from being tossed onto the rubbish heap of life.