Chapter Eighty-Two; A Slow Learner

(Stephanie & Haymitch's POV)

"Argh!"

Once more Stephanie had the air knocked out of her as Haymitch effortlessly knocked her to the floor.

Haymitch stood above her, looking down at her; his expression a mixture of exasperation and frustration.

"Stephanie sweetheart…I told you I was going to feint left. Why didn't you go the other way?" Haymitch asked, his tone controlled as his patience was worn down slowly bit by bit.

Stephanie scowled up at him where she remained lying on the floor.

She felt exhausted plus she was hungry. Her stomach was already growling but Haymitch said they would eat after she had learnt something at least, but he did throw her a bottle of water.

Haymitch sighed as he rolled his eyes skyward for a moment before he reached a hand down to help Stephanie up.

"Come on – again," Haymitch said as he pulled Stephanie to her feet.

Stephanie stumbled and almost fell again over her own feet and Haymitch gave her a hard look.

Growling Stephanie raised the long cold blade of the sword, balancing it in her sweaty palms.

They had tried with short knifes first; Stephanie was awful at it.

She would easily let the knife be knocked out of her hand, dropping it with a cry of alarm as though it had scorched her hand.

"You don't let go of your weapon," Haymitch growled through clenched teeth.

Stephanie glared as she had bent to pick up the short blade, frowning distastefully at it.

Given as Stephanie's physical strength was nothing impressive, any heavy clubs or such were immediately out of the picture.

Haymitch had wanted to get a fair idea of her strength and had asked her to pick up different weapons.

Stephanie had almost chopped off her own foot when she picked up the axe and then promptly dropped it.

Haymitch had given her a dry look and swiftly took away the weapon.

And now she had a sword.

Haymitch was teaching her simple blows but mixing it with hand to hand combat; such as parrying a few simple blows before adding in a shove of his shoulders to knock her off balance.

"Ready?" Haymitch asked.

"Well not exac…AH!" Stephanie immediately shrieked, dropping the sword, which clattered to the ground with a dull thud.

Haymitch stood, one hand leaning on his sword as he glared at her.

"Sweetheart, what did I tell you about dropping your weapon?" Haymitch inquired, his voice entirely too even to belay anything but complete annoyance.

Stephanie grunted as she picked up the sword – again.

"You didn't give me any warning!" Stephanie complained.

Haymitch gave her a dead-pan look, "And you think the Careers are going to ask nicely before they run you through?" Haymitch said seriously.

Stephanie felt a shiver of fear race up her spine, along with the utter annoyance and frustration at her own inability rising up in her.

"Fine – I'll do better this time," Stephanie said determinedly, raising the sword again and readjusting her grip a few times.

Haymitch mirrored her move but there was a troubled expression on his face.

Haymitch lunged straight forward with an easy attack, Stephanie managed to knock it out of the way, stopping herself in time from falling on her behind after her body instinctively jerked away from the incoming attack.

Haymitch went then in for another blow, Stephanie raised the sword just at the last minute to divert it.

She could see that Haymitch was being painstakingly slow with her, swinging the sword in overly wide arcs so that it gave Stephanie's brain enough time to decipher; there's a sword – coming towards me –run – no, I have a sword – have to raise the sword – just manage to avoid beheading.

In reality Stephanie would have been a head short before her thoughts had even got to reminding her that she must use the cool metal grasped tightly in her hands.

After an hour Haymitch had slowly being speeding it up with faster blows and more feints. Stephanie still usually went in the wrong direction for the feint, however she had slowly been weaned off the habit of dropping her weapon instinctively rather than fighting with it. All in all there was a miniscule improvement.

But it wasn't enough.

And Haymitch was more than aware of it as his remarks and comments grew shorter and sharper, and with it Stephanie's temper rose.

"Right, I'd say that's enough swordplay. Do you have any skill with any weapon that includes aiming and firing?" Haymitch asked her.

Stephanie gave him a deadpan look and Haymitch groaned in frustration.

He picked up a bow and quiver full of arrows, calling Stephanie over before positioning her in front of a target.

"Are we going to eat yet?" Stephanie asked hopefully.

Haymitch's only answer was to shove the bow at her.

Stephanie grumbled under her breath as she toyed with the string on the bow, her brow furrowing as she tried to decipher how to use the thing.

Her whole life in District 3 as soon as she had left school and when she had been old enough, had been in the factories.

Stephanie was never one of the brainy kids at school who would go straight to the designing and more technical side of factory manufacturing.

She was just one of the many who stood all day, soldering down metal, soldering wires together on circuit boards as per instructions, never knowing what they were for or where they were going.

Her whole life had been about grime and oil and air filled with the heavy leaden smell of copper that crept up her nose and down her throat, until even when she left the factory she could smell nothing but its bitter taste on her tongue for hours.

Weapons, preparation for potential Games – it was never a part of Stephanie's life, despite being the descendent of a 'Victor'. Her family was just trying to survive like everyone else's.

"AGH – damn it!" Stephanie launched into a colourful tirade of curses as she hopped around in a circle, clutching her arm, the bow lying abandoned on the floor.

Haymitch whipped around abruptly. He had been collecting suitable arrows for Stephanie to use; durable yet light.

His eyes widened in incredulity as he took in the evident situation.

"Did you just injure yourself with your own weapon?" Haymitch stressed. He might have laughed in any other circumstance, except the fact that what Stephanie may have just done was not at all funny, given that her life literally depended on it.

Stephanie scowled up at him, rubbing at her arm miserably.

"I pulled the string back and it hit my arm," she admitted grudgingly.

Haymitch rolled his eyes, managed a slight smirk before his expression sobered again.

"Pick it up," he instructed her, as he approached her having picked out a handful of suitable arrows.

Stephanie picked up the bow, looking at it distrusting.

Haymitch proffered her an arrow.

Stephanie looked at him dumbly.

With thinning patience Haymitch took the bow from her and slowly walked her through step by step, on how to notch an arrow and then loose it with precision.

The arrow cut through the air with a barely audible hiss, hitting the target with a dull thump, quivering slightly.

Just a little of the bullseye; being the heart.

Stephanie rolled her eyes as she accepted the bow from Haymitch.

She notched an arrow, or rather she tried. She dropped it twice and when she did manage to notch it, she couldn't keep it from straying.

She also refused to pull the string back until it was taunt, whining that it was going to hurt. Haymitch told her in no uncertain terms that she better get used to it as no one would care in the arena.

After being suitably told off for her complaining, Stephanie gritted her teeth as she determinably notched an arrow. It took her a few painful moments to steady it; in which in the arena she would have been killed many times over.

She then lined it up, closing one eye and then the other, not able to decide which was best for lining up her shot.

Then she loosed the arrow, wincing in preparation, her eyes screwed shut as she waited for the sharp slap of the string against the tender flesh of the underside of her arm.

It hurt and she let out another colourful curse.

"Don't close your eyes after you shoot. You have to follow the shot right through to it hits its mark. If you close your eyes straight after, your hand will stray with the loss of concentration and you will miss," Haymitch told her knowingly.

Stephanie's eyes narrowed before she looked up and a bright smile dominated her features.

Haymitch arched a quizzical brow at her.

"I hit it – I mean I actually hit the target this time!" Stephanie gushed happily.

Haymitch looked at the target and Stephanie's arrow embedded in the lower shin of the left leg of the target outline.

Haymitch sighed deeply before announcing with an air of finality.

"We're stopping to eat now."