After the session for the day I head to the dining room where I was met with once again snickers from the other tributes and even laughs from others. I just ignore them because really, I'm a better person than them, and also its illegal to harm another tribute before going into the arena. I sit down at the table trying not to let my emotions escape me for the fear that the tributes will be watching. Raylin speaks up first. "So, how did your training session go?" Dilon replies first. "I stuck to the things that I was fairly good at but not great at. That way the other tributes wouldn't see me as weak, but I wasn't giving anything about my strengths away." Raylin looks pleased at how Dilon handled the group session and then whipped his attention over to me. "Since your sliding down in your chair that must mean that your training went wonderfully, correct?" I knew it was sarcasm from the moment he started talking. Dilon, noticing that I was on the verge of tears helped me out by explaining the horrendous training session to Raylin. I didn't think he was paying attention to me, but apparently he had been. Raylin and Janey's faces went from satisfaction with Dilon's session to shock and a hint of disappointment with mine. Raylin started raising his voice at me saying how stupid that was of me to make myself look like a weakling and a fool in front of the gamemakers and the other tributes. He went on for about ten minutes and by the end I had tears in my eyes. I got up and ran out the dining room straight to my room where i slammed the door shut and went to a corner, slid down to the ground and cried.
Raylin's harsh comments about my training session only added to the humility and pain I felt from the other tributes as they laughed at me right in front of my face. I lost track of how long I was in my room crying, but the next thing I knew was Dilon barging in. I looked up and before I could say "leave" he closed the door behind him, locking it and made his way over to me grabbing a blanket off my bed. "Hey Mayzie." his voice was soothing to hear after the prolonged session of crying. He sat down next to me and wrapped the blanket around me and I pulled in closer to him and he wrapped his arms around me to comfort me. He sat there just letting me cry, the same thing Trin allowed me to do. Dilon took out my braid and was gently and soothingly running his fingers through my hair. I guess I had fallen asleep like that because I woke up quite some time later in my bed and with Dilon sitting next to my still running his fingers through my hair. When I sat up he smiled at me and said "Good morning" in the sweetest voice ever. " "Is it really morning?!" Dilon responded with a nod. "Janey let us skip dinner to let you sleep and you slept the whole night." I sat up and rubbed my eyes, the area around them stained with tears. "Did you sleep? Did you get something to eat Dilon?" He shook his head. Dilon told me that he wanted to stay with me to make sure that I got to sleep alright and didn't wake up in the middle of the night for some reason. All of a sudden we heard a knock on the door. Then the person tried to turn the doorknob. When they figured out it was still locked from that night they knocked on the door even louder and yelling for us "to open the door." At that moment I knew exactly who it was. Raylin. Dilon looked over at me. "Do you want me to get the door May?" I slowly nodded my head and sunk back into the covers not wanting to face Raylin. Clearly he was no calmer today than he was last night. Dilon opened the door and Raylin stormed in.
Dilon tried holding Raylin back but Raylin simply pushes him out of the way. "Why do you think that you're 'so' special that you get to miss dinner and important items that we could've been discussing at dinner!" Raylin's voice which started out loud, got louder and louder as he made his way closer to the bed where I sat, shivering. But once he reached my bed I found that I raised my hand to deflect his arm that was coming at me. I twisted his hand until he finally squirmed free, looking at me in shock. In a stern voice I replied. "Don't raise your voice at me again. And don't you dare to ever try to place one finger on me again! Understand?!" Raylin and Dilon stood there shocked as I got out of bed, went to the bathroom to change, slamming the door behind me. As soon as I grabbed his wrist I didn't know what to expect from Raylin. I could get in trouble for harming my mentor or worse. I spent over 10 minutes on the floor of the bathroom shaking. I had no clue as to what to expect when I walked out of the bathroom and frankly i didn't want to find out. Dilon came to the door and knocked lightly. "May, it's alright to come out hun. He's not mad. Raylin's not going to do anything." I slowly got up off the floor and put my hand on the knob for a bit before slowly opening the door. As soon as i opened it, I was welcomed with Dilon's outstretched hand. I took his hand and he walked me over to Raylin, who sat on my bed. I stood behind Dilon a little still unsure of what Raylin may do. But when I peered out from behind Dilon I noticed then that Raylin was holding his hand. His hand, the one I twisted, was red and had spots of blood where my nails must've dug into his skin. I went over to him and put my arms around him in a hug. "I'm so sorry Raylin. I didn't mean to." My voice was breaking and tears were flowing down my cheeks. But when Raylin spoke there was no anger in it. "Mayzie, It's okay. I know you didn't mean any harm. It's I who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." At that moment, the door opens and in comes Janey looking as bubbly as ever.
"Guys! Get up! Let's get going down to breakfast. We have a lot to discuss about training today!" Janie seemed to be oblivious to the gloomy mood that hung around in the room. I get up of the bed and go to bathroom. In the mirror I don't see the elegant girl that was present during the opening ceremonies. Instead I see a weak girl. Eyes bloodshot from crying and face stained with tears. Janie comes in and helps me wash up to try to remove as much evidence of me crying as we can before heading down to breakfast. Once down at breakfast we discussed the plan for the day. We would do group training as before but then after lunch would be private sessions. For our group training, the goal was to try to redeem myself a tad with the other tributes. They viewed me as a complete weakling, someone who couldn't fight a running leaf without getting injured. Our plan was to show them a smidge of what I could do, but without showing my secret weapon to them.
Walking into the training center for the second session, and I was even more nervous for it then I was the first time. But when I walked inside, I knew i wasn't alone. Dilon looked over at me and smiled. "Don't worry May. I won't leave your side." I smile and whisper a shaky "thanks." The other tributes were already up and training but once Dilon and I walked in, heads turned and snickers echoed through the room. I put on a face that showed them that they can't break me and walked over to an empty station with Dilon. We spent quite some time at the knot tying area where we learned how to make some snares. Something that was a new concept to both Dilon and I, but it turns out we're not half bad at it. We hop from station to station trying new things together. Turns out I'm doing a lot better than my first session. I noticed that the other tributes had stopped worrying about what I'm doing and I was able to relax better and focus more on what I was doing. When the session was over they sent us off to lunch to eat up before they started to call people one by one for their private training sessions.
I sat in the room waiting for my name to be called. And as more and more tributes got called out, the more nervous I became. I guess i started to shake a little because Dilon reached over and squeezed my hand reassuringly. "You'll be fine honey. Just show them what you have to offer and the gamemakers will love you." I smile a little. "Thanks. Show them what you got as well." After what seems like an eternity, i hear my name being called. As I get up to go to the training center, Dilon gets up as well and gives me a big hug. "Go get them." I smile and walk into the room. The center looks even more enormous now that there isn't 23 other tributes in it. I walk over to the bow and arrow, my strongest weapon, and shoot at a dummy. It goes right through where the heart should be. I shoot many dummies, never missing the heart. I even shot a dummy in the heart that was on the other side of the room. A couple of gamemakers looked somewhat impressed with this shot. I go over to the edible plants station and was able to identify all the edible plants without hesitation and never getting a wrong one. This is something that my father, were he still alive, would be proud of. I went back to archery and showed off some of my trick shots until the gamemakers dismissed me. I walked out of the training center feeling relieved to have gotten it over with but nervous for my scores that will be revealed later today.
Later that evening we all huddled onto the couch together to watch the scores be revealed from the private sessions. I of course sat closest to Dilon and we were holding hands, keeping each other calm as we await our scores. The other tributes scored around six and seven. With the careers around eight or nine. Twelve is the best score that a tribute can get. Higher scores means a higher chance of getting sponsors. Finally district 11 comes around. Ceaser Flickerman announces, "From district 11 comes Dilon Ravent. Who in the private training scored an eight!" Cheers erupted throughout the room and I hugged Dilon congratulating him. "Next up for district 11 comes Mayzie Summers!" My heart was beating faster while my breathing stopped all together as I awaited my score. "Young Mayzie pulled off a" Ceaser pauses as he has to read the paper repeatedly to confirm that he had read the number correctly and then reads the score. "Mayzie got a score of ten! she must've really impressed the gamemakers because she scored the highest!" I sat there shocked not sure if I heard correctly. It wasn't until I was getting pats on my back and hearing screams from everyone that I knew that I really had scored a ten. "I was expecting a seven at the most. I didn't think I did that well." Dilon smiled and squeezed my hand. "great job hun." I had the biggest smile on my face as I was overwhelmed by the score and by my team's encouraging reaction. After a few more minutes Raylin ended the gathering. "Tomorrow you will be having to get up early to allow the stylists to prep you and get you all ready for the interviews later tomorrow." I say goodnight to everyone and head off to my room. I change into comfy clothes for the night, crawl into bed, and fall asleep within minutes.