Training Day 2

You woke up in your bed. You were surprised not to be in the hospital, but thankful as well. You hated doctors. Your door opened and Effie appeared.

"Dear?" she said. "Are you awake?" You said nothing, thinking her stupid for assuming otherwise when your eyes were wide open. "Haymitch would like to see you." Again, you said nothing. She sighed and closed your door. When it opened again, Haymitch walked in.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" he asked, but there was sarcasm in his tone. You stared at the ceiling as he sat beside your bed. "Hmm? You going to talk or not?" You ignored him, focusing in on a spot on the ceiling that looked suspiciously like a blood stain to you. But you weren't sure how it would have gotten all the way up there, so you decided to disregard. Haymitch reached forward and grabbed your arm, digging his thumb nail into the space on your arm where you had gotten multiple injections. You gasped and tore your arm away, staring at him in disgust. "Can you hear me now?" he said and your heart began to pound out of hatred. He cracked a grin.

"Its not funny," you growled, rubbing your injection site gently.

"I'm not laughing," he said.

"You're smiling."

"And since when has that been considered a bad thing?" You looked away and towards the back wall. He scooted his chair closer. "We all know what happened down in the training room." You looked at him. "Your little screaming fit that you pulled." Your heart sank. You were so embarrassed. You turned your head to hide the red tint in your cheeks. Haymitch patted your hand. "Good going, sweetheart." Your eyes shot to him.

"What?" you said. He smiled.

"Good going." You raised an eyebrow in confusion and he shifted in the chair, getting more comfortable. "Well, since our good friend Peeta made you look so powerful during the parade, luck really hasn't been on your side. The Career Tributes always go after the strong first. We didn't tell you about the costume change because we wanted the other Tributes to see you get startled and cling to Peeta. But he had to go and ruin that plan for us." The past couple days of Peeta being yelled at started to come together and make sense.

"That's what you're so mad at him about?" you asked.

"We're trying to save the both of you," he explained. "We're not letting just one Tribute come out alive." You wanted to smile but you didn't. Thinking about your intimate death made you feel nauseous. You lurched forward a bit. "Are you going to be sick?" he asked. You shook your head.

"No."

"Last time you said that, you were." You glared at him. "Okay, okay, sorry." You sighed and looked away again. "Are you ready to come have some dinner?" he asked. You met his gaze.

"Is it still Tuesday?" you asked. He laughed.

"Yes. You've only been unconscious for a good part of today." You felt relief flood through you. And then you began to wonder if you had never woken up, would they have found a way to wake you up so that you could participate in the Games? The Capitol was sick enough, they probably would.

"Yeah," you said, moving the blankets off your legs and swinging them over the edge. Haymitch placed a hand on the small of your back. You shrugged him off. "I don't need help," you said and he nodded.

"Right," he said, "the girl who falls 25 feet and goes into a fit of screaming doesn't need help." Your faced burned red at the thought and he opened the door for you. You stomped past him and into the dining room, noticing Peeta and Katniss sitting at the table. They both looked over. At the sight of you, Peeta shot up from his chair and walked around the table to you. He put his hands on your arms and then pulled you into a hug. Electricity shot through you at his embrace, but you didn't hug him back. He held you closer. You put one hand up onto his back. You still weren't in the mood to associate with him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, pulling away and holding you at arm's length. You stared at him but didn't say anything. You looked over at Katniss who had her eyes glued to the two of you. But it didn't seem to be out of jealousy for Peeta's hands being on you, it seemed to be out of concern. You wondered if she had heard about what you said in the training room. You just prayed that she hadn't and averted her gaze. Peeta moved a strand of hair from your eyes.

"I'm not your f*cking daughter," you blurted out, shoving his hand off of you. "I don't need your sympathy." He looked shocked, but kept his other hand on your arm. You glared at him angrily and turned from him, throwing yourself into a chair at the table and grabbing a piece of bread. You shoved it into your mouth angrily and began to chew, careful to avoid everyone's gaze at all costs. Haymitch sat beside you. He took a piece of bread.

"How did you training go?" Haymitch asked Peeta coldly. There was silence for a moment before he answered.

"Fine, I guess."

"Did you stay at the camoflauge station the whole time, like I told you not to do?" Silence again.

"Yeah," Peeta said. Haymitch set down his bread.

"Are you ever going to listen to me, boy? What do I have to do to get you to listen to me?" Peeta said nothing. "Looks like me and you need to have another one of our talks."

"I hardly call yelling at me a talk." Haymitch slapped his hand on the table.

"I'm trying to help you!" he shouted and I jumped, not expecting it to be right in my ear. Katniss stood up.

"Okay, okay," she said, "that is enough!" I looked up at her, disgusted. "Jacklyn, stop looking at me like that." I didn't. She sighed and looked at Haymitch, "enough with the yelling already," she said, "this is a delicate situation. You remember how it was going into the Games. You don't raise your voice at the Tributes."

"He needs to be yelled at," Haymitch argued. "But I'm not gonna sit here and discuss why with a seventeen year old." He stood up, knocking his plate aside and sending it crashing at your feet. The pieces flew in each direction, some catching you on the leg and scratching it up a bit. You looked up at the other two across the table. Neither were looking at you. Peeta was staring at his dinner and Katniss was glaring across the room at Haymitch, her arm around Peeta's shoulders. You stared at her. She looked at you.

"Why do you keep glaring at me?" she asked, letting go of Peeta. You said nothing, just got up from your chair and went back to your room. You locked your door, stuck in a pair of head phones and laid in your bed, staring at the ceiling as you had been doing when you woke up. Nobody came to your door and you were thankful. You shut your eyes and drifted off to sleep.

When you woke up again, it was morning. Effie was knocking on your door and telling you to get ready for your second day of training. You groaned and looked at your alarm clock: 8am. You supposed you would be skipping breakfast.

You got up and dressed in your Tribute attire: gray wind pants, a dark blue shirt, and a gray and blue wind breaker jacket. You stared at yourself in the mirror, disgusted with the way you looked. You threw your hair in a pony tail and walked out of your room to see Haymitch with a hand on Peeta's shoulder, pinning him to the wall in the hallway. He was leaned in very close to him, and was muttering something quietly in his face. His face was red with anger again. Peeta looked exhausted.

"Leave him alone," you said and Haymitch stopped talking to look over at you.

"Excuse me, sweethe-"

"Leave him alone," you repeated, zipping your wind breaker. "We have enough sh*t to deal with." Haymitch said nothing as him and Peeta stared at you, bewildered. Haymitch removed his hand from Peeta's shoulder and leaned back, still staring at you. "What?" you said. He said nothing, just turned to look at Peeta and said, "dead serious" before walking off. You rolled your eyes and walked past him, heading towards the elevators.

"Jacklyn," Peeta said quietly as you pressed the down button. You didn't want to be escorted today. You didn't even care if Peeta went in the same elevator as you. You didn't turn to face him.

"What?" you said. The elevator doors opened and you stepped inside. He followed you and the doors shut, trapping you inside together. You looked at him. "What?" you repeated. He shook his head and looked ahead. When you were downstairs, you were upset to find you were the last 2 Tributes to arrive.

"Feeling better?" the instructor asked. You simply nodded, taking your place in line. Same speech as yesterday. You all went to your stations. As you were tying a knot beside a boy from District 11, Peeta walked to you and took the rope from your hands. You looked up at him in surprise. He looked upset.

"What's the ma-"

"Did I do something to you?" he asked, and your heart sank. No, you wanted to say. But instead you said nothing. "Can you please just tell me, because you've been avoiding me for 2 days." Your heart began to pound and you swallowed. You sighed.

"No," you whispered, looking down at your hands.

"Huh?" he said.

"No," you repeated, "you didn't do anything." He looked unconvinced. "Look, you didn't do anything, I'm just upset about being a Tribute." He put a hand on your shoulder.

"I know. Me too." He looked at the knot you had been tying and set it down. "Do you want me to show you some camoflauge?" He looked so pathetic, you couldn't help but smile. You nodded.

"Sure." He led you over to his station and you stood beside him as he picked up a paintbrush. He pointed to a green and yellow piece of wood laying across the room.

"I can make your arm look just like that," he said. You grinned.

"Show me," you said. He laughed and dipped his paint brush in the paint. He held out his hand.

"Give me your arm." You held it out and he grabbed onto your wrist gently. It felt good to have him touch you again. You had missed it for the past couple of days. He slowly touched the tip of the brush down on your arm and dragged it downwards, sending a shock up your arm that caused you to jump and rip your arm away from him. He looked surprised at first and then he grinned. "Ticklish, huh?" he said. You blushed. "It's all right," he said, holding his hand back out, "me too."

"I can't," you said, laughing slightly and hiding your arm behind your back. Peeta laughed, too, reaching for it. You moved backwards away from him, a silly smile on your face. He stared at you.

"I'm really glad you're talking to me again," he said. You were caught off guard by his comment and he reached forward, grabbing your wrist and pulling your arm back to him. He dipped the brush back in my paint and began to draw lines on your arm again. You giggled and pulled it back but he held on tighter.

"Peeta, please stop," you said, conscious of a few eyes being on you. "Peeta."

"Stay still," he said, continuing to paint. You giggled some more and he smiled, staring at your arm intently.

"I don't like it," you said and he pulled the brush away, wiggling it around in some water. He looked at you.

"Me neither," he said, "being ticklish is worse that being in pain." You noticed a few people begin to talk amongst themselves as he said this, but you didn't think anything of it. "But if you want to survive, you'll work through it, won't you?" he said, You smiled at him. As he began to paint again, your arm twitched but you let him continue with his work.

"So what was Haymitch's threat?" you asked.

"Huh?" he said.

"I heard him tell you that he meant it when he threatened you yesterday."

"Oh," Peeta said, laughing slightly, "if I compromised their work again, he was gonna hold me under a cold shower for 10 minutes." You stared at him.

"That's a little harsh." He shrugged.

"Nothing different than what we had in the Seam." That was true. But he had been in the Victor's Village for a year. Surely he had gotten used to the warm water by now.

"I didn't mean what I said about Katniss yesterday," you said and you sensed his whole body tense, but his expression didn't change. He continued to paint.

"I know you didn't," he said, dipping the brush back into the brown. He moved back to your arm.

"I don't know why I said it." He still didn't look at you when he once again said, "I know." You sighed and let him finish up, barely able to hold still as he painted near your wrist. You laughed really hard when he got to that part of your arm and he looked at you, smiling wide. When he finished, he set the brush down and pulled you over to the piece of wood lying on the floor. He pressed your arm against it, and you watched it disappear. It was amazing. You blended in completely.

"Wow," was all you said as you stared at what he had done. "Wow." He grinned. It took a moment for you to realize that his face was only inches from yours. You thought he was going to kiss you, but he didn't. You felt stupid for even entertaining the thought. You blushed. And then you realized that the two of you were alone. "Oh, we should get out of here," you said. He let go of your wrist.

"Probably. But I had to finish my design." You smiled, looking at your arm. You wanted to wash it off, but you decided to wait until you were back in your room. You needed to shower anyways. "Come on." He put an arm around your waist and the two of you walked back up to the dining room together. Katniss stared at the two of you and Haymitch glanced at your arm when you both approached the table.

"Been doing some more painting, I see," he said, standing up to glare at Peeta. "Come with me." He grabbed Peeta's arm.

"Haymitch," you began and he turned on you so quickly you had to grab a chair to keep from falling over. You kept your mouth shut now as he turned, dragging Peeta along with him and forcing him into another room. Immediately, Peeta's body slammed against the door and Katniss jumped to her feet, walking to the door. Of course, she had to go to the rescue. A sudden impulse ran through you and you moved forward quickly, walking around the table and grabbing her shoulder from behind. You whipped her around and brought your arm back, driving your fist forward into her face. She screamed and fell backwards, and you jumped onto her waist and continued to punch her over and over until she passed out.

At least you think she passed out.

The last thing you remembered was two pairs of hands grabbing your arms and yanking you back, a needle jabbing into your arm, your scream piercing the air and everything going hazy. But even through the haze, you could still make out a thought that was pounding through your skull.

You had just knocked out the girl on fire.

End of Chapter 7