Training was overwhelming me. Everyone else was far more skilled than me. I felt daunted by how everyone seemed to learn new things and excel in others. District 4 victor, Finnick Odair, seemed a natural at almost everything. Meanwhile, I was struggling with the most simple things. I should hae asked for katniss's help. In hunting or trapping or something. I was going to die in the bloodbath, way before I managed to get to peeta.
At night I would toss and turn, trying to come up with a plan to get to peeta first. He kept trying to help me during training and iw as shunning his help. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe...maybe I should let him be an alley to "protect" me and then when I had him by myself, end him. That seemed like the best bet at this point. It hurt me to admit that I would have to act like his friend until the Games got underway, but it was the most I could do tmake my own sinister plan work.
The next day at training, I was fiddling with a snare when peeta walked by, talking to Mags, another District 4 victor, who looked ancient.
"peeta," I said suddenly and he said excuse me and walked over, "Can you help me with this?"
He looked completely taken aback and I couldn't blame him. But it had to be natural. It had to be believable.
"Sure, prim." he said and crouched down by the snare, showing me how to set up a simple trap.
I had no hope of winning the games, I knew this now, but my only hope was to kill peeta. My goal was different from the others. They were playing to win. I was playing to kill.
"Thanks." I said.
He paused, "You're welcome," he paused and shifted his weight, "you spend a lot of this time at the station here. Do you want me to show you others?"
"Sure.' I said, jumping at the chance.
"Great.' he looked relieved almost.
I just thought I was making progress.
Over the course of training, peeta would show me different stations, different ways to kill, tips he had learned from katniss about berries ("no nightlock") and other things. I soaked up all I could.
Finnick leaned forward at one point when Peeta was showing me how to spear, "You should let me show her, peeta."
"No thanks," I snapped, "I want to work with peeta."
Finnick just grinned and backed off and I looked over at peeta. Peeta smiled at me...and this weird fluttering feeling came over. What was that? I must hav eaten too much rich food at dinner.
"Interviews are tomorrow" Haymitch said at dinner that night, "peeta, I don't need to go over this again with you. Prim, effie will help you with them tomorrow."
"I helped katniss too." she beamed.
A lot of good that did, I though sullenly.
That night I couldn't sleep and wandered out to the lliving room.
"Can't sleep?" peeta said from the window.
"Oh,hey." I said, not expecting to see him, or that weird feeling again.
"I can never sleep...i thought I was done with this." he mumbled.
I looked out the window with him, over the capitol.
"Did katniss look out this window?" I asked in the silence.
"Yeah." he said.
"With you?"
"Yeah."
We fell silent.