A/N: nothing like revision for your chemistry mock to get you in the mood for writing. Yes, I know I'm a horrible person, but lets just get this straight from now- this will most likely be infrequent updates. I'll try, but no promises, 'kay? M'kay. Oh, and Koth? HERES YOUR FREAKING CHAPTER NOW STOP NAGGING ME! :D enjoy! (yeah, never did get to four thousand words, did it?)

Cal POV

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead! Its time for-" Cherry stops talking suddenly. It may have something to do with the shoe I threw with considerable force at the door. She walks away grumbling as I tumble out of the bed with a thump. Groaning, I drag myself off the floor and stumble towards the bathroom. I peer blearily at the panel of buttons on the wall, then scrub my eyes and properly look. I thought I had double vision for the amount of switches and levers. It looks more like the cockpit of a hovercraft than a shower. I sigh and slam my hand onto the panel, pressing a multitude of random buttons.

Fifteen minutes later I emerge from my heaven of warm water, football sized bubbles and a lime-smelling foam that I had to turn off the water for and scrape it off with my hands. I poke a button which seems to have a little picture of some swirls on it. I think it is a little symbol for air, meaning I could dry myself off. Instead it turns the tiny cubicle into a steam-filled sauna. Fail.

Finally, I manage to dry myself off and sort my hair. Pulling on some plain grey leggings and a light blue tunic, I walk out the door. Padding across the carpeted floor, I spot Iggy outside the lift. I walk over to him. He's wearing about the same as me, and his strawberry blonde hair is messed up.

Come here, scruff I I tap on his hand. He jumps, then grins at me.

"Don't creep up on me! It freaks me out." I smile and start combing through his hair with my fingers. He, in turn, ruffles my hair. I pull away, annoyed, and give my head a little shake. My waist length hair settles back around my neck.

The lift comes and we get on. I poke the button and step back.

"So, got any orders for food, oh great controller of everything?" he says with a roll of the eyes. Hmm, I think he may be getting slightly annoyed at my control-freak-ness. Oh, well, better offended than dead.

Yes, actually. Carbs for energy and protein for muscles. We step off the lift and into a room full of food. I pile my plate with bread and bacon.

"Are muffins carbs?" asks Iggy. I grunt once (in a very ladylike fashion) and he grins and grabs a plateful. He sits next to me and somehow manages to stuff an entire muffin in his mouth at once. I stare in awe for second, then shake myself.

You can't live on muffins. Go get some bacon. He laughs and marches off with a small salute, returning with the bacon as Felix comes in to the room.

"Good morning." He says simply. Iggy waves and I nod in acknowledgement. It's not long before we have finished and have to go down into the training room. Just as we're walking up to the lift, Felix catches my shoulder.

"Now, don't forget, go around together, you want to put out a united front. Other than that, do not draw attention to yourselves. Speak to other tributes only when spoken to and be polite. Focus on survival skills and a bit on hand to hand combat. Avoid weapons and careers like the plague. Got that?" we both nod as the lift doors open and we get on. It's only seconds before they open again and we step into a room filled with tributes and weapons. Methinks this is not a good combination.

We're early, and the only other tributes are the Careers, talking loudly and eyeing the swords and clubs, District three, the older girl holding some sort of disassembled electronic device and talking to the boy, who nods occasionally and, unluckily, Amy and Cole from yesterday. I spot a dark corner next to the fire building station and hurry towards it, towing Iggy along like a child. I'm only half way there when Cole spots us and calls us over. Loudly. Loudly enough, in fact, for the careers to look over in interest.

"Hey! Hey Calamity! Iggy!" Cole yells. Amy rolls her eyes as the Careers snigger and even Specs looks over curiously. I hurry over, dragging Iggy by the hand, and give Cole my best death glare. He shuts up immediately. I trace letters onto Iggys hand and he translates for me.

"um, Calamity says 'what are you doing? We're trying to not get noticed here and you're screaming out our names! Please please don't do that again, it's hard enough to be inconspicuous as it is!` is that everything?" I tap his hand once and he nods, then joins me in my death-glaring. Cole at first looks confused, then like he's going to cry. Satisfied that everybody's more occupied by the other's starting to file into the room, I nod at Cole apologetically and take a few steps to the side. Iggy quits glaring and starts chatting to Cole amiably. I catch a few words, including "she has this crazy idea that if we try and be inconspicuous, we could get ignored. Yeah like the freakishly tall blind guy and the strangely short mute girl are gonna get ignored."

I cross my arms and glance around with interest at the other tributes. Twelve's tributes are both here, looking much less scary on camera, and the girl from five is eyeing up the weapons. She does not look less scary on camera, and I immediately put her on me "stay away from" list, along with the careers. After a few minutes Iggy stops talking to Cole and steps over toward me. We stand in companiable silence until the trainer, Atala, walks in. she gives us ground rules. I tune out, and the only one I hear is "don't fight the other tributes". Good, I'm glad we got that cleared up. We wander over to the edible plants station when she finishes up, and spend an hour or so learning what not to eat. We only stop and move on after Iggy gets bored and just starts squishing up the berries and trying to paint war stripes on my face.

The next station we go to is the fire making station. We're only there five minutes before I learn that Iggy can make almost anything set on fire. I finally stop trying to breathe life into my bone-dry wood, and instead watch him successfully light a number of things, from the small planks they gave us to practise with, to some wet branches, finally a chair. We only stop when we get called for lunch.

At lunch I was planning to sit by myself, with Iggy of course, but to my surprise I am called over by Cole. He seems to have made friends with the muscly boy from twelve. I must admit, I kind thought he would have been with the careers, but I soon find out that he is about as far as a ruthless killing machine as they come. He speaks little, but then in a slow, low voice. Close up, I see his eyes are heavy-lidded and he moves almost lethargically. I can't imagine him in a fight. Iggy strikes up a conversation as I pick at my potatoes and meat. I listen attentively, and find out that twelve knows far more than he lets on. I discover that already, from just moving from station to station, he has picked up a lot about the tributes and how they work. Maybe this is his strategy. After lunch, Iggy and I wander down to hand to hand combat.

I thought that neither of us would excel at this, but I am pleasantly surprised. We can do fairly well on the practise dummies, and tentatively ask the trainer to practise with us. Iggy takes first go, and I see an almost pitying look on the trainers face as he takes up position. It isn't there for long, though, as he soon learns that Iggy can feel the movements of the air and hear his limbs coming, and can fight them off expertly. The trainer's eyes harden and he ramps it up a notch, but tis still a fair few minutes before he manages to floor Iggy. I find I'm grinning, but my smile soon fades as I realise that now I must try it.

I settle into the fighting stance the trainer taught us and get ready. The trainer swings his arm and I completely embarrass myself by leaping backwards then scurrying round behind the trainer. He turns to face me.

"Good, but maybe this time try to block the blow?" I flush red and nod. He swings again and I try to block his blow, but still get a punch in the gut. I'm winded, but manage to stay upright and aim a punch at his nose. He blocks it easily, so I try a roundhouse kick. We carry on like this for a while, before he stops me.

"listen, no offense but you're kind of bad at this, but maybe it's just this style. You're not really built for plain old punching, but maybe you could use your frame to your advantage? I don't know, maybe try and dodge punches rather than blocking them? Just keep moving."

I nod, annoyed that he took my original strategy and made it seem like his idea, and resume my stance. He jabs at my stomach and this time, instead of blocking it, I doge out of the way and round his back. Before he can spin round, I leap onto his back and grab his head between my hands. This is the point where, if her were a tribute, I would break his neck. I smile to myself as I jump off his back, shake his hand and wander over to the knot-tying station, where me and Iggy learn to set a decent snare for the next few hours, before climbing back into the lift to return to our floor.

I was hoping it would be just us in the lift, but no such luck. By some strange twist of fate, we end up in the same lift as the careers. They chat and laugh uproariously between themselves, except one, who watches me and Iggy converse quietly from the corner. He's one of the Aryan twins, and seems almost interested in the way I trace letters and tap them in Morse code on the back of Iggy's hand, but doesn't say anything. Just watches. It's quite unnerving and I'm glad when he gets off the lift and leaves us to ourselves.

Soon, the lift slows and stops at the twelfth floor. We make our way immediately to dinner, which I skipped last night and ate in my room. We sit down and an Avox comes and serves us. He's very tall, with shaggy, unkempt brown hair, and I notice he's giving me a curious look as he ladles stew onto my plate. I nod in thanks, unnerved, and fiddle with my fork as I wait for Iggy to get his food. We sit eating for a few minutes until Felix walks in, followed by Cherry. Felix talks tactics, but most of it just goes over my head. I daydream and I methodically shovel spoonfuls of soup into my mouth, and it takes a couple of minutes to register that I've drained my bowl and am just eating air. I shake myself, and wait till Felix has finished talking, then mime going up to bed. He nods, then goes back to talking to Cherry. I slip silently out of the room, attracting no more looks, aside from a final sidelong glance from the Avox. His eyes are full of meaning, but I just can't quite decipher it.

I creep along the corridor, gazing out of the wall to ceiling windows. In the silence, I note how loud my footsteps are, and change the way I walk so that my heel touches the floor first, then my weight rolls along my foot. I smile a little to myself. Even on this polished wood flooring, I'm totally soundless. Totally soundless I think to myself, and the smile slides from my face.