A/N: Hi there! I decided to skip all the "fluffy" stuff, aka the train ride to the Capitol, the remake center, and all that stuff. I REALLY want to get to the Training Center. So I will. I am going to bring in Katniss's POV now, and maybe Peeta's. Enjoy!

Tori POV

I stood in my training uniform, a gray and reddish track suit type of thing. There was a number one on the sleeves of the t-shirt.

I looked around at the other 23 tributes nervously. Everyone was sort of being really cautious. I remember what my mentor had said; "Just start testing stuff out, find your strengths. Make sure you try everything."

I had always loved archery, thought it was pretty cool, so I headed for the bow and arrow station.

I picked up a light bow that wasn't hard to pull back and started figuring out how to work it. I figured out that you have to use three fingers just below the arrow and pull back to your mouth, then let it go. A few times, the bowstring snapped forward and my arm was in the way, so it snapped onto my arm. That didn't feel too good. I had a couple welts on my arm now from the bowstring. (A/N: I'm doing archery in gym right now, and I have three beautiful welts on my arm from the bow string snapping onto my arm. Beautiful. -_- Lol but I love archery. K back to the story.)

After practicing for a while at all the different stations, I found that the bow and arrow was definitely my weapon that I had strengths in. after I got the hang of it, hitting a bulls-eye was almost instinct.

I turned to my left and saw a girl with dark brown hair braided down her back. She had a number twelve on her sleeve. I watched her as she pulled back and hit a perfect bulls-eye.

Feeling my show-off instinct kick in, I pulled back as well and hit a perfect bulls-eye myself, eyeing the girl as I did so.

She caught on to what I was doing and instead of hitting her target, she hit my target. Straight on.

She turned to me and smirked, clearly bragging without saying anything.

I half-smiled.

"Cocky. Nice attitude," I commented, putting my bow on my toes and turning to her.

She smiled herself.

"My name's Katniss. I know this is probably illegal somehow, making small talk with another tribute…" said the girl who I now knew was Katniss. I laughed.

"Oh please. Everything is illegal in the Capitol unless your bowing down to them," I said, rolling my eyes.

Katniss laughed and smiled at me.

I turned and saw a young girl, about my age, with black hair that came down to her shoulders and a number 2 on her sleeves, walk up to the station we were standing at.

She eyed us coolly and picked up a bow and arrow. She wasn't as good as Katniss and I, but she wasn't half bad.

"So…you think the competition's much of anything?" I asked Katniss, rather loudly. The girl from district 2 turned and eyed us again, a bit annoyed.

Katniss noticed.

"Not really. Maybe that girl from District 2 though. She seems tough," she said loudly. "Trust me, she'll be our ally after that."

Something clicked. Katniss said "our" ally.

"So…we're allies?" I asked. Katniss smiled and nodded.

I smiled back.

"Oh yeah. Bet she'll kill me the minute I step into the arena," I said, louder now so district 2 girl could hear.

"You've proved your point," said the girl. She turned to us and put the bow down.

We crossed our arms and faced each other.

"You really think I'd kill you as soon as we got into the arena?" said the girl.

"Pretty much," I said, though I was half-lying. The girl smiled a cocky smile.

"Hmm. Interesting," she said.

"If we're allies, we won't have to worry about that though," said Katniss. She knew exactly what to say.

The girl stopped and considered this for a moment. She shrugged.

"Deal. On one condition," said the girl.

I cocked my eyebrow to show I was listening to her offer.

"You teach me how you shoot this freaking bow," the girl muttered, eyeing it evilly. I couldn't help but laugh.

You know, with other girls who are just as scared as me, it makes it a little bit easier. I think the others agreed.

Cat POV

The Training Center scared me. All the other people were so good at what they were trying. I didn't think I could do anything at all.

So, as I walked up to a simple knife station, I was literally shaking. The only other person around me who didn't scare me was a young girl, a twelve year old.

She seemed as scared as I did.

I picked up the knife shakily and aimed it a target.

I was more than shocked when it hit exactly where I wanted it to hit at.

The little girl walked up to me. She was wearing the same outfit as me, only hers had a number 11 on the sleeve rather than my number 3.

"You throw good," she said, her voice quivering.

"Th-thanks," I replied. She nodded.

We stood in an awkward silence for a while.

"Do you think you could teach me how to do that?" she asked me.

I swallowed hard and nodded.

I showed her what I did, and she wasn't half bad at it.

"We should go to the bow and arrow station," said the little girl.

"Why? There's scary people over there…" I said, seeing the girls from district 1, 2, and 12 talking to each other and shooting bows. They seemed like some serious competition.

The little girl took a deep breath and nodded.

Before I realized what she was doing, she dragged me over by the wrist. Soon enough, we were standing shakily by the girls. They were sort of blocking the way to get to the other bows.

I sort of stood there with my head bowed until they noticed.

They moved out of the way without a word, so me and District 11 girl could shoot.

The fear in my eyes must have been evident as I pulled the drawstring back, because after I shot, the three girls acknowledged me and District 11 girl.

"Who are you?" said the girl from District 2. She scared me the most.

"C-Cat Valentine…" I said in barely over a whisper, so that it almost sounded like I was saying Catnip.

"Catnip?" asked the girl from District 12. She had a little smile on her face.

"Cat," I said, louder. She nodded in understanding.

"And you?" said the girl from District 1 to the girl from District 11.

"I'm Rue," the little girl said.

"Pretty name," I whispered. Rue smiled at me.

"Who are you guys?" I asked, my voice getting a little stronger. I put the bow down and completely turned to them.

"I'm Tori," said the girl from District 1, who I now presumed to be Tori.

"Katniss," said the girl from District 12. Now I know why she smiled when she thought my name was Catnip; her name sort of sounded like Catnip.

"Jade," said the girl from District 3.

We stood in an awkward silence, and I stared down at the ground, my heart pounding a thousand miles an hour.

"We all know that honestly, the only two people who are going to easily stay alive are Katniss and Tori. The rest of us are pretty weak, myself included. So why don't we all form an ally? Till be easier in many ways," said Jade, seeming exasperated.

Rue and I considered this, and we both seemed to agree in our minds.

"Okay. Deal," said Rue. I nodded.

I knew somehow this was bad, that it would only end up in tears and sorrow once we started getting killed. One of us, such as Jade, might be plotting this strategically and end up killing us since we trust her. But at that moment, it seemed like the best thing to do. So I went with it.

"My mentor is going to kill me before I get to the arena for this," whispered Tori. We all muttered our agreements.

"Alright, let's get trained up," said Katniss. We were an official team now. We could do this.

We all picked up bows and started training for the weeks to come.

Beck POV

I looked all around the room for the District 12 tributes, because I knew Katniss was one of them. I wanted to see who Gale was talking about.

When I didn't find her, I headed over to the strength testing station and started throwing around some maces with ease. Two other tributes looked on at me as I did so.

For some reason it started annoying me, so I sort of went off.

"What are you staring at? I'm not going to do freaking tricks," I scowled at the tributes.

"Nothing! Nothing, um sorry, I'll just uh..I'll go…" said the nerdy looking one. He was legit freaking out.

"You need to calm down, kid," said the other tribute, who was dark skinned and muscular. He looked angry.

For some reason, the use of the word "kid" cooled my temper.

I sighed and angrily threw the mace as hard as I could. I ran my hands through my hair.

I turned to the two tributes I had yelled at to apologize.

"Look…I'm sorry. I'm just on edge," I admitted, knowing somehow this wasn't right. You're not really supposed to "bond" with the other tributes in the training center. This was definitely messed up.

"We all are," said the nerd.

The muscular one sighed.

"Call me crazy, but I have an idea," he said.

"Do tell," I said, my temper still a bit dangerous. He disregarded the anger.

"We'll survive longer if we're working with people," he said. "Just stating the fact."

I took into consideration what he had just said. I glanced back and forth from him to the nerd.

"Allies?" I asked.

"Allies," confirmed the nerd. The muscular guy nodded.

"I'm Andre," he said.

"Robbie," the nerd, who I knew now as Robbie, said.

"Beck…" I said.

"Let's go over to the camouflage station. Not as many people there," suggested Andre. I nodded and followed him.

Peeta POV

Since I had no idea really what to start with, I headed to the one place I thought I could do ok with. Camouflage. What helped was that no one was there except me.

Well, until three other tributes came along. One looked so weak that I could snap him like a twig, one looked so muscular I was immediately intimidated by him, and the last one looked so…cruel and cold that I felt a shiver run down my back.

I figured they were coming for a fight. Well a fight they shall get.

I turned to face them as they walked up.

They stopped in front of me.

"Um…do you need something?" asked the muscular guy awkwardly.

I could feel my face turning red.

"Uh…no…I kinda figured you were coming to tear my throat out. You guys are pretty intimidating," I said, then covered my mouth, knowing how stupid that was to say. I made myself easy prey. God, I am so thick sometimes!

The cold and mean guy chuckled.

"It's against the rules. Besides…you seem alright," said the nerdy twig boy.

I half-smiled.

"You good with camouflage?" asked muscle boy.

I nodded. "It's my biggest strength."

"Hmm."

We stood in silence for a while.

"See…the three of us have formed an ally. We'll survive longer with people on our sides. Do you want to be our ally?" asked the nerd.

I took into consideration what having people on my side would mean. I knew eventually we'd have to kill each other if it came down to us, but to start out, it'd be good.

"Sure," I said.

I saw the mean guy staring at the number on my jacket. I was starting to get a little annoyed.

"Just because I'm from District 12 doesn't mean-"

"No, it's not like that," assured mean boy. "It's just…your other tribute from your district. She and I have a mutual friend, Gale Hawthorne…"

I waited for him to continue.

"Please promise me none of you will kill her? I couldn't stand to see Gale have to watch her get killed," said mean guy. So maybe he wasn't as mean as I thought.

"Promise," I said right away. I mean, we were team tributes.

The others promised too.

"By the way, I'm Peeta," I said, reaching out my hand to mean guy. He shook it.

"Beck," he replied.

"I'm Robbie," said the nerdy boy.

"I'm Andre," said the muscular guy.

It wasn't until then that I felt a sense of security. I felt a little better than I had from the start of this.

"Let's start training," said Beck. I started by showing them camouflage.

This was going to be bad in the end, well it could, but to start off with an ally is great.

This was only the start of a long, hard road. I wasn't ready for it yet, but somehow having these people with me made me feel like I could do it.

Nothing can stop us.

Personally, I think that the odds are EVER in our favor.

A/N: So…do you like this? I thought that the girls and boys forming allies would be really cool. I know it'll be bad in the end, but I did this so that the reactions to deaths (not telling how this ends and who dies) will be more emotionally powerful. See what I mean?

Next step: the arena. :3

Review! :D