AN-Thanks for all the reviews! Don't have much to say other than, (Disclaimer) if I were Suzanne Collins, I wouldn't be on here.
Chapter 8:
"Yeah, let's go for it," I say.
Lachlan gives me a shocked look as if to say "Did you forget one of us is going to die?"
Okay, what the hell have I done?
"Well...I mean..." I then say.
Amidst all the chaos in my mind, Sander half leads us, half forces us to and into the elevator. "Oh! Time to go! You two can't be late!" Sander says excitedly. Where did he just come from?
"Yes or no?" Finnick says, following us out of the dining room.
The elevator door closes as I shout "UHHHHHH!" Wow, smooth move, Aura.
"Yes!" Lachlan shouts. I wonder if Finnick heard that.
"Really?" I turn to Lachlan.
He shrugs nonchalantly.
"What is this yelling all about?" Sander asks.
I sigh. Lachlan tells him the whole ordeal and Sander's face brightens with every word.
Sander let's out an earsplitting squeal, complete with excited hand motions. "District Four's popularity is about to skyrocket!" he gushes.
Lachlan and I leave Sander dancing his happy dance in the elevator and make our way to the Training Center.
"Wow. Never thought he'd be THAT excited," Lachlan says, as we're within a few feet of the doors.
"Wait." I stop him. "What's our plan? I mean we shouldn't show our major skills off, remember? And the star-crossed lover thing, we should be near each other, right?"
"You go to the knives station for a bit and I'll figure something out and then we can join up and learn a new skill. Don't show any other major skill, okay? And when we join up, I'll do something "lover" related. Ready?" he answers.
We push open the doors. A giant gymnasium with different stations, fill the room. We're early, the sixth there. Someone's pinning a number four on my back. So far no one's dressed the same. Ten minutes in and everyone else shows up.
The head trainer tells us the rules: Experts in a certain skill will stay at that station; we can roam around from station to station, whatever our mentor's told us; we can't get into any fights with another tribute, but if we want to practice a skill, there are people who would help us.
The District 1 Tributes make a show coming in. The girl flips her hair and strides over to us. The boy follows along, his muscles bulging.
The girl takes out her hand. "Palladium Rysten," she says. "But please, call me Pladia." I reluctantly shake her hand and give her a small smile. Pladia gives a more charming smile to Lachlan.
"That's Lucretius Villard," she says, pointing over her shoulder. I look at Lachlan. I don't know what game she's trying to play, but I say, "Aura Welshe."
Lachlan introduces himself as well. I want to get to the knives station and get away from her. "Well...um nice meeting you," I start trying to hint for her to not waste our time.
"Listen," she starts, "Why don't we team up?"
"Can we get back to you on that?" I ask, griping Lachlan's arm.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Let me know before training's up," she says. I nod and lead him away.
"What do we do?" I ask him, once we're out of earshot of her.
"We should talk to Finnick and Marlene about it before we give her an answer," Lachlan says. I nod. "See you when we join up."
I pick up some knives and throw them. It's not that hard when you've practiced with ranged weapons, but it's clear I need practice.
My knives land on the dummy's limbs, but not in the fatal spots.
While I throw knives, I decide to join the Careers. That's what Finnick and Marlene said right?
I spot Lachlan in the wrestling station already chatting it up with the Two's, so I stroll over there.
"Hey," I say.
"Hi," Lachlan says, kissing me on the cheek. The District 2 girl looks jealous. "This is Bedros Petel and Nelly Quart," Lachlan says.
Nelly flips her hair and shakes my hand, all the while staring at Lachlan. Bedros gives me a very firm handshake. I think he cut of the circulation in my hand at one point.
Bedros and Nelly both have dark brown hair and brown eyes. Nelly's pretty. "We were thinking about you two joining us," Bedros says.
"Oh! Sure," I say, remembering what Finnick's plan was for us. "District One wanted to ask us to join too," Lachlan says. "Why don't we team up together? That way, we'll be the Careers. Districts One, Two, and Four."
Nelly nods at Bedros and he says," Great! Why don't we go tell them now?" We walk over to Pladia and tell her the news. She accepts and says that she'll tell Lucretius later. Before getting on with our training, we tell each other to tell our mentors.
The Gamemakers show up late. There's about twenty of them, sitting in stands that are elevated surrounding the room. They take notes and converse quietly with each other, pointing at a tribute every once in a while. Lachlan and I decide to do our training together now.
We head over to the shelter making station. The trainer shows us how to use natural resources if we need to. We spend a good half an hour here. We then go to the plant identification station which both takes us a while to get down the numerous plants the trainer puts in front of us.
We take on the rest of the survival skills stations and some of the endurance stations (without showing of our main skills) for the rest of the three days of training.
On the third morning, the morning of the day we're to show the Gamemakers our skills, we wait anxiously at the doors of the Training Center, watching the districts ahead of us walk in and then out, pleased with themselves and their performances. When it's District 4's turn, Lachlan goes ahead of me. It's a few minutes before he comes out, saying, "I did all I could."
Then it's my turn. I take a deep breath and walk inside…
AN- Cliffhanger! Dun, dun, dun! I'll update in a little while, just wanted to leave you guys with something before I go research something…So yeah. Please Review! Appreciate it!