Sorry for the delay, but I have a terrible illness. It's known as writer's block. Symptoms include frustration, uncertainty and yelling at your computer creen to make you write better. Just kidding. There is a cure to this though and it's called REVIEWS!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Lyn, get up! It's going to be a big big day!" Effie yelled, placed just outside of my room. My ears stung with the excessively loud voice. Did she want me be to be deaf too?

I normally would've been up before anyone else, but yesterday had definitely worn me out. My two friends probably felt the same. You see, it happened during the second day of training.

Rayna had gotten bored during the second half of practice and scanned around the training center for something to interest her. That was when the red head saw that the combat station was empty, so she suggested we improve our fighting. Heather and I were a little hesitant, but it was probably going to happen sometime in the Games. Why not prepare while we could, right? No one seemed to be near the course at the moment, so we wouldn't have to worry about the careers.

I can explain everything that happened in one sentence.

We sucked.

Rayna was the best out of us, though she could only pass for average. That clearly annoyed her too. Heather hated direct fighting and it clearly was one of her weaknesses. As for me, I pretty much just ducked and blocked every strike. I liked the 'evade and avoid' method a lot better than the 'invade and punch the living daylights out of them' one. It was clear that we would definitely have a better advantage if we were attacking from a distance.

Still, this worried me. What would happen at the bloodbath? When we had no weapons to start with, only our hands and feet? The Cornucopia was sure to have amazing weapons and supplies that could keep people in the Seam going for weeks. Still, going there would be worse than suicide.

We worked on some basic maneuvers for one hour and spent the other on the track. If strength wasn't on our side, maybe speed could.

Last minute training had pushed us to exhaustion and I went to bed directly after dinner. Katniss hardly even got to question me about my day before I was out. She just smiled at me and said good night. I don't remember much else.

Turning to the clock, I realized that it was eight. The usual waking up time here was six thirty. I groaned and hopped into the shower, all while Effie kept pounding on my door. After selecting a pale blue tank top and some dark brown pants, I finished getting ready in about twenty minutes. No, it's not impossible to get ready in twenty minutes. I used to do it all the time when Ash and I went hunting. My record was twelve.

When I opened the door, it was Katniss waiting instead of Effie. I expected some sort of punishment for sleeping in, but she just gave a light smile which was becoming more and more common. She had a nice smile. Too bad that most of the capitol people made her scowl.

"Slept in I see?" She chuckled at my face as I looked to the ground. "You look so guilty. Come on, we have some work to do."

We arrived a little late to breakfast, but nobody seemed bothered by it. It passed quickly. Russell and I were speaking less and less. After all, the Games were getting closer and closer. It hurt to believe that Russell was probably going to kill me. We didn't necessarily like each other, but I couldn't think of any grudges against us.

Today was about the Private Sessions. Tonight would be the Interviews. Tomorrow was the Games. My knees went weak. I would be put on television for everyone to watch and hope I die so their tribute wins. This was all happening in the next twenty four hours.

Katniss noticed my nervousness. I was normally pretty good at hiding my emotions. But between the Games and having to hide it everywhere else, I guess they sort of overflowed around my mentor.

I never showed my anger. That was under control at all times. I'd learned that early on as a kid. No one needed me to be angry and no one wanted it. Therefore, why have it? Then again, I was rarely angry to begin with. No, the emotions that were the biggest were fear, hesitation and curiosity. Not exactly the best thing to feel if you want to win.

Hope was somewhere in my mind. Just not a major part right now and probably hidden by all the other feelings swirling around in my head. Taking a deep breath, I put on a calm face and listened to my mentor.

"Alright. Today's the Private Sessions. Haymitch and I have been thinking up the best weapon for you to use." she told me. "Something to wow the judges and give you an impressive score to make those sponsors go wild." I nodded. Did Katniss really think I had a talent that amazing? I wanted those sponsors and would definitely need them in the long run. No victor ever won without a good deal of them.

"I have a feeling that you're going to be best with your bow. That's why we're going to a private archery course." she explained. My eyes widened. A private archery course? My finger missed that beautiful bow of mine. Or any bow for that matter. I don't remember the last time I went so long without a one. It felt strange.

Apparently, Katniss had told the workers to make an archery course out of one of the district twelve rooms. They cleared out the storage yesterday and put up all sorts of targets. My mentor led me over towards two wooden bows. Normal. Untouched by the Capitol. Familiar. Handing one to me, Katniss pulled out a bucket of arrows.

"Shoot." she instructed. Notching the arrow onto the string, I did exactly that. The arrow hit the bulls eye, dead on. Katniss seemed slightly impressed. Handing me another arrow, she pointed to a further target. Thirty yards instead of twenty. Easy. This caused the same result. I loved the feeling of those arrows soaring past me. I was able to hit the target at the dead center up to forty yards. I was about an inch or two off at fifty. Sixty was a bit of a challenge and I was definitely low on that one by at least six inches.

"Ok, you're dead accurate." Katniss praised me, though I could tell she had more to say. "But accuracy isn't enough alone to impress the judges. You need to be creative. Do something no one would ever think of doing. Make the judges feel like they're in the Games." She explained to me that she had actually shot at the judges during her private session. My eyes widened. If she'd missed, there would have been a dead body and she would have become an avox. But she didn't miss. She was Katniss.

I spent the rest of that morning practicing on moving targets. Targets that were thrown at me. Targets that came from behind. Multiple attacks. It took me a little bit, but I was nailing them within the hour.

"Alright, take a break." Katniss decided. "You don't want to be too exhausted for this afternoon." We sat down and had a nice lunch, brainstorming up ideas for the Private Session. Finally, we agreed to one. It had never been thought of, let alone even attempted before, but Katniss was pretty confident I could do it. Me, not so much, but I had to at least try. If I died, well I guess I'd at least put on a good performance.

***(scene change)***

Nervous. That's what I was feeling right now. Anxious. Worried. Skittish. All of those words went back to the same thing. I reassured myself that I'd be fine, in the elevator. I told myself that I just had to follow Katniss's instructions and add my own personal touch to it, when the elevator reached to a stop.

There were twenty four chairs neatly lined up, twelve on one side and twelve on the other. I took my seat at the end of the line. I would be nice just for once to not be last. I wasn't begging to be first, but somewhere in the middle. It was well known that the gamekeepers never paid attention to the last districts.

As I waited a in seat for my turn, I decided to distract myself by going over what I'd learned about the tributes. The district one boy went into the training center first.

Jett Garnett. Career. He had a light tan and dirty blonde hair. His brown eyes were dark and hard to trust. Jett specialized in swords.

He walked out not long after, a satisfied smirk written over his face. Jett sat back down and Dia went in, but not before giving a flip of her golden blonde hair and an 'innocent' glance back at the boys.

Dia Monds. District one loved to name kids after their many riches. Since they sold luxury items, district one usually got the extras of whatever didn't sell in the capitol. According to Rayna, they were mini capitol minions, pets eager to please their masters. I was starting to realize that maybe she was right.

Tributes went back and forth through the training center. I watched as Heather and Rayna took their turns, both coming back with indifferent expression. No need to attract unwanted attention from the Careers. Before I knew it, Russell came back and sat down right where he was before, a slight frown on his face.

"They're playing poker." he muttered, under his breath. Great. Sighing mutely, I stood up and walked into the training center.

Five judges sat behind a long table, each supplied with a clipboard and pen and ready to view the tributes. Well, that's what they were supposed to be doing anyway. Two aged bearded men on the left side were indeed playing poker, ignoring me completely. The next was breaking out the wine and another was asleep, snoring softly.

The only gamemaker who was actually paying the slightest amount of attention was the one on the right. The only problem was that his attention was directed toward the wall.

Taking a deep breath, I remembered what Katniss had told me to do. Make them feel like they're in the games. I glanced around at what I had to work with. Knives, dummies, targets, weapon launching machines, bows, arrows, spears, swords, axes... It was basically Career galore here. My eyes rested the synthetic fire tanks that were being carried away by some workers.

An idea entered my mind. An idea that was probably illegal and kill me in the process, but an idea no less. My feet jogged over to the workers before I could even think about what I was doing. They stared at me as I held my hands out in front of them, both confused and unsure of what I wanted. How I hated being unable to speak. Still, they stopped and that was all I needed.

Using all of my strength, I lifted one of the enormous barrels and rolled it over onto its side. Plucking a rather fine dagger, I stabbed at it, causing the liquid to leak. After rolling two barrels of the stuff over the entire arena, including around the judges, I placed each of the four weapon launchers in each corner of the mini arena. Finally, I walked over to the section I'd been dying to lay my hands on for the past two days.

The archery section.

At least fifteen different types of bows were hung on the wall, each specially crafted. There were so many types too. Long, short, recurves, compounds, composites and reflex bows. My hands found a polished white ash composite bow with matching arrows. Perfect. After positioning the weapon launchers just so and instructing some avoxes on what to do, I was ready.

One of the gamemakers had stood up and was about to tell me to leave just before I lit a match. His words were drowned out by the sound of the fire roaring over the room. The flames quickly spread all over, surrounding the table of gamemakers. Their faces were of complete and utter shock as they backed up from the fire.

A few sparks flew right onto me and the bow. After gasping, I sighed in relief as Cinna's creation still worked. I wasn't burned to a crisp. Still, the room had become an inferno.

Quickly, I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. Pulling an arrow out of the quiver, I launched it at the rope holding the weapon launchers back. The rope snapped and the really event began.

I was dodging arrows, swerving past flying daggers and avoid every weapon that came within a foot of me. Then, the dumbies were launched into the air. Whipping out some more arrows, I shot each one down, though my aim wasn't as good as usual. I still hit them in the heads, necks and chests, but it's a little difficult when you're trying not to die.

Then, a dumby came flying over to the judges. Fear shot through my spine. I'd never forgive myself for hurting someone like that, even if they were capitol gamemakers. With my last arrow, I shot it, pinning the dummy to the wall about their heads. Done. The weapons had stopped flying. Even the synthetic fire was nearly gone. Panting and sweating, I left the room, not daring to look at anyone.

I hadn't meant for it to get that out of control. That was crazy. It was a miracle alone that nobody was hurt. I'd surely be arrested by morning. Or worse. This was the captiol we were talking about. They were masters of torture. I went straight to my room, closed the door and plopped onto my bed. What the heck had I been thinking?

I'd thought that if I made it a good show, then it could boost up my score. I couldn't have been more wrong. That little stunt had ruined all of Katniss's hard work. It had destroyed what tiny chance of getting home I had.

I sighed. There was nothing that could be done now except wait.

P.S. Please vote on my new poll for this story. If your favorite character is not on there, pm me and I'll add it.