I was supposed to update this on Monday! I HAD THIS ALL READY MONDAY! Fanfiction is being stupid and I can't login! (Well, if you're reading this, then I've fixed it. :P :P :P)

I have LOTS of plans. http:/ www. flickr .com/ photos/ 73821736N04/ 6654938073/ in/ photostream/ lightbox/ (remove spaces) ^_^ Unfortunately, it's too blurry for anyone to read :D THIS is what I've been doing over the month that I didn't update.

Disclaimer: (Hope you don't mind this recycled one)

Me: Can I have a cheeseburger, a small fry and a large chocolate milkshake?

Laurels (My BFF): Yes. Anything else?

Me: The rights to Percy Jackson & the Olympians would be nice. . .

Laurels: What? You can't have that!

Me: Fine. Can I have the rights to the Hunger Games?

Laurels: NO.

Me: FINE! I'll see if Burger King can get me them!

Elijah

After breakfast the next morning, Elise and I are headed off to training. We get to take the lazy-man's elevator again, down to the very bottom of the training center. I'm guessing we're about 20 stories below ground. "Wait, how would I know that?" I ask myself.

"Know what?" Asks I guess I said that aloud.

"It's nothing," I say.

The official training room is pretty awesome. There's survival stations everywhere. Go intimidate the other players Louis told us. With what? Being crummy at knife throwing? I told him. He groaned.

"Hello. I am the main supervisor of the training center," says a woman, once we are all down there and all rounded up. "Just a couple of rules. No fighting. You'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. Don't leave this room without permission. Other than that . . . I think we're covered," she says. "Go ahead."
Elise went immediately to the spear-throwing station. She got every dummy straight in the heart, and I could see the wrath of Ares in her. The station manager gave her flying targets, but she hit those almost perfectly almost every time.

I find that there is a knife and sword fighting station next to where my sister was. "Oh, what the hey," I say, and I go try out fighting with a sword. There's three other tributes learning here, and they're all significantly better than I will ever be.

"Do you want to pick out a sword?" says the trainer.

"Uh, sure," I say. I go in the back and I look through the wide selection of swords. I want to try something new. This room here in the back has all kinds of weapons. Most of them are just normal steel, but one especially stood out to me. It was a solid-gold one with wicked sharp edges. I picked it up, and it seemed perfect in my hands. "Now this is cool!" I say.

I bring the sword, and I notice that it seems perfectly balanced on my hands, outside of the back room, and I ask the person in charge of the station if there was someone I could practice with.

"Sure there is," he says. "Jenna! Get over here!" he barks. A girl, about sixteen, comes out of another room in the back. She has short black hair, and blue eyes. She's carrying a sword of her own, and doesn't seem to have any protection or armor on.

"Don't worry, she has full-body armor on, so she won't be hurt if you happen to be especially good at this," he says.
"What about me?" I ask. "What if she stabs me in the gut and I die and you Capitol people have to reap another dude?"

Jenna smiles.

"She won't do that to you. She's only allowed to defend herself," the man attending the station says.

"Okay then. I'm just a beginner. Any tips?" I ask. He gives me a couple of tips, and I try fighting with a sword for the first time.

I think I did okay-ish. Maybe. The first thing I did was almost cut my leg off, because Jenna dodged a hit that should've killed her if she didn't dodge it and wasn't wearing magical invisible full body armor.

I eventually get somewhat better. I stink at using the sword, but the sword is pretty awesome. I keep on practicing until I become almost good. I soon find out that I've been practicing the whole morning, and we are called to lunch.

I sit next to Elise, who seems to have made friends with Districts 1 and 4.

"It seems like you've made friends," I tell her. I sit down at the large table where Elise and her new friends are sitting at, and I take note that nobody else sits here.

"Is it true you guys are real brother and sister?" asks the District 1 female, who introduces herself as Crystal.

Well, I guess we're not real brother and sister, but I end up replying, "Yeah. Odds weren't really in our favor?" I try to laugh, but my efforts seem fake.
Crystal seems like a total girly-girl blonde stereotype, with a dark tan, wavy blond hair and ice blue eyes, but from what Elise tells me, she's murderous when it comes to fighting. Apparently she's amazing with a hunting knife, but even better with a bow and arrow. She looks only to be about thirteen.

The other tributes we're sitting with introduce themselves as well. "I'm Fish," says the District 4 male. He has messy blonde hair and sea green eyes, like his fellow District 4 tribute. That's kind of what most of the people there look like. I'm guessing he's around 16 years old.

"Haha! Nice name," I laugh.

"I'm Sadie. I'm twelve," says the District 4 female tribute.

"Same here," I sigh. "So much fun. The good always die young." The table laughs, and I think that we might end up being allies.

"Well, I think that we're going to be among the last to die," Crystal says. "I mean, I don't know about you, but it seems like we've all been waiting for that moment to honor our district for our entire lives. I mean, in District 2, you're trained to be Peacekeepers. In District 4, you guys hunt fish. And here in District 1, we did everything we could to please the Capitol. I'm just thinking we all had a head start on this training business."

"Yeah," says Fish.

"I'm Elise, and this is Elijah," my sister says.

"Allies?" asks the District 1 Male, who Elise says is named Diamond. (Oh, the things they name their kids in District 1.)

"Sure," we all agree. I can see that the other 18 tributes are staring at us.

"We're doomed," one says.

"They're all murderous!" another one says.

"It's like it's their career to kill people!"

"Well, it kind of is for those district two kids," the person who said that nudges the person beside him.

"Murderous?" I say to the table. "Haha, that's the strangest complement I've ever had. In case you didn't notice, I stink at using a sword."

"No you don't!" says Crystal, "I saw you. You were pretty good. It's just that Avox girl, Jenna is really good."
I remind myself to ask Elise what an Avox is.

Training the rest of the afternoon consists of me learning a lot of survival techniques. I learn how to tie knots with Fish mainly teaching me because his family makes nets, and he's amazing. I also look at the station where they tell you what kind of berries and wilderness stuff is edible.

"This is what they call nightlock," the instructor says. He holds out a couple of dark purple berries. "It's deadly poisonous, and you'll be dead before it gets to your stomach."

Note to self: don't eat the nightlock.

After training, we are sent back up to our quarters to have dinner. "We made a couple of friends," Elise says over dinner.

"Who?" asks Louis.

"Districts One and Four."

"That District One Female-

"Crystal," Elise butts in.

"Crystal," Louis continues. "She seems to be one of those types who seem really friendly, but you're going to get a knife in your back."

"I'll take that into advice," Elise says. She stares at her soup. It seemed like she got kind of close with her.

"The other mentors and tributes are nicknaming your alliance the Career Pack," Louis says.

"Where'd someone get a name like that?" Elise asks.

"Someone at Lunch said it was basically our career to kill people. It's like we've been training this for our whole lives," I explain.

"Which I- I mean, we have." Whoops. Almost another slip-up. Louis doesn't seem to notice that, though.

After two more days of training, I find myself to be pretty awesome at swordplay. I'm now better than Jenna. (I asked Elise what an Avox was and she said that I didn't want to know. . . All I know is that they can't talk.)

We are supposed to go into a private session with the game makers. Elise explains it all to me. "We're supposed to go in there and show off all your moves, and they give you a score between 1 and 12, with one being the worst."

"Okay. So you can go be a ninja with a spear and I can try hacking around with a sword. Great."

"Elijah! You're actually pretty good swordplay."

"I know," I smile. "I just wanted you to admit that I'm good!" I laugh, and Elise glares at me.

So all 24 of us are cooped up in a room next to the training room to wait to be tested by these game maker people. It's kind of comfy in there, but luckily Elise and I are among the first to go.

Crystal is called. . . Ten minutes later, Diamond, and then Elise. "Good luck," I say as I hug her. "Go show them your ninja moves with that spear of yours." She hugs me back, and then walks into the room to be judged.

Five minutes later, I am called in to be judged. I pull myself together, and I walk into the room.

There, there. I gave you a super-long chapter. I really need some reviews, otherwise Thursday might come a tad bit late . . . . Who knows?