Marley's POV

Inside the training room Jake stayed close to me and didn't say a whole lot even though his eyes were taking in the whole room. I walked over to one of the empty stations and picked up the set of weapons that were propped up on a silver tray. Each of the blades was razor sharp and came to a neat edge unlike the standard District 12 silverware that was chipped and seldom sharp. Jake sat down on the floor behind me as I took aim.

My fist throw wasn't even close to the target's "heart" and I knew my knife throwing show on the train had been pure luck. I raised my arm a few inches and tried again. The knife sunk into the target a couple of inches above my first throw. With one last determined expression I took aim and smiled as the blade sunk into the target's "heart". Death, I think and am surprised at the amount of joy this gives me that I was able to hit a target and kill my opponent. I still have one knife in my hand so I turn and offer it to Jake. He shakes his head no and goes back to staring at the floor and the other tributes.

"Jake you have to practice for the arena. You don't know what'll be in there for weapons and you need to practice with all of them." I gesture to the weapons all of which were in a grotesquely beautiful display. This didn't seem to move him any more than if I'd told him he had some dirt on his face. "Fine if you won't practice for yourself, will you at least practice for me? I don't want to be in that arena on that first day and have to watch you get beat to a pulp just because you don't know how to throw a knife."

Something inside of Jake must have woken up because he takes the knife from my hand and turns toward the target. With a flick of his wrist the blade sails through the air and strikes the target dead center on his first throw.

I stare openly at Jake not knowing he could throw knives that well. He merely shrugs giving no explanation. I shake my head and move on to the spear throwing station. The boy from 2 and the girl from 1 occupy it. I wait with Jake until the two seem to be finished throwing. To my dismay the target's chest is deeply impaled by several spears. This time Jake steps in front of me and takes up the first spears. None of the spears land deeply into the target but his last one impales the target through the stomach. I cringe as he turns to me and offers me a spear. I grasp the spear and take aim.

It doesn't even reach the target but clatters against the floor and thuds against the wall behind the target. I hear several snickers from behind me before someone is silencing them. I feel someone walk up behind me but when I turn and look it's not Jake. It's the boy from 2.

"I'm Cato, you're Marley aren't you?" he asks me but I can tell from his tone that he's not really asking me what my name was.

"Yes," I say guarded not wanting to look like a complete idiot. I glance at Jake out of the corner of my eye and see his eyes are cold and calculating as he glares at Cato.

"You know you were that far off from hitting the target," I want to laugh at how stupid that sounded but he continues talking, "You shouldn't cross your body after you throw a spear; it takes away the momentum of the throw." I pick up a spear and throw it again. To my delight and Jake's displeasure the spear sails through the air and imbeds itself into the target. It's still not a death hit but it's better than the other throw was. I glance at Jake and see he is seething with anger. I half lead, half drag Jake away from Cato afraid of what Jake is thinking of.

"What's the matter with you?" I ask once we are a little bit away from Cato.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Jake says looking down at the ground. I try to look into his eyes but his hair is in the way and I'm left guessing what's wrong.

"You know the Game Makers wouldn't let you fight and even if you wanted to you couldn't take Cato. I watched him beat up one of the trainers this morning." Jake still won't look at me so I storm away to the survival training station.

Jake says nothing to me but hands me tools when I ask for them and helps me construct a, uh, slightly slanted tent. It's nothing fancy: just a piece of fabric draped over some poles and hammered into the ground with a couple of rocks, but it stands by itself. I look behind me to see Cato and Jake watching me although Jake's gaze keeps flicking to glare at Cato. I turn away from them suddenly conscience of the dirt spear across my forehead. God I hate dirt- not really dirt but mud and sand. Sand just gets everywhere and is so hard to clean up. The tent is leaning over so far that when I reach forward and grasp the center pole the tent succumbs to gravity and tips over. Great. If it rains I'm screwed.

I leave the disappointing pile of supplies and head over to an empty table with an old lady sitting behind it. Judging by her look of surprise I know I'm the first tribute to approach the table let alone sit down at it. She smiles warmly and welcomes me to the "edible plants and bugs station." It hard for me to imaging eating bugs on a normal basis let alone when I'm starving for food out in the arena. The woman picks up several of the boards in front of her and begins to slide them toward me. I almost manage to catch all of them but the last one slips just barely beyond my grasp. I brace myself for the loud clatter and the laughter that was sure to follow my clumsy act but to my surprise the bang never happens and I look up to see Jake looking into my eyes. In his hands was the board that I had missed. He set it down gently on the table and took a seat next to me. I wanted to thank him but as the words formed in my head they got caught in my throat and became a tangled mess.

"If you'll take a look at that first board I slid toward you…" The old lady pauses as some kind of commotion happens behind us. Apparently both Jake and I turned around at the exact same time because our knees brushed and I felt my cheeks get warm, as Jake looked me in the eyes again. What is it about him that makes me so nervous? Slowly I turned away from him trying to not look him in the eyes again.

I looked up to see Cato accuse the boy from district 8 about stealing a knife from him. The boy from 11 swore he had never taken a single knife but that answer wasn't enough for Cato. Cato swung at the boy but the boy easily ducked and swung at Cato. His fist made contact with the side of Cato's nose and blood started to pour down Cato's face. I looked around the training center to see how the other tributes would react. If anyone comes for me I'm toast. Something above the fight caught my eye.

Hanging from the ceiling was a small figure that couldn't have been older than Katie. She was holding on to the cargo net above the fight watching it all go down. She must have sensed someone watching her because she looked up, saw me, smiled, and waved a shiny metal object that I guessed was the missing knife. I smiled quickly to show I saw her and she pressed her index finger to her lips. I nodded and watched as the tucked the knife into the carrier around her waist and continued to climb higher on the net. I watched as she scaled the net like a squirrel I had once seen in District 12. I refocused on the ground where Cato was holding his face in his hands as Peacekeepers rushed forward to contain the fight. There were two loud pops and then Cato and the boy from 11 were on the ground. They remained there unmoving until two of the Peacekeepers began to lift the two boys onto stretchers. Cato was rushed out of the room while the boy from 11 was removed more slowly out of a second door.

"Oh my god they killed them!" I heard the words leave my mouth before I could stop them.

"Oh no silly. They didn't kill them; they only knocked them out so they could get medical attention. We wouldn't want all of you to go out on camera in front of all of Panem with bruised faces now would we."

"I guess not," I glance in Jake's direction and he is not looking at me.

Four hours later lunch was called and as I walked out carrying my tray I noticed all of the tributes were staring at me. Including the Careers. Why does everyone keep staring at me? I began to feel self-conscious about being the center of attention. I looked back at the Careers and notice Cato is not there. I jump when I feel a hand on my shoulder I spin around careful not to spill anything on my tray. I see Cato's face and am immediately shocked at how flawless his face looks. Before his nose had been slightly crooked due to genetics or something, but now it was perfectly straight and there were no signs that he had been hit at all.

"I didn't mean to startle you," he says smiling at me, "Why don't you come and eat lunch with us?" He gestured toward the other Careers all of whom were staring at me with their mouths open. I glanced away from them and refocused on Cato. Now I realized why people were staring at me. I'm from District 12 and I'm being drafted into the Careers. I glanced around trying to gauge if this was a joke but no one seemed to be waiting to laugh at me. I saw Jake sitting at a lone table in the back of the room. Although he was not turned toward us I could tell he was waiting intensely for my answer. I contemplated what an alliance in the arena with the Careers would be like and I didn't like it.

"Maybe not today," I say hoping he would get the picture. As I turn down his offer I lose the interest of the other tributes.

"Maybe tomorrow," he says and goes to sit down at his table. Almost immediately the conversations start up again. I sit down beside Jake and eat my lunch. He doesn't speak to me the whole time we are there and even after our evening practice sessions he still says nothing. He silently watched me and glares at Cato when he tries to help me figure out how to throw these odd star shaped objects. After returning to our suite Jake and I ate dinner with Effie and Haymitch. We talked about our day but Jake and I never spoke directly to each other.