"Oh shut it, Golden Boy."
Fuming, I got another spear from the rack. I was making a point of practicing my awful spear-throwing before Zeke got here and got pissed about how bad I was. But this District 1 kid, who was naturally an expert, was finding me to be very amusing.
"Seriously, Blaze, have you even ever held a spear?" "Yes," I spat, gripping it tightly and taking aim again. He slid off the ledge he had been sitting on to come over to me. "You've got to straighten your elbow, first off, you're throwing it like you might toss a rock at someone's head." "On the contrary, I feel like my rock-throwing would be more accurate." "That's just it though; a rock is one small projectile, but a spear is a much larger weapon, and you've got to take its size and weight into account." "I don't need your lectures, Golden Boy."
I took aim and threw again, and missed the target at the end of the stretch by at least two feet. The spear hit the floor at an awkward angle and bounced a couple times before clattering to the floor. Axel laughed, but at least he had the decency to not laugh too long and hard, or I might get the urge to rip his head off. I got another spear and he beckoned me over, an amused smile on his face.
"As I said, you've got to straighten your elbow more. And unlike throwing knives, you can't flick your wrist at all, really." I rolled my eyes and took aim again. He stopped me before I could throw it, grabbing my arm and adjusting me from behind, fixing how I held the spear and how I was standing.
"Now you've got to arch it a little more, like this," his voice said above and behind me, as he took my wrist in his hand and guided my arm in slow motion along the path it should take, "And try pointing your other arm toward the exact spot you want the spear to hit." His other hand slid along my left arm as he straightened it and angled it to point at the target. "And relax, Blaze, jeez, you're incredibly tense." "Maybe it's because I don't like being touched by other people." "Or maybe it's because you're afraid of failing. You know, contrary to what Academy tries to teach us, it is okay to fail sometimes. It makes you stronger, and wiser, and you'll be more knowledgeable for next time. Take it easy, would you? I'm not going to beat you if you don't succeed or anything."
A few moments later I felt an absence of warmth behind me, signaling he had finally stepped back out of my personal space. "Whatever you say, Golden Boy," I said drily, taking aim the way he had shown me. I threw the spear, and it actually hit the target this time, not in the center but pretty close. At least enough for a decent wound, if not a kill.
"Hey, look at you, not failing for once." I turned at the sound of Zeke's overly self-confident voice. "Oh hey, look at me," I sneered, retrieving the spear and putting it back on the rack. "So you're the District 1 guy, right? What's your name again?" Zeke directed at the guy next to me. "I'm Axel. You must be Zeke." "Yours truly." They exchanged a solid handshake, while keeping eye contact, and I couldn't help wondering if the two of them would make a deadly team or become arch nemeses.
It was then that I noticed other tributes in the room. Zeke had apparently just arrived, and now I could see the Mellark girl with the redhead on the other side of the room with two other kids. They looked like they were talking. And they occasionally glanced over at us.
I ignored them, and instead said to both boys, "So, what now? Show off all day or what? It's not like we need practice starting a fire or anything." Axel chuckled. "Heck, I learned how to do that my first day of Academy when I was ten. Anyway, yeah, there's not really much else for us to learn, but I'd kind of like to look around at what competition we've got. Sure a lot of the kids are small, but who knows? Appearances can be deceiving."
"Oh, you're just like Blaze, always worrying," Zeke snorted, "Very few of them look like they could last five minutes against any of us. The guys from 10 and 11, they're really the only ones who could possibly be a match for us." "I dunno Zeke," I said, nodding over at the group of four across the room, "I think we all know about Katniss Everdeen, and she was tiny. And I'm looking at her kid right now. I think she's probably our biggest threat."
As if she had heard us, the red-haired girl next to Mellark stood up and looked straight at us. She glanced back at the other three, gave them a short nod, and then walked alone to a station surrounded by a circle of dummies. She disappeared for a moment behind the racks of swords to choose from, and then reappeared when she walked up and stood in the center of the circle.
She turned her back to us, and I noticed the two swords, slender and slightly curved, in an x across her back. Then her hands reached up to take hold of the swords' long handles, and suddenly we were staring at a whirlwind, a rapid and violent whirlwind as the red-haired girl proceeded to utterly demolish every single dummy surrounding her. Her arms moved both independently and in sync; one moment stabbing the chest of a dummy with one sword and decapitating a second with the other, the next moment using both swords to chop a dummy's torso in half in a swift motion that started the swords in an x and slashed outward.
"Well, there's a skilled fiend we weren't expecting," Axel's voice murmured in my ear. "I'll say," I mused, watching the girl finish after skewering a dummy in both sides of its stomach. She left the swords there and walked away calmly, her red high ponytail swinging sassily behind her head. "She's the District 5 one right?" I asked hollowly, staring at the girl walk away, back to her little group of kids. "Yeah, I think so. Her name's Spark, which I really only remember because of, well, the obvious hair color," he said with a nod in her direction.
"Spark huh? Lame." "Lame?" "Well, not to be cliché or anything, but a blaze is a lot more vicious and deadly than a spark, if I do say so myself," I said sarcastically. "This is true. Though you do need a spark to create a blaze, yes?" "Don't kill my analogy." "Sorry. Didn't mean to quench your spark of creativity there." "Oh shut up you." "Hope you're not burning with anger at my jests." "Would you quit it?" "I apologize. I wouldn't want to turn your happiness to ashes or anything." "Are you enjoying yourself?" "You are the one who pointed out the fire connection in the first place."
I rolled my eyes at him and punched him lightly in the arm. "Whatever. The point is, looks like we've got to watch out for that Spark." "Before it-" "Axel." "Sorry." "No you're not, you think you're hysterical." "I kind of am. Anyway, yeah, there's someone else to watch out for. The fact that she seems to be in league with the Mellark girl isn't the best sign either." "Hopefully we can just beat her to the Cornucopia and keep her away from the katanas," Zeke's voice cut in lazily. "Katanas?" "Yeah. Those swords. Special type of light sword, not very common. Didn't you ever use them at academy?" "I probably did, but I never bother with technical names beyond knife and sword and arrow."
As more tributes came in, I lost sight of Mellark's group, and my thoughts were forced away from them as a girl around my age, possibly older, came up to us. "Axel darling!" she cooed, going up to him and throwing her arms around his neck, leaning against him and looking up at him as if she adored him more than anything else in life. "Lacey, this is Zeke, and this is Blaze, they're the other two Careers this year," he said tonelessly, as he gingerly extracted himself from her grip.
Without so much as a glance in my direction, the girl turned around and flashed a big smile at Zeke. "Hello there handsome," she smiled, and as both she and Zeke turn on their smooth, charming, flirtatious sides, Axel shot me a look that read "Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall."
I rolled my eyes and walked in the other direction with him toward the sparring station, but I couldn't help glancing back over my shoulder. I felt bothered by the fact that Zeke was taking interest in another girl, and I didn't even know why I was. "You look troubled," Axel's voice said nearby, "I should have figured there was a connection between you two."
I whirled around to give him a straight-on solid glare. "What?" "You and him. I don't know what you see in him but you look totally bothered by him flirting with someone else." "Maybe I just find him bothersome in general," I retorted, pushing past him and getting a sword from the rack, "And I wouldn't be one to talk, 'Axel darling.'"
"Hey, you know that's completely one-sided. You even met me when I was trying to escape that girl." Climbing over the low fence around the edges of the sparring station, I stepped up onto the platform and turned to face him. "Whatever you say, Golden Boy. Now let's just take a moment to find out how badly I can beat you in a swordfight." "Keep dreaming, Smith," he chuckled, following me and not hesitating to attack.
Axel fought rather differently from Zeke. Zeke was stronger, more forceful and aggressive. Axel was still strong and aggressive, but he was a lot more cunning, quick, and sneaky. I would try to anticipate his next move and he would completely surprise me every time. And nearly every time our swords clashed, instead of pressing forward with all his strength like Zeke might, he immediately bounced back and hit from another direction. Needless to say, the whirling mayhem of our fight became very exhausting very quickly. And he was taller than Zeke was, which made it even more challenging for me.
He pinned me against the post of the fence in one corner of the station, his right hand locked around my throat and his left twisting my wrist until I was forced to drop my sword. He smiled down at me, both of us panting heavily, and his hand relaxed just enough so I could breathe properly. "Well, you sure did beat me badly," he said sarcastically, a little smirk playing on his lips. "Get off me you jerk," I said flatly, my free hand shoving at him.
His intense blue eyes searched my face for a moment, he smiled, and then he let me go. "Perhaps a break? You look winded." Was he kidding? I refused to walk away so beaten. I instantly picked up my sword and attacked him. He had apparently anticipated this because he dove to the side the instant he turned his back, picked up his sword, and our fight started all over again.