Morning came too soon, with Kesla knocking on my door. "Cato deary! We must wake up now! Training starts today!" she sang as she continued to use my door as a drum.

Groggy, I sat up and looked around. I only vaguely knew where I was. Then I remembered everything that happened yesterday. The chariots, the career meeting, and my fury. A part of me felt guilty. But I knew that if I was going to see Cora again, it had to be done. With concience cleared, I rolled out of bed and went to the dining room in my sleep pants.

Clove refused to make eye contact all through breakfast. The obvious tension disturbed Kesla, who tried too hard to make conversation. "Oh! Clove, did you tell Cato you saw the chariot parade today on TV? Maybe you could show it to him! Come now love, I'll help you set it up!" After an awkward silence, Kesla mumbled something inaudible and continued to eat her eggs.

After I stuffed my face with things like crepes, quiche, and caviar, I went back in my room. On the bed waiting for me was a black shirt with red accents and matching pants. The shoulders on the shirt had a number two on either side. My training gear. I quickly put it on and went to the TV to watch the Chariot parade.

Brutus sat with me and taught me how to control the remote controller. When I figured out how to fastforward, I skipped ahead to the close up of Katniss and Peeta. "That wasn't real fire. What was it?" I asked skeptically. Brutus was quick to reply. "Beats me," he scoffed, clearly annoyed with my fascination of the District Twelve tributes. "Why don't you ask them during training? In fact, go and bring Clove in here. I need to discuss some things with you." Wanting to no longer be in a room alone with Brutus, I ran in the dining room to get Clove.

When we got back to the TV, Brutus was standing right in front of it, eyeing it intently. He was so close that I couldn't see the screen, but I figured it was us due to the flashes of gold I caught every now and then. With a purpose, Brutus paused it on a closeup of our faces. We looked… terrifying. Our faces were hard and cold. Brutus stared at the picture for a few moments before turning and starting his speech.

"I hear that some people in the Capitol think it could be down to the two of you on the first day. They like you. They think you both have huge potential in winning." He paused for a moment, trying to sort his thoughts into complete sentences. You could see the gears in his head turning before continuing. "But, you guys still have a lot of work to do before you can win these games." With that, he skipped ahead to the circle area of the parade. The part where I first noticed the District Twelve tributes. He paused it again on our faces. This time, we were noticeably nervous. Caught off guard. This time Brutus looked angry. "If you guys want sponsors, you need to get your heads in these games. No one will sponsor you if you appear weak." His voice began to rise. "That!" At this he turned and pointed to our faces. "Is weak! You guys might as well be hopeless now! YOU BETTER IMPRESS AT TRAINING, YOU BETTER GET GOOD SCORES, OR YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT ME EVER HELPING YOU GUYS!" Spit flew out of his mouth and onto our faces. I've never been so genuinely terrified of a man before I met Brutus.

Brutus sat down on the coffee table in front of the sofa we were on. Mere inches from us, he quickly turned and pointed to Clove. "YOU! What's your talent?" Clove turned pale "K-k-knives."

"Then for training you touch on everything but knives. Spend a little time at the knives, just enough to scare the other tributes. Then, when your being judged, go straight for the knife. They'll have one. Show them just how well you can weild it." Clove simply nodded.

Brutus immediately turned his whole body to face me. "And what about you Davis? What are you good at?" I decided at the beginning of this speech I wasn't going to take any of his shit. He wants a fighter, he's got a fighter. "Swords." I stated, refusing to break eye contact with Brutus. "Well then you do exactly what I told Clove to do, but with a sword. Understand?" I gave my head a curt nod.

Seemingly satisfied, Brutus stood up, popped a few more pills, then waved us to the door. "Well then get off your asses. Training is starting soon. I'll take you there." He led us back to the elevator to take us to the fourteenth floor. When the doors opened, there were weapons and tools scattered around. It reminded me of my backyard training center back home. I couldn't help but smirk. I knew I had this in the bag.

The first thing they made us do was stand in a group listening to one of the trainers explain the rules. I honestly couldn't care less. I was just excited to get started, to show everyone just what I was made of.

The second she released us, I walked straight to the sword and dummys. A trainer was there ready to shake my hand. "Hi, my name is Kyran. I'm the sw-" Before he could finish I had grabbed a sword and began messing with the dummy, just as I would at home. Clove and Kyran watched, simply impressed. After I completely mangled the dummy I looked around the room. Many tributes were staring at me. A few even had their mouths hanging open. I smiled, stuck the sword back in the dummy, and moved to the next station.

I skimmed through the rest of the stations. Things like camoflauge and spears didn't interest me. I did stop for a while at the plant station. If anything would be useful, it'd be knowing what to eat in the arena. I walked over to where Marvel and Glimmer were. "Go to the plant station. Make sure you know what you're doing." Although Marvel looked defiant, he eventually followed Glimmer. I found Clove and told her to go there as well.

When the day ended we went back down to our apartment. Over a dinner of filet mignon and a weird drink that Kesla called 'cola,' we discussed what happened in the training center. Brutus looked impressed. "Good. Keep it up." As an afterthought, he turned to me. "No sword tomorrow. You already showed off. Try everything else out. You still have two more days before the scoring. Make sure you know what you're doing." I grimmaced before leaving to go back to my room.

I layed in bed with a million thoughts running through my mind. One of the main things though was Marvel. He was going to be trouble in the arena, I could already tell. He didn't want to listen to me. Although for now he did, who knows what would happen once hunger and the environment takes over his mind. But then again, who's to say that won't happen to me as well?

I shuddered, quickly erasing that thought from my mind. I was afraid to become brutal. I know Cora will be watching, and I don't want her to think I'm a bad person. When I win and come home, she wouldn't speak to me. She'd be horrified to be around me. However, I knew that if I was going to get back home to her, it might have to happen.

I scrunched my eyes closed, trying to delete the potential Cato that could emerge in the arena out of my head. When that failed, I went and took a shower. It felt like an hour before I was finally too exhausted to stand up. Grudgingly, I walked back to my bed, and fell asleep as my head touched the pillow.