Authors Note: Hi everyone, here's a new chapter. It's the longest so far! Keep reviewing, it would be so amazing if this story one day got to 50 reviews, I wasn't expecting any in the beginning! Also, I'm open to suggestions of what you think should happen in this story :) Enjoy this chapter

Chapter Five

Grey's POV

The first hour of training was hectic. The tributes from district 1, 2 and 4, minus me, scattered around the training stations rushing to be first to try everything. Swords, spears, knives, hand-to-hand combat, climbing. I stood in the middle of the training center, a little bewildered by all the action. I'd had a few years of training through school, but that was a playground compared to this. When someone misfired an arrow that flew past me barely missing my shoulder, I jumped and stared down the culprit, a girl who I believed was Marvel's district partner. She giggled and waved at me, shouting, "Sorry!" I was speechless for a couple of seconds, before deciding to go and practice something myself.

I could see flashes of blond and black hair in the combat area: Cato and Spens. I would have liked to go and meet up with Cato, at least he could protect me from wayward arrows with his body mass, but I wasn't in a mood to deal with Spens. I'd already gone through breakfast with him constantly putting me down and I wasn't recovered enough to repeat that yet.

Marvel was hogging the spear station, intimidating a small boy by throwing hard and fast at the targets. But the brown haired tribute grinned at me when I approached him.

"Grey!" He said, "Want me to teach you how to throw a spear like a career?" I shrugged yes and went to stand beside him. I'd practiced with a spear often back in 4, but I wasn't amazing at it, I didn't have enough arm strength to get any speed or power. I was reasonable at aiming though, and Marvel seemed pleased.

"Well," He said after about half an hour of throwing spears, "You probably won't have enough force to kill anyone with a spear, but at least you'll hit them in the heart!" He laughed kindly, and I decided to move off to something else. Marvel said goodbye to me, and returned to his spears.

I ambled past various stations looking for something interesting that wouldn't be too heavy, because my arm had begun to ache from throwing the spears at full power with Marvel. I saw Cato's district partner at the knives, and decided to go to her. She was firing knives at moving targets and was absolutely amazing. She didn't miss once.

"You're amazing!" I blurted out, and then instantly regretted it; scared that I would have broken her concentration.

I waited a few minutes, staring at my training boots and hearing the sound of knife hitting wood rhythmically. For a moment I wondered what a knife hitting flesh sounded like, before the District 2 tribute turned around to grace me with her presence.

"Thank you," She replied coolly, breathing heavily from the exercise she'd just completed, "I'm Clove, district 2. Do you use knives?"

"My name's Grey, I'm district 4. Yes, I've used knives. I thought I was reasonable with them, but after seeing you practice I need to be a little rational. I don't really have a special weapon..." My words faded to a stop, I wasn't sure what to tell her. Clove eyed me suspiciously for a moment, but curiosity won out and some of the hardness in her eyes disappeared.

"What do you mean you don't have a weapon?" She asked me. Clove was small with dark hair, braided tightly for the purpose I supposed of keeping it out of the way when she was throwing knives. She was younger than the other careers, Cato looked like he might have been on his last years in the reaping pool but Clove looked barely 15. I dared not ask; she was probably used to getting comments about her having less skill because of her age. Seeing as I had just witnessed her murder a good dozen moving dummies, I had no doubts about her ability, and any tips I could get from her would be welcome. She stood silently awaiting my reply, twisting the knife she was holding against her palm, dark eyes staring me down.

"It's not that I can't use one, I trained as a career too! I just-" Clove interrupted my reply with a sigh of exasperation, before throwing the knife she was holding into the targets. Bullseye.

"How'd you get in the games then?" She asked in a bored voice, her interest waning.

"I was reaped. I didn't let anybody volunteer for me; it's a waste of a life."

"How sweet… As compassionate as you are, Cato's not going to take you if you're as good to him as a plank of wood, even if he is interested in you." I ignored the last part of Clove's comment as she smirked at me before walking towards the targets to go and collect her knives. I had to hold back my panic, worried that some tribute would accidentally skewer her, but all the other tributes froze in place. She obviously ruled the knife area. She started throwing again and I felt like I'd been dismissed.

"Wait! I can do other things!" I saw Clove pause, but she didn't turn to face me. Feeling encouraged, I continued.

"I can start fires without matches, I can swim and fish. I'm not bad with spears, and I know eatable plants like the back of my hand! I always was an enormous swotter... But I want to learn how to throw knives, if you taught me a little I know I would be helpful in your alliance!"

"Prove it then, tribute." Abruptly stopping my rant, I stared at Clove in shock. She shrugged at me, and pointed over to the eatable plants training section. A teacher was showing one of the girls a nightlock berry but no one was at the testing desk. Clove followed as I headed towards it, and she stood beside me as I loaded up the test, her eyebrow raised.

A few minutes later I spun around with the 100% score on the big screen, quietly hoping a crowd had accumulated. The trainer spent a few seconds congratulating me, seeing as I was probably the only tribute who had attempted it all day. Clove nodded at me, and looked like she was pondering if I would be useful. I heard slow clapping, and Cato came into view.

"Not bad, Grey. Not bad." He smirked, "But I don't need a plant whisperer. Go on the gauntlet, and then maybe I'll consider you." He winked, which made me think I was already in his silly alliance, but I decided to humor him.

The gauntlet was a training station most of the time only used by the careers. It took up a quarter of the center so it was difficult to miss, but most tributes avoided it so they wouldn't be noticed and targeted. I had already seen the tributes from district 1 and 2 try it, but if Cato hadn't asked I wouldn't have bothered. It consisted of ascending platforms that you climbed in the quickest time possible, avoiding the trainers who swung padded clubs at you and attempted to dismount you from it. But I couldn't see any trainers now, only Cato, who was testing the weight of a blade, and a few other tributes gathering including Marvel, Clove and Spens. As I approached the ground below the course, Cato smirked at me and swung his blade.

"You jump and I'll try to get you." He laughed. I would have been petrified in any other situation, but Cato's eyes were teasing. He didn't laugh often, I could tell that by just looking at him and I knew he wouldn't hurt me now.

"At last she's going to get it handed to her by the careers." Spens' comment broke the laugh in Cato's throat, and I could almost hear the thoughts in his head, that he would be the one to personally kill Spens. I pondered whether it was because he was protecting me or just eliminating his strongest enemies. I put my bet on the second option. Cato gave Spens a livid look as their tempers clashed. It was deathly quiet as they stared each other down, until Spens growled that he was wasting his time and stalked off. I saw Clove and Marvel visibly relax, but I saw the tension remain in Cato's shoulders and I was hesitant to be anywhere near his blade. Cato looked at the blade in his hand with his eyes flaming ice before shaking his head and replacing his sword with a trainers club.

I jumped up onto the course and begin to leap up the platforms. Cato swung lightly at first and I could easily avoid him, picking up speed as I hit half way. It was on one of the higher levels that he began to put more power into his swings and it became harder to avoid them. When I was nearly at the top level, I heard Cato grunt with fatigue as he struck particularly hard and fast, and he hit me square in the ribs. I shrieked and landed hard on the corner of the platform, but I managed to grab the edge of it so I didn't fall to the ground. Marvel ran over to help me off with Clove not far behind, and as they asked if I was okay I craned my neck to find Cato, but he had disappeared.

Cato's POV

I was livid. Spens had no right to treat people like that, for no good reason! I would never be able to say that I wasn't violent, that I couldn't hurt and kill heartlessly, but Spens was a different kind of sadistic. I wanted him dead before the games even began. I stalked towards the other end of the training center, where I could see Spens standing around, watching another tribute sword fighting. I approached him and grabbed him by the neck, throwing him to my right. He landed on his feet and turned to me, growling.

"Look who's come crawling back?" I heard him say, but the familiar roaring in my ears muffled his words somewhat. The haze of anger I was feeling rose up to my head and caused a familiar throbbing. I leapt onto him and punched him in the face.

I barely felt anything, just flesh underneath my fists and blood. Then a flashing pain hit me as Spens retaliated at my nose, and I felt blood drip onto the floor.

"Why would you even bother protecting her." He spat at me. I jumped at him again, and we rolled around the floor until we were restraining each other. Spens had my arm ready to break it, and I had his neck in a lock.

"Don't you f-ing touch her." I growl back. I saw him smile wickedly.

"What, you've fallen for her?" I could have killed him then, except for the Peacekeepers that decided at that moment to pull us apart. Someone grabbed me by the collar and yanked me off Spens, and dragged me out of the training center and into the elevator. I noticed Spens kicking and screaming, but by the time I got to the elevator I was standing on my own and already the red haze had begun to recede.