Author's Note: Wow, two chapters in one day. And this chapter is a fairly long one. It's the first day of Training and a lot happens. You'll get to meet a couple of important characters in this chapters, mainly the Careers, though I am introducing some other Tributes into this chapter, though I don't tell you all their name, but don't go forgetting about them, they might be end up being important in Part 2 and 3 of this fic.

Anyway, please enjoy and any thoughts that you have about this fic, let me know, I'd love to hear them.

Chapter Seven

I dreamed of many strange things during the night, all bright and colourful, swirling shapes and images, but nothing was clear to me or made any sense when I woke up the next morning. And I was grateful for that. I didn't want to remember my dreams from the previous night, the feelings that they left with me when I woke up was bad enough as it was.

I rolled out of bed, taking a moment to realise that for the first time, in a long, long time, I had slept alone. It was a strange feeling waking up and not being in Finnick's arms, being held close to his chest. It was strange not waking up with him by my side. I didn't like it. Not one bit.

I went and took a shower, hoping that the running lukewarm water would wash all the bad feelings and sadness away, before getting dressed in the clothes that had been set out for me some time during the previous night.

The outfit consisted of comfortable black trousers, with black lace up boots and a black shirt with red and grey short sleeves, the number '4' printed on each shoulder and on the back of it.

With a thick feeling my throat, I pulled on the clothes, pulling my hair into its normal high tail before heading out to breakfast.

There are a few people already eating at the long table in the dining room, my grandmother being one of them. She is half way through her morning porridge when she looks up to see me enter the room. Her face pales some and she seems to have lost her appetite as she pushed her bowl away from her.

"Morning Grandma." I say as I kiss her cheek as I pass her to get some breakfast from the long bench that is set up with all sorts of different types' breakfast food, off to the side of the room, the young Avox man from last night is standing to attention by it.

He gave me the all clear to serve myself, which I did with great vigour. I don't remember when I had felt so hungry, and I load my plate up to accommodate my hunger. I knew that I would probably regret this huge meal later on but at the moment, I really couldn't care less.

My grandmother raised an eyebrow at my loaded plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, grilled fish and roasted tomato as well as a bowl of fruit, but said nothing and everyone else at the table simply said I was doing the smart thing by eating as much as I was, build up some reserves for the games as I was such a skinny, lanky thing, I needed all the fat on me as I could get.

I ignored much of what they said, simply focusing on eating and sating my huge hunger and oddly enough when I was done, I didn't feel at all queasy or upset in the stomach at all.

A real improvement I must say.

Others start to filter in, some greeting us with good mornings, other simply grunted and headed straight for the coffee.

Finnick was one of the last people to come and join us, along with Merle who looks like he's tried to comb his hair with a piece of coral. He's dressed in the same uniform as me, only it looks far more impressive on him than it does on me.

He grunts a morning to everyone before flopping down into a spare seat, placed his head on his folded arms on the table and went back, apparently, to sleep. Not a morning person, obviously.

I try to catch Finnick's eye but he seems to be insisted on ignoring my very existence.

I feel anger bubble up in my chest but somehow manage to keep myself from exploding, if only to keep myself from exposing some stuff that I'd much rather keep to myself. For example the existence of the baby. His baby.

Jerk.

I slunk down in my chair. I wanted to kick him, or at least get some explanation as to why he was ignoring me like this.

I feel a gentle hand being placed on my shoulder. My grandmother gives me a sympathetic look.

"I'll talk to him." She told me in a low voice.

"Don't tell him…." She shook her head.

"Not mine to tell. But I will talk to him."

I smiled at her in relief, but I still felt miserable from Finnick's lack of… anything. Him being angry at me would be better than this!

"So," I'm dragged momentarily out of my misery by Marlin who is sitting at the end of the table, looking back at Merle and me – Merle had to be kicked awake – rubbing his hands together, "first day of training. Possibly the most important day of training that you'll have. This is the day that you make your impression, your first impression upon the other tributes about what you can do. You already stand out because you're from District Four and you were a big splash last night," he gave me a wink and I felt my cheeks turn red. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Finnick butcher a piece of sausage brutally with his fork, "but today is the day that you make sure that you shine, the day you make them know just how much of a winner you are. Understand."

Merle showed his understanding with a lazy smirk while I just nodded weakly. I wasn't sure how I was going to do that, show everyone that I was a threat, that I was worth being noticed. Wouldn't it actually be smarter to fly under the radar, to be forgettable? Oh, wait we're a Career District, flying under the radar is not in our nature. We stand out and we stand out hard.

"Now, do you want to be trained together or separately?" Marlin asked. I try not to snort into my orange juice.

Oh yes, Merle would just love to train with me. Clearly it was obvious to all what we both wanted since Marlin gave a nod and started asking who wanted to take me and who wanted to mentor Merle.

I wasn't overly surprised when most of them wanted to mentor Merle. I mean, even now, even after I was the bigger splash out of the two of us last night at the Opening Ceremony, out of the two of us, he still has the higher chance of surviving the Games than I do.

"I'll take her." I jumped when he spoke. He had been so quiet, besides from the murdering of his sausage that I had almost forgotten he was even present at the table. Almost, but not quite. Somehow, something internally always has me aware of him, always makes sure that I noticed him, notice every little thing that he does out of the corner of my eye.

I can see he isn't happy, like his offering to mentor me sort of slipped out or something. The little bubble of hope that I had felt when he offered to be my mentor burst when I saw his face or rather the side of it. He still wasn't looking at me.

"I will too." Grandma said suddenly, causing me to jump.

"But you're retired." I said and I wasn't the only one who spluttered either.

She shrugged and took a sip of her tea.

"Are you sure Mags?"Marlin asked gently. My grandmother gave him a warning look.

"I mentored both my children and I will mentor Annie." She said firmly and that was that. No one argued with my grandmother when she uses that tone of voice.

I sat back feeling a little overwhelmed. I might not have had mentors fighting over me, but somehow I've managed to land myself with two of the best.

Merle seems to have come to the same conclusion since he was now giving me looks that could sharpen knives.

I shrank a little in my chair again.

"Grandma," I said when ten o'clock came rolling around and it was almost time for Merle and I to head down to the training rooms that make up the bottom level of our building. Grandma and I were sitting in my room, waiting for the time to pass.

"Hmmm?"

"Are you sure about this? Mentoring me?"

"Of course, why would I not be?"

"Well, because I'm family for one." She looks up at me and touches my cheek.

"Exactly," she says, "and family protect each other. I've already lost a son and daughter to these games. I won't lose my grandchildren to them too." Grandchildren; the baby and me.

She looks so fierce and determined that I remember just how formidable a Victor/Mentor she is. She, out of all the Victors, has mentored more of our tributes to victory than anyone else. She is a legend, both here in the Capital and back in District Four, as well as, I'm sure, all around Panem.

"Thanks Grandma." I hug her and she hugs me close.

"Now the first bit of advice that I give as your official mentor is this; Forget everything that Marlin said this morning."I blink at her in surprise, but she held up her hand, motioning for me to not interrupt, "What he said might be true for others, for people who really are Careers who want to be allies with other Careers, but it's not true for you. You are a fast runner and a fantastic swimmer and I want you to keep these things to yourself. It's a pity that Merle knows these talents because if he allies himself with the Careers and we both know that will happen, he will most likely tell them all that he knows about you, either to get you on their side as an asset or to…"

"To use what he knows to find a way to kill me." I nodded and she pats my hand.

"Yes, that. But you have other talents, talents that he doesn't know about." I frown at her. What? She smiles slyly, "you've grown up in the Victor's Village, you've live your whole life with one of the eldest victors that Panem can boast. This means you have an advantage that few have ever had. Of course, it is also a disadvantage, but," she waved her hand, "that is not the point here. The point here is, that even though you haven't realised it or noticed it, I have been training you from a little girl for these games, in subtle ways. I've told you survival stories of tributes that I know and have mentored. I've taught you how to fish and how to fend for yourself, even in times when food was plentiful. I've taught you how to make a fire and how to make a fishing hook out of nearly anything that you might come across."I smiled at that. My grandmother, the Queen of Fishing Hooks, "I've shown you want plants are good and which ones are deadly in our district. I've been training you since the moment you could walk and I had your father throw you into the deep end of the rock pools so that you would learn to swim by instinct." She smiled while I pulled a face at that memory.

"Annie, you've had the benefit of growing up with a Victor and being taught skills that only a Victor can teach. You are not as unprepared for this as you might think. You have all the skills that you need to play these games smart and to win."

"I still feel…"

"And you will continue to feel this way until you're in that terrible arena, and you're life depends on the knowledge I've been passing down to you all these years. It will then, that I am sure you will feel more confident in yourself. It will be then that you will feel prepared."

"If you say so." I still felt doubtful.

"I do. You'll be surprised how far a little knowledge will take you. Speaking of which, build on your knowledge during these next three days. Build on what you know, learn to tie knots for snares, learn about different plants, but also, I want you to test out the weapons. Test them all; learn the basics of them all. If you find one in particular that you like to use, good, but I want you to learn how to use as many as possible, as well as learn as many survival skills as you possibly can."

"Busy three days then, huh?"

"Very busy."

Merle and I were one of the first to arrive in the Training Centre, only being beaten by One and Two – what a surprise - who were watching us with interest as we came to stand by them in front of the head trainer, a tall athletic woman known as Atala.

"Hi there." The tall gorgeous blonde boy from District One greeted the moment Merle and I arrived.

"Hi." Merle and I replied. I noticed that for the first time since we had been in these Games that Merle seemed to be unsure of himself. He looked calm outwardly but I could see from where I stood by his side that he's fists were clenched tightly by his sides.

"I'm Jeopardy and this is my sister Serendipity." The blonde boy continued, gesturing to the beautiful girl standing next to him, the one who had glared knives at me last night after the Opening Ceremony.

I fought to keep my face neutral. Jeopardy and Serendipity? What were their parents thinking?

"And those two are Cole and Jade." He added jabbing his thumb in District Two's direction. The two of them sneered back at us. Right… nice to meet you two too.

"I'm Merle and this one's Annie." Merle introduced us and I fought the desire to kick him in the shins. This one?

After the introductions were over, we stood together awkwardly.

"I loved your dress." Serendipity said suddenly to me, causing me to jump slightly at the sudden break in the awkward silence.

"Um, thank you." I replied, unsure what was going on or what she was actually aiming at.

"It was absolutely beautiful. I was so jealous. Wasn't I Jep?" she nudged her brother, who nodded his head seriously.

"I was worried that she might try to rip it from your lovely back." He said and I cringed slightly at the hidden meaning.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't. My Stylist would have had my skin if I allowed anything to happen to it." I replied with a forced smile. Serendipity laughed girlishly and swatted my arm playfully. A playful swat that I was going to get a bruise from later.

I kept my face cool, even though my flesh was stinging and simply continued to smile at her, which seemed to catch her a little off guard.

She glanced at her brother who shrugged.

Thankfully more tributes started to arrive after that, though my heart sunk when I saw most of them. Just about half of them were younger than I was and the rest were all bigger than me.

When we were all present we all formed a circle around Atala, who immediately begins to explain the training schedule to us.

She pointed out each of the different stations, the survival skills, hand-to-hand combat station, fencing and the knot tying station. I grinned when I saw that station. We were, of course, forbidden to fight with one another that if we wanted to practice fighting anyone there were assistants around that we could practise with.

As soon as we were dismissed by Atala, I immediately broke away from Merle and the other Careers and started heading for one of the survival stations, while they immediately headed over to the weapons, all five of them handling their chosen weapon with ease.

I swallow thickly and immediately start asking the trainer of the edible plants stations questions.

I stay there for an hour. I know a few things, but after listening to the trainer, I realise that really, I know absolutely nothing, so I pay special attention when she shows me and a couple of other tributes the subtle differences between blueberries and nightlock. Nightlock is apparently a real killer in these games.

"We have these at home." A very small voice said from beside me. I look sideways and then down at the tiny girl who is sitting next to me. Her hair is thick and as black as night and falls in a complete mess from her head down her shoulders to almost her waist. Her skin is an olive shade and her eyes are grey.

I've never seen grey eyes before, they're pretty. She's pretty. A pretty twelve year old.

"Where's home?" I asked companionably as I took the rest of her in. She was tiny and looked like she had never had a proper meal in all her life.

"The Seam." I look at her blankly and her olive cheeks darken. "I mean, District Twelve."

"Ah." Was all I could think to say.

"Where's home?" she asks me and I can't help but smile.

"District Four." I feel her stiffen slightly beside me and I mentally curse. I've sacred her off now.

"You mean," She breathed, "you've seen the ocean?" the way she said 'ocean' caught me off guard, she said it was so much longing.

"Um, yes. I live right by it." her pretty grey eyes widen and she grins brightly, making me notice that she has recently lost a couple of her baby teeth. I felt my stomach churn a little. She wouldn't live to see her adult teeth to come through.

"That must be…" she trailed off, unable to think of a word to describe how it must be.

"It is fairly wonderful. It's very pretty and full of life." I went on to describe the ocean to her and afterwards she described the woods that surround District Twelve. She smiles secretively to me as she does so, letting me know that she was letting me in on a secret.

I'm not frustrated or annoyed when Willow – that was her name – followed me to the knot-tying station. In fact, I was glad for the company, especially when I happened to look over to where the Careers were still showing off to the rest of us by the weapons stations and I catch Merle's eyes and he shakes his head at me, mouthing 'you are so dead', before turning away again.

The rope-tying was simple for me and I pass with flying colours. As does little Willow, who shows me a snare that will catch a whole rope of rabbits.

"My brother showed me how." She explained but didn't elaborate more. In return, I showed her some simple knots that might help her out if she's in a pinch.

We part ways after that, her heading over to the camouflage stations while I, hesitantly, walk over to one of the weapon stations.

"Finally decided to be smart huh?" Merle sneered at me as I awkwardly lifted up a sword, immediately hating the cold steel and the weight of it.

"There's more to surviving these games than mere brute strength." I mutter back at him, as I tried to get a better grip on the sword. It's too heavy!

Though, at least I'm not the only one having trouble, but I'm the only "career" who is. The others are wielding the damn things as if they are simply an extension of their arms.

The Trainer for the swords comes over to me and gestures for me to join the small group of tributes he's assemble together to give a lesson to. My ears burn at the laughter from the other Careers as I join the other tributes in my first ever fencing lesson.

I hated every moment of it.

And I wasn't the only one. The boys from Three and Ten both collapse from exhaustion after our first session and the boy from Eleven simply looks down at his blade with disgust.

"I hate this." I heard the boy from Ten mutter to the boy from Three as they both return their swords to the shelf. The boy from Three just nods and the two of them head for the edible plants station.

I continue to hang around by the weapons stations but I'm grateful for when lunch time comes. When I enter the dinning room that is off to the side of the training rooms, I'm not surprised when I look down to my side and see that Willow is walking with me. We eat together, along with her District partner, a quiet fifteen year old boy, also from an area of District Twelve known as the Seam.

"He's my brother's best friend," Willow explains as she introduces me to the boy. "Ronan, say Hi."

"Hi." He replies into his plate, before starting eating again. The two of them eat as if they've never seen food before. But from what I've heard of Twelve and seeing how thin these two are, I can't fault them for not using their knives and forks and I glare at the attendants who shake their heads in disgust at the two of them.

"He tried to volunteer for me." I jumped when Ronan spoke. Willow has left our table to get her fourth helping of fruit and chocolate cake and we are alone.

"Pardon?"

"He, Wills brother, tried to volunteer for me after my name was called and Willow was already up on stage."

"Oh." I said not sure where this was going.

"I didn't let him though."

"Why?"

He shrugged, "his family has already lost one kid to these games and now they're going to lose Will. If Jarred had volunteered for me, than they would have lost both their kids. But since I didn't let him, then they might not lose their last two kids."

"You're going to..." I trailed off.

"Die, to protect her." he nodded, "yup."

"But… what about your family?"

"Community house." He said simply and I nodded. He had no family. Or rather he did and that was why he was here. He had a family that he wanted to protect.

"That's really…"

He shrugged, not letting me finish, as Willow had just returned with her bowl of fruit and chocolate cake.

I looked at the two, before looking away.

This was so wrong. These Games…

"You know that they're laughing at you, right?" the husky voice of Eleven said from behind me as I raised a spear over my shoulder, trying to throw it at the life size dummy that is several metres away from me.

"I know." I grumbled back, not even bothering to look in their direction; their laughter was loud enough as it was.

"Try to relax." The trainer was saying to me over the laughter, "you're too tense and you're over-thinking and that's why you keep missing."

"Or rather," Eleven muttered from behind me, "let all your anger and frustration towards them vent out into the spear, so that when you throw it, you see the dummy as one of them. Bet you won't miss then."

I look over my shoulder at him and he quirks a dark eyebrow at me.

I took a deep breath and did as he said, the laughter seem to grow louder in my ears and I felt my anger towards them start to bubble within me.

And then it died away and I sighed.

"I can't." I mutter as I lowered the spear.

"You can, just try." The trainer insisted. "You come from a fishing district, don't you?" I shoot him a look, which he simply returned with a look that read 'well then'.

Breathing heavily through my nose, I lifted the spear again and looked at the dummy, this time forcing myself to see a fish instead.

It's a fish. It's a fish. Not a person, a fish, a fish that you'll be taking home to Grandma and Finnick. It's a fish. Just a fish. It's a…

"Woah." The laughter has stopped.

I hadn't realised that while I was chanting my mantra, I had thrown the spear. I hadn't hit the dummy that I had originally been aiming for, the one that was just a couple of metres away from me, no, I hit the one at the very far end of the room, right in the middle of its chest, making me look way better than I actually am.

I glanced over my shoulder at the Careers, slightly satisfied when I saw that both Jeopardy and Serendipity mouths were hanging open in disbelief. Cole looked impressed while Merle looked dumbfounded. Jade looked simply calculating.

"Was that just luck or are you really that good?" Eleven asked with a chuckle.

"Let's see, shall we." I said and I picked up another spear. And using the same technique as last time, I threw the spear and another and another. Each one hit the furthest dummy, one even hit the dummy right in it's forehead before it fell to the floor with a ringing clank.

I felt that was enough spear throwing for the day after that and I darted off back to the knot-tying station – it gave me a sense of security, I guess – trying to ignore all the looks that were following me as I went.

"So how was training?"

"Well Annie's sign herself up as a Babysitter."

"Annie!" I didn't even bother lifting my head up from the dining table. I ached all over and all I wanted to do was go to bed, I didn't want to be sitting here being criticised for not being a blood-thirsty killer.

"Shut Merle." I grumbled into my arms. I don't remember aching this bad since my first real swimming meet and that was when I was eight.

"Well, it's true."

"Uh huh and how far can you throw a spear?" I snapped lifting my head from my arms and glared at him. He prominently shut up at that, looking slightly grumpy.

After my display of spear throwing, the rest of the Careers had gone to take a shot at it, trying to prove that they too were just as good as I was… except that they weren't. None of them could hit the furthest dummy that I had hit multiple times in a row.

"What?"Marlin asked. He was looking between us with an expecting expression. I rolled my eyes.

"I hit the furthest dummy in the room with a spear. And he's cranky because he kept missing it or rather, the spear kept falling short."

"Shut up. At least I can do more than simply throw a spear."

"Oh yeah? What's the difference between Nightlock and blueberries? Would you be able to tell one apart from the other? Because did you know that Nightlock is one of the biggest killers in these games for idiots like you who think they're eating blueberries but instead are ingesting poison."

Merle opened his mouth to retaliate.

"ENOUGH!" Marlin yelled

"What's going on?" my grandmother had just entered the dining room with several other mentors following behind her, including Finnick. All them wearing varying looks of concern.

"You mean, besides these two trying to ripe out each other's throats?" Marlin asked with a grim smile as he glared at Merle and me.

"She's being stupid." Merle started.

"I am not. I'm being smart. You're the one being stupid." I snapped back. I felt extremely childish but after a day of being laugh at and being exposed to the fact that more than half of us won't survive the first day in the arena, I was in a pretty foul mood.

"I'm stupid? Hey, I'm not one whose got a twelve year old following me around like a little shadow."

"Willow's smart." I snapped, "She knows her plants and she can make snares. She knows more about surviving in harsh situations than you or I do."

"Is this the kid from Twelve?""One of the mentors asked.

I nodded.

"Annie." I heard several groan.

"What? She's smart. She taught me how to create a snare that will trap and kill a whole rope of rabbits. How is that not a good thing."

"Because if you become allies with her, she'll probably just slow you down and make you more vulnerable." Marlin said pinching his nose. I blink at him.

"Who said I was allies with her? She already has an alliances with her district partner, I was just talking to her because she happen to be sitting next to me at the edible plants station."

"Oh…"

"But you haven't made much of an attempt to ally yourself with the tributes from One and Two." Marlin pointed out and I rolled my eyes.

"Why would I go and ally myself with a group of people who will be most likely the ones who will be stabbing me in the back? They're all a bunch of sociopaths" I grumbled, sliding down in my chair so that my nose is now level with the table edge.

I heard a couple of snorts of laughter.

"Hey."Merle started.

"Well, it's true, there's no point denying it."

"Well, Annie," Marlin was looking completely exasperated with me know, "who do you want to become allies with?"

"Myself?"

"Annie."

"I don't know. The guy from Eleven? I spoke with him during weapons training."

"Anyone else?" I would have liked to have said Willow and Ranon but I knew I would just be pushing my luck so I simply shook my head.

"It's only the first day." Grandma said suddenly from behind me, her hand coming to rest on my shoulder.

Marlin nodded, shooting one more exasperated look in my direction before heading over to an Avox, saying that he'd like for dinner to be served shortly.

Grandma sat down beside me, gently rubbing my sore shoulders as I came to once more resting my arms and head upon the dining table.

"I'm still not helping myself, am I?" I asked her after a moment.

"Maybe not with Marlin, but you have caught the interest of the Gamemakers from what I've heard." I lifted my head from my arms and looked at her in surprised.

"Really?"

"Apparently." She tucked a stray hair behind my ear. I sighed heavily.

"I shouldn't have made friends with Willow." I mumbled.

"Hmmm, why?"

"Because even though she is so smart and quick, she's still only twelve and even with Ranon, her district partner, her chances of winning are…"

"Slim?"

"Uh huh." My head came to rest upon my folded arms again. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, but I brushed it away before anyone saw it.

Throughout dinner Merle and I are drilled about what we've learnt today. Merle hasn't learnt a lot since he remain around the weapons stations for all of the day and he knew a great deal about his strength with certain weapons already, he was simply showing off what he knew to the other Careers.

Which personally, I think is rather stupid, as he's now got nothing up his sleeve for when things go sour between him and them. They'll now know all his strengths and weaknesses while I'm sure he won't know all of theirs. The only thing that they've shown not shining at is spear throwing and that was only for distance. Close up and they've basically impaled the dummy with the spear.

When it's my turn to tell of what I've learnt today, I seem to appease Marlin some. While I might not shine with a lot of the weapons, I was at least proving that I wouldn't starve after the first couple of days. Also I now know how to track water, which is more than I can say for Merle who looked blank when I spoke about it.

"See, the survival stations aren't as stupid or weak as they seem." I tell him somewhat tartly. He pulls a face at me, but I noticed he looks a little worried, so I take pity on him and tell him what to do to check if there is any water, say a stream, nearby

Surprisingly, he listens to me carefully, several times repeating what I've said so that it will sink better into his brain.

"See, more of this and less fighting and you two might actually get somewhere." Marlin said. Both Merle and I pull faces at him, causing several at our table to laugh.

"Or not." He conceded. "Well it appears, despite everything," he shot me a look, "you two seem to be doing fine. Though, I will say this, Merle," Merle looked up from his plate, "I want you to check out the Survival stations tomorrow. Annie's right, they're not stupid or weak and what you learn there could just save your life. And Annie, I want you to keep working on getting better with weapons. You seem fine with a spear, with the distance aspect of it at least, but I want you to learn to put in more force when you use it. Being able to throw a far distance is fine when the target is moving and you want to slow them down, but when they're up close, a shallow wound will only anger them. You need to learn to make your throw count. Understand?" I simply nod, staring down at my plate, not really seeing the food that was left on it.

I head for bed almost immediately after Dinner. The moment Finnick disappeared from the table – he was still not speaking or even looking at me – I lost all interest in the conversations around me and was suddenly deathly tired.

"I'm going to bed." I tell Grandma who looks up at me with a concern look. "I'm fine, just tired."

She nodded and wished me goodnight. I say good night to everyone else and head for my room.

I take a shower because even though I had one as soon as I got back from training, I still felt gross, so I took another.

Plus the water just made me feel better, loosing up my tense muscles and soothing the nausea that the baby inside of me was causing. The baby had been good for most of today, but this evening it was making my insides squirm.

I rubbed my belly gently before I stepped out of the warm stream of water, grabbing a towel and wrapped it around my chest.

I allowed my body to be blown dry by the heaters, placing my hand upon a box that sent a current through my scalp, drying, untangling and parting my hair. I leave my hand there for longer than I had previously and watched in the mirror as my usually wavy hair became completely straight, a glossy curtain.

I wondered absently what Finnick would think of me with straight hair before remembering he wasn't talking to me – for some reason – and he was off doing things that, as he's girlfriend – was I still? – I didn't really want to think about.

I stomped out of the bathroom, feeling quite peeved and sad, though I wouldn't admit it if anyone asked me, and pulled on a soft pair of pyjamas and crawled into the bed.

I lay there for awhile, unable to sleep, too busy thinking over things. Mainly about Finnick and his sudden cold attitude towards me or rather lack of any kind of attitude towards me.

I sniffed and rubbed my nose.

I wouldn't cry. I refused!

I somehow managed to keep from crying but I fell asleep with a headache and feeling like I had a heavy weight on my chest.

Author's Note: Told you it was a long chapter and quite bit happens in it and you meet a lot of new characters. Just don't forget about them, even the ones I haven't named and don't seem important, they might just end up surprising you... or I might just be pulling your leg and I never mention them ever again, lol.
And yeah, about the uniforms that they're wearing, obviously I took the idea from the movie even though I know in the book the tributes during training days got to wear whatever they wanted but I like the Training Uniforms and I think it makes sense for them to be worn during the training sessions.

Thank you to all the reviews, favourites and alerts so far. I didn't realise that there were so many. For some reason I wasn't informed about certain reviews when they were posted, so I will now check and answer any questions that may have been asked.

Once again thanks and chapter 8 will be posted up soon.