In the morning, I'm woken by someone shaking me. I turn over groggily and see Marcus standing over me, looking too energized for the morning. I make a mental note that he is most likely a morning person while I on the other hand am not.
"Good morning, Sapphire. We have a tough few days ahead. Take a shower and meet me and your father for breakfast in my room."
I nod my head, my eyes still halfway closed.
"Five more minutes," I grumble.
"Four."
"Fine." I turn over and bury my face in my pillow, trying to fall back asleep, but I couldn't because I could still feel Marcus' presence next to me, watching me. "Are you really going to stand there for four minutes?" I ask.
"Yes."
I sigh and throw the cover off of me, pulling my head up from the comfy pillow. "I'm up! Happy now?"
I was definitely not a morning person, and after the little amount of sleep I had been getting lately, I was grumpy that I had been woken up after a finally peaceful sleep. However, I found it hard to be mad at him for some reason.
"Ecstatic. Now, hurry up with that shower," he says. I roll my eyes and leave him to go to the bathroom where I take a quick shower.
Afterwards, I put on the required outfit for all tributes for training. It is a purple fitted shirt with our state abbreviation on the left sleeve. The pants are a tan color and the shoes are lightweight and black. I put them on and walk to Marcus' room.
I don't bother knocking before open the door. He and father are laughing about something, stopping when they see me coming in. I ignore it and sit down in a chair across from father, not uttering a word.
I wasn't up for talking at the moment, still groggy from sleep. Instead of waking me up, showers seem to have the opposite affect on me, and I felt more tired than before.
Our breakfast is already here. Scrambled eggs, toast, fruit and a glass of milk. I finish off the scrambled eggs in less than a minute. While I'm starting on the toast, my father chuckles.
"Slow down there, darling. You'll make yourself sick."
"Sorry, but they taste really good." I say. Really, I was considering hiring a personal chef- you know, if I got past the next few weeks.
After we all finish our food and dispose of the dishes, we decide to relax before training starts at noon. It's 10 o'clock, so we have time to kill. Breakfast seemed to have woken me up some, so I was more involved in the conversation.
We all take turns sharing stories. However, being my mentor does not stop father from telling embarrassing stories about me.
"Dad, can you skip the stories about me, please?" I beg, trying to keep my embarrassment hidden. That does not stop me from blushing though. I would have been fine had he not been going into great detail about some of the more embarrassing stories of my life.
"Aw, afraid I'll embarrass you in front of your crush?" he teases.
"Dad!" I yell. Nope, even faced with life or death, he still acts like the same dad every teenage girl has to deal with. And of course, this is the worst time to think about crushes. Yea, Marcus is cute, but that is the least of my worries right now.
"Ok, I'm done," he says, holding his hands up in. Now I know I'm blushing because I can feel my face burning. I hide my face in my hands in hopes that I could conceal my red face. Marcus is just sitting there, unfazed, his face clean of emotions just like on reaping day.
He's probably use to hearing these things.
A moment of silence passes as I finally calm my blazing cheeks. I try to get the ball rolling and change the subject.
I start telling a story about when Kaitlynn and I were eight and we were riding our bikes through the woods. We had been riding for about 20 minutes before we realized we were lost. We walked with our bikes for an hour before father found us. Kaitlynn was scared out of her mind, but I actually enjoyed it.
I had been interested in the whole idea of 'Survivor' at the time and thought it was pretty cool that I could be in a similar situation., Now, however, I was in a similar situation, only ten times worse. The survival part? Check. I just didn't think that I would have to face 98 other teenagers with weapons. Not as cool as I had previously thought.
Marcus tells stories about him and his sister, Jane. Apparently, father cannot think of any stories besides embarrassing ones about me, so he just listens.
I had never seen such a genuine smile come from Marcus until he was talking about Jane. There was no doubt that he loved her deeply- like a big brother should- and that got me thinking about Becca and Daniel.
I missed them terribly, I was sure of that. I knew my dad did too, but he hasn't mentioned them since we got here. Whether it was the fact that he was too preoccupied with keeping Marcus and I alive, or just the simple fact that he didn't want to upset me I wasn't sure.
He had a way with hiding his emotions. Much like Marcus, it was hard to tell what he was feeling most of the time. He was a generally happy man though, so if he was hiding his emotions you knew something was wrong.
It must be hard for our families too. I mean, sure, Marcus and I miss them terribly, but it can't be too great for them either. Constantly worrying whether or not we'll be coming home to them, they have to be a nervous wreck. I chuckle quietly to myself as I think of my mother when she was nervous. She would clean everything, and I mean everything. The floors, the walls, the dishes. Anything she could clean, and she would go over it three times.
Finally, noon came and it was time for us to head down to the basement where training was to be held. We said goodbye to father and met DeAnne in the elevator, who gives us the full report of how well the parade went.
"You two were just absolutely stunning! I got so many calls from sponsors once it was over. Of course, now it's up to your mentor to decide where to go from there," she babbles happily. I turn to Marcus, smiling brightly.
"Here that? We're popular." He chuckles and opens his mouth to say something else before DeAnne cuts him off.
"Yes, now it's your job to seal the deal. Don't mess up during your private training sessions, and we should be all set!"
Don't mess up during your private training sessions? I didn't know whether I should take that as encouragement in its simplest form, or an insult. I looked back at Marcus and he just shrugs. Guess I'll just take it as encouragement.
The elevator opens and Marcus and I step out, DeAnne shouting a "Do well!" before the doors slide closed.
My eyes scan the massive room and all the stations, noting how only about ¼ of the tributes are here so far. Who is here have already formed into small groups, spread out across the room as they avoid one another. Marcus and I are the odd ones out, standing at the edge of the room alone.
I spot Evan and Kennedie not too far away, alone as well. Evan meets my eye and waves me over. I tap Marcus' shoulder, drawing his attention from whatever he was examining. I point over to Evan and he nods, following me as we make our way over.
"Hi guys," I say. They both smile, Kennedie's smile seeming more than friendly when she looks at Marcus. We all chat for a bit, Kennedie's charm factor going up tenfold as she talk, more to Marcus than Evan and I. I found it slightly annoying that she was flirting in this kind of situation, but I figured a distracted opponent was an easier opponent.
Yes, I know It's a back-stabbing move to think about someone like that as you're trying to befriend them, but this is the Hunger Games we're talking about. Right and wrong don't exist here, and any morals I once had are going to have to be put aside if they're going to get in the way of my survival.
All the tributes have finally arrived and formed into groups, some choosing to keep to themselves. A woman by the name of Margie explains the rules of training to us, which are simple enough. No fighting with other tributes, no taking weapons from the premises, and no horseplay.
Heeding my father's advice, I go to a station that I could use improvement on, leaving whoever wants to follow me to do so. Evan comes with me to the camouflage station, while Marcus goes to the fire-crafting station, Kennedie of course following him.
"Shouldn't you say something to Kennedie?" Evan asks me half way through me painting- or attempting to paint- my hand into a berry bush. He was on the other side of the bush, doing the same thing I was.
"About what?" I was distracted with trying to get the shadows just right, but I was failing miserably.
"She isn't very paying much attention to the training. She's a little distracted…" he trails off, pointing over to the station Marcus and her are at. I look over to see her a little too close to him as he tries and starts a fire, and I can't help but giggle at the expression on his face.
"It's not my job to keep her mind on track," I shrug.
"Aren't girls supposed to get jealous over that kind of stuff?" he asks. I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. Loudly, I might add. Everyone withing a twenty foot radius gave me strange looks, including Marcus and Kennedie.
"What's there to be jealous of?" I chuckle.
"I thought girls got jealous over boys and stuff..." I couldn't help but find it adorable how clueless he was acting.
"That's if they have a crush on the boy."
"Don't you like Marcus?" he asks curiously.
"As an ally, yes. Friend, yes. Nothing more. Wrong time and place to think of crushes my friend," I say.
"Ok..." He sounds unconvinced, but he drops the subject. I shake my head at his disbelief. Like I said, this wasn't any time to be thinking about schoolgirl crushes. I was focused on one thing and one thing only- survival. But right now, my focus was also on painting these stupid berries on my hand.
I go back to my hand, sighing in frustration when I manage to smudge the berries. I peek over the bush to see Evan has successfully managed to paint his entire arm into the bush. It isn't perfect, but it's much better than I have done.
Finally I cave in and have the instructor help me. By the time he's done explaining it to me, and helping me try it out again, I have gotten the shadows perfectly. I thank him and Evan and I wash our arms off, deciding to move on to knot-tying. Soon after, Kennedie and Marcus join us once again.
"So, what was so funny?" Marcus asks casually, tying a sailors knot on a length of rope.
"Oh nothing," I reply, not exactly willing to tell him what was said. Though I didn't know why, it was somehow an embarrassing conversation that I wished to not repeat. He gives me a curious look, which I return with a smile to show it was nothing. He smirks at my over-exagerated smile, and returns his attention to his knot. We spend the rest of the day there tying and untying knots, and leave to our respective rooms once training for the day is over.