Oh wow…. thank you so much for continuing to read this story. I can't explain how much this means to me. I would like to present chapter 8 of Peeta's Story.
At ten, I head over to the elevators like Haymitch said to do. Effie is waiting there just like he said she would.
"Morning, Peeta." she says as she with a smile on her face. "We just have to wait for Katniss now." We wait about five minutes before she shows up. We step into the elevator and are below ground level in a minute. We step out into a small room with doors at the end of it. The Avoxes open the doors for us revealing an enormous gymnasium filled with training gear. Effie stays in the elevator and before I walk in to the gymnasium I glance behind me and see the elevator shot back up. Although we are on time, we're the last ones to arrive. We join the circle surrounding the head trainer. She introduces herself as Atala and begins to explain the training schedule. She begins to read the list of the skill stations and immediately I look up at her when she explains the camouflage station. Camouflage is like painting except on your body. When she releases us I automatically turn my attention to the camouflage station, but then I remember I'm suppose to follow along with Katniss. I nudge her and jumps a little.
"Where would you like to start?" I ask her. She looks around to all the station and lands on the knot tying station.
"Suppose we tie some knots," she says. Learning to tie snares can come in handy.
"Right you are." We walk over to the empty station and the trainer's face lights up. He first shows us a trap that can leave a tribute dangling by their leg from a tree. We work on this for about an hour until we both master it. The trainer makes it seem easy, but it's a bit difficult for me. Katniss on the other hand masters it in about 40 minutes. Then we move to the next station which is camouflage. I instantly smile when we walk over to the station. He starts showing us the different colors and how to mix them to replicate different environments. He asks me to try to camouflage my arm to replicate the flooring of a forest. I mix the colors and swirl it around my skin. He compliments my skill making me feel like I can do something that can work in the arena. I glance over at Katniss who isn't even paying attention to the station instead she's watching something behind us.
"I do the cakes." I tell her.
"The cakes?" she asks half pulling her attention back to camouflage. "What cakes?"
"At home. The iced ones, for the bakery," I say. She looks down at my arm that I'm still adding final touches to. She looks annoyed with me.
"It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death," she says.
"Don't be so superior. You can never tell what you'll find in the arena. Say it's actually a gigantic cake-"
"Say we move on," she says interrupting me and pulling me to the next station. That's what we do for the next three days. We go from station to station. I learn a lot of new things. I learn to start fires, throw a knife, and make a shelter. I fail the edible plants test, but Katniss passes it without missing a single thing. When we get to hand-to-hand combat, I obviously do really well. It's like wrestling, but once in the arena there are no rules. We avoid the archery and weightlifting stations saving those for our private sessions. I can tell that Katniss wants to try out the archery station, but we're instructed not to. We hardly speak during training, but at lunch we try to keep up a friendly conversation. It's hard to find something to talk about. We don't talk of home and we don't dare talk about the Games. What's left to talk about? Nothing. On our last day, I empty out our bread basket. I explain to her the different breads. The Capitol included all the district bread along with their very own fancy bread. I show her how the district the District 4 bread is fish shaped with tinted green with seaweed and the District 11 bread is crescent moon shaped with seeds in it.
"And there you have it," I say scooping the breads back in the basket.
"You certainly know a lot," she says.
"Only about bread," I admit. "Okay, now laugh as if I've said something funny." We both laugh, but the other tributes around the room stare at us. We ignore it and continue with our fake friendly conversation. "All right, I'll keep smiling pleasantly and you talk," I tell her. I know Haymitch wants us to appear to be friends, but I can't do this anymore and I don't think Katniss can either. Besides I think she's still mad from having to team up with me. I look up like she's in thought.
"Did I ever tell you about the time I was chased by a bear?" she asks.
"No, but it sounds fascinating," I say. She begins to tell me the story of how she tried to challenge a black bear over the rights to a beehive. I laugh when she tells me that she tried to trick him by trying making him look in the other direction while she tried to grab the beehive. I ask her how mad the bear got and she tells me that he roared really loud and she dropped the beehive and ran.
While throwing spears I feel like someone's watching me. I glance around me and see the little girl from District 11. I lean over to her and whisper, "I think we have a shadow." She throws the spear in her hand and glances behind her. "I think her name's Rue," I tell her.
"What can we do about it," she says a bit harshly. I just wanted let her know we're being watched, not upset her.
"Nothing to do. Just making conversation."
After training, we head back to our floor and eat dinner with Haymitch and Effie. Katniss and I don't say much, Haymitch and Effie mostly do all the talking at dinner. They tell us almost every detail about training. After dinner, I follow Katniss half way to her door before I try to talk to her.
"Someone ought to get Haymitch a drink." I say. She smiles and snorts a laugh. I finally got her to smile and I got her to somewhat laugh. I smile too knowing that I finally achieved it. Then she stops and looks down at the floor and starts shaking her head. She looks up at me.
"Don't. Don't let's pretend when there's no one around." she says still shaking her head. Her saying that really hurt. I feel an urge to tell her that I'm not pretending that I do want to be friends for real and if we weren't going to a place where I'm going to die, I would tell her that I think of her as more than a friend. I can't do that. I mean I could, but can you imagine it. I walk up to her and tell her that I want to be more than pretend friends and that I don't want her kill in the arena. She would laugh at me or think I'm messing with her or she might even slap me.
"All right, Katniss," I tell her. She walks over to her room and I walk to mine.
Once in bed, I stat to think about tomorrow. Tomorrow is our private session with the Gamemakers. Haymitch said for me to throw weights around, but I feel like showing them spear throwing or camouflage. Then, I think about what Seth told me.
"You can be a bad ass if you try."
He's right I can be. If I try really hard and stop being the nice guy I can be a bad ass and that might be just enough to keep some of the tributes away from Katniss. So, on the third day they start calling out the tributes one by one to our private sessions. When we are left last, I wish I could say something to her. I can tell she's nervous. She's shaking her leg since the last three tributes before us. They call my name. Okay, calm down, you can do this. I tell myself over and over again in my head. I rise and Katniss interrupts my thoughts.
"Remember what Haymitch said about being sure to throw the weights." she says. I smile to myself. So, she does care about me. I turn to face her.
"Thanks. I will. You … shoot straight." I tell her. She nods and a slight smile appears on her face. I turn back around and walk through the doors. I automatically walk towards the weightlifting station. I glance up at the Gamemakers who appear to be drunk. Obviously, that's why District 12's tributes always get low scores. The Gamemakers never pay attention to them. High scores show the sponsors who has talent. District 12 gets low scores, so the sponsors don't ever bother to pay attention to them. I plan to change that. I grab a weight and drop it. It lands near my feet, but it makes a loud thud. I glance up and notice that a few of the Gamemakers now have their attention on me. I pick a heavier weight and throw it across the gym. I look up at them again. Those few who were watching me start nodding their head and look pleased. I pick up an even heavier weight in one hand and toss it above my head and catch it with my other hand. Then I toss it to left side of the room. I pick up the hundred pound weight, it's the biggest out of all of them. I lift it above my head with both hands. A few more Gamemakers have my attention now. Then I release my left hand grip leaving my right hand the only thing supporting the weight. I hear the Gamemakers that were watching me gasp. I toss it up in the air and catch it with my right still above my head. Then I lower it. I get a better grip on it and toss it halfway across the room hitting the cart carrying the spears. The spears scatter around the floor.
"You may go now, Mr. Mellark." I hear one of them say through the speaker. I walk out and get in the elevator. I shot up to my floor and go to my room to wash up for dinner. An hour later I hear a door slam and crying. I open my door and look out. That was Katniss I could tell. Shit! Something must of happen. And knowing how she likes to keep things to herself, if I ask she wouldn't tell me. But, she can't hide it forever, Haymitch is most likely to ask what happened and then she would have to tell us. I just hope she didn't do anything that would make the Gamemakers upset with her.
I © the Hunger Games. Anyway, please review. Tell me what you think so far.
~ secretTHGluver ~