The corridor is long and cold, with harsh artificial lights blaring in the empty corridor. Cecilia, Dill, James and I wander down it towards the training room. James still hasn't spoken to me after the parades last night and I'm really not looking forward to the Mentors evening meal because I know Charlotte will be there and the very taste of her name in my mouth makes my stomach clench. Cecilia wanders behind, her eyes staring at the overly white tiles in deep thought. I slowed down my pace and smiled at her,
"How are you after last night?" I asked, Cecilia looked up at me, a fake smile glimmering on her lips.
"It was scary. It doesn't matter how we did anyway, District 12 stole the show." Cecilia says, she looks away from me and stares down at the floor.
"That's true." I muttered, James glanced over his shoulder at Cecilia and I, but continued to walk, not caring if we caught up with him or not.
"You've never told me about your family, Cecilia." I say, hoping to engage in some form of conversation. I don't know why I feel the need to talk to Cecilia, I think it's because she seems so lonely and I don't like her being alone with her thoughts for too long. I personally know how damaging that is. Cecilia smiles, remembering a sweet memory of home.
"I live with my mother, my father and my boyfriend." She says, I raise an eyebrow and she blushes.
"He's a close family friend, I've known him most of my life so him living with us after he turned 15 made sense, 'y'know?" I nod, understanding what it's like not to have any family.
"Did your boyfriend live in the orphanage?" I ask, Cecilia nods.
"That's where I met him, my mother and I used to bring cakes to the orphanage sometimes and he was always the cheekiest and asked for one more." Cecilia giggled softly, her face lighting up in fond memory.
We reach the double doors of the Training centre, more than likely the last people to arrive.
"Ready?" I ask,
"Not at all." Cecilia says with a shake of her head, I give her a reassuring smile and open the doors widely. I was right, we are the last to arrive. All of the Tributes are here, throwing spears, building fires and climbing ropes. Cecilia looks around, her wide brown eyes terrified yet curious.
"Try the berries, they're always useful and nobody's there yet." I suggest, Cecilia smiles and wanders slowly over to the berry station. A lot of the other Mentors are here too, dipping around each station and looking at the Tributes. It's a bit of a tradition to attend the first training session of each Tribute, although I don't remember James being here when I first trained. I look around the room of memories to try and find a familiar face. Luckily, she finds me first. Warm arms warp around me and squeeze me tight.
"Cleo!" A familiar, comforting voice exclaims. I turn around, smiling warmly at Pine.
"I missed you!" I say, returning her hug. Pine has cut her black hair into a short bob and her green eyes look dull and tired, yet she is as familiar to me as my own face. Pine releases the hug, holding me back at arms length to look at me.
"My, you've changed." She says sadly, I shrug looking at the floor. Pine hugs me again, but this time the hug feels more desperate than friendly. I know Pine hurts too. Every year she trains Tributes she knows might die, all just to forget about her little sister who lost the Games a long time ago.
"How have you been, Pine? Giving private teachings to anyone new?" Pine chuckles, releasing the hug.
"No, nobody is as good to teach as you." I follow Pine back to her station, knife throwing.
A small girl with dark brown hair is there, flicking knifes around her nimble fingers. I lean against a white pillar decoration and watch her.
"Do you need me to teach you anything?" Pine asks sweetly.
"No. I'm not pathetic, I know what I'm doing." The girl hisses, launching a knife at a target. She hits it dead in the centre. Pine scowls,
"Are you District 2?" She asks, a hard edge creeping into her voice. Most of the other trainers are kind and patient, Pine is not. She's firm and honest, if she doesn't like somebody she tells them. That's what I always liked about Pine, she was so easy to read and I felt the need to impress her. That's why my private, secret training's with her were so useful, I hated to let her down so I always did well.
"Obviously I'm District 2, you're just nosy. Piss off, I don't want any help." The girl snapped, throwing another knife, this time she missed slightly. I couldn't help but laugh. The girl spun around to look at me, her brown eyes furious.
"What the hell are you laughing at?" She spat.
"You and your terrible aim." I replied, my eyes hard and my voice icy. There was no way a 17 year old District 2 Tribute was telling me what to do.
"Who do you think you are?" The girl hissed, taking a step towards me. I straighten my posture, although this girl was very small, she was still taller than me so I couldn't look down at her like an authority figure should.
"I'm Cleopatra Ivy, 71st Hunger Games winner, and you are?" The girls brown eyes flickered with surprise, she must have thought I was another Tribute.
"Clove." The girl said, she picked up another knife and threw it at the target, her small confrontation lost. Pine smirked, glad Clove had been put in her place.
I walked around the Training Centre, watching curiously. Charlotte was standing next to the District 4 boy, stabbing him with sly remarks on his spear throwing ability. That was probably how she always won, by terrifying other Tributes into losing. I spot James, lurking behind the rope section as far away from Charlotte as possible. A small girl is sitting at the very top of rope nets, a small smile spread across her face as she watched all the other Tributes like a curious cat. James was watching her curiously, it was only when James laughed did I realise they were the corner of my eye I noticed a blond haired man sitting with a red haired girl, they were looking at a large screen with thousands of pictures of animals. I walked towards them, listening to parts of their conversation.
"...And this is a black bear, they're fast and furious, the best thing to do with this animal is to keep all your food far away." Diego said, the red haired girl nodded, fully engaged in his information. Diego must have heard my approach because he turned around with a smile.
"Hey Cle, want to help me teach her about dangerous animals?" I frowned, I knew very little about animals, Diego was the one who knew things about creatures, I was the plants girl. The girl turned around and smiled at me shyly; she looked back at Diego and informed,
"I'll practice at the berries station now it's free, thanks for the lesson Diego."
"No problem, I'll see you tomorrow." Diego said, giving the girls arm at pat as she went by.
"She looks like an animal." I said, staring at her as she walked away.
"I was just thinking that, what animal do you think she is?" Diego asked, reprogramming the animal sorting machine.
"Hmm, a cat?" I said
"You think everything looks like a cat!" Diego chuckled,
"That's because I like cats but you won't let me get one."
"You could barely keep a pet rock alive let alone a cat." Diego said, sarcastically. I rolled my eyes and softly punched him in the arm.
A loud bang and shouting extinguished the playful teasing between Diego and I. A tall blond haired guy was shouting at a smaller boy, the blonds face was red with anger and he clenched his fists in frustration.
"You stole my knife give it back!" The blond screeched, the younger boy shook his head, his green eyes wary.
"No I didn't, Cato." The blond, Cato, took a step towards the boy, his body shaking in anger.
"If you don't give me back my knife I will rip open your throat with my teeth right here." Cato threatened,
"That's enough." A voice demanded. Charlotte walked across the room and placed her small hand on Cato's wide chest. Cato glared at the boy, refusing to give up eye contact.
"Look at me Cato or you'll regret it." Charlotte hissed, reluctantly Cato looked at her. Charlotte forced an angry smile,
"Walk away, you can attack him in the arena." Cato let out a deep breath and stormed away, kicking a stand of axes over as he went. The man behind the axe station laughed, breaking the icy silence. Cato spun around,
"What the hell are you laughing at?" He shouted,
"You, you pathetic child." The man snickered; Diego sighed heavily. It really was typical Kovu to start a fight with one of the Career Tributes.
"I will kill you, don't push me." Cato warned, Kovu raised an eyebrow and dramatically pushed Cato. That was it. Cato charged, he flung a clenched fist towards Kovu who artfully dodged kicked out a leg and Cato stumbled; the blond Tribute gripped Kovu's neck and pulled him to the floor.
"Kinky." Diego chuckled, I bit my lip to stop myself laughing. Kovu rolled over, kicking a leg towards Cato's gut, it connected and the smaller boy grunted in pain.
"I really hope Kovu doesn't treat you like that in bed." I muttered,
"Should we stop them?" Diego asked,
"No, it's like watching two bears fighting, this is the best entertainment I've seen so far today." I said; Kovu punched towards Cato's jaw, distracting the younger boy, Kovu leapt to his feet and pushed his foot down on Cato's throat.
"For a Career, you're really not that good." Kovu sneered, his voice slightly wheezy from the fight. Cato tried to get to his feet, but Kovu stamped on his throat, causing him to sink back to the ground, defeated and hurt. Kovu smirked and walked back to his axes. The few Mentors and Tributes who were still watching the fight went back to their training, except from Charlotte, who's eyes flamed with anger.
"You let a trainer from District 7 beat you?" She spat, Cato rubbed his red jaw and stormed past her, obviously not wanting to hear her rant.
"Clove, here now. We have some serious training to do, you're some of the weakest District 2 Tributes I've had the horror to train..." Charlottes voice faded away as she and the District 2 Tributes left the Training room.
A bell rang, signaling this morning's Training session was over and the Tributes had to leave for lunch. I walked said a brief goodbye to Diego and Kovu. Apparently having a fight with an angst ridden Cato was the most fun Kovu had had in months because for the past hour he wouldn't shut up about their fight. Dill, Cecilia, James and I took the elevator to level 7, no one really talking to one another. The elevator door dinged and open with a small whirl of clogs and gears. I stepped off first, greeted by the sight of Zion spread out of the sofa stuffing his face with chocolate.
"Good training session?" He mumbled,
"Yeah, I learnt how to build fires and shoot a bow and arrow!"Dill exclaimed, collapsing on the sofa opposite Zion.
"It was eventful." Cecilia muttered, getting herself a drink of water from the sink.
"Eventful, why?" Zion asked,
"The District 2 boy and Kovu had a fight." James said, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee.
"What? I knew that boy was trouble!" Zion hissed, he shot me an accusing look but I just glared at him. Kovu did as he pleased it was nothing to do with me.
"Cato was annoyed over a missing knife anyway. Little did he know the girl I was talking to, Rue, had taken it." James smiled, thinking about the little girl who had climbed to the top of the ropes. Zion scowled,
"Don't talk to other Tributes, James. You've got to give Cecilia and Dill all your attention." Zion scolded, James just ignored him. "Oh yeah, the first Mentor meal is tonight. Are you both going to be there?" Zion asked,
"No, I'm too tired. I'll go to the next one." I said, shaking my head.
"The next one's in two weeks time, just before the Training Scores are announced." James informed me,
"Then I'll see them all in two weeks time." I said, walking away to my bedroom. No longer wanting to feel James' eyes looking me up and down when he thinks I don't notice.
Authors note: So I uploaded another chapter. What do you think? Uploading might slow down due to school and work (UGH!) but I will always try and upload once a week at the minimum. I just want to thank you for your support, and if you've reviewed(which is amazing) I would have (and will do to all new reviewers) sent you a personal thanks because it means such a lot to me and gives me the kick to type another chapter for you. I've sorted out the plot in my head a bit more which is good but I think this is going to be quite a long FanFiction, probably longer than Don't just Die but hopefully you'll like the length and twisty turny plot? Thank you again for reading this, you're all wonderful and if you could send me a cheeky little review I'd be so, so, so sooooooo grateful! Thanks guys! 3