Snev's A/N: When it's early in the morning and you're hyper you are bound to do strange things, one of those is of course writing. So here I am, tapping away at my keyboard without a care in the world and along comes Subject Matter and Foxx and together we weave a beautiful sculpture that we call this story. You can evidently tell I am on a sugar rush. Never ever, ever even try to drink a whole bottle of Pepsi Max when any decent person would be sleeping. It is not advisable. Seriously. Don't.

Foxx: Bonjour mon amis! Welcome to our story. C'est la vie. I'll stop speaking French now. Anywayayays, enjoy XD

Subject: Ahh, the wonders of a new chapter I had no part of... sorry if I'm dying from a runny nose so bad I had to stuff a tissue into my nostril. Happy reading

~SFSFSF~

Chapter 8 - Training day 2: Maia's POV

Never ever, ever even dream about going to a Capitol party. It is not advisable. Seriously. Don't. The first dinner after training was just a snippet of one and I never ever want to have to attend one of those dire events ever again in my whole entire life. No joking for once. They seem to think that the only thing a party needs is food. And more food. And if that wasn't enough, even more food yet again. Then they would probably throw in some extra food for good measure. But, god forbid, they didn't want to forget the food! I managed to stagger out of the room eventually, clutching my stomach in agony and groaning in pain. It wouldn't be a treat for the Capitol to have poisoned one of their tributes before the games, but it looked like that's how it was going.

"I never want to see another pie in my whole life." I practically shriek, just as if that was enough an Avox shoves a platter full of normally delicious looking cream buns - which looked like they could murder the president and his wife, if he even had a wife that is - right into my face. I struggle not to spew up the contents of tonight's orgy onto the platter, the best I could do was to pull myself away and stagger to the window, leaving a dazed Saxon in my wake. He ended up shaking his head solemnly to the Avox; at least trying to be polite, and dashing off in the direction of his room almost immediately afterwards.

I battle with the window's barriers but it won't budge. It looks like they don't want any of us tributes throwing ourselves out windows. I can't help but scoff, they do that to enough of us eventually, one way or the other. I try to vent my anger out of me somehow and end up going for the good old insults, so I start shouting offences at random Capitol passers by and as the time goes on my insults become more and more extravagant and wild.

"Sucker-of-breath-and-life-and-death-and-all-things-generally-and-remotely-humane!" I gasped for breath after my long string of insults and am greeted by an amused chuckle. I turned around to see the boy from four next to me. What is his problem, is it his mission to stalk me or something? I kept my glare hidden though and turn away from him. He caught himself staring and then turned back away. I sighed reluctantly, we were going to have to face up to each other sooner or later. It's best if I made the first move. I spun around and offered my hand.

"Maia, district seven, tree girl. We didn't properly introduce ourselves at training today."

"Nice to meet you tree girl. I'm Derryl, district four." he said, unsure of what to do with it when he eventually lifts his hand for my shake. I sigh and let it drop limply down by my sides.

"Seaweed boy." I not-so-helpfully finished off for him, and then I shook my head while walking the other direction. Not a single word more was shared between us.

I was in the worst mood possible when I walked into the training centre the next day, Saxon trailing lazily behind me. He can go stuff himself, I thought, if he wants to follow me all day like some obsessed puppy, then that's fine with me. But he soon enough split ways and headed to the camouflage station. I stormed towards the knife throwing station, fuming. If anyone else was in the station, they had better watch out, because I was going to do some serious venting. And that venting included throwing knives with deadly speed.

Nadelle and Damien are the best mentors in the world, just fabulous. I think snidely, sarcasm enriching me. When I think about it, I use too much sarcasm, but that should be the least of my worries. What; with twenty-three other children out to get me. It's just perfect that my mentors can barely speak, let alone handle sponsors. Last time I checked, you needed a voice to talk.

I threw a knife with a curved blade at a dummy, still fuming about everything. I had a right to be busy. Derryl, the pompous brat, was over at the edible plants station, looking like a lost child. I laughed, and imagined the dummy I had just skewered was one of my less-than-competent mentors.

When I glanced over at the archery station, I realised she was back. I guess the juvenile detention center closed early today, I thought, watching Belladonna let an arrow fly. It landed with a thunk on the outer rim, as if her focus was on something, or someone, else. She was glaring murderously at something in the edible plants station, and I had a feeling that it wasn't the Rubus idaeus that the instructor had put on display.

I quickly dropped the remaining knives in my hands, and headed over to the knot-tying station. Knot tying wasn't the station I had in mind, but just about every other one had a career wasting space.

The male instructor looked extremely bored before I strode over, but once I had joined his station, he seemed overjoyed. I had a good feeling that knot-tying was not a popular station. Soon I learnt why; or rather, I didn't. Whomever had taught my tutor clearly hadn't taught even himself properly and it showed.

"Then you um... err," He stuttered helplessly. I had no time for 'helplessly' so ended up snatching the rope out of the instructor's sweaty palms.

"Seriously? You call yourself a rope instructor? You probably don't even know what rope is made out of!" I snapped at him.

"I'm sorry if my teaching is not completely satisfactory..."

"Satisfactory? I could iron a giraffe quicker than you could tie a knot. You're completely useless!"

"Iron a giraffe?" He asked, puzzled as he propped up his glasses that had sloped down his nose in a superior way.

"It's a figure speech." I hissed and then I flung the rope into the air, only to see it whack the autistic girl from twelve on the head. Luckily she started clapping and laughing happily, but that was also an 'unluckily' since all of the Gamemakers' heads whipped around (well, the ones that weren't busy being stuffed with the array of food from the service buffet that seemed to follow them around) towards me, but I managed to scamper away towards the next station which happened to be the mace and chain section. Firstly, I had no idea there was such a thing as a mace and chain section. Secondly, what kind of freaky section is that? Something to do with swinging around a spiked stick no doubt. I sighed and ruffled my hair slightly but stepped up to it, not wanting to give my rope trainer any satisfaction from the distraction he caused.

I picked up the smallest weapon possible at the station, ignoring the eager trainer as long as I possibly could. I was surprised at the lightweight feel of the spiked ball and chain, and I bludgeoned a few dummies. The trainer in charge of this station was trying to speak to me, but I turned my attention back to Belladonna, who was giving Derryl another death glare. No surprise, he deserves it. I wondered what happened to her. Eventually I turned back to destroy a few more dummies, but a tall figure was standing in my way.

The instructor was about twice my height, and four times my weight. His face was a putrid purple, obviously from irritation at none other than moi.

"What. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing." He spat out through clenched teeth.

"Err, destroying dummies that have a striking resemblance to the rope trainer." I managed to say.

"Oh him, right then, continue on." He said adamantly and stepped to me past and I continued destroying dummies. When I thought deeply about it, the dummies did have a striking resemblance to the rope training instructor. Something about the dumb look on their faces. I glanced back at the edible plants section, but the boy wonder had already moved on to, you guessed it, the mace and chain station.

The instructor's rage evaporated at the thought of having two tributes join his station, and he eagerly launched into an explanation of the strategy behind using a mace. Derryl looked interested, and I tried as much as possible to take no notice of him. I continued to butcher the dummies with renewed anger, and, before I could move on to a better station, the Gamemakers called us in for lunch. Here come the Gamemaker's sessions.

Snev's A/N: Heh heh heh! Writing with these two has officially convinced them I am illiterate, but it's just the speed that I type - really fast; compared to the speed the computer picks it up - really slow. So yes, another chapter in the bag.

Foxx's A/N: I love the speed we're updating this at, hehe :3 Anywho, the big bad button below. It rhymes with view and starts with R. Guess it? You got it! On another note, don't forget to eat some pumpkin soup, it's very yummy.

Subject's A/N: Ooh! Next chapter: The Gamemaker meetings! I'm trembling in excitement. Ever since Snev joined the team, the chapter's have gotten longer. Give her a round of applause! Anyway, click the review button. You know you want to.