Effie is calling at my door that today is going to be a big big big day, so I have no choice but to get up. Today is a big day I guess, the first day of training; I get up from the bed dragging my still sleepy legs behind me. I change into an outfit that is left for me outside the closet. Though I am still quite full from the meal last night, I know I have to go out to breakfast. I clean up my appearance so I don't look like I just rolled out of bed.
When I go out I smell the food and even thinking about eating makes me sick I am so full. I see mom, dad and Effie sitting around the table. Most of them are not eating as much normal people would for breakfast; I guess they must still be full like me.
I sit down next to mom taking a glass of orange juice and sip it slowly. I take a few nibbles out of a piece of toast. By the time there are three bites missing from my piece of toast Nick comes out of his room looking just as sleepy as me.
"How does the training center work?" I ask. I am curious about how all twenty tributes will be in the same room together all training. "There are different stations, so you go where you want to." Mom says after taking a sip of her drink. So I could be separated from Nick? Not that I think we should be together, but I wanted to see if he would want to work with me in the arena, so I can keep him alive of course.
"Just a word of advice, you shouldn't be going to the stations you already have strength in, it's best to not let the other tributes to see your talents." Dad says, so no knives for me or Nick. Nick and I nod our heads and I realize it is a good strategy. If the other tributes, the careers in particular, found out that I was handy with a knife, I would be a big target. They wouldn't let me leave the cornucopia with even a pocket knife. Effie tells us training starts at ten, its 9:30 now, we have a half hour.
Mom and dad go back into their room, and Effie is still lingering around the table. I want to talk to Nick alone, ask him to be in an alliance with me. I don't even think about being rejected, because I don't think he will. Being aligned with me is the best chance for him. Nick is standing up like he is getting ready to go back into his room. Effie is heading towards the elevator, finally I say in my head.
"Nick, come here." I say turning towards his direction. He stops short and turns his head, looking at me, before coming over. He walks over to me waiting for me to talk. I can't seem to get anything out of my mouth, which is weird. I wasn't nervous until I actually had to say something to say to his face.
"Uh, so in the training center, do you…uh… want to stick together?" I didn't ask him what I wanted to but I think he got it.
"Hmm… Mellark are you perhaps asking me into an alliance?" he says charmingly. I wish we could skip the flirting, it was useless anyway.
"Yea I guess I am." I say straight forward, I am actually proud of myself for saying it as coolly as I did. He smiles, of course he smiles. The warmness of his smile takes over me, and once again I am left dumfounded by Nick.
"Sounds good." He adds before exiting the room, leaving me alone to think about Nick's perfect dimple, or his perfect hair.
When it's ten Effie comes and gets Nick and I. I try not looking at Nick, because I'm slightly embarrassed that I asked him to be in my alliance but I'll get over it. We go into the elevator; the training center is below all the floors for the tributes and the ride takes longer than it would be going up to this floor, but not that long.
The training center is a big a room, with all different kinds of weapons. There's knifes, swords, maces, and spears, most of which I never even picked up in my life. There's the archery section, which a huge collection of bows and arrows. There's a knot tying station and a camouflage station with all different paints. I look around at the tributes and most look generally scared.
Someone tells us the rules of the training center and says to make the best of it. When he is done and says to go ahead and start training, Nick turns to me. "So ally, where you want to go first?" I look around seeing most of the kids at the weapons, whether it is archery or the spears.
"Camouflage?" I say, as I notice it is empty and no one seems to be going there. He nods his head and together we walk towards the table. The person there seems happy to see us. We start off making a perfect color of mud on our arms. I would say camouflage is one of my talents, but no one is going to kill me because I know how to blend in with the ground. I guess I get this talent from my dad, or from painting the cakes, or something.
It takes a while for Nick to get the right color and I can see him getting frustrated that he can't get it right away like I can. And it makes me laugh slightly not seeing him all charming. When he gets the right color he looks at me and says "alright, I think I'm done with camouflaging my arm." I laugh softly.
He picks archery next, I wouldn't mind being better and shooting a bow. I pick a bow that is a good size and looks like it is good, it will take a while to get used to since I'm used to my one back home.
I look to see if Nick has chosen his bow yet, but he is looking over at the District 2 tributes. The boy one is probably our age but he looks big and pretty strong, the girl on the other hand is small, she looks week. I should not underestimate anyone though so I stop jumping to conclusions. He sees me looking at him, "I knew then back when I lived in 2." As I thought it would be district 2 is surrounded by district 1 and 3 already forming the careers.
The careers notice me and Nick, The boy, his name was Andric I remember now, waves his hand in the air. "Hey Nick, want to join?" Andric is pointing towards the spears everyone in the group are holding. Nick looks at me and back at Andric. Nick's is going to leave, great. Nick grabs a Bow on the table and says, "Nah, I think I'm going to stay over here with Hailey."
Nick rejected the careers, for me. Part of me wanted him to go to the careers, that way he can be paired with them, have an easy path through the game, but another part didn't want Nick to leave me. "Nick you could have gone and paired up with your friends, I don't care." I say this even though I would care. He shakes his head.
"Well Andric and Ella have never been my friends, I don't like 'em that much," he takes a sheath of arrows "Besides, I already said you would be my ally." He says smiling at me. The careers are looking at us wondering why Nick would want to stay with the girl from District 12
"Yea, but we never made anything official." I say quietly, feeling the eyes of the careers on me. I didn't want to draw more attention to us.
"Well if it bothers you that much Hailey, let's make it official in the only way I know how." He comes up to me putting his pinky up to my face. "Pinky promise?" I can't help but laugh. He is cheesy, but I think it is cute, and I want to trust he won't leave so I wrap my pinkie around his and we hold it for a while until we start shooting our bows.
When we are shooting bows it's like were hunting together again, were laughing, goofing around and it's great. Nick is prancing around like an idiot trying to show off. "I bet you I can shoot all bull's eye." I roll my eyes, he is good, but he isn't that good. He shoots his arrows and they land nowhere he wanted them to. I laugh at him struggling to get the arrows.
Then from behind me I hear a slight cough. I turn quickly to see a boy and a girl. The girl is short and has long blonde hair the boy next to her is way taller than her, he too has blond hair. The patches on their arms have a number 4.
"Hello, I'm Jace and this is Keanan." The blonde girl says. Keanan raises his hand and gives a smile. I smile back at the two of them, they seem nice.
"I'm Hailey, and that over there is Nick." I say pointing to Nick, who is picking out a new bow because he swears it was the bow's fault he didn't get a bull's eye. I stare back at Jace and Keanan, wondering what they want.
"We wanted to know if you wanted to sit with us during lunch?" Sitting with other people would be nice, but I know sitting together isn't all that they want; they want to be in alliance. I could tell the way Jace swallowed, that she was afraid I would reject it. But they seem nice and look like they could be trusted.
"Who else is going to be sitting with us?" I said, wondering what other Districts we would be working with.
"District 10." Keanan says nodding his head towards two people by the knot tying station. The girl is 18 I remembered hearing that when we watched District 10's reaping on the train. I remember that because the boy next to her is this week small boy who is 12. The freckles on his face cover up everything else. He looks scared and it kind of makes me sad to see him.
"Yea, alright, sounds good." I smile at Jace and then at Keanan. They smile back and leave going back to throwing spears. When they leave Nick comes up asking me what District 4 wanted. I tell him that they wanted to sit together at lunch with District 10. Nick seems cool about it, but he does seem a bit curious.
We go back to shooting our bows and I am actually getting a little better, of course I should practice more and I'll probably ask mom for a few tips on shooting accurately.
I look at Nick ready to shoot his bow, his form is perfect, his elbow is behind his shoulder and his eyes are staring at the target, he waits a few seconds, standing there still, not moving at all. Then he releases the bow's string and the arrow goes flying. I look at the target and see that his arrow landing exactly where he wanted it to, a bull's eye.