When it's time for lunch all twenty four of us are going into this big area with tons of tables. There is food around the room on carts, we serve ourselves. The careers of course sit together and the rest of us just kind of fan out wherever. I see Jace and Keanan right away so I pull Nick towards the table. Keanan and Jace say hi to Nick and we sit down.
"So, what made you guys what to be partnered with District 12." Nick says with a laugh, it makes them laugh too, I like how there is a good feeling between the table, no awkwardness.
"Our mentor, Annie, said that if we wanted reliable allies we should come to you." Keanan says shaking his head. "I don't quite know what she meant by that, but we figured it's smart to listen to your mentor." Nick and I laugh softy
"Annie knew my parents, during the rebellion, that's why" I say. We get up and heads towards the food, I don't get much. When we get back to the table I sit back down in the seat I picked before, next to Nick. Then from behind Keanan I see District 10 coming towards our table.
"Hello, I'm Clora." She says smiling and motioning behind her she says "And this is Kyler." The boy just glances at me and Nick and doesn't say anything; he doesn't crack a smile or nothing. He is scared, he is only twelve. I wave at Kyler and say hello to Clora.
"So how is everyone's experience in the Capitol?" we all laugh at Nick as he is being his charming self and I want to hug him for making it feel so welcoming at the table.
"Oh, it's so fun, isn't it Jace?" Keanan and Jace laugh "How's life in District 12?" Keanan continues. He is looking at Nick when he asks this so I leave it for him to answer.
"Not quite sure, I was only there for a day until the reaping." He laughs slightly "What a house warming gift." After say this he takes a long sip of his drink. It seems so long ago I was in District 12 hunting with him, and my biggest worry was Gale Hawthorne.
"District 12's nice, boring, yes, but it's nice." I say smiling remember my house in victors village wishing I was there now lying in my bedroom. "How about District 4?"
"I liked it; I miss swimming in the creek already." Jace smiles at Keanan. District 4 is the fishing district so of course there was a lot of water, I don't know if Nick knew how to swim, but most people in District 12 didn't know how.
Mom used to take me and Will to this place far into the forest, it was probably an hour in but it was worth it. There was a creek up there; mom taught us how to swim in it. She used to sing and teach me and Will songs, only Will sounded good singing them though. The songs where beautiful, or maybe it was just her voice. My heart stings with the memory of mom's beautiful voice singing over the running water in the creek.
"Yes, even though you were a terrible fisher, you're a good swimmer." Keanan teases Jace.
"Oh you knew each other back in your district?" Clora says. This is the first word she said besides hello.
"Yep, best friends, isn't that right Jace?" Keanan says.
"Yep best friends since like the first day of preschool." Jace says after Keanan. Jace is moving pieces of food with her fork, not eating much, like me.
I feel bad for Jace and Keanan. The way they stuck together, it was hard not to see that they were friends. I thought it was hard being against Nick, someone I barely knew, but Jace and Keanan had been friends. They are close I can tell. It's saddens me just thinking about what would happen if one died and one lived. I put that though far into my head because I don't need to worry about that now.
"How about you guys, you know each other back in your District?" Jace says to Clora and Kyle. Kyler didn't glance up; it was going to be hard to gain his trust. Clora finishes taking a sip out of her cup since Kyler wouldn't talk.
"Sort of, he is my best friends little brother." She says, wow I notice now our team is probably the worst team ever created. There is Keanan and Jace who are best friends, Clora who wants to protect Kyler, for her friend. And then we got me and Nick, the two who have some kind of romantic interest going on. Well no one thinks that yet hopefully, I won't let them, I don't want to be the next pair of star-crossed lovers.
On the second day of training, our group mixes it up a bit. Nick and Keanan are throwing spears, while Jace, Clora, and I are tying some knots. Nick and Keanan try to involve Kyle in the spears but he lingers around the archery station. Jace turns out to be fun to hang out and I find myself liking her, which scares me away a little, given the case we're in. Clora is nice too, but quiet.
Clora stays at the knot tying station while Jace and I go to spears, which I'm actually quite good at. Jace picks up a new spear and glances behind her at Nick and Keanan who are having a sword fight. She looks at me a smile on her face.
"So what's up with you and Nick?" The question startles me and I look at Jace shaking my head not saying anything. "Oh, come on." She says "I'm not that stupid" I laugh covering up my nervousness. I wish it wasn't that obvious between me and Nick.
"Nothing, I swear, and even if there were something going on, we couldn't do anything about it." I say looking down at my spear. Jace gasps,
"Oh my god, Hailey you totally love him." I don't like how she is making this seem like we could work out, like we couldn't both die in the games. She is acting so cool about it.
"Shut up Jace." I say hiding a smile because I can't help but look at Nick through the corner of my eye. I see him running his hand through his hair and see his eyes sparkling with the laughter he just let out.
"Your secret's safe with me." Whispers Jace with a smile. There was no secret to keep because I was never going to admit anything about Nick, even in my head.
On the third day I was throwing spears again, seeing as I was getting really good. That's when Kyle came over. He looked at me as I was setting up myself to through my spear. I threw it and it was a good throw, but never as good as it would have been if I was through a knife. Kyler picks up a spear, it's taller than him.
"Wow, that spear is bigger than you." I say joking around, trying to make an effort with Kyler. When I look back at his small face I see a smile. His smile is nice; it reminds me how young he really is, younger than Will. We stay there throwing spears for a while, occasionally we would laugh and joke and I think relaxed him a bit.
On the third day of training, they call us one by one during lunch for our private sessions with the Gamemakers. I have been training for three days, and I barely have an idea what I am going to do. Mom and dad say that scores don't really matter, but I still want to make sure I do well. I might be a little rusty at knives, since I haven't used one since I left 12. They tell me not to worry so I try not to.
It's a long time until Nick gets called, I wish him luck and he leaves through the doors. I'm not saying anything I'm just staring at my plate swirling around my food with my fork. Jace, Keanan, Clora, and Kyler aren't talking much either since they can't talk about what happened with the Gamemakers.
Its maybe like fifteen minutes Nick comes back. He walks slowly to the table, I can't read his expression, he seems doesn't seem upset nor happy.
"Hailey Mellark." I jump at the sound of my name. When I am walking towards the door I feel like everyone is staring at me. I am the last one, I need to make myself noticeable, and the Gamemakers are probably bored out of their minds, seeing as though they already saw 23 other tributes.
When I walk in the Gamemakers are all staring at me intensely, there either curious to know what I will be doing, or there willing me to walk faster and get this over with.
It's as though my body walks me over to where I wanted to go without even thinking about it. I walk over to the knives; there is so much to choose from. I have been wanted to pick one up since I got in this room three days ago. I pick a medium size knife; I run my fingers over the sharp edges softly to test how sharp it is. It's very sharp, sharper than my knives back home ever have been. When I place the knife in my palm I get a memory of being in the woods back home.
I glance at the target in front of me and aim my knife where I wanted it to go. I throw the knife and it lands perfectly on the target, sticking to it. I look quickly, bull's eyes. I smile to myself, so I wasn't that bad. I miss the feeling of throwing a knife so I throw a couple more all, landing perfectly, except the last one; it's a few inches off.
Then when I am done with that I go over to the camouflage, it's my other strength. And dad also gave me tips on how to make the best mud color. But this time I had a different idea. I stand over the paints and I carefully choose a little bit of red and orange and mix them on my arm. When I am done I stand up to the wall holding my arm up. The red on my arm matches the wall's color behind it and my arm disappears.
I smile at the Gamemakers; some have smiles on their faces. But some who don't probably think I am just trying to charm them, so I take the smile of my face.
"Thank you Hailey, you may be dismissed." I smile again and go through the doors. I get directed to the elevator and am told to go to my floor after I wash the red paint off my arms.
I am quite confident with the performance I did; I think I showed both of my strengths and impressed them, though I don't think I deserve a major score. Part of me doesn't even want a high score, because then once again I would be compared to Katniss Everdeen. I don't say it allowed but I rather get a 5 then an 11 to match my mother.