"Lock up when you are done." Dwayne tells me. He throws me the set of keys and I catch them.
"Don't get any ideas about partying or whatever you are planning." He says as he grabs his coat out of the closet.
"C'mon! Who would I even invite? Kayla is the only person that likes me." I tell him and he smirks.
"You could invite Cato." And with that, he leaves. I have never even met Cato officially, but from all the stuff I've heard about him in the past twenty four hours, I already can tell that he is an idiot. And I don't deal too well with idiots.
I go through three more rounds with the dummy until I decide that it has taken enough abuse from me for today. But I'll be back tomorrow. I hang up my set of knives, this type fastening them to their hook. No newbie is going to steal them from me.
I lock up the training center and head to the market to pick up dinner. I get some rice from the grocery store and some chicken from Lucas. Lucas has this amazing storage of food that he gets from illegal hunters and gathers. No one knows who they are except for Lucas and themselves.
I head finally head home. We live on top of one of the many hills in District 2. Our dad was the head peacekeeper until he went nutso. Now he just hangs out in his room, doing who knows what. Our mom is the primary worker in the family and doesn't come home until very late in the night. I barely ever see her. But see keeps a roof over our heads and food on our plates, so I don't complain.
I start the chicken cooking in the kitchen and head upstairs to find my sisters, Caitlin and Hanna. I tell them that they need to come downstairs and help.
Even though Caitlin and Hanna are twins, they are totally different. Caitlin really wants to train and win the Games. She always wants to know about everything they taught me. Hanna couldn't care less about the Games. She wants to be a normal citizen, staying at home and raising a family. She works really hard in school.
It's not like they have to worry about the Reaping day. Everyone already knows who is going to volunteer. No one ever actually goes in the arena if their name is picked. Dwayne picks who is going into the arena a month in advance. They train super hard and get special meals. When the Reaping comes around, they volunteer without hesitation. That is why they had to extend Victor's Village. Twice.
I finish cooking dinner with my sister's help. We sit down at the dinner table alone.
"How was training?" Caitlin asks me.
"Good. They got a new moving dummy. A new kid tried to steal my knives, but I got them. Seniority always wins." I tell her.
"Did you hear about Cato leaving?" Hanna asks. In addition to being smart, Hanna is also popular. She is always on top of all the town gossip.
"Yes and I wouldn't mention that again. I've seen him and he will snap your neck without thinking twice."
After that, dinner is pretty much silent except for the sound of Hanna flipping pages through one of textbooks. I was okay at school, when I went. The best part was strategy, learning how to corner any number of people and using your senses to find others. Reading was hard because all the letters were mixed up.
"It's your turn to clear off the dishes, Caitlin." I tell her and she does it without complaining. Complaining does nothing but waste time. Time is the only thing that should not be wasted because all other things can be earned back.
I head upstairs to my room and open the windows. I can see everything in District 2 from here and a little bit more. But outside is just stretching acres of grass and trees. Occasionally, when the Capitol has parties, we can see the lasers and fireworks. It shows me that life exists outside of this place.
I've always wanted to see the Capitol. It is supposed to be grand and huge and colorful. District 2 is mainly just red, black, and grey. Everyone here is either a Peacekeeper in the making or a stone mason. A few lucky ones are the mayor or the supervisor or a shopkeeper.
I take the bit of money that I got leftover from the grocery store and put it in the jar for the future. I really don't know what I'll do with it. After I win the Games, I'll have enough money to do whatever I want and go anywhere I want.
The rest of the night, I spread out my maps and go over them a million times. They are maps of the different arenas through the 50th Hunger Games. I study them to help me learn survival skills and how to deal with all different types of arenas – extreme heat, extreme cold, rocky, sandy, flat, hilly, only poisonous flowers.
I fall asleep with my head resting on the arena covered in poisonous flowers.
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