Chapter 8

Today is the day we get to show off our "skills." Our private sessions with the Gamemakers, where we go into the training center, alone, and do what we do best. I was sitting at the breakfast table, eating, way earlier than the others. Being nervous or excited makes me wake up early. I think of Christmas, when I'd get up at 4:30 am and jump on dad's bed to come down so we could open the presents before granddad got up.

About a half an hour after I arrived, Peeta comes to the table. He smiles at me. I swear I'm going to steal him from Katniss.

"Good morning," he says, his voice emitting the smile.

"Hey," I reply.

"How'd you sleep?" he asks with a yawn.

"Pretty okay, I mean I usually get up early when I'm nervous."

"About tonight?" he asks. I nod. "You'll do fine," he shrugs. "Maybe instead of doing well, you could pretend to do bad, making you look like not much of a threat. Then, at the Games, kick butt."

"You're devious," I say, surprised. "Besides they've already seen me beat the trainers a bunch of times, I don't think it will be too convincing."

"Right, right," he says, "I got that idea from my friend Johanna Mason."

"I remember her," I say, thinking of the games last year, and the replays they showed of her games.

Mercury walks up to the table, "Hey." He sits down and starts digging into his breakfast.

"Good morning," Peeta says. "So anyway, either way you decide to play it, you'll do great."

"Well, thanks for making me feel a little better I guess," I say, looking down at my food.

Peeta gives pretty much the same talk to Mercury. Then we go down to the Training center and train until lunch. That's when they start calling the tributes in for private sessions. As the rest are called, Mercury, Telly, and I go over our game plan for the Cornucopia.

"Telly," Mercury whispers, while still carrying a leader's tone, "When the horn sounds, ignore the Cornucopia entirely. Don't go near it. Just run behind you, we'll find you later. Esmerelda, you grab some packs, try to grab at least two of them. They might have enough provisions for all of us. If not, we can hope for some sponsors. After you're done, catch up to Telly. I'll take care of the weapons."

"Why can't I take care of the weapons?" I ask.

"Because, I run faster," he answered.

"Who told you that?" I say.

"I did," he sighs. "Just go with the plan okay?"

"But what if you die in there?" I ask, hating myself for bringing it up.

"You have provisions," he says with a shaky breath. "You can survive. And you'll find weapons later. Remember, weapons are a minority."

"Telly Templesmith," a robotic voice calls from the training gym.

"Good luck," I tell her. When she's gone, I turn to Mercury. "So why, really, can't I get the weapons."

"Because you wanted to protect Telly. If we both went in there and died, she'd be alone. And if I was left with her, I might not take her as far as you would like," he explains.

"Wow, thanks for letting me trust you," I laugh.

"It's the truth," he says. "I can't take care of little kids for that long."

"She's thirteen!" I say defensively.

"That's pretty little," he says. I glare at him. He adds, "In my mind."

There's not much more to talk about, so we sit in silence until Mercury is called in. I wait impatiently. After about fifteen minutes, they call me in.

I get up and stroll into the gym. I look at the group of Gamemakers. I see Plutarch Heavensbee in the center of the bunch. I don't recognize anyone else though. They look at me and murmer to eachother.

I walk to the rack of swords. I chose the one I used when I was training. It is a slender sword, shorter than most, but works. There are no real people in the room with me, so I won't be able to show off as much. I face a dummy. I'm a few feet away from it. I charge towards it, and stab it's neck and kick it downward. I remove my sword from the foam dummy and engage the next. My sword twirls through the air, making whirling sounds in my ear. I cut off one's head, another's arms. I end up cutting one in half. It's kind of a blur. Since I was trying to focus on what angered me. Grandad, these games, confusion, Mari's death, the fact that I will probably die in the next week or two. At the end of the session, the dummies are nothing but slithers of foam and rubber. I sigh. They ask me to leave, not saying anything else. At dinner, Mercury and I tell Peeta what happened at the sessions.

"I didn't do anything too cool," says Mercury, practically shrugging his shoulders off. "I just lit a fire, played with a sling shot, shot some arrows, and did some flips and stuff. Did I tell you that me and Rom were into parkour?"

"Parkour?" I ask.

"It's running, but instead of stuff being in your way, you use that stuff to your advantage. You never lose momentum either. It's a really cool adrenaline rush," he says, slouching in his chair, remembering the good old days.

"So, what did you do, Esmerelda?" Peeta asks.

"I just busted up some dummies," I reply, shyly.

"How much?" Mercury raises his eyebrows.

"They were in shreds, I thought," I say.

Portia comes running into the dining room.

"They're announcing the scores!" she says, excitedly.

We all get up and croud around the screen. When I sit down on the couch, Mercury sits next to me. He casually puts his arm around my shoulders. I tense. I mean, it was probably meant to be a friendly gesture… right?

Ceasar Flickerman is on the screen, smiling. He announces the scoures for the first few tributes. Telly gets a five. Agatha Crane and Balthazar Millea get eights. Romulus gets a ten. We get to the last pair. Mercury's face apears on the screen, he got a nine.

"Nice!" I say, and high-five him.

My face is on the screen. An eight apears in front of me.

"Good job," Mercury punches my arm lightly.

I smile at him. He smiles back. We're looking into each other's eyes, and I can feel us leaning closer to each other. My eyes snap open. I get up and dust off the front of my pants.

"Well," I sigh, "might as well go to bed now. Since we have the interviews tomorrow."

With that I rush to bed, without looking back.

So yeah, I know that there's a day where they train with thier mentor for the interviews, but I figure, since they're capitol kids, it'll come more naturally. So I'm skipping a day. haha I really want to get into the Games. It's gonna be fun! Please review! No flames though!