Teknotic's hollowed out brown eyes scanned the meal before him. There was a tall, crystallized glass containing orange juice to his right. A rather large china plate decorated with cinnamon glazed toast and eggs lay nicely upon a bed of some weird grainy strands. Small vibrant blue dots were scattered over top, adding color to the slightly dull plate. Then, to his left, a small bowl of some brown mush sat gleaming.

He took a deep breath and brushed his hand across the table cloth until his fingers grasped the cool metal. Steadily he dug his fork into the spongy eggs and swallowed.

It felt so odd traveling down to his typically empty stomach, actually it hurt a bit. It was like his stomach was so used to eating a tear of bread a day that it couldn't handle a bite of eggs. How strange indeed.

In the corner of his eye, he kept glancing at Elesa who was abnormally sitting still. Her fork pushed her food around her plate in a nearly uncomfortable manner.

"Elesa! Eat your supplements!" Jayse chirps suddenly, breaking the silence. "You too, Teknotic!"

"This?" Teknotic mumbles, gesturing to the brown goop with his fork. He felt sort of irritated that Jayse was being quite perky in the morning. Normally Teknotic would snap at her and tell her to annoy people somewhere else. But what was there to annoy but them themselves.

"Yes! It gives you that extra boost!"

A pause followed that comment, both tributes getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of their stomachs.

"...Like steroids?" Elesa finally spoke up, poking at the supplement with a curious finger.

"Yes, Elesa. Exactly like that." Teknotic says sarcastically. A trace of bitterness was mixed into his words, venom slithering out in sprays.

"Why! Whatever made you think of such a thing? That's nonsense! Do you know how illegal that is?" she begins. "Elesa! I'm shocked! Such a small child already knowledgeable of a very bad thing!"

Elesa looked at her, slight rebellion lighting up her Sahara eyes. "What? You're kidding me right?" she starts, her foot moving rapidly now. "I'm not a child. Well, I may be one but I am not. Get what I'm saying?" she asks, looking at Jayse. All she saw was a confused look on her altered face. She gave a forced sigh before continuing. "Well, in Panem we 'children' are forced to grow up fast. We need to survive, to live. A very bad thing you say? For such a small child? Well isn't the Hunger Games?! They grow up with all of this death and starvation around them! People always with sad faces spouting lies just to try and keep them behind the scenes!

"People dying all around! If steroids are illegal why isn't the games?"

Jayse let out a muffled laugh. "Silly girl! The games are exciting! They are what built this glorious country! They all-"

"How long do we get to train?" Elesa asks suddenly, her mind already jumping to the next thing.

Jayse seemed slightly startled, like she had never been interrupted. "Why, three days of course! You as well get one day to train with past victors."

"Alright!" Elesa says, taking a bite of the brown goop. She made a strange face at the tasted and took a gulp of orange juice.

Teknotic let out a slow, malicious laugh. "What? The girl who volunteered doesn't know how many days we have?" he says icily. His features held a cruel smirk as he gazed upon the smaller girl.

"W-what?" she stutters, a slight red burning into her cheeks. A sick feeling rose up in her throat and she felt her heart drop in sorrow.

Tek's smirk grew and he took a bite of his food. Elesa felt strange looking at it when there was a time there was an actual smile on his face.

Elesa stared at him for a moment before gulping. True, he was being quite insensitive.

She had felt responsible for his reaping. The first time she had actually made what had seemed to be a friend, bad luck rained upon them. She knew she was trouble, she was told that at times. Yet most people just ignored her, in fear that she would endlessly annoy them... or something like that. She knew the great outcome of bonding would make her pay, and pay she did.

Tek glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his smirk dropping. The girl beside him held sadness and guilt in her eyes, the corners of her mouth naturally frowning. A tidal wave of guilt spread over his insides and he had to shovel food in his mouth to keep from looking at her.

Jayse suddenly clapped her hands together. "Well! Hurry up! We have a big, big day!"

What a cliché.

Twenty-four tributes stood anxiously awaiting the head trainer. All of them had arrived at about the same time, all immediately having numbers pinned to their backs.

"Hello, tributes!" a voices booms a moment later. A woman with thick, brown arms walked to the front, declaring her importance. She lifted her oddly muscular hand to her face, and scratched at a rather tattered looking scar. She seemed to be drawing attention to it, like she was trying to say; 'Hey! Looky here! I'm so tough I've even got a scar to show for it!'

All forty-eight eyes were trained straight on her mouth, waiting for it to spout more words. All they really cared about was training. The faster this lady finished the faster they would learn about all of this.

Sweat began to melt onto Chrome's hands, so he rubbed them on his pants. He hoped his nervousness was masked well.

She looked to each of them, and gave a haughty smirk. Her large lips curled back slowly. "As you may have guessed, I'm the head trainer! In the flesh!" she grinned a deviant smile and pushed back her protruding silver bangs. "Anyways, I'm here to tell you the rules and regulations. The right thing to do and your schedules.

"First off; No sparring with other tributes. You'll have plenty of time for that in the games. Besides! We've got several trainers eager to teach. As well," she says, crossing her muscular arms upon one another like a bodyguard. "No getting into any verbal fights. Now, we don't mind if you bad mouth a bit, just no escalating the situation. In all, you'll have four days to train. Three here and one alone with your mentors."

Most tributes rolled their eyes, the days they had was basic knowledge. Elesa looked around, a light rose dusting her cheeks as she tried to disapear within the shadows.

"Training begins at 8am sharp, and if you're late that's your fault. At twelve we will go to lunch and we have exactly forty-five minutes to eat. Training itself ends at 10pm, and the cycle continues onward for three days as you are aware. Also, training sessions with the gamemakers will be on the third day, so gather all the skills you can.

"There are obstacle courses, fighting stations, weapon training, medical care, plant knowledge; I recommend you don't ignore the two I just said. Eating an unknown plant can result in your death. As well there are snares and knot tying stations, hell there are even meat cooking stations! Anyways, I'll be in that corner." she pauses to turn around. Her thumb jerking in the direction of a lone desk.

"As well the gamemakers," she pauses again, pointing to the purple box they were in. "will be evaluating you. Now... you may begin training!"

The careers automatically went off to meet one another and the others stood around wondering what to do first.

Ruby had went over to a dummy, and picked up a curved dagger. She seemed to study her 'opponent' before she entered the sharp metal into it's skin colored fabric. The silver claw slowly pulled itself down, in a seemingly tortuous way. The dummy's stuffing was parting from it body, and falling to the ground in pale, white clumps.

She slowly dragged it down even more, and with a flick of her wrist the dagger cut across it's side. Ruby then started slashing at it randomly, a newfound anger boiling inside her. It was odd how she suddenly felt immense anger. She slashed and cut and maimed the dummy, watching with satisfaction as the pile of stuffing grew. Littering the dusty gray floor with white.

"Wow.. angry much?" a snide voice asks from behind her.

Ruby turns around with a start, coming face to face with the D2 male. She felt like asking what he wanted, yet thought better of it. She just crossed her arms, her dagger still clutched in her hand. Her eyes bore into his blue ones, a light smirk playing briefly on her lips.

"And what are you doing here?" she asks, her head tilting to the side slightly. She stared at him as if to figure him out and awaited a response.

"What do you mean?" Vlad asks, placing his pale hands on his hips. "Do you own these? No? Thought not."

"You didn't give me the chance to answer." she opened her mouth as if to say something, and then began shutting it. Her lips were still slightly parted as she spoke. "Were you watching me?" she asks in a far too innocent voice.

Vladimir scoffed, looking briefly to the side. "Don't flatter yourself." he says, bringing his head back to it's rightful place. His eyes lingered on her arm, the one still clutching the dagger. "You gonna set that down? Or are you just trying to intimidate me? Or the other tributes...?" he says, a smirk twitching on his lips. His mouth soon curled into a nasty smile as he continued to stare at her.

Ruby had not expected that question. She thought that maybe a few people would figure out her plan, the one that could save her measly little life.

Her plan was rather simple, to her at least. All of these tributes were dangerous whether they showed it or not. She knew a few of them would target the careers out of pure stupidity, yet sadly, some of them actually succeeded. It wasn't very often that it happened, actually it was extremely rare. Though, she wasn't taking any risks. Risks normally ended in disorder or death, which was something she would like to avoid.

She sighed a bit and pinched the bridge of her nose. "No, I'm not. I'm simply just holding onto a dagger, and you? What are you doing? Studying people?" she scoffs suddenly, her arms unfolding. "Shouldn't you be training? Lift some weights. I could easily knock you down right now."

Vlad rolled his eyes, pushing his bangs from his face. "What? I believe scoping out the enemies is a way better idea."

Ruby scoffed again, her eyes narrowing. "Really? Answer me. Do you even have any weapon experience?"

The question was unexpected to both of them. Her mind seemed to believe the boy had none and it decided to act on it. She wasn't sure how he would take so she just stood there waiting for an answer.

Vlad pursed his lips suddenly. "Yes, what would make you think of such a thing?" he asks.

Yet truthfully.. He had never held any more than a butter knife. At Wammy's all they ever did was learn about outsmarting an opponet, learning all the spots on the body that could kill. Though, Vlad vaguely remembered Wammy saying something about weapon training. Something about it being vital? He knew it probably was but all he could think of was how much more important mental strategy is. Besides, he would have his powers which could kill anybody if he willed them too.

Ruby's eyes looked him up and down, pausing on his arms and legs.. even his abdomen. "Are you sure?" she asks, an ivory finger hooking itself on her thin lip. Her green eyes looked at him in questioning as he seemed to be slightly uncomfortable.

"Yes." he says sternly, his eyes narrowing even more than they had been. "Besides, I have my powers." he says, pride soaking his every word.

Ruby seemed to ponder this for a moment before giving a brief nod. "Indeed." she says, a cheap smile glueing itself to her face.

Meanwhile Panic looked around confused. He himself wasn't sure as of what to do first. There were so many options, so many different stations. He wanted to try the meat cooking station, since he was hungry. Yet the boy from the night before was only a few feet away from him, taunting him with his carrot hair.

Panic looked back to see Axia staring off somewhere and walked forward. He knew if she saw him approaching the small child she would immediately stop him. His shoes made him extremely noticeable as they squeaked against the gray floor. He looked back again, pausing, and then hopped the rest of the way there.

"Hello!" he says chipperly, causing Calico to jump slightly. Slowly her turned around to face the boy, his own shoes squeaking.

"H-hi." he responds, frightened by the older boy's sudden appearance.

"You're the vegetable, right?" Panic asks, leaning forward slightly. His sleep deprived eyes gave off an ominous feel and his pale skin didn't really help with the look. He inhaled through his nose, taking in Calico's scent.

Calico looked at him quizzically.

'Vegetable...?'

He felt a slight fear nipping at his ears, the feeling of Panic's inhale etched into his skin. He could feel it there, still lingering. And it creeped him out.

"What are you doing?" a voice asks from behind Panic suddenly. "That's my partner."

Panic gives another smile to Calico before turning around, curious of the noise. "Hey!" he says. "You're that cauliflowers partner!"

Meleanda scoffed. "Yes, clearly. What are you doing?" she asks, looking Panic up and down.

'Too creepy looking' she thought.

"I'm talking to him." he beams. "My partner is over there." he says, jerking his head toward his partner's direction.

Meleanda looked over, spotting Axia with a large number '9' pinned to her back. "Hey, will you come over here for a minute?" she calls to Axia, her intentions clear and vibrant.

Axia turned around, her arms crossed. "Yes?" she asks. She herself had finally decided on what to do. Even though she knew it wasn't the best idea, she didn't know how long it would take to get her hands on one again. So she was heading over to her weapon of choice when that stupid red-head decided to grasp her attention.

"Come over here." she repeats, a sudden eagerness bearing it's head.

Axia rolled her eyes and walked reluctantly to where they were standing. "Yes?" she repeats, glaring slightly at Meleanda. Sadly, Axia's curiosty had gotten the best of her.. and a little too early in her opinion.

"Is this creeper your partner?" she asks, pointing to Panic with a long finger.

Axia looked at Panic. He seemed slightly out of it and he was hopping from foot to foot. He had a smile on his face and he kept on looking back to gaze a Calico. He seemed rather happy by the boy, yet she contemplated lying in general.

She could say no and get out of this mess that was bound to happen, or she could say yes and see what the red head had to say. Yet, if she said no wouldn't it be noticeable? They both had nine's pinned to their backs, marking them as district territory. And Panic had probably already said something about it.

She finally came to the conclusion and spoke. "Yeah, what of it?" she asks, looking at Meleanda curiously. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Oh, you poor thing! I wouldn't want to have some creepy dumb person as my district partner. Though.. he is rather young." she says, a smirk snaking it's way upon her face.

Axia gave another eye roll. "Listen, girl with red hair I-"

"Meleanda." she interrupts.

"Sure, whatever. Um.. yeah." she paused for a moment, racking her brain for what she was about to say. For some reason when the red haired girl interrupted her, she lost her train of thought along with what she was going to say.

'Oh well, might as well go with the next best thing.' she thought to herself.

"Well," she starts. "You don't even know Panic, how would you know whether or not he's stupid? And he's not young! He's like.. 17 or something!"

"14." he corrects, in a surprisingly calm voice. It was strange since he always seemed to be panicking.

"I was talking about my district partner being young. He's 12."

"I like little kids." Panic pipes up suddenly, his voice still eerily calm.

"Oh great, he's even a pedophile!" Meleanda exclaims. She looked at Panic in disgust.

"Not really. He's only fourteen. Or so he says.." Axia says, looking at Panic. He didn't seem as fidgety as he normally was, and he looked... oddly normal. In the moment at least. "And! It wasn't clear at all, you just added it, not even bothering to point and what not."

"I am!" Panic says, an edge of annoyance creeping into his voice.

"If you say so." Meleanda adds, holding her hands up in mock surrender. Another smirk appeared, slowly stitching it's way, lighting up her eyes.

Axia pursed her lips, and started marching forward. She reached out and grabbed Panic's wrist, giving him a little tug.

"Let's go Panic." she says.

Meleanda gave a sudden laugh. "Wow.." was all she managed.

"Alright," Panic starts, his features returning to their normal craziness. "See you around cauliflower!"

"Uh.. Bye.." Calico responds, confused as nearly everyone else. The boy had come up, started talking to him only for Meleanda to take his attention away. Then his district partner came up, mumbling something.

All in all, nobody was exactly sure what had just happened.

Amy Rose was bored.. and tired. The night before she couldn't even sleep a wink, because her district partner was up muttering things to himself. All she could hear was a constant noise that sounded like a boy's voice and the soft whir of the air conditioning.

All she was doing in the moment was standing, looking eagerly at the knives to her side. Yet, a career was busy with them and she was in no mood to be noticed. As long as she clung to the shadows, not being seen as a threat she was good.

Quickly, she raised two pale hands and rested them on her waist length blonde hair. She then clutched in one hand as much as she could and tied it together with a red hair-band.

Her eyes glanced hungrily back to the knifes and she moved a foot forward. She had to get out of there! The knifes were taunting her with their keen blades, shining elegantly in the overhead lights. The sound of metal hitting rubber echoed and battled within her ear drums, calling the cry of battle. Everything to her seemed magnified, mostly her weapon of choice.

She then continued walking, hearing her flat, rubber soles click slightly against the sweat stained ground. The smell of disinfectant and body fluids stabbed at her nostrils as her feet dragged her over to the plant identification.

The trainer looked up at the girl, as she plopped herself down. The mat they were sitting on was slippery, and hard to sit on.

"E-excuse me," she began, feeling accomplished at her stutter. Even to authority she would act innocent and shy, just in case someone was around. Or maybe the authority would send a gift her way? "Can you teach me about plants?"

A slow smile appeared on the trainer's face, leaving a warm glow within their eyes. "Yes I can! If you want, you can call me Trainer Frompus."

Amy bit back a laugh at the name. The small man before had a ridiculous name, and a ridiculous face. "Y-yes sir. Um.. whats that?" she asks, her eyes looking briefly into his, a fake sign of innocence setting them ablaze.

Her finger slowly pointed to an oval shaped berry with a light green hue.

The trainer gve a short nod, accepting her innocence like it was real, and gave a hearty smile. He then directed his golden eyes to the berry and brought two pale, pink fingers to grasp it.

"This, Ms. Dasher, is an aburlee!" he says, his face positively beaming. Though it was his profession, he seemed proud of his knowledge. He opened his mouth to say more, yet was interrupted by Amy.

"Um, how do you know my name trainer Frompus?" she asks sweetly, a thin line of curiousness snaking its way in. She was oddly curious of his knowledge, even though it was pinned to her shirt. Just maybe... there was another reason,

Frompus frowned at the strange use of his name. "You know what, just call me Goe. Anyways this i-"

"Excuse me.." she says, batting her eyelashes and pouting out her bottom lip. She seemed like a small child trying to con their parents into buying them a new toy. "But how and why do you know my last name? Could you please tell me?"

Goe Frompus looked around, like it was top secret information, then motioned her forward. Secretly he swooped down, putting his coligan pumped lips next to her ear and said. "Not sure if I'm allowed to tell you, but everybody here is required to learn and memorize all tribute names."

Amy nodded and understanding, and slinked back to where she was before. The information wasn't all that exciting to her and she had no desire to spread it around. She looked at him expectantly, awaiting more words to fill her ears. As well, she was surprised. The information he said was not what she was looking for.

"Anyways, this is aburlee!" he says, not at all worried that he may have said something he wasn't supposed to. "And actually, it's perfectly fine to eat! It tastes sour and a little putrid but it has a good amount on nutrients. As well it helps with energy."

Amy nodded, digesting what he just said. Though it went through one ear and out the other. Her mind couldn't wrap around the knowledge he had just said, and he was already on another berry. What did he expect? For the information to automatically lodge itself in her brain? Not eveybody had a photographic memory.

"How am I supposed to remember this? Is there some secret or something?" she asks, finally voicing what was nagging at her. Again, no matter how much she tried she couldn't gain an ounce of knowledge.

Amy only went to the station in the first place since her plant skills were so poor. She had hope to gain knowledge on a few berries and plants, yet she couldn't get any!

Frompus looked at her and a Cheshire grin spread upon his features. "What do you mean?" he asks, still smiling. To Amy it felt like he was mocking her. She felt anger claw it's acidy nails into her heart, constricting her in her place.

"What do you mean?" she asks, disgusting sweetness lacing her every word. Like a cake with too much frosting.

"I mean what do you expect? There to be a special medicine to help you? If so you are really dumb, those are way to expensive for your lower district self."

"Well that's not very nice," Amy begins, a cruel smile curling her lips. Her eyes gleamed with automatic hatred, sending shivers down Frompus's spine. "I was just wondering if there was any...tricks?"

Frompus stared at her for a moment, thinking over what she said. After a minute he shrugged his shoulders, setting the aburlee down. "Not that I know of, sorry." he says.

Amy nodded before taking a deep breath. She stood up, dusted fake dust of her pants, and said. "Well, thanks for your help. I honestly dearly hope you can help me in the arena somehow. Wouldn't want anything getting out." she then gave a wink, waving to him and trotted off.

Frompus sat there wondering what had happened to her sweet and kind attitude before hand. He pondered her words, questioning their value and gave a sigh.

'Trainers aren't allowed though! Wait... Do I get-'

Frompus's thoughts continued as he sat there. He didn't even notice the next person who sat down. But as soon as he noticed her long, copper locks and sea blue eyes, his mind quickly flickered back to the long list of tributes he had to memorize. This girl was familiar but he couldn't quite place her.

"Laced in sugar, dripped in venom," the girl remarks, watching as Amy Rose Dasher sashayed off. Her eyes seemed to crinkle in amusement as Frompus stared bewildered at this predicament. "Think about it."

"Ah. You are quite an intelligent young lady." Frompus says finally reaching to grab some plants to show to the new lass. "It means that she tries to act sweet but inside she is truly quite venomous. Am I right."

The girl tilt her head back and let out a good-hearted laugh. When she stopped she seemed to look at the man with a new sort of respect. "Tis true. How about this one, each green and crop that flows, which leads the mightiest path that blows." The girl nodded and stared imploringly at him as if she was testing him.

Frompus sat tipping his chin for a bit. This girl was quite intelligent in an unique aspect, and he was sure it wouldn't hurt to play along. "Path that blows, eh? Well... these berries, nightlock are poisonous and there has been a story behind this berry that lead to two victories. Another plant, Parze, has the ability to heal this poison. Many times this would lead to a very great advantage. "

The girl stared at the berries, her eyes slowly observing the outer shell and the texture of each. For a long time, it felt as if it was just the berry and her in the room. Frompus could only stare in patience and wonder as she bent down and put the berry into her mouth.

"Wait, ma'am! That's nightlock!"

All of a sudden the training room was silent as everyone turned to the source of the screaming. But the funny thing was, it wasn't the girl who was screaming.

Hoped you enjoyed... It would be much appreciated if you could help us with your feedback... :3 I'm so glad that the school year has been winding down so we probably we'll get back to a good updating schedule. Again.. thank you for bearing with us

~Pika