It didn't really surprise me that I lacked of sleep that night and after several hours of rolling around in my bed I got up and went into the living room. All these thoughts that were rushing through my head drove me crazy. My family, the Hunger Games and finally…Gale.
...
I noticed a black thing that was standing on a small table in front of the couch. I pressed a button and TV programme started. A blue-haired guy was chatting with a strange looking guy about the Hunger Games. When the camera caught the blue-haired one again you could read his name. Caesar Flickerman. So that was the guy who was going to interview me tonight. I watched the discussion for a couple of minutes, but it got rather boring soon, so I switched off the TV again. Great, I couldn't wait for tonight. After a while I started walking around in the room for no particular reason, but then I got tired of walking and just laid on the couch. A dee sigh escaped my mouth as I continued watching TV. "Better than nothing", I thought. Within the next seconds the image disappeared and I was surrounded by darkness.
...
"Katniss, wake up!" A high-pitched voice bursted through my dream, then a hand shook me hard and I woke up. Effie stood there, bent over me and looking at me in a strange way. "Get up, darling, we don't have much time." Still tired I went to the bathroom, but this time I made sure I was alone. As soon as I was thinking about last night I could feel the heat rising on my cheeks. Did that really happen or did I only dream? Well, I couldn't have dreamed THAT…
Ten minutes later I joined the others for breakfast. Gale greeted me with a smile, but then he blushed and looked straight at his plate. So yesterday night DID happen…
Effie – as excited as always – was talking nonstop during the whole breakfast, no matter if it was simply gossip or today's schedule. Finally Gale and I were brought downstairs to the training hall, where the other tributes were already waiting for the beginning of the session.
...
After the short introduction from a capitol worker I looked round carefully and soon my eyes caught a bow. Happy to find something familiar I wanted to take it but when I looked at Gale, he shook his head and pulled me to a different section where you could practise knots.
"Don't reveal your strengths", he whispered. Damn, why didn't I think of that. It was not clever to show your strengths right at the beginning. We started doing one knot after the other and watched the other tributes carefully. One guy was looking at me the same way, even far more carefully.
"Do you know his name?", I asked Gale.
He followed my glance and nodded. "This guy is from District Two, Cato. Don't trust him!", he warned me. "He is one of the careers."
"He is what?"
"A career. Guys like him are specially trained for the Games and often volunteer."
I had a closer look at Cato. He was a blonde, tall and extremely strong guy. He picked up a big and really heavy ball effortlessly and threw it straight through the room, a couple of metres far. Yeah, he was definitely professionally trained. Cato looked at us with some kind of victory-smile and walked to our station. "Hi."
Gale nodded.
"I'm Cato, District 2. And you are…?"
"Gale Hawthorne, District 12. This is Katniss Everdeen, District 12 as well."
Cato pointed at the knots. "Don't you think that only children and…girls have to practise knots?" He stared at Gale. "Why don't you train with us? You are going to learn a lot more."
"Thanks, but we are fine here."
"If you say so." Cato looked at me again and walked away.
...
"God, that guy seemed to be totally impressed by you", Gale said as we going to the next station.
"What? Come on, you can't be serious about that", I replied. Cato being impressed by me? Sure…
"Didn't you see the way he looked at you? Like he wanted to peel off your clothes just with his glance or something like that."
"No, I didn't. But he didn't look at me this way because I would have noticed. Don't you think so?"
Gale shook his head. "No, he couldn't show it directly, that would have been bad for his reputation. But he definitely looked at you like that."
"It would have been bad for his reputation?"
"Jeez, Catnip, there are exactly 23 tributes plus the jury who observe him. A guy like him mustn't show any kind of weakness, otherwise the others know how to hurt him."
Wow, that whole thing got more and more absurd. "And hanging around with me all the time isn't bad for your reputation?"
He flashed me a big grin. "No, not at all. After the interview everyone will know, so why making the effort of keeping secrets?"
"Keeping secrets? What the hell are you talking about?"
"It's a part of Haymitch's strategy. Trust me, you will find out soon enough."
I followed him grumbling. I really hated something like that.
...
Archery was our last station. I took the bow and threw a glance at Gale who slightely shook his head. I understood and nodded. I looked at the target, shot and…missed it by a few centimetres. Gale silently formed the word "Exactly", and took the other bow. He hit the target, but his arrow didn't touch the white line.
"Hey, where are the knives?" , a voice roared behind us. I turned round surprised and noticed a blonde guy standing next to Cato and two girls, shaking angrily. "Who stole the knives? You?" He pointed at a tall boy with dark skin and started pushing him through the hall.
Suddenly Gale began chuckling silently and pointed at a spot above me. A small girl with curly black hair was hiding in the net at the ceiling. In her hand she was holding a couple of knives. It was the same girl who had been watching me the whole time. I just had to grin at this sight. The girl hardly reached the guy's chest with the top of her head but was still stealing his knives.
"Really brave, this little one." Gale remarked and pulled me away from the spot, so we wouldn't reveal her hiding place.
...
We were dismissed after some members of the jury had stopped the fight between the two guys and we went back to our apartment. Haymitch was already desperately awaiting our arrival.
"Sit down. It's time for a meeting."
We sat down on the couch. A couple of pictures were on the table in front of us. Haymitch cleared his throat. "Step one: Analyzing the enemies. I had the chance to watch the training for a while and found out a lot. So let's go." He took the pictures and pinned them at some kind of blackboard that was standing in front of the TV. The he wrote the number of the District next to the pictures. We picked out one tribute after the other, discussing his or her strengths – at least the ones Haymitch noticed – and the connection between them. I had no idea how Haymitch could have noticed that, but I stayed silent. At least he knew the Games and seemed to know people as well, even if he hid this fact behind his boozy breath quite well.
...
One hour later Effie entered the room. "HAYMITCH, what are they still doing here? The should be downstairs in five minutes!", she squealed.
"Relax, Trinket, we still have a lot of time." Haymitch didn't seem to be too stressed and emptied his glass of bourbon.
Effie pushed us to the door. "Hurry up! We are already late!"
"Effie? Where are we going?", I asked her when we had reached the elevator.
"What kind of question is that? To Cinna, of course!", she answered as if it was the most obvious answer.
"Who the heck is Cinna?", Gale wanted to know and looked at me, but I only shrugged my shoulders.
"Cinna is your stylist."
Stylist? Good lord, I had nearly forgotten this part of the Games. Dresses and…MakeUp. This could turn into an interesting evening…