The rest of the training day Mika and Timothy remained with us. It seemed an unrealistic combination; Kara and me, and those two. However, the more training stations we visited, the bigger the realization was that we still had a lot to learn.

Timothy had shown us how to recognize edible leafs, while Mika had demonstrated a squirrel trap. On the other hand we taught them some basic combat. I finally felt superior to two the plain boys when I managed to kick a trainer in the face. He had a nosebleed; I had admiration from other tributes in the hall.

Timothy didn't speak that much, so Mika told us everything we wanted to know. While we were waiting in line for a climbing thing, he told me and Kara some things on their friendship.

'We've been neighbors since we were three years old. He was two years younger than me, but that didn't stop us from playing together. He went to the same school as me. Not a surprise, though.'

'Why?' I asked.

'Because District 35 has very few inhabitants, so there are not many schools to choose from.' Mika explained.

Kara frowned. 'But your District isn't that small, right?'

'No, but some decennia ago there was a plague epidemic.'

That made sense, so I remained quiet and watched the people on the climbing thing.

Sometime in the evening we decided to go back to our floors. We bid goodbye to Mika and Timothy, who murmured something back. They wanted to stay a little longer. I was tired, but glad I'd learnt so much that day. Kara poked me while the elevator was taking us to our floor.

'I don't know about you, but I totally trust those guys.' She said.

'Yeah, me too.' I said, against my will. I didn't want to trust them, but I did.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, we saw Laika. 'And, how did it go?' he asked enthusiastically. I wandered to the couch and parked myself there before answering.

'Pretty good!' Kara said 'I think we improved a lot, already after one day!'

'What things did you do?' our escort asked.

'We made a fire, we learned traps, we learned edible stuff and combat. Abbey injured an assistant' she laughed. Laika frowned. 'I had heard about that.'

'I think we're forming an alliance' I suddenly said.

Laika stared at me for a while. Then at Kara. 'What?' he said.

'We're forming an alliance' I repeated 'with the tributes from 35.'

'Already?' he asked 'Ok, it's your choice. Why don't you go upstairs and shower or something, then I can check their footage from the preliminaries.'

'Why are you being so paranoid?' I asked, while getting up.

'I just don't want anything to happen to you two, ok? I'm supposed to take care of you and it's none of my escort business whom your forming alliances with but since you have Charlotte Rosenburg as your mentor it still seems like a good idea!' he preached.

'Whatever. I'm going to bed.' I said, and turned around. While I was going up the stairs, he yelled at me that I needed to think about it all. I didn't listen and went to bed, leaving the two behind.

The next morning I was the first at breakfast again. It was awfully quiet while I ate some strange dish with blue colored meat and I couldn't wait to get to the training center again. I felt my chances increasing every hour I spent there. I was going to win this, even though there were some very dangerous enemies creeping around.

'Morning' said Kara 'so, what will we do?'

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'Well, do we want to ally with Fatboy and Glasses in the arena? Before we get to close with them today at training we need to decide.' She explained.

'Our chances will increase, so I'd say yes. We'll get rid of them when we need to.' I said.

Training was exhausting, boring but very useful. Because we were the first in the gym that day we could practice whatever we wanted. Mika and Timothy arrived shortly after us.

They walked straight to us and somehow we spent the rest of the day with them. We ate with them at lunch. They told us about themselves. We told them about ourselves. They seemed very interested in the District 1-33 war, so to keep the conversation going we told everything we knew. Finally, the day was over. When I was laying in my bed that day I realized we had only one morning of training left; we'd spend the afternoon on the private sessions and the day after that on interviews. And then…the arena. District 6.

I wasn't looking forward to interviews at all, because I'd have to spend the whole day with Prul, but maybe I could show Mrs. Johnson, who would surely be watching, that I was sober. At least, for a couple of days now. It seemed so long since I'd last felt that feeling of total relaxation.

The last day of training began very sunny. I made my way down to get some food, but then I saw that Charlotte was present at the breakfast table. I hadn't seen her in, I don't know, days?

I sat down and didn't say anything. She did.

'Betting stations open today'

'Oh' I said, peeking at my mentor. 'And how will I do well?'

She didn't react. 'Interviews are tomorrow'

'I know' I said.

And the rest of the day flew by. I tried to milk every moment of training, learning as much as I could. The chance of winning I had before had visibly increased. Still, some others at training scared me. I was ashamed to admit it, but as soon as I saw those witches from 18 somewhere I moved to another part of the gym. Kara and the two guys followed me.

Fabio was also interesting. He wasn't doing anything significant and I hadn't seen him doing that either the last couple of days. Why did he get all these points? Why were people rooting for him?

And after lunch it was time for the private sessions. We had to wait in a long corridor, but Charlotte didn't come to join us and since Laika wasn't allowed, Kara and I were without any guidance. Mika introduced us to his mentor – a nice, elderly man with glasses that made his eyes look huge. At least they had someone capable of some decent conversation, I thought bitterly.

I had no idea what I had to do during the private sessions. I guess some combat would do. That was my thing after all. Being from District 1 sucked, because you were always first and had the least time to prepare for something. Kara was before me. I wished her good luck when she went in. I couldn't stop biting my lip. This sucked. First these private sessions, then a whole day with Prul and then those stupid interviews. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: the Games.

'Abbey Kingsleigh, District 1, please' said a voice. I saw Timothy smiling at me, as if he wanted to wish me good luck. I smiled back. It was weird being just nice to people.

I should try it more often.

I passed Kara when going through the door. 'Good luck' she whispered.

'How did it go?' I asked. She shook her shoulders and walked away. I took a deep breath and entered.

Inside the lights were bright. Once the room took shape it turned out to be a slightly smaller gym than the training hall. A dozen of rich-looking people were staring at me. I had no idea if I had to introduce myself, although they looked as if they were expecting it.

I grinned and decided not to.

I saw a couple of dummies and walked to them. My mind went black. This was all bullshit. I pictured the Gamemakers' heads on them and started kicking, slapping and stabbing. Limbs were chopped off, dummy-chests were heavily damaged and they were all headless when I was done with them. I had done well, I knew it.

However, the Gamemakers did not smile or nod to me. One of them said I was done, they'd seen enough. I pursed my lips and walked out of the hall. That 8 was in the pocket.

'You did what?' Laika said, petrified.

'Like I said. I didn't introduce myself, you know, tell them your name and district' I said.

'I know what introducing is' he whispered 'this will have consequences'

'Don't overreact now, bud. Katniss Everdeen shot an arrow at the Gamemakers' I said.

'And we all know what happened to her!' he argued.

'Getting an eleven?' I joked.

'Don't be stupid! You know what happened! You are so much smarter than this, Abbey. Why didn't you do it?'

'Because you didn't tell me to. How was I supposed to know I had to introduce myself to those fatties. Do I look like I have competed in the Games several times or something?'

Laika seemed to be counting to ten while closing his eyes.

'Ok. I don't want to be angry with you, but sometimes it seems like you do not take this seriously enough. Abbey, I care about you and your life. Why can't you just do as you're told?'

'You didn't tell me' I repeated calmly.

'I'm sure you did pretty great at your private session, but now that you haven't introduced yourself they are going to give you no more than half of your original score. That's basic policy' he explained.

My heart dropped. He couldn't be serious. What kind of fucked-up rule was that?

'Better prepare for your interview' Laika murmured, and he turned his back against me.

I was anxious the next morning. For the first time in my life I felt genuinely scared and intimidated with the Games beginning tomorrow. My life was hanging at a thread, especially after the private sessions. When we got in the car to go to the television studios, we passed loads of party-goers on the streets, who were getting ready for the spectacle of the year. There were billboards with tributes on them, fireworks in broad daylight and huge screens destined to broadcast anything related to the Games had been erected on the big squares. The Head City was excited.

Kara told me about her experience during the private session. She had introduced herself, not because she was told to do so, but because it felt natural. She performed basically the same things as I did.

Finally we arrived at the studios. Paparazzi weren't allowed on the grounds so they tried to spot us from behind a fence. Charlotte and Laika came with us, but our mentor wasn't able to walk properly, so she needed the firm shoulder of Laika. As soon as we entered the building, some servants took over. Suddenly Kara and I stood still. We both saw it. There was a board with odds right in front of us and the numbers were changing constantly.

Abbey, district 1: 1-27.

Oh great. One in twenty seven. It was a perfectly normal score. Almost every other odd was close to mine. Kara had 1-25. Mika and Timothy both had 1-32.

I didn't want to, but I couldn't resist looking at the odds of the District18 witches. And when I saw Alexandria had 1-4, Hayden 1-8 and the third one 1-9, I trembled.

Why did I ever think I had a chance of winning this? But wait a minute. All that the people in the Head City ever saw was me during the preliminaries. I killed one, but was naïve enough to be trapped and injured. After that I didn't do anything significant.

I was capable of so much more than they saw. I smiled. My odds would be perfect by the time the bloodbath ends.

'Hey' Kara said 'You satisfied?'

'No, of course not' I answered 'You?'

'Nope'

We laughed, until Laika notified us that our stylists wouldn't be too happy since we were already late. I bit my lip, thought of Prul and followed Laika. We passed other tributes on the way to the dressing rooms. Some of them just wore bath robes.

'This is you, Abbey. Good luck' he said, and left me in front of a small door. I sighed, collected courage and entered.

Excuses for my long absence in the previous chapter :(

The pressure is definately on. Will she remain strong, or will she crack? What will happen at the interviews? New chapter tomorrow!