Chapter 4: Training
Effie Trinket arrived at Amanda's room the next morning and told her it was going to be a big day.
Amanda Snow got dressed after she showered. Her mother came in, who had slept in the other room, and helped her fix her hair which was it's usual bubble-gum pink.
Amanda's stylist came in and placed an outfit on the table, saying that she was to wear it for training. It was intended for maximum mobility under physical training. Amanda put on the outfit, it felt very comfortable, she looked at herself in the full-length mirror. It was somewhat stylish, but it also looked practical, the fabric was as strong as polyester, but was as soft and comfortable as cotton. The outfit seemed to fit to her body like a second skin, yet it allowed her skin to breathe. It absorbed all skin oils and sweat, so that she would stay dry during a good workout.
Her mother led her out to the dining area where Blaze and his mother were eating. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet of choice items. She filled her plate with her favorites and sat down.
Katniss Everdeen and her husband Petta Melark were also sitting there eating.
"All right Amanda," said Katniss, "on the last day of training in about four weeks from today, the Gamemakers are going to have a private session with you. During the private session, I want you to show them everything that you can do. But I don't want any of the other tributes to know of your skill with knife-throwing, practice sword-fighting with a trainer, but other than sword-fighting I want you at the survival stations nonstop, however, if you want to squeeze in some practice with a trainer for unarmed combat, that never goes amiss in the Games either."
"What about alliances?" asked Amanda.
"Alliances traditionally are formed before hand." said the Mockingjay, "But you also have to be careful with alliances; sometimes they will stab you in the back, though at other times you might need them in order to survive, in order to get into the top two, or top four, of six, or eight, and as there can only be one winner, you and your ally will inevitably turn on each other, unless of course your ally is killed before you two can turn on each other. Are there any of the tributes that you know well that you trust?"
"I'm good friends with Lisa Derrick." said Amanda.
"Do you think that there is any chance that she would kill you in order to win the games?" asked The-Girl-On-Fire.
"I would trust her with my life!" Amanda said with determination.
"Alright then, try and make friends," said Katniss, "but be careful, because you need to assume that every one of the other tributes will see you as the enemy, and they will attempt to keep their friends close and their enemies even closer. What about Blaze here, do you trust him?"
Amanda shrugged her shoulders in confusion.
"I don't think he and I have ever even spoken to each other before, ever, I don't really know him that well."
They both looked over at Blaze. He and Petta were at the far end of the table in whispered conversation. Petta was probably asking him the same questions that Katniss had just asked Amanda.
"Okay Amanda," said the Mockingjay, "once you are down in training, focus the majority of your time on survival skills, and spend the rest on wrestling, and weapons, preferably sword fighting."
And then Katniss could not help but ask.
"Are you any good with a bow and arrow?" asked Katniss.
"No, not the slightest bit." said Amanda.
"Oh well, the gymnasium is now all yours. It's time." said Katniss, as she looked at the clock. "Once you're down in the gym, you're free to do whatever you want, but just remember your priorities because once you're in the arena, you're on your own, and it'll be up to you to keep yourself alive. Of course I will try to seal sponsored deals."
Katniss and Petta sent the two tributes on their way. The two tributes were followed by their mothers. They press the button in the elevator for the basement but it stopped on the sixth floor to pick up Joyce Harrison and Randy Bing. The elevator continued on down and it opened up in the basement. All of the other tributes were there except for Beverly O'Malley and Klay Randolph.
When the tributes from the 11th floor showed up, the head trainer Atala got down to business and gave her same speech that she gave the tributes every year.
"Tributes of the Hunger Games." said Atala. "Welcome to the training center. In a little under two months from now, twenty-three of you will be dead, one of you will be alive. Which one of you that is, will depend on how well you perform here. This is my gymnasium. Here in my gymnasium you will follow my rules, the first and most important rule that I will be strictly enforcing is that there is to be no fighting with your fellow tributes in this room, you will have plenty of time for that once you're in the arena. Other than that you are to behave yourselves, follow the instructions of myself and the other trainers. You have one month to whip yourselves into shape. Myself and the other trainers will spar with you if you wish to fight with an opponent. Different sets of training; there are survival skills."
She pointed to the far side of the large room that had 20 stations running along it.
"Among the survival skills, we can teach you how to make fire without matches, we will teach you how to identify poisonous plants, we will teach you how to identify medicinal plants, we will teach you how to identify edible plants, we will teach you how to camouflage yourselves, we will teach you how to make crude weapons out of anything that you can find, and we will teach you how to make snares for catching meat.
"Then there is physical training; we have a very complicated obstacle course which will involve some running, jumping, and climbing. We also have exercise equipment for just plain working-out.
"Then we have unarmed combat; we will teach you how to defend yourself without weapons.
"And then we have armed combat; where we will take you through a variety of different types of weapons that you will find in the cornucopia when the Hunger Games start, and teach you how to use them.
"While you are here, you are free to go from station to station as you wish, per your mentor's instructions. However, my first piece of advice to you is; do not ignore the survival skills, while many of you will be eager to learn how to kill, and dying at the hand of one of your fellow tributes is the primary entertainment factor of the Hunger Games, many of you will die of natural causes; some of you will die of dehydration, some of you will die of sickness and disease; exposure to the elements of nature will kill you just as easily as a weapon. We have an all-you-can-eat buffet over in that corner in case you get hungry, though me and the other trainers will be taking a lunch break at the half way point of the day. So I say to you all, learn something new. Intimidate your opponents with your skill. Show off your skill to the game makers who are standing right over there observing you with clipboards. You may begin."
With the speech now ended, the tributes dispersed to go about their pursuits. Amanda went over and grabbed up a sword. It was heavy but nothing that she couldn't handle. She requested to spar with a partner. One of the trainers picked up a sword and started to fight. After an hour, Amanda was sweating and she was exhausted. The trainer then told her that the sword was too heavy for her. She then selected a lighter one and the sword fighting went a little more easier from there.
After another hour, the trainer told her that she was weary of the repetition of the sword-fighting, and if she wanted to continue? Amanda said she would try another station and come back to sword-fighting when she had a fresh perspective.
She went over to the buffet table to take in a few calories after her rigorous workout with the heavy swords. While she stood there and enjoyed her snack, she looked over at some of the other tributes. Unlike her, most of the tributes had not prepared for the Games beforehand. Unlike the children of the Districts during each Hunger Games, the tributes in this room right now had been very well fed all their lives; but in spite of being well fed, their muscles were soft. Most of them felt little need to exercise regularly before today.
Hector Ardiman the skinny and bony kid who was representing District two because he was the second name drawn, had just gotten off the treadmill which had been moving at a slow speed and he looked winded.
Amanda's friend Lisa Derrick was lifting 5 pound dumbbells in each hand. She put them down and then rubbed her arms as though they were very sore.
Blaze Trenton and a trainer were both kneeling on the ground at one of the survival stations fiddling with some rope and wire, it looked like he was learning to set up some kind of snare.
Chaz Zoltan was very clumsily trying to hit a standard bulls-eye with throwing knives; not a single one even hit the dartboard, they all flew high and wide, or fell short entirely.
May Salmon was learning how to make fire without matches, slowly, and not making much progress.
Having lack of skills was not the case for everyone. Susanna Xavier was holding a long wooden battle staff, and was fending off five weapon trainers at once, and it looked like she was hardly even trying.
Breanna Crane was an excellent climber, and a fast runner; she did a flat out sprint at full speed on the treadmill for minutes on end and she wasn't even sweating. And then she swept the obstacle course in the fastest time with not one mistake.
Dennis Green out wrestled and pinned every one of the wrestling trainers in seconds, each.
Amanda gulped some water and then walked over to the poisonous plants station. She then spent most of the rest of the day, learning to identify as many different poisonous plants as she could. There were some plants that were poisonous that looked exactly like a plant of a non-poisonous species. Amanda found it all to be scientifically fascinating, academically. The scientific facts and figures about the plants were interesting. In science class at the super special school for rich kids that her grandfather had sent her to, she never really cared much for nature until today. Plus they never included this particular stuff in the curriculum. Maybe it was the life or death survival skills that made her more attentive. She found the information useful for her upcoming Games.
During the lunch break, Amanda and Lisa sat together after they filled their plates with choice items.
"So, how are things going?" asked Amanda.
"My body feels so sore." complained the girl with banana yellow skin and hair to her bubble-gum pink haired friend, "My muscles are nothing but just aches and pains."
"Well, once you're in shape it will be easier." said Amanda.
"They're giving me some kind of super special muscle cream that I'm supposed to rub on my body before bed. They say all the pain will be gone by morning."
They talked for a little while longer, and before they were to go back to training for the afternoon they then both agreed to be allies in the arena.
"What happens if we both make it into the top two?" asked Lisa with concern for the dilemma.
"We face off against each other on equal footing; in a fair fight." suggested Amanda, though reluctantly, with hesitation.
In answer to Lisa's question, it seemed logical; the only thing that could be done, though neither one of them wanted that in the end.
For the final hour of the day she went back to sword-fighting until Atala called it quits for the day.
At dinner time Blaze and Amanda were questioned by their mentors about how their training went. Both were pleased with the progress of training for the first day.
Amanda went to bed and applied muscle cream; physical strain, due to all the vigorous sword-fighting.
Author's Note: I didn't know how to write this chapter. I feel like I'm just recycling the same tired training plot from the first Hunger Games book, but I know how this all will end, I'm building up to something here. Please review.
Loyalty to my fans
(Keep reading for, Chapter 5: Training Scores)