I kept a quiet eye on the Careers for the last hour or so of our first day of training. It helped me easily figure out a few things about each of them. First off, the guys used swords, the girls used knives. Only Gray broke this pattern by favouring a spear, twirling it through his hands with ease. I frowned a little, he might be hard to beat, my spear skills seemed pretty level with his, though I haven't seen him throw yet. I better watch, that might be my advantage.

Miraculously, as I watched, Gray stepped up to the targets, standing about 25 feet away with a spear in his hand. I eyed the rack of javelins I spotted on the side of the target area; I could do some serious damage with those.

Gray tossed his spear awkwardly, holding it oddly in his fist. The tip dropped a little bit from his odd throw, but still managed to hit the bottom edge of the target, probably just because of the pure force he put behind it. He ran up to the target and pulled it out quickly before the other Careers could notice, which they didn't seem to, but I did. Weakness of a Career found: Check.

I go back to watching the other Careers. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Shine and Tiana hit bulls eyes with their throwing knives from a little further away from the targets than Gray was standing, maybe 30, 35 feet. I wonder if they can go further, but seeing as they are Careers, the Careers don't normally hold anything back in the training so they can intimidate the other tributes. I have a feeling I'm seeing close to their maximum distance.

Cassius and Demetri have put their swords away and begun to wrestle side by side with the instructors. I can tell that it's an unofficial race, it always is with the Careers. Sure enough, when Cassius stands up first, he first glances smugly over at Demetri, then, surprisingly, at me. He frowns when our eyes met, his gaze narrowing. I roll my eyes and look away. Cassius is probably still mad at me for well…a lot.

Just as I think this Atala's voice is projected around the Training Centre telling we're dismissed. This should be fun. Not.

I try to stay close to my allies as we walk to the elevators, but I still end up in the same elevator as Cassius. Shoot.

I can feel his angry gaze on me as we shoot upwards. I say bye to Jayden as casually as I can when we reach level 3, then jump off at 4. I'm about to walk towards my room when I feel a hand clamp hard onto my shoulder. I tense, then use the energy of them spinning me around to punch Cass hard in the face. He lets go, shocked, and stares at me.

"What was that for?" We both say at the same time.

I frown. "Sorry, okay? Just don't do that. How am I supposed to know it's you?"

Cassius' face mimics my frown. "Sorry. Now, what have you done?"

I look at him angrily. "I think I could ask you the same."

"What are you talking about?"

"Those are people you're laughing at with your group of demons. Kids, Cassius. Kids like us. I stood up for her. Her name's Heather. She doesn't deserve this more than anyone else. If she must die she doesn't need to be ridiculed along the way."

He's silent for a while. "And what about you then? You set the Volunteers against you with that little stunt. I suppose you've accepted death too then?" I'm startled by the sudden hurt in his voice, the tears in his eyes.

"You shouldn't be here." He whispered. "This should never have happened."

I know that if I stand here too much longer, I'll start crying too. "We'll figure this out, Cass. We can do this. We can make it out of here."

"How? This is the Hunger Games, Alexis. The Hunger Games. You don't just leave."

I give him a small smile. "C'mon, Cass. I'm not as dumb as I look. We'll figure something out. And we can survive until we figure it out. I promise."

I wince as I say "promise". I already have more than one promise in these Games. I promised Annie I'd save Cassius. I promised myself I'd help Jayden. And now I've promised Cassius we'll get out of here alive. I've got some thinking to do.

The next two days went by quickly. I stayed with my allies and we went through as much stations as we possibly could. Before we knew it, it was time to go for our last lunch in the training room.

We sat at the table we have come to claim as ours. I give one last look around the room. The only groups are the Volunteers and my group. Everyone else is scattered around the room, never giving more than a few nervous glances at each other.

At least we have that. My allies have become my friends over the last few days. At least if we don't leave the arena we had more fun in the Training Centre than tributes are supposed to have.

I look over at the Volunteers. I didn't bother trying to mend any sort of bond with them, yet. Finnick has been urging me to constantly. I know it will be bad to have them as enemies, but I don't think I could bear them as friends either.

"Those are the allies you want, Alexis." Finnick's voice rings in my mind. "The strong ones. The ones that you don't trust. It's best to keep the people you don't trust as close as you can for as long as you can."

I sigh. I guess we'll see after lunch.

I think I owe Cassius for a lot now. We had maybe just over an hour and a half left of training when he marched over to the camouflage station where my allies were laughing and smearing paint and berry juice across each other's faces and arms.

He crouched down next to me in the mud. "Alexis Lace." That is already scary enough. He has never not used a nickname for me, never mind my full name. "If you don't join up with the Volunteers, they're going after you and only you first in the arena." My allies are eavesdropping by now, I can tell, even though they try to make it as casual as possible. "Shine has planted the idea that you're just some tribute. Not just worthless, but all talk because of the…incident with your friend over there. " He nods to Heather. "Weak. You can show them you're not. It's the only way you might stand a chance."

I was supposed to keep my trident and spears skills until the private sessions later, but they won't do me much good if the Volunteers just gang up on me anyway. I raise my chin a bit. I'll show them.

"You go over first." I tell Cassius. "I'll be there in a second."

I smear some red berry juice like war paint over my cheeks just to add some drama. To relax my allies, I reach over to each of them and do the same. "I'll be right back." I tell them."

I walk confidently over to the weapons section. I can feel the eyes of all the Careers, plus a few others, on me, but I don't look at anyone. I march straight over to the targets and pick up 2 spears and 3 tridents. Normally I could only fit two at the most in my hands, but these Capitol weapons are much thinner. I start at one end of the four targets and place one weapon at each target with one extra at the end, getting increasingly further away as I go. Then I turn back, face my setup and take a deep breath. I can hear Shine's snickers behind me, but they only motivate me now. I can do this. I run up to the first spear and toss it, making it hit the target hard.

Harder. I think. Throw harder.

The second spear lodges itself deep in the next target.

Further.

I sprint diagonally to my first trident, and roll right before I get there, picking it up as I do and throwing it before I'm even standing again. I don't stop to watch them hit the targets but I hear a solid thud that makes me smile.

Last one. I pick up both of the final two tridents at the end of the line. I turn and throw them at the final target. It snaps under the pure power of the throw and crashes to the ground of the silent and shocked Training Centre.

I stop, finally, and survey the damage. The Careers' mouths are hanging open, even Shine's. I smirk at her specifically and say, "Are we still up for an alliance?"

Tiana, next to her, barely manages a nod.

I give one final nod to Cassius, who smiles, and turn back to my shocked group. I know why.

Every weapon hit a perfect bullseye.