Training day 2

Twenty minutes before ten.

District ten's Life Lee's POV

"What was the hardest thing you faced in the arena?" I asked my mentor, Druid Ray. I was curious to know what he had to face. Because I might be facing it to.

"Do you really want to know?" He asked staring at me with his emotionless, forest green eyes. I admired those eyes because of the lack of emotion that they produced, they were unpredictable.

"Yes." I told him. I wanted to know, so that when I was in the arena, I could deal with the worst situation he could think of. He looked like he didn't want to tell me when he told me

"I think you should know, you know what my game was like, and if you don't, once I tell you you can't just un-hear it, I mean-"

"Tell me." I demanded from him "just tell me." I know it was kind of cruel the way I asked, but I wanted to know, I had to know. If I could survive the horror that he had to face, I could survive anything. If I could survive, I could go home. I could go back to Laurel, who I promised I'd come back for. Druid sighed and brushed his shaggy dark hair back with one hand.

"Love." He answered not looking at me anymore, but somewhere else in the room. Maybe not even in this room, but someplace only he could see. Maybe a memory of some sort.

"Love?" I asked not believing him "really?" How could the biggest danger in the arena be love? In school, we learned that love in the arena was used as a weapon in the seventy fourth and the seventy fifth hunger games.

"Yes really." He told me not sounding so nice and happy anymore "when I was in the arena, I fell in love. Then it was only the two of us, and I double crossed her." He sighed like he regretted something, which it sounded like he did. "I stabbed her." I looked at him seriously

"You stabbed her? Why?" If he was in love with her, why'd he stab her? Why'd you just stab the person you love?

"I didn't know it at the time," He told me "but she wanted me to do it, because she said, that she just couldn't be the next champion." I thought about what he was saying, falling in love, followed by betrayal. Betrayal that he did.

"So what are you saying?" I asked probably knowing what he was trying to say "don't fall in love?"

"Exactly." He answered seriously "there's a reason that nobody's fallen in love in the arena before seventy four and since." Or at least made it out alive and well I thought. But I wasn't going to fall in love, because it seemed that everyone I loved was taken away from me except Laurel, and I needed to get back to her. No matter what.

*Ten minutes after ten*

"You sure are stubborn arn't you," My district partner Max Starling told me as we rode down the elevator to the training center below ground "you just had to finish breakfast, you just had to finish that meal, which I don't blame you by the way, it's good stuff, but Aera is still scary. I mean, she's in a better mood then she was when she was before, but I still don't want to get slashed by those nails of hers." Our escort Aera, she was in a better mood since we got to the capital, but her six inch nails still scared us every time she wove them around or pointed one of them at us. I swear, one of times she's swinging those around, she's going to break something, or hurt someone. Even our mentors and avoxs were scared when she was waving her hands around. And it wasn't my fault that I wanted to eat some more, I was hungry, and the food was too good to pass. But no, we had to get to the training center on time, we just had to. Aera made a fit when I said that I wanted to finish my meal instead of going to the training center.

"You're late!" She shouted at me "come on! Hurry hurry!" And all I wanted to do was finish my food. So what if we were a minute late? So what if we were five minutes late? It was only five minutes or so.

"I just wanted to finish eating." I told little Max.

"Well you didn't have to fight her." He told me "I mean, you saw her, she was angry and stuff. And it scared me to see you two shouting so loud." Yeah, we did fight a bit, we both shouted at each other. Me telling her to let me finish, her telling me to get going.

"She over reacted." I told him, which in my opinion, she did.

"True." He said "but at least we got more food." He smiled. Yeah, yeah we did. Because in the end, I won, I finished breakfast. I looked at Max. We both finished breakfast. We couldn't get anything like that back in district ten.

Before I knew it, we had arrived at the floor the training center was located at. The doors opened and I saw tributes already working at training stations. We were late, but only by a bit. As Max walked away from me I spotted my ally, Rayne Page from district six. I waved to her, and she waved back. Yesterday, I noticed that she was great with a knife and I admired her bravery, because she wasn't, if hardly, fazed by the giant district three male. That's what made us connect at the knife station, we both weren't afraid of him. When she asked what I was good at, I showed her my ax skills. When she saw what I could do, she was impressed. I had a lot of practice with an ax, after all, I came from the farming district where animals needed to be butchered and sold. And with that, we became allies. Soon after, I found out that she was strong and smart. When we were at the plant identification center, she almost memorized the edible plants in a couple of hours. She was definitely a good ally. But there was just something about her that I didn't like. I didn't know what it was, but I still had a feeling that there was something bad about her that I should be worried about.

I then saw something out of the corner of my eye. To my left I saw a fight going on. I looked over to see three kids. Two older, one younger. The two older ones were Bo Heatherfield from district seven, and Lucifer Despar from district two. The younger kid was Howl Draconix who was also from district two. While Howl was standing close to Lucifer and laughing, Lucifer looked like he was trying to provoke Bo. The district two boy was shoving him with both of his hands causing Bo to stagger back a little each time he was shoved. Bo was taller then Lucifer, but Lucifer looked like he was stronger then Bo.

"Come one district seven!" I heard Lucifer challenge before shoving Bo again "you gonna do something!? Huh!? I thought district seven's were supposed to be almost career like!?" He then shoved Bo again "you don't look like nothing! Want to prove me wrong!" He then shoved Bo again, who didn't do nothing but take it and look away from his attacker. "I'm talking to you boy!" Lucifer shouted before grabbing his face and turning it towards him "what's wrong seven!? Don't like looking at people!?" As I looked at them, I thought of how Bo didn't look like an older kid right now, but he looked like a younger kid being picked on at school. It reminded me of my sister, Faerie, who was helpless when she got crushed by our horse, Den. Or what Laurel would be like without me, helpless. I saw Lucifer take Bo's white bandana from his head.

And before I knew it, I was right between the two boys.

"Why don't you leave him alone!?" I shouted to Lucifer, who wasn't scrawny or weak, unlike me. Lucifer then held his hands up in the air in mock surrender

"Ohhhhh I'm soooo scared." He mocked at me before leaning towards me "why don't you made me." He laughed. I then pulled back my right hand and threw a fist at his face. It wasn't very strong, but it surprised him so much that he took a few steps back. When he recovered, I didn't even know what happened. Because the next thing I knew, I was in a choke hold. His grip was strong, and I felt my body being cut off from the air around me. His arms were around my neck strangling me. I struggled and tried to get free, but he was too strong for me. "Think your tough now bitch?"

District six's Rayne Page's POV

One moment, Life was waving to me and I thought that she'd come over here and we'd practice some spear throwing. Then next moment, I saw her in a choke hold produced by the district two guy. She just had to try and stand up to them, but why? I ran over to her just as the district seven boy grabbed district two boy from behind and put him in a choke hold. Next came two's district partner who climbed up the tall boy and placed him in a choke hold as well. They were all connected to each other, I had to get them to let go of each other before I could rescue Life. I didn't care for the district seven boy, but Life was my ally, I needed to protect her. And if I didn't do it now when she needed help, she'd think that I couldn't be helpful at all. I tried to separate her from the district two boy, but it was impossible with district seven holding onto him. And I couldn't separate him because of district two's little girl. I tried to pry her hands off seven, but she wouldn't let go. So I did what I thought was best, I punched her in the face. Only, when I tried to do it a second time, she moved away and dodged my attack. Suddenly, I was doing what the rest of them were doing, I put the little girl into a choke hold. She may have been from district two, but I was older, and I had been working with heavy tools since I was twelve, and that made me strong.

"Let go of him." I demanded squeezing her neck as hard as I possibly could. Good thing she was small, I had a small frame and my arms weren't exactly big or thick.

"No." She choked resisting my submission. She was tough I'd give her that, but I knew that I was going to win, she'd run out of air before I did.

"We both know who's going to win." I told her as I squeezed harder. Suddenly, I felt big, strong arms wrap around my throat and start straggling me as well. I looked down to see that I was in choke hold as well.

"Me." I heard a male say. Who was that? It had to be the career from one, who else would it be? Great, now we were all in a dead lock with each other, the first to let go or faint would be the loser. Heh, it was kind of funny when you think about it. Six kids all in choke holds trying to force the other to surrender. I just hoped that I wasn't the first to surrender to the lack of air. And I hoped that the boy from one wouldn't snap my neck, accidentally or on purpose, because my neck was also thin, thin, but I hoped not fragile.

Soon my head was pounding, my neck was hurting, and drums were beating in my ears, but nobody had let go of each other. I started to feel faint, but I wouldn't let go. It was me or them, and I wasn't going to back down. "That's enough!" I heard someone shout over the beating of drums. I then felt arms grab my arms while also feeling the arms around my neck be released. I fell to my knees and gasped in the air. I then felt my head start to clear and the drumbeats disappear. Thank god, thank god someone came and stopped this. I looked up to see district mentors standing around us looking displeased with us.

"What's going on?" The district one female mentor asked looking at all of us.

"Nothing." We all said at the same time.

"Nothing huh?" The male mentor from two said not really believing us "Care to tell us the truth?"

"We were just playing." The district two male tribute answered. I looked at him to see that he was in the grasps of my male mentor. "Just playing." Everyone else, myself included, just nodded and agreed. We all didn't want to get in more trouble then we already were in. While the mentors didn't seem satisfied, they told us we could fight as much as we wanted in the arena and separated us.

"Well that could have gone better." I said to no one in particular when the careers were out of ear shot. Damn, I couldn't even choke out a little girl. I was strong, I knew that, but she had resisted me for so long. I looked over to my ally and saw that she was trying to make conversation with district seven guy.

"Here's you bandana back." Life said holding up a white bandana, I guessed that it was district seven's. District seven took it in silence. He placed it back around his head before staring off in the distance. No really looking away, but not exactly looking at the girl that helped him out. "Your name's Bo right?" Life asked the boy "I'm Life." Again, the boy just slightly looked at her but also slightly away in silence. "So, you got any allies?" Life asked. I knew where this was going, no, we weren't going to have this guy with us. He didn't fight back, he'd just be a burden to us.

"No Life," I told my ally thinking of how it was a bad idea to have him "he's not joining us."

"He could be useful," Life told me "I mean, look at him, he looks strong enough to handle himself."

"If he decides to fight back," I told her "I didn't see him take care of himself against the careers." No, because we had to help him fight his own battle. Why'd you get involved Life?

"What weapons are you good at?" Life asked before I grabbed her shirt collar and dragged her away from the district seven boy. We didn't need anyone useless on our team, especially someone that couldn't fend for himself. We could go along just fine, the two of us.

District eleven's Angel Hale's POV

Being my district partner, I didn't see why I didn't ask before, it should have been my first choice for an ally. He was nice at the reapings, he didn't seem to be someone mean like some of the other tributes. Plus, he looked strong, that was another plus. He was also skilled with knives and scythes, not surprising since they were farm tools. I was nervous when asking him to join the alliance Sami and I were in. So nervous that I asked Sami to ask him. But her being shy, didn't want to. So I had to do it myself. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway. I walked up to him as he was starting to work on camouflage.

"Hi." I said to him as he was painting himself with green and black material. There were spots of black and green all around his torso and about half his face.

"Hi." He smiled back. Ugh, how should I ask him? I hadn't thought of that.

"You want to be allies?" I asked suddenly. Oh crap, why'd I just go all out just ask him like that? That was stupid of me.

"Sure." He said still smiling, unfazed, and surprisingly, happy.

"Really?" I asked hoping that he wasn't kidding around.

"Yeah," He told me happily "in fact, I was thinking of looking for allies, but I didn't know who to ask, so, I'm glad that you asked me." Wow, he was glad that I asked him. I was happy that he said that. The thing was, I felt something for him when he walked up the stage back in the district. He wasn't the best looking guy I ever saw, but there was just something about him that attracted me.

"Your welcome." I told him happily. And there it was again, his smile. Though he was almost always smiling. It made my day to remember that, even though it had only happened around an hour ago. Now our group had three people in it. Two long range and one close range. We were a good group if I say so myself.

Sami and I were trying out the spear station when I saw two older kids approach Aerin while he was lifting weights. Even though Aerin was my age, he sure was lifting a lot. I looked closer and saw that those two kids that were now standing beside him were careers, they were the boys from districts one and four. What did they want with Aerin? I tapped Sami on the shoulder, and when she looked at me I pointed towards Aerin and the two careers. "What do they want?" I asked her. She shrugged her shoulders, she was just as confused as I was. I then decided to get a closer look, see what they were saying, see what those careers wanted. "Come on Sami, lets see what's going on." As Sami and I got closer to them, the words that were coming from their mouths were becoming clearer.

"What do you mean you have other allies?" I heard the big guy from one asked slightly angered from what he heard. I'm sure that Aerin said that he already had allies, and that was us.

"It means that I already have allies." Aerin said to him nicely, trying not to make a fight, unlike some other people earlier today. "Sorry, but, I'm not going to just leave them after I told them I'm going to join them." While the boy from four was calm about it, I could see the bigger, stronger boy from one's hands shaking and had an expression of suppressed anger on his face.

"You'd rather join a group of losers?" The boy from one growled through his teeth, the top and bottom of his teeth hadn't left each other while he spoke. He was clearly angry.

"Ok, calm down." The boy from four said calmly "he doesn't want to join us, his loss." He clearly didn't want a fight to erupt. He then turned to Aerin and calmly said to him "listen, we know how to use weapons, we'll have almost all the supplies from the cornucopia, you'll be guaranteed to survive the bloodbath, what's not to like?"

"I like all of it." Aerin told him still being friendly to them, even though they were trying to get him to do something that he didn't want to do "but I'm not going to abandon my allies." Aerin. He was better then I thought.

"Suit yourself." The boy from four said like he couldn't care less "come one Griffin, lets go." The boy from four then turned away from Aerin before saying "if he wants to die in the bloodbath let him." But the boy from four didn't seem to notice that the district one boy, Griffin, wasn't walking away from Aerin like he was. I saw Aerin pick up a huge weight with one hand and start to work on his muscles, the weight in his hand looked fairly heavy to him. I then saw the district one boy then, with little effort, with one hand, lift up a weight fifteen pounds heavier then the one Aerin was using, and tossed it about twenty five feet. That guy was strong. Very strong.

"You made a big mistake." Griffin said before leaving Aerin by himself. I began to like Aerin even more, and not just as an ally. He didn't stray away from us, not even when the careers made him a deal for him to join them. He wouldn't abandon us, or sell us out. I'm glad your my ally Aerin.

A/N: Ok, day two has started. Ok, I have an idea on what to do for the private training session, but I think I'll skip the interviews, sorry to say.

To all of you saying in your minds "why isn't my tribute mentioned more?" Well let me put it this way, there are twenty three other tributes that I need to focus on to. So yeah, sorry if you character wasn't mentioned as much as you'd like, but I need everyone in this story, not just one tribute. Another note (I think Rayne was a bit OOC, so, sorry if she was.)

Alliances:

Career pack: Griffin, Lynsa, Lucifer, Helena/Howl, Shoney, Evaline/Eva, Arrowe

Tribute pack 1: Sami, Angel, Aerin

Tribute pack 2: Nessa, Max

Tribute pack 3: Rayne, Life

Loners: Zap/Tharizdun, Alexander, Valerie, Ricky, Bo, Dav, December/Ember, Talliana, Colin, Evanlyn/Eve