Training day 1

District Five's Jamie Paradis POV

As soon as the head training supervisor broke us off from each other after explaining the various types of stations that we could learn from, the careers were hard at work showing off their skills. That is, except the District One male and the District Four female. Selene was just looking at the knives in front of her while Mershade wasn't doing anything besides watching and staring into space.

I felt like doing what he was doing, which consisted of doing nothing. The whole getting ready for the games felt a little too close to home for my tastes. It reminded me of the days when my dad would forcefully place a wooden weapon in my hands and tell me to beat a post with it until he determined that I had done enough.

But nothing was ever good enough for my dad, I could beat a post until my weapon broke and it still wouldn't be good enough to him. He'd then rant on and on about how fucking useless I was and how I'd die in the bloodbath if I didn't improve quickly. I didn't care though, because the second he left me I'd get away from our secret training location and go into town. I didn't care about training or becoming a victor. I wasn't his tool to be used in his rage of jealousy. He could beat me around as much as he wanted, but it didn't make me want to train any longer or better.

The careers probably took the same kind of punishment I did, but they took their training seriously. Aside from Calamity and Selene, the rest of the careers were experts in their choice of weapons and demonstrated that with ease. Though those two could also be experts, they weren't demonstrating it .

It got me thinking that maybe if I put some effort into actually learning them that I'd be as good as them. Until yesterday, I never thought that I was going to go into the games, the chances of me getting reaped were slim, and the chances of me volunteering were non-existent until they started to call names and they threw in canisters of deadly orange smoke.

That smoke killed people, and that's what got Elizabeth to volunteer before she was executed by our head peacekeeper for being a wannabe rebel. God knows how her parents must feel, especially her dad since he's part of the peacekeeping force.

During the goodbyes, he didn't shed any tears, he told me that he couldn't with the other peacekeepers standing outside. Rules for peacekeepers was that they weren't allowed to have kids, they weren't even allowed girlfriends or sexual relationships. But her dad managed to bribe his way into having a family, having money and such.

He knew me, and I told him that I was going win for her and my cousin, Kaylee, who also died by the chemical fog. I didn't have a token of my own, so he gave me his daughter's taser, telling me that she'd of wanted me to have it now.

The taser was cleverly disguised, but he told me that while it could fool ordinary people like me, it might not fool Capitol peacekeepers and it would definitely not be able to fool district peacekeepers.

I was about to ask him what was the difference from a Capitol peacekeeper and a district peacekeeper when his time ran out. Weren't all peacekeepers from the Capitol?

I didn't think about it too much and just left the taser in my Capitol room, where I'd be staying for the next four nights.

I slacked off at home, but now I needed to get serious if I was going to win for Elizabeth and Kaylee and everyone else I cared about.

There were two choices. One, I could try and learn by myself. Or two, I could take the day off and ask one of my mentors what I should do to improve.

Well, dad's training didn't help me, so I guess I'll learn by myself.

District Eight's Vida Rosalyn Harkle's POV

"Quit showing off you bastard!" I told my ally as he continued to swing his weapon with ease while I just swung it left, right, down and center. "Your making me look bad."

"That's because you are bad at it." He replied with a sort of smug look on his face. "Your making yourself look bad." That smile of his, it irritated me, the way he looked at me like I was something to laugh at. I'll show him that I wasn't bad, I was just getting used to what I was holding.

"How's this then?" I challenged as I started to swing the weapon around harder and faster. Being strong was a huge advantage when swinging around weapons, this wouldn't be any different. Swing fast and swing hard, that's all there was to this.

I saw his eyes following the blade as I moved it around as fast and powerfully as I could.

Ha, check this out, I'm seriously skill with weapons. Forget the training that the careers had to go through, I could be as good as them without the years of practice. My athletic ability made me just as good as them, even if I could do all those fancy maneuvers with weapons I could swing just as hard and fast as they could.

Looking at my ally, I could tell that he was impressed with what I was doing, he couldn't keep his eyes off of it. I was not someone to laugh at. "Ha ha! You spoke too soon, I can see that your clearly impressed with my weapon ship. I haven't even practiced with it and this is how good I am. You better believe that I'm a natural a-"

All of a sudden, he lifted his weapon and knocked my arms away with what seemed to be an effortless strike.

"Your attacks are full of holes." He told me as he faked a yawn. "Swinging around wildly does not equal skill, no matter how fast you are." I was wrong, he wasn't impressed, he thought that I was horrible.

"Like you could do any better." I challenged. He might be from District Seven, but I bet he couldn't do what I just did. He was all talk, he was bluffing. He couldn't swing as fast or as powerfully as I could, I knew he couldn't.

"I know how to use an ax, do you?" He asked, looking at me like I was stupid, which I wasn't.

"Of course I do!" I told him. Even a baby knows how to use a weapon! "The sharp bladed end goes into the enemy." Easy. Simple. You don't need to be a career to know that. "What? You didn't know that? Everyone knows that you have to swing at the thing you want to cut, slash, or destroy."

He looked at me for a second.

"Your an idiot, you know that?"

An idiot! I'm not an idiot! Like he should be talking like a know it all when he wasn't.

"Oh yeah!" I shouted at him. "Would an idiot be able to defeat you at axes District Seven!"

I swung my ax down at him with all my might, but he managed to move out of the way before stomping his foot on the ax handle, forcing my hands to let go of it before he slammed the blunt side of the ax on top of my head, causing pain to radiate across my head.

"Don't fucking attack me bitch!"

"I'll attack whoever the fuck I WANT!" I told him before I upper cutted him as hard as I could, causing him to drop his ax. "I'm not scared of you!"

I had taken on people like him before, cocky little pricks who think that they're tough but really weren't. This guy was no different.

As he staggered back I quickly got back to my feet and delivered another punch to his face. He turned slightly from the force of my punch, before I felt a wave of pain hit me across the face.

I could take hits, and apparently, he could too, he wasn't going to be a push over like my escort was. I bet he was thinking that as well, that I wasn't as weak as his escort.

"And you choose to attack me you racist white trash!" He shouted before he slammed another fist into the side of my head.

"If anyone's a racist it's you for bringing that up blackie!" I shouted at him as I hit him again.

"That the best you can come up with chalk face!" As another wave of pain arrived on my face.

"See this tan!?" I shouted at him. "No? Have a closer look!" I then slammed my fist into his face again.

"That's enough!" The ax trainer shouted before he got in between us.

I wasn't done yet! He started this fight and I'm finishing it!

I tried to go around him, but suddenly, peacekeepers started to arrive on the scene and they started to grab the boy I was attacking. I also felt arms being wrapped around me and then getting pulled away from both my ally and the training instructor. "The both of you are excused from the training room as of today! Your here to learn, not fight each other."

"Now look at what you did bitch!" The District Seven boy shouted angrily.

"Shut you you jackass!" I shouted to him. "Your the one who started it! If you didn't act so superior this wouldn't of happened! You haven't heard the last of Vida Rosalyn Harkle!"

"And you haven't heard the last of Timber Carther!" He shouted. At least I knew his name now. Now I knew who owed me a fight.

District Six's Adrienne Quintus's POV

Watching Timber and Vida getting dragged away from each other by the peacekeepers reminded me heavily of my mother and I saying our goodbyes.

Mom came in and said to me, 'good job saving all those children, Adrianna.'

As soon as those words came out of her I got pissed off at her. When she said those words, she didn't in the least seem sad or anything, like she couldn't care less. Whether she didn't care about me or the other kids were up for debate, but I think she didn't care about me and the other kids who meet a fiery end.

Her monotonic voice told me that she really was the heartless bitch that I always thought of her to be. And in addition to that, she got my name wrong. How could anyone not know their own kid's name? I've been with her for the past sixteen years and she hadn't even bothered to learn my name? It's almost like someone else gave me my name instead of her.

I was so enraged at her that I hit her across the face. In retaliation, my mother hit me across the face. So I hit her again, then she hit me a second time.

We continued to hit each other until a couple of peacekeepers dragged her out and kept me away from her.

I knew I wasn't like my mother. She willingly gave herself to men, I didn't.

I cared for others, she didn't.

But how much different we were didn't occur to me until after she was dragged out of my sight. I was nothing like her. But being the daughter of a slut made everyone think that I was.

The last thing I shouted to her? 'My name's Adrienne you slut!'

Up until then, I hardly acknowledged her existence in front of her since I turned five, when I learned about her ways of making easy money. But when I shouted that to her, it felt so liberating it was lifting. Just calling her a slut summed up everything that was wrong with my life. Why my life sucks, why everyone makes fun of me, and just plain why I'm an outcast.

Without Maria and Taylor, who knows what I'd be right now. Like my mom? I don't think so, but I'd probably of gone insane, and I fear that if I do go insane I'll be put down by a bullet or suffer mental trauma and suffocate myself in despair.

Maria and Taylor saved me from that fate, and I saved other kids and adults from that fate. I couldn't save all of them, but I saved some.

I looked at the crudely made leather bracelet made of scrap leather with a small metal charm on it that I got from a little girl less then half my age and remembered that someone was indeed thankful for my efforts in saving them.

She handed me the bracelet, said, 'thanks for saving my brother.' She then hugged me, then left as quickly as she came.

I felt wonderful, and the only people who had ever done that to me was Maria and Taylor. Maybe, just maybe, people started to see that I wasn't what they thought I was.

A/N: Well, I didn't know how to start chapter, so I guess I'll just let the computer randomly choose who I'm going to write about in each chapter and go from there.

Warning, bad Capitol chapters ahead. Maybe they'll get better. Maybe. Don't worry though, the arena chapters will be better.

Capitol chapter three out of eight is complete.