Training day 3

District Eight's Malik Broker's POV

Phoebe was the closest thing that I had to a sister, and when she called me brother inside the justice building, I thought of the tag on the bag of her reaping dress, a name was printed on it. A name that spelt Carmen.

It was one of the only things that I remembered owning that was my own, something that wasn't stolen or looted from same trash can, but something that was really mine, and it was the thing that I protected the most.

I had nothing from my parents, and I didn't know if I had any siblings, but because of that dress, it made me hope that I had someone I could connect to. But as quickly as I formed that thought it was crushed, because there were no Carmen's in the orphanage.

For years I looked through the district to try and find my would be sister, only to never get any place and got left with nothing. I kept hope though that I might find her, because I wanted someone that was family. Phoebe and Anna were good, but they weren't blood related.

Until a few years ago, I was alone, until Anna started to hang around me for some reason. I could never understand why a rich girl like Anna would want to be around the likes of me and Phoebe The only reason I could think of was that her friends just wanted to get a laugh out of the situation. But as long as she provided good company and kept the food coming our way I didn't mind.

Then two years ago, Phoebe came into my life when she ran into me in an alleyway when she was running away from her dad. She looked up at me and her eyes told me that she wanted a protector.

I wasn't going to save her at first, but then I felt something for her, looking at her made me think of Carmen, though I didn't know if she'd be younger then me or not, Phoebe made me think of her.

Seconds later, her dad ran into the ally and demanded that I hand his daughter over to him. I didn't, so he attacked me. He was going to kill me, so I destroyed his skull with a piece of steel.

It wasn't until after that that Phoebe told me that he had been abusing her and that she was glad to finally be free from him.

Nobody figured out that I killed him nor do Phoebe and I talk about it. It was our secret.

But there was a secret that I wanted to solve. Phoebe's reaping dress, the name Carmen, the Capitol kept records on everything, so the Capitol must know who Carmen of District Eight is and where she was. If I could find out something about her that'd be great.

Since I couldn't access Capitol records myself, I taped a piece of paper on the escort's and demanded that she looked into the name Carmen of District Eight and that she either tell me everything she found out, or give me the records so that I could read them myself. Though three days have passed and she still hasn't gotten me anything.

I really wanted to find out if I had a blood sister, and there was only three more days until I'd head off into the arena.

The arena, where I'd have to kill the other tributes.

I looked around the training center and saw all the other kids that I needed to kill.

I heard my district partner, Vida Rosline Hackel or something like that, shout to our escort that she'd never forgive her for killing her only friend and that she'd butcher her after she became victor. Well Vida was wrong about killing our escort, because she wasn't going to leave the arena alive.

Vida had her sob story, and I bet the other tributes had theirs as well, but that didn't matter in the long run, because only one of us could win, and that was going to be me.

District Ten's Perla Freuff's POV

I noticed that my hands were shaking again. More violently this time.

Damn it! I needed my fucking drugs! I needed to get something to calm my body and mind down otherwise I was going to go insane!

I craved the stuff I smoked, I craved the high it gave me, I needed it to keep me going. I couldn't concentrate on anything but thinking about how to get another fix, and it was proving to be hard to even get something to huff. There was nothing that gave off enough chemical fumes on my floor to get me high god damn it! What kind of place doesn't have something to huff? Where the tribute's lived in the Capitol, that's where!

I destroyed the light bulbs in the rooms to try and inhale the chemical vapors that were trapped inside of them, but there wasn't enough in those tiny little bulbs. I needed the big long ones that hung over the training center! The ones that were hanging over my fucking head out of my reach!

Fuck! Fuck!

If my so called 'friends' didn't take away my drugs when we were in the justice building, I'd be good right now, but instead, I was losing my mind!

Jillian, Markus and Laura, they were supposed to be my friends, the ones that help you get what you need and try to make your life better. But no, they made my life worse by taking away the narcotics that I needed. Some friends they are! Soony gave me some drugs that I could hide on me so that I could sneak them into the Capitol, but those three bastards stole Soony's gifts and beat me up for them.

They wanted those drugs for themselves! They claimed that they wanted to help me, but all they wanted was to help themselves! And after all our time together, having mutual respect for each other and helping one another when one needed help, they showed their true colours in the end.

Turns out Soony was my only true friend, those other three were frauds. Real friend's don't steal from their friend's in their time of crisis! I saved them from being ripped apart by those hell hounds and that was how they repaid me? I should of killed them in the justice center.

I got desperate yesterday and tried to go out into the Capitol to see if there was some low life dealer that would sell to me, but those bastard peacekeepers wouldn't let me leave the building, no matter what I tried to say.

I wasn't in the mood to get lectured on how I shouldn't leave the building, so I tired to fight my way through, only for other peacekeepers to gang up on me and knock me out before I found myself in my room with my escort on my bedside.

I looked at her and found my solution to my problem, her. She could go out into the Capitol public and find someone to buy from, and it was night time, so it was the perfect time to find some dealers.

I hated talking, but I was desperate, so I told her that I couldn't sleep and that I needed something to calm me down so that I could stop twitching and feel better. She then asked, in that quick talking voice of hers, what I needed, so I told her. She had a look on her face that told me she wasn't comfortable with what I was asking for before she told me that she'd go out and try and find me something.

Feeling pleased with myself, I continued to lie on the bed and waited for her to get the drugs, but when she did return, she told me that there were no dealers out that. She gave me some bullshit excuse that they had all somehow disappeared off the face of the earth.

I didn't believe her for a second and gave her a piece of my mind by jumping out of bed before beating her face in with my own two fists. I didn't stop until that bastard of a district partner came in, picked me up, and literally threw me into the wall.

I wanted to kill him, but then the world turned black and I didn't wake up until morning.

Now I was here, thinking of another way to get the goods I needed. Or at least a substitute.

District Nine's Trim Fetching's POV

When it was time to say goodbye to everyone, my mom and my sister, Kelly, came in and started talking to me about how it was foolish of me to volunteer into the games because of what happened to Jackson, I told them that I was doing it so that we could restore our family's honor. Mom and Kelly told me that I was just being foolish and that I should of stayed here, where I could of lived a nice life.

I understood what they were trying to say, after all, they didn't want to lose me, but I needed to set things right in the arena. They couldn't understand it, but it needed to be done.

Then they started talking about how they were going to miss me and how nothing was never going to be the same, that's when I felt myself crying. I knew that I was going to come back, but the way mom and Kelly were speaking made me think that they were being broken inside.

Dad on the other hand told me that men don't cry. He then told me to suck it up and left the justice building. Mom told me that he was sad as well, but I didn't believe her. Dad was the mayor, and he always looked down on me, no matter what I did, nothing was ever good enough for him. Apparently, not even volunteering into the Hunger Games was good enough to him.

Well, what will he say when I win the Hunger Games? He'll be on his hands and knees telling me how wrong he was about me, how he was going to say that I was a better person then he could even think of. All those times that he said I was never good enough for anything, he was going to regret all that.

Trim Fetching the victor, a name that our family could be proud of. Something that Jackson could look down on from the sky and see that his death was avenged.

But so far, nobody was taking me seriously, nobody seemed to like me and wouldn't talk to me or anything. They all tended to stay away from me. I couldn't understand why they didn't give me a chance.

I showed that I was good with a spear, that I was strong both physically and mentally, but nobody still wanted me around them. They were acting like dad, they didn't want me around them.

I looked around and feared that nobody liked me. I didn't want everyone to hate me, I wanted to be accepted. Couldn't they just see that?

I decided to go to the fire starting station when a girl walked up to me, a first that's happened since I came into the Capitol, nobody seemed to want to approach me, so this came as a surprise to me.

"Trim Fetching," The District Two girl known as Victory Valentine said to me with a smile on her face. "How would you," she said while pointing a finger at me playfully. "Like to join the careers?" Was she really offering me this? They were avoiding me for the last two training days, and now they wanted me?

"Are you joking?" I asked, worried that she was joking. All she did was laugh and shake her head.

"No, I'm not. Your strong and good with a spear, your good enough to spark our interest. We'll gladly accept you into our group and offer you just about anything you want."

I looked at her seriously, trying to see if she was joking, to see if she was trying to trick me. But the more I looked at her, the more I saw that she was serious. I looked behind her to see her allies, everyone from the career districts minus the District One male who stayed away from everyone and muttered to himself occasionally. But he was replaced by the District Ten male, Tanner Hart.

Well, if they'd accept that idiot because of his physical strength, then of course they'd accept me for my physical and mental strength at least. And they looked like they wanted me as well, so she couldn't of been joking. "So," she asked. "You in?"

"Fuck yeah I'm in." I told her.

"Welcome to the career pack." Victory told me.

I couldn't help but smile. Dad told me to man up, well now I was in the career pack, how much more badass could I get?

How do you like me now dad?

District Two's Victory Valentine's POV

Now there was seven people in the career alliance, but we still had one other person that we'd like to have in our alliance. Though wither he'd accept is harder to work out then Tanner or Trim. Tanner was half convinced half didn't know what had happened when he agreed to join us, but he didn't bring it up again. Trim on the other hand had such a need to be accepted that when I told him that he was accepted by us he jumped on the chance to join us.

The other one was different, he didn't seem desperate or stupid, so he could accept our proposal as easily as refuse it. He wasn't going to be as easy as the other two, but he was a bigger prize then the two of them.

I looked at our next target at the sword training center swinging the weapon around.

He looked almost bored, but the way he was moving around and listening to the instructor told me that he was taking the lesson seriously. It reminded me of how I used to take my lessons seriously, until my brother died. That's when I stopped enjoying the games, that's when I started to hate the Capitol.

Until his death I always thought that training was fun, and it was. Mom's training wasn't fun, but training with my older brother was, because unlike mom, he wasn't pushy and was humorous.

Then the reapings came and mom told him to go into the games, and he did. I think I knew the reason now, mom must of made the same deal with him then that she did with me now. Vlad wanted to be a peacekeeper like our dad, so he wasn't too big on winning the games, he was just training so that dad could take him in when he turned nineteen. But mom and the Capitol took away his dreams.

I touched the dog tags around my neck and thought of him. Nobody had commented on him, they didn't seem to notice that I shared the same last name with the District Two male tribute that died three years ago. And Dylan didn't seem to notice it either, despite his fancy words and him being smart, he didn't notice that I was the younger sister of a boy that died when his sister won the games. I would of thought that Jeremiah would of known me as Vlad's sister, but he didn't seem to remember him either.

People looked at the dog tags and assumed that they were mine, not even taking a good look at them. If they did, they would of noticed that one of them said Vladimir instead of Victory.

Not even our escort seemed to remember my brother, because the Capitol doesn't care about losers, just the winners. I hated it.

The Capitol, I'll play their game. I'd do what they'd want me to do, look like a Capitol lapdog, like the non-careers call us, or at least what Tanner's district calls us. I'll do what the Capitol tells me and get their support. But while I was playing their game I wasn't playing it for them, I was playing it for myself for my own reasons. The only reason I was here was because of my sister, Valley.

During our goodbye, I told her mom's deal and told her to stop training, because when I was finished with the arena, she'd never have to suffer from mom's training again.

A/N: I hope you all liked the training days, because its over now.

Well, only three more Capitol chapters until the arena.