Almost half the tributes hadn't bothered to show up on the first day of training.
It was twelve o'clock, way past the start of the training, and the divisions had been formed clearly. Close to no tributes were around the weapon stations. Most had gone to the survival or techniques stations part of the training; divided into stations, or simply glued to their district partners. Districts Three and Six were perfect examples of the latter. They were alone with their partners, going from station to station while chatting among themselves.
Olive was alone at the fire station. Only a minute ago, Finnick had been with her, but his interest had shifted from continuing with their struggle of lighting a fire without matches to annoying Katniss. From her position by the still unlit fire, Olive watched him approach the poor girl, only to pretend to hang himself with a hangman's knot that he had tied to show off. Much to his dismay, but to her amusement, Katniss walked off after offering him a one-word reply to his teasing.
At first, Katniss settled near Olive, giving each other a short acknowledging nod before diverting their attention to their own battles. Just like her, Katniss was having a hard time lighting the fire without matches. The instructor gave helpful suggestions at times, but, ultimately; it was all based on skill and determination. Neither of which Olive felt like she had at the moment. She just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, and yet it kept resisting her.
"Any luck, Katniss?" Olive asked, raising her head to look to her right.
"Not so far," Katniss replied drily.
"You wouldn't be mad because of what I said yesterday, would you?" said Olive with a hint of tease to her words.
"I'm not," Katniss stated, in the same tone she had before.
The leaves crushed as Olive walked over to Katniss, crouching next to her while watching the girl's uninterrupted battle with the unlit fire. No words were exchanged for a minute. The two stayed in silence. One stared at the wood, which stubbornly refused to appease Katniss, and the other huffed under her breath, while attempting to forget that each failure was being observed.
"I'm not sorry that I teased you," whispered Olive. "But if you don't like it, I'll keep all of my hilarious comments to myself, and just talk to you like a normal person. Well, I'll try my best at least. You've met Finnick and Johanna already, so you can guess how difficult it is to be normal after spending a lot of time with them."
Upon hearing her words, Katniss's lips curved into a barely noticeable smile. It was the polar opposite of the ones she forced for the Capitol cameras. She was honestly amused at the comment. Olive could only recall a handful of times she had seen such an expression on Katniss, and those had mostly been while staring at Peeta.
"Why did you volunteer?" Katniss stepped to her right, letting Olive approach the fire and work with her. "You could have stayed with your family."
"Mags is part of my family," replied Olive. "You know how it feels when you hear their names being called."
A spark ignited the tinder, causing both girls to go silent and attend to their work. With satisfied smiles present on their faces, they watched the fire increase until most of the dead wood that they had placed on the ground had caught on fire. The instructor gave them a pleased look, which neither thought a lot of. Their own satisfaction after minutes of failures was enough.
Olive placed a hand over Katniss's shoulder, patting it twice before getting up. "I've had enough survival tips for now. If you need anything, I'll be at the archery station."
"I'll stay here for a little before heading there, too," said Katniss, giving her a quick nod as a goodbye.
The archery station had two separate areas; one more basic, which was simply to learn how to shoot at moving objects, and another more advanced, which recreated the fighting styles of many tributes and victors over the years. Out of the two, the latter seemed the worst to use while the rest were around. If she failed, she could be sending the message that she was weak, and if she won, the friends she had made over the years and her husband would watch how she could kill them if she wanted to.
As if luck was on her side at that moment, nobody was remotely near the archery section, nor looking at it. With the metallic bow in her hands and the quiver on her back, Olive stepped into the second area. The lights dimmed as a panel appeared right in front of her, showing the different weapons she could choose to go against. Knives and spears were the first she picked, though the axe, bow, and trident were added shortly after.
One click in the bottom right corner of the panel started the simulations, turning off the lights to let the golden lasers take over her attention. They danced around, forcing her to focus on her hearing and sight everywhere all at once. In the blinking of an eye, the lasers united to form a single figure, which sprinted at her with a knife in its hand. She shot it in its head, and the figure crumbled into golden cubes that disappeared as the laser snapped to the other side of the area. One after another, the lasers kept creating opponents.
There was no pause. No time to catch her breath. Only three arrows were left in Olive's quiver, meaning the next two opponents would be the last. What she did not expect was for the two to appear simultaneously. The panel had that option, but she wasn't sure if she had picked it. No matter how it had been, she was now surrounded. On her left, there was a golden figure marching at her with a trident, while another lurked over the top floor with a bow in its hands.
The recreations of Finnick and Katniss were accurate; from the way they attacked to how they dodged. With one arrow left in her quiver and the figure with the trident being too close to shoot at, Olive could do nothing but dodge as well. It wouldn't last long. After all, the one with the bow would shoot her soon enough if the trident didn't strike earlier. She could only think of one plan, but the trident figure wasn't letting her get away easily.
While evading the trident thrown at her, Olive landed near enough to grab one of the arrows she had previously shot. Before another trident appeared in the golden figure's hand, she sat up and shot at it. An arrow missed her shoulder by a little, diverting her attention from the fading gold cubes to the archer on the top floor. She got up to her feet and aimed at it, letting go of her last arrow at the same time the figure did. The arrows crossed paths, but didn't collide with each other. Instead, they struck the opponent; making the figure fade, while Olive was harshly pushed to the ground.
Claps sounded just as the lights turned back on. Outside the archery area, Finnick, Johanna, Peeta, and Katniss had stayed behind to watch while the others had preferred to go eat dinner. They didn't talk among themselves, though still waited diligently for Olive, and Finnick, who had gone to help her get up and retrieve the arrows. The pair got out of the archery area in less than a minute, carrying the bow and quiver with them.
"Enjoyed the show?" asked Olive, while making sure she left everything in its place.
"Not really," answered Johanna with a side smile. "It got a little interesting during the last two, though."
"You just like to see me suffer, don't you?" Olive folded her arms and followed behind Katniss and Peeta, who guided the group to the cafeteria.
They walked through the doors in no time. The room was wide, but the sensation incremented as the other tributes had joined all the tables into a single gigantic one. While some were eating and chatting at the table, most were still choosing what to eat. They carried trays in their hands, walked around the side where the food was displayed, and picked whatever they felt like eating.
"This way," said Finnick, taking the lead from the couple.
Katniss and Peeta fell back, chattering among themselves as they watched Finnick lead them around the cafeteria to get their trays. It was an unnecessary thing to do, though they quickly realised it wasn't entirely meant for them. Finnick glanced at everyone and directed his words at the four of them, yet his eyes always fell back on Olive, whose attention was everywhere but the cafeteria. As if she were in a daze, her eyes didn't leave Finnick and Johanna, and her lips couldn't go back to the straight line that they once were, causing the couple to halt completely.
They used the stew food-laden cart as an excuse to tell the trio to go ahead while they fill their trays. No table had been left alone, so they had no option except to meet them at the large table by the centre of the cafeteria. The three nodded and moved on, leading Olive to the bread food-laden cart, where she took a loaf of bread from Four before walking alongside Finnick and Johanna to the centre.
When the three tributes weren't close enough to hear them, Katniss turned her head to glance at Peeta, who was pretending to choose if he wanted to eat stew or something else. She brought up the alliance subject abruptly, though Peeta was already expecting it. Katniss wanted District Three and accepted Peeta's inclusion of Seeder, but she had a hard time trying to think of Chaff as an ally. What neither expected was to be on the same page just with one person.
"I trust Olive," said Katniss, much to her own surprise.
"If we ally with her, we ally with Finnick and Johanna, too," Peeta pointed out. "I'm not saying we shouldn't, though. She's the only one we know here, and we saw her shoot. She's good."
Katniss contained herself from looking back at the three victors. She knew perfectly well that Peeta's words were true. If she wanted Olive as her ally, she would have to accept Finnick and Johanna, too, and she wasn't sure if she was ready for that yet. Without saying, they would have to reject the idea of siding with District Three, Seeder, and Chaff as well. After all, a group of five was already large enough at the start of the Games. If they were any more and the entire group made it to the last ten intact, it would mean the division of the alliance and the immediate run-off to not kill one another.
"You heard what Haymitch said about Finnick. He's skilled in close-hand combat. His help will do us good." Peeta decided not to take the stew and move on to the next cart to not raise suspicions. "And if Olive is as unstable as he said, we'll need at least one of them around. I don't want her to forget everything in the Arena. I don't think I could kill her when she doesn't even know what's happening, or why she's fighting for her life."
The stubborn reluctance to accept Peeta's words dimmed from Katniss's mind as she gave them a proper thought. Haymitch had warned them of Olive's instability regarding her mind. In the Arena, who knew what could set her off? What if she forgot why she was there? Or if she didn't recognise them? That, if she didn't forget everything and had no recollection of herself at all. Could she shoot at someone who didn't even know why her life was at stake? Ideally, it would be easier, since Olive wouldn't put up a fight, but her mind wasn't letting her imagine it.
"I can't," Katniss mumbled. "I can't kill her."
During dinner, the couple tried to get closer to the trio and the rest of the tributes, taking part in the chatter whenever they could and joining in during training once they were done eating. Per usual, Katniss's lack of social skills made the interactions feel distant, more so with those in Districts One and Two than with other districts. However, by the end of the day, she had managed to make a good impression by unknowingly showing off her talent at archery. Even Olive clapped among the crowd of tributes outside the archery station area, joined by Wiress, who was definitely way more enthusiastic than the younger victor.
"Enjoyed the show?" Katniss asked Olive the moment the crowd dispersed.
"Yeah," replied Olive. "Especially the part where you shot that archer like it was nothing. Are you trying to intimidate me, girl on fire?"
"Wouldn't dream of it." Katniss left the bow in its place and joined Olive at the fish-hook station for the rest of their training, which wasn't long. "How are you that good?"
Olive glanced down at the fish hooks she was making; one of the many Mags had taught her to do hardly a month ago. It wasn't too complicated. However, it required an amount of patience that she didn't know she still kept after so many hours pretending to be preparing herself to survive the Arena.
"I'll teach you," said Olive with a playful smile, "if you teach me something as well."
"What do you want to learn?" Katniss asked right away.
"I'll think about it." She raised a finger in the air and then pointed it at a new fish hook she was making out of a bent nail. "Now, watch and learn."
The training hours ended earlier than expected, cutting short Olive's instructions. With the promise of continuing the lesson the following day, both girls joined their district partners and took the lift to their respective floors.
After arriving, and just an hour away from supper, Olive and Finnick presented an official request for Katniss and Peeta to be their allies, which made Ron huff loudly. He was the chosen one to go all the way to District Twelfth floor and talk to Haymitch, which he wasn't too happy about. Not because of the victor, but for the laziness that he would have to fight against to get up from the sofa.
"Can't we leave it for tomorrow?" Ron whined.
"No," replied Rhett and Mags in unison.
"God fu—" mumbled Ron under his breath as he got up, running a hand through his hair, and inevitably messing up his curls, which prompted his fingers to get stuck after a few seconds. "Mags, help, please. And, no, Rhett, no scissors."
Despite how amusing it would be to watch Mags use her great untying skills in action, while Rhett would only keep on suggesting cutting Ron's hair short, Olive and Finnick needed nothing more than to sleep. The day had inexplicably taken a toll on them greater than any other. They craved the comfortableness of a bed, and the sleepless night that having the other next to them provided.
"Goodnight," was all they said before walking into Olive's room.