Hello everyone and welcome to morning one of training! Sorry about the little delay, I've just been busier than I planned. Anyways, I'm super excited to share this chapter with you guys and I hope you enjoy!

Goneril Albion, 18

District Two Female

Goneril always started her day off with some nutritious food, and her first full day in the Capitol was going to be no different. Keeping her well-oiled machine of a body perfect was no easy feat, but she'd gotten used to the things that it needed to stay how it was. Proper fuel was always crucial on days that she would train because she needed such fuel to keep her skills at their best level. Anything below that was unacceptable.

Her schedule so far had only a few changes with yesterday's events and travel, but these next few days wouldn't be too different from her typical day training at the Academy. Although, it would be useful to her to use some of her time to scope out the rest of her competition and her allies. She needed to assess who would be the biggest threats and establish herself as the leader of the Career pack within today and tomorrow morning.

However, it wasn't quite time to think about such things yet. First, it was time for Goneril to eat and perhaps have a little bit of a discussion with her district partner. It would be an excellent opportunity to start her establishment as leader in the pack. From what little interaction that had occurred between the pair, Goneril could only tell that he was a pretty good competitor for the victory.

The breakfast that Goneril ended up choosing was very nutrient-dense, yet it would be a lighter meal on her stomach. The perfect combination of characteristics for a meal before she would be exerting herself and showing off her skills.

Said breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs on top of a piece of whole grain toast and a small bowl of fruit salad. Not to mention, it was also a wonderful combination of food groups. Goneril ate it at a rather slow pace, not wanting to rush herself and upset her stomach. It wouldn't be a good thing for her if that happened. She needed to be entirely present in the whole period of training that the tributes were allowed.

Ruga, her district partner, arrived at the table in the dining room portion of Two's suite when Goneril was about halfway through her breakfast. Sauntering over, he took a seat across from Goneril and gestured for a nearby servant to bring him a meal. The particular action irked her slightly, he didn't care to even glance at the menu. He was just going to chance it with whatever they brought him, not caring about what he was going to fuel his body with for the full day ahead.

She was not getting very good signs from this district partner of hers at the moment, but perhaps he had more to him than the overconfident air that he was giving off. Then again, he was a boy. Boys had a rather unfortunate habit of maturing a lot later than girls and they had a tendency to be a lot more overestimating of their skills as well.

"Well, good morning to you, my dear district partner," Ruga drawled to her.

Looking up from her plate with a bit of a disdainful look, Goneril sighed, "Good morning to you as well. Would you like to discuss some strategy about the pack before we head down to training this morning?"

"Of course. The more discussion and planning, the better," Ruga responded.

"Then how about we tackle who's going to lead the pack this year first," she suggested.

Getting a wide smirk as a reply from the boy across from her, Goneril started to feel a little regretful about bringing the subject up. He seemed as if it was the exact question he'd been waiting for, and he clearly had a firm answer in mind.

"I was..."

"Well now..."

The pair spoke at the same time, and Goneril got a pretty major confirmation of what she was hoping wouldn't happen. Ruga was most definitely wanting to lead the Career pack and that was the exact thing that Goneril wanted. She was not about to let this stupid, inferior boy take every goal that she had set from her. He would learn that she was going to be the leader of the Career pack and that he needed to respect that. If he tried anything else, he would learn why she was the female volunteer chosen from Two.

Glancing a bit dramatically at the clock attached to the wall to the left of her, Goneril gasped, "Look at the time! We need to get on going to the Training Center so that we're on time. Sorry about not being able to finish that conversation, maybe we can continue it later."

Her chair scraped across the ground as she stood up and pushed it back into the table once she stood behind it. It would just be a short elevator ride (the perks of being in an early numbered district) to the underground Training Center. Tennis shoes tapping along the hallway to the elevator, she pressed the button to call the elevator and only had to wait a few moments before the doors whooshed open. She boarded quickly, hoping that Ruga would be a bit slower to his start towards the Training Center.

Her hopes were relieved in a few moments when the elevator doors closed with a ding and it began to quickly move downwards. The trip to a couple of floors down seemed around the same duration, if not shorter, than her wait for the elevator and she was soon arriving at the floor that she would spend most of her time on in the next few days.

Goneril was planning on making a good few days at that. Sure, she had a few things to do, including convincing the remaining Careers that she should be the leader and assessing the other tributes, but it wasn't anything that she couldn't handle. After all, Goneril was fantastic and she was intending on being the Games' next victor.

Valerie "Val" Wright, 15

District Seven Female

Val was excited and she didn't really know why. She'd been like this since breakfast, shocked at the sheer amount and variety in the food offered to the tributes before their first day of training.

She had never seen this much food in her life! It had been a huge debate within her head at whether or not she should stuff her face, but ultimately, she'd made the wise decision to eat a similar amount to how much she usually had at a meal back in Seven. A stomachache from shoveling down a huge amount of the rich Capitol food before a long day of training didn't seem like a good thing to induce. Vince had nodded his approval at her decision to eat light, but that was the one thing that she didn't like about making that choice.

Making grumpy Vince upset at her own choices seemed pretty funny to Val, but at the same time, some of the choices that he supported ended up being for the better. It would be okay. There were other ways for her to tease her brother without having to make stupid decisions that would hurt her.

Now, they were en route to the Training Center, the elevator whooshing down the building quickly. All this technology was even crazier than the food. Like, she could take a shower with a whole wall full of buttons just for the water flow settings of the shower. It was incredible and Val had never seen anything in Seven come somewhat close. If only she could live here forever.

A cloud of negative thoughts brushed over her after her last thought. But, she could never live here forever. Val would have to face the Games and from what she had heard, nobody ever truly won them. It was just all about surviving the cruel punishment that the Capitol still enforced on the rest of Panem. To her, it seemed ridiculous to continue something that would just cause more violence and war. Why not just do something else more humane?

No, because it was all about power. That's what everything was always about. And that was how Val and her brother could survive the Hunger Games. Not win, but survive. If they could put themselves in a position where they had power over the other tributes in the arena, they would likely have a great chance of survival. Val would have to tell Vince her genius idea once they were dismissed from training this afternoon.

The elevator let out a loud chime as it alerted the siblings that they'd arrived at the level that the Training Center was located on. Time to officially meet some of the other tributes that Val and her brother would end up facing.

Val stepped out of the elevator first, followed by her brother, who loomed behind her. They were right on time, passing through the doors and making their way towards the stage area that all of the other tributes who had arrived before them were gathered around.

On the chiming of the clock, which signaled to everyone in the room that it was approximately 9 A.M., the trainer started her introduction.

"Greetings tributes and welcome to your first day of training. My name is Zara and I will be overseeing your training sessions along with some of the Gamemakers. Overall, your training will be split into five different sessions, two today, two tomorrow, and one the next day. These sessions will last three hours apiece. On the days with two training sessions, you will have one session in the morning, after which you will be sent to lunch, and then you will return for the second session after your lunch break. On the day with only one session, you will have that session in the morning and lunch afterwards as usual, then after the lunch break, you will all be given a chance to show off your skills to the Gamemakers in a private session. Scores will be announced later that evening. Any time after the afternoon sessions today and tomorrow may be spent however you wish in your suites or on the open floors. The Training Center will not be open outside of sessions."

The woman stepped off the platform and her place was soon taken by a middle-aged man. He looked just as fit as Zara had been and Val already assumed that they were experienced in this job and fitness in general. It was exciting that the session was about to begin, and Val was curious as to what was available to practice or learn.

"Before we begin, I'd like to inform you all of what stations there are for training," the man said monotonously, "For weapons, there are stations where you can practice with swords, knives, axes, bows and crossbows, spears, tridents, sais, sickles, and hammers. For the survival stations, you can practice with tying knots, setting traps, starting fires, identifying plants, camouflage, and making a variety of items that might assist you in the arena. In addition, there are also stations where you can practice wrestling, hand-to-hand combat, and your strength and agility with several obstacle courses. Please be aware that no fighting or sparring between tributes during these times will be tolerated. Save it for the arena. When the bell rings at the end of each session, please line up at the door to my right. You will be escorted to lunch or the elevators at the end of each session. That's it for now, you are dismissed to the stations of your choosing."

Grabbing her brother's hand, Val bounced excitedly on her toes, ready to find something exciting to learn. Or maybe she could find someone to be their ally. She whirled around, spotting the traps station out of the corner of her eye and decided that it was going to be the Seven pair's first stop.

Being begrudging dragged by Val, Vince grunted, "Valerie, stop it. You don't need to drag me where you want to go. My legs work perfectly fine."

She rolled her eyes, giggling to her brother, "But Vince, you're just so slow and old. By the time you would have gotten there, the session would have been over."

This training period was certainly going to be fun, and Val was determined to enjoy her time in the Capitol, no matter the terrible situation that had brought her here. She'd face that reality when the time came.

Milo Kirk, 16

District Six Male

Milo was ready to start studying a majority of the survival stations long before the trainer and her assistant finished speaking. The information that they'd provided had been helpful, but he felt that he could learn things as he went just a bit faster. After all, he could definitely identify most of the stations on his own. It was just probably a script that they recited year after year though. He couldn't see the Capitolites putting any more effort into training them than they had to.

They were finally released when the man finished up his listing of the stations and Milo stood there for a moment, taking in the positions of the stations and deciding which one he wanted to head to first. Not wanting to head to a popular one because he wasn't the most social person, he made the choice to walk over to the fire starting station. It would be handy to learn, although it might not come in handy in the arena if it gave up his location to the other tributes, especially the Careers.

Upon Milo's arrival, the station's instructor perked up, happy to see that someone was interested in his teachings. Milo took a seat across from him on the ground and made eye contact, ready for instruction.

"Welcome! I can teach you all of the basics first if you haven't got any experience starting fires. Or if you know somewhat how to do it, I can teach you some of my more advanced tips."

Offering the eager man a small but awkward smile, Milo replied, "Starting with the basics sounds great. Frankly, I've got no idea how to start a fire, but I figured it would be good to find out."

"Sounds good then! Grab that stack of materials right there and we'll get into it."

Milo did as he was asked, fetching the pile of items that the instructor had requested and bringing them back to the spot where he had been sitting. Next, the man grabbed a small pile of assorted sticks and twigs that had been sitting to the right of him and set them between him and Milo.

"First off, you need to know how to set up the wood for the fire. Generally, smaller sticks and twigs work the best, plus gathering them is less noisy than the larger sticks and branches that some inexperienced tributes use."

Nodding, Milo picked up a couple of sticks from the pile, watching the trainer and mimicking the way that he was stacking his sticks. It took him a few tries and it wasn't the best looking fire setup, but the man sitting across from him hadn't said anything, so Milo figured that it would work out.

"You're doing pretty well. Just remember that the sticks have to be in a teepee shape, you know what that is, right?"

"Sort of like a cone-shaped tent?"

"Yeah. Also, you're going to need to lay a good pile underneath the teepee shape as well, that way you don't accidentally light the ground on fire instead of the wood."

"Okay. I think I might try to make one myself now if you're good with that," Milo said quietly.

The instructor nodded while smiling, gesturing towards the pile of sticks that Milo would need to use to set up his stick formation. Slowly but surely, Milo began the assembly of his fire structure. First, the pile of sticks on the ground, then he propped sticks against each other in a conic shape, creating a teepee of sticks for his fire. It only took him about five or so minutes to complete once he'd gotten into a groove and when the last stick was placed, the instructor patted him on the shoulder, telling him what a fantastic fire setup he'd created.

Soon, Milo was learning all about the different materials he could use to start a fire, which were deemed "fire starters" by the Capitolite. What a great name for them. However, they weren't giving Milo the best of times when using them. He was struggling to start the fire with just sticks, and so far, he'd only been successful when he'd used a match to start a fire in his twig teepee shape. God, this was frustrating. It would be worth knowing though, he likely wouldn't get any matches in the arena.

"Oh, are you having trouble with that?"

The sweet sounding voice surprised him. Milo hadn't seen the girl come up to the fire station when he'd been focused on the task at hand. Turning around and looking up at her, Milo realized that it was his district partner. He was too shy to have spoken to her much in the time that they'd been together, but she seemed pretty nice.

"Uhh, yeah. I would say that I'm having a bit of trouble," Milo whispered shyly.

"Don't worry! I can help you out if this kind gentleman sitting across from you will teach me the basics of starting a fire!" she exclaimed.

"Thanks Annette."

"No worries! You can just call me Anne by the way. And maybe we can be allies and we can help each other out in the arena!"

"Sure," Milo responded, "that sounds like a great plan."

She offered him a beaming smile in return and went back to watching the instructor, who was teaching her the methods of starting a fire with just a stick and a log. Milo had a pretty good feeling about this. Anne was a really polite girl and it seemed that the pair would get along just fine helping each other in the arena.

Taraji Copeland, 17

District Five Female

Taraji's jaw was on the ground and she was certain that it would remain that way for a long time. She'd just turned around from where she'd been standing near the front of the stage that the guy who had listed all of the stations and she was certain that she had hallucinated until her so called hallucination came closer.

There was no way that her best friend was here. Kassi wouldn't be in the Training Center for tributes that would be going into the Hunger Games. No, she would be back in Ten, living her life like normal, wouldn't she?

Wait, no. This Kassi was most certainly real. It was confirmed when her best friend slowly approached her, then the pair crushed each other into a silent hug. Taraji savored Kassi's embrace, and a tear dripped slowly down her cheek. God, why did their reunion have to be here of all places.

This meant that... no, Taraji was not going to think about things that way. She'd just gotten her best friend back and she wasn't going to let her negative, realistic mind ruin this amazing moment.

"It's so good to see you, Kassi," Taraji whispered into her friend's ear.

She got no verbal response, instead only being embraced tighter by the older girl. Taraji let all of the tension melt from her body, just enjoying this hug. It felt so nice to be able to see and talk to her best friend again after years of separation.

The girls finally stepped apart after a long while of just standing in that hug, absolutely loving the fact that they were together once more. Taraji was sure that they'd probably gotten some dirty looks from some of the other tributes and maybe some of the instructors at the stations, but she didn't care. It meant the world to her to see her best friend again.

However, she did feel that if they wanted to delve into deeper conversation, then they would need to find a more secluded space where they could mind their own business and the other tributes wouldn't be all up in their business. Then they could talk about how life had been while they were apart. Taraji's story wouldn't be interesting at all, it mainly just consisted of her father's death whilst in service and then her taking care of herself. Kassi likely had a more interesting story to tell about her life with the restaurant.

Taking Kassi by the hand, Taraji gently pulled her along to a shadowed space next to the deserted hammock making station. The trainer had vacated it and gone over to talk to the attendant at the fishhook station, and neither were looking to see if tributes showed up to their stations. This was a good thing for the girls, who just wanted a moment to catch up without being nagged by the odd Capitolites.

Sitting down on an elevated step towards the back of the station, Taraji offered her friend a smile and said, "So, how have things been for you in Ten?"

Sniffling, Kassi replied, "Okay, I guess. Dad hired a new chef but he's nowhere close to your dad in his skill and personality."

Taraji chuckled at that, but she was quickly saddened at the realization that Kassi didn't know what had happened to her dad.

"Oh, speaking of your dad, how is he?" Kassi asked politely.

Pressing her lips together while trying to figure out how to break the bad news to her friend, Taraji was silent for a few moments.

"Uhm, he's sadly no longer with us as of a couple of years ago. His camp was bombed when he was on duty. The job that he found after the incident was being an army chef and I suppose that's why there were several openings for the job."

"Oh no, that's terrible," Kassi gasped, "I'm so sorry, Taraji."

"It's okay. I've learned to keep myself afloat. It's something I'm used to at this point."

"But you still shouldn't have to do that all by yourself, Taraji. It can't be good for your health, mental and physical."

Shrugging in response, Taraji said, "It's okay Kass. It really doesn't matter now. I mean, it'll all but hurt me in the Games. At least I'll be used to dealing with hunger and thirst and all that mess."

She could definitely tell that Kassi was a little uncomfortable when it came to that statement. She'd had a hugely better upbringing and Taraji was pretty sure that those things were very new to her best friend. Taraji was planning on staying with her in the arena for the whole time and she was going to help her friend get through this terrible time.

Just because the circumstances were extremely unfortunate didn't mean that the pair wouldn't be able to enjoy their time in the Capitol together. Taraji was aware of what happened in the arena during the Games and she wasn't looking forward to it, but she wasn't about to let it ruin the little time left that she had with her best friend. Even if it was more than likely that they wouldn't emerge from the arena, the two were thankful that they were together in this horrid situation.

And now we're officially into training! I'm super excited to be here and thank you guys so much for reading and supporting the story so far! I hope you enjoyed reading, because I certainly enjoyed writing this chapter! It's kind of crazy to think that we're only eight chapters away from the Games! Again, thank you all so much for reading and I'll see you in the next one!