I didn't have the energy to get out of bed, wake up! I thought to myself, no movement. Wake up! I thought to myself again, "Wake up!" That wasn't me telling myself to get up. "Clove, you can not miss a day of training!" Chadwick was getting impatient with me, I turn my head and see him in a powder blue wig and a blue suit to match, "Chadwick, you look like a blue berry," I mumbled, he looked like he was offended by that. I grinned, "Well you look like a marshmallow with a little bit of dirt on it," he threw back. I could see where he got the marshmallow bit, but the dirt?
Oh wait, my hair, I had long dark brown hair, my hair was the colour of soil I guess, "if you aren't up in five minutes, I'll have an Avox soak you in ice cold water," he threatened me. I rose from my bed just like that and glared at him, "you wouldn't dare," I snarled, "Oh, just you watch, 2," he hissed back. He stormed out of my room and it didn't take me one second to realize he would do it, I got out of my bed and put my training clothing on, I put my hair up in a pony tail and left the room. It only took me four and a half minutes to get ready, it was to late to eat breakfast so I downed a cup of orange juice like yesterday. "Someone slept in," I looked at the person who dare say that, Cato's evil grin made me just a wee bit agitated. I scowled at him and walked into the elevator, he followed me down. I hit the button that was marked 'TC' for training Centre, in seconds we were there obstacle courses laid out but nothing what you'd classify as easy.
Trainers were set up at the stations with batts and padded gloves. We had to wait for all the other tributes to come, I wondered around the Center to see if I could get a head start on what we had to do. Atala whistled and we crowded her around, he sent us to different courses, I was sent to a net climbing station, glimmer and the girl from 11 came. Cato told me her name was Rue, she seemed scared of everyone in the gym. Cato and Marvel went to knives, I know for a fact none of them have ever tried to throw a knife before, well, except Cato attempting to on the train.
The trainer told us what to do and glimmer went first, she didn't exactly know what she was doing but she pretended she did. The rope was a thick black rope with holes to put your feet in, glimmer was able to the climb the rope in 10 minutes, the average was 5. She insisted to go again, I spotted her so she wouldn't hurt herself, she was quite wobbly, the rope twisted and I tried to straighten out the rope. I looked back and I couldn't see 11, she had disappeared again. "Are you okay Glimmer?" I yelled up. She turned back and looked unsteady, "Fine 2, just fine,"
She came down as it was my turn next, I looked back for a split second to see Marvel throw the beautiful knife past the dummie and into the hitting the wall. I was going to go next but that girl from 11 went up next before I could move a foot. I scowled at her but then my mind was on other things, "Where's my knife!?" I heard a annoyed Cato, I turned around and so did everyone else. "I didn't take your knife!" Another tribute boy yelled back, the trainers were pulling Cato and the boy apart, "You took my knife!" Cato accused, I glanced over at fire girl. She was looking up and giggling, I followed her gaze up into the ceiling. Rue, she was tangled up in a different net, higher up than the one that glimmer attempted to climb. She had Cato's knife and didn't look like she felt guilty about it.
I smirked and looked back at the outburst that was currently happening between my district partner and the other boy. "I didn't take your knife!" He yelled back, I sighed, this was pathetic. "You know what? You'll be the first one get in the arena so watch your back! Huh!" Cato spat as the trainers restrained him. The trainers let him go and he walked off, "you don't know who you're messing with kid!" He yelled as he shook his head. Everyone was still staring at the fuming mad Cato. He walked away and went back to the knife station. "11 get your ass down here before I cut the rope and make it only one tribute from district 11 I have to fight," Glimmer snapped. I had to laugh because I have never seen her mad like that. Rue slowly but surely climbed down, I smiled at her and she hid her face. She moved swiftly away from us and followed the 12s. The pathetic twelves, they were at the camouflage station, the boy was painting his hand and the girl was just watching him.
I shook my head and started to climb, the rope, it was harder than it looked but I was doing a lot better than Glimmer. I gripped the ropes tightly and it felt as if someone was shaking the ropes back and forth, I looked down at the floor and I saw the distance between the floor and the net, it was a lot of free fall space. I cleared my head from any fear of falling and smacking my head against the floor. I got to the top and felt very achieved, then quickly scurried back to the floor. "Nice job Clove, even better than Glimmer," the trainer said, Glimmer glared at the trainer. "Maybe next time," I added just to piss her off, she scowled at us and walked off, the stations switched and the 12s were at our station. Glimmer and I met up with Marvel and Cato, "Had a little trouble climbing, Glimmer?" Marvel snickered, she backhanded Marvel's chest and sighed.
"Hey look guys look," Cato got all of our attention and he nudged me, he smiled and pointed to the boy from 12. He fell off the rope, he landed on his back and we all laughed at him, he was so clueless and stupid. "What a loser," I muttered. Fire girl came rushing to his side, she was talking to him and she looked at a big weight, the size of a cannon ball. It looked too heavy to carry, he got up and picked the weight up, he walked over and chucked it at a shelf of spears as if he put no effort into it, all of the spear fell to the floor and the sound made me jump. It made us all back off and go back to where we left, "Well 12s stronger than he looks," Marvel furrowed his eyebrows. I turned to him to get a better look at what I was up against, Glimmer stood behind marvel and Cato did the same. Staying near to me. "Yeah, maybe we should-" I knew where Glimmer was going, she was going to suggest adding him to the career group. No way, "Don't you dare finish that sentence!" I snapped. Cato grabbed my arms softly, "Easy," he whispered and ran his hands down my arms. It calmed me down in the matter of seconds which was strange in away. It created goose bumps on my arms and made a weird pain in my stomach, it wasn't even a pain, it was a fluttery feeling, I brushed it aside.
Glimmer gave me a dirty look for some reason, I smirked. She followed marvel to the spears and bows, I dragged Cato to the knives. "You are so tightly wound, kid," Cato said as he examined the knives set out after the last group. "Okay 1, stop calling me kid because I'm only a hear younger. And 2, I am not tightly wound," I answer, he looked very unconvinced. "You snapped at glimmer for talking about 12," he handed me a knife with a short blade. I shook my head and threw a knife right into the heart of the dummy, imagining that it was fire girl.
Fire girl and her pathetic little district partner who followed her around, as if she was his master. "Kid, you need to relax and save it for the arena." For once, could he please stop calling me kid? I snatched another knife from the selection that was laid out for whoever was at the station. I had a few goes at the knives and then I tried helping Cato out, as much as a fellow tribute could. He got better at but not anywhere near me, Atala called us in again and had us line up randomly. We jumped over platforms as batts swung near us, I jumped over every obstacle and dodged every swing of the batt.
It was other people's turns and they could barley do what the careers could do, I could do this obstacle course in my sleep. We had done it before back home at my training Center, we would do it once a week for the past 10 years I've been training.
Next was the monkey bars, they weren't the jungle gym type, instead of swinging bar to bar you would slide on rings you would have to move threw ridges in the bars. It was a little more complicated but again, I could do it with both of my eyes closed, half of the tributes had trouble with them, the boy in front of me was slipping. I wanted to laugh but it wasn't the time for that. He was hanging on by one hand, barley supporting his own weight, then finally, he fell. He hit the ground fairly hard and it was clear he was in pain.
He trainers picked him up and moved him away fast so I could go next, I was over and done with the special type of monkey bars and the girl behind me went next. The rest of the tributes finished, they sent us to do what ever we wanted for the rest of the training session. We all moved to the hand to hand combat, Marvel and Glimmer went first, Cato and I watched them as the started to fight. "I call dibs on the little curly haired boy from 4," Cato called. I guess we were making a game plan, "fine, Brutus said to get all the weaker tributes out of the way," I reminded him. "I'm guessing you want fire girl?" He said, as if he already knew the answer to that question, which he did. "I'm going to make all of Panem cheer when I slit her throat," I said, it made me sound very aggressive, I think it almost came out wrong, but it had already been said and it was already out in the open. His arrogant smile peeked threw, "easy, kid. You make it sound like it's your life goal, it's just a game." He laughed, I was confused. "Cato, this is not just a game, 1 out of 24 of us will survive. It's not just a game where some people loose, shake hands and go home at the end of the day, we are playing for keeps," I shook my head as if he didn't get it.
"You're right kid, but everyone here is convinced it's just a game, I want to get home just as much as you do," he snarled and gritted his teeth, he was getting to the same level of aggressiveness as I was and it just made me want to beat him more, but I didn't want him to die. I wanted to win this and I had convinced myself I would, but I didn't want Cato to die. I backed away from him and watched as Marvel pinned Glimmer down, it was clear that Marvel one this match. He let her go and she strutted away to Cato where she started batting her eyelashes and getting uncomfortably close to Cato, he was obviously uncomfortable with her next to him, he just put up with it like he did at school. "You want to go next?" Marvel asked as he wiped his brow with his hand, I nodded and tightened my ponytail. We stood facing each other ready to attack each other, "1, 2, 3, go!" He started and began to grab my arms, I ducked and grabbed his shins, I kicked his feet from under him and he fell to the mat, I climbed on top of him and pinned his arms to the mat. "You win," he wined and I got off of him, it was only till after I got off of him, I realized the position I pinned him in.
I laughed slightly, Marvel walked off at taped Cato on the shoulder. I dusted off my thighs and realized I was going to be fighting Cato next. He walked to me and smirked as if he was saying 'Bring it on, kid!' I rolled my eyes and got ready to fight. "1, 2, 3, go!" Marvel said to start us off. Cato grabbed my arms and locked them behind my back, not with to much force which wouldn't hurt me, but enough to restrict me from movement. I tried escaping but he was much much stronger than I'd ever be, he tripped me and I fell onto the mat. He climbed on top of me, grabbed my wrists, to the the naked eye it looked like he was squeezing my wrists so tight that the blood in my veins wouldn't be able to travel, but it was the opposite. His grasp wasn't tight at all, it was loose and more soothing than anything.
He had created the illusion that he was hurting me but it was more like when someone holds you. "Give?" He whispered, he smiled and his icy blue eyes sparkled. i looked away annoyed that he had one, "you win," I mumbled and he slowly got off me. I walked over to Marvel and Glimmer ran over to Cato like a little school girl crushing on him, it was pathetic. He didn't look to happy about Glimmer, Marvel crossed his arms and looked at Glimmer, Cato was using much more force with her, that she looked almost pained when he grabbed her. He was much more gentle with me, It seemed strange.
Glimmer twisted his arms and tripped him, he fell and than got right back up on his feet and tripped her. He smacked her hands down onto the floor, so hard that it made a sound, she looked like it almost hurt but tried to keep a straight face. He pinned her and he looked sort of pissed off. "You win." She scowled and got up. By the time Cato got back to Marvel and I, second day training was finished, tomorrow was the private session, where everything ing counted. We would be judged out of 12, I don't remember anyone in the history of the games scoring a 12, it was almost impossible to do. The highest most of the tributes scored were 10, but even that was hard to do sometimes.
In 20 minutes we were all back to our own floor, I had showered like normal and then got into comfy clothing. I had gone into the living room until dinner was ready, I turned on the tv and watched the interviews about the games this year. Seneca Crane was being interviewed on the topic of the tributes this year, he said that he thinks they have an interesting bunch of kids this year. Hell yeah you do! I thought to myself, Enobaria walked in and sat in the seat across from mine, "how was day two?" She asked. "It was fine, some girl stole Cato's knife when he wasn't looking and I pinned the boy from 1 in hand to hand combat," I told her. She nodded, "and did Cato do hand to hand combat?" She asked.
"Yes, he pinned he girl from 1 and..." I was going to leave out that he pinned me but knew she would get it out of me sooner or later. "And?" She encouraged me to finish the sentence. "He pinned me too," I smirked and she laughed a little too. "I guess I should probably stay on his good side then," I joked.
"You are, Clove, trust me," she was being serious, "yeah, until he stabs me with his sword and wins the games." I rolled my eyes. "Clove, you are the last person he would want to kill." She supported her head on her hand.
"I doubt it, he's a killer just like me and the rest of the careers."
She just shook her head as if I was wrong.
Hi! If you liked the story, don't forget to vote and comment, because it lets me know if I'm doing something you guys like or if you have suggestions, thanks! Love to the people have stuck with the story since chapter one, thank you! So much!
Much love!
Margaret..