Chapter 13: Training Centre (Part 3)

(Haymitch Abernathy)

"The first tip I will give you for the training is do not under any circumstances show off what you can do to other tributes. If you do you will not receive any sponsorship from me at all"

"Peeta taught me most of my skills, only archery was not taught by him but he knows about it."

"It is fine, your boyfriend would not dare kill you because as soon as he does your body is taken from him." my words may have sounded like a joke but were deadly serious. "Okay, just talk about all your skills in general."

"I can hunt," she says, "With a bow and arrow. Also with throwing knives and with my bare hands. I can also fight hand to hand at the level of a 20 year old from a baker's family. I also am proficient in sword fighting and silent movement. I have mastered the basic skills needed to survive: smelling water, tracking animals and starting a fire. I did pick up a bit of trap and snare laying skills."

"Wow, quite a range. How did you learn?" I question. At my question her lit face dim.

"Peeta taught me" the sadness was now evident in her eyes.

"At least you can be self-sufficient now, most of the careers cannot last a week without using the food from the cornucopia. My second piece of advice from what ou have told me is to focus on the things you cannot do or things you find hard, for example camouflage and improving your trap and snare skills. Got it? "I hope this year a tribute would finally listen. I know one of them is coming back but I hope it is the girl not Peeta.

At that point I see the boy come down wearing his weird outfit again. I nod towards him out of both fear and respect. I wish I had such courage back in my Games. The girl seems to flinch and runs off before I can finish advising her properly.

"You had to go and kill that Avox girl." I shout furiously to him in mock anger as I do not truly want to annoy him.

"Yes, she put an aprohdasiac in my drink causing me to nearly r*** Katniss."

"You nearly r**** her?" his sentece really shocks me, he nearly r**** her.

"Are you trying to get her killed?"

"No, I did not mean to." Peeta begins to break down at the table. I feel the urge to comfort him despite him being the aggressor.

"Go and clear your head in the shower, I cannot be bothered to mentor you. Just be down in 20 minutes to get in the elevator with Effie. Oh and on the way please tell Katniss to."

(Katniss Everdeen POV)

It's almost ten. I clean my teeth and smooth back my hair again. Anger at Peeta temporarily blocked out my nervousness about meeting the other tributes, but now I can feel my anxiety rising again. There is a knock at my door, another and another final knock. That should be Haymitch coming to tell me what time to come down.

"Come in". Turning around to face my visitor, my eyes widen in horror. It is Peeta!

"Sorry, about last night. I did not want to. I. I was drugged by that Avox with the red hair,"

"The one you killed?" My bluntness evidently shocks Peeta as it is clearly written on his face.

"Who? Who told you?". His face was now crimson in anger

"Haymitch"

"That meddling drunkard, I will, I will.."

"Do not act like last night. Not again." I begin crying thinking about when my relationship turned so sour.

"Katniss what can I do to make it up to you? I will do anything." He was obviously torn between choosing to stay to fix the relationship or go and leave me space. He chose the later option. "Katniss at 10 go downstairs and meet Haymitch, Effie and me in the elevator." He then walked out.

_________________________________________________________________________

The elevator ride at 10 was very awkward and uncomfortable. Neither me, Haymitch or Peeta said anything but Effie kept asking questions which no one would respond to.

The actual training rooms are below ground level of our building. With these elevators, the ride is less than a minute. But feels like a week with the current atmosphere. The doors open into an enormous gymnasium filled with various weapons and obstacle courses. Although it's not yet ten, we're the last ones to arrive. The other tributes are gathered in a tense circle. They each have a cloth square with their district number on it pinned to their shirts. While someone pins the number 12 on my back, I do a quick assessment.

As soon as we join the circle, the head trainer, a tall, athletic woman named Atala steps up and begins to explain the training schedule. Experts in each skill will remain at their stations. We will be free to travel from area to area as we choose, per our mentor's instructions. Some of the stations teach survival skills, others fighting techniques. We are forbidden to engage in any combative exercise with another tribute. There are assistants on hand if we want to practice with a partner.

When Atala begins to read down the list of the skill stations, my eyes can't help flitting around to the other tributes. It's the first time we've been assembled, on level ground, in simple clothes. My heart sinks. Almost all of the boys and at least half of the girls are bigger than I am, even though many of the tributes have never been fed properly. You can see it in their bones, their skin, the hollow look in their eyes. I may be smaller naturally, but overall Peeta's constant care for me lead me to gain lots of muscle in comparison to other kids from District 12.

The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 traditionally have this look about them. It's technically against the rules to train tributes before they reach the Capitol but it happens every year. In District 12, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. And likely enough the one to win would usually be someone from those Districts. Unfortunately for them, this year there is me and Peeta.

Our fiery entrance last night, seems to make the other tributes jealous of us, but not because we were amazing, because our stylists were. Now I see nothing but contempt in the glances of the Career Tributes. Each must have fifty to a hundred pounds on me. They project arrogance and brutality. When Atala releases us, they head straight for the deadliest-looking weapons in the gym and handle them with ease.

I'm thinking that it's lucky I'm a fast runner when Peeta nudges my arm and I jump. He is still beside me, per Haymitch's instructions I run away from him towards the camouflage section. Peeta heads the opposite direction towards the throwing knife section. Once there, he complained to the trainer there he needed a better designed knife and had him go off to inquire to the Gamemakers.

I spent most of my time on the first day at the camouflage section trying to perfectly disguise myself against the ground and bushes placed there to practise with. Eventually, I completed it and the trainer even praised me as the best since the morphling twins who became Victors back to back years.

I look around at the Career Tributes who are showing off, clearly trying to intimidate all tributes on the field. Then at the others, the underfed, the incompetent, shakily having their first lessons with a knife or an ax. Most of them like me started off at the survival skills section, then moved on to combat.

My next station was empty, where the trainer seems pleased to have students. You get the feeling that the knot-tying class is not the Hunger games hot spot. When he realizes I know something about snares, he shows me a simple, excellent trap that will leave a human competitor dangling by a leg from a tree. I concentrate on this one skill for an hour until I have mastered it. The end of my knot tying session marks the end of the training for today.

Heading back to the elevator, I meet up with Peeta. He is covered in head to toe in blood. I am not sure whether it is a humans or an animals but he seems to have got it in a fight as his shirt is ripped. Strangely enough he has no scratches, bruises or scars which I am sort of used to as he displayed his body's hardness often, just never to this extent.