Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

Training day 4

Half a day left. Half a day until our private sessions with the gamemakers. What should I do this morning? I'm probably just going to waste it doing something stupid... unless...
I walk straight up to Kamalyn. "I challenge you to hanging combat."
"To what?"
"Hanging combat. Each of us hanging from the climbing ropes, no weapons, and kicking each other off."
"Yes."
Both of us ascend to the rope mesh top of the climbing station and hang from underneath.
"3... 2... 1... go."
We start kicking each other, in the face, in the stomach, in the knees, anywhere really. Each kick lands somewhere, and each kick landed hurts. Not enough for me to let go, though. It's my challenge and I'm determined to win it. Kamalyn's foot makes contact with the side of my head, so in retaliation, I swing back and shove my foot into her stomach.
Both of us are starting to show signs of strain. Dangling from a rope net is hard, but when you add kicking into the factor, it becomes a lot more difficult.
I hear a sickening crack as I get kicked in the fingers. I think a few of them have broken, but I'm not sure. It's seriously affecting my grip.
Another kick to my hand and I have to let go. I'm still hanging on with the other one, and still landing kicks. My other arm is about to give in when I manage to trap her leg in between my knees and slide her shoe off. Using my dead hand, I swipe at her head. I mean, it's not technically a weapon, is it?
My remaining hand slips on the net and I fall to the floor.
Above me, Kamalyn laughs and drops down. My fingers hurt quite a lot, but I don't really care. It's my left hand, so my performance later isn't going to be screwed up.
Just to make sure, I walk over to the targets and wait in line. The careers are doing a last day show off. The girl from 1 is shooting arrows, The boy from 4 is throwing spears, Rift is destroying dummies with a cleaver, the girl from 2 is swordfighting with a trainer and the boy from 2 is slamming around a mace. Kamalyn skips the queue completely and starts throwing knives at the targets, but I don't really feel like stopping her.
Eventually I get to the front of the queue and grab a handful of knives. My hand isn't stopping me from throwing them, which is good. If it did... my training score would probably end up worse than Robin's.
The voice of the intercom rings out, signifying lunchtime. Robin and I walk out to the lunch room.
If there are 24 tributes, and each one has a 15 minute window, then it'll be 6 hours until the last tribute goes in, and 4 hours until Robin goes in.
4 hours. A long time.

I decided to update early today, not just because I've been up since 3 and so had a lot of time to write, but also because I think my parents are dragging me out today and I don't want to miss an upload, even though I'll probs have time anyway. Pls vote if you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

-Katherine