Peeta x Reader

Chapter 6: The Training

Y/N POV

  It is the morning of the first day of training and Peeta and I are in a crowd full of all the other tributes. We are inside a room marked TRAINING CENTER in large red letters over the door. There is definitely tension between everyone and already alliances forming, mostly just the Careers though. A tall woman with strong shoulders addresses us.

"Today is just about showing off skill. You will not fight the other tributes. I will be watching and so will some sponsors. We will use the information we learn about you during training to modify the arena to work with your skills."

So, I guess that means if they see I can use a bow then they'll give me one in the arena? But I can't shoot today. At breakfast Will told us to not show any real skill and save it for our private training where the other tributes won't see us. I'm really trying to listen to Will, he did win these things once. But I just don't really agree with some of the things he's saying. He says if we don't show the others our skills, then they'll save us for the end, but I think we'll just be seen as an easy target.

There are stations in the training center, some for different forms of combat and then some for survival skills like edible plants and camouflage. I decide to go to the plant station, even though I don't need to. Will and I spend a lot of time in the woods and he has knowledge from my parents about what plants are safe to eat, which can be used for medicine, and which can kill you in a second.

The man working at the station seems happy to have someone over. I'm guessing everyone just usually goes for the weapons and avoids this entirely. We chat about plants, nothing I don't already know, until we're told to change stations. I walk over to Peeta who is hunched over a table.

"Peeta did you do that yourself?" I ask, amazed. His whole hand is covered in what looks like tree bark.

"Yeah, all those years of decorating finally have a purpose here. I didn't think I had much to show off." He smiles. We then walk over to the fake trees and Peeta holds his hand out to show how it matches perfectly. Peeta can do perfect camouflage. As we're chatting and admiring his work, we can overhear the Careers laughing and talking about us. We look over to see them quickly look away, as if to hide their gossip. This makes me angry.

"Peeta. Throw that metal thing over there." I grab his shoulders and look him right in the eyes. He is strong, I've seen it. He can carry a 100 pound back of flour over his head.

"But Will said-"

"Forget what Will said. The Careers are looking at us like we're going to be their first targets. We have to."

Peeta looks worried but goes to the metal object, which looks like a mace without a handle, and throws it effortlessly into a weapon rack. The rack shatters and so do some weapons, which makes the Careers flinch. They are no longer looking at us like dead meat.

"Okay, now you have to shoot." I guess that's fair. I made him show his greatest strength so I better show mine. Suddenly, there is shouting.

"You stole my knife! I saw you!" The boy from district 2 is shouting at a small boy from a different district.

"I swear, Cato, I never touched it." He looks scared. The boy, who I guess is Cato, pushes him to the ground and grabs his neck. He is immediately pulled off my Peacekeepers.

As the small boy rubs his neck, Cato shouts, "You'll be first in a few days, kid!"

I hear something above me and I look up to see a very young girl, maybe about 12, strapped into the ceiling and holding Cato's knife. I overlooked this girl because she is the youngest here, but she is sneaky and fast. Other people and looking up and laughing, happy that someone finally tortures Cato.

I break the chatter and laughter by going over to archery practice. There are moving targets coming from all different directions and I get a clean shot on every single one. There is applause. I look behind me to see that everyone is staring at me and Peeta is the only one applauding. The young girl on the ceiling is smiling but doesn't want to applaud as to avoid giving her location to Cato.

I look back at the crowd that has formed behind me and I have a feeling that me and Peeta might actually have a chance of winning this thing.

/TIME SKIP/

The two days of group training where just filled with the Careers showing off. I'm glad I finally have my individual training today. All 24 tributes wait in the same room as before, but we are only called in one by one to present our skills to the Gamemakers and sponsors. I am the very last person to go, which means I am waiting a very long time before I have to go in. This is good though, as it gives me more time to decide what I'm going to present. Finally, Peeta's name is called and this tells me I have 10 minutes before I get to go in.

I wait alone, in silence until I hear an electronic voice say "Y/N L/N". I step into the individual training center and it looks like a stadium. The audience is seated high up, looking down on me. I grab a bow and turn to a mannequin that is marked with bright red targets. All eyes are on me. I shoot and miss, hitting the wall. All the Gamemakers laugh drunkenly and resume talking. I reload my bow and this time I make a clear shot in the middle of the heart. Bullseye. I look back up to the crowd to see that they were all pigging over their food, too busy and distracted to seriously evaluate me.

This makes me angry. I'm here for them, trying to show my skills and they're plainly ignoring me. I go and grab 24 mannequins and position them in pairs so the Gamemakers can clearly see. Then I grab blood red powder from a table and write the numbers 1 through 12 on their chests. I then draw the Capitol symbol on my own shirt. They are all silent and staring at me now. I proceed to cleanly shoot every mannequin in the head, chest, and neck. This is what the games mean. The districts don't kill each other, it is really the Capitol. I look back to see them shocked, they know what I meant. The throw the bow on the ground and storm off without cleaning up.

I've seen from previous games that after individual training, they broadcast your face and score out of 12 to all of Panem. The scores are based on the skill you presented in training. As I'm walking back to my room I stop. I didn't think of that. Will told me that high scores mean more sponsors, but with what I've done, clearly protesting the games, I'm never going to get a high score. But I know that I had to show them, I had to show them the real effect of what they do. The Capitol relies on us so heavily, for everything. Food, resources, lumber, weapons. If everyone protested together, I'm sure they would have no way to fight back.

But I have no way to fight back. I am a girl from District 12. I am sixteen and alone. No one in 12 would be stupid enough to go against the Capitol after what happened to my parents in front of everyone.