Finnick Odair's best friend

Chapter 19: Training

*Aria POV*

I woke up reasonably well rested considering I went to bed around half two in the morning. I got out of the plush bed and went to take a shower. I made the water smell like blossoms and the shampoo smell like lavender. After that I changed into the training suit that had been laid at the end of my bed.

I finished changing and found that the suit was tight, very tight. I didn't like tight clothing, it made me feel self conscious. I then walked out but I bumped into an avox.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Let me help you clean that up." The avox looked surprised and scared as if I was going to hurt them.

"Here," I said, after I finished packing up the smashed cups. "Sorry again, see you soon." I then waved goodbye and went to breakfast.

"How can you talk with such manners to something like that?" Talia asked, clearly disgusted with my behaviour.

"I ask myself the same thing to myself about you Talia." I retorted. Finnick and Aven chuckled and I grinned with Mags.

"How rude! Why are you talking to me like this?" She demanded.

"I'm sorry Talia, I don't know what came over me." I apologised falsely. Of course I didn't mean it, even if I didn't act sorry Talia was probably so thick she would buy it anyway.

"That's quite alright, I understand there is a lot of pressure."

"Can't be much more than what that wig is putting in your head." I mumbled, just loud enough for only myself to hear. I wanted to get away from Talia as quickly as I could, every second reminded me of what Willow might have been doing.

"Alright let's get you down to training." Finnick announces. We then follow him and Mags to the training centre.

"Right, remember what I said, focus on survival skills and don't show your best skills unless you have to."

"Ok." Aven and I replied in unison. Aven and I began to leave when Finnick grabbed my shoulders, preventing me from going any further.

"Aria?"

"Yeah?" I replied, trying to act as if I didn't know what he was about to say.

"Come find me if you need anything, You sure you'll be ok?"

"Thanks, and I'll be ok. Bye Finnick."

"Bye Aria, good luck." He then walked away and I entered the training center. Everyone was gathered around a head trainer.

"Greeting tributes. In 2 weeks 23 of you will be dead, one of you will be alive. Who that is depends on how well you pay attention over the next 4 days, particularly to what I am about to say. First, no fighting with the other tributes, you'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. There will be 4 compulsory exercises and the rest will be individual training. My advice is don't ignore the survival skills, everyone wants to grab a sword but most of you will die of natural causes.10% infection, 20% of dehydration, exposure can kill as easily as a knife. Let training begin." She dismisses it and I see Kaia smiling at me whilst Tora and Orion were staring coldly at me. I smiled back at Kaia and Damien who had just turned around and then returned the cold stare to Tora and Orion.

"So where to first? What about fire building?" Aven asked me.

"That sounds good, we'll spend the first hour on that and then we could spend some time on berries?" I suggested.

"Yeah." We headed to the fire building section and it took me around ten minutes to get it going and Aven around 20. We carried on for half an hour practicing with different matches, woods and other materials. We then made our way to the edible plants section and spent our time until lunch memorizing the berries. A bell sounded throughout the training center and we all headed to lunch. Aven sat with district 1 and 2 to meet them whilst I sat with 11 and 7.

"Hey, I'm Aria." I greeted them as I sat down.

"Dylan, district 7." Dylan greeted, shaking my hand.

"Malory, same as Dylan here." Malory said, also shaking my hand.

"Nice to meet you both. What about you guys?" I asked the others who presumed it was district 11.

"Jack and Lily." Jack replies rather coldly.

"Nice to meet you." Lily smiled.

"Likewise." I said. We spent lunchtime talking about the games and our home, thankfully I only had enough time to talk about what it's like in my district and not about my family. The bell rang out again and I saw Aven jogging towards me.

"Hey Aria"

"Hey Aven."

"Those district 1 kids are the most arrogant people I've ever met."

"Tell me about it, did they treat you like dirt too?"

"Not at first but after I mentioned you they turned their noses up and acted all high and mighty."

"I don't know why they hate me so much." We talked back to the training hall and then continued but something unexpected happened. I was working at the edible berries section. Aven aced it and so did I but when it came to identifying plants and berries I needed a bit more help from him.

"NO! Don't eat that, that's a poisonous one!" Aven grabbed the plant which looked like mint out of my hands before I ate it.

"Oh, thanks Aven, how can you tell?" I jumped as he snatched the plant but I was very thankful he stopped me.

"Mint leaves don't have these little triangles at the edge of the veins."

"Ok, I'll try to remember that." We continued working and soon after, around ten minutes, the district 11 girl, Lily, came over and helped out too. Lily had raven black hair that was bouncy and curly. Her skin was dark but on the lighter side and her eyes were a deep chocolate brown with long eyelashes. She was 16 years old and worked in the orchards in district 11. She told me about her best friend, Rue. Rue was only 12 but she was loved throughout her district according to Lily.

A/N This is the last of my prewritten chapters for this book so when i update I'm sorry if they are shorter or there are more mistakes than normal. I will try and update a bit more regularly but I'm not making any promises because i have a very busy schedule at the moment. Thank you so much for reading I love you all and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

Bai for now,

Hellomygoodfriend xxx