The 73rd annual Hunger Games

Chapter nine

Athena POV:

When I wake up, Wade is curled up beside me. I look at him confused. Then it registers in my head. What the fuck? When did he get here? I jump out of bed and grab my pillow, hitting him hard on the head with it.

"Why are you in my room? Scratch that, why are you in my bed? With me?" I yell. Wade slowly opens his blue eyes and looks at me. That's when I realise I'm in an oversized t-shirt and that's it.

"Hm?" He asks.

"Get up!" I shout. He smirks at me as he pulls the covers away and gets up.

"I hate you," I mumble as he leaves. I can't wait to kill him. I change into black tights and a green t-shirt and brush my hair and teeth. Then I leave my room and walk to the dining room. Everyone is already seated and enjoying breakfast. Why am I always the last to get here? I ask myself. I grab a plate and fill it with food, avoiding everybody's eyes. I make sure to sit next to Enobaria and across from Masill.

"Morning sunshine," Enobaria smirks at me. I just roll my eyes and shove a cinnamon roll into my mouth. Wade keeps smirking his awful smirk. I want to shove my cinnamon roll down his throat more than anything right now. Once I finish breakfast, I'm about to leave when Enobaria stops me.

"Your training outfit is on your bed. Dress quickly, we are already running a bit behind," Enobaria tells me. I nod my head and head for my room. The outfit is–as Enobaria said–laying on my bed. It is a red and black skin tight t-shirt and pants. I dress then brush out my mangled hair. Once I'm finished I walk into the sitting area where Enobaria, Brutus, and Wade are sitting. We all make our way to the elevator at the end of the hall. I make sure to stand as far from Wade as I can. Once we go down below floor one, the elevator stops. I leave the elevator first, not stopping to say goodbye to our mentors. The training room is large with cold stone floors. Mats and target dummies line the walls. I spot the knife station and start to confidently make my way over when I'm stopped by the one and only Felix.

"Hey gorgeous. Did you miss me last night?" He asks in his awful purr. I just roll my eyes and side step around him. I spot his District partner, Lillian, at the knife station. She cannot, for the life of her, chuck a knife. I scoff at her and grab the longest knife I can find. I haven't chucked a knife in so long. I chuck it at the target dummy and the feeling of euphoria fills my body.

"How did you do that?" Lillian gawks.

"Nine years of training," I shrug and go to retrieve the knife. Just then I notice Wade across the room, talking to the District 7 girl. I chuckle to myself. Wade smirks and points to me. I quickly turn around before they can catch me staring and return to throwing knives. After 30 minutes of knife throwing my arms are starting to ache so I decide to head over to my next best station, bow and arrows. I shoot dummies for 30 minutes then go over to the refreshment station to grab some water. Lillian is talking with the girl from 3 when I walk over.

"Oh, this is Athena!" Lillian points me out to the 3 girl. "Athena, this is Fenn," She gestures to the girl. She is short with grey hair and brown eyes. She looks about 17 years old.

"Hi, as you now know, I'm Fenn," The girl smiles. I don't like her very much. But that goes for pretty much everyone. I grab a water bottle from the table and take a long swig. I turn around to walk back to the knives station when Felix wanders up beside me.

"Hey," He smirks.

"Oh please," I roll my eyes. Just then, Wade walks up beside me.

"What are you doing?" He asks Felix.

"Just getting some water," He winks at me. I start to leave and as I walk back to my knives I can hear Wade say.

"She's mine, you know."

"Have at it! I want the 7 girl." I hear Felix laugh in the distance as I walk off.

I'm standing in the middle of the training arena with the rest of the careers. Lillian, Felix, and Wade are talking about interview tips and such while I'm stalking the competition. I scan the crowd of people. 12 looks completely useless, same with 10, 9, 8, but 11 seems ok. Not career worthy though. I find my eyes on the 7 boy. He's in the snare training area, though he doesn't seem to be paying attention. I follow his eyes to the axe area, where the girl from 7 is aggressively chucking her axe around. I smack Lillian on the arm to get her attention and she looks to where I'm pointing at.

"Oh, that's Oakley, she's the girl from 7. Lovely hair!" She chirps in her usual happy voice. I nod at Lillian and continue to watch the girl, Oakley. The simulation ends and she steps off the platform. I look away, not wanting to share any emotion with the girl. I could do that with my knives. I think. I walk over to the platform where Oakley–who is now talking to the boy from her District–had been. I adjust the controls to knives and go to change the difficulty when I see it's already on hard. I step up on the platform and twirl the knife in my hand. Suddenly, a person made out of glowing orange light appears to my right. I whip around and chuck the knife in the direction of the light. My knife hits it smack in what would be its neck. I whirl around again to see two more figures running at me. I throw another knife at one then summersalt on the floor appearing right in front of the next. I stab the figure in the stomach and get to my feet. I have five knives left. I feel a presence behind me so I whip around to chuck a knife at another figure. Four knives. I chop off another figure's head. Three. I chuck one at another running towards me. Two. And one more at another. One. I bring the last one down on the orange glowing head. It shatters and I'm left on the empty platform. I walk swiftly off the platform and spot Wade, Felix, and Lillian. Wade wears a smug smirk, Felix gives me an approving grin and Lillian squeals with excitement. I use the bottom of my shirt to whip my brow line which now is glittered with beads of sweat. The head trainer calls us to the lunch room to eat. I follow Wade, Lillian, and Felix to a table in the centre of the room. Many foods litter the middle of the table. I sit down next to Lillian and across from Wade. We start to pile our plates with the food. Other people enter the food hall but don't sit with us. No one sits with the careers. I bite into my turkey and tomato wrap as Lillian blabbers on about the other tributes, outfits from 1, hairstyles. I tune her out for most of it but when she goes on about Oakley in the elevator I listen.

"-she did! Her parade outfit was outstanding! She said her stylist's name was... Alliby? Yea! Well, I can't wait to see her interview outfit!" I lazily roll a strawberry around with my fork. Wade eyes my plate.

"You gonna eat that?" He asks. I respond by shoving my plate over to him. I'm not hungry anyways.