Thicker Than Water

Day Four and Five: Evaluations and Interviews

The last day was easily the worst, because Peeta woke up with excitement. Like a child with a crush, like he always had been in school when he knew he'd see Katniss. He covered his face with a groan. This was not good, it was beyond not good. This was the last day he'd get to know Kallan before they all got separately coached for interviews, got interviewed, then got thrown into an arena to kill each other. What could he do to make it count... while simultaneously making it look like he didn't care? His goal was beyond saving Katniss now. It was getting as many people out of that arena as he could, that included Kallan and Finnick. There had to be a way to do it.

"You've spent close to three days without practicing any kind of combat," Katniss pointed out to him at breakfast.

"I'm getting to it," he insisted. He had been lifting, he'd been painting, he had practiced his snare traps, but she was right. He hadn't practiced much else. Today was a shorter training session, they had their evaluations in the afternoon. He would have to train in combat at some point. So it was a miracle that when halfway through their abridged training session, he saw the Odairs sparring with their chosen weapons. Finnick had a spear, in place of a trident, and Kallan had knives, two to be exact. Her hair was different today, it was in two braids, or, not exactly braids, but Peeta didn't know the difference. It looked similar to a tribute from his Games. That girl from one. It was falling out a bit as she fought her brother, with no clear intention to hurt him.

Peeta didn't mean to stare, but the fight was impressive. Finnick, being bigger and taller than his sister, ended the fight by pinning her against the wall with the spear. Kallan huffed at him angrily, but he had a triumphant smirk on his face that mirrored hers from the day before almost exactly. Peeta turned over his shoulder, seeing Katniss watching them too, and he raised his eyebrows at her, telling her his idea, then he began walking over to where the Odairs were probably gonna start again.

"Mind if I cut in?" Peeta asked, as if he were asking her to dance, which she seemed to find funny. The slight smile he got from her made him feel good about it, until her brother was narrowing his eyes at the boy.

"Not at all," Kallan said, seemingly eager to fight Peeta, but her answer was drowned out by Finnick's:

"Actually, I do mind-" Finnick said.

"Too bad he wasn't asking you," Kallan said to Finnick who turned and looked at her.

"How do you know?" he asked, tilting his head, and Kallan glanced from Finnick to Peeta, who was starting to shake. He swallowed, her look making him nervous. This would not serve him well in the Games.

"I know," she told him, then gave Finnick's arm a shove. He dramatically headed off the mat, spinning his spear as he did, and giving Peeta an unwavering big brother look. But, undeterred, Peeta headed up to the mat with Kallan. Two birds with one stone, more time with Kallan, and combat practice. "Weapon of choice?" she asked him, but he presented nothing but his hands.

"None," he said, and she tilted her head at him. God, he hated when she did that.

"Hand to hand?" she questioned, and he nodded, trying not to look as nervous as she felt. "Okay," she paused before she spoke again. "I will admit that I need to practice that as well," she confessed. Peeta fought to keep the shock off his face. He'd known her three days, and every day she opened up just a little bit more to him. She shouldn't have admitted to another tribute that she needed practice in hand-to-hand combat, but she trusted Peeta enough that he wouldn't hold it against her.

Peeta stood facing her, not knowing which one of them should be making the first strike. He didn't have to think about it for long, because she came swinging at him. Peeta forced himself to focus, avoiding a few of her strikes. He knew she couldn't hurt him, tributes had to be careful about that. If they hurt each other, peacemakers stepped in very quickly. She was strategic in her hits, and he was strategic in his quick dodges, and low effort attempts to strike back. She managed to get around him, pinning an arm to his back, but he shook her off, ending with both her wrists, that fit easily in his hands, pinned at her sides and she stood face to face with him, clearly not pleased about it. He was a bit shocked that he could get her that easily, but Haymitch had said that she was more skilled in combat from afar. But, she was smart. Because her left foot hooked around his right ankle and pulled it out from under him. All of his weight got shifted to his left leg, his prosthetic leg. There was no way she could've known it was a prosthetic. He fell in an instant, groaning as his back hit the floor.