Innocent Girl - A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 5: Training Days

When I wake up, I get dressed into the black training jumpsuit already laid out for me, noticing that there is a large 12 on the back. I suppose that's how we all address eachother. By district.
When we die we probably will just be known as a number by the person who killed us. How depressing.

"Don't go to the knives and archery stations, if you two are really as good as you say each other are," says Katniss," Especially you Almond, we can't have you getting targeted be the careers." Alek and I both nod.
" Focus mainly on survival stations," Dean adds, " And don't do anything stupid." With that, Lara-Rose escorts us down the elevator to the training room, where only tributes from Districts 1, 2, 7 and 11 are there. I glance nervously at Alek as the boys from 1 and 2 and the girl from 2 smirk at us. The other girl, Star, just looks uncomfortable. Though when I look away I feel her gaze linger on me for a bit. They are all waiting in a semicircle around the trainer, so we join them, deciding to stand near the siblings from 7 as they seem like they wouldn't mind. They both mumble a small greeting and the boy, Cedar, smiles warmly at me, I away that reminds me of Julien. We don't have to wait too long, as the rest of the tributes enter quickly.
"Everybody is here?" Asks the trainer almost boredly. Everyone just stares at her. Can't she count? With no answer, the trainer continues.
" Wonderful. Well, most of you should know that there will be two days of training, and one day for the private sessions, where each of you will be scored individually. Most of the stations are operated by computers, except for a few which are pretty self-explanatory. I would suggest you all go to the survival stations, they do matter." At this, the careers all snigger. The trainer stared at them, before continuing. " There will be absolutely no fighting other tributes, if you injure another tribute you will be denied scoring for your private sessions. Do you understand?" Everyone mumbles a 'yes'.   "Good. You may all start." Everyone disperses, each going to a different station. I kind of stand there dumbly, unsure of what to do  as Alek whispers to me,
" I'm going to the edible plants station."
" Alright " I reply. Deciding that to be more efficient in the arena, we should learn different things, so I go to the first station see : fire building. There isn't anyone else there, which I definitely prefer. I find one of the touchscreens, and read the tips to start a fire.
Julien once tried to teach me how to light a fire. But for the fireplace, with a match.

I'm seven years old, Julien is ten. It's the middle of winter, and a year and a half since our father died. It's one of the good years, the ones that mother merely ignored us, no beatings, but we often had to go hungry, because Julien wouldn't let me come out and hunt withhim. Without the accuracy I had with the bow, the traps were efficient but we often didn't have food on the table for at the most, three days. I've been watching Julien light the fireplace and carefully blow on it to make sure that it doesn't go out.
"How does the matches work? Doesn't the fire hurt?" I ask. Julien smiles.
"I think there's a chemical in the matches that help them ignite. We're lucky, the Capitol uses better technology than these, so we can get them pretty cheap. And no, if you work quickly the fire doesn't hurt. Here, do you want to try light one?" I nod yes, and shuffle over closer to the fireplace. Julien hands me a match and shows me how to scrape it against the box to light it, doing it in a single, swift movement, before blowing it out.
"Now you try," he says, handing me the box. I attempt to do the same thing. First strike, no. Second, no. But on the third one, the match lights up. I stare at it in amazement, but suddenly, I feel a slight pain in my hand and yelp and drop the match. Julien gasps, and quickly picks the match up, but to his surprise, it is already been put out. He frowns and turns to me,
"Are you alright?" I nod.
"It doesn't hurt. Just surprised me."
"How'd it go out already?" I think for a moment.
"Oh! It's because if the height it was dropped from. The air blew it out, rather than us."
"That's probably right. Hey, you're smarter than me now!" Julien laughs and pats my head.
"But I think I'll let you do the fireplace still," I tell him. He laughs again.
"That's probably for the best," we exchange a smile, but I can't help but wonder what it would be like if father was still here, or even if mother didn't blame me. Maybe I was still young, but I did understand what happened.