THE SIREN'S SONG 𓇼 F. ODAIR

45 | THE ALLIANCES

"We should split up," Finnick said quietly. It was the next morning, and he and Carolina were in the elevator heading to the training center. "Talk to everyone there today, and tonight we will debrief on who we want as allies in the arena"

"Everyone?" Carolina groaned. "I was just planning on spending my entire day with Cash and Gloss."

"Lina, we need to be focused," Finnick said. "If one of us is going to make it out of the arena, then we are going to have to make some decent allies. This time will be different. We're going up against experienced killers."

The elevator dinged and opened to the training center. The first thing Carolina saw was the man from District 10 vomiting onto one of the gym mats, presumably due to withdrawal.

"Ooo, I'm so scared," Carolina mocked.

She stepped forward to exit, but Finnick put a hand on her elbow to stop her.

"Lina, take this seriously," Finnick said. "Please."

Carolina pursed her lips. "Okay."

With that, the two walked over to Atala, who was going over which stations were available. The head trainer had started her speech when only twelve of the tributes were there, expecting most of the tributes to not attend.

The training center was much different than what it looked like the last time Carolina was there. Everything had been updated to the latest technology, with holographic figures replacing regular dummies and tablets equipped with settings to control the difficulty at each combat station.

When Atala was done with her list, she released the tributes to train on their own. Carolina practically skipped over to Cashmere and Gloss, who had lazily waltzed in during the middle of Atala's speech.

"Where are we starting?" Carolina asked.

"We?" Gloss asked.

"Yes, we," Cashmere gave her brother a pointed look. "She's ours, Gloss. Don't question her."

Cashmere turned Carolina around and linked her arm through hers. The two girls walked to the knife-throwing station, and Gloss followed them closely. Cashmere unhooked her arm from Carolina's when they got to the station and went straight to the tablet, setting it to the highest difficulty level.

Cashmere picked up a small throwing knife and twirled it around in her hand with ease. Her expression seemed as though she was in complete bliss. The second the handle of the blade stopped in her hand, she tightened her grip and then threw the knife, skewering three targets in one go.

Cashmere gave Gloss a challenging look, and her brother smirked. He swiped a knife from the table with the same confidence and threw it with grace. Carolina would have been intimidated by the siblings if she hadn't spent the last seven years watching them dance around like drunk idiots and make fools of themselves for all of the Capitol to see.

"Go on, Fishing Lina," Cashmere said.

Carolina sighed. She had never been good at throwing knives, and now she was about to do it in front of the best knife throwers in all of Panem.

Carolina looked down at the knife unsurely before chucking it at the hologram. She managed to hit its shoulder, but it wasn't a death blow like Cashmere and Gloss's hits had been. The siblings nodded at Carolina encouragingly, similar to what they would do to a small child, and Carolina rolled her eyes.

"Hold on," she said.

She walked over to the spear-throwing station and took one of the metal spears off of the wall. Brutus, who was currently at that station, gave her a criticizing look.