Safe and Sound (The Hunger Games)

Chapter 7-Training

I jump out of bed, leaving my slippers in my room. I turn from hallway to hallway, searching for Elliot's room. Instead, I almost run into Flishia and Nimmi talking in the living room. I back up slowly, hiding myself from them.

"Well, I'm not sure what to do about this either." Nimmi says.

"From what I've heard, those two are pretty close." Annie adds on. So I was right, they don't know how to handle our relationship.

"Yes, but I say we split them up. Not that they would hate each other, but to-"

My clip fell out of my hair, and fell on the floor. I quickly grab it and quietly back away.

"What was that?" I heard Nimmi asks Annie as I get more distance. I run back to my room and hop back in bed.

Split us up? Why? Why can't we still be together for a few more days? I can't tell Elliot, it's better of he didn't know. To show that they can't control us, I will love him even more until they tell me what the meaning of this is.

The next morning I get dressed and head to the dining room. "Good morning!" I walk up to Elliot and kiss him right in front of Flishia, because who knows if she is part of the plan.

"Ooh, good morning to you too." He kisses me back. I sit down and start eating.

"Where's Annie? She's still our mentor, right?" I ask in an annoyed way.

"She's still in bed, but she will be here any minute, don't you worry." Flishia says.

"So what's the plan for today?" Elliot asks as he leans over the table and picks up a bagel.

"Well, for the next few days you two will have training." Elliot and I catch each other's eye. "I am guessing you would like to be trained together, and not separate?"

"Yes," I answer firmly.

"Well then. I will tell Annie that when she wakes up. You have lots to do, so finish up and meet me by the elevator when you are done." She gets up and heads to another room. I finish moments later and leave the room as well.

"Hey Kaya, you've been acting a bit different. Is everything okay?" Elliot calls from the table. I turn around and face him.

"I am good! Just a little tired I guess." Then we leave the room together and I grab his hand as soon as I see Flishia around the corner.

"Kaya, are you sure everything's okay?" He stops.

"Just nervous for training. I'm fine." I assure him. Flishia escorts us down to the training center.

The training center is huge, having every kind of weapon in here. "Whoa." I said involuntarily. I squeeze Elliot's hand, for real this time.

"It's okay, just training stuff." He assures me. We walk over to peacekeepers where they pin on our district number onto our shirt. We walk over to the circle of the other twenty-two tributes and try not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Hello. My name is Iris. Around us you see many stations. There's knife throwing, fire starting, spear throwing..." I can't help it but I tune her out as I start to stare at a district twelve boy. He is skinny, and he must be around twelve years old. "There are experts at each station for you to practice with, for no fighting with other tributes in here is tolerated. They are also here for questions you may have. You will have three days of training in here. You may start training now." She concludes. I turn to Elliot.

"So, where do you want to start? Maybe we could-"

"Hi, I am Toby and this is Crystal." The district one boy says. Elliot shakes his hand and I smile.

"Well my name is Elliot, and this is Kaya." Elliot says calmly. They seem about our age, give or take a year.

"So, you two any good?" Toby asks.

"I'm good with a spears and knives, and Kaya's not too bad with spears and knots." Elliot says proudly.

"Ah, not bad four. So do we have a deal?" Crystal asks.

"Deal... what deal?" I panicked.

"Kaya, can I see you for a second? Excuse us." Elliot says. "Listen to me. We are representing district four, therefore we can automatically be in the careers. This may save our lives." Careers. What did my dad tell me about careers? I can't lose you like I lost my brother. He lost because he was a career. Kaya, I don't know what ages of kids will be in that arena, but be smart. You don't have to be a career if you don't trust them. I don't have to be a career. For now, I have no reason to not trust them, so I keep a mental note for the arena.

"Okay. We will be careers but," I walk a little further away from them and lower my voice. "The second I don't feel comfortable with them, we will escape and make it on our own."

"Sure, let's go tell them that we are in." He says.

When we walk over, I see they met the district two kids. They have to be at least twelve or thirteen years old. I realize that Elliot and I are the oldest, we can be the leaders of the pack. I take this as an advantage and meet the district two girl, Brandi, and Crystal joins us too.

"So, you and Elliot, you guys are together?" Brandi asks me.

"Yeah, we were together before the reaping." I explain.

"Aw, you poor thing!" Crystal says sympathetically.

"Well, let's not talk about this. Let's start training! What are your strengths?" I ask them.

"Since I am only twelve, I haven't had a lot of practice yet. Generally I am good with knives!" Brandi says. Twelve.

"I am awesome with bows and arrows," Crystal smiles. "What about you Kaya?"

"I'm pretty good with spears and tying knots." I say like it's no big deal.

"Cool! So let's hit up the spears station first and see how well you throw." Crystal says. The three of us walk over to the station and I pick up a spear. I throw it forcefully as it hits the dummy's body in the heart. I turn around to see Brandi's jaw drop.

"Nice!" Crystal says. She picks one up too and it hits the dummy in the stomach.

"Not bad!" I say. We move over to the archery station and I pierce the dummy's head.

"You are really good Kaya, you know your stuff." Brandi admires.

"Aw, don't worry. You will find something you are good at." I calmly say. She smiles and we move onto the knives station, which Crystal and I are flawless in, but Brandi struggles.

Then we go to the plants station. I definitely can't remember anything, and get a majority of it wrong. Brandi gets ninety seven percent right. Maybe her strength is knowledge, not physical activities.

We move on to more activities until the end of the day. "See you guys later!" I call out. "Bye!" They reply. I join up with Elliot when I reach the elevator.

"It looks like somebody made new friends." He teases.

"They are nice girls! You know we are the oldest of the group, right?"

"Yeah, but don't get too happy. The district two boy, Mason, has a lot of abilities for his age." He tells me.

"Good to know," I say as we reach level four. "Meet you at dinner, I got to go clean up." I tell him.

"Okay." He leans over and kisses me. I go to my room and sit on my bed, collecting thoughts. At the end, only one thought comes through. How am I going to win the game for my family if it means killing my new friends?