Glimmer's Story

Chapter 3 - Training

The next morning I get up bright and early for training! I am so excited to be able to use all the amazing weapons the capitol has to offer! My favourite is bow and arrow because you can shoot things that are miles away! I put on my boring training outfit and have breakfast in my room. I don't really want to go out there and talk about strategies because I would just do whatever I wanted anyway!

As soon as I get down, I stand next to the tributes from 2.

"Hey! I'm Glimmer!" I introduce myself.

"Clove." the girl says. "and this is Cato."

Cato… I like Cato. He looks… just… wow… Too bad I'll have to kill him.

Marvel and the girl from walk up and introduce themselves too. The girl's name is Sara. Strangely enough, they seem to like Marvel! Maybe it's because he is from my district and they don't know how much he hates the games. Good for him. Maybe he might actually make a friend! That would be a first.

The four of us don't listen to whatever the training leader says when the district 12 pair arrive. Ha! They're late! Good. They need to look stupid after last night.

The first thing I do when we are released is run to the archery section. I can't wait to show off to the others what I can do! I grab a bow that looks a bit like the one I use back in district 1 and shoot. Unfortunately, I miss.

"Dammit! These weapons are so different to the ones back at home!" I shout.

I shoot a few more arrows and start to get the hang of shooting. I notice the girl from 12 is watching me from the fire lighting station. I wonder what she is staring at. Either my beauty or my amazing archery skills. I bet she is jealous.

"Glimmer!" Cato shouts. "Come over here and do some knife throwing with us!"

I am reluctant to leave the archery station but Cato…

"Coming!" I shout.

The girl from 12 looks away as I wander over to the knife throwing station. Oh well. Who cares what she thinks anyway. I throw some knives with Cato, Clove and Marvel and show off a bit. I think I'm pretty good but Clove is amazing at it! She never misses. It's crazy! I wish I was like that with a weapon. I know Marvel is really good with a spear so I guess it's a good thing that I am on his team. I don't really want to be killed by him!

Across all the days, we play with the weapons, intimidate the other tributes. At lunch on the second day we talk about who we might want as allies. Marvel suggested the district 12 pair but I said no. I hate them so I can't work with them. Cato suggested one of the kids from 3 but he wouldn’t tell us why.

"The others might overhear us." he said. As if! They probably aren't smart enough to even know what we are talking about! But I let him have his way. I think he is the leader of our alliance anyway.

Tomorrow, we have our private sessions with the gamemakers. I have no idea what I am going to do! I am second so I have no time on the day to just make something up. I think I will talk to Cashmere about it before dinner.

"Cashmere?" I ask as I walk into the dining room after training.

"Yes, Glimmer? Are you ok?" she asks.

"I'm fine but I don't know what to do for my private training session tomorrow!"

She looks thoughtful for a moment and I start to lose hope. I should have gone to breakfast that first morning!

"Well…" she says. "It's a bit hard for me to help you because I don't really know what you are good at. I know you are very confident so if there is a way to show how confident you are, do that."

I suddenly have an idea.

"Will there be training assistants in the training area?" I ask

"If you want there to be…" Cashmere replies.

I walk confidently  into the training room after lunch the next day.

"Can I have three assistants please?" I ask as I set up 2 dummies to be the tributes from 12. I quickly hide them behind a bush, ready to be attacked. I don't bother giving them any weapons or supplies. I bet they don't get any in the arena anyway.

"Ok." I say to the three young looking training assistants that walk into the room. "Over there" I point to the bushes, "is the camp of a rival tribute. Our camp is over there." I point to the climbing area on the opposite side of the room. "What we have to do is kill them."

I hand each helper a weapon, the same ones that my allies are best with. I give the guy with the blonde hair a spear because he looks a bit like Marvel, the middle guy I give the knives because I don't really know who he looks like and I give the last guy the sword because he is the strongest and best looking so he reminds me of Cato. I take a bow and arrow for me.

"I have a plan to do this." I say, confidently. "I want one of you to spy on them, tell me what weapons they have. You can go." I say to the guy pretending to be Marvel. "Come back as soon as you know something about them and stay very quiet!"

I turn to the others.

"Now, we are going to surround them. I have the bow and arrow so I will stay here and guard for any other tributes. Knife boy can go behind them to stab them in the back and sword boy, I will leave you and spear boy over there in charge of this net." I hold up a large net that I found on the ground in front of me. Have to use what we've got! Spear boy walks back over to us.

"They have nothing…" he says.

"Good." I say. "Makes it easier for us! So what you and sword boy are going to do is throw this net over them then knife boy will quickly stab them before they know what has happened!"

Spear boy looks at me, confused.

"Why are you calling us after our weapons?" He asks.

"Who cares about that!" I shout. Ooops. We are meant to be hiding. At least this isn't the actual arena!

"Now just go to your places. Knife boy behind them and the other two to the sides. Stay hidden!"

"So much for being quiet…" one of the boys mumbles and I glare at them. They are supposed to be listening to me! They better not stuff this  up!

So all I have to do really is stand guard now while they do whatever I told them to do. I shoot some arrows at targets to show the gamemakers what I can do. Unfortunately, I miss a few but the others I get pretty good shots - almost bulls eye! They must be so impressed!

I hear the fake cheers of my fake allies as they kill the two dummies and the gamemakers tell me I can go. I'm so glad that's over!

I get back up to my room and just relax while all the other tributes have their private sessions. I try on loads of different outfits I find in the wardrobe but decide on a saphire blue dress with long, flowing sleeves that have a silver trim on the bottom. I also put on some sparkly eye shadow to match my nails which are still slightly pink from the opening ceremony. I should really repaint them but I am being called for dinner.

After dinner, we watch the announcing of the scores. Marvel and I are first up so they flash his then my tribute picture - which is a really bad picture of me, it should be better than that - and then my score. I got an 9 which everyone thinks is really good but really, it's not. I wanted a 10 or 11! 12 would have been even better! At least I didn’t do worse than Marvel.

Finally, the girl from 12's face appears on the screen. I take a bite of my muffin which was handed to me by one of the Avoxes after Clove's score was announced.

I almost choke with shock. 11! She got 11! We all stare at her in shock. How did she do that? I start to worry because I don't know what she showed the gamemakers.

"We have to target her!" I blurt out.

"Actually…" Marvel says, "I think we should ally with her. She is obviously strong."

"NO! I WON'T ALLY WITH HER!" I shout. How could he suggest such a thing!

I storm off into my room, throw off my outfit and go to bed.