Stay Alive (A Hunger Games Fanfic)

Chapter 7

I stretch my arms as I wake up. My night of sleep was terrible, but at least I didn't have any nightmares about my mom again.

My clothes are already laid out next to the bed. It's one long jumpsuit that's black and red. The number 12 is pinned on the side of the suit.

Today is when training starts. That's why we all have to wear stupid matching outfits.

I decide to shower to relieve me of some of the haunting dreams I had last night. A lot of them were about being in the arena. And a LOT of them had me dying, sort of. While I was conscious. Which is really weird, and really disturbing.

I turn the water extremely hot, and it feels good rushing all over my body. I punch in some random buttons on the side of the shower that regulate soap and shampoo, and wash my entire being. It feels good to be clean. Sort of.

I step out of the shower onto a soft, green mat that dries my whole self instantly. Then, I quickly ruffle my hair, change into my clothes, and walk out to breakfast.

I smell like pine trees. Great.

--

Maysilee, Eloise, and Lon are sitting at the wooden table, all wearing the red and black jumpsuits. Effie's there, too. No one else. Sometimes, I wish I had a mentor.

I walk over and sit down.

"So," Effie starts, "how is everyone?"

"Fine, yourself?" says Maysilee.

"Well, a little tired."

She has no idea. Not compared to us, anyway. She isn't the one who is going to be freaking thrown into a fight to the bloody death.

But I promised myself I'd make an effort to be nicer to her, so instead of making any snarky comments, I hold them in and eat the rest of breakfast in silence.

--

The room I step into is big. I mean really, really, stadium kind of big. It's a few minutes until ten, and all of the forty-eight tributes are gathering in the place where we will train for the arena.

The lady holding a microphone in front of everyone gives us instructions and what not, and then we're free to roam.

I'm not sure where to start, so I head to the fire station. I'll probably need it.

The man seems happy that someone came to his station, and I notice there's no one else here, so I stay.

My first attempt is pathetic. And my second, third, and fourth. I could only get so much as a measly spark. And sometimes not even that. Why is this so hard? It shouldn't be.

Finally, on my, oh I don't know, maybe twenty-seventh try, I finally get a nice fire on my own without any help from the instructor. I give him a small, grateful smile, and head somewhere else.

My next stop is the knives section. I see a field of targets laid out before me. I've never thrown a knife before in my life. I guess I never had the need to.

I pick up one of the glinting objects with my right hand and hurl it at a target.

It misses by at least two feet.

I hear snickers from some people behind me, and I see that they're Blaze and Hurl, the duo from District 2. Ugh. Whatever.

I try and try again, throwing the knives in the same way I've been doing, and one after another, it misses the target.

I decide to throw it with my left hand. If my dominant one doesn't work, it can't get much worse then I'm doing now.

I, again, throw it at the target, and it hits it clean, a few inches away from the bullseye. I smirk happily to myself.

The knives implant themselves over and over on the targets, and some even hit the center exactly. Not perfect, but at least it's a skill that I can utilize in the arena, if there are any knives, that is.

After a few more throws, they are calling us over for lunch, so I join Maysilee and Eloise at the end table. It seems Lon has made friends with a few boys from District 7 and 8. I guess that's his choice.

"What did you guys look at?" Eloise asks.

"Well, I looked at edible plants and knot tying, and that's it for the first half," Maysilee replies.

I'm not very hungry so I push the food around my plate and only help myself to four or five bites.

"What about you, Haymitch?"

"Er, I went to the fire station as well as the knife throwing one," I mutter in response.

Hmmm, I wonder why Maysilee won't use some of the actual weapon stations. I mean, sure, survival is great, but there's almost a guarantee you'll find another tribute waiting to kill you.

"I went to knot tying also. And hand to hand combat, but I wasn't very good at it," says Eloise.

Maysilee and I laugh nervously. Hand to hand combat, I should try that.

We finish lunch with some slight small talk and head out to train again. I decide I'll save hand to hand combat for a little later today, and head to the edible plants station.

"Hi," the instructor says cheerily.

"Hi," I grunt.

He helps me struggle through this section. I find that I really don't know a lot about edible plants, and if our arena this year has half of the plants poisonous, then I'm going to have to learn a little.

I actually spend quite a lot of time at edible plants, until I've practically mastered it, and then I go one more place before hand to hand combat.

I decide with going to archery. The man at the station seems tired, so I guess a lot of people are interested in shooting.

I grab a bow, and the instructor shows me how to hold and shoot. I try and miss the target by a margin I'm embarrassed to say.

I try with my left side, too, like the knives. I miss by an even greater amount. I set the bow down angrily and stomp off to the hand to hand combat section, but not before I notice Ara, the girl from District 1, holding a large axe and smirking at my clumsiness.

--

I find hand to hand combat comes naturally to me. Well, sort of. I'm not bad at it, and that's all that matters, because I'll have time to improve it over the next few days.

It's soon time to finish up, so I leave the station and head to walk out with Maysilee and Eloise. I've got a game plan, now. At least I'll be a little prepared when I head into the arena.

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Author's note: So if any of you are thinking of skipping this part, please don't.

So first of all, I realized I switched the order of the Interviews and training, but that's how I wanted it to happen. So yeah. I mean if it bothers you that much, I can't really do anything about it. I will be changing a LOT.

And thanks for whoever reads this. It means a LOT to me. However, my number of reads has been slowing down. If you guys could tell your friends about this book, PLEASE DO SO. My book is so hard to find in the search section, so please please PLEASE, tell people.

If I don't have a lot of reads I might not even really want to finish this book.

Wow, that sounded depressing.

THANKS, MY LOVELIES. I LOVE YOU ALL WHO READ THIS.

TELL YO FRIENDS.

ALSO. PLEASE VOTE.

AND COMMENT.

PEACE OUT, KTHANKSBYE.