What if Katniss didn't Volunteer? (Complete) (2013 Watty Award WINNER:)

Part 6

We went up the elevator to a huge room. Effie called it the pent house. The living room alone was bigger than my entire house! It must be bigger than Peeta's too because he let his mouth hang open.

"Everyone has their own rooms. Prim, I will show you your room. Cinna? Do you mind showing Peeta his?" I followed Effie down a long hallway and around a corner until I was standing in front of a wooden door with a crystal doorknob. We never saw anything close to this in district 12. Sometimes, we would see the mayor daughter wearing something shiny, but everyone knew even they couldn't afford the real deal. I grabbed it and turned. In my room, there was nothing but the best the Capitol could offer. I had a bed, bigger than the one on the train. I had another bell to ring for any service I needed. I had a mini fridge that when opened, looked like a regular sized one. I walked into the bathroom. I had a bath and a shower separate. The shower had different settings so the water would come down hard or soft, in different directions, and A key pad. I touched it and out came different colors of water. Effie said they were different scents. There had to have been 100 different ones and I would only get to use a few. There were tulips, cupcakes, pies, vanilla, daisy's, and even primrose. The scent of the flower I was named after that I had never seen let alone smell. This would be my first one. I walked out of the bathroom to find I had a tv. Not like the projector that worked only when it wanted to at my house, but something called a flat screen. It was huge! It had a remote to turn to different stations. Cooking, nature, building, and the Capitol news. It would never stay on the news because everything would be about the Games. I had three days of training, and the last night was the interview. Then we were going into the arena. I had four days left before I was to going try to kill the other tributes, and even the person who may have gotten us sponsors. I don't even want to think of his name.

Training is nothing like I expected it to be. I thought we would have to follow strict orders, go where we were told, and if we didn't, peacekeepers would show up. Instead we did our own thing. After we were told a little about the different stations, they let us go out on our own. Unlike Katniss, I didn't have anything I could do in the line of weapons. Katniss had a few tricks with a knife, but when she has a bow and arrow, everything she shoots at comes down. Since I needed to think of what weapon to use, I decided to go to the plants and edible fruit section first. My father created a book before he died and it had a bunch of information like what would kill you if you ate it, how to cook certain plants, and which roots could be cooked over a fire in it. Katniss added to it after he died and looked through it a lot to keep our family fed. I looked through it a couple times, and over at that station I was able to master almost everything. There were two berries though. They both looked exactly alike but one would kill you and one was sweet and juicy. The one that would kill you my sister referred to as nightlock. There was only one way to tell them apart. Nightlock had a blue inside like the other one, but if you look really close it has tiny seeds. The seeds are actually the poison. I guess if I found that in the arena I would just have to remember the seeds. Peeta was heading over to my station. He had just worked over by the weights. He was able to bench 110 on each side of the bar. 220 pounds in all! It was crazy how strong he really was then to how he looked.

"Hey Prim, learn anything useful?" He said. I answered with a smile, maybe he really did want to protect me. If I got the slightest chance of getting back home with Katniss and My mother, then I was willing to have him help me.

"Actually yes. You see these berries." I picked up some nightlock, "These will kill you within 2 minutes. But these," I grabbed the other ones "Will be a great side to any meal." Peeta looked at them and said

"They look the same. How can you tell them apart?" I smiled; I actually knew something someone else didn't,

"Well, when you squish the nightlock, there is these little seeds. But they aren't seed, this is the poison. These don't have any seeds." He looked very impressed with me.

"Well" He said "I will keep note of that when I gather for us in the arena." He smiled. I thought of something and said

"We can't live on just fruit and roots. One of us will need to learn how to hunt. What if we are thrown into a desert? Or an artic waste land? We may not have berries and fruits. Do you know anything about killing animals? He shook his head

"No, I have never been beyond the meadow in the district. The one right before the fence." He lowered his voice. "Do you? Your sister is back there all the time with Gale Hawthorne." He made a look when he said the name. What did that mean? "Didn't she ever take you back there? Do you know anything about what she does?" I looked at him with disbelieve. I had only been in there once.

"Once, but when she shot the deer, I wanted to save it. I didn't want it to die. But she did show me how to skin it and cook it. I will try for these next few days to learn..." I trailed off. "How to..." Think of something or he won't help you. "Shoot! A bow and arrow. My sister has tried to show me so I know at least a couple of things" I grinned, hoping he wouldn't see my lie. Katniss had never let me near her bow and arrows, so I better learn fast.

I practiced the bow and arrow the last two days of training. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was. Maybe if I did get back home, I could help Katniss with the hunting. Though I'm still not sure if I could let the animal I shot die. So it would be like a shoot and run for me. Our regular training ended extra early the third day, so we had time for our private sessions. I completely forgot! It's a good thing I learned how to use this thing. Being from district 12 we go last, of course. The outlying districts usually do the worst on training scores because we go last and the game makers are worn out and want to go home. So they just throw out a number, usually no higher than 6. I sat there wondering if I was going to be able to get them to notice me, if I could somehow pull their attention away from each other to get at least an 8. Then, and only then, could I get more sponsors.