Just A Game

The Careers surround me.

"Up, up, up! Today is a big, big, big day!" Effie exclaims, immediately waking me up.

I groan and pull myself out of bed. I dress in a black tank top, tight navy blue pants, and black combat boots. I braid my hair and go eat breakfast with the others.

-----

In the Training Center, Atala explains the causes of death in the arena and the different stations before letting us go train. I immediately head for the hand-to-hand combat station. I see the Careers watching me, intrigued.

"Have you ever fought before?" the trainer asks and I nod slightly. "How many assisstants?"

"Five," I say and he raises his eyebrows, but calls out five names.

"Alright, show me what you can do, Twelve," he says and by now, the entire gym has fallen silent. Everyone's watching me.

I take a deep breath, let it out, and the trainer blows his whistle, signalling the start.

They all attack at once. I throw easy punches at two of them, knocking them out immediately. One charges from the left, so I take him down with a hook kick and he hits the floor with such force that he is also made unconcious. I hear one coming up behind me, so without looking, I snap my fist up and I hear a sick crack as he falls to the ground.

One left. The biggest of them all.

I back up as he charges and I run toward him, lifting into the air. My foot solidly connects with his face, then I do a fancy backflip and kick him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. He's not unconcious, seeing as he was the biggest, so I grab his arm and easily flip him, thus knocking him out, I stand up straight and walk over to the trainer, whose jaw is dropped.

"How did you learn how to fight like that?!" he exclaims and I shrug.

"Where I come from, self defense is vital. Especially if you're a girl," I say simply.

I turn around and see everyone, the Careers, Cedric, even the big brutish boy from Eleven, looking at me with fear blazing in their eyes.

And suddenly, I'm the most dangerous tribute in the Games.

I decide to hide all my other known talents because Haymitch and I agreed to only showing this off for now.

Everyone goes back to their buisness and I go straight to the spear-throwing station. Spear after spear, I hit the target perfectly. Next, throwing axes. Same results. Throwing knives are just as easy. Why do I excel with things you can throw?

At the edible plants station, the Careers surround me.

"Hello, Twelve," the strongest says. I glance at them before lifting myself up.

"The name's Violet," I say confidently. "What do you want?"

"Well, Violet, we saw you fight and throw those things. We want you as an ally," he says and I raise my eyebrows.

These people that have trained their whole lives want me as an ally? Well, I suppose I could hide my archery skills, then kill them when I have no other choice...

"Deal," I nod and we shake hands. His eyes meet mine for a brief second before he quickly looks away. "So who are you?" I ask, gesturing to the other three. "I know he's Cato, but you three.." I trail off.

"I'm Glimmer," the blonde nods.

"Marvel," the tall boy says.

"And I'm Clove," the last girl says.

"Strange names. See you at lunch," I say and walk away.

I find myself at the swordfighting station. I learn I'm not horrible with swords, but I'm not great, either. The trainer teaches me how to hold it correctly, how to disarm someone, basically just how to use the blade effectively.

Before I know it, it's time for lunch.

-----

The cafeteria has twelve buffets, one from each district. I immediately go to the District Twelve buffet and see Cedric there as well. I put some of the bread that looks identical to bakery bread on my plate, along with some goat cheese. I put a steaming mug of pine needle and mint tea on the tray and sit across from Cato and next to Marvel.

"That's all your getting?" Glimmer asks, shocked.

"Yeah, don't you want something nicer?" Clove quizzes.

"You realize that besides the Capitol food I had yesterday and the day before, this is the most luxurious meal I've ever gotten, right?" I ask, raising my eyes brows at them.

"What?! No way!" Marvel gasps.

"Yeah," I mutter.

"Tell us about Twelve?" Glimmer asks.

"Well, it's not very big. There's the Town Square, where all the stores are, then there's the neighborhood for the merchants that don't live in their stores. At the very back, is the Seam, which is where all the extremely poor people live. I live at the very end of the Seam, along with my best friend, Gale. Oh! And there's the coal mines, where mine and Gale's dads died in an explosition. I was eleven and he was thirteen, so..yeah. That's Twelve," I explained.

"Wait, if you're so poor, then how did you learn to fight like that? Or use those weapons? Training like that is world-class. Even I can't do it," Clove says.

"Easy," I reply. "You learn how to throw something simple, like a kitchen knife. They're all pretty similar, really. As for the fighting, well, after...things...happened, I taught myself how to fight."

"Impressive," Cato nods.

I quickly finish my lunch and before any of the Careers can protest, I'm back in the gym.

I scurry up the climbing nets and drop from the ceiling to the floor, landing with a roll so I don't break my ankles. I then grab a throwing knife and send it sailing into the dummy's heart.

-----

At dinner, Effie asks if we've made any alliances.

"The Careers saw me fight in hand-to-hand combat, as did everyone else. Everyone's scared of me now, so the Careers asked me to ally with them. Probably to spare their own lives for a bit longer," I say casually.

-----

Cato's P.O.V.

"Who are your allies?" Brutus asks Clove and I.

"Marvel and Glimmer from One, Fleur from Four, and Violet from Twelve," Clove responds.

"Twelve?!" Enobaria shrieks.

"She's amazing. Trust me," I say, suddenly defensive over Violet.

-----

Clove's P.O.V.

I'd never admit it, but Violet terrifies me. It's obvious she could kill me before I could even blink. She scares me even more than Cato because Violet doesn't look like much, but then she turns out to be an expert on things I spent years trying to master, yet failed. We just became allies with the Hunger Games' deadliest tribute.

Looks like we're going to die.