Just a reminder - I own nothing. Suzanne Collins was the brilliant author who gave us these characters and places. A special thank you goes to my niece who helped with sections of this chapter and a couple other places within the story.
Chapter 3 – Training
Peeta woke the next morning to Effie’s overly excited “big, big, big day” speech again. He goes in the bathroom to take a shower hoping the hot water would help relieve his tense muscles. He stands under the water for 20 minutes before remembering that Haymitch wanted to discuss their training strategy during breakfast. He turns off the water and steps out onto the drying mat. He wraps a towel around his waist and goes to the bedroom to get dressed. Opening the door, he notices that the bed is made and his clothes are lying on it, shoes on the ground below. He dresses quickly, noticing how the black and red outfit fits snugly on his body like a second skin showing off his muscles, before returning to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair.
In the dining room, the tributes are quickly eating their breakfast while waiting for Haymitch to come give them their instructions for training. They finish eating when he shows up. He sits down and looks at them thoughtfully. “After being up half the night going over every possible scenario I have decided that you all should work in pairs. Today I want the pairs to be Rie and Delly, Gale and Katniss, and finally Peeta and Madge. Spend time at all the survival stations. There’s bound to be new information you can learn. Go ahead and do the agility training, the obstacle course training, and the hand-to-hand training but do not show everything you got.” He pauses to take a sip of his orange juice. “Katniss, Gale, and Peeta – stay away from the archery station. Rie, Delly, and Madge stay away from the knives. Those are your best weapons and you should save it for your individual time with the game makers. Oh, and Peeta, you stay away from the weight station as well. No need to give away how much you can actually lift. When you get back tonight, we’ll talk again. Now go.” Effie stands up and waits for the kids to follow her. They get on the elevator and are soon heading into the training room.
The training room is massive. There is a woman standing on a platform surrounded by tributes. Lined up along the far wall are the trainers and some peacekeepers. The group from 12 head towards the platform to await instructions. There is one more group yet to arrive, District 9. When they arrive, the woman on the platform introduces herself as Atala and begins to give the rules and instructions the tributes need to follow while in the training room. As soon as she dismisses everyone, the district 12 teens wait for the mad rush to quiet down. Peeta quickly notes everyone is dressed in an outfit just like his, the only difference is the large district number printed on the back. Rie and Delly decide to go to the plant station, Katniss and Gale go to the traps and snares station, while Peeta and Madge go to camouflage. From where they are, Peeta and Madge have the best view of the weapon stations while Rie and Delly can see the agility and obstacle courses. Gale and Katniss watch the weight training and hand-to-hand combat stations and observe the game makers in their room. By the time the bell rings for lunch, the three pairs had traded stations twice. They wait for the elevator to take them to the lunch room.
After getting their trays, the 6 friends find an empty table in the farthest corner so they can talk in privacy. While eating, they discuss what they observed at each station. Peeta and Madge are chosen go first. They begin with their first station. They had watched the groups from Districts 1, 2, & 4, dubbed ‘the careers’, at the weapon stations. They report that District 1 spent the time at the distance weapons – archery, javelin, and spears. Peeta noted Marvel was really good with the spears while Madge noted Glimmer seemed to have trouble with the bow. The District 2 group was at the sword and knife stations. They observed that Cato was the best with swords and Clove with knives. District 4 stayed by the tridents only. At their second station, the plant station, they watched Districts 5, 8, 10, and 11 do the agility and obstacle stations. They note that despite his size, Thresh was very good at both as was little Rue. District 5 was just okay in their opinion. At the final station, traps and snares, they watched Districts 3 and 7 doing hand-to-hand and Districts 6 and 9 lifting weights. Neither thought any of those groups would be a challenge if they came across them in the arena. When the other 4 noted that they noticed that they had made the same observations of those Districts at those stations, they concluded that their group was the only one that had changed stations that morning. Rie stated that when he was at the camouflage station he saw Cato and Clove talking in private, away from the weapons. Marvel and Glimmer had joined them a few moments later. He noticed that Clove had gestured towards the survival stations. Soon after they went back to their weapons. Katniss said she had noticed Thresh and Rue looking towards the survival stations while she was in the plant station. A decision was made to talk to Haymitch about their observations after dinner.
