If Crane Never Made The Call

Day 2

We ride the pulley system to the training center at 9:50 so we have time before it starts at 10:00. 2 gaurds watch us as we stand by the door waiting.

"So, what are you going to learn today?" I ask Katniss at 5 to.

"Probably camouflage and fire building. Stuff like that." She replys staring at the floor.

"Cool."

We stand there for another five minutes as other tributes arrive. At 10:00 sharp the doors are flung open and everyone lunges in. I head over to the camouflage center first before all the good stuff is gone. When I get there some people offer to help me, but I politely decline. Instead I pull a peice of sheep wool off the table, grab some grey and brown sludge, and head over to the fire station.

Once I'm there I begin to paint my hand and forearm grey, adding touches of brown here and there and dabbing at the mush with the wool to make it look like tree bark. After I've been at it for over an hour Katniss comes and sits next to me.

"Hey. How did you do that?" She asks gently, motioning to my arm.

"Oh, I uh used to decorate the cakes down at the bakery." I reply half smiling.

"Prim loves those cakes. We can never afford them but she loves to look at them." She says gazing down at her hand.

"Hmm. Well cake decorating can come in handy in the Hunger Games. Check this out." I walk over to a skinny tree and place my palm against it's rough surface.

"Woah thats so cool!" My hand blends into the, tree giving it the illusion that it's bark and allowing me to hide from someone.

"I ah think you have a shadow." I say nodding my head towards the girl from district 11 who's watching us from behind a post. When she sees us looking at her she scurries away faster than the rats in the kitchen when my mother has a broom. I continue to paint and dab at my master peice once Katniss leaves trying to get it perfect.

"Hey you took my knife!" I hear Cato scream at the boy from district 6 on the other side of the room.

"No I didn't!" He calls back. Cato walks over and shoves him backwards knocking him off balance. I hear a chuckle and turn around to see Thresh from district 11 grinning like an idiot and looking up at the ceiling. When I finally notice what he's laughing at I see Katniss's shadow, Rue , holding a knife. She sits on a rope net thats suspended from the roof and hangs right above Cato and the district 6 boy, I think his name's Jason. Tamora, the girl from his district walks over and tells Cato theres a mistake and that Jason didn't steal his knife because he could have any knife he wanted, so he wouldn't have to take his.

As things get settled Rue climbs down and returns the knife to where it rested before. I walk over to some of the other exercises and continue training, and Cato walks away from Jason and Tamora.

I choose to do the fire building station next. I step over to what looks like a mini forest and begin listening to the basics of fire making. The woman explains how to properly light and feed a flame without it blowing out. She also tells me what the proper time to start and smash a fire so that theres not too much smoke visible.

After about 6 minutes of talking she gives me some supplies and a patch of dirt to build my fire. I try at it for about an hour doing exactly what she told me but with no such luck and only an hour left of training I head over to the rope nets.

At the nets Rue is sitting at the very top surveying the others and the careers are at the bottom laughing at the weaker people surrounding them. I walk up to the closest net and start climbing. I've never been good at climbing or hiding high so this is definitely not my thing, but by the time I relize that I'm halfway up the net. I step up to stick my foot in the next loop but end up putting it through and slipping. I dangle upside down struggling to reach the net.

"Look" I see Clove say from the ground smirking up at me. All the others look up to see me dangling with no hope of getting up. I loose my concentration and fall 4 metres down hitting the concrete head first. I hear a loud thud and see blood running next to my head. Katniss comes running over fast when she sees the blood. She lifts up my head and gags.

"You sure know how to fall." I smile at her and she smiles back. "Now, throw that metal thing over there." She says harshly.

"What? No, Haymitch said not to show our strengths." I reply.

"I don't care what Haymitch said, those guys are looking at you like your a meal, throw it." I do as Katniss says and walk over to the rack containing large metal weights. I reach to the bottom and grab the heaviest one, making sure I'm being watched. When I walk to the center of the room and see a spear rack, and I know it's the perfect thing to hit. I get a running start and throw it over my shoulder. It soars through the air and clashes against the rack. I see the careers look somewhat impressed and I know Katniss was right.

We finish up and go to the elevator. When we enter the box my head is throbbing and my arm aches from throwing the hunk of metal. We shoot upwards and I feel the back of my head get sticky with blood again. I step off the slingshot and head straight to my room.