The YouTube Hunger Games

Chapter 7 - Practise Makes Perfect

Ryan Higa's Point Of View

'Hello everyone, my name is Michelle and I will be your head trainer. Over these next few days you will have a small insight into what you could imagine the games to be like. There is to be no fighting, no killing and no injuring another tribute or trainer. Is that clear?' Michelle says sternly staring at each and individual person.

'Clear!' We shout.

'That's good. I expect you all to try your best to better your fighting skills and if any of you disobey me, you will be punished. Severely.' Michelle says putting on a pair of dark of heavily tinted sunglasses. 'When I say so, you can go and choose a station to work at. You will be walked through by a trainer. We have knives, swords, archery, axes, javelin as well as others so find something you like and I suggest sticking to it. Is that clear?'

'Clear,' we say again, army style.

'That's good. You may start.' Michelle announces cracking a smile but her hidden eyes adding some mystery to the smile.

I look around the cold dark metal basement, eyeing what looks the most useful. Some of the stronger looking people start walking towards the sword station. I'm obviously not as strong as some of the guys here but that won't stop me from trying. I make a beeline towards a workshop hosting boomerangs.

I can already hear the sound of weapons making contact with target dummies.

'Hi, do you wanna learn how to use a boomerang?' A small perky woman with black hair pulled in a tight bun smiles while clutching a fist of the curved boomerangs pointing at my stomach.

'Sure.' I reply.

'Okay let's get started.' She moves over to a door on her left and I follow. She opens it and reveals another huge empty room with a couple of dummies at the far end.

'Here we are.' She says. 'Let's begin. So to start off, you have to hold it at the bottom of the boomerang. It has to stand vertical, so not like a Frisbee, with the curve facing away from you. Adjust the boomerang so the bottom of the boomerang is almost perpendicular with the ground. Now when you throw it, you wanna throw it at around eye-level. Do not aim it too high because you will miss. When you let go, give the boomerang some spin and this can be done by bringing your wrist back and then whipping it forward when you throw it. Don't throw it too hard yet, you can worry about it later. I'll teach you how to catch it once you can throw it. I'll show you now."

The small woman puts all but one of the boomerangs on a nearby bench. She steadies herself and holds the boomerang in her muscular hand. She does three swings of the boomerang and corrects her aim. Now she's going in for the kill. Her wrist flicks backwards and forwards like a whip and the boomerang goes spinning through the air and lodges itself into the side of one of the dummies neck.

'If you can do that then you won't need to catch it.' She gives a small chuckle and I give one back. 'It's your turn now, show me how its done.'

I grab a boomerang a red boomerang from the table. It's sharpened edge grazing my skin lightly enough so I don't get cut. I point it outwards, flick my wrist back and release it as I snap it forward. It flies straight up into the air, hits the roof a few feet in front of me and comes falling back to earth with a sharp thwack.