Before I know what's happening, I'm on a large, bullet-speed train riding to the Capitol. Julie Hicks can't contain her excitement of how District 12 may finally have a winner with a nice girl and a strong boy.
"What talents do you have, dear?" She asks me.
"Um...I can throw knives pretty well. I'm all right at shooting."
She takes me to a large car in the train and hands me several different knives.
"Show me." She grins.
I pick up a knife with a curved blade and run my finger across it. There's a dummy with a target planted on it's heart in the middle of the car. This is the pre-pre-training session. The session before the session to see what you should do at your session. It's complicated.
I aim the knive at the dummy's heart. I rear back and release it as hard as I can. The knife spirals towards it and nearly knocks the dummy over, lodging itself right in the middle of it's chest. But I don't stop there. I pick up another one, planting it in the head, and then another in the torso and another in the cheek.
"Bravo!" Squeals Julie, stating that we're through.
She leads me back to the first car and sits me down at a table.
"Why don't you take a break and I'll get Wilson. You two can get to know each other!"
She waddles off to another car while I sit, silenced, in a wealthily furnished room, regretting everything. The last thing I want to do is get involved with, or even talk to, this Wilson guy.
Why didn't I just let District 12 lose again? Maybe Amy Zeock was a fireball waiting to be ignited. Why did I let my family be one of the two who had to draw their shutters hoping that the odds were in their favors?
Because I'm pretty sure they're not.
