Born to Die (Clato Fanfic)

Chapter 12

It was the morning of our first day of training, and I was awoken by a very unpleasant knocking at the door.

"Cato Hadley! What are you doing in Clove's room?! Were you in there all night!? You know, you have your own quarters for a reason!" Spart pounded her fist against the door. "Now get out here right now! We have training this morning and you will be late!"

I sighed and rolled over to face Cato. "How much longer do you think we have until she kicks down the door?" I asked.

He glanced over at the door where Spart was still pounding. "I'd say about thirty seconds."

"Do you hear me!? I said get up, and get out here right now! And Clove, you should also be getting ready!" Spart continued.

"It's not even locked." Cato laughed. "She can stop all the pounding."

I rolled my eyes and sat up. I was surprised by how well I slept. With all the chaos going on inside my head, I didn't think I'd have time for sleep. I glanced at the clock, and realized Spart was right. Training started in less than thirty minutes.

Once Cato finally hauled himself out of bed, I slipped out of my wrinkled clothes and into the training uniforms, black stretchy pants and top, with a number two printed on the back. I pulled my hair back, and ran out of the room with fifteen minutes remaining.
I grabbed a bowl of something that looked like oatmeal and swallowed it all in record time. Cato came down the hall wearing an identical outfit, and popped a roll into his mouth.

"When we leaving?" he asked, mouth full.

I shrugged. "Any minute now."

"We can leave right now." Enobaria called as she entered the room, followed by Julius. "Do you remember what we discussed last night?"

Cato and I both nodded.

"Show them that you are good at a variety of things. Don't just stick to one station," she reminded us anyways.

Cato and I headed to the elevator that would take us to the bottom floor, where the training facility was. The doors opened to a enormous gymnasium filled with obstacle courses and a variety of different weapons. We were one of the first districts to arrive but, Districts 4, 7, and 1 were already huddled in a tense circle around the head trainer, Atala. We joined the group, and all waited for the remaining districts to arrive. Now that we were all so close together I could finally get a good look at our opponents. To be honest, they weren't much. Most of the tributes standing around us just looked like average kids, nothing exceptional. A few of the tributes were muscular and well fed but, they just looked like kids. I could definitely tell who had been training back home, like us. There was only a handful.

District 12 was the last to arrive but, once they joined our circle, Atala began to explain the stations and training schedule. Experts in each skill would remain at their stations, and we were free to roam from area to area. The stations included survival skills, fighting techniques, endurance and balance exercises. We were forbidden to engage in any combat with the other tributes, which was a little disappointing.

Finally, after reading through the list of training stations, Atala let us begin. As much as I wanted to grab a knife, I decided to head over to one of the obstacle courses. I noticed Cato headed over to grab a sword, and immediately began to slice the dummies in half. I walked over to a tall course with rings dropping down from the top. I got in line behind the girl with the red hair, and watched as a boy attempted to make it across. Apparently there was a ring for each hand and you had to move it through some up and downs. The boy on the course couldn't handle this simple exercise, and ended up tumbling toward the ground. Once it was my turn, I found it was harder than I thought. I got about three fourths through before slipping. At least I landed on my feet.