LOVELY

~ 1.8 ~

┏━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┓
'Who will light the fire.
That I need to survive?
Who will be the life blood,
Coursing through my veins?'
┗━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┛

Horrendous screeching rang in Indiana's ears as Cashmere barged into her room, attempting to wake her niece.

"Indie, I love you but I swear, if you don't get your ass out of bed right now, I will murder you before you even start the Games," the shrill voice of her aunt continued, before the older woman whacked Indiana with a pillow.

Groaning and cursing her aunt under her breath, the exhausted eighteen-year-old dragged herself from the comforting sheets and crawled towards the shower.

Once she was clean and more alert, she re-entered the bedroom to discover her outfit for the day had been laid out on the bed. It was simple and athletic, consisting of a black and red shirt with a silver 1 printed on the shoulder and black leggings with a silver stripe running down the side. Black trainers had been placed at the foot of the bed to top it off.

"Ah, she rises." Gloss chuckled when his niece stalked over to the elevator, ignoring the table full of breakfast foods. "Today is all about showing the other tributes not to mess with you. Show them a sliver of what you can do but not your full potential." Gloss informed the tributes stood on either side of him.

"Make sure you spend most of your time with Two to ensure you inform the other Tributes that the Career Pack is as strong as ever." Cashmere added.

Nodding along whilst barely paying attention, Indiana was grateful when the elevator came to a stop at the Training level and she could escape.

"Oh and Indie, make sure you keep your smart mouth shut." Cashmere warned, a teasing glint in her brown eyes.

Luckily, the elevator door closed and Cashmere disappeared before Indiana was able to demonstrate just how smart her mouth could be.

━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━

Hoping to strategise with Marvel before Training began, Indiana turned to face him only to sigh with exasperation when she noticed he had already run off.

"Good morning, Clover." Indiana smirked, emphasising the nickname with glee.

"Ha. Ha, Little Miss Wise Ass. You just wait until we're allowed to spar, I'll get you back for that." Clove warned, scowling at the blonde.

"But you're so cute and dainty." Indiana continued teasing.

Instead of issuing another death threat, Clove just laughed along. "Under different circumstances, I think we would've become friends."

Once District Twelve finally bothered to arrive and everyone had been debriefed on the rules and regulations, Indiana decided she would begin with the knot tying station whilst the other three Careers (predictably) headed straight for the weapons.

From her position, Indiana scoped out the competition whilst her fingers nimbly worked through the various knots. Clove was extremely talented with knives, which wasn't surprising due to her small and agile frame. Marvel was throwing spears at far away targets with accurate precision. The female tribute from Five was identifying all the different plants that could appear in the arena without making a single mistake. Katniss Everdeen had yet to attempt wielding a weapon but the glances she kept giving the archery station piqued Indiana's attention. Glimmer, District Four's tribute, was attempting to use the bow but was comically failing because she was blatantly gawking at Cato, thus missing the target by miles.

And then there was Cato.

Cato Hadley's choice of weapon was a sword and he clearly knew how to handle it. His muscular arms flexed with every powerful swipe and the veins in his arms became more defined as he strained against the trainer's blows. Feeling more than one pair of eyes on him, Cato glanced over his shoulder and caught Indiana's gaze on him. Winking at her, the smug bastard smirked when her cheeks flushed and she dropped the knot, becoming more flustered.

Attempting to keep some of her dignity intact (and her mind off of Cato), Indiana wandered over to the sparring station and within fifteen minutes, she had the trainer pinned to the mat. The man had nothing on Jamie's skills.

Deciding to make good on her earlier promise, Clove climbed into the ring and smirked at her opponent. Thirty minutes passed before Indiana finally managed to get Clove on her knees. Surrendering to the older girl, both Clove and Indiana collapsed onto the mat in exhaustion. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck but Indiana couldn't summon the strength to brush it away.

"Nice footwork." Indie panted out, gulping down the bottle of water that had been placed near her head.

"Mean right hook." Clove huffed, a bruise already blooming on her cheekbone.

Dragging each other up off the floor, they leaned on one another as they limped towards the elevator doors. However, the sound of her name being called had Indiana turning around to watch Cato catch up with them.

"You're sparring with me tomorrow."

It wasn't a request.

"Fine." Indiana said with narrowed eyes, attempting to seem intimidating but her tired face didn't make her seem very threatening.

Chuckling at the poor girl, Cato slung her over his shoulders and carried her into the elevator, ignoring her pleas to put her down. Waiting for Clove and Marvel to join them, Cato held the door open by jamming his foot between the two doors.

"Nice ass." Indiana joked but not truly.

"You too," he chuckled, hiking her up a little higher when their allies entered the elevator.

Silence fell over the group when the metal machine began ascending. Deciding they would remain on their separate floors and have an early night, Marvel and Indiana got off on their floor, leaving Cato and Clove behind.
A sharp tap on her ass caused Indiana to spin back around, throwing an accusatory glare at the male in the elevator. Clove was biting her lip in an attempt not to laugh whilst Cato was innocently gazing up at the ceiling, pretending that his hand hadn't connected with Indiana's backside.

┏━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┓
'I need to know that I'm still alive.
Someone give me a telephone call.
I need to hear a human sound.'
┗━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┛