Training Part 1

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I wake up to a squealing Emerald telling me to wake up. I groan and discover I'm in Cato's arms and Tyler is in mine.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!?
I don't see alcohol anywhere, but the Avoxes might have cleaned it up if there was any. I don't smell any on myself or the boys, but sure enough, I can't remember anything.

Plus, figuring the position we're in, I don't think anybody woke up and went to puke.

It takes minutes of pondering, but I figure it out. No, that was a lie. Emerald told me. She said I remembered something about my childhood and I became all pale and fell backwards. Then she told me about us watching the previous games and falling asleep on the couch.

Me being an orphan.. That's right. I still cant believe it. Especially since my parents never told me.

"So what's today?" I ask Emerald.

"Training," she says casually.
Of course this is normal for her. She's probably been through it dozens of times!

I get up, taking Tyler off of me and carefully place him on Cato. I see Cato smile in his sleep and hug Tyler softly.
I can't help but slightly snicker and I go into my room and get dressed in my training outfit and brush through my hair, and putting it in a way I wore it a lot at school. I can't help but smile at how I looked.

On my way back inside, I hear a loud scream and see Cato pushing Tyler off of him while shrieking.

He then starts yelling repeatedly "WHERE IS SHE!?"

"YOUR ASKING ME!?" Tyler yells back.

"WHERES CLOVE!" They both yell at once.

"Um hi..." I wave awkwardly, "I'm right here."

They both sigh in relief and both start saying a lot of things at once and I can't understand what they are saying.
"Alright, alright. Calm down." I tell them, "Cato, we have training. Go get ready." And he walks off to his room and I yawn.

In 15 minutes, he's ready so we head downstairs to discover Glim, Marvel, and Ben are the only others there.
I cant help notcie Elleens's disappearance, "where's Elleen?" I ask.
"She ended up dying from some sort of fatal disease over night. I dont know what it was called. So they'll be replacing her with someone in the Capitol... And that person will be altered to look like the old tribute and will be spoken to with the same name and everything. She'll be here soon." Ben answers my concerns.

I didnt know that. We all know the Capitol people are incredibly clueless and defenseless. And all them downloaders as we in the richer districts call those in the poorer districts, probably have diseases and starving problems and die before they can get help. Then the Capitol people... oh my god. They must have people reaped like every year for this fill ins. No wonder they always lose.

"Dont tell anyone that I told you," Ben commands us and we all give a firm nod.

I look around, and more people have shown up, and I see one lone female figure coming down the clear elevator. The new Elleen. She walks out of the elevator, and I could not honestly tell the difference between this Elleen and the old one.

We walk over to her and pretend we are in conversation, and make sure to use the person who's name we're talking to multiple times so she could get it down in her mind. She nodded after a while, understanding that we knew. And by that time, it was time to begin. 12 didn't bother to show. I laugh and point it out to the others. But then the elevator begins coming down to this floor, and there are two figures on it, and surely enough, they walk out.

I instantly stop laughing and glare at them. I notice me and this new Elleen aren't laughing, I don't think she laughed at all, not understanding what these people did to us. The other careers begin to stop laughing. I know the other districts call us careers and I like that name, so I stick with it.

We then go to the places we are required to stand, and we are told to not fight with other tributes which Im personally a bit upset about. I wanted to give those two district 12 kids a little bit of a preview of what was going to happen to them in the arena.

She then says to test out the survival skills, just like Thalia did back in 2. And after that, we are free to do what ever we want. I regoin my group and we decide to split. Girls and boys.
Glimmer wants that she wants to do archery, and Elleen just wants to get her hand on a weapon, so we start there. Glim has a really accurate shot, but she tells me, she cannot shoot straight up. She can shoot up on an angle, but she wouldnt be able to hit something directly above her.

Elleen needs serious help, so Glim explains what to do, while I give it a go. I end up shooting the outer white, which is better than usual. Maybe it's simply this type of bow. I shoot again, and I shoot right next to what I shot before. And I shoot once more, and hit a bit below the white, and closer to the red, but not by much. I get a few tips from the trainers, but I simply tell them "the bow? not my thing."

But I do shoot again, using these new tips, and one tip Glim told me, and shoot much closer to the red. The arrow is about 2 or 3 inches away from the red center.

Maybe I'm not so useless with the bow after all. But granted, I never had a friend as amazing as Glimmer. Plus, these trainers helped out as well.

After we get tire ourselves with this activity, I decide that we try a survival skill. We head over to the monkey bars, and it's brutal.

Our weight is a giant disadvantage compared to the other tributes.
While standing in line, I face the fake Elleen and ask, "what's your real name?"

"Skylar," she answers softly.

When it was Skylar's turn she hardly got herself up, and only made it to the second peg before losing her grip and dramatically falling to the floor.

When she falls, you hear a ear piercing bang and we see Skylar wince. Glimmer, the trainers, and I all help her up. Glim escorts her to the side and it's my turn so I go.

I'm not that much heavier than the average tribute. Only about 10-20 pounds heavier than the average tribute, yet I'm like 30-50 pounds heavier than the average downloader, cause they don't get the chance to eat anything. It's quite depressing actually.
I'm on the first bar, and swing my body weight back and forth, without meaning to. When still, I take one hand off and place it on the next pole.
I begin to wiggle again naturally, but it's at a state I can control so I remove my second arm from the first pole and reattach it to the second.

I continue this rhythm and I find myself at the 5th pole- the middle one. I look down, and I'm higher than I started.

Each pole brings you a bit further off the ground, and I find that I'm pretty high. I know to fall now, it would hurt. So I continue. I advance from pole to pole, higher and higher.

I'm now on the last pole, and I know it'll be a challenge to go from the poles to the platform. But nobody has fallen over while trying to transition to the platform yet, and I'm not going to be the first.

I see Glimmer, Skylar, Cato, Marvel, and Ben all lined up on the tiny platform. There's room for me, but not as much as I would have liked.

But nonetheless, I'm glad my friends are watching. My ears start to pick up a small chant, "go Clove go, go Clove go,"
And I place one foot down on the platform, and then I place the other.
I let go, with both hands, believing I'll be firmly on the platform. Instead, I begin to plummet down to the ground. I realize that my weight was in the wrong place. I did not have any weight on my feet, and all of my weight was in the area of my body where the platform wasn't.

The sound of a cannon, one equal to ones I've heard in previous games is heard throughout the room. Everyone looks up, and finds me sprawled on the floor.

I slowly begin to move my bones to make sure they're not broken and miraculously, they aren't. I get up almost immediately. I see Cato there with a sympathetic look.

He offers a hand and I take it for support for the few seconds my feet are still wobbly. Glimmer and Sky just arrived over here, and Ben and Marvel just climbed down the ladder from the platform.

And all I can think in that moment is.
You can't even transport yourself into a platform!? Really Clove! Way to show the gamemaker's what you could do! You blew it!

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