The 65th Hunger Games - EDITING

Chapter eight

"What are you looking at, Finnick?" asks Viviana, grabbing my arm.
I turn around, now facing her. I was so lost in my thoughts I almost got scared when she touched me.
"I'm looking at them. I want to know who we're up against."
The lady that explained all the rules wishes us good luck and leaves. We're left with the trainers, some peace keepers and of course, the other tributes.
"Are you thinking about joining the rest of the careers?"
"There's no way they're going to let us join them, I'm not even going to lose a precious amount of time on this."
"Great. What do you think about both from three and the boy from seven?"
At first I'm quite surprised by the fact that we think pretty much alike. This just proves that we're going to work great together in the arena, that we might actually have a shot at this.
"I don't think I would want the girl from three, she doesn't look much like a fighter. However, the boy could be great, we can observe him today and take a decision tonight. I was also thinking about the boy from eleven."
"Yeah, that could work. Let's do as you said and look at what they're doing. We'll talk about it tonight"
"Where do you want us to start?"
"I didn't know you wanted to train with me" she says quietly, looking down at the ground.
"Of course, we're allies, remember?"
"I just figured you were more advanced than me at pretty much everything. I guess we can start at the weapon throwing station. The girl from three is already there, we can observe her while working."
"Yeah, good idea." I answer while walking towards the stand, before stopping brusquely.

I suddenly remember my discussion with Mags about not showing off too much. I need to warn Viviana and if we choose new allies, we'll need to warn them as well. But that represents another useless risk. The other tribute could decide to tell the wrong person and we'd end up losing our advantage. Of course, if every other mentor warned their tributes, we don't have an advantage over them. That also means that we have to do this before tonight's discussion that we had planned. Just a quick look around seems to confirm that I am the only one that have thought about this. My opponents are training like crazy. The careers are also at the weapon throwing station and they never miss the mannequins. They're laughing, pushing each other around and act as if this was just another day, which is probably the case for them. They don't even look like they're making an effort. From the corner of my eye, I can see the game makers taking notes on some sort of screen. Something inside of me tells me that there won't be any weapons to throw in the arena.
"Actually, let's go somewhere else, there are more useful skills to learn."
"How do you know? Remember that one year where the only weapons in the cornucopia were spears? It could happen this year too. You could find a way to survive, but I'd die right away. I know I'm not going to make it, but I don't want to go on the first day either."
"I highly doubt it. Look at the game makers. They're taking notes. They want a show, they're not going to let us all die the first day. The best way to ensure a good show for the Capitol is to keep us alive so that the careers can take our lives slowly. And the only way to do that is to give the careers an advantage, but not a too big one. This year, their pack is not as big as usual because we're not part of it, but what they lack in number, they clearly have in skills at spear throwing. They're clearly going to take that away from them or at least try to limit their advantage. They want them to win, but not too fast."
"How do you know if you're right or not?"
"I don't. You don't. No one does except them. You can choose not to trust me and go your own way, but if there is one thing I know for sure, it's that even if there are spears in the arena, we're never going to be as good as them, we should spend our time learning something that could actually be useful."
"Maybe I'm never going to be as good as them, but you could. It can't be that different from a trident and I know that's what you use to fish."
"I still think we should go somewhere else. The only thing that we're both a hundred percent sure about is that they're going to put some kind of food in the arena and that's something we should concentrate on. Look over there, the boy from eleven is at the plant station. Let's start with him and then we're going to decide where else to go."
She nods, but I know she doesn't agree with me. She follows me to the station where the boy from five, the girl from six and the boy from eleven are standing, listening to the instructor. We join in subtly and listen to the explanations. Once she's done, she puts in front of each one of us a plate filled with different plants and fruits that we must separate into two categories: Good For You and Could Kill You In A Few Hours If Not Less. This is going to be way harder than I thought. I know close to nothing about those plants, they're different than the ones that grow where I live. Viviana, on the other hand, seems to be doing okay. She hesitates a lot, but she doesn't look as confused at me. The boy from five and the girl from six just keep looking at each other, completely lost. I managed to get almost everything right at my own surprise. My ally gets almost a perfect score, except for the almonds. She mixed normal sweet almonds and bitter almonds. The way she acts tells me that she's quite surprised at her result. Just like me, she probably didn't know a lot of these plants and based her decisions on colours and looks. We look at each other, not convinced by our results. The instructor almost get angry while correcting the boy from five and the girl from six. They almost got everything wrong. I look at the game makers and see a few ones smiling while taking notes and looking at us. I was definitely right, they are changing the arena based on what they see here. I know Viviana saw it too, because she whispers something to me. Those seven words are all it takes for me to know that she's going to put her trust in me, no matter what I say or do.
"You were right Finnick, you were right."