Humanity- A Hunger Games fanfic

Part 5- Training

I get woken up by Amanda. She's running around, opening mine and Bruce's door and turning on the light yelling,"We'll be late! We're going to be late to the first training!"

"Relax, besides, why are you waking us up? We don't need to wake up yet," Finnick says, stumbling out of his room,

"I'm sorry, I'm just stressed because a certain pair of tributes won't get up!" She starts saying this calmly but raises her voice gradually.

"We've got an hour, Amanda. It starts at 10, remember?" Bruce says, leaning against the doorframe,

"Effie said she'll be there 5 minutes early! I can't be worse than district 12!" Amanda has a certain panic in her voice now. I feel bad so I drag myself up.

"Who's Effie?" I ask,

"Effie Trinket, District 12 escort. She's actually escorting her tributes, whereas mine won't wake up!"

"Okay, okay, we'll get dressed!" Bruce says. I nod in agreement, barely keeping my eyes open,

"And be presentable! Be more than presentable! I will not be upstaged by an outline district!" She walks back into the main area.

I find a folded outfit on the drawers which is most likely the training uniform. On top is a note:

Good luck in training! ~Rose

I smile and fold up the note, putting it in the drawer of the bedside table. I take a shower, dry my hair, wash my face, clean my teeth and get dressed as quickly as I can. I make myself look as good as possible so i don't make Amanda more annoyed, then go and eat. I take about 3 pieces of toast, butter them, and wolf them down, just in time for Amanda to take us into the training area. We get there with 7 minutes to spare. It's slightly embarrassing since everyone else arrived with about 3-4 minutes left. Amanda finally leaves around the 3 minute mark, after Bruce convinces her to go after multiple reasons like how he's 18 and perfectly able to take care of me, and finally she leaves when Bruce tells her that in about a week they'll be made to survive in the wild all alone. As she leaves, Effie comes through the door and Amanda gives her a triumphant smile. We both shake our heads, laughing.

~

I look around the room and I'm startled. All of us from 1, 2 and 4 stand out significantly. I always thought I was small for my age, but everyone around me was just big. Now, I see me, the district 2 girl, and maybe some from 5, 6 and 7 are probably the only ones with a standard weight for our age. At the parade, everyone was dressed up so they looked good, but here, almost everyone is either very underweight and malnourished, or bulky and strong. For the first time, I think about how truly unfair the social system is, but I don't have much time for thinking, as before I know it, we're off.

"Shall we stay together?" Bruce says, seeing how intimidated I am.

"Yes, yes please," I say,

"So where are we going first?"

"Weapons, I want to see how good you are compared to my brother," I tell him. He nods and we walk over. All the other careers are here, too. Bruce picks up a sword and beheads 2 and stabs 3 mannequins in about 30 seconds. It's very fast and I'm terrified,

"It's fine, I can teach you how," He tells me, seeing my face, "What do you want to use?"

"Knives, like Finnick said," I stutter, still baffled.

"Ok, so you know basic self defence and hand to hand combat right? Start by incorporating a knife into that," He tells me. I walk over to the stand where the knives are and choose a long-ish one. Bruce has set up three mannequins. Two facing each other and the other just in between, creating a sort of rectangle with one side missing. I spin and kick one on the head, reaching across and stabbing the mannequin opposite in the side of the head. Yanking the knife out I 'slit the throat' of the mannequin I just kicked. I then punch the third in the neck and create a deep cut in its stomach. I step back, looking at the three mannequins, awaking from the trance-like state i was in just then,

"I just killed three mannequins," I say, startled by myself, the adrenaline running through my system,

"Yes you did!" Bruce says, clapping me on this back and smiling. I'm not doing the same, however.

~

"Lets go climbing. I'm pretty good," I tell him. We walk over and I climb up a frame. I can just touch the ceiling after about a minute

"You're very good!" Bruce yells to me,

"I'm a little rusty, but i'm just out of practice," I yell back, "Join me!".

He climbs up pretty slowly. I can tell in the academy they don't touch on it much, but he has the strength. After a little struggling, he makes it up.

"They don't teach that?" I say,

"They don't spend very long on it,". We both laugh. I then see a gamemaker looking at us and I wave. He waves back, smiling, "I think he's taken a liking to you, which will help with scores," Bruce tells me,

"You think?" I ask,

"Definitely," he says. We come down, which is definitely harder, just in time for lunch.

We grab food, and see the Careers beckoning us. We sit down at the end of the table.

"So you two are pretty talented," The district 1 boy tells us, "I'm Mars,".

"Bruce. This is Brianna," I nod my head.

"I'm Em. Short for Emerald," The district 1 girl says, and i can see why she was named that. She has the most entrancing green eyes

"Titus and Evangeline," The district 2 boy adds.

"How long have you guys been in the academy?" Em asks,

"Well i finished at 16," Bruce says,

"Aw, i finished at 17 dammit," Titus sighs,

"Brianna?" Evangeline asks me,

"Me? Oh, I didn't go. My father doesn't like them," I tell them,

"Same with my mother, but i managed to convince her when i was 15," Em replies,

"I'm 15," I say,

"Me and Evangeline are 17," Mars says,

"16," Em says,

"18," Bruce says,

"Same as me!" Titus smiles. We all laugh and talk for a bit, Em admittedly carrying the conversation. Titus and Bruce get along well, and I'm becoming closest with the two girls. All throughout lunch I see Mars staring at me. "Mars, pass me some bread," I ask,

"Sure thing, 4," He throws a district 4 loaf at me, which I didn't expect, and, surprisingly, I catch it perfectly with one hand and smile to myself as I take a bite.

After lunch, we train some more and I teach the rest of the careers how to light a fire and whilst I do, I notice how scared some of the other tributes are of us. It's not surprising, considering how big some of us are compared to them, especially the boys. I still can't help but feel sorry for them. I mean there's 12 year old here, it's heartless.

Bruce and I get back to the apartment and we're instantly swarmed with questions. The main one is "Do you have allies yet?",

"Yes, we've joined the career pack," Bruce says. Everyone's very relieved by this,

"Good, you need to keep them on your good side, especially you, Bruce, they could see you as a threat," Finnick says.