Rise From the Ashes

Chapter Ten

The morning of our second day of training goes smoothly. At lunch Cato stops next before I can leave.

"Hey, what's going on up on twelve?" He says softly.

"Haymitch is mentoring me separately. He wanted to know if we had anything that could be used to our advantage and I told him about ya know the kissing so he's gonna talk to Terra to see what they can do as a team." I say softly. Cato nods.

"Terra will help." He says. "Now the private session."

"I'm doing archery. I'll make sure they notice me." I smile. Cato smiles and kisses me softly.

"Alright well try not to stand out to much." He says. He leaves A few seconds before I do. I rejoin Gale at the same table as last time and we fall silent. We eat quickly and stay at the table until we're set free again. We go to the spears as a team like Haymitch instructed us to. The girl from 11 in watching us. She looks ten up close.

"I think her name is Rue." Gale says softly.

"What does it matter?" I snap. After all what does it matter? One of us will be dead in a few days or weeks. Gale shrugs and drops it. We move on and this time Rue joins us. She's smart, she's good with plants like me and she always hits the target with a slingshot. It makes me wonder what she could do with a slingshot against someone like Gale or Cato? I mean with the right shot she could take them down but it would have to be a perfect shot. Gale breaks away from us to weightlift.

"You shouldn't trust your District partner." Rue says softly. I glance over at her.

"I don't. You be careful in the arena okay? Try and out live everyone." I say softly. She nods and we part. I head back over to the swords. It wouldn't be terrible to have professional help.

"Ash!" Leto says obviously relieved to see me.

"Leto. I'm just hear to learn how to use a sword." I say stiffly. I watch Cato dismember a dummy. He's my competition. Sure he's also on my side but if it gets down to the two of us how am I supposed to beat him?

"Well you're too small for swords like that, so how about a short sword." Leto hands me a short sword and I hold it in my hand for a moment. I hate the weight in my palm. I hate that I know it could kill someone. I swing the sword and it once again gets stuck in the arm of the dummy. I manage to get it free and instead stab the dummy. I would be better with a knife then a sword. Leto leaves to help another tribute and Cato pauses.

"Well shorty guess that gives me one advantage." He says. He's giving me a smirk but his eyes are smiling.

"They don't always have swords." I shoot back suppressing my smile. He steps closer so he's towering over me. I cross my arms and fake a glare up at him.

"They don't always have bows either doll." He says softly enough that no one else can hear. The nickname makes me shiver.

"Yes well good luck with that." I step back and leave the area before I start blushing. I can tell he's grinning behind me. I go over to the throwing knives which I know I was supposed to avoid but I might as well get some practice.

I spend the rest of the day by the knives with Clove, the girl from Cato's District. By the time we're done with training I'm ready to crash and leave to eat dinner and get clean. Instead of heading up to the roof to spend time with Cato, I'm forced to talk to Effie about making myself seem more approachable to the other tributes. They're going to kill me anyway.