Hunger Games -Fought Again

Chapter 5: Ombre

After the parade, we all went back to our rooms to spend at least two hours scrubbing off all the makeup and hair product. The showers in the Capitol were amazing! They had warm water and a ton of different settings. After my shower I threw on some flannel pants and an undershirt and fell asleep on the queen sized bed.

I woke up for training the next morning. The tributes always have four days in the Capitol to train. On the last day there is a private session with the Gamemakers to where you can show off your skills. Then they give you a score out of 12 that is supposed to estimate your chances of winning the Games. Then the Capitol citizens can bet on the tributes with the highest scores.

There was a training outfit laid out on the floor of my room. It put it on and went to meet Thalia, Wylee, Belfiss, the stylists, Tiki, and Mace for breakfast. There were huge pancakes and this sweet stuff called syrup! When we finished eating, we rode the elevator down to the training centre. There was so many weapons! My stomach did a backflip, Thalia looked like this was the best day of her life. Was all of this going to be in the arena? We gathered around Mica, the head trainer. She told us not to fight, and that we shouldn't ignore the survival skills because 15% of us would die from natural causes. Starvation, infection, etc.

I headed straight for the fire building station. I saw Thalia run off to learn how to wield a sword. She was running in there like a lamb to the slaughter. The careers hang out at the weapons stations. They're going to eat her alive.

At the fire building station, the instructor taught me what to use for kindling, how to set up the sticks, and how to keep the fire going. I tried starting a fire, but I couldn't get more than a tiny spark, even with the matches! Wylee walked over.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Not good," I replied, "I can't get more than a spark."

"I'll try," she said. The instructor explained to her what he had explained to me. Wylee grabbed some birch bark and tiny kindling sticks, set up the logs in a pyramid and placed the sticks and bark inside. She struck a match and carefully lit the bark. It caught fire and slowly moved toward the sticks. The sticks caught fire and soon the whole pyramid was a roaring flame.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"I don't know, luck I guess," she shrugged. I nodded. Before I knew it, the day was over. We went back to our rooms and went to sleep.

The next two days passed in a similar fashion to the first. I tried out most of the survival skills stations. Once I tried out the throwing knife station, because it looked kind of cool. I learned a bit, but it's harder than it looks. And one of the tributes from District 1, I think her name was Violet, was really good at it. She was scary.

I woke up early on the fourth day. 'Assessment day,' I thought to myself. I put my training outfit on again. We all lined up for our assessments. As the reaped tribute girl from District 3, I was going after Wylee. The tributes go in with the gamemakers one my one according to district number. Normally, it's District 1 male first, and District 12 female last. This year, because there were 24 extra tributes, they were going male tribute, male sibling, female tribute, female sibling. Still according to district number. Wylee and a girl named Caress from District 2 are special cases, because they're the siblings of the male tribute. Hence, they're considered the 'male sibling,' but they're both female.

"What do you think you're going to do?" I asked Wylee after her brother went in for assessment.

"I don't know," her eyes grew thoughtful, "maybe start a fire or something. I'm not good with weapons."

"That's okay," I replied.

"What about you?" she asked

"I'm going to stab a dummy with a sword, and then throw some knives!" Thalia butted in.

I rolled my eyes, "great," I replied sarcastically.

"What are you gonna do?" Thalia asked.

"I guess I'll just figure it out when I get in there," I said. I was probably going to die in the arena anyway, so why did it matter what I did?

Wylee was called into the assessment. "Good luck," I whispered. She smiled at me nervously. I looked around at the other tributes, there were some strong looking ones. There was also a little boy from District 10 that couldn't be more than 12 years old.

Next thing I knew, the robot voice was telling me to enter my assessment. Thalia wished me luck, and told me to be aggressive. I opened the doors and stepped inside. I was in the same training centre room, but it was weird to see it empty.

I had no clue what to do. I walked over to the edible berries station, and decided to make some form of feast. I picked up some wild blackberries, something that resembled a small raspberry, and some chokecherries. I took the flesh off the choke cherries to make jam, I mashed up the flesh and drizzled it over the other berries. I held out my dish just as the buzzer that signified the end of my time went off.

"That you Miss Foughtworth," the head gamemaker, a short burly man named Cadmen Bradford, dismissed me. I nodded my head and set down my dish, then I calmly exited the room.

'I think I did pretty good,' I thought to myself.