I felt a bit self conscious in the suit the Capitol provided. It was tight and itchy around the neck.
I was walking down the hallway when a door opened and hit me smack in the face.
"OWW!" I yelped. The boy from my district peeked out from behind the door.
"Oh geez, I'm really sorry!" he said.
"My nose is too" I muttered darkly.
"Let me look at it" the boy said. He lifted my hands from my now- throbbing nose and inspected it.
"It doesn't look broken" he said.
"Joy."
"I can take you down to the infirmary if-"
"Just leave me alone, ok?" I felt bad after I said that, but the words were already out. Judging by the look of hurt on his face, it was the wrong thing to say.
"Fine" the boy stiffened and started to walk away.
"Wait!" I said. He turned around and looked at me questioningly.
"I never caught your name!"
"Matt" he said quietly. He turned and walked away.
I ran ahead of him, determined not to be late. While I was running, something fell out of the back of the suit. I looked back and there was a pair of gloves, one on the ground and one in a pocket on the back of the suit.
I slipped them on and saw a silver- blue stripe down the side of it, and there was a thicker material on the underside of the palm and the fingers. Cool.
I ran down towards the large room that was the training hall. I ran in and saw most of the other tributes already there. They all turned and looked at me, when Matt walked in and took the attention away.
I stepped quickly over to my place in the line.
A woman with a cloud of frizzy black hair (actually pretty normal looking) walked forward. She was wearing the same suit as us, and there was a glass box up on the wall where Capitol people sat, stuffing themselves.
"Welcome, tributes" the woman said. "As you probably know, this is where you will train for the Games and you will have your exhibition later tonight. All exhibitions will be televised. Any questions?" Nobody moved.
"I guess not. There is a maximum of five people at a station. Go!"
The tributes scattered in different directions. Some went right to weapons training, some went to painting and camouflage, and some joined up with other tributes to talk.
I walked over to the weapons station and sureveyed the choices. I had never been trained to use any sort of weapon besides my plain old wooden bow, so I probably needed to learn something else. I grasped the handle of a long, wicked looking blade and hefted it.
Well, I tried, at least. It was heavier than it looked, so instead of me lifting it up easily, it clattered to the ground. The other tributes turned and laughed at me.
A tall boy with black hair turned and whispered something to a girl with blonde hair. They both smirked, witch sent a flurry of butterflies into my stomach. They probably thought I was an easy target- not good.
A girl with striking dark red hair walked over beside me, lifting up the blade as if it were a feather.
"Never been trained?" she asked. I shook my head.
"That's all right. Don't be bothered by those two," she jerked her head in the direction of the tributes that had whispered about me earlier. "They're careers. Been training all thier life for it. The games, I mean. The rest of us? We're in the same boat as you,"
