Azalea Rose Willow loves three things above everything else:
summer, the only season that mattered in her mind.
singing, alongside the comforting embrace of her guitar.
but above all, the easy camaraderie with the boy who lives next door to her, and...
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The Monday everyone dreaded came in the brink of an eye, as Azalea finished her breakfast for a day filled with training, both with her father and at the academy later during the day.
In the basement of the Willow household, Tomás had built a training room slash gymnasium. Similarly to Finnick, he would spend most of his time either exercising his worries away, or mentoring children on how to get better for the games. He took the opportunity of using this space in their home to have extra practice for his daughter.
Azalea came down the stairs into the training room as she finished her last bite of her breakfast, instead of with her usual flowy skirts and sandals, with some leggings, a zip up shirt top, and some trainers.
Her dad was already there, making a routine as he placed some cones on the ground.
"Morning Pa" Azalea said, as Tomás Tomás acknowledged Azalea with just a nod.
There was no time for a kiss in the cheek, joking around and asking one another about how they were, like any normal morning.
Training days were sacred for Tomás, he took them very seriously. This wasn't Tomás, the heartwarming father, this was Tomás, the mentor. Accustomed to the dual roles her father played in her life, Azalea shifted her mindset and prepared for the intense training session ahead.
Finnick would often join their training sessions, the boy did love working out. But when the sessions were in the morning he would often opt to keep his running routines on.
She put her hair into a ponytail, and started stretching out before her dad spoke. "Today is very relaxed. I made a small warm up for you, then I made a short cardio workout, some exercises to practice your knife throwing and coordination, and we can end with a one-on-one fighting. If not we can add something else at the end."
Azalea acknowledged her father's transformation into mentor mode with a nod, understanding the need for focus during their training sessions. "Sounds good, Pa. Let's get started."
The training went smoothly until they reached their knife throwing and coordination exercises.
The exercise was simple in theory. There were two targets placed, one blue and one red. Tomás would say either colour, and in less than a second, Azalea had to have pierced her knife into the designated target. Easy.
Yet, she was also facing the other way in which she could not see the targets, and couldn't turn around until her dad told her "go". So she had to rapidly turn in her place, find the target and throw the knife in a matter of seconds.
Despite Azalea's skill, her father's expectations pushed her to refine her technique further. "That was too slow," "You didn't turn fast enough," "Try again," "You would be dead if it was real life," "You can do a lot better."
Azalea sighed as she closed her eyes, concentrated on doing the exercise how her dad wanted.
As she heard her dad scream, "Go, blue!" she turned around immediately, scanning the room to find the blue target. She found it in less than a millisecond and effortlessly threw her knife at it, hitting the target straight in the middle. She smiled to herself, knowing that was the best timing she'd performed the exercise in, even if she'd been doing outstandingly before too.
