Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-11-

ROSALIE POV

Upon walking in, I see Chaff sat at the bar stool with some unknown liquid in his hand, most likely alcohol. Not wanting to scare him, I clear my throat before I get too close, as he can be a bit jumpy sometimes. He flinched slightly at the sound but turns around calmly. "Have a seat kiddo."

I walk over and sit on the stool opposite him. "How old are you?" he asks me calmly.

"Thirteen," my voice comes out quiet and shy.

"Yeah that's old enough for your first drink in my books," he says, a faint kind smile lingering on his face as he walks over to the cupboard.

Confused at his actions as there is a half full bottle still on the table, I ask, "what are you doing?"

He chuckled slightly as he turns around with a small glass, a third of it was filled with a coloured liquid, "getting you something weaker. Trust me, you won't be ready for my kind of drinks for a while yet kid."

I nod, taking the drink from him with a smile, "thank you."

Chaff's smile drops, "listen here, before you get drunk," he smirks before his face gets serious again, "you might be younger than the others, physically smaller, and appear weaker, but you don't have to be. If you work hard enough, you can do anything. Including proving them wrong. The other Tributes, the Capitol audience, President Snow. Prove to them that you are more than an innocent, little girl who wants to wear pink princess dresses. Show them what you can do, kiddo."

The drink burns the back of my throat slightly as I swallow, letting his words sink in. 'If you work hard enough, you can do anything.' By the time I finish the drink, the burning doesn't bother me anymore.

"Go get some sleep, kid, before you get too drunk. Liana would kill me if you woke up with a hangover."

With a smile, I tell him goodnight and leave the room. I fall asleep that night, replaying his words over and over in my head.

Luckily, I wake up with no sign of a hangover. I must be able to handle more than Chaff gives me credit for.

I drag my still tired body out of bed and into the shower. I let it do it's thing after pressing the buttons and sigh as the hot water hits my bare back, flowing down my spine. I choose a vanilla scent for the shampoo and body soap. Once I get out, I let the gadget sort out my hair before I braid it into my, apparently signature, plait into high ponytail look and get dressed into the outfit laid out by Mikel on my bed. It's a simple pair of tight black trousers, leather shoes and a long-sleeved forest green shirt.

I look like my natural self, no makeup or dresses, just me in casual clothes with my hair in it's usual style. Like myself.

I exit my room to find it's just Chaff at the table so I take a seat and, as soon as I do, food options are placed in front of me and I absentmindedly mutter a polite 'thank you'.

"Well kiddo, you look pretty alive after your first drink," he smirks and I just smile back.

I'm nervous about training but I manage to stomach a bowl of strawberries and a croissant.

I've finished my croissant and have just started on the bowl of strawberries when Ralph comes in, shortly followed by Liana who must've woken him up and dragged him out.

He has slight bags under his eyes, probably due to nightmares. Unlike me, he isn't used to having nightmares so this is new whereas I've been having them every night since I watched an arrow pierce my brothers chest, inevitably taking his life.

He takes a seat and starts to stuff his face with toast and grapes and yogurts and strawberries with cream. I opt for crushing a sugar cube over my strawberries instead of cream.

"There'll be three days of training and practicing together and on the final afternoon, you'll have to perform in front of the Gamemakers privately and you'll be given a score," Chaff says in a professional, surprisingly sober, voice. "Do you want joint or private coaching?"

We don't even need to discuss it, Ralph just looks at me for confirmation before he answers, "you can coach us together." Chaff looks at me to check so I nod.

"What can you do?" Chaff asks.

"I can identity plants and their purpose. Edibility, medical qualities, if it's poisonous. And if I don't recognise it, it's probably made by the Capitol and, therefore, I don't trust it. I guess I'm pretty good at climbing too."

"Okay, good. Then whilst training, I'd stay clear of edible plants, the gauntlets obstacle course, and ropes courses. Save them for your private performance. Ralph?"

"I can make a fire, I know a couple plants and bugs, we both know about tracker jackers. I guess I'm pretty strong too."

"Okay, stay clear of fire-starting, weightlifting, edible plants and edible bugs. We need to find you both a weapon you're good at using, any ideas yourselves?"

Ralph shakes his head as a 'no'. I look down to the table, "not a bow."

Ralph knows why and Chaff doesn't push me to ask, he just nods, "we have a lot of options to work with then, try get a feel of what weapon you want today."

"Hurry, hurry, training starts soon, we wouldn't want you two to be late!" Liana practically drags us out of our seats and through the door.