The Hunger Games- Prim's Story

Chapter 7

"You," He says, pointing at Peeta, "Don't do anything in front of them. Save that for your private session. Both of you, try something new. Throw knives, tie some knots, there'll be a bow and arrow- shoot something, swing a mace. Especially you." He's looking at me now. I nod and Haymitch tells us to meet Effie in the elevator at ten for training. 

I go into the living room where there's a huge window overlooking the city. I sit down next to it and lay my head on the glass. All those people down there, enjoying their lives, going about their days, waiting to see twenty-four children kill each other. I hate it, I hate it so much. I zone out for a long time and when I look at the clock, it's almost ten. I go to my room and smooth out my hair again and make sure my shoes are tied up. Then I meet Effie and Peeta in the elevator. My anxiety rises and the elevator goes down to the basement of the building.

The doors of the elevator open and it's a huge gymnasium filled with huge obstacle courses and weapons, most of which I can't even name. We're one of the last tributes to arrive, right before District 3. Someone pins a cloth with the number 12 on it, while I look around the room. Everyone is bigger than me and stronger than me. Some of them are looking hungrily at the other tributes, as if they can't wait to get in the arena, but others are looking anxiously around, startled by anything and everything. 

We join the circle and a woman tells us the rules and our schedules. She tells us her name, but I quickly forget it. We're allowed to travel from station to station, keeping our mentor's instructions in mind. She lists the names of the stations and cautions us to remember our survival skills, but that's probably for the advantage of the viewers more than us. Citizens like bloody deaths, close combat, not starvation or poison berries. When she releases us, they go for the deadliest weapons they can find, probably to intimidate us, and it works, at least for me. 

The next three days go the same way. From station to station, competing on who can climb higher, who can set more snares, who can shoot more dummies, anything. I guess it takes away from the seriousness of it all, but I think he's intentionally letting me win. I won't complain. At lunch, all twenty-four of us gather in a huge dining room, just off of the training area. The food is laid out on carts around the room and we're allowed to serve ourselves. Peeta and I eat together, but we're very quiet. There's nothing much we can talk about, it's too painful. We can't talk about the memories that will soon die with us, talking about now is unbearable, and what future do we have to talk about? The other districts somewhat ignore us, and we ignore them. When we go back to our floor and eat dinner together, Haymitch and Effie grill us about the other tributes. Who looked at us? Did anyone follow us? Who's good with what? Are we improving? 

On the third day, the little girl, Rue, from District 11 comes up to me when I'm climbing one of the nets, which I'm happy to say, I've gotten better at. Just don't look down. I notice her and lose my balance. I start to fall but hang on to the bottom, hanging there. She laughs and I smile. It's a sweet, tinkling laugh that can't help make you smile. Or can't help make me smile. I let go and land on my feet. "Sorry for distracting you," she says, in a voice so quiet, it's below a whisper. Up close she barely passes for twelve, more like ten. Her dark skin looks smooth and doesn't have a spot on it.

"It's fine," I say, and look away. 

She breaks the silence by saying, "I saw you two competing." She nods towards Peeta, who's on the net next to mine, still not noticing us. "And I think I can do a lot better than both of you." 

What I lack in talent, I make up for in competitiveness. "No you can't," I say, but she nods, with a superior look on her pretty face. "Then go all the way up there." I point to the highest point of the net, where it curves upwards as it connects to the pillars it's attached to. " I know you can't," I challenge her. 

She looks up to where I'm pointing and her face takes on a taunting look. "So where you fell off of?" She asks. I glare and she laughs and scampers up the net. She's very fast and she reaches the top in no time. She drops down and swings until she hooks her feet into the net and starts making her way to the other side of the net, feet first, then hands, underneath the net. When she reaches the other side, she unhooks her feet and drops down. "Beat that," she says, with a glint in her eye.

I climb up again and make it up to the top, this time, without falling. I drop down and start swinging and try to hook my feet in the net the way she did, but the floor is tempting me and I take one look down and lose it. I can't do it. I let go and fall to the floor. "Fine, you win," I say, dusting myself off. She laughs again and helps me. We only have a few minutes before they call us for lunch and she tries to help me go underneath the net, but I only manage to go about a foot under the net before I let go. 

We file into the dining room for lunch and start to serve ourselves up. After getting some food I actually recognize, I go to a cart full of tiny cakes. They're beautiful, with pale pink frosting and a golden butterfly on top. It would cost an arm and a leg back in District 12. Someone brushes against me, and I turn to see Rue standing next to me, looking at the cakes. "Which one do you think has the most frosting?" She asks. 

"That one," I point to the one farthest away from me, pick it up, and put it on my plate. 

"Hey!" She says indignantly, and gently shoves me with her shoulder. I shove her back and we end up laughing. 

She takes one in front of her and starts walking towards her usual spot, away from everyone else. "Do you want to sit with us?" I ask. She looks uncertainly at where Peeta's waiting, and I assure her, "He's nice, I promise. He's my sister's boyfriend." Before she can object, I grab her hand and take her to my normal spot with Peeta. 

We sit down and he smiles at Rue. "You're the one who's good with the slingshots," he says. She nods and smiles and we eat in silence for a few minutes. 

"We don't have food like this in District 11," she says. We're both eating the cake first, eating the frosting off first, then the actual cake. 

"You have fruits and vegetables don't you?" Peeta asks, and we look at her expectantly. 

"Yes, but it goes to the Capitol. We get the scraps. If we're caught eating the fancy stuff we get-" She stops suddenly. One of the Peacekeepers assigned to watch us while training is glaring at her. The Peacekeeper's look makes me shudder, even if it wasn't directed at me. "I don't think they want us talking about our districts here," she says shakily, and we drop the conversation.

When lunch is over, we go into a small room through a door in the dining room that I assumed was a closet. We wait in there until we're called for our private session with the Gamemakers. As always, District 12 goes last, so we're left waiting while all the other tributes go and don't come back.