The Hunger Games ~ Peeta's POV

Chapter 8

Someone pins my district number on my back, and soon enough we all form a circle around a very tall, agile-looking woman who introduces herself as Atala. She gives us the standard rules and schedule, like being forbidden to practice combat with any other tribute, but being able to move around the training stations freely. She begins listing the skill stations, but I don't really pay attention. I'll find out soon enough. Instead, I take a couple of seconds to look around at the tributes.

I'm about as big as half of the boys, and bigger than all of the girls. The girls don't look all too much of a threat, except for the tributes from 1, 2, and 4, but I know better than to underestimate someone. Most everyone is fairly skinny from malnourishment, other than a few exceptions, of course. The Careers look fairly threatening this year; thin, flexible, muscular. I have some body mass, but the way some of these kids look, you'd think that they were on steroids or something.

Atala finishes her lecture and releases us. All of the tributes lunge straight towards the most cold-blooded weapon training in the room. Crap. We're gonna die.

I snap out of it and tap Katniss on the arm. She jumps, looking dazed. She glances around the room, and then shivers.

"Suppose we tie some knots," she suggests.

I remember Haymitch telling us to stick together and to steer clear of what we are good at. "Right you are."

We walk over to a station where there's no other tributes; the knot tying station. Katniss catches on quickly and simply, while it takes me a few tries to get it correct. The impressed trainer sees Katniss's skills, and shows us both a neat snare trap that would leave a person hanging upside down in a tree by their leg. We both practice this skill for an hour or so until we both perfect it.

Next, we go to the camouflage station. Finally. Something I can do. After all of those years of frosting cakes at the bakery, I never would have even dreamt that it would come in handy in the Hunger Games. I dip my fingers in the cool berry juices confidently and smile as I spread it across my skin with ease. Soon enough, I have what looks like the dark forest floor on my arms. Our trainer is zealous about my skills in this category, and Katniss looks at me, surprised by what I can do.

"I do the cakes," I say.

"The cakes?" She asks looking at me. "What cakes?"

She should know about the cakes, considering that she and her little sister Prim would always stop to gaze at them, set up on the display of the shop. I see Prim point them out every time that Katniss walks her home from school, or whenever they go for a walk. Katniss just pushes her along after looking at them for a second, but not before a look of admiration crosses her face. I know she'll never be able to afford them, though, most families can't.

"At home. The iced ones, for the bakery."

"It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death," she says sharply. Typical Katniss. Yes, I can feel the love.

"Don't be so superior. You can never tell what you'll find in the arena. Say it's actually a gigantic cake-"

"Say we move on."

So this is basically how the next three days work; we learn some skills, we go to different stations, and so forth. As soon as I see the hand-to-hand combat station on the first day, I go straight to them, testing Katniss's theory about me being strong. I fly through them, surprised with myself. Maybe we'll stand a chance in the games after all. My mouth gapes open as I watch Katniss do the edible plant station. She thoughtlessly breezes through it, while I have some difficulty with identifying poisonous mushrooms. We learn how to throw spears, knives, and even nun-chucks, though I highly doubt that the arena will have nun-chucks.