Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 16

"You look like you didn't sleep a wink," Tyler said, breaking the silence as they ate breakfast the next morning.

"I didn't," Taiya muttered as she stared at Finnick. He'd been looking down at his plate all morning, refusing to make eye contact with her.

"So you guys know you get two and a half days to practice together and then the last afternoon is the private sessions in front of the Game makers?" Tyler confirmed and Taiya and Theo nodded. "Good. Ok, now, I'm going to be running most of the training. I have the most experience, Finnick will be organising sponsors. I assume you want me to coach you together?" he asked.

"Most definitely," Theo assured with his mouth full of food.

"Manners," Moxie scolded quietly.

"Thought so. Now I know your skills. Taiya you're good with knives and you're agile. Then you've got strength on your side, so if you two stick through it together you're going to make a great team. The main thing I want you two to focus on is survival skills. There were complaints last year about the arena being boring so I don't think they'll be wanting to make that mistake two years in a row," Tyler explained and Taiya sucked in a sharp breath. "Hey, it'll be fine," he smiled lightly as he watched her tense up. "But I'm just saying I want you guys to pay extra attention to the survival stations."

"What did you make of 1 and 2?" Theo asked.

"2 is a threat. I think 1 will be ok. The kids from 1 look like they don't know each other at all."

"And that's a disadvantage?" Taiya asked, finally looking away from Finnick.

"Definitely. In situations like this, it's helpful to have someone watching your back. If you don't care whether your district partner lives or dies, well it means you've got no one watching your back," Tyler shrugged.

"What about district 2?" Theo asked.

"They're the same age. That means they were in the same year at their academy. They've been brought up together, they know how the other one fights, how they think. They'll be looking out for each other. So it wouldn't hurt to stick with the careers at the start, but if 2 starts to dominate, if either of the kid's from 1 die, then you both need to split from them. Got it?" he asks and Taiya and Theo nod. "Now for them to take you seriously they need to know you're strong enough. You want them on your side and you want to scare the other districts away so I want you to show them what you can do. So Taiya, that means grab knives, spears, just make sure you hit the target every time. Theo, spears and trident. The people of the Capitol love Finnick," he said only to be interrupted by Finnick who snorted loudly, making Taiya look back at him. "They love Finnick," he continued, "which means you need to remind them of him. It's a sure way to get you sponsors. Things to avoid, Taiya, don't show them how fast you are. They don't need to know how quickly you can escape them, and Theo no hand to hand combat training, you still need to surprise people somehow. I need you both to focus and show off your skills, but I mainly want you to focus on survival. Any questions?"

"Do you want us at stations separately?" Theo asked.

"Absolutely not. You're a unit. Stick together at all times."

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"Smile," Theo whispered to Taiya as they stepped into the training rooms. "Put on your mask, it's an act remember."

"Got it," Taiya nodded as they walked further into the rooms and join the circle of tributes milling around waiting for everyone to arrive.

"Who are we waiting on?" Theo asked her.

"Umm," she looked around. "3, 7, 10, 11 and 12."

"Ok," he nodded. "We came at a good time." He then threw an arm around her shoulder.