Hunger Games

Training Day.

It had been a weird morning so far. Ever since the parade I happened to be Ciri's new personal bragging right. She marched me down the hallway with her to flaunt me to some of her friends that must have been escorts for other districts. She seemed to have some sort of connection to me. She even asked me about my life and what I liked doing. It had been a long time since someone had asked me that. 

"She's attached to you" Lane had muttered under his breath while we stood in the elevator to get to the training room. I looked over at him and saw him with his arms crossed over his body as he watched the floor as if it was the most interesting thing he had seen all day. 

"So what?" I ask and his eyes finally snap to mine. There was something dark in his eyes. Something that I didn't think I would see from the same boy who liked to crack jokes every ten seconds when he was in front of a crowd. 

"So, don't think of her as a friend. She wants you dead just as much as everyone else does" he spits and I raise an eyebrow 

"It would actually benefit her if one of us win" I state and he lets a dark chuckle push past his lips 

"But then she couldn't fake sob while she watches us bleed out in the arena which means she won't be able to get all that attention from her real friends." he says and I shrug my shoulders. He made a good point but if I was going to die in the arena like I already knew I was. Then I didn't want to spend my last moments being mean to every person I was in contact with. 

"I won't get attached to her" I assure and he gives me a small nod before the elevator finally comes to a stop breaking the awkward tension between us. As soon as we entered the training room I noticed that we were one of the last people here. All eyes were fell onto us and I felt exposed like people were trying to understand every move I made. My eyes drifted over to familiar blue ones and I watched as Clay placed his hand in the air before wiggling his fingers in some sort of wave with a big grin on his face. I saw the other careers standing next to him including the girl from district 2 who had already threatened me. They were all whispering and giggling to themselves and suddenly I felt as if Clay was just messing with me. I probably was his first target in the arena. Someone came up behind me and pinned an 11 to both Lanes and I's back and we all stood around listening to the woman who was at the front of the stage telling us the rules of training as soon as she was finished people immediately began heading to different stations and I stood next to Lane as we studied the area 

"Any ideas?" he asks and I sigh 

"Well I think we can both agree we can kind of handle weapons but I have no idea about plants and survival so I think we should start there first" I say and when he doesn't respond I look over at him and he's got a shit eating grin on his face. 

"Thats a fucking great plan" he responds and I smile before we walk over to the plant area. About an hour into learning about plants I heard the laughter from the careers and my head snapped up to see them laughing at some poor little girl who was trying and failing to throw knives. I watched as her lip trembled as the careers laughter grew even louder. I noticed that even Clay was joining in with the laughter this time and I immediately felt my hands begin to clench. What a bunch of fucking assholes. As if Clay expected me to ever join him after shit like this. The girl couldn't be more than thirteen and they were just making fun of the fact she couldn't throw a knife. I bet they'd slit her throat without thinking about it. As I jumped up Lane gripped onto my hand

"What are you doing?" he growls but I just shake my hand away from his 

"I'm going to teach them a lesson" I spit before I rush past him and towards the knife throwing station. I make it a point to push past Clay and I watch as his eyes widen at the contact but I pay him no attention as I stand next to the young girl. Thats when I noticed the District 10 on her back and her eyes immediately snapped up to mine with a face full of worry. Her hair was in two pigtails and she had a small fringe covering her forehead. "You need help?" I ask but she says nothing as she just continues looking at me with her big, brown, wide eyes. 

"What you doing Cin? Making alliances with the kiddies maybe you are really weak." I hear a girls voice says and I look up to see the girl from district two laughing "You were really gonna make this loser part of our alliance Clay?" she asks looking over at Clay who now had a serious expression on his face as he watched me standing next to the young girl. I cleared my throat before I looked down at her and smiled 

"Don't listen to them" I whisper and she gives me a small nod before she looks back down at the knife in her hand "you ever picked thrown one before?" I ask and she shakes her head before I reach over and hold out my hand for her to pass me the knife, she looks at my hand as if it might try to slap her any second. "I promise I'm trying to help you. My friends and I used to see who could throw our machettes the furthest. I've kind of mastered the art of throwing" I state and she gives me a small nod before handing the knife over to me and I look down at the knife. It was a balanced knife. Meaning I could hold either end and it would hit the target. "Take one step forward along the line of the throw towards your target. Then, holding the knife at a horizontal position, the knife tip should be pointed forward, make soft swings and release the knife, throwing it right towards the target. Always works" I state before I let the knife fly from my hands and I watch as it hits the target right in the bullseye. The careers were silent next to me and I could see from across the room that Lane was watching me with his arms folded. "Your turn" I whisper and I watch as the little girl picks up a knife before she tries to do the stand. I smile as her first try hits the target but not quite the bullseye 

"Sorry" she whispers but I shrug

"Takes practice" I state and she smiles over at me gratefully. " My names Cinder by the way but people call me Cin"I whisper and she studies me closely. 

"Rain" she states pointing towards herself.