Sharp Objects

chapter eight

"Hello? Anyone there? Stop catching flies!" Shouts a voice from behind me. I whirl around and accidentally elbow cato In the ribs. Oh well,at least that got his attention, seeing as it was tallulah who was shouting at us.

"Right,now you've stopped marveling at the weapons"says tallulah, annoyance plaguing her pale white face " go over there to see atala." She points towards a woman,standing at the centre of a large circle. " she's the head trainer. Listen to her and you'll get good advice and won't get into trouble. I shall come and collect you later." And with that, she totters into the elevator and the doors close behind her, leaving cato and I alone in a room with dangerous weapons.

I start towards the atala woman,and she notices us and waves us forward. " ah, tributes are arriving,good.who are you?"

" cato and clove,district 2" says cato before I can even open my mouth.

Atala smiles and tells us to go and wait around the circle until the other tributes arrive.

After around ten minutes, the others are all here, Marvel and glimmer from district 1 are standing right next to Cato and I,and I know that we're going to have us following us all day. Atala steps up on to her podium, and begins her speech.

In two weeks, 23 of your will be dead,1 of tou will be alive. Who that it depends on how long you pay attention to what I am about to say. There are 3 compulsory exercises, the rest will be individual training. My advice is, don't ignore the survival skills. Everybody wants to grab a sword, but must of you will die from natural  causes, 10 percent from infection, 20 percent from dehydration, exposure can kill as easy as a knife. There are other trainers on hand to practice with if you need a partner. No fighting with the other tributes with be permitted.now,off tou go, and begin your training for the 74th annual hunger games." She finishes, leaving us all standing there.i focus on every single word she says, which is more then I can say for cato : he is obviously holding up the competition, trying to intimidate everyone already,with just his general arrogance. From what I can see,it works. If he can just scare people with that, then it'll be funny to see what happens when he picks up a sword.

All the tributes disperse from the circle and make their way to the different training stations. I go straight to the knives, and join the queue forming behind the girl from district 7, who is even shorter then me, and needs a trainer to help her. That's her out in one throw,I'll make sure of it.

She attempts one throw at the easiest dummy,not even waiting for the actual exercise to start, the one with dummies light up and you have to throw at the right one before the timer goes off, and she doesn't even hit the dummy.the knife fulls feebly to the floor at the dummy feet. unless.

Next up, is the boy from district 5. He doesn't even seem as much use either,although he at least can actually hit the dummy.

" hi,I'm glimmer." Says a voice from behind me. I swivel around,and there she is,Glimmer, the girl from district 1, the perfect, pretty blonde.

"Clove." I reply, shaking her outstretched hand. She beams back at me and launches into a generic district 1 babble.

"I'm from district 1, and I've been training for this for years. I can't wait to get into the arena. You're from 2 right? Wanna be allies? What's your weapon?" I raise my hands as if to say 'stop' and she halts her chanting.

"Yes,district 2. I guess I have no choice. And knives." I drawl, then I swivel back round and watch the district 8 guy's attempt. God,I've never realise how sullen and moody I am. Maybe thas is why I have no friends. But Glimmer doesn't seem to mind.

"Oh,so we're allies then? Great! I've already got Marvel, he's a guy from my district.and I might ask the guy from yours later" she says,smiling.

" already done." I say,my back to her, focused on my knives, trying to figure out the sequence of the dummies lighting up. It doesn't look like there's is a proper pattern.