The Hunger Games

Chapter 5

           I walk out of my room once I’m finished, and head to the dining room to eat. When I get there, there is no one, and nothing on the table. I only see one of the Avoxes.

          “Am I allowed to serve myself?” I ask her.

          She nods, and hands me a clean plate.

          Joan and Danny enter the room the minute I finish filling my plate. I glance at Danny, and quickly look away, finding him only looking at me frowning. I sit down and eat some bacon and these things called crêpes.

          As I eat, Danny is looking at me the whole time, making me feel uneasy, but I ignore it and pretend I don’t notice.

         Joan then speaks. “So, for training, I was wondering if you guys wanted to train together, or separate.”

          I look at Joan and was about to say separate, but Danny cuts me off, as usual.

          “We’ll train together.” He says glancing at me. “I’m pretty sure we want every last minute of our friendship to count.”

          “Okay.” Joan says. “I figured because you two are both so close, and you already know each other’s strategy. So there is nothing to hide.” She looks at us and drinks a sip of her hot chocolate.

          After breakfast, Joan takes us down to the training center where we would train.

          “Okay,” Joan starts, “Now, everything here is basically what you’ll be offered during the games. Train hard. You have three days till your final test with the Gamemakers. Then after that, you have a ‘free day’ but you’ll be training for the interviews. Then you have the interviews the day before you’re sent off to the Games.”

          I look at her and nod. I step out of the elevator and find everyone else already there, surrounding a woman. I walk over and stand next to a small girl. The woman tells us what to do and how we would train and stuff. When she is done, we’re all sent off.

          I grab a few knives, a bow and a few arrows and walk over to the station with all the dummies and work on shooting a dummy. I shoot it straight into the heart. I throw a knife and it lands in the throat. I’m good at this…maybe it’s not so hard to kill a real person after all. I shake at the thought of killing someone. Sure I’m a fighter, but not a killer. If I killed, I would regret it, killing a person is just sick.

          “Hey.” A voice startles me as I’m about to throw another knife.

          I turn around seeing the guy I threw the rock at from District 4. “What do you want?” I ask in annoyance.

          He looks at me and grins. “You looked stunning in the parade yesterday.”

          I roll my eyes and begin to turn around, but he grabs my arm and stops me.

          “By the way, my name’s Peter. And you’re Katharine, correct?” He looks at grinning.

          I look at him like I could care less in this damn world. “Yeah, and Peter, what do you want? As you can see, I’m trying to train.”

          “Well, you seem strong and all, so I was wondering if we could be allies during the Games.” He says.

          I look at him in disgust. “No. I’m not planning of having any allies. I might as well fight on my own. And then, sooner or later, you’ll probably end up killing me anyway.”

          “So you’re not going to team up with that kid from your District?” He asks looking over at Danny who is throwing knives as well.

          I shake my head and turn around, showing him that this conversation is over. Why did he care about me so much? I then shoot an arrow into the dummy’s stomach.

          Danny keeps looking over at me as I walk over to get some water, but I just keep my distance. He won’t ever take his eyes off me, that if we weren’t friends, I’d call him a stalker.

          After about an hour of training, Joan calls me and Danny over to talk to us.

          “Yes?” Danny asks as we walk up.

          Joan looks at both of us and sighs. “You’re doing great out there. Now, I need you to keep focus.” She was looking at Danny. “You should stop zoning out into space. And you keep looking at Katharine. Why?”

          Danny hesitates and then replies, “It’s because of something that happened last night. It’s nothing.”

          Joan looks at us and sighs. “Well, then make up. Figure out your problems. I need you both to stay focus. Anyway, it’s lunch time. Go and get something to eat.”

          I nod and walk away. Why would she tell us to make up if were forced to me enemies during the Games?

          It takes me about half a minute to realize Danny was following me. I turn around and look at him.

          “Look—” He starts, but I interrupt him.

          “Danny, don’t follow me. I want to be alone. What happened last night is done, and I don’t want to talk about it.” I then walk away, glancing back only once to see him upset, and looking as if he was going to cry. I then feel uneasy. I feel guilty. He was only trying to apologies…and I’d accept it. I just don’t want to meet up with him during the games when I care for him so much…but I do care about him. And I don’t think anything could change that. Not even avoiding him.

          After lunch, for the rest of the day, I train on my own quietly. Not talking or even glancing at Danny. Even though I couldn’t stop thinking about how bad of a friend I’ve been lately towards him. Will he ever forgive me? No, I can’t be his friend. In the Games, I need to be his enemy.

          When the day ends, Danny and I ride the elevator back up to the twelfth floor. Danny doesn’t look at me or say a word, and I’m too nervous to. When we reach our floor, he looks at me and says good night, and walks away. I couldn’t help but feel as if I wanted to cry, but no tears came. What have I done? No, don’t feel sympathy. Do not have sympathy for him! I think loudly to myself. I walk back to my room, and order food. After I eat, I take a shower and go to bed.