District Two

Chapter Two

“Are you ok Riley?” Aaron asked.

“I am now,” I replied, “

Was I hallucinating or is Layla really in the hunger games with us?”

“Yeah, I’m so sorry Riley, but there are three winners this year.”

“What if she doesn’t make it that far?” I shook my head. “First they move her to another district now this?!” He hugged me tightly it felt good. I looked into his pale blue eyes and kissed him.

“I’m so sorry but we can find her and be with her an alliance.”

“You’re right! And now I’m going to try to sleep, I have a horrid headache.”

“You do that. Love you, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

I fell asleep quickly. I had a dream, I woke up and I was in a tree, I screamed for Aaron, and something rustled in the bushes. I jumped from the tree to the ground. Something lunged at me. I was down I looked into a tributes face I didn’t know who he was, as he smiled, I was so confused. Until I saw what was in his hand a bloody knife. I screamed. He said “I got your sister already, now it’s your turn.” I shrieked, and kicked him. I ran and ran, I ran and found the train, Millie was standing there saying lets go Riley time to go. I walked towards the train, as I walked in I saw a bloody trail I followed it to where I found Aaron, he was dead. I screamed.

“Riley, Riley!!! It’s ok no one is here its ok!” Aaron held me tightly in his strong arms

“You’re not dead! I had a horrible dream you and Layla died in the hunger games and I almost did to.” I breathed in slowly; he smelled like the pines that grew in our district, he made me feel safe.

“It’s ok we aren’t dead. We are going to be at the capital in three days, and in the arena in seven we should go eat.”

“Alright” we got up and I stumbled through the door, Aaron looked at me and smiled, he lifted me into his arms and I  rested my head against his chest. As we got to the dining car you could hear arguing, it sounded like Katherine, and Fallon fighting. We walked in and sat quietly everyone in the room was watching.

“Riley don’t you agree that Fallon should be coaching us, instead of the other mentors. He says he is too busy to help us with our training, the other mentors will most likely tell us things so we get easily picked off!” She screamed at me.

“I guess I do agree with you…” I said “Fallon you really should be helping us, because who else is going to?” I said to him.

“Obviously I need to visit my friends in the capital, not be helping some teenagers before they go and die anyway.” That’s when I got mad.

“Fallon you signed up for this and you got it so you’re gonna do your job and we will do ours, do you understand,” I started walking toward him and before I even noticed I was up in his face. “You listen to me,” I whispered. “If I can’t protect my sister and she dies, oh you will be sorry very sorry. Do you understand now?” he looked shocked it felt good to stand up to him.

“Yes I understand training starts tomorrow at seven am sharp be there or too bad you’re on your own.” He walked away from us and out of the dining car. As every one stared I sat down and began to eat.

I went to sleep that night with Aaron by my side; he was trying to keep me from having nightmares. It felt nice to know he cared. We woke at about six and he left my room as I quickly got dressed, I entered the dining cart and grabbed a roll and spread some jam across the top. I shoved it in my mouth, this food is amazing I thought I took a swig of juice and ran down to the training hall. Surprisingly it was just me and Fallon, in a few moments Aaron appeared, and then came Rosemary. We waited some more and soon Casey showed up then we waited until exactly seven, no one else came. We boarded the elevator all five of us and rode down silently. We came to a stop at ground level and walked into the training room. There were weapons everywhere there was a knot tying station a poisonous vs. edible plant table, even a camouflage area. We spread out. I grabbed a bow and started shooting targets, which was when Fallon came over to me and said…

“Don’t. Not quite yet, work with things you’re less used to until the day of scoring.” I nodded and put the bow down, I walked over to the swords, a trainer came to me and motioned to the weapons, he was asking to help train me. I nodded we walked over and selected our weapons I chose a sword that looked as if at the smallest touch could cause you to bleed severely. I looked over my shoulder, I saw Casey using a sword beautifully it looked almost graceful, not deadly. We began to “fight” he continuously nodded at me as if to tell me I was doing well. Eventually I got him to the ground and had won. I shook his hand and put my sword back in place. I decided to go over to the poisonous plant station, there were all kinds of berries to test yourself on, there was nightlock, to holyberries, and simple raspberries to strawberries. I easily went through them and passed with no fatal choices. Next I slid over to camouflage station, I made my hand look like grass and soon got bored, I knew I should stay here longer but we only had about twenty minutes left before the other tributes came. I went to the rope tying station, I learned how to tie a “monkey’s fist” and a noose. The twenty minutes went bye quickly, Fallon came over to get me.

“We train tomorrow at eight pm again with only our district.” I nodded, “You did well today, sweet pea let’s see what tomorrow brings.”