I can still do this

chapter 16

The training facility is nearby, so it's not that long of a walk. Right inside the doors, there's a place to take off our shoes and put on special soft, flexible ones that are mold to our feet. I leave my jacket on; I'm not going to be doing much. Cato keeps his hoodie on, too, and the other two are already dressed in skin-tight clothes that look stretchy.

The three of them know where they're going, so I follow them into what appears to be the main training room. It's several stories high, with openings in the walls that are either sort of observation decks or doorways to other training rooms.

Immediately, Sophia leaps away into the large, complicated maze of netting and bars that sprawls over about the quarter of the room. Silas sticks by my side, and Cato takes me over to the target range. "Show them what you can do," he whispers. People are already staring at me, whispering to each other about who I am. "Make them respect you."

"Don't they already?" I say playfully, sauntering across the room with him. Confidence is easy to fake with him next to me.

"Yeah, yeah they do. But more never hurts."

He's looking out for me again, keeping my public image up. How can I say no to that? Plus, it's very tempting to have this chance, to show his siblings and all those other tributes who think twelve's kid are useless exactly what we can do.

"Are you going to throw for me?" I ask.

He points at a dude standing by some kind of machine. "Joss will." He hands me a black bow that seems to be made out of a type of metal, but it's more flexible than that. I take the quiver of arrows he offers me and sling it on my back, fire an experimental shot into a target directly in front of me.

Bull's-eye. This bow feels just like my father's, same spring, same tension in the string. I'm pretty sure he chose this one on purpose, which is impressive and crazy. But I won't question that right now.

I nod at Joss before I have the chance to get nervous about the fact that every tribute has stopped training to watch me. "Go," I say, and he pushes a few buttons. A shape shoots out of the machine. Without thinking, I aim and shoot. The fake bird drops out of the sky, shot through where the eye would be.

A good shot, but not nearly impressive enough for this district of killers. After a few more birds, Joss seems to catch on and ups it to two at a time. I get both of them every time, three times in a row, and then he turns it up to three.

We continue it this way for several minutes, until he's sending six up at a time and I still hit every one straight through the eye before they fall, about a dozen times in a row.

Joss is openly grinning at me - I guess he appreciates an archer. Cato looks much more subtly proud, crossing his arms and jutting his chin out, practically daring someone to challenge me now. "More," I prompt. I think I can handle it.

"That's as high as the machine goes," Joss is happy to tell me.

"Sophia." I look around for her - she hurtles towards me, suddenly proud to know me. "Throw one up with the others. Can you do that?"

Of course she can. She nods and throws a fake bird up at the exact right time, right into the middle of the ones shot out of the machine, perfectly, so it's easy to hit every single one of them right through the middle.

A trainer sidles up to Cato. I hear him whisper, "Did you know she could shoot like this?"

Seven more birds shoot up into the air. Seven fall to the ground, shot through. I'm half-listening for the answer from Cato. Finally, he says, "I knew she could shoot. Not like this, though. This is the first time I've really seen her go for it."