Dangerous Affection- The Hunger Games- A Cato Love Story

Chapter 9: Training

Chapter 9- Training

My eyes quickly find those pair of sparkling blue ones that make my heart skip a beat, though I'll never admit it. I quickly look away, but not before Cato notices, and I get a smirk of satisfaction in return.

As soon as we join the circle, the head trainer, a tall, athletic woman named Atala steps up and beings to explain the training schedule. She tells us experts in each skill will remain at their stations, to assist us if needed. We will be free to travel from area to area as we please, keeping in mind our mentor's instructions. The stations range from survival skills to fighting techniques. We are forbidden to engage in any combative exercise with another tribute, but if we feel the need for a partner, there are assistants there for that.

As Atala reads a list of all the stations, I can't help my eyes from flicking to all the other tributes. It is the first time we've all been in the same room without the extravagant costumes on, and my heart sinks a bit. All of the boys are at least twice my size, and at least half the girls are bigger than I am, even though the majority of them hadn't been fed properly either. You can see it in their bones, eyes, skin. I may be smaller than them all, but Xavier and my resourcefulness kept me ahead a little in that area- which was saying something. I stand straighter, and while I'm thin, I'm strong. I don't give up just yet.

The big exceptions were kids from the districts with all the money, the volunteers, the ones who have been trained all their lives for this day to come. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 normally have this look about them. Technically, it's against the rules to train before the Games, but it happens every year, and I guess it makes the Games better to watch, because they never do anything about it. In District 11, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. More often than not, the winner is one of them.

When Atala releases us, the Careers, and some of the others that want to be a part of their group, head over to the deadliest-looking weapons, handling them with ease.

I'm just thinking it's a good thing that I'm a fast runner when Ryder comes up behind me and taps me on the shoulder. I jump a good ten feet in the air, and I spin around to face him. His expression hardly changes. "Where would you like to start?"

I look around, seeing the Careers, who are clearly trying to show off, and the rest of the tributes, either trying to learn how to use a weapon, or better perfect one they've had some experience with. "Suppose we tie some knots." I say.

"Sounds awesome," Ryder says, and heads in the direction of the empty station, where the trainer seems pleased to have some students. Obviously the knot-tying class isn't exactly the hot spot in the Hunger Games. When he realizes I know a thing or two about snares, he shows us a simple trap that will leave our competitors dangling by a leg from a tree. We concentrate on this one skill until we have mastered it. Then we move on to camouflage. I tend to have more of a knack for it than Ryder, swirling berry juices, leaves, mud and clay along my arms, making an okay attempt at vines and leaves. The trainer says I have promise, and focuses on giving me tips. Ryder looks on, copying what I'm doing fairly well.

"Where'd you learn to do this?" Ryder asks me.

"Do what?" I ask, my mind currently preoccupied with watching the boy from District 2 send a spear through a dummy's heart from twenty yards away.

"Um, what we are currently doing at the moment," Ryder says.

I blink at him. "Oh! Uh, I guess I'm a bit more artistic then I thought... I used to like to paint. My mother would mix up some with juices from the berries and such and I'd paint away..." It wasn't real paint, but it was the only one I'd had anything to do with, so it was the real stuff to me.