Distractions (Hunger Games/Clove)

Reaping Day Part 1

Some reference for this story, I'm basing the idea of 4 being a career district from the books, with the girl being part of the careers group but I'm basing the story itself off the movies, including the characters.

"Misty, wake up, you have training in an hour!" my eyes shot open at the sound of my mother's voice calling me from down the hall. "shit." I mumbles under my breath, I completely forgot that I had a session scheduled with my trainer today, no one has school on reaping day. I reluctantly pulled myself up into a sitting position, yawning and running my hands through my messy hair. I winced as my fingers got caught in the mess and reached over to my side table, grabbing the brush off of it and began to work it through my hair before grabbing an elastic and putting my hair into a pony tail; that'll do. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, stretching one last time before standing up and making my way over to my dresser where my clothes for the day sat. I slid on the pants and shirt, not bothering the bathe as I'll need to do it again anyways then sat down on the bed to lace up my boots.

I hoped off the bed and made my way down to the kitchen where my mother stood, slicing bread. "there you are, you better get going now or you'll be late." she said, quickly smearing butter onto the thin slice and handing it to me before pushing me out the door. Before I left I caught a glimpse of the clock on the kitchen table, 5:18am, an ungodly time to be awake. The walk to the training center was long but I didn't mind it. The sun rising mixed with the light breeze coming off the ocean made the walk quite pleasant. To get to the training center you have to walk across the square which is normally quite say for some vender setting up shop or fishermen coming from the opposite direction on their way to work but today it was filled with people constructing the stage for todays reaping.

My stomach jumped with anticipation, today is the day I get to go into the game! The games are a big part of my families history, my moms older sister won the 31st hunger games many years ago and today is the day that my trainers decided that I would go. I can see it now, 'the Victor of the 74th hunger games, Misty Orwell', it has a ring to it, doesn't it? I snap out of my thoughts as I walk up the school steps, passing through the front door and talking an immediate left towards the training wing. Here in district 4 we take training very seriously. Not every child is enrolled in the duel program and it is certainly more work but if they see it in you, you almost have no choice. Not that any of us mind, almost everyone loves the games, especially people who have a family history of winning.

"morning Ivy." I said simply, tossing my bag beside the door and walking into the gymnasium, taking a seat on the mat across from her. She looked up from her book and smiled at me before letting her eyes wander up to the clock behind my head. "10 minutes early, that's what I like to see. How did you sleep last night?" she asked, standing up as I started to stretch. "fine enough, I was too excited to close my eyes but before I knew it, it was morning." I said and felt her hands on my back, pushing my shoulder blades together. I took a mental note of that, 'keep you back straight when you throw or you'll pull something'. It's going to be pretty tough not having my trainer with me before the games because I've been training with her since I was 8 but as long as I remember my training I'll be fine.

"good, I'm glad to hear you're excited. When you're done stretching meet me by the archery range." she said, hoping down from the mat and walking over. I stretched for a few more minutes before following her over, I cannot wait for this afternoon. After almost an hour of circuit training between throwing knives and archery, I was getting tired. I shot an arrow and missed the target by a few centimeters. "you're slouching!" Ivy exclaimed as I loaded another arrow into the bow, pulled my chest forward and shot again but this time it hit smack dab in the middle of the target. From behind me I heard clapping as well as the sound of heeled shoes hitting the gym floor. "great shot sweetheart." my aunts voice echoed through the gym and a smile instantly hit my face. "hi aunt Lila, what are you doing over here?" I asked, handing the bow to Ivy and walking towards her with outstretched arms.

"I had to come see my pride and joy before the reaping ceremony though you're not exactly looking like victor material right now." she laughed as she pulled away from our hug, pushing strands of hair out of my beet red face and tucking it behind my ear. "that's when you know she's getting a good lesson in." Ivy's voice came from behind me. "I'm not surprised Ivy, you're the best of the best and I'll have nothing less for my niece." she smiled widely at the woman. My aunt told me that she'd come by my house later the left us to finish our training session. "I think I want to practice some hand to hand combat with you and after that you should be good to go." she explained as we walked back over the mat and got into a position where we were facing each other.

"ok, what I want you to remember when you're in the arena is that you are small but mighty. You're stronger than you look which is great for you, use the element of surprise to your advantage. We're going to focus on your defence today, blocking and evading until you get to a point where you are in control of the situation. Let's go through a few scenarios. Say you are face to face with someone who is from district 7. They are usually quite strong, well rounded fighters..." we went over a few scenarios over the last hour of our session and by the time we were done I was drenched with sweat but filled with adrenaline. "you did great today, you always do. I know you have it in you to win or I wouldn't be sending you but whatever happens just know that you are and always will be my favorite student." Ivy smiled and we shared a tight embrace. "now get going, you smell like you just finished a shift at the docks." I laughed and thanked her again before grabbing my bag and starting the walk home.