The next day came unwelcomed, grouchy and I dragged my sleep-deprived self out of bed for the first day of training. The only thing keeping me smiling was the thought of last night with Jake. I slid into the chair beside him for breakfast and he smiled at me a bit too obviously.
Enobaria raised her eyebrows then pointed her fork at us. "Separate, you two. I would keep relationships to the minimum if I were you" she ordered and Jake moved to the other side of the table frowning. "No trust, no hate. Therefore, no trivial problems" Enobaria said before whisking us both off to training.
Even though we were at the training center well before 10 o' clock the room was already filled with a dozen or more tributes. "Jake, I want you at the weightlifting center and rope climbing" Enobaria directed shooing Jake away then she turned to me. "Alice, I want you at the edible plants and trap setting stations. If you have time check out the camouflage one". I nodded and scurried towards the edible plants center eager to learn.
"Name the top 9 most common berries found in the arena over the past 75 games," my instructor said.
I closed my eyes shut trying to recall the exotic fancy names. "Cloudberries, Gooseberries, Elderberries, Boysenberries, Bilberries, Ligonberries..." my voice trailed off as I was unable to recall the other 3 common berries.
My instructor sighed, "Huckleberries, Thimbleberries, and Dewberries. How old are you? Your memory is startling bad" he asked.
I frowned feeling offended, "I am 14, and it's not my fault the courses I took in the Capitol never involved plants" I snapped back. The trainer blinked and tossed me a thick heavy book.
"Here, study that. Tomorrow I expect you to have everything memorized" he ordered before turning on his heels before I could protest. I stomped in frustration and stomped off into the trap setting stations. It turned out that I was pretty handy and managed to learn 6 basic traps before dinner time.
"What's that?" Enobaria asked pointing to the 10-pound book sitting beside me.
I rolled my eyes, "I have to memorize the plants from page 25-60" I said my voice filled with distaste.
Jake snorted earning a glare from me but Enobaria nodded approvingly. "That's good! You should memorize your foods. My district partner died from berry poisoning". I blinked, I had seen enough tribute deaths from poison for a lifetime. The thought of me lying on the ground spitting out poisoned blood made me shudder.
I left dinner early that day and locked myself in my room flipping through the pages angrily. Finally, I stopped procrastinating and told myself to study.
Fine, maybe my memory is bad. But I will not die on stupid berries! I am not going to be beaten by some stupid book!
"...Nightlock and Blueshades" I finished with a flourish rather proud of myself.
My trainer smiled, "Not bad! I didn't expect you to memorize all 26 poisonous berries in one night! That's amazing".
"Thanks!" I said my day feeling already bright from the successful exam. I turned to leave from the plant center to run right into the last people I needed to meet.
"Don't be so full of yourself princess, you won't need poisonous berries when you meet my bow and arrow" Rebecca sneered right in my face. I looked down rolling my eyes trying to walk away but Brian caught my arm and pinned me against the wall.
"Hey! Watch it! No one rolls their eyes at us" Brian hissed. The impact hurt a lot on my right shoulder and a small tear formed in my eye.
"Oh boo hoo!" Rebecca said falsely, "Don't worry, your death will be a lot quicker than berry poisoning when you meed my knife". I looked desperately towards Jake but he didn't notice. "Looks like I didn't beat you hard enough during the rankings did I?" said Rebecca, "Let's finish the fight we started.
Just as Rebecca was about to land a punch in my face someone from behind her tripped her and another person pulled Brian away and kicked him to the ground. The boy proceeded to beat up Brian while Tessa rushed over to me. "You okay girl?" she asked, "Those rank 1 nut heads are such retards. Don't worry about them". After deeming Brian and Rebecca injured enough Tessa's rank partner jogged over.
"Hi, Alice! I'm Henry!" the tall 15-year-old boy said shaking my hand so hard I felt as if it would pop out of its socket.
"Hi" I responded smiling shyly.
"This is my cousin Henry," Tessa said smiling.
"Oh," I said softly, wondering how it felt to be thrown into a deathmatch with your relative. It must be alright if Tessa was happy. I looked at the hopeless smile the cousins shared with each other, they couldn't protect each other in the arena, and a great idea popped into my head.
"Hey! I was wondering if you would be my ally" I asked. The cousins looked at each other like it was too good to be true.
"Really? You would ally with us? But your rank 2!" Tessa said in disbelief.
"We're friends," I said grinning from ear to ear, "And friends always protect each other's backs".