Chapter five
The Tactics
The training centre is so tall that each district has it's own floor. When we - Rory, Lake, Ryder, Afton, Varnish, the prep teams and I - get to the lift all we need to do is press the button that says twelve an were shooting upwards. The glass elevator is so much quicker than the one in the justice building that it takes no more than fifteen seconds to reach the top floor. When the doors open I gasp.
It is like looking into the centre of a rainbow, it's all open plan except from the bedrooms so just by standing in the lift you can see everything. Each room is painted a different colour and it's so bright that, as well as the fact the opening ceremony went well it, it cheers me up. It's like when you know your going to die you try to appreciate the good things, and these rooms definitely count as a good thing.
I am the first out of the lift closely followed by Lake who settles herself in the living room like she owns the place. I walk around the rooms touching everything, my favourite piece is the swirly vase in the lounge which is made of glass and twists intricately with itself. I pick it up and caress it's smooth surface.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Lake asks from the sofa.
"Everything." I say simply. This makes her smile.
"And this is just for twelve, District ones floor is pure heaven!" I pretend I didn't hear what she said. I suppose Lake wouldn't see her comment as an insult to us, but it is. "I'll show you your room!" She squealed.
I gently place the vase back on it's shelf and follow her into one of the four doors. It's instantly my favourite room and not just because it's my own but because of it's simpleness. The walls are turquoise and the bed is white. There is a wall made completely out of glass and I have an amazing view of the capitol. But most of all, on the wall above the bed is a painting. It is a painting of a house. My house. The garden is different but it looks exactly the same.
Lake see's me looking at it. "Nice isn't it? It's in twelve." It's in twelve
I stand for a while without saying anything so she leaves. I climb on the bed to get closer to the painting. It's exactly the same. I look closer at the painting and see for the first time a little figure just inside the door. It looks like she is closing the door behind her as she enters the house, her back is towards us but she is looking over her shoulder so I can see her face.
"Is it comfortable?" I jump and turn my head. It's Rory. He's frowning
"Er what?" I ask.
"Because it doesn't look comfortable. People usually lie down on beds." He grins.
"It's OK." I say laughing. I turn to examine the picture again. I thought he left the room but the change of weight on the bed informs me he didn't. He stands next to me on the bed.
"Funny, she looks just like you." Rory states matter-of-factually. I was looking more at the house rather than the girl but now I think about I realise he's right. Her hair is the same brown mine was before Afton's hair spray. I look closer so my nose is almost touching the paper and see that her eyes are brown too.
"It's in twelve. It's the same." I whisper.
"Whats the same?" He is obviously confused and so am I. Why is there a painting of our house in the capitol? And who is this woman who looks exactly like me?
"The house. This is my house, just a few years earlier." I say. It crushes down on me like a tidal wave. The woman in the picture is my grandmother. I gasp and jump back. I lose my footing and land on my back, luckily the mattress is really soft.
I sit up and put all my weight on my arms. "Oops."
Rory laughs and sits crossed legged opposite me. "Care to explain?"
"I think it might be my grandmother outside my house. But I don't know who painted it or why it's here." I sigh.
"Look in the corner it might say." Rory suggests. I stand up and look.
In the right bottom corner of the painting are two small letters.
J.R.
"Jace Rymore." I whisper. "My grandfather painted it. I should have guessed." I sit back down on the bed. Rory stays silent.
"So, what can you do?" Rory asks after a while.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"In the Games, do you have a plan?"
My plan is to wing it but from the sounds of it he has a plan so I don't want to tell him that. So I tell him what I will most likely do. "I might just put as much distance between me and the careers and hope I get sponsored." Even to me it sounded like a pretty bad plan. "How about you?"
"I'm going to the cornucopia and try to get supplies. I'm not exactly good at getting sponsers." He replies honestly.
I frown. He already has sponsors, this evening the audience was shouting for district 12. I tell him that and he shakes his head and smiles down at the bed sheet. "What?" I ask him.
"They were screaming for you." What does he mean they were screaming for me? They were screaming for us both. Weren't they?
The door opened and Varnish popped her head around the door. "Come to watch the Opening Ceremonies?" She asked, her voice went up and down so it sounded as though she was singing it.
Without missing a beat Rory jumped off the bed and close to ran out the room. I frowned at his quick flight but followed.
The rest of that evening flew by and before I knew it I was waking up again. I showered and dressed in the training outfit Afton left out for me. I was just examining my hair - which had gone back to it's natural colour in the shower - when Lake stepped into the room.
"Oh, you're awake." She said not sounding really surprised. Today she was wearing an orange wig with matching lipstick. Her face is powdered pink and her green dress was so short it barely reached the middle of her thy. "I thought those extensions were temporary?" Lake said.
"No they're perminant. I don't know what I should do with them for training. There so long." I say. It was a mistake. I realise only now to never ever talk about hair with someone from the capitol. Simply because five minutes later i'm sitting on the floor and Lake is standing over me creating intracate plaits with my hair. Her carefull fingers work quickly and pricisely and after not long her work is done.
She holds up the mirror for me to see. My brown hair has thousands of tiny plaits twisting with one another all leading to a large bun. "I love it!" I tell her.
"Thanks, it's a natural thing to have in the capitol!" She sounded really pleased that I liked it. "Well, we need to go. Ryder wants to talk to you and Rory."
I suddenly had a feeling of butterflys in my stomache. I was worried about being alone with Ryder. How am I to have a chance in the games if my mentor scares me? I then know my answer: I can't.
Lake leads me down to the dining room and we see Ryder is waiting for us. Rory is not there yet. I sit down as far away from Ryder as I can. We sit in a very awkward silence until finally Rory enters the room in an identical training outfit as me.
"Right. Lets get down to buisness. Do you want training seperately?" Training. Alone. With Ryder? No thanks.
"Why would we want that?" Rory asks.
"Incase you have a plan or secret weapon you don't want the other to find out about." Explained Ryder.
"I'm fine with doing it together. I have no secret skills at all." Please agree with me Rory so I don't have to be with Ryder alone. I chant in my head.
Luckily it works. "Me neither. We'll train together." Rory says.
"Ok. So tell me what you can do." He asks.
"Nothing." I say instantly. "I can't do a thing."
Ryder grunts. "And you?"
"I'm kinda strong I suppose."
Ryder sighs. It's obvious he hasn't got a winner this year. "In training try everything out, Ok? Everything. Natural things like making fires, examining herbs are always good. Try throwing knifes and archery and whatever your best at, that's what you show the gamemakers. Got it?" We both nod so Ryder gets up and leaves the room. We start breakfast in silence.