The morning of our second day of training goes smoothly. At lunch Cato stops next before I can leave.
"Hey, what's going on up on twelve?" He says softly.
"Haymitch is mentoring me separately. He wanted to know if we had anything that could be used to our advantage and I told him about ya know the kissing so he's gonna talk to Terra to see what they can do as a team." I say softly. Cato nods.
"Terra will help." He says. "Now the private session."
"I'm doing archery. I'll make sure they notice me." I smile. Cato smiles and kisses me softly.
"Alright well try not to stand out to much." He says. He leaves A few seconds before I do. I rejoin Gale at the same table as last time and we fall silent. We eat quickly and stay at the table until we're set free again. We go to the spears as a team like Haymitch instructed us to. The girl from 11 in watching us. She looks ten up close.
"I think her name is Rue." Gale says softly.
"What does it matter?" I snap. After all what does it matter? One of us will be dead in a few days or weeks. Gale shrugs and drops it. We move on and this time Rue joins us. She's smart, she's good with plants like me and she always hits the target with a slingshot. It makes me wonder what she could do with a slingshot against someone like Gale or Cato? I mean with the right shot she could take them down but it would have to be a perfect shot. Gale breaks away from us to weightlift.
"You shouldn't trust your District partner." Rue says softly. I glance over at her.
"I don't. You be careful in the arena okay? Try and out live everyone." I say softly. She nods and we part. I head back over to the swords. It wouldn't be terrible to have professional help.
"Ash!" Leto says obviously relieved to see me.
"Leto. I'm just hear to learn how to use a sword." I say stiffly. I watch Cato dismember a dummy. He's my competition. Sure he's also on my side but if it gets down to the two of us how am I supposed to beat him?
"Well you're too small for swords like that, so how about a short sword." Leto hands me a short sword and I hold it in my hand for a moment. I hate the weight in my palm. I hate that I know it could kill someone. I swing the sword and it once again gets stuck in the arm of the dummy. I manage to get it free and instead stab the dummy. I would be better with a knife then a sword. Leto leaves to help another tribute and Cato pauses.
"Well shorty guess that gives me one advantage." He says. He's giving me a smirk but his eyes are smiling.
"They don't always have swords." I shoot back suppressing my smile. He steps closer so he's towering over me. I cross my arms and fake a glare up at him.
"They don't always have bows either doll." He says softly enough that no one else can hear. The nickname makes me shiver.
"Yes well good luck with that." I step back and leave the area before I start blushing. I can tell he's grinning behind me. I go over to the throwing knives which I know I was supposed to avoid but I might as well get some practice.
I spend the rest of the day by the knives with Clove, the girl from Cato's District. By the time we're done with training I'm ready to crash and leave to eat dinner and get clean. Instead of heading up to the roof to spend time with Cato, I'm forced to talk to Effie about making myself seem more approachable to the other tributes. They're going to kill me anyway.
The next morning I wake and get dressed. I sneak over to Haymitch's room and shake him awake. "What?" He snaps.
"You said you wanted to meet Terra this morning while Cato and I train." I answer crossing my arms. Haymitch sighs.
"I'm coming. Just let's me get dressed." He says. I nod and leave the room for the elevator. I wait for Haymitch to join me. He joins me after a minute and we walk into the elevator. We shoot down to floor two and Cato and Terra join us. While Cato doesn't kiss me this morning he does sneakily take my hand.
"Alright we talked yesterday today we're talking to you two." Terra says. I nod. The elevator opens and our mentors lead us to the dining room.
"Alright. We're giving you two a better backstory." Haymitch says sitting down. "You two met on Terras victory tour. You started talking on the phone. You fell in love. Now you're here, and you proposed."
"Guess we're moving quickly." Cato jokes. I smile.
"So when and how did he propose?" I ask.
"He proposed on the roof, the last night of training. Which I tipped of Caesar Flickerman. He's all over it. So you have to propose to her tonight." Terra says. Cato nods. I smile.
"Do I at least get a ring?" I joke. Haymitch sets a ring box on the table. I open it. "You have good taste."
"I know." Cato jokes.
"Okay so you two have to play it up during the interviews. You can't live without each other." Terra says. I nod.
"Now we just have to get that surly attitude out." Haymitch grins.
"I don't have a surly attitude." I answer.
"You're just like your dad." Haymitch says. "I should know, he was my best friend."
"Alright maybe I'm sort of surly." I shrug. Haymitch grins.
"Go train." He says. Cato and I leave.
The morning of our final day of training starts normal. At lunch we're kept inside the dining room as people are called one by one. Cato glances over at me as he leaves. Finally it dwindles down to me and Gale. Gale finally gets called and then I go in. By now they've had too much to drink. They're distracted. I can't hope that they'll notice me. So I guess I have to make them notice me.
"Ash Rooker. District Twelve." I say loudly. They kind of start paying attention. I grab a bow and the matching quiver and take aim. I hit the bullseye and glance up. They've taken to ignoring me. After my name they must've written me off. Anger wells up inside of me. Haymitch is right, I am like my father. We both get angry quickly. I pull back an arrow and aim it at the Apple in the pigs mouth. The pig had just arrived and they were starting to gather. I released the arrow and it flew exactly where I was aiming. It buries itself in the wall behind them with the Apple attached. I bow sarcastically. "Thank you for your consideration." I say.
I leave the room and quickly strip off my archery equipment. I throw it to the side and step into the elevator letting it shoot up to my floor. I step off and walk to my room closing the door behind me. I curl under the blankets and stay there for a few hours. Finally Effie calls me for dinner and I stand walking out to the dining room.
"So how did your sessions go?" Haymitch asks. Gale shrugs.
"Good. They did really pay attention to me though." He says.
"I shot an arrow at their heads." I answer. "Well at an Apple but it was by their heads."
Haymitch grins. "I would've loved to see their faces."
"They were just kind of shocked. So I left." I smile. Haymitch shakes his head.
"Genius." He grins. "Absolute genius."
"How about bad manners?" Effie sniffs. "They could do so much to her."
"They're already going to kill me! What the hell else can they do?" I snap.
"Without telling people what you did, which they can't, they won't do much." Haymitch shrugs. "They May give you a bad score but I doubt it."
"Well it's time for the scores." Effie turns on the tv and the names start passing by. Cato manages to get a ten. Most people don't have great scores. Gale manages to get an eight. They must've been gone watching him a little.
"Ash Rooker with a score of Eleven." Caesar reads. My eyes widen. I got the best score this year.
"Congratulations!" Effie cheers. Everyone around me starts to congratulate me. Effie orders a cake to celebrate our scores and before long everyone is passed out. I stand and walk up to the roof. Cato waits for me.
"So an eleven." He says softly.
"Guess they liked me." I answer. He smiles.
"Guess they'll have a bow." He says softly. He glances at a corner where people are lurking. "Guess it's time."
"Guess it is." I agree. He gets down on one knee.
"Ash Rooker, will you marry me?" He says. I cover my mouth and nod.
"Yes!" I exclaimed. I wrap my arms around him and hide my face so they don't see that I'm not crying. He gently slips the ring on me.
"Good job doll." He says softly. I nod.
"You too." I say back. We leave the roof to find some privacy.
"Be careful of the other careers. They're mad you upstaged them." Cato warns. I nod and with that he leaves me. I walk into the living room and find Haymitch.
"How did it go?" He asks.
"Good. Guess I'm engaged." I say dropping onto the couch next to him. He passes me a bottle. I take a swig and it burns going down.
"Well here's to hoping you make it out sweetheart." Haymitch says. We stay there drinking until we pass out.