HURRICANE, finnick odair (hiatus)

vi. training score

CHAPTER SIX!

TRAINING SCORE.

FINNICK GENTLY KNOCKS HIS SHOULDER against Rosalie's as they sit around the table for breakfast. She moves her attention from the eggs on her plate to the boy who is smiling at her in the way only he can. The brunette's eyebrows raise whilst she chews her food eagerly.

"You ready for today?" Finnick questions his best friend who simply shrugs in response.

"I don't have much skill to show off but sure. I think I'll just throw some knives or something," Rosalie responds and Finnick simply shrugs in response.

"Better that you have a lower score, it allows you to fly under the radar,"

"Yeah, maybe,"

Zachariah and Mags are sitting across from them, eating their meals and deciding not to join in the chatter. She's well aware that Zachariah is still not overly fond of Finnick or herself but he has been a little more sociable with her the past couple of days. His training score will more than likely exceed her's by a lot, he will more than likely have a target on his back in the games. It's weird to think that in a few days, one or both of them will be dead.

"You'll be fine. Just do the best you can, that's all you can do," Finnick assured and the brunette nods her head in response to his words. "After that we will have to start talking about your angle for the interview, both of you. It's important to have some sort of strategy before going in there,"

"Sounds good," Rosalie breathes with a ghost smile.

Breakfast, unfortunately, seems to move rather fast. The nerves are well and truly settling in now, her hands shaking and her breaths heavy. Finnick walks down with her, her smaller hand encased within his to bring her some sort of comfort.

"Just do your best," he repeats the earlier phrase, squeezing her hand before letting go and leaving her to walk into the room where all the tributes are.

Rosalie sits next to Zachariah and the boy from District Three as one by one tributes are called into the large training room. It goes rather slow for the first few and yet when it nears her, it goes impossibly quick. Her knee bounces as she continues to shake.

"Rosalie Barton, District Four,"

The animated voice rings throughout the air and she stands up, almost scrambling into the room. The sooner she does this, the sooner she can leave. As if the room isn't intimidating enough, her eyes find the Capitol officials as they stand over the large balcony like room above her. Some are seated and sipping on glasses of wine whilst the others converse amongst themselves.

"Rosalie Barton. District Four," The brunette speaks and all of the people look at her again. The man at the front nods his head and she moves over to the knives station.

Her fingers skim over the weapons and she then picks up a few. Rosalie breathes in deeply, getting in the proper stance before launching one of the knives at the large target in front of her. She's pleasantly surprised when the weapon embeds itself into the wooden wall, actually on the target. Whilst it doesn't hit the centre, it's close enough to be a respectable effort and that's all she can hope for. A few more are thrown at the board and all of them manage to hit some part of the target, one dangerously close to the centre but not quite there.

"Thank you, Miss Barton,"

And just like that it's over.

The brunette gently runs a brush through her hair as she sits on her bed, the large screen once again on the oceans of District Four. The gentle sounds of rolling waves fill her ears as she watches the tide come in, the squawks of the birds lightly drowned out by the loudness of the water. As her feet scrunch up in the soft carpet, she can only imagine that's it's really sand — that she is sitting on that very beach with her family laughing and chatting around her. It's a beautiful image, one she hopes she gets to experience once again.

"Rose? The training scores are about to be put out," Finnick calls as he knocks on her door. "Wouldn't want to miss you getting a ten,"

She snorts and stands up, walking over to the door and opening it up. The boy stands on the other side with a cheeky smile pulling at his lips, practically his usual expression. Her hand reaches up and she lightly pushes him out of the way, heading towards the living area where Zachariah is already seated. Rosalie plops down on the couch across from him and leans her head back against it, eyes on the screen as Caesar Flickerman makes his appearance.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to what you have been waiting all day to see, the tributes' training scores. Each tribute is assessed over the space of a few days and then is also given an opportunity to showcase one skill in particular in front of a group of officials. These tributes are then given a score out of twelve," Caesar explains as if people haven't seen this a hundred times before.

Rosalie watches as the tributes from One and Two are given rather high scores, nines and tens all over the place. As expected, the tributes from District Three are lower — five and six respectively. The brunette's eyes flicker over to Zachariah who's face has just appeared on the screen.

A nine.

Ziggy claps her hands with a pleased smile whilst the female tribute sends him a small smile of congratulations, a nod is what she receives in response. When her face appears on the screen, she scrunches her face in apprehension.

"Rosalie Barton from District Four with a six,"

A six. A six.

Rosalie cannot help but be slightly pleased with the fact her score wasn't terrible — if this was a quiz, she would have passed right on the halfway mark. That's good enough for her. Finnick high fives her, accompanying that with a small wink and for a moment she feels some sort of pride swell within her.

A feeling that is soon replaced with dread. In a few days this score will mean nothing, just another number of the many, if she perishes in battle.

NOTE!

Hi! I'm so sorry it's been so long, I've been busy and such. I hope you all enjoyed this slightly boring chapter but we get to the Games soon so things should pick up. Thank you for stopping by!