Are The Odds In Our Favor? ~Cato~

7. Training Day Two

"It's time to get up!" Clariss says in a sing-song voice at my door. I groan loudly. Yesterday, or practically today, really wore me out. I could just lie here for ages.

"I can hear you through the door you know," she warns me, "now get up!"

As I hear her high heels click-clack away, I sigh. I wonder if that woman ever sleeps. And even if she does, she must take some kind of energy booster everyday.

I roll around in my bed for a minute, but decide feeling the wrath of Clariss Twinkle isn't worth a few extra minutes of sleep, so I get up.

Today is the second training day, so it's my last chance to practice everything I need before the private lessons that are tommorow. I'm not as nervous as I was yesterday, but I still feel some nerves bouncing up and down in my body.

I go into the bathroom to take a shower and get out smelling like a peach. As I'm getting dressed, I look at the clock, that says 7:58. Which means that I got about six hours of sleep today, which will definitely reflect on my skills in training. But for this night it was worth it.

I head down to the dining room. When I go sit down at the table, everyone looks still half asleep, except for Clariss, of course. I pile up my plate with all kinds of food and start eating.

"Today is even more important than yesterday, because it's the last training before the games, so you should train even harder than you did yesterday, because what you can learn today can help you in life-or-death situations in the arena," says Clariss, while sipping on her coffee. "Understand?"

Me and Rade nod in agreement, even though I didn't hear half of what she said.

After breakfast I shuffle back to my room. I change into my training outfit and roll onto my bed. I'm starting to get excited for training, because I get to see Cato again. I guess we're going to act like nothing happened, but it'll still be different. I have never seen any romance between tributes in any games before, and I hope no one finds out about us.

After a while I look at the clock and decide it's a good time to go. So I go to the elevator and push the button to call it. I don't see Rade anywhere, so I guess he's already there. We haven't talked in a while, but that's probably for the best.

The elevator comes and I get in. There's only one other girl in here. She smiles at me widely.

"Hi," she says enthusiastically. I don't seem to recognize her from the recaps of the reapings or from yesterday either.

"Hi," I say back.

"You're from district 3, right?" she asks.

"Yeah," I reply. "And you?"

"District 8," she says, smiling brightly. "Do you like it here?" she asks after a few seconds of silence.

"Well, if I would be on vacation, I would love it here, but considering why were here, this is the last place I'd want to be right now."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but it's still really beautiful here," she says, gazing into nothingness.

She snaps out of her daydream. "I'm Lacey, by the way."

"Jeneah," I mumble.

As the elevator comes to a holt and the doors open, she says, "It was good talking to you!" and marches out.

I sigh as I get out. I hope she doesn't want to be friends, because she isn't the kind of person I would want as my ally.

I scan the place for Cato and immediately spot him at the blades station. I mean, where else would he be. As we make eye contact, he smiles at me. I'm a bit taken aback that it's not one of his stupid smirks but a nice, genuine smile. I smile back at him and he turns around back to what he was previously doing.

I go to a station called The Chase. I stand on a big treadmill and press the button 'easy' on a panel. Suddenly, I hear footsteps behind me and I turn around to see a simulation of a man chasing me.  Even though I know it's fake, I still feel a rush of adrenaline in me. I start running. I run for about 10 minutes until the treadmill starts to slow down and a voice in the panel says "Well done! You managed to flee from the attacker!"

I try the medium level also, in which the man starts throwing knives at me that I have to dodge. I get off the treadmill covered in sweat and decide to go get some water.

There's a kind of buffet with a few benches next to the entrance, so if someone gets hungry or thirsty, they can get something there. I walk up to the machine and pour myself some water into a cup.

"Jeneah, hi!"

I turn around to see Lacey with two girls standing behind me.

"Hi," I reply.

"I was starting to think that you're dehydrated, 'cause I never see you here," she says in a worried tone.

"Guess I'm lucky," I mumble, trying not to roll my eyes.

"What was that?" she asks, with a kind of excuse-me look on her face.

"Nothing," I answer, shaking my head as if nothing happened.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce the girls! This is Dennie," she points to a small girl standing to her right, "and this is Kanya," she points to the girl to her left. "We are best friends!" she says with a huge smile. Their faces say something else though.

"I see you have some kind of acne on your cheek, you should use one of those Capitol face creams, they could really fix you, you know." she says after scanning my face.

"Thanks," I say sarcastically. It's literally one zit, that's all.

"So what do you think about the guys? Anyone you like?" she asks me with a sly grin on her face.

"Lacey, I think you kinda missed the whole point of the games. We're here to kill each other, not date."

It's quite ironic that I'm saying this, since I was kissing Cato today.

"I know," she replies, looking at me as if I'm dumb, "but still you gotta enjoy 'em while they're around. See that guy right there, the blond one? Isn't he a snack?"

She points at Cato, who is lifting some weights. I need to control myself, so I don't slap Lacey. Cato's mine, and her talking about him like that makes me really angry. He notices Lacey smiling at him seductively and smirks. His eyes then flick to me and I glare at him. He puts down the weights and walks towards us.

"What's going on here, ladies?" he asks, smirking at me. I look away. Seriously, the nerve of him to think I'm fine with him flirting with other girls, especially Lacey.

"Nothing, we're just talking," says Lacey, playing with her hair. Ugh, that girl tries too hard.

"Anyways, we better be going. See you soon!" she says with a smile and as she's walking away, she gives Cato a small wink.

"What was that?" I say to him in an angry whisper. "Did you see how she winked at you? And why were you smirking at her like that?"

"Calm down, I was just playing around. I'd never want to be with a bitch like Lacey." he says, laughing lightly at my anger.

"Ugh, I hate her so much! She just thinks she's so important, I've never seen an ego so big, and her "friends" are literally terrified of her!"

"Okay, I know you hate her, but you need to calm down," he says calmly.

"Okay, I'm fine. I'm chill. No need to worry." I say, not really convincing myself though.

"Good. Now I'm going to go back now, okay?" he asks me.

"Okay," I reply, taking a deep breath. He walks back to his weights and I drink another glass of water.

For the rest of the day I do some more survival stations and some hand-to-hand combat. I go to dinner completely tired and worn out. Clariss babbles about some random things, but I don't listen to a word she says. After dinner I go straight to the shower and then roll into bed.

Today has been a long and stressful day, so I hope I'll get a good night's sleep.