𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐄 ▸ HUNGER GAMES [ 1 ]

EIGHT

EIGHT -

I let Glimmer lead the way towards the spears, abandoning my District partner to his own devices. I trust Hadley and his superior acting skills enough to be able to gain us alliances with the tributes that I have no chance with, the boy from 11 being one of them. If he's smart, the guy will listen to what Hadley has to say, but something tells me he's not going to be as easily convinced to join our group as the golden boy believes.

It will be interesting to see how he takes that particular burn. After all, most of our District treat him like a young prince, and he's not used to being denied the things he wants. But my job today isn't to babysit Hadley, it's to make friends and figure out the beginnings of a strategy for the arena. To examine the field. And the blonde girl beside me is my first step towards that.

"So, I'm guessing you've trained too?" Says Glimmer as we join the end of the queue forming at the spear station. I've never been great at handling spears – I'm too small to really balance them properly – but I can throw a decent shot once in five, and Glimmer seems excited to show off her skills. She's much taller than me so she can probably manage the weapons with ease, athletic but still curvy in the right places. I bet the boys in her District go crazy for her.

"Yeah, me and Hadley have been at the Academy since we were eight." I reply, taking a quick sweep of the room in search of the golden boy, to no avail. The training gym is so big he could have wandered off anywhere.

We're edging closer to the front of the line now, and we watch as the boy from 9 takes his first ever throw. His form is completely off, and Glimmer scoffs under her breath as he stumbles over the line, the spear clanking loudly against the floor as it falls about two metres short of the target.

"Oh, you and Cato knew each other before you got here?" Glimmer asks, surprised.

"Unfortunately, yes." I sigh, and my training partner laughs, but I'm interested in why it seems so strange that Hadley and I were already acquainted before we became tributes. "Had you never met your District partner before the Reaping?"

It's obvious the boy from 1 has been trained – a kid of his build would never be allowed to dodge the Academy in the one of the career Districts – but I haven't heard much about their system in 1 other than the fact that they have similar weaponry schools to us. If the two of them both attended, how on earth did they go so many years without even seeing each other.

Glimmer steps up to the front of the free throwing line and grabs a spear from the rack. "No, there are two different schools back home. I think they're smaller than your one." She says over her shoulder as she sets her feet. Her stance would be considered a little shaky by Xavier's standards, but perhaps them teach them differently in 1. "I trained in the town centre, but Marvel came from the other one by the diamond workshops."

She throws and her spear hits the target. It's not quite dead in the inner ring, but still decent enough that she could do some damage. It'll be good to see her skills in other areas, but she's made the cut in my eyes. I  don't doubt Hadley will want to see her at work but if he even believes for one second that Sidonia will let us count out Glimmer's help in the bloodbath then he'll be kidding himself.

Grabbing myself a spear, I step up to the line and throw. I've watched Xavier coach hundreds of kids through spear skills over the years, so much so that I can practically hear his voice screaming in my ears to fix my shoulders as my throw veers slightly off course. It lands only an inch or so over from where Glimmer's juts out of the target, quivering as the tip buries itself into the surface.

"You're not half bad at that." Glimmer commends with a nod, eyebrow raised. "I honestly thought you wouldn't even make the rings. No offence, but you're pretty small for a career." She giggles, another bright smile dazzling anybody who happens to be in a ten metre radius.