We're awoken earlier than normal to get ready for our first training session after the interviews, and quickly get dressed and eat breakfast before we are taken downstairs. When we walk in the doors, we see about half of the tributes are there, including Districts One, Two, Four, Five, Seven, and Nine. Rowan and Ivy are talking to Bran and Harvey, and we join them.
"Do you guys know why they got us up early today?" Margo asks.
"No idea," Harvey says.
"Me neither," Rowan says.
"We'll figure it out soon enough, once everyone's here," Bran says.
We continue talking for a few minutes, and at that point everyone but Cane and Willow from Eleven have shown up.
"I feel really bad for the two from Eleven, they look so sick all the time," Ivy says.
"They do look really skinny. And I mean, we're all really skinny but especially those two," I say.
For the most part, everyone from the districts is malnourished, expect for the lucky few who have wealthier families or if you come from a better off district, like the Careers.
"I kind of want us to stick together today, at least for a little bit. I don't know if you guys have started talking about alliances yet, but me and Ivy like you guys," Rowan says. He's always rather straight-forward.
"I'd be fine with that, us hanging out for the day. We haven't really thought about alliances quite yet, but we probably should sooner then later, with the games coming up so quickly," Margo says.
Bran and Harvey nod along with her statement, and our tentative alliance begins.
Shortly after, Cane and Willow walk in and head to the back of the crowd, and Cressida comes in and hops onto her pedestal.
"Good morning tributes, and good job at the interviews last night. You all did phenomenal," she says, more out of curtesy then actual congratulations, "Today is the start of your second and final week of training, and it will be a little bit different than last week. You will be spending all day down here, starting at 8:00, with an hour-long break for lunch at 11:30, not 12:30. In the mornings you will be training like you have been, then in the afternoons you are encouraged to break off from your groups and do a bit of individual training to prepare yourself for your assessments, which will be taking place during the afternoon slot of time on your sixth day of training, right before the games. On that sixth day, the time schedule will be a little bit different, but we will go over that when the time comes. For now, I suggest you all check out the newest station sometime today, and other then that unless there's any questions you are free to go."
No one raises their hand.
"Wonderful. I'll see you at 11:30," Cressida says before hopping off the pedestal.
Our little group looks around at each other.
"Where's the new station for today?" Harvey asks, just as a massive panel in the wall lifts up, revealing another new room. This one, filled with weapon-making supplies.
The Careers make a beeline for the new room, so we decide to stay clear for a little while and head over to the weapons training area.
"Finally, we can check this out," Rowan says.
No one has been able to go to the weapons station yet, since the Careers have been hogging it. They never left the station once in all of the first week of training.
"So, have any of you guys ever used any weapons before?" Rowan asks, picking up an axe.
"A scythe, but I don't think they'll have one of those in the arena," Bran says.
"Maybe try a sword out? I think I'm going to try one," Harvey says, picking up a small sword.
"You should try out those throwing knives now Lexi," Margo tells me, pointing at a rack full of them.
"I think I will," I say, looking them over.
There are at least four or five different kinds of them, and I pick up a short, sleek, black knife with a good grip on the handle. I find the station expert, Diana, and ask her how to properly hold it and the form for throwing.
"So, you just hold it like this, then step forward and throw it," DIana says, throwing a knife directly into the head of a dummy target, "Try it, with that one," she points to a target a little bit closer to me.
I hold the knife in my hand, step forward and aim for the chest of the dummy.
"Holy crap, Lexi," Margo says.
I hit the target exactly where I had aimed.
"When did you learn how to throw knives back in Twelve?" Bran asks.
"I didn't," I say.
I grab three more knives and chuck them at the targets, hitting two in the head and one in the neck.
"Damn, Twelve," Rowan says, laughing, "Glad you want to be on our team."
I practice throwing a few more knives before checking out what the rest of my team is doing. Rowan is cutting down dummy after dummy with a large axe, Ivy is throwing small axes, Bran and Harvey are both attempting to use swords, and Margo is playing with some spears. I walk over to her.
"Spears? Really? I thought you were going with the slingshot idea," I say.
"Well, I am, but they don't exactly have any at the deadly weapons station," she says, before chucking a spear across the station at a dummy, hitting its shoulder, "And I thought I might as well try using something else. I'm not that bad either. Not fantastic, but not bad."
"Very true," I say, looking at the three impaled dummy's that she had been working on, "We're not doing too bad here in the way of self-defense for a bunch of not-Careers."
Margo laughs, "Very true."
We spend about an hour and a half trying different weapons out, before we see the Career pack walk out of the weapon making room, most of them looking frustrated. We quickly vacate the weapon training station as they make their way towards it and walk over to the new station.
"Woah," Ivy says, slowing down as we walk into the new room.
The room is filled to the brim with all sorts of random objects, from sticks and leaves from forest trees to vines and ferns from a jungle to odd rubber pieces to rocks of all sizes, and in the corner are a few small knives to work with.
"Welcome to the weapon making room. I'm Leo, I'll be helping you out today," says an extremely tall man standing awkwardly in the corner.
"Um, hi, I need to make a slingshot," Margo says.
"And we wanted to just work on a few spears and whatnot," Rowan says, gesturing to him and Ivy.
"Do you need any help?" Leo asks.
"We're good," Margo and Rowan say together, walking to the other side of the room to begin working on there little projects.
I join Margo and help her create a couple of slingshots, most of which work well, until Cressida calls us all back out to the middle of the room, and the peacekeepers escort us to lunch.
YOU ARE READING
The 175th Hunger Games
Fanfiction"On the 175th anniversary, for the rebels to remember that the war was fought against their own brothers, the two tributes selected from each district will be siblings, both between the ages of 12 and 18 as per usual." One hundred and one years aft...
