cloves games - a hunger games spin-off

Training The Tributes

We get out the lift. I make sure to brush little Rue on with my arm on the way out.

Not aggressively, but so she takes notice of me.

Our floor is amazing. It has a little balcony by the dining room, and a big glass table, surrounded by red wavy chairs. It's full of fruits and cakes of every kind right now.

I grab an apple and walk around.

The living room has a squashy white  sofa in the shape of an L, against the walls, with a matching white rug. There's a huge TV, for watching old games, or the replay of the Parade and Reapings.

I go to my room, it's ginormous.

It has a king-sized bed right in the middle, with a golden throw. There's an even bigger wardrobe than the one on the train. Next to that is a glass door that leads to an en suit bathroom.

I go in, undress, and get into the shower.

I amuse myself by pressing nearly all of the little buttons on the wall, one lets out blueberry smelling water, one lets out bubbles, and out shoots out shampoo and conditioner.

After a long, and quite eventful shower, I step out, trying not to trip on the slippery marble floor.

Hot air comes out of panels along the floor and walls and dries me and my hair completely, it feels rather nice.

I go into my room and after one look in the wardrobe, I know I won't be able to pick an outfit. They all seem so perfect for me.

They're all my size, all the colours are flattering on me, and I know all of them would look great if I put them on.

I'm tempted  to give myself a fashion shoot, wearing all these outfits, but it would take days, there's so many.

So instead, I reach out and grab a rather simple outfit. Just a black lacy vest top and black cargo pants.

I go through to the living room, and see everyone else is already there.

I sit down at the table with them all, and our food is brought out.

I eat chicken, potatoes and a few vegetables, with sausages and gravy. I drink 2 glasses of the red wine they bring out, and my head starts to feel weird, so I end up leaving.

"Wait, before you disappear, I just need to check, you two are allying right?" Enobaria half shouts to me across the room, Wane nods his head, agreeing with her.

"I'd like to, yeah. Up to Cato" I shrug, I would like to ally with him, I hope he does too.

Luckily, Cato says "Yeah, that might be fun" He laughs and carries on talking to his stylist about his 'amazing warrior costume'.

I climb into bed after putting on a thin pair of pjs, ready for training tomorrow.

It's only been a day since I was back home in district 2, but it feels like it's been a week.

I wake up, take another shower, and go into the dining room.

I grab a muffin and a large glass of coffee, and sit down on the white sofa, trying not to spill anything. I turn on the telly when Cato walks in.

"Hey. What are you doing?" He asks as he grabs his own food.

"Nothing. Just going to watch back the Parade."

"We don't have time.. Training starts in 30 minutes you know." He says it slowly, as if I'm stupid.

I go into my room, and finish my breakfast in there.

Fauna walks in and hands me todays outfit. It's plain black, but with red and gray stripes on the sleeves and sides of the pants.

Unsurprisingly, it fits me perfectly. Good. I expect no less of the Capitol. I mean yes, I enjoy watching the games, but if they think they can throw me in with all these other weak tributes and give me mediocre treatment, they'd have another thing coming.

I walk out and Cato and his stylist are waiting for me, along with Plato.

Plato told us that Enobaria and Wane were busy, but he was told to pass along the message "'Show them your strengths.' And what was it... Oh of course 'Intimidate everyone, make ally's, and scare the rest off' That's all! You can go down to -1."

So with that, me and Cato get in the lift, training starts at 10, but we get there 15 minutes early, along with 5,1 and 9.

We go and stand next to District 1, and the other Tributes start to slowly come in. At 9:55, a tall black woman named Atala walks in, and claps her hands together once.

The last to arrive are District 12, they get here at exactly 10. Latecomers.

Atala gives us a speech, which includes telling us jow we're not allowed to fight each other until we're in the arena, and how there's a lot of different stations we can train at, each station has an expert waiting to teach us things we don't know. Your supposed to move around the stations as much as you can in 3 days. We only have 3 days to train. She finally stops talking and we all move off to the first station.

"Glimmer. Hi."

I turn around. Glimmer from District 1 is holding her hand out to me. I reply with

"Clove. 2."

She smiles and waves her hand at her district partner "That's Marvel. He volunteered like your Cato. Who by the way, is so cute I want to cry!!"

I laugh, because I think she's joking. I mean I hope she is. It's not that I like Cato or anything, erm no. I just think it's weird that anyone would like him..

First, we all walked over to the spears, I wasn't amazing, but I nearly always hit the dummy. Sometimes I got the leg or arm, but still.

After we've all practiced, and I hit the head 3 times in a row, we're about to leave, to go to the swords, but then I see District 12 are at the knot tying station That can only mean one thing, they can't do anything physical, like fighting.

I point them out to the others, and we all laugh.

We get to the swords, and as Cato grabs one, I glance around, a lot of people are watching him. I wish they wouldn't.

The expert loves how good Cato is, and Cato loves the attention. After about an hour of watching him fight big dummies, Marvel says we should move on. But I could watch Cato all day.

I look around the room, and the boy from 12 is trying to climb up one of the ropes. He falls. We have all seen him, and we all laugh. The girl goes over and whispers to him. They both look at us, and we keep watching. They talk for a few seconds, very hushed. Then he stands up, and walks over to the huge medicine ball. He keeps his eyes on us the whole time. He picks it up easily, and throws it across the room. Wow. Not even Cato or Marvel can do that.

Impressed, we nod, and turn around. We have been called for lunch.

At lunch, we all sit down at one of the bigger tables, and all of us agree that Thresh looks like the perfect ally to add to the team. Marvel invites him to our table, and he walks over, with his bowl of food.

We ask him if he wants to ally, but he just shakes his head and says "Thats alright. I'm okay." And he walks off to sit alone.

None of us say anything, but I know we're all thinking the same thing: he's a threat, no matter how many of us there are.