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Back at the hospital were Opal and Johanna, she had gone there to comfort the suffering woman, and the pair were swiftly joined by Katniss. It was clear the seventeen-year-old was enraged as she told the pair about what Coin had said to her. "Maybe you two can train too?" said Katniss.

"Fine. I'll train." Johanna huffed "But I'm going to the stinking Capitol if I have to kill a crew and fly there myself."

"Probably best not to bring that up in training," Opal laughed "But it's nice to know I will have a ride." The two other women turned to face her with a confused expression plastered onto their faces, none of them had thought she would have wanted to go back to the Capitol after what happened.

"But you just got married," Katniss tried to argue.

Opal shook her head "My honeymoon can wait. The Capitol can't." Katniss grinned, and Opal couldn't help but feel the shift in their relationship. She didn't know if they were actually friends, the brunette thought the word allies more suited their situation. The next morning they reported for training and at seven-thirty, reality smacked Opal in the face. They were funnelled into a class of relative beginners, fourteen or fifteen-year-olds, they all couldn't help feeling a little insulted it was obvious they were in far better condition than them. Finnick, Gale and the other people who had been chosen to go to the Capitol were in a different, accelerant phase of training. After they stretched, which hurt Opal's tight muscles, there was a couple of hours of strengthening exercise and an eight-kilometre run. Even with Johanna's motivational insults,  Opal dropped out after a kilometre.

"It's the cuts on my back," Opal explained to the trainer, who was a no-nonsense middle-aged woman "They are still tearing when I run."

"Well, I tell you, Soldier Odair, those are gonna take at least another month to heal up on their own," she said.

Opal shook her head "I don't have another month."

Soldier York looked her up and down "The doctors haven't offered you any treatment?"

"Is there a treatment?" Opal asked, "They said it had to heal naturally."

"That's what they said. But they could speed up the process if I recommended it. I warn you though, it isn't any fun." she told her.

"Please. I've got to get to the Capitol." Opal said desperately. Soldier York didn't question her, instead, she began to scribble on a pad and sent Opal directly back to the hospital. She hesitated, not wanting to miss any more training "I'll be back for the afternoon training."

Twenty-four needles jabbed into her back, Opal was flat out on a hospital bed, her teeth were gitted as she begged them to bring back her morphling drip. It was a bad night, sleep was out of the question. Opal swore she could smell the ring of flesh around her back burning, and Johanna was fighting off withdrawal symptoms while Katniss slept soundly. At dawn, Johanna dragged her and Katniss out of bed determined to get training.

"I don't think I can do it," Opal confessed.

"You can do it. We all can. We're victors, remember? We're the ones who can survive anything they throw at us," Johanna snarled, she was a sick greenish colour and shaking like a leaf. They got dressed. Katniss thought she was going to lose Opal when they realised it was pouring rain outside. Her face turned ashen and she seemed to cease breathing.

"It's just water it won't kill us," Katniss said. With her jaw clenched Opal stomped out into the mud. Rain drenched them as they worked their bodies and slog around the running course. Opal bailed again after a kilometre and had to resist the urge to take off her shirt so the cold water could cool her sizzling back. She forced down on her soggy fish and beet stew. Johanna got halfway through her bowl before it all came back up again. In the afternoon, they learnt to assemble their guns. Opal and Katniss managed it, but Johanna couldn't seem to keep her hands steady enough to fit the parts back together. When York's back was turned, Opal helped her out. Even though the rain continued, the afternoon was an improvement because they went to the shooting range. At last, something she was good at. It took some adjustment but at the end of the day, she was the best in her class.

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