THE TRAINING ROOM IS a bit daunting; a somewhat dim space, lined with weapons and various stations that will teach us how to stay alive in the next few weeks. Useful skills, to say the least. But I'm paying no attention to them as Padraic and I step off the elevator. My eyes jump from person to person, looking for the boy from District 4.

I don't remember much about him from the reaping recaps, only that he's tall and has brown hair.

"Let me know if you need help reading anything," Padraic sneers.

I ignore him, heading towards the center of the room, where the instructor is surrounded by other tributes. Someone pins 'District 5' badges to our clothing as the man goes into a discourse on basic rules. I give up looking for Marin and actually try to pay attention to what he says, even thought it's the same basic stuff we've all heard.

No fighting with other tributes.

No injuring or otherwise sabotaging other tributes.

Etc.

The man dismisses us to head to separate stations and I stand there, looking around for a bit. Liam said to stay by Marin's side, but Marin is nowhere to be found, so I head to the Edible and Medicinal Plants station. I'm in the process of studying a hologram of some sort of water grass when someone edges up behind me. I don't pay much attention to them, trying to answer the question about how many inches the grass grows on average. My finger hovers over '13-17' as I chew on my lip, trying to remember.

"It's 15-20," a male voice says from somewhere behind me.

I tap my original answer.

Wrong. The answer is '15-20'.

Annoyed, I turn to glare at the person behind me.

"How did you know tha-" I trail off as my eyes land on the badge.

District 4.

My gaze lifts and I find a pair of strangely pale, green eyes fastened on me, made even lighter by the tanned face they belong to.

We stare at each other for a moment and I find myself without words for what seems like the first time in my life.

"Akira, I believe?" Marin finally says, offering his hand.

I glance down at his hand, then back up at him.

"You must be Marin." I shake his hand, marvelling at the sheer awkwardness of the situation. I mean, what am I supposed to say?

Oh, yeah. You're the guy I'm supposed to be madly in love with! Nice to meet you. Now what? Do we kiss passionately by the Plants station? Or recite poetry maybe?

I mean, how exactly is this supposed to work? Where's Liam when I need him?

"I guess I don't need to ask how you knew that," I mutter, shaking his hand.

Marin give me the tiniest of smiles. "I'm fairly familiar with water plants."

I turn back to the station. "No kidding," I say, hoping I don't sound too sarcastic.

Fortunately, Marin doesn't seem to take offense. He reaches over and scrolls through the list of plants for a few moments. Glancing over, I spot a few that look familiar.

"I recognize about half of these," Marin says. "From Four."

I point to something called 'Ribwort Plantain'. "I used to trample that on the way to school. What's it good for?"

He taps on the image and a description comes up.

"Infection, cuts, insect bites, inflammation, and digestive issues," he reads aloud.

I sigh. "Well, that would have been useful to know. The stuff grows all over Five."

After that, there's a lag in the conversation that turns into awkward attempts to start new conversations. By lunch time, I'm convinced that a dead turtle and an opossum could do a better job of pretending to hit it off, which is what I tell Liam that evening, when he asks me how it went.

Liam sighs, his pointer finger and thumb pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Did you try flirting?"

I give him a look. "Do I look like I know how to bleeding 'flirt'?"

He opens his eyes, his hand falling from his face. "You're a teenage girl; I assumed it was second nature."

"I resent that," I mutter. "You're a male Victor. Does that make you a lecherous womanizer?"

Liam visibly flinches at that, but then the tension leaves his stance.

"I guess you have a point." He stands up straighter. "Well, this is going to be...never mind." He starts pacing as I watch with one eyebrow raised. I open my mouth to say something, but he holds up a finger.

"You're skipping dinner. Tonight and every night."

I scowl and prepare to argue, but am cut off once again.

"I have two reasons for this. First, to keep you and Padraic apart-you two seem to hate each others' guts. Second, for training." He glances back at me, taking note of my scowl.

"Don't worry, I'll have food brought to your room."

Liam turns and walks down the hall towards the sitting room.

"Come," he orders.

I follow him as he walks through the sitting room, past Licinia, Padraic, and the stylists, and into...my room. He holds the door for me, something I thought only Northers did.

"In the daytime, you learn new skills." He shuts the door and locks it, sending warning signals through my brain. "Lighting fires, identifying plants, learning traps and defensive strategies." He stalks over to my bed and kneels down, reaching underneath the mattress and pulling out a long roll of fabric which he hands to me.

"In the evenings, you train with me."

He unrolls the fabric, revealing two training swords that I recognise from the Tribute's Training Hall.

My eyes widen. "We aren't allowed to take these-Atala said so."

Liam's head tilts to the side for a split second.

"Like you said; I'm a victor. We can get away with a little more than the average person."

I wrap my fingers around the hilt of a sword and lift it. It isn't terrible heavy, but it isn't light either. Liam take the other sword and adopts a fighting stance.

"Now," he says, raising his blade, "let the training begin."