There's a knock on my door again and Gloss enters. As usual, he sits down on my bed without waiting for an invitation. 

"Ok, Marvel," he says, getting to the point as usual, "For your private session with the Gamemakers, I want you to show off your skill with the spear." I nod, the spear is my specialist weapon after all. 

"Now being pretty decent with the spear will guarantee you an 8, but we want higher than that. You need to do something special and you have, at most, fifteen minutes to do that. You said you can throw a maximum of ten spears per minute?" 

I nod but then protest, "They don't have 150 spears Gloss!"

"No, " he agrees, then he thinks, "How's your agility?"

"Not good, "I admit, "I can't do flips or anything like that."

"Can you throw a spear accurately behind you?"

I give it some thought, "Yes, " I say, "but not as fast as throwing them forward."

Gloss thinks for a minute, "Ok, he says, here's the plan. You're up first because the male tribute goes first. You'll the one they remember and you need to make a good impression. You need to entertain them. Don't just stay throwing spears at one target, move around. Do various distances and different shaped targets, like an archery target or a dummy. Understood?"

I nod. Gloss gets up to leave, "Good luck Marvel. You'll be great." 

***

"Marvel Blade, " an electronic voice says. I get up from my seat in the dining room, smile at the others with Marina giving me at thumbs up, and walk into the training room. 

The Head Gamemaker nods at me to begin. I walk confidently over to the spear section. Thankfully, it's clear I won't run out because there's a huge stack of them. I grab 10 and walk over to where the dummies are. 

I make sure I'm at an angle from where I can easily hit all the dummies from the distance where I'm standing. And then I begin to throw as fast as I can. 

The first 5 dummies and targets, I manage to hit in the centre. But with the others, I begin to loose steam because of the speed I'm throwing at and some of the others are slightly off-centre. I take a risk with the last two to impress the Gamemakers and hold one in each hand and throw at the same target. Thankfully, they both hit, and I'm relieved because this isn't something I've practiced before-even if one ended up hitting the head of the dummy rather than the chest, where I was aiming. But hopefully the Gamemakers will think it's intentional. 

I keep this up for 10 more minutes, trying to do closer shots (which as I predicted, are embarrassingly worse than my longer distance though they still hit the target)  and my arms begin to ache-I've never sustained spear-throwing for this long before. I remember what Gloss said about doing the backwards one. 

I make sure I'm aligned with the target, turn my back to it and throw the spear with all my might. There's an embarrassing clatter as the spear hits the floor. Great there goes that 10 I was hoping for. 

There's a cough from the Head Gamemaker and he says, "Thank you, Marvel. That will be all."

Chagrined, I walk out the door and back to the District One floor, and head to my room. I'm annoyed with myself-the higher my score, the more sponsors I will probably get. And I don't want Cato thinking I'm the weak link in the alliance. Gloss comes in without knocking and asks me how it went and I apologetically recount my mistakes. 

Gloss shrugs, "Well, like I said, you're guaranteed an 8 and although, we really want a 10 to get sponsors, it means the other tributes might under-estimate you in the arena. You took a risk in the session. That won't happen in the arena. You'll stick to what you know."

***

A few hours later, me, Gloss, Glimmer, Cashmere and Gwen all file into the sitting-room to watch them announce the scores on the television. 

There's palpable tension in the room when Glimmer gets an 8-I see by the look Cashmere shoots her that she was not expecting that from Glimmer's description of how her session went. I get a 9, which is decent, and I'm semi-happy with it, until Clove and Cato receive 10s, which is crushing. 

Marina got a 9, same as me and Murdoch got a 5-he's clearly not as good as Marina's been making out. The other districts all score around 5s and Glimmer is about to walk out the room after District 7 with boredom when Gloss calls her back, saying that there might be a few surprises. 

And surprises there are...Thresh annoyingly gets a 10, the boy from District Twelve, Peeta, gets an 8, which Glimmer is annoyed about, and Katniss, the District 12 girl, gets an...Eleven. 

I'm in shock. No one. No one has ever beaten a Career before, and just when I dropped my guard because she seemed hopeless in training, she suddenly pulls off an 11. 

Gloss turns off the television and turns to face me and Glimmer. 

"Well," he says sternly, "there's room for improvement for both of you. Glimmer-what happened in that training room?"

Glimmer shifts uncomfortably, "I wasn't used to the bow. May have missed a few targets."

"You told me hit the bullseye!" cries Cashmere. 

"Well you better get used to the bow in the arena, " snaps Gloss, and then he composes himself, "Ok, you need a new plan." 

"Like what?" asks Glimmer, irritated. And though she's angry, I'm surprised to see that there are tears in her eyes. 

"I'm getting to that," he snaps back at her, "The fact that people have higher training scores than you is not good. It'll mean people won't want to sponsor you. You'll need to get rid of anyone who has a higher score than you in the Games. " Glimmer tries to interrupt him but he raises a hand. "I know Clove and Cato are your allies," he says, " So we'll ignore them for now. They will be able to get you sponsors. But you need to pick off the others-Thresh and Katniss."

He turns to Glimmer. "Glimmer, you said you thought Cato was falling for you?" Glimmer glances at me. "You can say in front of Marvel, " Gloss says, "Forget about being trained separately. This is about getting you both in a decent spot in the Games."

"Yes, " says Glimmer but she doesn't sound very sure.

"Ok," says Gloss, "get him to hate that District 12 girl with a passion. Tease him about how she's taking away the audience's attention from him and then maybe Cato will solve that problem for you. As for Thresh, try to pick him off as early as you can in the Games. I know he's intimidating but a guy like Cato can handle him easily. Deal with him before he becomes a problem. Understood?"

We both nod. 

"Ok, " he says, pleased to be getting somewhere, "As for Interviews..."

"We can get to that tomorrow, " cuts in Cashmere, "One step at a time, Gloss."

Gloss surveys me and Glimmer and the nods. 

"Alright," he agrees, "We'll talk tomorrow. You can go."

Glimmer storms off, still annoyed at the negative attention both Gloss and Cashmere were giving her. 

I watch her head over to her room, before I head the other way, off to the elevator. Whether I like it or not, Katniss Everdeen is getting under my skin to and I want to go outside to clear my head. 

"Marvel, where are you going?" I hear Glimmer snap behind me as I step into the elevator. I press the button to the roof and then stick my foot in the door to stop it closing. 

"The Roof," I answer simply. 

"The Roof?" She asks, mystified. 

"That's what I said," I say, "Do you want to join me?"

She shrugs. It's clear that she hasn't got anything better to do. She steps in. The doors close and we shoot up towards the roof. 

Once we step out, it's clear that we aren't alone-Marina and Murdoch are up here too. The pair stand side by side, chatting quietly to each other and staring out at the Capitol below. 

"Out for another night-time stroll?" I ask loudly, mostly to announce our presence, while Glimmer stares around at the Roof in awe. I'd forgotten that she hadn't been up here before. 

Marina breaks off from her conversation with Murdoch, and turns to looks at us, smiling, "Wow, it's a full house tonight. Cato and Clove were up here a few minutes ago too. You just missed them."

I smile, as me and Glimmer join them by the railings. Glimmer continues to stare open-mouthed at the city below. 

"Let me guess," I say, "Cato's upset with Katniss, the District Twelve girl."

Marina smiles, "Yep," she says, popping her 'p', "And trust me, an angry Cato, is not a pretty sight to see. He was having a full-on temper tantrum. If Clove hadn't calmed him down, he would have probably snapped these railings in two, no kidding."

"Remind me not to make Cato angry in the arena," I smile, though I'm slightly shaken by the idea of Cato being able to break solid railings with just his brute strength. 

"Will do," says Marina. 

"Wait," says Glimmer, jerking her head up to look at us, "Clove calmed Cato down?"

"That's what I said," Marina stares at Glimmer evenly. Glimmer stares back, making me feel a bit awkward standing in between them. 

"Clove? " Glimmer repeats, sounding shocked. 

"Yep," Marina answers. Her expression is mostly neutral, though a small tug at her lips tells me that she's enjoying this. 

Glimmer turns back to look out over the city. Marina raises an eyebrow at me, and then does the same. There's an awkward pause. 

It's Murdoch who breaks the silence. 

"The city's pretty tonight," he says tentatively, clearly trying to change the subject.

"Yeah," Marina grins easily. Murdoch sighs slightly with relief, happy that his attempt was a success. "But nothing beats District Four at night time, with the waves lapping the shore and the sound of seagulls overhead..."

"Tell me about it," I say. I only know of life in District One. 

And she does. She talks about her life at home. It's noisy in the day-Marina has four younger brothers and takes care of them whilst her parents are working-so night is really the only peace Marina gets, when they're in bed. 

The subject moves on to siblings. I talk about Sparkle, which makes me feel homesick and gives me a lump in my throat, but then I remind myself that I will be seeing her again soon, once I win. 

Glimmer says she's an only child. Murdoch chooses not to talk at all, and continues to gaze out at the city. 

It's only when Glimmer gets cold, do we all head back to our rooms. And I'm feeling so happy that I can almost push Katniss Everdeen to the back of my mind. 

Almost.