7. Six Strong

I was not a happy camper at all, because I found myself feeling like I had slept for a few hours. Maybe I had gotten up just before dawn and didn't realize it. I couldn't remember what I dreamed about when I fell back asleep, or if I dreamed at all. Sometimes I had those nights where I did dream, where I felt that I did, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what was on my mind.

I heard someone barge in my door, ripping the blinds open. I groaned, throwing the pillow over my head. I gripped the edge of the bed just for good measure. I let the sheets get pulled off my body. I fought for my pillow.

"Come on, you've got to get up."

So, Bane was the one who decided to jump into the bear's cave this morning. Boy you picked the wrong time to wake me up.

"I'll get up when I feel like it," I retorted, swatting at empty air until I found some part of Bane—his arm, most likely.

"Would I change your mind if I told you breakfast is ready?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Boy, someone's grouchy this morning." I felt him sink my bed. Please, go away already. Let me sleep in for, like, another hour.

"Get out, Bane," I growled darkly.

"Or what?" he teased. "You won't get out of bed because you're too lazy."

"No, I'm too tired, not lazy." My arm hung over the side of the bed.

I squinted my eyes shut tighter when Bane ripped the pillow off my head. I heard it plop to the floor almost inaudibly. "Did you ever hear of knocking on the door before entering, anyway?"

"I don't think I need your permission."

"Yes, you do. It's my bedroom; therefore you'd need my permission to come in. Since you didn't get the memo, get out."

"Wow, you are stubborn. Well, two can play at that game."

"What?" I popped an eye open.

I yelped as Bane grabbed me around my middle, trying to pry me off the bed. I pressed my body as well as I could against the bed, my fingers digging in. My arms were starting to tire instantly. No, don't give up. But they did.

I thrashed around as Bane hoisted me over his shoulder. I realized he wasn't wearing a shirt, because I saw his bare back. At least he was wearing sweats.

I made a high noise of distress as I kicked him in his gut. I felt him wince under my blows, but it wasn't enough to let him drop me on the floor. Against my will, Bane carried me out of my bedroom and out of the hallway.

"My goodness," Sienna gasped. I ceased struggling. "Did you two wrestle in her bedroom or something?"

"No," I called from behind Bane's back. My head was pounding from all the blood that rushed to it; I tried to pick it up to lessen the pounding. This was so embarrassing. "He barged into my room and took me out of bed."

"She was being stubborn," Bane said, shrugging. I kicked him in the gut again. "No point in struggling anymore."

"I stopped a few seconds ago," I retorted. "It was a last-chance effort."

"A weak one."

"Can you set me down now?" I asked impatiently. "Your bony shoulder hurts."

"Fine."

I sucked in a large breath as Bane set me on my feet. I glared at him severely, he smirked. If I wasn't so tired, I would have chased him around the apartment or probably grabbed anything to throw at him.

"What time is it?" I asked Sienna. She was in the kitchen, picking away at some fruit with her long, bright orange nails. Those nails still freaked me out. Her rainbow-streaked hair was in a bun today, making her hair look almost tie-dyed.

"He didn't get you up early, Crystal," Sienna assured me as she popped a strawberry into her mouth. How people ate fruit in the morning was beyond me. I wouldn't mind it as a snack, but breakfast? "By the way, Demi stopped by to drop off your training outfit. It's on the couch."

I slunk away from Bane to find toast and put peanut butter on it. As weird as it sounded, it's really filling. When I had nothing else to eat, I fell back on that. It was a quick breakfast, delicious, too.

"Where's Ross?" Bane asked, retreating to the hallway.

"Yeah, where is he?" I asked Sienna, who was wiping off her fingers.

"Probably out trying to convince others of how great you two are," Sienna said.

"Advertising us already?" Bane called, coming back with his training outfit on. The strip on our shoulders was a vibrant red, like my hair. A "1" was in a small square on one of the short sleeves of the shirt. The pants were black.

"He probably thinks the earlier advertised, the more sponsors in the future." Sienna shrugged. "I suggest you get dressed, Crystal. I'll walk down with you to the elevators, I need some fresh air."

I changed into my training outfit quickly, combing through my thin hair with my fingers, then pulled it into a tucked-in ponytail—something I always did with my hair. I checked for my choker necklace. Yup, still on like it should be.

Bane and Sienna were waiting for me at the threshold.

"It makes me look like a stick," I complained, looking at just how skinny I was.

"Be happy for your figure, most would probably kill for it," Sienna retorted. I rolled my eyes.

Sienna stuck by Bane and me until we got onto the elevator. She wished us luck on the training, and the ride down to the Training Center room itself was silent. I still felt half-awake as we took the short ride down to the floor.

When the door slid open, Bane let me get out first. We were one of the first districts to get to the Training Center, other than two other districts. Since we were here rather early, I took the time to survey what stations were available. There was quite a variety, each that could help in every part of the arena—or maybe not at all. I definitely wanted to try the Ropes Course. My climbing skills were the one thing I could never work on when training with my dad. I wasn't sure if I had any. Today would be the day I'd find out if I did or not.

More tributes began to file into the room. I noticed above the Training Center was a small room, probably where the Gamemakers all gathered when we got to show off for them two days from now. I've got only two days. That was motivation enough for me to become skilled in at least more than one talent.

Time could pass slowly in here, but not when you're having fun.

"See any you're interested in?" Bane asked me.

"Too much to choose from," I mumbled. As I skimmed each station, I began to pick a few that I could work on today and ones I'd save for tomorrow.

"Welcome, all of you," said an accented voice. All eyes were up front.

He was at least in his forties, his black hair flecked with gray. He was short and stout for his age, but I bet he was tough. "I'm Garret, the head trainer for the Games. As you've noticed upon your arrival, there are various stations you can go to—whether it is for combat or survival skills. You will have today and tomorrow to practice, but on the third day, you perform in front of the Gamemakers, each in a private session, so they can score you.

"Let me be clear when I say this: fighting others is prohibited during training. We've had scuffles the past few years, and we're trying to eliminate that happening now and in future sessions. Besides, you all can fight each other when you're in the arena. If you wish to fight against somebody, an assistant will help you.

"Also, do not take any station for granted. Yes, practicing wielding weapons is crucial—but there are other enemies besides other tributes. You can easily die from starvation, dehydration, and disease. Natural causes can be just as deadly as those around you." I looked warily at some other tributes. "A bell will ring when your lunch break arrives. Get to it."

Garret urged us away, and the tributes broke off. I separated myself from Bane, scanning stations. I wanted to find one I felt confident I could do. I might as well try the Ropes Course. I strolled to it, holding my head up high. I felt excited to be here, and other tributes needed to know that I meant business.

I climbed the net on the wall, getting a good grip on the rope. At a decent pace, I started climbing. I didn't look down, just up, reaching for the next bit of rope to use to hoist myself up higher with. When I got to the ropes on the ceiling, this was where I knew I would struggle. I couldn't slip through the holes in the rope to get on top of it, I wasn't that small, and the gaps weren't huge like I wished they were.

Snorting, biting my lip, I kept a firm grasp on the ropes. Just look ahead. I heard whispers below me.

"She's going to fall, I just know it."

"I wouldn't be caught doing that. She's brave."

I beamed at the conversation I was starting. Good, I needed them to know me.

I almost fell, but I looped an arm through a gap in the rope net, securing myself way up high. I steadied my swinging body below me. I wouldn't move on until I was still. I clenched my jaw, using my tired arms to slowly move to the opposite end I originally started at. Come on, I'm so close! Each time I was successful, the rope net against the wall seemed to run away from me. My brows knitted together. I was going to reach there, eventually. I was this far on the course; there was no way I was going to back down now.

As soon as I swung my foot and got it hooked into the rope net, it was easy. I climbed down tiredly, my arms being on fire and my legs feeling like deadweight. Two girls who were at the Knives station applauded me. They must be the other Career girls, I concluded. No non-Career would applaud me, not unless they were actually stupid enough to think that they could gain my trust.

Figuring knives would be a good thing to take up, I dragged myself to the station. An assistant was yanking out the knives thrown at the six dummies, all set at different distances.

"You guys look good," I noticed.

"Thanks," said the one girl. She was almost my height, but at least two years younger than me. Her chocolate brown eyes looked soft, but if she was a Career, no doubt she could show malevolence in them. Her hair was such a bright blonde I wondered if she bleached it.

The girl beside her was watching impatiently for the knives to be returned, her back was to me, but I could see her short, extremely curly, mocha-colored hair. "I'd say we're pretty good knife throwers, huh, Jenna?"

"Mhm," Jenna mumbled, still not turning around.

"She's a little more intense and focused than I am. I'm Aubrey, by the way."

"Crystal," I said.

"Sounds like the kind of name a girl from District One would have." Aubrey smiled. The assistant came back, handing each of us two knives. "Ready to try your luck?"

"I guess."

"Have you had much experience throwing knives?" Aubrey turned to face the targets; I stood on her other side.

"I'm more of a hand-to-hand combat kind of girl."

"Don't freak out if you miss, it takes time to get your aim right."

"Well, yeah, she's a rookie," Jenna said. She talked like she was an expert at knife throwing. Unless she had training while in her district, she sounded really cocky.

I tried and hoped to actually hit a dummy, and hopefully not the assistant. My image wouldn't look too well with the Gamemakers and the head trainer if I killed one of the assistants on accident. The assistants can't be so vulnerable. They've got to have some type of body armor under their clothing. The thought eased my worry a little bit of making myself look bad.

Aubrey flicked one of her knives, hitting a dummy ten feet away from her. It was a little low. She hissed. Out of anger, she chucked the next one, sinking it into the same dummy, but in its neck. She snorted in approval.

"Can you two do better?" she challenged.

"I doubt it," I muttered.

"You might surprise me. Go on, Jenna can hold her knives just a little bit longer." Aubrey folded her arms across her chest.

Lightly biting my tongue, I aimed for the dummy Aubrey didn't intend to hit. I chucked the knife, and it flew over the dummy's head, landing close to the dummy fifteen feet away. Well, it almost hit something, at least. I snorted in annoyance and flicked the second knife blindly, actually sinking it into the dummy twenty feet away, right in the heart.

"Not bad," Aubrey complimented me.

"That was honestly a lucky shot," I confessed.

"Rookie," Jenna snickered. "Watch how a real master does it."

Jenna swished her wrists around, a knife in each hand. She thrust the knives so quickly I hadn't seen either arm throw it. One knife sunk into the dummy thirty feet away, right in the neck, the other one right in the dummy twenty-five feet away, and right in the stomach.

I swallowed. Jenna was clearly the winner out of us three.

Aubrey gave a low whistle. "You never miss, do you?" She laughed.

"Never have," Jenna agreed. "Of course, if the dummies moved they'd present a challenge to me. Still targets are too easy."

"You'll be aiming at moving targets soon enough, Jen, give it time."

I knew what Aubrey was referring to.

When the lunch bell rang, everyone seemed extremely hungry. Everybody's plates were loaded up with food, so nobody could say that they didn't get enough to eat. For the most part, districts stuck to just each other, with the exception of the Career pack. Jenna and Aubrey beckoned me to flank them as they joined the Career boys. I was squished between Bane and Aubrey, Jenna and the other two Career boys were on the opposite side of the table.

For the most part the boys talked while we girls ate. They all asked what stations the others hit, how rough they thought the competition was (which it really wasn't, according to them all).

I looked up once to really get a look at Jenna's face. She looked as old as Aubrey, shorter than us by a few inches, with feline-like dark blue eyes. But the most startling feature was a scar on the right side of her face from the right corner of her mouth extending up into her cheek. I tried my hardest not to stare, but she caught me looking.

"I know, it's hard not to notice it," she said quietly. Her voice was gravelly. She tentatively brushed the scar. "You want to know how I got it?"

"I do," Bane said almost immediately. I rolled my eyes.

"Wait," said Ben, Jenna's district partner. He was the same age as Aubrey and Jenna (I assumed), on the taller side, with a low, dark-haired, curly ponytail. His skin looked like it had been kissed by the sun. He was the tannest out of the six of us. His hazel eyes looked at Jenna. "I think I know. Your dad did that to you, didn't he?"

"No, actually, my friend did," Jenna corrected him. "It was a bad accident. I was acting stupid, putting the hook in my mouth, not knowing it was attached to her line. She tugged and—well, you can kind of guess what happened from there." She laughed dryly. I cringed.

"So...you guys know what you're doing for the Gamemakers in two days?" Aubrey asked, trying to get conversation moving along.

"Not sure," said Victor, Aubrey's district partner. He was almost as tall as Bane, with wavy, black hair and deep, dark green eyes. "I might just wrestle an assistant or two."

"At the same time?"

"Might as well, it'll give me more of a challenge. It might impress them more, too."

"Well, I know what I'm doing," Jenna sang. "I'm throwing knives and doing some camouflage."

"But you didn't touch that station," Aubrey piped.

"I know, but I did it a lot in Four."

"Oh, so you had training too, in your district?" I asked curiously, finally putting my voice in there.

"Mhm. You too?"

"Yup, trained by my dad for years," I boasted.

"Oh, the camouflage I learned by myself. No help needed." Jenna beamed. Someone was proud of herself.

"District Two is strict when it comes to that," Victor said. "You'd think being that we're one of the more loyal districts, we'd be shown a lot of slack."

"It's like that in One," I said. "My dad and I never got caught."

"Lucky you."

We continued to bond during the rest of the lunch break, just getting to know each other really. Jenna was a fisherman's little girl; Aubrey was like me, ready for the Hunger Games; Victor and Bane seemed to share some interests, both talking about strategy, Ben listened to them intently.

"You would think that other districts would team up like we do," Bane muttered under his breath. "You don't see anybody else forming one."

"It's because they aren't like us," Jenna murmured. "We're stronger than they are, faster. We've trained longer—some of us more than the others." Jenna smiled at me. "We can make it all the way, you guys. We're capable."

"Then we fight amongst each other. Six, perfectly good killers battling each other for that one spot," Ben whispered. We all bobbed our heads in agreement.

"Well, until that time comes, we stick together," Bane crowed, putting an arm over my shoulders. I shrugged it off; Bane was getting a little too comfortable near me. He got on my bad side by pulling me out of my bedroom over his shoulder this morning; he was just making it worse by what he just tried to pull.

After lunch was over, the Career pack bonded more by tackling stations together. Jenna and Ben went to Fire Making while Aubrey and I sauntered over to Shelters. At first, it was difficult, but eventually she and I got a decent-looking shelter. We probably wouldn't need to make one because we'd snatch the Cornucopia, but it's a skill we might need.

As I switched places with Jenna and walked with her to Fishing, I noticed someone looking at me. I was sure he was District 12's boy. He looked to be as old as Bane, maybe just a few inches shorter than him. His hair was shaggy and blond, almost like he had a constant bed head. I saw his gray eyes lock on me. Quickly, I looked away.

When I was just getting to do well on knots with Ben, training was done and over with. Garret told us that everything looked well, and that he expected to see us all again tomorrow. He then dismissed us, and we all went to the elevators. The pack stuck together, chatting.

"Found a strength yet?" Aubrey probed me.

"Does climbing count?" I asked sheepishly.

"Maybe, if you want to hide and be on the run a lot. You're a Career, Crystal, and we're always on the offense—never defense."

"So true," Bane agreed.

"The important thing is to not get distracted by anything," Jenna piped.

"I'm pretty focused," I assured her. We six piled into an elevator. The first floor was the first stop.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I saw you look at that boy from Twelve, I'm not blind."

"Oh, was he cute?" Aubrey snickered.

"Don't think so, but they locked eyes. I saw it."

"He was probably looking at what others were doing," I said defensively, shrugging. "I just happened to see that he was looking."

"More like he was trying to cloud your head," Bane muttered out of the corner of his mouth. I shook my head. The elevator stopped on the first floor. "This is us."

"See you guys tomorrow in training!" Aubrey piped before the elevator door closed shut.

I had a feeling until we got back to our apartment, Bane wouldn't stop questioning me about what Jenna saw between me and the boy from 12.