A/N Beware! This is unedited! But it's 12:30 am, cut me some slack.

"Don't show any of the other tributes your skills." Haymitch advises. "Go learn how to make a fire, identify poison and edible plants, do something you don't already know how to do. Save your perfected skills for individual assessments." I nod in comprehension. Haymitch is giving me some last minute advice about how I want to play my strategy doing training. "Now, go find Effie. You're going to be late."

I jog quickly after Effie towards the elevator. I had risen from my sleep to her voice saying, "Time to get up! It's going to be a big, big day!" That had discouraged me from rising from my bed and instead I slept for twenty more minutes until Haymitch had had enough and hauled me out of bed. I had put on the black skintight jumpsuit type thing that was required of all tributes for training. Apparently, Effie got very stressed about punctuality,

"We're going to be late! And on the first day of training too! Oh, how will this affect my image? If I ever want to be promoted you and will have to try harder!" she says frantically to Peeta and I once she has hit the button for the training centre level. Why she is reprimanding Peeta is beyond me. Peeta was up nearly two hours before I was and ready to go by the time I was dragged out of bed. 

Once we get to the correct level, Effie pushes us out of the elevator. There is only one door, that I can only assume belongs to training centre. I gripped the steel handle. 

"Ready when you are." I say. Peeta takes a deep breath and nods.

"Let's go." he responds. 

I swing the door open and makes a tiny creak. We step inside and thankfully we aren't quite as late as we thought. We are the last tributes to arrive, but no one had started anything yet. 

There are many stations. I try to mentally tick off ones that I don't need to visit.

Climbing, don't need to.

Axe throwing, don't really need to, but I'll go there anyways.

Edible plants, visit.

Camouflage, visit.

Spear throwing, don't want to.

Knot tying, visit.

Fire starting, visit.

There were many other stations about throwing or using certain weapons and I decided I would skip using a sword or using a bow, and give knife throwing a spin. First place I think I might visit it knot tying. It doesn't look like many tributes visit it, but if I have to sleep in a tree I don't want to fall out. If I manage to tie a decent knot I won't give myself a concussion or break a bone when I hit the ground. Then I'll go to edible plants, fire making, axe throwing, knife throwing and finally camouflage. I probably won't be able to hit all these stations in one day, but I'll do my best. 

Soon I grow bored since we still haven't started. and begin to get a good look at the other tributes. I skip over the ones that don't really catch my interest.

There is a girl from 5 with bright red hair, and has a sneaky look about her. I nick name her fox face and mentally remind myself to keep an eye on her and move on. In 11 both tributes caught my eye. The female because of how young she was. She can't be more than 12 years old and she was going in to the Hunger Games. Ridiculous. My hate for the Capital flared inside of me. the Mae tribute looked to be about 6'1 and looked preposterously strong. 

And of course, the careers. The two District 1 tributes look to be healthy and in good shape. Then there were the ones from 2 that I had seen last might. I try to avoid it, but can't help looking up at the male from 2.

He looks me up and down, just like he did the night before, and a smirk appears on his face. He winks at me and his sharp blue eyes bore directly into my e/c ones. I mean, he is sorta hot. . . I think. His smirk widens like he can tell exactly what I'm thinking. Or maybe it's because I have begun staring at his toned, well muscled arms. 

I shake my head and mentally slap myself. You might very well die in the next few days Y/n, and you're busy checking out some career? Get a grip!  I berate myself, looking away. 

I compose myself just as a woman walks in. She had dark hair and skin and an aura of determination about her. She walks in front of everyone and begins to speak. "Good morning. I am Atala. In three weeks, twenty three of you will be dead,"Well isn't that a pleasant thought."One of you will be alive. Who that is depends on how well you pay attention through the remainder of these next four days, particularly to what I'm about to say. First, no fighting with the other tributes."

Well, the careers certainly look displeased about that. Atala continues. "There will be plenty of time for fighting in the arena. There will be four compulsory exercises, the rest will be individual training. My advice is, don't ignore the survival skills. Most of you will likely run to grab a sword, but many of you will die from natural causes." 

She rattles off what percentages of us will most likely die from what cause, and I find it quite unnerving how casual she talks about how we will all meet our painful ends. Eventually she tells us to brake off into different stations and I eagerly head over to the knot tying section like I originally planned. 

The man running it seems more than eager to teach, it doesn't look like he's often very busy. After about an hour I've learned a couple of basic knots for keeping me well secured to a tree whilst I sleep, and some more complicated ones I'm not yet sure what I'll have use for.

Next I go to edible plants. It takes me almost three hours to get everything down. There are so many different types of plants and herbs it makes my head spin. But the little girl from 11 I spotted earlier gets everything right and moves on in less than twenty minutes, occasionally whispering an answer or two to me when I was really stuck. 

Fire starting was easy enough, I wasn't there for more than a half hour. Sometimes when I would hunt with Katniss and Gale, there was a rare occasion the we would be coming back home and the electric fence would actually be turned on. We would be forced to spend the night in the woods, and would carefully make a very small fire. Just enough to keep warm, not enough to attract the attention of peacekeepers. 

I learned to make fires with two sticks, a flint and steel and a few other objects I had never seen before.

Finally, I let myself go to my happy place. The axe throwing station. I picked up the axe that looked the most like my one from home in District 12. 

Simple enough, a basic yet lethal lumbar axe with a curved blade that juts out from the dark oak wood handle. Slightly bigger than mine, but I should be able to adjust to the new weight just fine. I like myself up with the dummy, hold the weapon over my head, shut one eye and look at where I want it to land. I exhale as the weight leaves my hand and hurtles towards the dummy full force. The axe hits it right in the heart where I was aiming. I pick up another one and aim for the skull. It hits dead centre. I throw a couple more, they all meet their mark and become lodged fairly deep into the dummy. I give a half grin, pleased with my work.

"Care to teach me how to do that twelve?" A voice says from behind me. I spin around and find myself facing the tall blond career from two. I contemplate refusing. It really wouldn't be best if I taught my enemy how to use a skill against me; then again, if I say no I'm pretty much painting a sigh on my back that says, "I refused you, kill me first!" 

So I instead nod my head. "Sure." I respond lightly. I gesture for him to pick up an axe, which he does. He picks up one quite a bit bigger than the one I use, albeit he's also bigger and stronger than I am.

He raises it above his head the same way he had probably seen me do before and I study his position. 

He corrected his stance as I instructed him. "Square your shoulders a little more, but your right foot a little farther in front than your left. Look at the spot you want your axe to land and try closing one eye if that helps."

We're there for a solid hour and my the end of it he's managing to hit the target. Not quite the bullseye, but still hitting the target. I end up throwing a couple more times myself and before I know it, all four careers are surrounding me. 

"You're pretty good with an axe, girl on fire." the female district two tribute comments. I'm quite surprised to find her grinning at me when just last night she was glaring at me like I had murdered her grandmother.

"I'm alright." I respond casually, seeming to please her.

"I'm Clove." she says.

"Marvel." says the boy from one, with short brown hair.

"Glimmer." the pretty blond 1 female adds.

"Cato." the boy I had been teaching says with yet another wink.

"Y/n." I respond simply.

"Y'know, we could use someone like you." Cato remarks, moving a little closer, as do the rest of the career pack. I shift uncomfortably. "Care to join our little alliance?" he asks. 

I bite my lip. It's day one of training and I'm being offered a spot in the most powerful alliance in the games? The offer is tempting. I'd be almost guaranteed to make it to the final eight, but what then? All alliances have to be broken at some point right?

"We'll let you think about it." Clove says. 

Cato smirks. "Come find me when you decide to join us." 

Heck of a lot of confidence that one. I think.

The careers walk off leaving me alone. I was planning on heading to knife throwing next but seeing as Clove is already there, I decide it will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I walk over to the camouflage station where I see Peeta working. As I approach him I see what an amazing job he's doing on his arm.

"Hey, Peeta." 

"Hey, Y/n."

"How'd you do that?" I ask him. He has painted most of his forearm to look like tree bark, and the detail is immaculate. If he painted the rest of himself like that I have no doubt I would walk right by him in the games, deeming him as a regular tree and nothing more.

"Oh, I uh, used to decorate cakes at the bakery." he responds shyly. 

"You're really good." It isn't really in my nature to compliment too much, so when Ido you can be sure it's sincere.

"Thanks." He smiles at me. "Hey, I think you have a shadow."

I glance behind me to see the little girl from 11 peering ate, quickly turning away after I made eye contact with her. 

"I saw the careers around you earlier, what did they want?" Peeta asks. He doesn't sound accusatory, just concerned. 

"Well, they wanted me to join their alliance." I say nervously, unsure of how he will react to this.

"What did you say?" 

"I said I'd think about it."

He nods. I can tell he doesn't approve, but I am grateful that he is letting me make my own decision and respecting it. We'll just have to see what Haymitch thinks of my training troubles. 

A/N I'm going to my dad's for a couple days, so should be an update around Wednesday or Thursday. I would usually start the next couple of paragraphs for the next chapter but it's 12:30 am and I told myself I wouldn't be up past 12:00 cause I really freaking need my sleep right now. 

Peace,

-Mystical Mockingjay