“Get up, sleepyhead!” I hear someone who is most likely Arbor shout from the outside of my room, banging on my door. I yawn and stumble out of bed. Then, I check the closet and find a tight dark green bodysuit which is what we’re probably supposed to wear to training. I scoff but put it on. As I look in the mirror, with my flowing blonde hair, perfectly angled nose, and hourglass figure, I don’t feel like myself. My prep team did wonders last night. “Whoa!” I exclaim to Arbor as I walk out into the breakfast train and look in its windows. I serve myself a fruit bowl and something they call “crepes”. After we silently eat, I stand up and mentally prepare myself for training. A bunch of Capitol killing machines in a room together. Sounds like the place to be, doesn’t it? I decide I’m going to stay by Arbor the whole time and try not to interact with any of the other tributes in case our conversation leads to them targeting me in the arena. “We got this,” Arbor tells me. I nod tersely and the training center doors open to loud noises, grunts, and yelling. I inhale and rush to the axe throwing station, where it’s a surefire thing that I’ll feel home there. As I walk up to the axe throwing station, memories of home flood in and I try to hold back my tears. I shake my head and remind myself I can’t be thinking of home. As I throw my first axe that hits the target front and center, another blonde girl probably about my age approaches me. She throws an axe and it flops to the ground. I giggle as I send another axe flying to the center of the target. “I’m Rosemary,” I tell her. She smiles. “I’m Piper!” she says as she throws another axe straight into the ground. “Sorry, I’m kind of horrible at this.” She continues. “Nice to meet you! I could teach you if you’d like! First, you need to plant your feet shoulder width apart, and bring the axe behind your head. Then, you throw it forward and let go about when it becomes level with your eyes. Like this!” I demonstrate another perfect shot and she looks at the axe meeting the bullseye in awe. “Ok, so…like this?” Piper throws and hits the target at about the waist area. Not a perfect hit, but close enough. As she heaves another axe onto her back, she says “So, you’re from Seven, right? I just guessed based off of your axe skills. What’s it like over there?” She asks me. I don’t really want to talk about my home right now, but she seems genuine, so I tell her about it. “Great job!” I tell her, and I applaud. “It’s very… foresty. And it always smells like pine trees and freshly chopped wood, which I love the smell of. My parents own a store there, so I haven’t been sent to chop trees. I live more on the merchant side of town. What district are you from?” I ask her, lifting an axe and throwing it with all of the force I can muster. It hits the heart, yet again. “I’m from Twelve. It’s honestly not the most exciting District, but it’s home as much as anything. But-“ she stops for a second. “There’s this very, and I mean very, beautiful meadow. I go there all the time. It makes me just feel so…with the world. You know?” “I know exactly how you feel,” I say. “I went to the forest and wrote poetry all the time. Before I got picked,” I drop my voice to a whisper lest anyone hear me speak about illegal things. “Really? Wow. I wish I could write. But I’m a crap job with school papers. Let alone my own poetry. I do love to sing though. Not in public like a Covey girl, but I like to sing for myself, sometimes.” she tells me. The Covey rings a bell of recognition in my head. “Oh, the Covey? They’ve passed by before in Seven, but I’ve only gone to a few of their shows. I remember thinking the lead singer had a really beautiful voice? What was her name, Allie? Artemis? Alexis? Yeah, I think it was Alexis,” I say to her. Piper’s face slowly transforms after I say “Alexis” and I know something’s up. “Yeah! She’s my, erm… friend. We hang out in the meadow together all the time. And you’re right, her voice is really beautiful-“ her voice cracks. She seems to decide that what she trusts me because she continues talking. “The thing is, she’s the best person to ever enter my life and…I can’t believe I’ve left her behind.” she says with her head hung. “Wow. That’s a beautiful story. I… don’t know what to say. I left my family back at home, but the person closest to me… he’s here. In the training room.” I say as I look around to try to find him and point him out for Piper. It’s then that I notice the brunette from One talking to him. She’s grinning at him and laughing along with him as she chatters with him bubbily. Ugh. She follows my gaze over to them. “Him?” she points to Arbor. “Are you guys…together?” she asks. I am taken by surprise at this question and am visibly startled. “Oh uhm… not really,” I say to her, taken aback by the blatant question. I continue to glare at the girl from One frostily. It’s the next question that throws me off the most.
