The Training room was enormous. In there was anything from swordplay to knot-tying. I had decided that each day I would dedicate it to something different; for example, today I would focus on the survival stations. Tomorrow I'll work on weaponry, and then the last day of training I'll work on my agility. I felt like that would be the most logical thing to do. I would also be looking for any potential allies to make, because I decided with Sapphy that working alone wouldn't be practical, because there's safety in numbers. Bates and I have already decided to work together and split up once there were ten tributes left, assuming we lasted that long. And by us, he pretty much meant me.

I decided to start off with the edible plants station. Being from District Eleven, I aced all of the tests that the instructor had prepared for us. I went there just to brush up on my memory. I recognized almost all of the plants and berries and could quickly identify which were deadly and which were safe to eat. I was also taught a little bit about the medicinal qualities of some of the plants. I felt like this was incredibly useful information, being that medicine was expensive to send to tributes, and I wouldn't have that many sponsors. I thanked the instructor for teaching me about the plants and everything and moved on to the next station.

I was only able to get one more station done before it was time for lunch. It turns out that I was horrible at fire starting, and felt like that was a possible life-saving thing I should learn. With that in mind, I had spent the rest of my time there until I felt like I had completely mastered the art of fire-making. I could now successfully set up a fire pit, start it with matches, flint rock, or stick, and could keep it going for however long I wanted it to last for. I hadn't even realized how quickly time had passed until I heard the lunch break bell sound.

I quickly grabbed my food (a turkey sandwich with oranges and a side of banana pudding) and chose an unoccupied table. I quickly started in on my food, and was absorbed in thought. I hadn't even realized that Bates joined me at the table until he cleared his throat, looking at me as if expecting an answer. Evidently I was nodding along to what he was saying without even realizing it.

"I'm sorry, but what did you say? I didn't quite catch that."

Bates chuckled. "I didn't think you did. I was asking if you wanted to make any more allies, or if you just wanted it to be us."

I thought back to the other Districts' Reapings. I remembered the few that I had made mental notes of to see if they wanted to be allies. "Actually, yes, I do. I wouldn't mind it if we could be allies with the girl from District Six and the girl from District Seven. Any others that you would want in our group?"

He nodded, pondering my two choices. "I was thinking about asking Cristoff to join our group. You know, if the Careers haven't claimed him yet. He seems to be useful."

I agreed with him, and we then decided that I would invite the girls over the next three days and he would invite Cristoff. We would discuss either our successes or failures each night. Lunch ended and I continued my course of survival stations.

I went over to the camouflage station and found myself alone with the girl from District Six. Lyla. I hid behind a tree, hoping that she didn't see me. I started painting myself to blend in with a bed of flowers, and once I was satisfied I waited until Lyla walked over to where I was hiding.

"Hi Lyla!" I saw Lyla jump, and then looked around for who was talking to her. "Down here." I watched her head slowly move downwards, her eyes scanning the patch of flowers for the voice. I watched until her eyes landed on mine. She laughed, and helped me up.

"Hi! It's Violet, right?" I nodded. "That's really good camouflage. Where'd you learn how to do stuff like that?"

I shrugged. I honestly had no idea myself. "I dunno. I just like painting, and I guess flowers are easy for me to paint. But anyways! I was wondering if you wanted to be in an alliance with me and Bates, my District partner."

Lyla nodded vigorously. I suspected that no one else had asked her yet. "I would love that. Cristoff hasn't asked me yet if he wants to be in an alliance with me or not. I'm still not sure if he's going to team up with the Careers, be alone, or with someone else."

I smiled. "I know Bates was going to ask him to join the alliance sometime in the next couple of days. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. In the meantime, want to work a little bit more on camouflage and then move on to another station?" Lyla nodded. It turned out that I was really good at it, and Lyla was pretty decent at it as well. We decided that shelter would be a good thing to also learn about, so for an hour we set up a variety of shelters, some consisting of branches, leaves, finding random spots in the 'forest' that was set up, and other miscellaneous things. By the end of the day we also went to the knot tying station, snares, and water purification. Lyla and I said goodbye, and then split up to go to our rooms. I met up with Bates and told him that I had successfully gotten Lyla into the alliance. He said that he hadn't had a chance to meet up with Cristoff yet.

The next day I had told myself that I had to get as skilled as possible with as many weapons as I could. Lyla said she was going to stick with the survival stations again, and then do agility training with me the last day. I tried to avoid the stations that the Careers weren't focused on, which turned out to be fairly easy. They traveled in a pack, moving from one weapon station to the next. I started off with the bow and arrows, and found out that I have no skill whatsoever with it. I practiced until I was okay with them, and decided to move on to the next station. I would come back to them if I had enough time at the end of the day.

I was okay with a spear, at least in close range. I was too weak at the moment to be able to heave the heavy spear to the dummies that were farther away. However, I kept on practicing until I was able to spear the spot where the hearts of the dummies would be in close and medium range on the first or second throw.

It was at the knife-throwing station that I was finally encountered by the Careers. I had been too careless, and hadn't noticed that they were already there. Before I could back away, the seeming leader of the group, Edward, noticed me and a smirk came upon his face.

"Whatcha doin' here, little girl? Tryin' to see if you're better than us at knives? Astrita over here could kill you more ways than your little head could think of with knives." Astrita smiled a cruel smile, and as if to prove Edward's point, threw a knife with almost impossible speed at a dummy across the room. It landed in the middle of its throat, instant death to a human.

"N-n-no, this was a-a-a mistake. I j-j-just wanted to, to see if I was o-o-okay with knives or not." I didn't know why I was stuttering. I think that the Career group was really starting to intimidate me, whether I wanted it or not.

"Well then butterfly girl, go ahead and show us just how good you are with them." Daniel mockingly made everyone move out of the way so that I could walk over to the knives. I picked up a small knife, tried to get a feel of it in my hands, and threw it. The blade landed on the dummy's arm. The Careers laughed, making me blush. I picked up an even smaller blade and threw it again. This time it landed right where I wanted it to go; in the dummy's heart. I threw knives again and again, each time throwing them even farther than the one before. I realized that I had gathered a bit of a group that was watching me throw knives, a talent that I wasn't aware of before. When I had one knife left, I threw it to the farthest dummy, angled just right so that it hit the middle of its forehead, making a slight thud as it hit. I turned back to Astrita, who looked so furious that I was a bit worried that I was going to die even before the Games started.

In the middle of the group that formed I saw Rosetta, her soft blue eyes standing out from the crowd. I quickly left, seeing the Careers having to hold Astrita back from lunging at me as I walked past them. I was all out of knives, a bit embarrassed from making that big of a deal during my Training, and besides, it was time for lunch.

I got my lunch and sat down at a table. I saw Rosetta looking for an empty table and waved her over. She seemed grateful for the offer. She sat down without saying a word, just a smile. I sensed that she was really shy.

"So... just breaking the silence over here, but want to be in an alliance with Bates and Lyla and me?"

Rosetta nodded. "I'm not sure what I can bring to the alliance though. All I can do is set up snares decently."

"That's great though! It'll help us a ton." I explained to her about how we were going to try and get Cristoff to join our group.

She looked really nervous at the mention of his name. When I asked her why, she just muttered, "Oh...um... nothing... he just kind of... scares me." I decided not to ask anything else. At that point, it was time to get back to training.

For the next couple of hours I tackled as many weapons as possible. Tridents, slingshots, bow and arrow (again, without much difference), dart gun, even hand to hand combat. By the end of the day I was completely ready to go to sleep. I wearily told Bates about how Rosetta joined our alliance. He told me how he still didn't get a chance to talk to Cristoff, but he would make sure to do it the next day. Something bothered me at the back of my mind, but I was too tired to pursue it. I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day I almost had to drag myself out of bed. It was agility day, and I had to be prepared to get in the best shape of my life. My first task, along with Lyla's, would be to tackle the obstacle course. Hopefully by the end of the day my time will have improved.

It proved easier said than done.

We worked incredibly hard to build up speed and strength. We raced each other numerous times, hoping to beat the other. When it came to rope climbing, I took down Lyla easily from my job back at home. When it came time for lunch all of us sat together, not really speaking. Rosetta was just shy, and Lyla and I were trying to stop our lungs from exploding. Bates joined us at one point and told us Cristoff would tell us at the end of the day if he would join our alliance or not. That nagging feeling came back to my mind again. Before I could ask Bates about Cristoff, lunch was over and he was heading over to the sword station. Sighing, I stood up, with Lyla right beside me.

We both trained hard to the point where we had to take a break from agility to go back over to the camouflage station, just to make sure our limbs had a chance to recover from the serious workout they were experiencing. I was just about done with painting Lyla and myself into a tree when I overheard Cristoff talking to Astrita, the Career from District One. I motioned to Lyla to close her eyes and to not say a sound. I watched as she blended into the tree. I did the same, except strained my ears to listen to their conversation.

"What's with you and that loser alliance group? You should totally dump them and join us Careers. I would absolutely love it if you hung out with us!" I don't think Astrita could have been any more obvious about her flirting with Cristoff. I was eager to hear his response.

"I dunno... they seem pretty strong together as a team. But you guys, I mean man you guys are pretty awesome too. I think I'm going to go with them though, no offense to you guys. I also want to stick with my District partner too, you know? I want to protect her. I'm really sorry though."

Astrita looked furious. "Fine then. Go off to your little partner who will get herself killed within the first minute of the Games. I bet she'll fall off the plate and blow herself up. Just watch your back, because you're going to be mine once we catch you. And you won't have a say in anything I do to you." This time her words weren't laced with adoration. They were filled with venom. They left, and Lyla and I decided to talk about it with everyone before the end of the day. We hurried back to the obstacle course and finished it in record time for each other; both of us shaving off about two minutes from our original time.

By the end of the night, I was sore all over. I don't think there was a single muscle in my body that wasn't sore. When Bates and I met before going to sleep that night he told me about how Cristoff decided to join our alliance. In exchange I told me about my overhearing of him and Astrita's conversation.

Bates looked somber. "I guess we have an enemy already."