❝my knuckle were bruised like violets❞

SHE AND PEETA SPENT THE REST OF THE DAY TRYING EVERYTHING OUT. They learned how to set traps, build fires, cook food, and they even tried out some other weapons. They ate lunch with Johanna, Finnick, and Lexa, and by the end of the day, Katniss was glaring at the Angler woman. She had probably not been planning on having any allies, and the only people she had spoken to all day were Wiress and Beetee.

Lexa had sparred with Johanna and Finnick for half of the day, sparing glances over at Isla who spent the whole freaking time with that Mellark idiot. She was supposed to be their ally, but she had not spoken to them all day, at least not until lunch. Also, the man was engaged, and she was getting a little too close to him at some points.

Once the blonde woman said goodbye to her new friend, she noticed her district partner and their allies walking over to her. He nodded at the boy who was leaving with his fiancee and pointed out, "I see you've been talking to Peeta."

"Yeah, do you guys have a problem with that?" she questioned. She had noticed how he reacted when Colin showed them his slideshow. He seemed interested by the District 12 pair. She thought he would want to be on their side, but now that he was standing there with his arms crossed with the two woman in the same position behind him like he was head mean girl in high school, she was not so sure.

"Not at all," Johanna answered with a small smirk, and Isla relaxed because she had honestly been scared that she was about to get jumped even though she knew that Finnick would never do that. "We want him and that shooter girl on our side."

The blonde woman then said, "Well, it's a good thing I asked him to be our ally."

"What did he say?" the Mason women asked as all three of them leaned forward in intrigue as their eye widened. They had made no progress making allies with the couple from District 12, despite their attempts, but she had spoken to Peeta all day long.

She responded, "Yes."

"Katniss is going to be a lot harder to convince, though," Finnick told them. The Everdeen girl had been shooting them looks all day. He then turned to his two female friends behind him, shooting them pointed looks. "She already doesn't trust you or Lexa."

"Why not?" the Armada woman scoffed like she was the most trustworthy-looking person in the world, and she had no clue why they would not want to be her best friend in the world. To be fair, she had not done anything to hurt Katniss or her chances in the game. In fact, she was going to sacrifice herself in a week or so for the girl and her fiancee.

Johanna, on the other hand, was completely silent as she looked down at the ground. He informed them, "Well, it might have something to do with Johanna undressing in their elevator yesterday."

"You what?" Isla exclaimed, her eyes widening along with Lexa's as they all turned to look at the woman. What was she thinking, undressing in front of a man and his fiancee when they were trying to get them to form an alliance with them? That would definitely not help.

"Oh, please," the woman sighed, waving it off like it was the most normal thing in the world. It was a pretty big deal since the three of them were planning to risk their lives for these idiots that probably hated them. Isla was not aware of that part, though. "If she won't be allies with us because of that, she's not going to make any at all."

Lexa sighed, mentioning the fact that Katniss had been talking to some people she might want to be allies with. "She seemed pretty comfortable over there with Wiress and Beetee."

"Ugh, Nuts and Volts are not about to steal her," Johanna groaned, and she spun back around to look at the blonde woman. She pointed at her before giving her orders. "Get that Peeta kid on our side. She'll do anything to protect him."

"Yes ma'am," Isla responded, saluting her before turning around and walking away.

《✤》

IT WAS TIME FOR THEIR INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENTS. Isla wished Finnick good luck when he went in, and she did not see him again before it was her turn. Her leg was bouncing nervously as she went over what she was planning to do again. She had only gotten to practice it a couple of times since she did not want to look like a show-off during training time.

"Isla Angler. District 4. Report for individual assessment."

The blonde girl took a deep breath and rubbed her sweaty hands on her pants before standing up. She glanced back at the Mellark boy, who nodded at her encouragingly, which gave her a bit more confidence when it came to her assessment and the alliance.

She made her way into the training room and made eye contact with Plutarch Heavensbee, the head game maker. She glanced around at the judges that were laughing and eating, probably only half paying attention to hr while they socialized. She was not sure if that made her feel better or worse.

Plutarch, the only one giving her his full attention, took a step forward so that he was at the edge of the room and closer to her. He offered a pleasant smile that only made her more anxious. "Ms. Angler, you have ten minutes to present your chosen skill. You may begin."

She moved toward the table that had almost every single weapon you could imagine, and she ran her fingers along the different shapes and sizes of knives until she found three that felt good and light in her hands. She had practiced with these a lot before, so she figured she would go for those instead of the more impressive, heavier ones. Better safe than sorry.

She stuck one knife in her mouth and the other two in her belt, and she walked over to the rock wall on the other side of the room, eyeing the dummies that had targets on their chests and head. She climbed up the wall with ease since there were many cliffs and rocks back home that she would climb and jump from into the water.

At the top of the rock wall, there was a rope course hanging from the ceiling. She made sure that her footing was stable so that she did not go plummeting to the ground — there were mats there, but it still would not look too good on her assessment — before she grabbed onto one of the bars. She released her feet and swung.

She needed as much momentum as she could get, so she only swung back and forth once before leaping and grabbing the rope that was right in front of it. She swung forward on that, using one hand to grab all three of the knives. She then found herself from the rope and did a backflip in the air, releasing all three knives in a motion like she was throwing a frisbee.

She tucked and rolled as soon as her feet touched the ground so that she did not hurt anything, and she stuck the landing. She was already happy that she did not die, but when she looked up and saw that all of her knives had landed in the head of three separate dummies, she could not help but smile.

"Very impressive, Ms. Angler."

Lexa entered the room about half an hour later. They were resetting the dummies and the weapons when she went in, and she took a deep breath. She was not that nervous since she really did not give a crap about what a bunch of Capitol judges thought about her chances of surviving in the arena. She was confident in her skills, and that was all that mattered to her.

Once they were ready for her, Plutarch told her. "Lexa Armada, you have ten minutes to present your chosen skill. You may begin when you are ready."

She went straight to the panel that controlled the holographic dummies that they had just added in. She was pretty fond of these things because they simulated actual tributes attacking her and not just dummies slowly moving at her. As soon as she pressed the button, an orange man appeared.

She grabbed a sword from the table and swung it around before getting in a fighting stance, the same one that she had used earlier with Johanna. The figure came at her, and she easily slammed her sword through its stomach. Then, two came after her at the same time, and she did a spin, taking off the heads of both of them.

The next level had three. She killed one while dodging the spear of another won. The fake dummy fell forward into the other one, killing it while she cut it in half. She took a moment to regain her composure before the final level.

Five holograms came at her at the same time. She kicked one in the chest, causing it to stumble back even though she did not feel a thing. She slashed its knees and stabbed the next one in the next, all the while dodging the swings from the others. She jumped up and slashed one person's face in half and then stabbed another one through the chest. For the final one, she cut its arm off before kicking it to the ground and stabbing it through the head.

Once she was done, she tossed the weapon to the ground, causing it to clatter as metal hit metal. She nodded at Plutarch before spinning on her heel and walking right out of the room.