Mondo Kamina

I laugh and am relieved when he seems to be much friendlier and conversational now.  “I feel like camouflage could be an art,” I respond.  “I haven’t tried it yet but I’m kinda itching to check it out.”  We keep swimming around the pool for a bit.  To the naked eye, Mondo could even appear as a trainer teaching me rather than a tribute.

I can't help but chuckle again as she talks about Dotev. She can be a lot to take in at first, and in all honesty I didn't like her much when we first started talking. She grew on me, even though it took a lot of alcohol and our full train ride. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," I assure her. "Dotev strikes me as a "blames-the-messenger" type and I sure as hell don't want her mad at me."

My second attempt didn’t look so bad. It looked like some sort of arm-shaped rock that might or might not belong to a thirteen-year-old girl. I grabbed a clean wet cloth and wiped this one off. 

I laughed at her attempt, and the unamused look on her face as she did it. It was the first time I laughed since arriving in the Capitol, and it's more than welcome. "I don't know about you," I said, giving her a mock-knowing look and picking up a tube of paint. "But if I get a sponsor, Liquitex Arcrylic Pain in neutral gray is going to be at the very top of my wish list." 

"Nice to meet you, Mondo," I smile with a soft giggle.  Securing my position with the board, I’m glad to see that he’s come along.  "I wish I was that quick of a learner," I say, poking a bit of fun at myself.  "I think I’m too dense to be as buoyant as you are, too," I chuckle.  I swim around, kicking to get my legs used to water again.  "Are you that quick of a learner with everything?" I ask curiously.

She seems to be doing a bit better in the water, and I'm glad. "Oh, hell no," I chuckle, thinking back to school and how long it took me to learn what the teacher was trying to explain to us. "I spent half my morning at the camouflage station and I still don't think I managed to get it right. I'm sure you'll get it, you're already doing a lot better."

My arms feel heavier as I continue to lift the ten-pound weights, but I grit my teeth and power through it, because I know that's mainly what I'll have to do in the arena. I wish I had somehow built up some muscle back in nine, but I doubt even the manual labor would've done that.

It's a nice sentiment, learning about all the different districts. I hadn't thought about it before, but she's right. I don't know anything about the other districts other than the occasional shot of their town squares when they show the Reaping each year. 

I shrugged as I continued with a smaller brush working with the gray paint. “I don’t know. I mean it would be nice to talk to them. Might give me a step up or something just to see how they think. Plus, I like to think they probably pick favorites.”

She's right, but that doesn't make the idea of talking to them any less stressful. My eyes linger on the two of them for a few more moments and when I turn back she's staring right at me. I put my hands up in retreat. 

When he lets go, I sink back in the water just a bit.  I chuckle a little nervously and smile at him.  “It’s okay.  You really didn’t even have to help me,” I tell him.  “So I’m grateful that you did,” I giggle as I brush a strand of hair behind my ear.  “What was your name?” I ask, clinging onto the wall and pulling myself toward it.  Whether or not he didn’t want to introduce himself, I ask him for his name.  I’d like to know who it was that saved me.

It's only after I get back to her side that I realize I didn't introduce myself. She probably thinks I'm kind of an asshole after that. "I'm Mondo." I hold the board in place for her as she adjusts herself onto it, only letting go when I'm sure she's steady. 

I’m splashing around for what seems like forever and I’m wondering why the trainer isn’t helping me. Suddenly, I feel an arm latch onto me and we swim toward the edge until I can grab onto the ledge.  I cough up and sputter out water, wiping the water from my eyes.  I turn and realize that who had helped me wasn’t a trainer but was a tribute instead.  I’m just not making a good impression today whatsoever.

The second I'm sure she has a good hold on the ledge, I let her go. I don't want her to get the wrong impression and think I'm trying to cop a feel or anything. The guilty feeling in my chest won't subside as I watch her catch her breath. "Sorry, I really shoulda gotten my ass over here sooner, I just wanted to give you a chance to--" I'm surprised to be met only with a quiet thank you and introduction. 

From the way he's lifting weights like its nothing tells me straight off the bat that he's a strong kid. Not like I couldn't tell from his build.

She's progressing pretty quickly and I'm tempted to warn her about moving up through the weights too fast, but I decide against it. It's just ten pounds. She'll be sore in the morning but not hurt. 

He was trying to make conversation, which I internally applauded. Maybe he wasn’t the best at words but he gave off a pretty cool vibe to me. I followed his glance to other people practicing and had to admit, some of them were a little sad. But that might have just been my bias talking.

"Atta girl, that's the spirit," I chuckled, brushing my arm off yet again. I decided to take a break for a bit, leafing through the terrain samples and glancing at her progress now and then. I have to admit, I'd assumed Fay would be a little hard ass, but now that I was talking to her she seemed pretty down to earth. Smart, too. Something about the way she spoke hinted at a cleverness not best displayed with her camouflaging prowess. 

He seems a bit distant and uncomfortable, but that's usually the norm when meeting new people that you'll be forced to kill.

I know I’m not the strongest of the other tributes, and nowhere near being one of the, so I am beckoned by the weight training station. I walk from the gravity zone over to the area plentiful in weights and whatnot.

I cringe as the twang of metal on metal rings out through the area, glancing back to see a slim girl speaking to me. Already, I feel myself getting nervous. My first instinct is to glance around for a trainer who can help her, but the weight guy apparently hasn't shown up yet so that's a bust. 

I laughed softly. “He had it coming. Running out of the audience like that.”

"I wouldn't say everyone else," I offered, glancing over at some girls practicing at the archery station. She probably wasn't too worried, but she could've just be really good at hiding it. "When, uh… When I was twelve, I was one of the shortest kids in my class," I started. I didn't want to bore her, but I wanted to offer her some kind of reassurance. However feeble it was. 

After a short lunch, I head back to the training center.  I’m not sure what to tackle next when I spot the pool.  I’ve never had a chance to learn back in Seven.  The few lakes that exist in the District are usually prohibited to visit, so the largest body of water that I’ve ever seen was the bathtub filled with water.

I'm starting to get the hang of it as the girl starts swimming parallel to me. It seems she's starting off a bit slower than I did. Maybe she's afraid of the water? No doubt Seven has about as many beautiful swimming spots as Eleven. 

Only mildly annoyed at the muck he had gotten on my arm, I smiled up at him. “No, I never really had time for it back at home. Better things to do, you know.”

"Same," I mumbled, wiping my arm off and ditching the bowl of paint I mixed. If I was trying to blend in to a field of marshmallow fluff it might have been pretty good, but somehow I doubted the Game Makers were throwing us into candy land. "You don't seem like the camouflaging type to me anyway," I ventured, the smallest grin coming to my lips. "With the way you tore that guy up at the parade, I figured you were more of an offense kinda girl."

Hiding in Plain Sight || Camouflage || Fay & Mondo

I never had much of an artistic side, so this camouflaging shit was really taking me a while. I listened to what the instructor said about matching colors and using what I could find to blend in, but every time I painted my arm and held it to one of the sample terrains I still managed to stand out like a sore thumb. By the time Fay approached me, I was halfway sure I was colorblind.