#tbpdayfour25

With that mindset, I ran forward and leapt into the pool, the feeling of cool, refreshing water enveloped me. I could feel myself moving deeper and deeper into the water. I kept my eyes shut, not wanting my precious peepers to be damaged by the chlorine inhabited waters. When I reached the bottom, I let my feet touch the floor and, with as much force as I could muster, I launched myself upwards. My lungs started to burn, but I knew that I could do it. 

Just before I opened my mouth, my body craving air, I felt my face break the surface. Opening my mouth, I swallowed as much delicious air as I could and flapped my arms and my legs, doing my best to stay afloat. It was hard, really hard, but after a few seconds, I managed to maintain a decent system of balancing and keeping my head above water.

“Oh my god... you didn’t die.”

“No-nope!” I sputtered, spitting out water as I began to move around the pool, “I told you I was gonna be fine.”

While I did have confidence in myself, and I did, in the end, know that I was going to come out victorious in the match versus the deadly pool... for a moment, when I was in the air, about to strike the water, I felt a twinge of panic. If I had to be rescued by a trainer out of a pool, me, a career, then I could just kiss my chances of winning these Games goodbye. Liucija would kill me before any of the other tributes could get to me.

For the next hour or so, I swam about the pool, doing my best to get used to it. While it was true that, yes, I knew how to swim now, I was clearly not the best at it. There were still times when I would just let my head fall below the water. Still, at least I always kept moving, so that was nice. Once the hour was up, I got out, dried myself off, and then carried myself back to the suite. 

Placing the tip of my thumb to my chin, I took a good look around, wondering what exactly I could do. I could just free-style the entire thing and just go around punching bags... but that’s not really efficient. So, turning to Rex, I clasped my hands together and gave him a slight smirk.

“Can we practice some more boxing and capoeira? That oughta help a bit, I think.”

So, for the next few hours, we practiced more with the fighting styles. While my boxing skills were only improving, I was starting to become a little bit more used to the movement and grace that capoeira required. It was hard, very hard, but I knew some of the basics, at least. Plus, learning the techniques of capoeira helped me to tighten up my own personal fighting style. It allowed me to see some of the weaknesses that I had in my style and, also, showed me ways to cover some of the holes in my defenses.

“Alright. I think we’re done for the day.” Rex let out as he undid the straps on his boxing gloves, slipping them off and then tossing them onto a nearby table. He then mumbled something about going get dinner, turned on his heels, and left the Station. Had it been my first time at the Station, I probably would have been offended. Since I was basically a regular now, I just went about my business and headed to the punching bags.

As I pounded away at the bags, I let my mind drift. Punch after punch, a new thought popped into my head. My thoughts drifted to today, the final day of training, to the people I had met so far on this journey, to, specifically, the boy from Eleven.

He had mentioned something about fresh baked bread, and that got me thinking. It was never really something I thought about, that financial state and, well, overall state of living of other Districts, that is. Us in Two, we never really had to work extra hours or pray for a good meal to come our way. Most of the time, it was just readily accessible. It never really occurred to me that, in lower Districts, that one piece of bread that someone in Two threw away because it didn’t look all that good... that could be someone in Eleven’s dinner.

Shaking my head, I forced myself to focus on beating the ever-living shit out of this punching bag. For a while, it worked... but then a few minutes later, I felt my mind start to drift again. This time, Liucija came to mind. The conversation we had from the other day came to mind, and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of it. It had taken her a little while, but she had finally come to understand what I wanted to do. She finally understood that this was something that I had waited my entire life for; it was something that I couldn’t just drop at a whim. 

Reeling my hand back, I sent one last punch at the punching bag. With a sigh, I took off my gloves and placed them casually next to Rex’s pair. The grin from moments before was still stuck on my face, like someone had colored it on with a permanent marker.

As I walked to my final destination of the day, I looked about the large center, watching all of the other tributes train. In that minute or two it took my to walk to the Station, I saw many others out and about, doing their best to train for the Games. Some looked happy as they trained, like it was something that they wanted. Others, on the other hand... others looked like they had just died right then and there. Their expressions were hollow, their eyes were emotionless, and it looked like they were just doing whatever it took to survive.

It was just a moment, just a minuscule m, insignificantly small moment, but in that moment, I cringed at the thought of these tributes in the Arena. They had no chance, none at all. All they could do was wait until sweet death was delivered to their doorstep in a pretty box with a nice, red ribbon tied on top. 

The question is, will I be the one to deliver the gift to them? If not me, it would be someone else. Someone else to end their lives... lives that had meaning, lives that-- 

Catching myself, I rolled my eyes and ran my hand through my hair. 

Blinking the daydream away, I turn my head slightly, noticing that I’m being stared at by the trainer of this station. Turning back to look at my reflection in the pool, I see nothing but a man in tight fitting swim-trunks and two, unfortunately bright, pink floaties on his arms. 

If Liucija saw me, I don’t think she’d ever let me live this down.

“No, I-I’m gonna get in. I’m gonna get in. Yup. That’s exactly what I am... about... to... do...” With each word, I got closer and closer to the pool. Eventually, I felt the cool water splashing against my feet. One step at a time. Right foot, left foot. Left foot, right foot. Then, I was about up to my waist in water. Oh god... okay, it’s now or never.

Without a second thought, but after a moment’s hesitation, i leapt into the pool. Instantly, I became submerged in water and, for a split second, I started to panic... but then my trusty flotation devices kicked in and I was saved from death. Floating to the surface, I did my best to kick my legs and move my arms in the way that I had seen people do. 

God, they made this look so easy.

“Do you need any help, man?” 

“Nope!” I spluttered as I floundered about in the pool. I must have looked like an idiot to anyone watching, but I don’t care. I don’t know how to swim, I never learned and never needed to. If I go into that Arena, and there is water everywhere, or, God forbid, it’s entirely water, I’m going to fucking die. There’s no doubt. I need to fix that problem now, while I can.

For the next thirty minutes or so, I attempted to learn how to balance in the water. If I could learn to keep my balance, then I could focus on moving and things like that. Of course, I had the floaties on, so those would need to go eventually. But... but not right now

Once I got balanced, I attempted actual swimming. It was hard at first, because almost instantly I flopped over and fell face first into the water. When I recovered, I tried again. I flopped another time. No surprise there. The third time, however, I managed to move around in the water a bit. 

“Are you sure you’re okay, man--”

“Bruh!” I gasped as I emerged from the depths of the pool after falling in again. “I said no! I got this!” Of course, the second I said that, I fumble and end up slamming my face into the water. I just keep it held there for a second. As I float upside down, I can hear the sound of the trainer snickering. Just then, just like magic, I can feel a vein popping on my neck.

“Do you know what?!” I all but screamed, scrambling over to the part of the pool where I could reach. Climbing out, I took off the floaties and then pointed to the trainer. I stared into his soul and he stared back, albeit his eyes were filled with amusement and mine were filled with the seriousness of a thousand dead children.

“I’ll be back.” 

With, I squeaked over to get a towel, ready to dry off and do something else for the time being. The pool though... I will conquer it. It may think that it has gotten the best of me for now, but I’ll be back. That’s a promise, after all...

I laugh at his benign vulgarity. And then I swing my spear at his feet, but he hops over it.

“Saw that one coming.”

I launch my spear into the ground before him, using it as an anchor as I grip the shaft and fling my legs forwards at him, but he swiftly steps to the side.

“Nope. I taught you that.”

I continue to try to surprise Vaughn, being sporadic in my actions, but he seems to be able to anticipate each and every one. The ones that he can’t expect barely have any effect on his ability to fight. I sigh, knowing that I might need to defend myself from tributes who are as skilled as him once I’m in the arena. But I know that I don’t want to die, even though I’m not supposed to fear death. Because papa tells me that there’s nothing to fear in death, that it comes naturally in everyone’s life. But I don’t think that dying in the arena counts as dying naturally, and I don’t think that I can accept dying right now. I wish I could tell him this, so that he would understand. But I know that I can’t expect everybody to understand me.

Vaughn snaps at me. “Don’t zone out, Kiya. Focus. I’m doing this for you. Well, and for me, because it would kind of suck if I didn’t have somebody to admire me. Believe it or not, the Capitol can be a tough crowd sometimes, if you don’t keep up with the latest trends,” he chuckles.

I smile as I stab my spear into the target to the right of me, latching onto it and using my momentum and the skills I learned at gymnastics and capoeira to swing upwards, planting both of my feet on Vaughn’s chest, knocking him over.

He hops to his feet, laughing. “EXCELLENT!” he shouts, his voice booming. I smile at him as I wrap my arms around his enormous figure, unable to even completely reach my arms around his back.

“You know you can do this, Kiya. You’re a free spirit, and that’ll help you. Just remember, be sporadic, and ask for forgiveness, not for persimmons,” Vaughn tells me, and I can tell that his words are earnest. My intuition tells me that he’s right, and that these words are especially relevant to me, considering the way I’ve always acted.

“Confident, are we?

“Quite.”

“Good.” 

“Are you scared of me, Klaus?”

“Not at all.”

“Good.”

I chuckled for a second, and only a second, because I found the conversation amusing. I didn’t laugh long, however, because the second I started, Majorca was sprinting towards me, armed with a three-section staff. 

I watched as, with a flick of her wrist, the staff broke apart slightly, majorly extending its reach and power. With a flick of my own wrist, I extended the urumi, watching as it flopped to the ground, the sound of metal screeching throughout the air. Majorca smiled, I smirked, and then our weapons met mid-air.

For an hour or so, we dueled. It was a long, amazingly fun battle. At several points throughout the match, she had me on the ropes. At the same time, I almost crushed her several times, too. In the end, we were getting tired so we decided to call it a draw. Part of me didn’t want to accept it, but I decided this was a nice, fair ground to end on.

“You certainly know your stuff.” She said through sips of a bottle of water. Turning to face her, I grabbed my own bottle and took a long, desperately needed sip. 

“Thank you. You do, too. I must say, I’m surprised.”

“Are you?”

Yeah,” I said after another sip, “some of the trainers here haven’t exactly been... the most qualified, I think.”

“Ah...”

“Is something the matter?”

“Not really. I have a piece of advice for you, though.”

“Oh?”

Crushing the water bottle in my hands, I watched her carefully as she went back and placed her staff back onto one of the tables. I pondered quietly what she had to say. When she opened her mouth to speak, I watched her body language and I knew that she was being extremely serious.

“Don’t underestimate people. These people are here for a reason. They might not look like much, believe me, I know, but they are here because they are skilled in the area that they teach. You should know this better than anyone: people aren’t always as they appear. Do you see that man over there? The one at the Aquatics station?”

She didn’t even need to say his name. I knew exactly who she was talking about before she finished her sentence. I nodded and she nodded with me. 

“Okay. He’s basically a giant asshole, really... but he knows what he’s doing. People don’t even like him here that much. In fact, most of us hate him. Still, despite that, he’s still good at what he does...”

Turning on her heels, she turned to me and placed a finger on my chest. She looked into my eyes and I stared right back, daring not to say a word. In fact, I stopped breathing all together, slightly stunned at the conversation.

“If you underestimate anyone, anyone at all, you might end up dead. No, I can guarantee you will end up dead. You may think that you don’t judge these people, you may even think that you won’t underestimate them. You will, though. I’ve trained tributes that swore up and down, left to right, that they would treat everyone as an equal. When it came down to it, they didn’t. Can you guess where they are now?”

I nodded.

“My point is this: when the Games begin, don’t ever for a second think that you’re going to win. You have to get through twenty-three other tributes. It’s not like it usually is, either. The variety this time is immense, and you know that. Don’t forget any of this.”

Now, however, since I was here, I knew that I needed to learn how to fix myself when I got into any sticky situations. I arrived at the First Aid station, my palms, admittedly a bit sweaty, and I got straight to work. I found the trainer, which wasn’t that hard because it seemed that nobody was here, and I approached her with a smile.

“Hello. Could you please help me get started? I’m not entirely sure where to start...” 

A smirk graced her lips and, for a moment, I thought she was going to tell me off or something. When she opened her mouth, I prepared myself for the onslaught, but was pleasantly surprised to hear a nice, smooth, crystal clear voice.

“Yeah, sure.” 

Returning her smirk with an even bigger smile of my own, I walked further into the station, following her as she walked, hands in her pockets, towards a selection of medical kits, practice dummies, syringes, and various other vials, knick-knacks, and do-dads. She was a bit different than some of the other trainers I had met thus far. She was quiet and seemed to stay to herself. I didn’t really mind that, now. After seeing some of the other trainers, anyway...

It took a little while for me to get her talking, but once I did, she was fairly sweet. She helped me as much as she was able to which, because of my near incompetence in the subject, was a lot. It was immensely harder than I expected, learning to treat wounds correctly and patch up oneself when faced with injury. Back in Two, we had people for that. Now, I had to be that person, and it definitely wasn’t the most fun thing in the world.

“Okay... did I do it right? I think I did. Did I?” I said, stepping back and looking at my work on the dummy. The trainer, who I now knew as Amelia, came closer, her eyes rummaging about, trying to look for any major flaws. In a matter of seconds, she looked back up at me, the slightest of smiles present upon her face. 

“It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad. You made progress from your last attempt, that’s for sure.” I wanted to ask her not to speak about that incident. Just the thought of that poor, now deformed, dummy, was enough to give me a headache.

“Overall... I’d say you passed.”

“Really?!”

“Yes.”

“Thank God!” I said, throwing my hands into the air and letting out a long, well deserved exhale. Not perfect, but passable. Not perfect, but passable. I kept repeating that phrase to myself as we started working on other things. I knew damn well that I wasn’t about to immediately master something like this. I mean, let’s be real, it’s completely unrealistic, completely idiotic, and foolish to attempt. Anyone who thinks they can master something immediately with only a few hours behind learning it... good luck. 

For the next hour or so, Amelia and I focused on various antidotes and poisons. I was a tad more familiar with the subject of poisons because, well, poison seemed to be a recurring theme in the Games. It was used at some point, by someone, always. It was a game changer, poison. So, I wanted to learn more about it.