{A . Home . Away . From . Home} [Ana-Katie-Maia]

Bleep…bleep…BLEEP!

Maia awoke with a start, the alarm clock she set coming on, loudly announcing itself. Wearily, she beat away at the nightstand, her arm flailing around until it finally made contact with the object. It was knocked off the nightstand, hitting the ground with a loud crash, causing Maia to groan. Her eyes snapped open, glaring at the spider making its away across the ceiling. Sitting up in bed, she yawned, before glancing down at the wreckage on the ground. Even worse, peeking up at the other clock, she realized, with a pang in her stomach, she managed to set the alarm clock at the wrong time, making her ten minutes late for training!

Suddenly awake, Maia leapt from the bed, but she miscalculated her jumping ability. She landed on a sharp piece of the broken alarm clock, howled in pain, and tripped backwards, smacking her head on the wooden frame of the bed. Crying out in pain, Maia instantly bit down on her lip to staunch the sound. Only she could manage to be late for training and hurt herself! Squeezing her eyes shut, Maia clutched at the back of her head. When her hand came away dry, no blood, she finally sat up. Rubbing her eyes, and glancing around at the destroyed alarm clock, Maia sighed. A sharp bit of the alarm clock was embedded in her foot, and wincing, Maia reached down to pull it out. Blood washed over her fingers, and she hastily pulled away, wiping the scarlet fluid on her pajama pants. Great, just great. She stood and hobbled into the bathroom to wash the blood off, annoyed at herself for losing time in training.

Hastily washing off the blood, Maia wrapped her foot, and was dressed in an instant. Her hair was a mess, flying in every which direction, refusing to be tied up no matter how hard she tried. Finally, too aggravated to continue, Maia fled from the room, her heart racing, wondering if anyone will notice her lateness. Her stomach growled as she inched into the training room, and a few tributes glanced at her, squinting at the girl who thought she could come in late, unnoticed. Ducking her burning face, Maia hurried to the closest station, which happened to consists of bows and arrows.

Maia wasn’t great with throwing…or targets. For years, she blamed it on her eyes, telling her father that she couldn’t see long distances. However, even when he got her glasses, she didn’t improve. What he didn’t know was it was him as well as other elements. His shouting, landing pressure on her shoulders. Valora’s taunting, the teasing of her classmates, her own frustration, beating her down until the arrow missed or the dagger fell just short of its target. Of course, that would lead to more torment, torment that caused her to rip out her eyelashes, bring tears to her eyes, bring on headaches. And her shooting or throwing never changed. Never once. Her eyebrows and lashes may disappear, she may become temporarily deaf from the screaming, and her muscles may ache from practice, but it never changed. Never got any better.

Here, even without the shouting, and without Valora or anyone she was familiar with, she knew she’d do just as bad. The mere feeling of being scrutinized by her fellow tributes, all of them wanting her to make a mistake, wanting to know exactly who she was, just as much as she wondered about them. She might as well be under an x-ray. Her hand was already closed around a bow, but she hastily let go, as if it had burned her. Glancing around to make sure no one noticed her mistake, Maia’s eyes fell onto a few tributes, nearby at the same station as her. Two girls and a boy. She recognized the first two, both of them from District 1, but the other girl…she wracked her brain…District 3! She’d watched them on television, familiarizing herself with each of them, until she could recite all of their hair color in order. The District 1 girl seemed to be scolding the District 1 boy, who didn’t look the brightest, but the District 3 girl…Maia watched as she asked her about using the bow. Maia’s fingers curled around the bow in front of her once more, and sliding it towards her, she also grabbed an arrow.

What are you doing? The voice of reason in her head surfaced. You have no idea how to shoot! Maia swallowed, her fingers relaxing. However, another voice overcame the first one. Some cheesy line that had been hammered into her head as a young child in school. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Sure, the line was absolutely dumb, but…it was true wasn’t it. Maia swallowed, and loaded the bow. You’re crazy, the voice told her again. Show them you’re able doing something else, it urged, you can’t shoot! Maia shut the voice up, and her palms sweaty, she raised the bow.

Contemplating the target several yards away, and situating her bow, Maia took a deep breath. You can do this, you can do this, right…? Maia’s fingers slipped on the string, before she was ready. Her eyes widened in horror as the arrow went flying towards the target. It hit the wooden target on the outer rings, with a thud…but it hit the target! That’s better than she could have hoped for. She pressed her lips together to refuse to gasp that had sprang there. Her eyes were wider than ever, her stomach swelling with excitement. She’d hit the target! Sure, she broke the alarm clock, hit her head, was late for training, and cut her foot, but she’d hit the target!

Spinning around, Maia couldn’t help but beam at the group a few feet away from her. She walked over, with almost an air of superiority, lingering and wavering slightly, and shoved the bow into the District 3 girl’s hand.

“That’s, uhm, how you do it.” She said, still slightly flustered with the turn of events. “You know... shoot.”