Secrets and Lies

• Fist of all Mel was bi, not that it mattered because she never had a boyfriend/girlfriend.
  
• This is probably already pretty obvious, but if you didn't catch it Mel intended to poison Argent by mixing the medical berries from one island with poisonous ones from another. She would eat a few of the non-poisonous berries herself then offer the rest to Argent, If he where to eat them he'd b dead.
  
• Mel's plan had originally been to run from the bloodbath.
  

Mel sat waiting to be called in for her private training session. She had begun planning what she was going to do from the moment she had entered the capitol now all she had to do was keep calm and get it right.

She let her hands run down her outfit something she had had to debate about for longer then she thought necessary. It was imperative that her outfit today be lighter then the ones she had worn before. Her stylist had complained about potential losing her distinctive 'silhouette' to the lighter clothes Mel wanted, needed to wear. It had taken nearly an out of arguing, bargaining, and compromising before they had finally managed to agree on an outfit.

As it was it wasn't half bad. The same kind of dress that he had had her wearing the whole time with the over-the-top buckles and zippers of her jacket sewn in as a design rather then forcing her to wear the heavy thing through her training. Her boots had been replaced in a smiler way as well. Now she just had grey socks with the same design sewn into them. Her hair was pulled back with a simple grey headband that matched her leggings. Mel had tried to halt his habit of covering her in miss-matched makeup but she had to admit the same pattern as her dress being mimicked in a swirling pattern originating from her left eye looked pretty cool. Her right eye being covered in glitter, not quite as much. She kept in on though because any attempt to wipe it away would just resulted in getting glitter all over her face.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes reminding herself that she already had a few advantages walking in. First was being from District Three, something she had never thought would help her against the other tributes. She got to go into the private training earlier then most and between the careers. So the Gamemakers attention wouldn't be quite so unfocused as if she were from a lower district. Second it didn't matter what happened here because Mel had planed for any possibility.
That was why she had gone with this somewhat reckless plan. Not for the training score really but for fun. Half of what she was about to do was something she had always wanted to try anyway.

She heard her name and walked in springing into action immediately, her training required some set up and she's have to make it quick or lose the Gamemakers' attention. She started with the dummies placing four in a square around a spot she had previously marked out in her mind, then two more went side by side a little ways away then one just as far away on the other side closer to the Gamemakers. That set she walked over to the camo area and pulled out there longest fabric tarp, which stretched out to about thirty feet length-wise but only about two feet width-wise. She wrapped it up and held it on her shoulder. Finally she walked over to the fire making station. She had seen these metal spheres before and enquired about them. The instructor had told her they where for tributes who where having trouble drawing sparks from flint, meant to help them get the hang of the amount of force needed and the angel to hit at. It while this was helpful it was the size and weight that had interested her, and the fact that they let off sparks much more easily then flint. She tied two of the balls into knots in the tarp and held one in each hand. Now she was ready to start the show.

She had made of checklist of skills she intended to showcase in this training session and her routine started with the easy one. She sprinted up to the dummy nearest the Gamemakers' table and using the speed from the running and her own strength struck the dummy right in the head with her left ball clutched in her left hand. She then swung around and delivered a blow to his back with her right. She continued with five more blows to the dummy. This didn't hold any of the sophistication of practised combat it was just a pure show of her own upper body strength.
Without a break she sprinted off the square of dummies giving a quick demonstration of her newly acquired self defence skills. She dodged and ran around them like they where living people moving in to attack.

She then ran towards the far end of the room moving between the two dummies. She held out the balls so that each smacked into the Dummies' heads but at a glancing blow so it would draw sparks the the balls.

That done she rand full tilt towards the rock climbing wall storing the two balls in with the others freeing her hands. The wall was divided into strips of varying difficulty. Mel aimed for the strip on the far left deemed most difficult. It was a realistic rock face with very few hand holds and large areas jutting out that would force you to climb upside down. During training an instructor would insist on safety harness and ropes which Mel completely ignored taking the wall at a running jump.

The only handhold was shallow and thin forcing Mel to hold her whole weight with the tips of her fingers. This didn't hinder her in the slightest, climbing was her element and this was her chance to prove it. She pulled herself up quickly using the moment of her jump to help her reach the first out cropping of fake rocks. She pulled herself onto the platform the outcropping made with little trouble and continued up.

Mel was confident that she was making the most difficult part of the wall look like a glorified ladder. The only time this might not be the case was halfway up when she purposefully slipped. Mel knew that if she had lost the attention of any of the Gamemakers at this point the prospect of her splatting on the ground would be enough to perk their interest. She let herself hang there by her left hand for a couple seconds swinging back and forth, this had also been a chance for her to catch her breath.

After a full two seconds she continued up at her usual pace and within no time was at the very top of wall. She didn't stop though, she stood up on the very top able to see just how fake the rocks were from the other side. Then she went even higher. Her own height plus the height of the wall was enough to reach the lighting grid.

Mel pulled herself up and walked across the rafters. She was able to determine witch beams would hold her weight and which were for show from years of having her life depend on that knowledge. She wasn't about to spend too much time up here though, even if she wanted to. The Gamemakers couldn't see her up here after all. She found the spot she was looking for, directly above the square of Dummies. She tied one end of the tarp that was still around her shoulder onto a beam that Mel had judged to be up to the task.

She let go of the rest of the tarp along with one of the balls aiming for one of the dummies. The ball didn't hit dead on like she had planed but instead glanced off the dummy's shoulder. The good news was that it let off another show of sparks making it look like she had intended it to work that way, somewhat.

Now was the hard part, she had only done this once before in district three and that had been nearly a year ago. She wrapped her right arm and leg around the tarp and slid down from the grid using the tarp as a rope. She couldn't actual grip it with one of the metal ball in her right hand and two in her left. She had to slide down using her wrist and forearms.

As soon as she was within eyesight of the Gamemakers she let one in her left hand drop aiming for the second dummy. It missed, this time obviously. Mel tried not to let that get her down (figuratively) and continued the show the way she had planned it.

She held on with both her forearms wrapped around the tarp and freed her feet. She used her feet to swing her back and forth as she slid down and a pretty steady pase. She unwrapped her right hand so she was holding on and swinging only by her left, took more careful aim and let the ball drop.

This time it was a direct hit actually cracking the dummy's head open. Now it was time for the fun part. With her newly freed hand she gripped the tarp and wrapped both her legs together. She unwrapped her left hand and then took a deep breath and let go with her right hand.

She was flipped upside down, hanging only by her feet. She let her left hand reach down as she hung on with her right. She reached down swinging her left hand into the final dummy, the one between her and the Gamemakers, knocking it over.

She flipped back the right way and even though she could easily climb the rest of the way down she jumped. Landing perfectly in the centre of the dummy square. She gave a quick bow and a bright smile signifying the end of the show.

She was pretty sure at lest some of the Gamemakers would get all the messages she had worked into her little performance. Not only had she shown that she had the strength and ability to be do well in the games she also had the attitude. The lighting grids relation to the rock climbing wall was a flaw. She had drawn attention to it, used it to her advantage, but hadn't done more then that.

More then just being a good tribute she was showing them that she would make a good victor. After last years games Mel was pretty sure they weren't about to let something like that happen again. The acrobatics would make a good hobby, and she was promising to play by their rules and put on a good show, even if she did find flaws that she could use to cause trouble.

I know if I want to win, you guys have to be on my side. She thought as she was dismissed.