Reading: The Hunger Games

All right, picking up in Chapter 5 of The Hunger Games , this summary starts on page 64 and goes through 102.

Cinna and Katniss discuss things like what she will wear to the opening ceremony, which unfortunately has to represent the districts main industry (remember District 12 is famous for coal mining). Katniss is in her ‘coal-mining’ outfit that is equipped with a cape, which Cinna wants to set on fire during her chariot ride to the stadium.
When Peeta shows up he sees that he and Katniss are dressed identically. Once the chariots start to move Cinna lights both of the competitors’ capes on fire. That would make me so nervous. Seriously, one slight movement could send your body up in flames. Luckily for them Cinna’s plan actually works and no one dies (phew! what a relief). This whole chariot deal seems like a parade for beauty queens. People are throwing roses to the competitors, while the competitors themselves are blowing kisses to the crowd . They arrive at the President’s house and listen to him give a speech. After this ceremony the competitors are taken right back to the training center. On the ride back Katniss and Peeta get a little flirty with each other, and once again Katniss must remind herself that she cannot feel anything towards Peeta. However, Katniss tries to play Peeta’s feelings by kissing him.
The team arrives at the Training Center, the place in which the contestants will be staying at. Katniss admires the luxuries of her room that she has never gotten to enjoy before. I bet right now Katniss has that feeling you get when you walk into a really fancy hotel room. Hopefully you understand where I’m coming from. I love staying in hotels because everything is so different and unique to the hotel you’re staying in.
Katniss and her ‘posse,’ consisting of Effie, Cinna, the other stylists, and Haymitch, attend dinner with the other contestants. During dessert Katniss recognizes one of the serving girls. Effie tells Katniss it’s impossible to know the girl because she is an Avox (someone who has committed a crime and has to have their tongue cut out). Peeta interrupting telling Effie that Katniss must have mistaken her for a girl who attends the same school as them, however, Katniss knows Peeta is wrong.
Instead of returning to their rooms after dinner, Katniss and Peeta head to the roof, where Peeta begins to question Katniss. He asks her where she knew the Avox from. She tells Peeta that one day while she and Gale were hunting around the Seam they saw a boy and a girl. The two were dressed in rags and were running. She could see from her hiding spot in the woods that a hovercraft came and speared the boy and brought him into the craft. Then, a net was sent down and the girl was hauled into the craft as well. During all of this chaos, somehow, the girl and Katniss managed to make eye contact.
Peeta wonders where the two are at now and where they were going. After the Avox story Peeta questions Katniss about Gale, however, Katniss tries to avoid the subject.
When Katniss returns to her room the Avox girl is retrieving Katniss’s dirty clothes. Before she falls asleep Katniss thinks back to that day in the woods, thinking about how she should have done something to help her and the boy she was with.
At breakfast the next morning Katniss discovers that once again, Peeta is dressed identically to her; this irritates her. We’ve all had those days where you get ready for school, and then after one or two passing periods you see someone else with the same shirt on as you, and you run to your friends looking for a sweatshirt to wear over it so no one notices. Haymitch begins to talk strategy with Peeta and Katniss because their training starts today. Peeta reveals his strengths are baking bread, while Katniss reveals her strengths are hunting with a bow and arrow. Peet slips in a comment from his mother, who happens to think Katniss will win because she is a ‘survivor.’ He then tells her that she doesn’t know the kind of effect she can have on people. Is this foreshadowing maybe?
Haymitch tells Katniss that she must keep her bow talent a secret during training. He advises them to learn useful skills during their sessions and to stay by each other’s side. Katniss returns to her room replaying the breakfast conversation with Haymitch and the fact that she and Peeta now have to act as if they were friends.
At training the District 12 competitors are the only two from a district to be dressed alike. Getting a good look at all of her competition, she notices that even though most of the kids are bigger than her, they are less well fed than she is. In training they get the option to go to combat stations or to learn survival skills. Because Haymitch told them to stay together, Peeta and Katniss opt to learn survival skills. The group learns to tie knots, camouflage, start a fire, and make a shelter, however, they don’t partake in weightlifting or archery (remember they’re not supposed to give away their strengths). Throughout the day Peeta and Katniss keep on faking their friendship.
The following day in training they notice that a little girl from District 11 named Rue has been following them. This girl reminds Katniss of Prim. Later Katniss struggles over the idea of “are she and Peeta really friends or not?”
On the last day of training they have their private sessions with the Gamemakes. In her session she practices with a bow and arrow, aiming at a practice dummy covered in targets. Mad that none of the Gamemakers are noticing her, Katniss shoots an apple in a pig’s mouth that is lying on the buffet table nearby. Furious from the attention deprivation, Katniss storms out of the gym.

Well that’s all for this time. Come back and read the rest of the summaries from this book to see who really will win the Hunger Games! Thanks for reading.