The Seed is Strong (Hunger Games Fanfic)

Training

Ela's pregnancy reveal was a huge shock to those in the Capital.
She was worried about how Glen was coping back home, with all the attention. Everyone knew that Ela and Glen were long time lovers, so they assumed that he was the father of the baby, which was true.
Although Ela was worried for her boyfriend, her own life was what concerned her most, as without her, her baby would not survive.
When training began, Ela had the chance to really learn about her opponents.
The Careers looked just as dangerous as they did every year. 6 tributes trained from birth to be killers, who saw the games as a way to gain fame and fortune.

There were other, weaker tributes that Ela knew were not going to last long.
The youngest ones never did well.
Before Finnick Oddair, who had won recently at just 14, the winners were always above 15.
Ela thought that her and Tomas had the age advantage, since they both as old as you could be.
But of course, being pregnant was a massive disadvantage.

In the days that followed, Ela tried to try out as many skills as possible, though per Haymitch's request, she kept away from the knives section. He didn't want her revealing her skills until her private session, where it was just her and the game makers.
So Ela brushed up on her knot tying and fire making skills.
Since she couldn't do too many of the physical activities, Ela focused on other things, like learning more about edible plants.
These skills would keep her alive in the arena, while Tomas did most of the fighting.
Apparently the Careers wanted Tomas on their team, but he had turned them down, as Glen's threat was still ringing in his ears.

On the final day of training, the tributes went in one by one to show off their chosen skill.
District 12 went last as normal, with the male tribute going before the female one.
"What are you going to do?" Ela asked quietly.
Tomas had a lot of skills, due to his size and strength, so it was difficult to guess which one would impress the game makers the most.
"I think I'm going to show of my strength" answered Tomas.
"Right. Good idea... I picked up some of the knives yesterday, but I didn't throw them. They felt different to the ones I normally use" admitted Ela.
"Well don't screw up. You need to get a good score. No one is going to sponsor anyone who gets below a 5" warned Tomas.

When Tomas was called in, Ela had to wait nervously for several minutes, until it was her turn.
By the time she entered the room, a lot of the game makers had turned their attention to the food behind them.
They didn't expect Ela to survive long, due to her being pregnant, so they weren't even going to bother giving her any attention.
Their attitudes angered Ela, as she needed them to give her a good score.
Ela went straight for the table full of knives, and handled them all until she found the ones she liked the best.
She threw a test shot at one of the targets, and easily hit the bullseye. But when she looked up at the game makers, she realised that none of them had seen her throw.

Ela knew that she needed to get their attention, if she wanted to get a good score.
An idea struck Ela, and she decided to see how the game makers would react to a pregnant girl in pain.
Ela picked up a handful of knives and placed more into the pockets on her outfit.
She then screamed in pain as loudly as she could and clutched her belly dramatically.
This caused all the game makers heads to turn to her, with worry on their faces, as none of them wanted her to give birth on the floor in front of them.

Ela stopped screaming and stood up straight, glaring at the game makers, letting them know that she was fine.
She then turned to the targets and threw her knives at them with ease, scoring a bullseye each time.
Ela then threw her last knife at the dummy she knew was directly behind her.
The sound of the knife inbedding itself in the plastic, made Ela smile.
After folding her arms, she turned back to face the men who were all staring down at her.
"You may go now" said the head game maker.
Ela nodded her head and fled from the room.

Once back in the safety of the district 12 suite, Ela joined the rest of her team on the sofa in front of the tv.
They all sat in silence until the scores were announced.
Tomas had managed to score an impressive 9 out of 12, which was good.
All that was left was to see how well Ela had done.
"And last, but not least, Ela Drizelle from district 12, with a score of 7" announced Claudius Templesmith.
Ela sighed in relief, she had done it.
11s and 12s were pretty much unheard of, so she was pleased with her score of 7.
She had done well with her knives, and had she not been pregnant, she knew she would've scored even higher.

"Well, it seems that you're not entirely useless afterall" commented Haymitch.
Ela smiled, coming from Haymitch that was high praise.
"Thanks. We've done all we can, now it's up to you to get us some sponsors" reminded Ela.
"Hold your horses, you've still got the interviews to go. That is your last chance to show yourself off and make yourself memorable. And there is no point me getting you sponsors, if you're going to die on the first day. Your job is never done, you have to stay alive" replied Haymitch.
"Don't worry, that's exactly what I intend to do".