It had been an impossibly long first day in the Capitol. When Calix thought back on that morning, it felt like a week had passed between then and now. How was it possible to feel changed so many times in one day, to oscillate between so many different emotions? Right now he wasnât feeling much of anything, and he was beyond thankful for the numbness. Maybe heâd already used up all the fear heâd had in him; maybe this could be his new normal. He hated feeling this indifferent, this neutral, but maybe it was preferable to the anxiety that had weighed him down on the train. It could at least give him a better chance of survival. Cal scoffed at the thought. It didnât matter what he felt; he had no chance. At least he was starting to accept that.
After spending much of that day either with his mentor or training alone, Cal had opted to give himself a break in the rooftop garden. He tried his best to identify the plants as he passed them, but most of them heâd only just seen for the first time during training. There wasnât much in the way of nature in District Three, so heâd been advised to spend more time studying it than some of the other tributes. He leaned down to smell a particularly peculiar flower and sneezed immediately, wiping at his teary eyes with his sleeve and hoping the footage of his new allergy would be edited out.
