Hail the Conquering Hero
(Disclaimer: I have no business connection with HUNGER GAMES. My only purpose in writing this story is to have fun and maybe share it)
Go tell the District, you who've read
I took their orders, and am dead.
- paraphrase of famous ancient Greek monument.
Chapter 1 Reaping
The ceremony of the reaping in District 2 was in an appropriately dramatic spot. The Justice Building was grand and imposing, much more so than ones that Cato had seen in scenes from other Districts. Off to the left was a large mountain, towering over the District the way a Victor towered over his fellow citizens. Rumor had it that there was a large military station inside, but Cato didn't care about that. He was focussed on the reaping.
He had been training for years for this, since he was 12. He had started at the Peacekeeper Academy, and after one year had been chosen for the secret Games classes. The classes had started with twenty boys, and gradually weeded them out. Some had been injured during realistic practice games. Some had simply failed, and were expelled after being run through the gauntlet. (The departure was made as painful as possible, to discourage trainees from chickening out and deliberately failing) Some were good but not good enough, and rejoined the Peacekeeper trainees. They were down to 2 boys, Cato and his backup Remus. The girls had likewise been winnowed down to Claudia and her backup Clove. It didn't matter whose name was actually drawn; the volunteers were lined up.
"Now for the girls," said Livia Oil, the escort from the Capitol. She drew the paper from the bowl, trying to make a drama out of it. She opened it, took a deep breath, and proclaimed "Maria Magda—"
"I volunteer!" cried a voice from the audience, and shock ran through everybody from the academy. Somebody was SUPPOSED to volunteer, but it was supposed to be Claudia. The voice was Clove's.
As the diminutive girl marched toward the stage, Cato heard the Academy people mutter, trying to decide whether they could override Clove's offer. Probably not. Too much tradition behind it. A volunteer overrode the reaping choice, and nobody could override the volunteer.
Cato was dismayed; he had planned everything on the assumption that he would been working with Claudia: when to cooperate with her to eliminate the other tributes, and when to kill her. But he couldn't replan now; he had to await his own cue and not miss it.
Livia, probably unaware that she had the wrong girl, mechanically praised the volunteer, as she did every year. Then she said "and now for the boys."
Repeating the drama, she drew the slip from the boy's bowl. "Lucius Leatherton!"
"I volunteer!" called Cato hastily, just in case Remus was planning a second stunt. But the latter stayed silent, and the Academy people seemed partly relieved.
Cato marched the stage and climbed the stairs to the platform. Livia, still clueless, asked Cato and Clove to shake hands. They did so, stiffly. It was ridiculously formal compared to their last encounter 3 weeks ago, which had taken place in Clove's bed. Clove must have been thinking the same thing, because she was smirking at him.
They needed to talk.
But talking privately was impossible during the reaping ceremony, which was televised all over Panem. And after that they were ushered into separate rooms for the "farewells". Cato had no family to visit him, and he was not surprised when the Headmaster and Brutus came in instead.
"Did you know that this was going to happen?" demanded the Headmaster. "You and Clove know each other fairly well."
The Headmaster didn't know how well, and he didn't need to know. "I had no idea. I swear it."
"Does it matter?" asked Brutus. "It's not as if she wandered in from nowhere. You made her second place, out of 20 choices, so she must have the proper skills."
"She does. Ruthless in battle, and particular skillful with knives."
"Then we'll train her just as we would the other one. No problem."
They argued a while, and didn't say another word to Cato. Maybe that was a good sign: it meant they had no doubts about Cato.
Afterwards they walked from the Justice Building to the train station. It was only a block's walk, and the nearness of the two structures would prove to be important in an incident two years in the future, but of course Cato didn't know that. Instead it triggered a disturbing thought. He had had a vision of himself coming back, Victor of the 74th Hunger Games, and being greeted by Clove at the station at the head of the admiring crowds. Now he suddenly realized that it was not going to happen that way, and not only because Clove was going with him.
It was because only one of them was coming back.