The Hunger Games: Cato's Story
Prologue:
My eyes flitted from one face to the next, each one of their eyes admiring the giant swine in front of them. Two giant swine actually, the roasted pig we were about to rip into at any moment and my disgusting excuse for a brother, Lex, victor of the 67th Hunger Games.
"Aren't we proud to have a young man like him in our family?" My father laughed with a tinge of forced humor in his voice as he rested his arm around Lex and patted his shoulder. "He is the reason our family is able to eat so well everyday and live so prosperously." He held out his champagne glass for a toast and everyone around the table followed along, laughing happily and cheering. I scoffed before making a sneer. They were all a bunch of idiots, I bet I could slaughter all of them in a matter of minutes. My brother included.
My little sister, Venus, must have noticed what I was thinking by my scowl and the way my nose flared. She elbowed me in the ribs and my eyes flew to her angrily before I calmed down. She didn't look at me and her eyes stayed focused on my father and my brother. Clove, a family friend's daughter, must have noticed as well.
"Hold that attitude for the reaping tomorrow," she smiled, though it had a cruel twist to it. I gave a quick "humph" that sounded a bit like a sarcastic laugh as I watched the way she dangerously played with the knife in her hand.
"That's right, this is the year we are going to volunteer together, huh?" I say, a cocky tone to my voice. I said it quite loud and notice Venus whip her head around to look at me wide-eyed. She had no idea I planned to volunteer and it was obvious she didn't like the idea.
"Yep, finally gives me a reason to slit your throat," Clove says, eyes on the pig an knife clenched in her hand. The cruel smile remained on her face.
"If I don't break your neck first," I winked, trying to be seductive and then watched my father cut he pig for all of us to share, realizing Venus was still staring at me, her midnight blue eyes containing an emotion I can't pinpoint. "What?" I mouth rudely.
"Fountain after dinner," she replied softly, her eyes never leaving mine. After awhile I rolled them away and she turned as well, smiling at the waiter as he put delicious looking mashed potatoes on her plate. I didn't even bother to wait for the waiter to finish scooping the stuff onto my plate before devouring into it. I was even worse when the pig came. I grabbed it from the tray myself and shoved it into my mouth as soon as possible. I really didn't care who was witnessing it, but I saw Clove with a humorous glimmer in her eyes as she watched me.
After dinner, well at least after I finished my dinner, I threw the napkin onto my plate and got up without excusing myself. I stretched while walking out the French doors to the fountain right in the center of our backyard like Venus told me to do.
The night air felt nice on my skin. The fountain water sparkled under the starlight, there were a lot of stars out that night actually.
"Cato!" I choked out a laugh at Venus's attempt to sound intimidating. Nothing about her was intimidating! Venus was stomping toward me, fists clenched. She suited her name perfectly, she was very beautiful. She had golden hair like mine that fell in ringlets around her head. We had the same facial features and though she hates to admit it she had a pretty uptight personality too. the only difference was the color of our eyes. Instead of my ice blue ones, hers were a deep dark blue that twinkled whenever light touched them. It really almost was like you were looking at the night sky when you looked in them.
I was slapped out of my gaze. I clenched my stinging cheek. She had no problem slapping me again on the back of my head. "What is that for?" I snarled at her, ready at any minute to hit her back.
"Cato, I always knew you were a rash, impulsive idiot but never as much as this!" When I stood, I towered over her fragile fourteen year old body. I'm amazed she was even able to stand up to me. I could break her body like a twig.
"Excuse me?" I ask with a slight growl to my voice. She raised her eyebrows in a "really?" sort of manner.
"Do you want me to spell it out for you, stupid? Why in the world are you volunteering?" she said the word with a tone of disgust as if she wanted it out of her mouth as soon as possible.
"I'm volunteering"-I made sure to put emphasis on the word-"because I know I can win," I said confidently.
"Oh really?" She inched closer to me and stood on her tippy toes in attempt to reach my height. "Are you sure it's not just the fact that you want to outshine Lex?" My mind raced at his name.
"Lex!" I roared, she flinched because of her close proximity to my voice. "What does he have to do with anything!"
"Obviously everything," she stated, inching a bit backwards. She still had no problem keeping eye contact with me. "We both know, even if it's currently in your subconscious, that you are jealous of Lex and you want to steal away his attention." I took a deep breath so I didn't scream again.
"Why would I be jealous of the bastard?"
"You have no reason to volunteer. We have a great life, we are already living in the victor's village, people know your strength…what more do you want?"
"I want to win."
"Cato, we both know you won't," my eyes widened at her calm premonition.
"What?" my voice started to take on its growl again.
"Maybe you won't die right way, but you'll fall under your own overconfidence," she sighed, "and if miraculously you do win, you'll suddenly be the man you hate with all your life. It's a lose-lose situation."
This girl really knew how to piss me off. I took another deep breath so I didn't rip my dear sister's head off.
"Well, now you just gave me another reason," I said, surprising myself with how calm I sounded, "to prove you wrong." I smirked before walking to back to the dining room.
"Cato, you'll regret it." I heard her say. I put my hand as if I was flicking her words away from me. 'Yeah, right' I though to myself and settle myself back into seat, ready for dessert.
A/N: Hello everybody! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter to Cato's POV of the Hunger Games. I enjoyed writing it! This story is going to be based mostly on the book's Cato, but there will be some influence from the movie as well. But other than that, Did I pull of Cato well? He's definitely one of those characters haha
Please Read and review~ I love criticism!