Cato POV
Chapter 1: The First Day Of Training
I smile to myself as I walk to the training center. It's the first day, and I would be lying if I said I said I wasn't nervous.
Every year they pick a select handful of kids to train as 'Careers' for the Hunger Games.
And I am going to win.
Just like my father. Just like my mother. I will bring pride to my district. I will live in Victor's Village and have anything I want at my disposal. Life will be perfect.
As the training center comes into view, I hear a noise behind me. It sounds like sniffling. I turn and see a girl my age limping towards the training center, crying quietly with a lot of blood dripping down her leg.
"Are you ok?" I ask her. She looks up at me.
"Yeah." She says, but her voice breaks at the end.
"What happened to you?" I ask her as I pause and wait for her to catch up.
"Nothing." She says, not meeting my eyes.
"Who did that to you?" I ask her.
"No one." She says.
Obviously she isn't going to answer me. I roll my eyes and walk faster, leaving the girl behind me.
When I enter the training center a muscular man with jet black hair comes up to me with a clip board in his hand.
"Name?" The man says in a gruff voice.
Cato Tomson, sir." I say.
"Well Cato Tomson, your trainer is . . ."
He flips through the pages on his clip board until he abruptly stops.
"Me" He says with a grin. He holds out his hand. I automatically stick mine out to shake his. His grip is tight, I wince slightly.
"I'm Maxwell." He says.
"Nice to meet you." I say. He lets go of my hand points across the training center.
"Go wait over there." He says.
"Alright." I say as I weave my way through the crowd of people.
...
"Alright, for thoughs of you who don't know, my name is Maxwell." He says. "You will do as I say no questions asked, got it?"
No one says anything.
"Now we're going to start off easy today, I want one 25 sit ups, push ups, and jumping jacks." He says while pacing back and forth.
"After that we're going to go for a little run." He says. I have a feeling that this run won't be 'little' at all.
I exchange glances with the others and see they have the same look of doubt on thier face.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" "Let's make a Career out of you."
When I leave the training center I feel completely exhausted. My legs feel like they're made of jelly and I almost question my ability to do this.
As I walk home I see the same girl from this morning walking on the side of the road. The blood on her leg is dried now but she still limps slightly. I walk a little faster to get a better look at her leg.
It's a knife wound.
"Who stabbed you?" I ask her. She jumps at my voice. "N-no one." She mutters.
I raise an eyebrow. "Oh so a knife just happened to get wedged in your leg?" I ask her sarcastically.
"Yeah, I mean no." She says.
"You should get that checked out." I tell her. She makes a face, like what I said was the stupidest thing she ever heard, and that there's no way her leg would ever see any medical attention.
I sigh and walk faster.
As I head home, my thoughts drift back to the girl. I wonder what really happened to her.
The thought of the girl leaves me when I walk in my house and see a strange capitol women standing in my living room next to my mother and father.
She is covered head to toe in pink snake like scales with purple hair and neon yellow cat eyes. Capitol freaks. I think.
"Oh, Cato, your back!" My mother says with fake enthusiasm. I look at her confused. She never even says good morning to me.
"This is a magazine writer from the capitol." "Her name is Astrid." Says my mother. Oh now it all make sense. I think. It's all about capitol people with them.
"Astrid has asked us to do an interview for the capitol, so we'll be gone for a few weeks." She explains.
Huh?
"Everything is already packed, I wanted to get an early start, but your father insisted that we wait to say goodbye to you."
My chest feels heavy. My own mother wanted to leave the district for an unknown amount of time and didn't even want to say goodbye to me.
She pats my head and walks out the front door. The capitol women follows. My dad gives me a nod and follows her, closing the door behind him.
I'm left standing in the middle of my living room, processing every thing that just happened.
I eventually come to the conclusion that they don't love me. That they only tolerate me because the think I'll win the Games. I'll show them. I'll win the Hunger Games, and prove to them that I'm worth being loved.
I sigh and head up stairs to bed, hoping sleep will come quickly.
Hey! So it's short, The other chapters will be longer! Constructive criticism helps! :P