Hey guys, thanks for all the amazing reviews! They made me feel so good! I loved reading them. I really hope that you enjoy this chapter; it's about the Tribute Parade, mainly. I love you guys, you're amazing, I'm glad you like my writing. 3

Strangelove9: Um what? I don't think Katniss was really in the last chapter?

Anon (Guest) : Aw thanks, yeah I was crying when I wrote Clove's death scene and I don't cry a lot

Guest: Thanks, haha, I'm not going to post al of it right away, but it does make it more encouraging to post the chapters faster

Loopid: Thanks, well, I posted a new chapter!

Clove's POV

When I wake up, I'm snuggled against Cato. Wow, when did I fall asleep? He looks oddly peaceful, so I decide not to wake him up. I've only known Cato for less than a day and I already trust him with my life. That may be strange, but when we talked in the old laundry room I felt a bond, a connection to him, something I've never felt before. Cato isn't all that arrogant; he's actually pretty funny and sweet. Nothing I ever thought of him as. Guess we all have a personality hidden beneath a mask.

I slowly and carefully slide away from Cato; he has his arm around me. That made it a little more complicated. Though I make it, grabbing some clothes I go off into the bathroom to take a shower.

-o_o-

When I come back into my bedroom, Cato is awake and watching something on my projector screen. When he sees me, he turns it off.

"Morning sleepy Cat," I tell him.

"Morning Clove," he grins. "You know, we should arrive at the Capitol today."

"I feel ecstatic," I say sarcastically.

"I feel the same, though training for the games is going to be fun."

"True, I can't wait to intimidate the other tributes." Cruel? I prefer to think differently.

Cato grins, "We have to make an impression."

"One that shows we're a force to be reckoned with." I say.

"Yes, exactly."

"Anyway I'm going to get some breakfast, I'm hungry. You gonna come?"

"I don't have anything better to do," Cato shrugs.

He stands up and gets out of the bed.

"Wait," I say taking a comb off my dresser. "Cat, your hair is a mess." I reach up, and pull him downwards so he's in a crouch, then I begin to comb out his hair.

"You're worse than my mother," he complains playfully. "At least I don't have to crouch down for her."

I playfully smack him in the arm, "Oh shut up kitty."

Once I'm done I let him stand up again, as soon as he's up he runs a hand through his hair.

"Cat! Now I'm going to have to do it again!" I exclaim.

"Not if you can't catch me, Shorty." He grins and runs from the room. I put the comb down before I sprint after him; I have no intention of combing his hair again.

I follow him into the main car, there is food stacked everywhere in here. In the main car he has his back turned to me, so I decide on a surprise attack. I jump and grab Cato's neck, so I'm in the piggyback ride position. "Caught!" I exclaim joyfully.

"Are you going to comb my hair now?" Cato complains.

"Nope," I say happily. "I just wanted to prove to you that I can catch you."

Brutus is smiling a little wistfully at us.

"So, what were you and Brutus talking about?"

"Survival techniques," Cato says.

"Alright, let's hear them." I say, jumping off of Cato's back, spinning and landing on my feet beside him.

"Well," Brutus goes into a whole speech about how 2 is the strongest and most likely to win District and how we are the leaders of the Alliance. We need to pick the best for our team….etc.

I sit down to listen to Brutus's ideas and talk, picking up a bagel and putting extra cream cheese on it. As soon as I sit down, Cato sits next to me and plucks the bagel from my hand, taking a huge bite out of it. I roll my eyes at him, get up and pick up a Danish pastry, making sure to take a big bite from it before sitting back down.

"Any questions?" Brutus asks.

I shake my head, I got everything that he said, I look at Cato, he shakes his head too, he's still eating my bagel.

"Ok," Brutus checks the gold watch on his hand. "It is 11:37; we should be arriving in the Capitol in, 13 minutes, go get ready." He shoos us from the main car.

Cato goes to take a shower and change. I decide to change too; I wear a dark red velvet shirt with a see through beck mesh, and a V neck. I also put on a pair of black legging and combat boots to go with the shirt. I pull my messy annoying hair into a high ponytail, making sure there are no extra strands poking out.

I hear a knock on my door, it's obviously Cato. I walk up to the door, "Password?"

"Knives?"

"Wrong."

"Games?"

Wrong."

"I have a plate of cannoli."

I open the door.

"I swear you're trying to make me fat." I tell Cato.

"I am not," he says indignantly. "It's you that's actually eating it; I'm just delivering the food."

"True, true," I say.

"We should be arriving in the Capitol in 3 minutes." He reminds me as I take a cannoli.

"That's great." I eat the cannoli and take another.

"So, you might not want to have cannoli cream on your face," he takes his thumb and wipes the side of my mouth. He looks embarrassed after he does it.

"Well, it's gone now." I say cheerily hoping to break through the awkwardness that followed his actions.

"Guess so," Cato says, grabbing a cannoli for himself. He only brought a small plate that had four on it, so there's one left. We both stare at it. "You've had more than me." Cato points out.

"You stole my breakfast," I tell him, taking the cannoli before he can. Mm, cannolis are my favorite food.

"CATO! CLOVE! WE'RE GOING TO BE IN THE CAPTIOL IN LITERALY 10 SECONDS!" We hear Brutus call. I guess that's our sign to go back out to the main car.

I look out the window at the Capitol, it's humongous I've never seen anything like it in my whole life. There are people all along the sidelines screaming and waving at us. They are dressed very strangely. They look a lot like Ellen where ever she went for the whole train trip. I wave to the crowd as we speed by them; this makes them go even wilder. "Cato! Wave!" I instruct him. He too, begins to wave at the crowd. They love this, but before they break open the train to get to us we arrive at the train stop.

Peace keepers are protecting the borders of the train stop from the insane Capitol citizens. Cato and I are lead down some stairs towards who knows what, Brutus has gone off somewhere and Ellen walked off probably to see all her Capitol weirdo friends.

At the bottom of the stairs we ride an elevator that goes quickly to the side for a few minutes then goes up. "Welcome!" A lady with fuchsia hair, eyes, and pink skin hurries up to us, "This is the Remake Center; here you will meet your prep teams and your stylist. The male shall go through that door," she points to her right, "and the female that one." She points to her left.

"No, we should stick together." Cato is protesting. I have an odd feeling that he might attack the lady to make sure he can come with me.

I reach my hand up and put it on his shoulder, not just to comfort him but also if he tries to attack fuchsia woman I might be able to hold him back. "Cato, I'll be fine. We are just going to be prepared for the Tribute Parade; it isn't the Hunger Games yet."

I stop and let that sink in to his thick head. "Fine, I'll see you soon." He says.

"See you soon." I make sure he goes through his door before going in through mine.

-0_0-

After I walked through the door, three people are standing on the other side. They are obviously from the Capitol since they have piercings, odd tattoos, and are wearing the oddest collection of clothing. I then have to get undressed and lie on a table, naked as they clean me. They wash my hair and brush it out (I feel bad for them), they even go as far as doing what they call waxing. I've heard of it before, it's where they take wax and use it to rip out your hair or something like that. Some people do that in 2, I really don't see what's wrong with just shaving. Waxing hurts and they do a full body wax. When they're finally done I feel sore, as they have also scrubbed my body for every single speck of dirt. I showered this morning! There is no need to scrape off like 5 layers of skin. My face also feels quite sore, as they waxed my eyebrows too, I thought they looked fine before, but apparently they weren't Capitol status, but I will kill all of them if they try to dye my skin yellow or my eyebrows fuchsia. I haven't met my stylist yet though, apparently whoever he or she is they don't want to see me until I'm stripped raw of my skin and hair.

"Doesn't she look darling now, Clodia?" One lady of my prep team says. All three of them are girls.

"Yes, Servilla she looks amazing thanks to me trimming her hair." Another one- Clodia says.

"Don't forget I waxed her!" the third one puts on.

"Yes, yes, Antonia," Servilla says. "She looks amazing thanks to all three of us."

"She's ready to see Lorena," announces Clodia.

"Yes, I agree." Antonia says.

"Let's call her," Servilla says. The three of them dart out of the room, leaving me sitting up on the metal table, naked and alone.

I find my prep team rather annoying, the whole time they were working on making me 'perfect' they were talking all about Capitol gossip. Some girls in my training class in 2 loved to gossip, personally I think it's a waste of time. I feel awkward just sitting in here like this, very vulnerable. I look around the room; it had white walls and a white tiled floor with a drain in the middle. I await Lorena whom I assume is my stylist to make her appearance.

The door opens, a lady walks into the room. She actually looks pretty normal compared to the rest of the Capitol freaks I've seen. She has light brown hair, pale ski, and large hazel eyes. She is wearing large gold hoop earrings, tall gold heels, and a rather poofy blue dress, but other than that she looks perfectly normal. "I'm Lorena," she says holding out her hand.

"Clove," I take her hand.

"I'm your stylist," she says.

"I guessed that."

I see the sides of Lorena's mouth quirk upward.

"You're from District 2 and that's masonry correct?"

"Yes," for the parade we Tributes are dressed up as something to do with our Districts, once some idiot stylists actually dressed their Tributes up as houses.

"Good, good." Lorena says. "Here," she says handing me a fluffy white robe. "Put this on."

The robe is warm and it makes me feel slightly less vulnerable, though if she'd given me a knife I'd feel a lot better.

"Come with me," Lorena leads me to a side door, where 2 couches sit across from each other. She gestures for me to sit, so I do. Lorena sits then presses a button on her armrest. A table rises from the floor between us holding our lunch. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I was looking at a dish of food. The two plates hold the same thing, I believe it is squab. There is creamy gravy poured generously on it, along with some green beans. I begin to eat, holding the fork in my right hand and the knife in my left. It feels good to have a knife in my hand, even if it is one for eating not for throwing.

I'm about halfway done my squab (which is delicious) when I decide to start up a conversation.

"So Lorena, how many years have you been styling for the Hunger Games?"

"4," she tells me.

"What Districts?"

"Well, my first year was 7, 2nd was 3, my third was 3 again, and my fourth was 5 and this year I'm doing 2."

"Obviously," I say.

Lorena's lips quirk up again.

"So, for your parade outfit Alair, who is your District partner's stylist, and I have decided since your District is masonry to dress you up as Roman Gladiators."

"But why Roman?" I ask.

"Because Rome had amazing architecture so dressing you up as gladiators will make you look Roman, the greatest empire of all time. Is that ok with you?"

I don't really have a choice anyway, "sure."

-0_0-

After lunch, Lorena measures and sizes me up. Then she leaves me in the lunch room to be bored. About 2 hours later Lorena comes back in to the room, with several people carrying stuff following her.

15 minutes later I am dressed in a gold top. It is rather heavy, though I can stand it, I just think of it as training. There are little 'leaves' overlapping each other coming down from my neck, it is like really heavy decorated armor. (Which I suppose is what it's supposed to be) The top of it gets smaller around my waist then comes back out in something like cut strips of gold. I really don't know or care, if Rose or Jocelyn were here though, they could tell me all about the style detail. Thinking about them, I think about how much I miss them…. Ok time to push the thought of my family and friends out of my head before I start crying. Lorena is now putting a gold helmet on top of my head. Gods, where do they get all this gold? My helmet covers the top of my head and has large gold feathered wings that point behind me. The edge of the helmet had gold circles decorating the rim. I am wearing brown leather leggings and knee-high heeled boots, maybe now I won't look as short next to Cato. Looking in the mirror I smile, I look bold and intimidating, perfect to show the Capitol that I'm worth investing. I am wearing a minimal amount of makeup which I like, because I don't like makeup. Lorena walks me out to the hallway where we saw Fuchsia lady, luckily she's not there. Good, since her cheeriness was really annoying. I stand out there with Lorena for a good 5 minutes before Cato and his stylist, Alair comes out. Cato is wearing a similar outfit as me. Gold chest plate (doesn't curve at his waist, thank goodness, and it also is flat all the way down) with the leaves/feathers or whatever though they don't go up on his neck, on his head there is a band instead of a helmet, it is a band with gold circles around the rim, with golden fan/wings to match mine. There is a leather tied armband around his left bicep; it's pretty big since it fits around his overly large muscles and a cape draping behind his chest plate. Also he is not wearing leggings and heeled boots (thank goodness again) he looks roman all the way down unlike me, wearing the whole sandal/toga skirt thing.

I grin at him, "Nice skirt, Cat."

He grimaces, "1. I didn't pick the outfit, 2. It's a roman battle thing."

"Yeah uh-huh, it's a skirt."

"Oh, shut up." He playfully punches me in the arm.

"Looks like the elevator's ready for us." Lorena says.

Cato and I follow her and Alair to the elevator; we ride it all the way down to the bottom level of the Remake center, which is basically a giant stable. There are many pairs of tributes standing around, keeping to themselves. Glimmer and Marvel from 1 a basically spray painted silver, their District is Luxury, they are in tasteful tunics that are glittering with jewels. Their chariot is silver too. 3 have like gear hats on or something, yep ridiculous, their chariot has gears carved into it. Since District 3 is electronics it makes sense though. 4 is dressed in like blue Greek togas with water crowns on, their 4 is all about fishing. Their chariot is a blue green mix. 5 are all sparkly with like satellites on their heads (is everyone ridiculous looking here but Cato and I?), their district is power, and their chariot is shining like mirrors are on it. 6 has like yellowy gold outfits on and moons on their heads, this confuses me what do moons have to do with transportation? 7 has paper fans all over them, their district is lumber, but seriously fans? 8 is covered in blue and pink, with matching hats, 8 is textiles but they look horrible in that color combination. 8 don't look too happy about their outfits either. 9, I don't even understand how their outfits have anything to do with grain, just a bunch of silver dots on their shirts.10 are dressed like cowboys, since their District is livestock I understand this, they don't even look that bad in their outfits. Then there are 11. The female tribute from 11 is a small 12 year old girl; she looks so cute and sweet, wearing a blue dress and overalls. If there's one thing I know for sure here, it's that I don't want to be the one responsible for her death, how could I kill such innocence? The male from 11 is gigantic he has on a white shirt and overalls, both of them have like wheat halos. 11 is agriculture, they don't look bad in their outfits, though not as good as Cato and I. Then I look at 12, the girl there volunteered, I'm fairly sure that everyone was surprised at that. Both the male and female are wearing black almost scaled looking outfits. The girl's hair is up in braids all around her head. Coat mining is what 12 is for, so they're dressed in black, yeah, but I have a sense that their costume is meant for something else. Their chariot is black, matching their outfits. Lorena and Alair are standing by our chariot, which is gold with gladiators fighting carved into it.

"Clove, earth to Clove," I hear Cato say beside me. It snaps me from my thoughts.

"Yes?"

"I don't know, you were just standing there still and staring out, something wrong?"

"No, I just do that when I get lost in my thoughts." I explain.

"Ah, what were you thinking about? May I ask?"

"The other tributes, most of them look ridiculous, but look at 12."

Cato looks over at them, "they're wearing black."

"No, duh, but their outfit material seems like it's made for something special."

"Ok, so?"

"I was trying to figure out what it was."

"Oh."

"Ok guys, it's almost time to go out, remember, wave and smile at the crowd, they'll love it." Lorena says.

"Time to get in the chariot," Alair says.

I hear a noise, a loud one; both I and Cato turn our heads to the sound. Both tributes from 12 are laughing, I wonder what about.

Then I hear opening music begin to play. It's really loud, from being blasted around the Capitol. 1's chariot starts out, I hear the roar of the crowd as they appear, and 1 is always a favorite, yet so is 2. When Cato and I come out the crowd roars even louder, Ha take that 1 I think. Both Cato and I smile and wave to the Capitol citizens. They are throwing all types of flowers down on us, roses, lilies, daisies, etc.

Out of the corner of my eye while I'm waving I see something, I turn my head to see what it is. 12 are on fire.

"Cato!" I nudge his arm.

"Uh-huh?"

"12 are on fire."

"That's nice."

"No I'm not kidding, look."

Cato turns his head; I see his eyes bulge, "Whoa."

"That's what their outfits were for." I say.

"You seem to be good at noticing details, Clove, good job, I'm lucky to have you on my team for the Games." Cato tells me.

I can feel myself blushing, Cato turns his head away.

We both continue smiling and waving at the crowd, though we are both turned opposite ways. The entire crowd is screaming 12's names. "KATNISS! PEETA!" I look back and see that they are holding hands.

Cato and I exchange looks, the whole crowd is concentrating on 12, and this is not good for our chances to get sponsors. Our chariots begin to fill the loop of the City Circle. The horses on our chariot make a steep turn and I almost fall out of the back of the chariot. Cato grabs my arm though, "I got you," he says pulling me back up.

"Thank you," I smile at him.

Every window around the City Circle is open and people are hanging out of them, hoping to get a good view of this year's tributes. The chariots stop right in front of President Snow's mansion, the music ends with a flourish. President Snow, who is a small thin man with white hair (is that where he got his name?) gives us an official sounding welcome from the balcony that he stands on.

Looking up on the screens I see that 12 is getting about 20x more than their share of airtime. Cato notices it too, he's frowning. It's getting darker and everyone seems to have their eyes on 12's flickering costumes. The camera people have 12 on the screens the whole way into the Training Center. As soon as the doors close behind the last chariot Lorena, Alair and our prep teams crowd around us.

"That was great!" Lorena compliments us.

"No it wasn't," Cato says frowning. "The cameras and peoples' eyes were on 12 the whole time."

I can tell that he is upset by this. I put my hand on his shoulder, this time just for comfort. "It's ok, Cat, we'll show them up in training. That'll show the sponsors who they should put their money in with."

Cato is glaring in 12's direction, but when I put my hand on his shoulder he turns his head and looks at me, his expression notably softens. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Aren't I always?" I ask him jokingly.

Brutus, Ellen, and some other person I assume is Enobaria come up to us. "Cato, Clove," Brutus says, "this is Enobaria, your new mentor."

I've heard about Enobaria, she had her teeth filed because she won her games by ripping her opponent's throat out with her teeth. Now she has them filed so they can rip skins easy. Enobaria grins at me, showing her pointed teeth. "So I hear you ran Chelsey out of here."

"Yeah, I guess I did." I say, I'm not sure what to think of Enobaria yet, so I'm cautious.

Enobaria's grin widens, "I like this one."

"So do I, she seems promising," Brutus says.

"The boy does too," Enobaria adds. "This looks like a great year for 2."

I notice that Ellen is staring at Cato's bare biceps again. I feel a twisting feeling in my stomach and it's not disgust, its jealousy. Why would I be jealous of Ellen staring at Cato's biceps? We're a just friends and that's all I want, or is it?

Sorry this Chapter is shorter (by a lot) than the last one, but I felt like this was a good place to end. Next time they're going to start training. Ooooo. So opinions guys, should I post a new chapter once a week or once a day? PM me questions, sneak peeks for the next chapter will be on my website, . there's a link in it in my bio. Review! They make my day when I see them. 3 you guys are part of what makes me like writing. If you tell your friends about it and they R&R I can promise a new chapter soon. Spread the word! Lol, Well, keep up the awesome reviews guys 3

Until next time, -Bookfanic