I wake up to the loud sound of District 2's escort, Junibra, banging on the door. "Come on! Time for dinner!" I can hear the impatience in her annoying voice, and she continues to talk until I get up and shout back at her, "Alright, I'm coming!", I curse under my breath and yank the door open, to see her with jet black hair in curly ringlets, that is so black it must be a wig. Her skin isn't exactly tan, it's more of a bright orange. Hideous, I think. She rushes me out of the room and hurries down the hallway, while I fix my long ponytail that is now messed up, as I try to put it back in place without a brush. Junibra runs around, apparently looking for our mentors who are supposed to be at the table already.
I see Cato at the table and I sit as far away from him as I can. He's already digging into the food, not checking his manners at all. Rolling my eyes at him, I eat some of the food that is in front of me. Holy crap, this is good. The kids in District 2 get fed, but the ones who train at the academy are all on diets, mostly power and health food. Nothing that tastes as good as this Capital stuff.
I've been so focused on eating, I almost miss our mentors coming in to sit with us. Brutus and Enobaria. Very common names at the academy, everyone knows about them. How could they not? Enobaria won her Games by ripping out tributes throats' with her teeth. After she won, she got her teeth altered by the Capital, and now she has what looks like two golden fangs. Brutus is huge, even bigger than Cato, despite how old he is. He still has the body he had in the arena, but even bigger. He's just scary looking. By the way they walk in, it looks as if they had something going on that got interrupted. Not like its much of a secret what they were doing, but Junibra walks in, wiping her forehead and looking distressed while Brutus and Enobaria sit down next to each other.
Doesn't surprise me, Enobaria dresses in tight black pants and an over revealing top that Brutus keeps looking at while she sits down, and then they turn to look at me and Cato. "So, who do we have here?", Enobaria asks; directing the question to Cato.
"Cato", he says while sitting up a bit, and improving his posture.
"I'm Clove..", I can't help but notice how both of our mentors are only paying attention to Cato at the moment. Just because I don't look like much, I could kill him if I wanted to. Instead of acknowledging me, they both just look him up and down, and then nod to each other. I clear my throat, and they finally look at me.
"Well, looks like we've got another victor this year," says Brutus, clearly not talking about me.
"Which one of us?", I hear Cato ask and Brutus bursts out laughing rudely. I glare at him and out of the corner of my eye, I see Cato does the same.
Enobaria smacks Brutus's arm and looks at me. "How long have you trained for?"
"Four years; since I was eleven."
"Good, good. Well-" Suddenly the train goes dark. "We're in the Capital now, come on, get up." District 2 is one of the closest districts to the Capital, so it doesn't take much time at all to get there. I stand up and walk to the window and Cato looks over my shoulder. At first it stays dark and then we get out of the tunnel, and are simply astounded by the beauty of the Capital. Bright blue sky, buildings made of glass, tall skyscrapers that seem to never end, and colorful people walking around quickly, seeing the District 2 train. Cato automatically starts waving and putting on that dazzling smile of his. I quickly do the same, but most of the attention is going towards him; as usual. I bet I look like a midget next to him.
District 2 is typically the favorite among the Capital citizens, so I can imagine sponsors already lining up to sponsor us in the Games. Then the realization hits me, that this is happening. I was supposed to volunteer next year, for the Quarter Quell. Cato was supposed to win this year. We're both going in the arena together. I know I had time to think about this earlier today, but I just wasn't thinking about what it really means for me.
We go back to the table afterwards and finish dinner, quietly discussing strategy. But I'm not paying attention. They attempt to get me in the conversation, but the only thing I really tell them about is my knife throwing. Later, we go to the TV room to watch the recap of the Reapings. I sit down on the couch and Cato sits next to me, as I shoot him a glare. He must know why I'm acting like this, but his face looks confused and a little hurt. Whatever, I think. This is all his fault anyways.
Shaking my head, I turn my gaze to the television broadcast, just as I see a stupid looking blonde chick from District 1 volunteer. As she moves her hips walking up to the stage and attempts to look sexy, I just glare at the TV and Cato who is practically drooling over her. Even Brutus starts gawking a bit, and Enobaria slaps him hard across the face, and moves away. Pffft, he deserved it. Anyways, the blonde chick- Glimmer- is her name, her district partner is as tall as Cato, but not nearly as muscular, and has light brown hair. He looks okay, we'll probably end up teaming up with him. I hope we don't team up with Glimmer, though.
The rest of the tributes this year look pretty hopeless as allies, except maybe the District 4 girl. But her district partner is a tiny little boy, with curly poofy hair that makes me laugh out loud unintentionally. Mostly I'm just laughing at what the competition is this year. I'd have no problem killing any of these people. But then I see the huge boy -Thresh- from District 11. I wonder how old he is, the oldest age to be eligible for the Reaping is 18 years old, but he looks like he could be in his twenties even. Leaning back into the couch, thinking to myself why this bothers me. Cato would kill him. He'd kill him if I couldn't first.
I've been so lost in thought that I didn't notice Cato's hand just barely touching my waist, we were already sitting fairly close to each other and no one seems to notice where his hand went. It relaxes me a bit, just like when he put his hand over mine the day before he took me to training. When the District 11 recap is over, I push Cato's hand away slightly, and I was about to whisper something to him before our heads turn back to the TV, hearing a desperate scream from a small brunette girl volunteering for a little blonde girl who turns out to be her sister. District 12? They never have volunteers. In fact, the last victor they had must've been at least 25 years ago. Cato leans forward, watching closely. I take a closer look at the girl too, and I can tell she's trying to appear confident and strong, but she has fear in her eyes that would be impossible to miss.
The broadcast is over and we all just stay there for a while, before Junibra breaks the silence. "So, what do you think of the tributes this year, sweeties?"
Sweeties? God, she's so annoying. "I think we should allie with District 1. No reason not to, I don't think.", says Cato, folding his arms. Probably just wanting to get in the District 1 girls' pants. "Oh, yes. I'm sure Glitter would make an excellent ally. You two would be great friends."
"What's that supposed to mean?", he's moved away from me a bit, and is stretching his arms behind his back.
"It means, that you and her seem a lot alike. Blonde, stupid, uh... you think you're better than everyone else."
"Who in here is better than me, Clover?" he's smirking, and it only makes me even more mad.
I snarl at him, nearly spitting out words, "I told you not to call me that!"
"What, it's your nickname. Remember?" The smirk drops from his face and his tone turns serious, "But I didn't think you would, cause you've obviously forgotten a lot of things recently."
He storms off in the direction of his room, and I sit there, staring at the ground until I look up and see Brutus, Enobaria, and Junibra all staring at me. I mutter before going after Cato, "We'll ally with One..."