Hi everyone. I'm so happy that I've been receiving reviews, and that I've been also put on alert, or on favorites. Heck, I'm just so happy that a lot of people are reading!
And since I am inspired, and I have some free time, I decided to upload 2 chapters today. This is the first of two chapters I will be uploading. Enjoy!
Caesar Flickerman was laughing with Claudius Templesmith in his late night show. "S-so, Claudius," the host could barely stifle his laughter, "I must say that was a good joke." Claudius was now the one trying to suppress his, wiping a tear at the corner of his eye. But Caesar sat up and cleared his throat.
"Anyways, Claudius, what did you think of tonight's parade? Surely that was unforgettable. Aside from the fact that it blacked out after the lil' old me fabulously strutted in a hovercraft." There was a recorded applause as Caesar winked at the camera.
Claudius then straightened his face into a more serious expression. "Yes, yes of course. I believe it was the most unforgettable yet—aside from that unfortunate power outage of course. Our beloved President Snow was not able to push through with his appearance because of that. It is the first parade without our President having graced it with his presence."
"Of course, of course." Caesar nodded at his response. "Now, all of Panem must have felt that the parade was lacking without President Snow himself. But, what did you think of what happened between two of the tributes during the parade? Between District 12's Katniss Everdeen and District 2's Cato Lindgren—you know, as they captured the attention of all of Panem with all that intense eye contact caught in camera?"
Claudius shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Honesty, I think that's the focal point of the parade. Who has ever heard of an inter-district attraction, so blatantly expressed in public? This will make the 74th Hunger Games the most interesting we've ever had!"
The recorded applause echoed again, and even Caesar was clapping. He shook Claudius' hand and turned to the camera. "Good night people of Panem. To those night owls who can't seem to sleep at night, we will be playing the replay of the parade until dawn. And to Katniss Everdeen and to Cato Lindgren, get lots of rest because Panem will be watching! Good night everyone! Sweet dreams to you all."
"Sweetheart, good job on making people like you. Definitely, that was a hard task I made you do, but you delivered." Haymitch paced back and forth, appearing sober for the first time. Peeta was restless in his seat, wanting to speak but their mentor asked him to keep quiet. "But you know," Haymitch paused to look Katniss in the eyes, "you didn't have to appear like you have a crush on someone! And a Career at that! Do you know how hard it is to pull that off? You haven't even spoken to the guy! Or met the guy!"
Haymitch was angry, and he wanted to talk more, but Effie butted in. "Haymitch, for all its worth, Katniss might have gained some sponsors. She would be remembered just for that."
The mentor turned to Effie then. "Yes I know that. But with that kind of gossip-crazy Capitol we have outside, what do they expect Katniss and that District 2 Career to do? Create a show for them in the Games? That's gonna get Peeta killed. Furthermore, that little stunt they did during the parade, how can we translate their eye-fucking to an actual story that can save both the tributes of District 12 from that boy's filthy Capitol-sponsored hands?"
Everyone stayed silent for a few moments, Haymitch's words resounding in the air.
But Katniss was first to break the silence. "I met him." She said softly.
All heads turned to her direction.
"What?" They asked at the same time. Katniss merely huffed at their curiosity.
"I said, I met him. Just last night. When I lost my pin." She looked at Peeta to remind him.
"But, honey, it blacked out for thirty minutes! You couldn't have seen him by then." Effie told her.
Katniss sighed. She was going to have to say everything that happened. "Well, I wanted to go down, but I didn't notice that the elevator I took was going up. It stopped at the roof, and he was there. He went in the elevator, and after a few seconds, it blacked out. We got stuck in there for thirty minutes."
Peeta stood up in surprise. Haymitch, Effie, and Peeta have their mouths hanging open.
"What did you do?" "Did he do anything to you?" "Did he talk to you?" "What did you talk about?" "How was he?" Questions came barking out of their lips and Katniss just sat back, repulsed at the implications that they were trying to get at.
"If you must know, we didn't do anything nor talk about anything. We didn't even look at each other. He was very rude and violent. He got so impatient that he started to punch the doors. I actually told him to stop." Katniss exhaled. Now, she was starting to feel pissed—at the Capitol, Caesar Flickerman, Claudius Templesmith, that boy, Haymitch, Effie, Peeta, and all their dirty thoughts.
"Then what?" Peeta screamed.
"What do you think, Peeta? He was furious and he grabbed me by my collar. He lifted me up, trying to scare me, but I punched him on the nose." Katniss crossed her arms. "He dropped me on the floor when I punched him. He was actually about to hit me when the lights went back on. I ran out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened."
Peeta and Effie sat down in disbelief. Haymitch stood still, and belted out a drunken laughter.
She wanted everyone to just get off her back, but Peeta still looked curious. "Katniss, why didn't you just ignore him at the parade then?"
Katniss glared at his fellow tribute. "Aside from his lasting first impression, he stole what my sister gave me—my Mockingjay pin, which by the way, he was wearing during the parade."
With that, Katniss left and went into her room.
His biceps and triceps flexed as he raised the 200-pound weights above his head. There was a bit of pain from everything that Brutus made him do after the incident last night. Cato gritted his teeth. It was disgusting what they were implying on that stupid rainbow-colored host's show. He just wanted to throw her off—to make her fume, to get her distracted, to get her head out of the game—which is why he wore the pin. But his plan just backfired.
Brutus may have been ticked off the other night when he came back late to their suite, but last night he was breaking everything fragile in the entire room. The Avoxes cleaned up broken shards of glass from vases, mirrors, tables, figurines, and even broken pieces of wood. But he wasn't scared of him. If his mentor did get so blinded to attack him in anger...well, people did call him Brutal Cato for a reason.
He placed the weights back in its place, and waited for the other tributes to arrive—even Clove. She seemed as much disgusted with him as he was disgusted with District 12. He didn't understand that the Capitol didn't understand. He and the girl from 12 were trying to intimidate each other. Was that so hard to see?
Why the hell is the Capitol so fucking stupid?
The door to the training room slammed open, and one by one, they all went in. District 1 and Clove were together, glaring at him, but on the way to where he was. He merely raised an eyebrow at them, obviously annoyed at what they were trying to do. He heard other tributes scrambling through the door and began to size them up.
He felt a lot of eyes on him as each tribute passed, giving him looks, but scurried off at the second he notices. Cato felt his jaw tighten. This is bullshit.
And finally, it was the pair from District 12 entering the door. The room was so quiet that he noticed all the tributes was either staring at him or at her. He saw that 12 noticed it too and just put the distance between him and her the farthest, deciding to remain at the back of the room. Good.
Someone cleared his throat in the front and got everyone's attention. It was a coach for the training center.
A man with a colored moustache introduced himself. "Good morning, tributes. My name is Magnus, and I am the assistant coach for the training center. As everyone can see, we do not have the coaches for today because of an urgent matter. That is why, all of you will be unable to to have evaluations from our coaches, or even guidance at the stations we have here."
Clove stepped forward. "Then how are we supposed to prepare?"
Magnus raised his hands. "I am unable to fully disclose the information. But given that we have been experiencing blackouts for the past days, President Snow has decided to move the Hunger Games from its original schedule to 5 more days from now. So no worries. There's time"
Clove was surprised at the announcement, but everyone else felt uneasy. "So what are we going to do?"
"Well today and for the rest of the remaining days before the Games, the coaches have decided to train the female tributes for this year, with the help of the male tributes of course. But it wouldn't be unfair since the exercises we have prepared ensures that both female and male tributes will be trained. " The coach told them, his attention now on his clipboard.
Glimmer was the one to speak. "Why? Do you coaches think we're weak?"
Magnus didn't even look at her and just answered her question like it's the simplest one there is.
"Well, this year's female tributes seem to be mostly petite, and the President fears it might not make for a good Game if every one of you will just die quick. The male tributes; however, are exceptionally strong this year. So today, I want all the male tributes to line up, pick a piece of paper and go to your chosen female partner. Chop, chop, boys!" The man blew a whistle.
Cato refused to move. He wasn't doing anything but train himself. "Coach, why can't we just stick to our female district partner? Wouldn't that be better than this?"
The coach eyed him through his glasses. "Son, we can't have you letting your female partner slack off just because you're from the same district. Now go. No more questions." He shooed away Cato and addressed the male tributes one by one. "District 12, Peeta Mellark? You go first."
Cato angrily watched as the boy from 12 approached the coach. He took a piece of paper from the coach's hand. "District 11." He said when he opened it. A small girl raised her arm and the boy went to her.
This was stupid. Incredibly stupid. It wasn't the male tributes' fault if they were stronger.
In ascending order, the male tributes picked their partners from different districts. 11 got 3, 10 got 6, 9 got 8, 8 got 9, 7 got 5, 6 got 10, 5 got 1, 4 got 7, and 3 got 2.
There were only 2 districts left. 4 or 12. Great.
Cato sneered. He didn't like this at all.
"Cato Lindgren, District 2?"
He approached Magnus and took one of the last pieces of paper from his hand. Everyone seemed to be anticipating something. He opened the piece of paper, and crumpled it as soon as he has seen it.
"District 12."
He gruffly moved towards her direction. Cato knew where to find her. And indeed, she was at the corner, standing tall, her stance defiant, and her expression furious. His eyes didn't leave her face as the space between them became smaller and smaller. When he was about a foot in front of her, he stopped.
They were completely unaware that as they stood, 22 tributes were their audience, and Magnus was taking note of what was happening on his clipboard.
Thanks for reading! Chapter 4 is coming up.
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