I don't own The Hunger Games.

"Alright boys, this is the first game of the tournament. Don't mess it up." Cato said. He had his arms around Finnick and Gale's shoulders in the team huddle.

"We need to prove to them that we're the same state champions we were last year, even though our key players graduated." Finnick said. He looked more serious than Cato had seen him before but, then again, everyone was serious on game day.

"We've got a great chance of winning this. Finnick, Gale, Gloss and I were here last year, and this year we've got Peeta who's a solid player, as well as Thresh. If you all just play your hardest and remember the plays then we'll have this down." Cato added. He pulled back from the huddle and put his hand in the middle of the circle, and his team mates did the same.

"One, two, three Warriors!" They yelled at the same time before jogging into position.

"Think we've got this?" Finnick asked Cato.

"Of course."

Clove sighed as she worked her way through the crowds in the bleachers to get to her seat. It was always struck her how horribly messy the fans at football games could get with their mustard covered hotdogs and cheesy nachos, but this was completely ridiculous. The game hadn't even started and she was steeping over pools of soda.

"Clove! Didn't think you'd come." Johanna grinned as Clove slid into the seat next to her.

"Why?" Clove accepted the diet coke that Katniss handed to her from the seat to Johanna's left.

"Um, because you kind of flipped at Cato and Finnick two days ago." Johanna raised an eyebrow at her as the game began.

"Yeah, but I wasn't really that mad. You may not have noticed, but I get kind of stressed on our game days." She shrugged. Johanna and Katniss burst out laughing, earning a glare from the girl in front of her wearing a shirt that read 'Coral Springs High Fighting Wolves'.

"Trust me Clove. We've noticed." Katniss laughed.

"Oh whatever Kat-" Clove was cut off by the sounds of cheering.

"Touchdown West Palm Warriors!" The announcer yelled, and the three of them jumped out their seats cheering. Clove looked down to the field for Melissa, and spotted her with the other cheerleaders.

"Mighty Warriors here to stay, we're gonna rock you night and day! Touchdown!" The girls on the field yelled.

"And that one boys and girls was scored via a long pass by number two quarterback Cato Stone to number twelve wide receiver Peeta Mellark!" The announcer declared.

"Cato, Cato, he's our man, if he can't score then no one can!" The squad cheered.

"He didn't even score." Clove snorted. "Peeta was the one in the endzone."

"It was great, wasn't it?" Katniss grinned, and then blushed bright red when she realized what she had said.

"Aw, Katniss. Got a little crush on mister Mellark?" Johanna teased, winking at her team mate.

"At least I don't have a crush on Cato!" Katniss protested.

"Um, gross. He's like my brother." Johanna scrunched her nose up in disgust.

"I wasn't talking about you." Katniss raised an eyebrow at Clove.

"Hey! I played no part in this; don't take it out on me! Anyway, we're barely even friends." She pointed out. As soon as she said it, Cato took a hit and hit the ground hard. Clove inhaled sharply and stood up to get a better look. He laid on the floor for a few seconds before getting up, shaking his head and carrying on the play.

"'Barely even friends' my ass." Johanna cackled as Clove sat down again.

"Shut up." She said icily.

"You may not have a crush on him, but he certainly has one on you." Katniss said, slurping from her drink.

"No he doesn't, he hardly knows me." Clove brushed the idea off as she finished her own drink.

"He talks about you, like, all the time." Johanna said, shaking her head as the Coral Springs team scored a touchdown.

"Liar."

"He does!"

"So why's he so…Pushy?" Clove said, struggling to find the right words.

"What do you mean?" Johanna narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"I mean, he's always trying to make me do things with him and talk to him, and he opens up to me which is weird because he's only known me for a few weeks." Clove said, growling in frustration.

"Because he likes you!" Katniss laughed, clapping her hands as the Warriors got the turnover ball.

"Look, Cato had a tough time last year. Sophomore year girls started throwing themselves at him and he didn't quite know what to do. He played around a bit before settling down with a girl called Lyme in his junior year. She was a senior, captain of the volleyball team. I never liked her. Anyway, they dated for six months and Cato was really in love."

"I'd never seen him so happy." Katniss cut in.

"Me neither. Eventually he found out that she'd been using him for two things. Popularity, and I think you can guess the other one." Johanna said, shooting Clove a more serious glance.

"Damn." She whispered.

"Yeah. She'd also been cheating on him with Cashmere and Glimmer's older brother Gloss and he knocked her up. It got really messy and Cato broke up with her halfway through the school year. She moved away and he hasn't seen her since. That's why he doesn't really fall for many girls and when he does he wants to keep them close. He's trying to keep you near and wants you to do things with him because if you're with him, you're not with another guy."

Clove glanced down at the field again, where a scrimmage was taking place. She'd always just presumed that Cato was your typical popular guy- rich, on the football team, messing around with girls. Now she knew that family was more important to him than money ever would be, football was basically his life, and it was the girls who were messing with him, not the other way around.

"Thanks for telling me, Jo. I never knew." Clove said sincerely.

"If you'd asked, he probably would have told you himself." She shrugged in response, cheering loudly when the Warriors score another touchdown.

"Touchdown Warriors! An impressive run there from number four, Finnick Odair!"

"If they don't win this, I'm kicking their asses." Katniss promised. "Peeta owes me.

"Mid-season parties suck." Clove sighed as she swirled a finger around in her paper cup of water.

"You don't have to tell me twice."

She turned around as Cato walked over to her. She ditched her drink on the side of the hotel bar.

"Not drinking either?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Nah. Coach has got me on a contract. I can't drink during the season. It kills me every year." Cato smirked at her, setting his own cup of diet coke down next to hers.

"What's your excuse?" He asked.

"Same as yours, I guess. I worked hard to get to where I am and I don't want to fill my body with trash until we're the girl's league state champions and I don't have training for two months." Clove hopped up onto one of the bar stools, and Cato did the same. On the dance floor, Johanna was grinding up against a guy from the hockey team that Clove didn't really recognize, and Glimmer was holding back Cashmere's hair as she puked in a plant pot. After the football team's 24-10 victory and the basketball team's 32-20 win, a party had seemed like a good idea. It would be great if it wasn't for the fact that the some of the cheerleaders and the field athletics team were the only ones who were drinking.

"I guess that hasn't stopped Johanna." Clove pointed out their friend.

"Oh trust me, she's totally sober." Cato laughed. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes.

"Cato?"

"Yeah?"

"Johanna told me about Lyme."

"Oh." Cato looked at the floor before meeting her eyes again. "She did?"

"Yes." Clove bit the inside of her lip, hoping that she made the right call by bringing it up.

"Everything?" He fiddled with the collar of his black polo shirt.

"I think so." Clove said.

"What you have to understand is that Lyme was the first girl I ever truly loved. Sure I dated a few girls in my sophomore year, but they were just for fun. Lyme was the only girl I liked that was looking for commitment and a good time. Or so I thought." Cato sighed, looking down at the floor again.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Clove insisted. "I shouldn't have asked."

He looked up, finding her eyes again with his blue ones.

"I want too. I was sixteen and in love. I thought I'd found the one. Then I found out the real reasons she was with me and I wasn't exactly willing to play happy families anymore. I broke up with her in March, punched Gloss in the face, and never spoke to either of them again. Apparently she's living with her grandparents in North Carolina. Her parents really like me and they kicked her out when they found out she was pregnant with another guy's baby. She's, like, seven months pregnant by now."

"So you only broke up six months ago?" Clove asked, and then mentally scolded herself for it.

"Yeah. It would have taken me a whole lot longer to get over her if she didn't have another guy's bun in her oven. It took three months and now I just kind of hate her, but not like I used too. I would wake up in the morning and feel nothing but this burning rage. Now all I think of is school, and my friends, and football…And you." Cato leaned towards Clove, who didn't try to stop him. Just before their lips touched, she pulled back slightly.

"I can't." She whispered.

"I get it. You're still not sure about me." He stood up and grabbed his drink again. "But Clove?"

"Yeah?"

"That doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying." Cato smirked at her, but Clove wasn't willing to let him win that round.

"I expect nothing less from you, Stone."

So I was all like 'woo yeah super bowl' and then I found out that Phillip Seymour Hoffman died this morning. RIP. :'(