Boden Clarie

If the pure satisfaction of hearing the gasps from the crowd wasn't enough to justify ripping his costume off, the flabbergasted look on the Escort's face sure did.

"What in the world were you thinking?" Marcella demanded, marching up to him.

The Mentor was behind her, arms crossed, but silent.

He shrugged. "The costume was bothering me," he said casually.

"You ruined hours of your stylist's hard work! They're trying to help you. The costumes create enormous amounts of buzz amongst potential sponsors!"

"No offence, Marcella, but entertaining a bunch of Capitolites, even for the sake of sponsorship, isn't really high on my priority list."

The other Tributes were weaving around them, heading towards the elevators so they could go into the Tribute center and up to their floors. Marley stood aside, like they were scared of him — frankly, he liked it that way. They should be.

"Was that supposed to be some kind of act of Rebellion?" the Mentor asked, finally coming forward. "Because that type of shit doesn't fly around here."

Boden laughed. "What? Rebellion? No. God is that what you guys thought it was? I just didn't like the outfit. It's as simple as that. Now can we please go back to our floor? My feet are killing me and I'd love to have some dinner."

Maxim pointed a warning finger at him. "If you want to have a chance to survive these Games, you'd better not pull any more of that crap, Clarie."

He smiled and brushed xer hand aside. "I'm not afraid of the Gamemakers. Or you, or the president, for that matter; I'm doing what I want. I don't care what they do to me. It's not like they can do anything more than kill me."

Bored with the conversation, he pushed past the adults and went to the car, opening the door and getting in. But it seemed like they weren't done lecturing him.

Marcella climbed in and sat across from him and Marley, and Maxim slid in beside her.

"Boden, I understand you're somewhat of a… free spirit," Marcella began. Obviously she was trying to play the Good Cop role here. "And I'm not sure exactly how you operate in District Six, but here in the Capitol there are rules. And some of those rules, while… unspoken… are specifically created for the Tributes, in order to ensure that the Hunger Games are the glamorous events they are."

Boden heard Marley snort under their breath and glanced out of the corner of his eye at them.

He returned his gaze to Marcella. "How are the Tributes expected to follow these rules when they're unspoken and this is our first time in the Capitol?"

Her thin lips turned downwards. "We don't usually have issues, all the other Tributes seem to know how to behave."

Boden laughed. "Not really. Baia Kel is pissed as hell to be here. Aven Traine openly admitted to hating the Capitol in his interview. Hell, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark—"

"We do not speak those names in the Capitol," Marcella interrupted him, waving her hand.

"Another unspoken rule?" he asked, his voice dripping with amusement.

"Unless you want to incur the consequences, Mr. Clarie, I would advise you to keep your head down," she said.

He raised his eyebrows. All these threats didn't mean shit to him. Kill him, turn him into an Avox, send him to prison. About the only difference between those options was if he was Avoxed, at least he'd be able to start murdering these sappy people.

"Just keep your head down and be a good little Tribute until the Games," Maxim said, leaning back in xer seat. "Feel free to stand out, but do it in a way that doesn't come across as rebellious."

"I assure you," Boden said. "Being rebellious is the last thing on my list."

As they shot up in the elevator, the group of them was quiet. There wasn't much to talk about, now that he had been thoroughly chewed out.

He immediately went to his room, tearing off the rest of his costume and getting into the pajamas provided for him.

He didn't really want to go back out to the others, but he knew he should probably watch the chariots, and he was fucking hungry.

So he came out and sat on the couch with a huge plate of food in his hand, smiling to himself in amusement as the others slowly and subtly shifted away from him.

The Chariots were about as dull as every other year, minus a few interesting bits. His was the one that was the most scandalous, got shocked gasps from the commentators. He felt himself well up with pride; he hadn't really been out to make an impression, but he was glad now that he had.

The next interesting thing to happen was the kid from Ten throwing up everywhere.

Maxim seemed surprised when his counterpart knelt down and tried to comfort him.

Although the District Partners weren't adversaries like they used to be, it was still somewhat uncommon for there to be any real compassion or familiarity between them. They partnered up a lot of the time, because there was safety in numbers and what was the harm if you could both go home, but that type of stuff this early on was a weird strategy.

"Maybe it's not a strategy," Marley said quietly. "Maybe she was just worried."

Everyone was outshined by Baia Kel though. This wasn't a surprise.

Everyone in the Capitol was falling over themselves swooning for her, for the tragedy, the drama of it all.

"I heard there was even a petition to send her home and bring someone else in," Marcella said, watching as Baia's steely eyes betrayed how she really felt beneath her winning smile.

"That'd never happen," Maxim replied.

If anyone was going to rebel, it was her. She had the most reason of anyone, he supposed.

After the recaps were over, they were dismissed to their rooms for bed. Maxim told them xe would want to see them bright and early tomorrow, though, in order to give them advice about the next three days. From the moment they were Reaped up until they died or won, everything was part of a strategy, but the Training sessions were when everything kicked into high gear.

Boden collapsed into bed and contemplated who he'd kill first, and how. He wished he could get away with getting rid of one of these stupid Avoxes. He knew he was probably being monitored at all times, even though the footage was never shown. He'd be caught before the body even cooled.

He fell asleep entertaining fantasies of bloody glory in the Games.

A/N: So this was another look at Boden who… will probably be very interesting to write during the Games.

Next is going to be the first day of Training, with Dazzle and Keiynan's POVs.

For the Chapter Question ™: how far would you be willing to go for rebellion if you were a Tribute?

Let me know what you thought of this chapter!