~Katniss~
Today is the first day I have to follow Haymitch's orders and stick with Peeta the entire time. And I hate it because he spends most of his time at the camouflage station.
"Hey Peeta?" I perk up.
"Yeah Kat?" he asked looking up from his arm that looked like a tree.
"Do you think we could go to another station? I mean we've been at this one for a long time. How about the edible plants station?" I offered, trying not to sound like I'm complaining. His eyes lit up and he nodded.
"Oh yeah, maybe now you can show me all of the plants you ate, no matter how gross they looked." he joked cleaning his arm. I laughed remembering when I tried to get him to eat a plant that looked almost like poison ivy but actually wasn't. When he was finally cleaned off we walked over to the next station and I started telling him about the different plants you could eat and the ones you couldn't. Every now and then I would catch Cato staring at me, wanting to talk to me. He would plead me with his eyes to break my mentor's rules and come talk to him. I would shake my head at him and he look down then away. I turned back to Peeta with a heavy sigh and he looked at me.
"Is District Two giving you a problem?" he asked protectively.
"You know he has a name." I said sounding a little annoyed.
"Yes I know but here and everybody else besides his own District he's known as District Two, not Cato as all of his friends see him." he tried to explain to me.
"Well I consider him a friend." I said stubbornly to him. "So to me, he's Cato." I said walking away from him. He trailed after me though.
"Where are you going? Haymitch said you have to stay by my side."
"Yeah and that also means you have to stay by mine and I am going to another station. And how would Haymitch know if I went to a different station than you? Huh? I'll stay away from him and Clove but I'm getting away from you. You're my friend and I'm doing everything I can not hurt you right now. So before I do something I'll regret, leave me alone." I told him harshly enough to stop him in his tracks while I walked to another station. As I took on the challenge of the Gauntlet I could feel eyes on me. This is something I've never done before, not even in District Two, so I'm not doing very well. I try to dodge the Trainers who are swinging foam covered bats at me, but I end up getting hit once or twice.
As I glance around I see Cato watching me, wincing every time I get hit. As I jump down from the last stage of the Gauntlet I see him watch me closely, the jump is big but I manage to land on my feet just as the lunch bell rang. When I land safely I walk into the cafeteria to eat the lunch provided for us. Both he and Clove watch me as I get in line behind Rue. I smile down at her as she smiles up at me. As I help her reach the food that is too high for her to reach, somebody reaches and grabs the apple I was going to get for her. I look and see that it's Glimmer, from District One.
"Oh I'm sorry were you going to grab this? Well I'm sure you'd be okay without it." she said with fake sweetness. "Being from poor District, you couldn't eat much, why spoil yourself when you're about to die anyways?" she said before skipping off to the Career table. But she was stupid enough to forget about the basket that was full of apples. So I just grabbed one that was bigger than the last and handed it to her.
"Thank you Katniss." she said.
"No problem. Now let's go eat." I told her while we went to sit by Thresh and Peeta. I decided to forgive him and let the whole thing go. I think this is the only time Cato hasn't watched me all day, because he's too busy arguing with Glimmer and Marvel. Clove sat there trying to calm him down but he wasn't having any of it.
"Just don't let it happen again!" he shouted at Glimmer and stormed out of the room. I moved to get up after him but Peeta put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me. Clove looked at me confused, unsure of why I didn't follow him. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. She still looked confused and I couldn't take it anymore.
"Peeta, please." I begged him.
"Kat you can't break Haymitch's rules." he reminded.
"Then you tell her." I told him.
"What?"
"Tell her why I can't go talk to him. Please." I begged again and he nodded. He knows I never beg unless it's important. He sighed and got up to walk out of the room. I gave Clove a look to follow him and thankfully she did.
~Peeta~
I can't believe I'm doing this for Katniss. Yeah I love her and I'd do anything for her, but tell the people who will probably kill her why she can't talk to them? That's way too much. He totally likes her, and is just going to break her heart and kill her. Can I trust him like she does? Probably not. My pacing is interrupted but the girl Tribute from District Two coming into view.
"What's going on?" she demanded of me.
"What does Cato want with Katniss first?" I demanded back. "If he's planning on killing her I'm walking away right now."
"What are you talking about? He doesn't want to kill her! He loves her." she blurted out.
"What?"
"Well he hasn't come out and said it but I can totally tell. Why am I telling you this? It's none of your business." she said with a glare. "Now what is going on?"
"Haymitch forbid her to talk to either of you." I told her.
"Why?"
"I don't know." I told her. On the inside I was happy, because as greedy as it sounds, I'll be able to talk to Katniss, just the two of us. Clove eyed me with a suspicious look before talking again.
"Oh I get it. You like her don't you!" she accused and I looked at her with fake shock.
"What are you talking about?"
"I knew it. You look at her like some lovesick puppy." she said and shook her head while I just stood there confused. How is it that a girl that I don't even know would pick up that I love Katniss before the girl of my dreams does? "This is going to ruin everything." she exclaimed.
"What are you talking about now?" I questioned.
"None of your business." she said coldly and walked up to the elevator, my guess to find Cato. I just walked back into the cafeteria to see a hopeful Katniss waiting there.
"What happened?" she asked when I got close enough.
"I told her." I said to her, looking down at my feet.
"And?" she asked, wanting me to continue. I pulled her into my arms and hugged her, and she hugged back.
"She didn't like it." I told her with a sigh that she mimicked.
"She'll have to understand sooner or later." she said pulling away after a few seconds. In silence, we walked back into the training room together and got back to the fire station, I needed to perfect how to build a good fire, and Katniss needed a distraction.
~Clove~
I stormed away from Peeta to the elevator so I could go find Cato and bring him back to the training room to practice. Plus I know that its a way for him to relieve anger and stress. When I got into the elevator I saw a big dent in the wall, I wonder who did that. After the short trip to the second level I found Cato sitting in his room with his head in his hands and finger threaded in his hair, gripping it tightly.
"We need to talk." I told him closing the door.
"About what?" he snapped.
"Peeta."
"We can't kill him, I promised Katniss that we wouldn't. I'm not going to break it. Not now." he said finally looking up at me.
"Well I know that Haymitch said that she can't talk to us."
"So?"
"So I talked to Peeta instead." he perked up as I said this like I thought he would. I shut the door to his room and leaned against it, with my hands behind my back. "Peeta loves Katniss." I said softly.
"Yeah I know, they're best friends." he said confused but I shook my head.
"No not as best friends. I mean he really loves her." I told him and his face morphed from one of confusion to one of anger.
"Shit." he hissed as he got up to pace. He ran his hands through his hair repeatedly as he paced.
"Cato please calm down." I pleaded to him.
"How can I calm down?" he shouted. "She'll never pick me over him. One of us is going to die and she is probably going to join him in the Games because she trusts him more than she does me. It won't matter if I tell her how I feel about her, it won't be enough. She'll never feel the same way back either because she is so close to him. The fact that I can't talk to her right now is just killing me inside." he shouted, eventually his voice sounding desperate.
"I've never seen you care this much about somebody who isn't family." I observed.
"We all do crazy things when it comes to love." he said absentmindedly.
"I'm sorry for what?" I asked jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. He shook his head at me and walked out the door.
"You heard me." he grunted as he passed me.
"Yeah I just wanted to hear you say it again." I said following him out of the apartment and laughed when he stuck up his middle finger at me. When he got back down to the training center we saw Katniss working with Rue and Peeta at the knot tying station. I heard Cato sigh and looked at him to see him staring at her longingly. "Come on, go swing some swords and imagine the dummies are Peeta." I told him trying to push him towards his favorite station.
"More like Haymitch, it's his rule." he grunted with an instant glare at the floor before stalking off and grabbing a heavy sword to swing around.
~Cato~
After dismembering a dummy I looked over to see Katniss watching me, she looked almost frightened. No, that was the last thing I wanted to do, I didn't want to scare her, I wanted her to trust me. I give her a look that tells her that she shouldn't be afraid but it didn't work, she shook her head and turned back to Lover Boy. It fueled my fire, but I didn't take it out on a dummy, instead I just gripped the sword tighter. If I want her to trust me, I have to throw less temper tantrums. I looked back at her and saw that she kept glancing at me every now and then. That made me feel a little better, that she wasn't completely scared of me. I wish I could just talk to her and tell her that she has nothing to be afraid of, that I'm just upset about her Mentor's rules. But I can't, because all she'll do is just look at me. Clove stood a few feet away from me and I gestured for her to come over to me.
"What do I do? She's becoming afraid of me and I don't want that. I can't talk to her and tell her not to be afraid until the Games start and by then it'll be too late because of the Bloodbath." I told her quietly so nobody heard and she just gave me a look of surprise.
"I don't think I've ever seen you this lost about a girl before Cato." she said to me.
"I've never felt this way about a girl before." I replied and she shifted her weight.
"Well I don't really know what to say. Try talking to Brutus about this. See what he has to say."
~Caeser~
"Well well well, what do we have here Claudius?" I asked him in an intrigued voice.
"Well it seems that we have a bit of a romance here between Katniss Everdeen and Cato Hart from District 12 and 2." he said as the faces of the two Tributes popped up on the screen behind us.
"Some people would argue against us but these two seem to be sharing some interesting looks, glances and stares. Don't you think?" I asked him and he chuckled.
"Yes I do. But it's hard to tell whether they have some hidden plan or that these looks are indeed a romance."
"Oh no, I've seen looks like these before. This seems to be more than what's going on in the Games this year. These Hunger Games looks like they are going to be very interesting." I said with a tone that told I was very interested. Claudius and I kept watching the Tributes train and Cato was currently talk to his District Partner and they seemed to be in a heated discussion.
"I wonder what the District Two Tributes are talking about. Hmm." I said curiously.
"Perhaps its not a what, but a who?" Claudius teased.
"Oh I wish we could find out, but microphones in the Training Center is against the rules." I said chuckling. I can't wait to see what these Games bring this year.
~Cato~
Once training was over I did just as Clove said. I went to find Brutus and talk to him about what I should do. I found him sitting in the living room right as I walked into the apartment, he was sitting, watching something on the television drink some sort of Capitol drink.
"Brutus I need to ask you a question."
"What going on?" he asked me, not looking away from the television. I walked and stood in front of him to block his view.
"This is serious." I said and he sighed, turned off the TV and looked at me expectantly. "I got mad during training and I took it out on a dummy. Katniss saw and now she's scared of me." I admitted and he snorted.
"And you don't know what to do because you can't talk to her right?" he asked and I nodded my head yes. "Well seems like you're in a pickle." he said jokingly.
"Will you help me?"
"There is nothing really I can do. I can't tell a Mentor how to mentor his Tribute." he said honestly.
"But this it Spitfire we're talking about. It's Katniss. There has to be something we can do so she won't be scared of me." I said to him almost desperately. He sat there and rested his chin in his hand, thinking. After a few moments he snapped his fingers as a light bulb went off above his head.
"The interview." he said simply.
"What?"
"Tell her in the interview. That you care about her and will do anything to protect her. When she hears that you wouldn't do anything to hurt her, she won't be so scared. She may even trust you a little." he said and it made sense, for someone to profess something like that on national television would be big, and she'd have to trust me.
"Okay I'll do it, but I still need your help with it."
"Like what? I thought I did help."
"I don't know what to say."
"The Capitol already thinks that there is something between you two with the way you keep glancing at each other during training. Caeser will likely ask about it, or if there is a girl that you like back home, just do what comes natural." he explained before getting up and walking into a different room. I walked over and stood on the balcony, looking high up above me to see if I could see Katniss on hers. But I couldn't, there were too many other balconies in the way. Heaving a heavy sigh I walked back into my room and laid down until it was time for dinner. After some time, where I fell asleep, I was woken up by Brutus to come and eat dinner. I was silent the entire time. Just trying to think of what I could say in the interview that would make Katniss trust me more and possibly pick me over Lover Boy. I was the first one finished eating, never paying attention to what I was putting in my mouth. Everybody looked at me in surprise when I got up from the table and walked back to my room. But I ignored their stares, all that was on my mind was Katniss.
~Katniss~
The third day of training was yesterday, and it went by in a breeze. So that means that today is the day that we go through evaluations for a training score. While I waited I could feel Cato watching me. District One went in and came out with smiles on their faces. When they called Clove in for her evaluation she glanced at me and gave me a slight nod of good luck in my, I returned it back to her. A few minutes later, when she was dismissed she came out with a big sigh and a satisfied smile on hr face. It was small, but it was there. Cato walked in and turned back to give me another look of good luck, it was longer than Clove's, but people think there is something romantic between us, that only helped it. When he came out he seemed angry yet satisfied, like he took his anger out on the evaluation. Which is probably what he did. It took them a lot longer for them to clean up the training room for the next Tribute. He must have chopped up all of the dummies in the room. Eventually, when the waiting room was empty except for Peeta and I, they called my name over the intercom.
"Katniss Everdeen" the voice said. Apprehensively, I stood up and walked to the door.
"Hey Katniss?" a voice called behind me. I turned and looked at Peeta expectantly. "Shoot straight." he encouraged and I smiled a thank you. I turned back around and walked into the room to find all of the Gamemakers either waiting for me or talking amongst themselves.
"Katniss Everdeen. District Twelve." I called to try and get their attention. I received a few more gazes as I walked over and picked up a bow, weighing it in my hand before strategically picking the perfect arrow to shoot. I notched it, aimed at a target twenty feet away and shot. I missed. I missed the center and hit the next ring out. As I stood there in shock the Gamemakers chuckled and turned away from me, and it annoyed me. I took another arrow and shot a target fifty feet away. Bulls-eye. They didn't notice, so I shot another arrow at a target one hundred feet away. Again, they didn't notice. So, me being as livid as I was, I took one last arrow and shot it at the apple in the pig's mouth that they were fawning over. When it was pinned against the wall, everybody turned to me in shock. They didn't look mad or upset, they just looked surprised.
"Thank you for your consideration." I said, bowing, setting the bow back on the rack, and walking out of the room without being dismissed.
"You did what!?" Effie shrieked just before it was time to watch the training scores get revealed.
"I'm sorry I just got mad." I said.
"It's no big deal, they just want a good show." Cinna defended.
"How about it's just bad manners Cinna. How 'bout that?" she scolded as Haymitch walked into the room. "Well it's about time you got here, we have a major situation." she said and he just gave me the thumbs up.
"Great job Sweetheart." he said with a smile and I just smiled back. He went on about how what I did was genius.
"Haymitch this is serious! They could take it out on all of us!" she shrieked again.
"And do what? Take it out on her?" he asked gesturing to me. "On him?" he asked again pointing to Peeta. "I think they already have. Loosen your corset, have a drink, just calm down." he said and she glared at him. Seconds later the training scores came on and they went through the Districts. Clove and Cato both got a 10, which is good for them. Hopefully, I will get better than I did at the Academy, or just as good. Rue got a seven, which was a surprise and Thresh got a ten, which is extremely well for him. Then they got to Peeta.
"Now for District Twelve. Peeta Mellark. A score of eight." Caeser said with a everybody congratulated him on a job well done. I knew Peeta would get a good score because he was strong, and he could paint himself into anything.
"Last but not least, Katniss Everdeen." Caeser started. "With a score of," he paused in surprise, oh no, its a low score, I'm as good as dead now after what I did. "Eleven." Everybody shouted in surprise and happiness. Peeta told me good job and I just nodded, in shock. I got the highest score in Hunger Games history, President Snow will be mad. I can't even imagine how the other tributes are reacting to this.