Disclaimer: I own nothing belonging to Suzanne Collins.

Chapter Three: Unnecessary Attention

When someone dies in the Hunger Games, there is little remembrance of their death. Their names may be mentioned once or twice during the Victory Tour when the winner comes through just to show the rest of us how powerful they were, but other than that, the family is given very little time to recover from such a toll.

The weeks after the Games were absolute hell in my home.

Knowing we would never have one of our solid bases of the family back and knowing that a piece of us would forever be missing…it was absolutely the worst thing that any of us had ever experienced. Ostro wouldn't leave his room for several days and when I tried to speak to him, he would only yell in response and I found that trying to speak to him was useless.

However, the loss that our family was undergoing did not exclude us from having to go and congratulate the winner when she came to town. It was a morbid idea, really, reminding everyone of the person who killed your son or daughter, even if they did not directly. Nevertheless, we, as the family of Titus, were invited to stand on the stage and give the winner flowers. I was thirteen at the time and merely stood on the stage, staring at all of the people gathered-both from the Capitol and District Two. It amazed me how arrogant the winner that year was.

Seeing her personality, I didn't want to give her flowers, but it was expected of us and would I ever dare do something that the Capitol would frown upon?

Never.

After taking off the nice clothing and fake smiles, we returned back home to our cold, empty house. Father had taken a late patrol and had to leave nearly as soon as we arrived home. I knew that sleep would never come to me; therefore, I went to my perch at the back of the property, looking out on the dark landscape in front of me.

Unexplainably, tears began falling from my eyes faster than I could fight them and when they fell, I did not stop them. My mother and brother were both tucked away in their beds and would not come out to disturb me. Letting the tears flow allowed me to drain away the pain that I felt inside and the hole swelling in my heart. Time had hardly seemed to pass when I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see my father, still in uniform, sit down beside me.

I curled up under his arm and drew close to him.

"How long have you been out here?" He asked softly, running his hand through my hair, gently.

I sniffled," I don't really know. Ever since you've been gone."

"Darling, that's a long time. You'll barely get any sleep for the academy tomorrow," He whispered to me, still smoothing my hair as I kept myself curled up against him.

"I don't want to go," I said bitterly, wiping a tear from my cheek.

"Savera, you must go. I do not think that now would be the time to make Zenobia angry with you," He answered.

I sighed, realizing he was right," I just hurt so bad, Dad."

He sighed before squeezing my shoulder," I know. So do, I."

A long moment of silence hung in the air before he spoke once again," I may not be allowed to say this, but I think that we were not in the Capitol's favor this year."

I looked up to him, slightly confused," What do you mean?"

He was looking out to the distance as he spoke," They always seem to pick the winner before the winner is announced. A Career district must not have been the trend this year."

I was catching on to what he meant by this. It was common knowledge that the Capitol was the one who determined the winner of the Hunger Games every year. Whoever the Head Gamemaker was, was essentially the one choosing who would win. Being Head Gamemaker was not a job that I envied due to the simple fact that President Snow is not an easy man to please, I imagined, and that any wrong move, no matter how small, could result in death.

"They must have liked him enough to allow him to live until the final three," I commented, trying to brighten the mood.

"This is true," Father answered, nodding. "Just not enough to allow him to win."

"I thought they favored the Career districts," I added, really as an afterthought more than anything.

He exhaled, before pulling both me and himself to our feet," It all depends on the trend. Having the odds in your favor applies to many different categories, Savera. One year, the Careers may be the favorite, but the next they could be just as equal as the outlying districts. One can never place their finger on what the Capitol is going to do."

I nodded, realizing the truth in his words. Finding that it would be useless to discuss this further, I knew that sleep would only benefit me at this point. Though I may have been thirteen, I was still small enough that father could sweep me off my feet and carry me wherever. With a laugh, he swept me off my feet and carried me to my bedroom before biding me good night and leaving, making sure that I had a smile on my face before he left.

Though the smile may have been present, I couldn't help but be slightly haunted by the words my father said:

One can never place their finger on what the Capitol is going to do.


With every year passing, Ostro was the next one we expected to be volunteered for the Games, but Zenobia never placed him at the top of the list. In fact, it was almost as if he had beeh dropped from her radar after Titus died in the Games. She most certainly did not wish to be embarrassed again. It was a sigh of relief to our family for the most part to know that Ostro would be safe. And Flux was being saved for his last year, when he could nearly be guaranteed a win, assuming the odds were in our favor.

It was almost assumed that I would not have to worry about being a volunteer, that was until I began winning at the training center.

No, of course not, but I was able to pull a couple of victories out of, seemingly nowhere. Zenobia was still not impressed, but it was nice to draw attention away from myself. I was more than just helpless prey or a moving target. It bought me some space from those that sought to harm me.

Also, as I got older my inventions at home began to become more complex and I became more absorbed in them. Father had run out of puzzles to give me and it was up to me to create my own entertainment since I had very few friends.

I also spent more time walking up and down the streets of District Two, seeing more of the world and trying to figure out certain things and why they were the way they were. Walking was therapeutic for me. I saw many new faces venturing into new areas of the District and nodded cordially to the Peacekeepers I knew from my father's precinct. With every step, I came closer to the peace of living life without my brother.

One boy, quite a bit younger than myself was named Cato. Several times, I had seen him at the academy, but he was still very fresh. He was one of the youngest that had ever been enrolled and was nowhere near the standards of what I was supposed to be training at, but I was still slightly intimidated by him.

In my defense, the young boy was already throwing spears at targets in the alley beside his house and nailing them straight in the heart. He already was roughhousing other children so badly that they went home to their parents, sobbing and with black eyes. Of course, all of this was kept on the down low because District Two couldn't have a potential future tribute getting into any sort of trouble.

Every time I would pass by, he would look up, just in time to see me before throwing a spear and smiling wide at me, proud of himself.

One day, he was bold enough to say something to me," Hey you!"

I looked up from my path and met his bright blue eyes," Yeah? What do you want, Cato?"

He came toward me, holding his spear as he did so," You go to the academy, right? You're in the older ranks."

I furrowed my brow, looking at him closely," Yes…I do."

"One day, I'm going to beat all of you. Actually, my teacher says I'm better than all of you right now," He said, trying his hardest to sound impressive.

Rather than argue with him, I shrugged my shoulders and decided to mess with his little head a bit," I'm sure you could. Have a nice day."

I gave him a big smile before turning and walking away from him, laughing to myself at the sight of his baffled face. Instantly, he chased after me," Are you okay? Did you hear what I just said to you?"

"Yes, I did," I said simply, biting my lip in order to keep me from saying anything further. Plus, I really was not exaggerating when I said that this kid threatened me. He could definitely beat my ass. I kept my eyes set on the path ahead of me and not on the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy beside me.

"Wait a second," He said, looking at me closely. "You're the freaky kid. The kid that everyone says should just quit anyways, right? I heard you're not even that strong."

I wanted to just walk away and not say anything else. He kept on digging and digging, just wanting a reaction. If only I had the self-control to keep walking past him, but the next thing he said, set me over the top. His words still stung, even though I wanted to numb them out.

"Your brother was Titus. The kid that died," He scoffed, tucking the spear under his arm. "Pathetic."

Who did this kid think he was? It was at that moment that any intimidation factor there was, was set aside and thrown away as I turned and crossed my arms over my chest. Fine. If he wanted a reaction, then he was sure in for one.

He had absolutely no right to call my brother, or anyone who died in the Hunger Games pathetic.

"You want to see for yourself how pathetic I am?" I said to him, growling ever so slightly.

He looked me straight in the eye and smiled," I don't want to hurt you."

Actually, I had no idea what he wanted to do, but I watched carefully as he pulled his spear up to aim. The spear in his hand was too big for him, but nevertheless, he kept a steady control of it.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, kid," I said, returning his smile before suddenly he,with poor form, came running toward me. My heart sped up, realizing that this kid fully intended to kill me. He was blood thirsty.

If he had been a couple feet taller and slightly more muscular, my next move wouldn't have been quite so successful. I quickly sidestepped, noticing his feet were still pointed forward, ready to charge, but my body had already changed position. If only he had paid more attention to where my eyes had been set and the position of my body. Not feeling much pity for him, I grabbed the wooden part of the spear, twisting it up and out, hearing the precise pop of his wrist that I had anticipated. With a weakened wrist, I pulled the spear from his hands. Before he could say another word, I had his own spear pointed at him.

He blubbered for nearly a full minute, rubbing his wrist, which was probably hurting terribly by this point and reached for his spear, which I gave back to him before watching the little Cato run back to his home. I hadn't actually meant the kid any harm, just wanted to get him to stop talking shit. He was a child and I felt some guilt, but for a child he was far too arrogant and arrogance was not a good thing when dealing with anything, not to mention training to play the Capitol's game one day.

"I don't want to hear you saying anything else bad about Titus Stone!" I called after him, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear as I turned my back to continue down the street.

Feeling rather accomplished for a split-second, I smiled and went about my way, but that was before the booming voice from behind me called out," Savera Stone!"

Taking a deep breath in and expecting Cato's father to be on his front porch with his spear pointed toward me, I slowly turned only to be proven wrong. At the end of the alley stood Zenobia, someone whom, until that moment, I had never seen outside of the academy. I was expecting it then. Boy, oh boy would I get an ear full. I had just stepped to one of her favorites.

"Savera Stone, you march over here, right now!" She boomed and I walked, my eyes glued to my feet as I came into her presence. Before I knew it, I was standing face-to-face with Zenobia, her face bright red. She was like a bomb…about to explode.

"Ma'am?" I asked, tentatively. Her eyes were glued on me.

"I've never been so…" She trailed off, just looking at me as she picked the correct word. "Impressed with you before."

This was a complete and total shock. I looked around and even wanted to pinch myself to be sure that this was not all a figment of my imagination. Just to be certain, I furrowed my brow and asked incredulously," Excuse me?"

"You heard me," She said, a smile growing on her lips. "I've never been more impressed with you. That boy is the top of his age range and could probably kill any of our twelve year-olds right now. I'd be so bold as to say that he could kill many of those in your age group, as well."

"Zenobia, I really wasn't trying to-"

"Don't be apologetic. Be proud of what you did," She said, or growled rather. "I'll see you at the academy tomorrow. Don't expect it to be a day for you to blow off."

I watched as she turned her back on me and walked away. I stood there, baffled, wondering if I should have taken that last statement as a compliment or..well, I honestly didn't know how to take it. It seemed more like a back-handed compliment, but part of me couldn't help but feel that getting the attention of Zenobia Ivory wasn't what I had in mind.

A/N: Updated as of January 30th 2021. I didn't change much in this chapter other than the title. Let me know if you're here in 2021, would love to hear your feedback.