Chapter 4
~Katniss~
After everybody had their meetings we were taken by our Escorts to our new rooms. Effie dropped me off at my room with the numbers 512 written in gold on the door. I opened it up with a silver key the Effie had given me and found my room mate putting her clothes in a dresser and half of the closet.
"Um, hello?" I says uncertainly. She turned to look a me. Her blonde curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the top of her head. And her green eyes looked at me with curious yet knowing eyes, and her nose was peppered with light freckles. She put down a shirt she was holding, smiled, and pointed to me.
"You're from District 12 aren't you?"
"Um yeah how did you know?" I ask confused.
"You look like you're from Twelve, I've seen the Reapings and you look like them."
"Oh well um, I'm Kat- I mean, Spitfire." I say and hold out my hand which she grasps firmly.
"Luna, what were you gonna say before? Before you said Spitfire." I looked down at my black boots before I looked back up at her.
"My real name is Katniss. But Brutus didn't think it was a good enough name so now he calls me Spitfire because of my attitude." I said.
"You're his new student?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yeah."
"Do you know how lucky you are? I heard he hasn't taken on a new student in years."
"So he's told me. Who's your teacher"
"Her name is Ellien, I'm training with the rest of her students. How about you?"
"Private sessions."
"Wow that's brave." she comments. There's a silence hanging in the room as we put our clothes away.
"So where are you from?" I asked her, remembering that she hasn't said that yet.
"Oh I'm from District Five. Sorry I forgot to mention that."
"It's fine. Oh and if you don't mind can you not tell people what my name is? Or where I'm from? I don't really want people to know."
"Yeah no problem. Now let's hurry and finish unpacking. We all missed lunch so we have to go to the make-up lunch the made for us new Trainees. If we miss it we go hungry." she said and we unpack like the wind in order to get there on time.
~Cato~
My name is Cato and my last name is not important so nobody needs to know it. I'm fourteen years old and I have been training at the Academy since I was seven years old. When it comes to my family, I don't really talk about them, mainly because everybody knows who they are, so why should I repeat it? If these dumb-asses can't remember anything then that's not my problem. But I will repeat it this one time. My family is what people call and elite family, my father, Casco, owns a masonry in District 2, where I live. My mother, Claret, is the daughter of a famous wine maker from District one. Their marriage was arranged but they knew each other before they got married so it made things easier. I have only one sibling, my brother Citch, he's twenty two years old with a wife of his own named Selima. As a sister-in-law she is one of the nicest people I've ever met to join the family.
As the baby of the family I was spoiled as a kid, hell I'm still spoiled. People say that is why I am so cocky and full of myself, I just call it over confident which I guess is the same as cocky. Anyway since I was spoiled as a child I only thought it was right to spoil my one year old niece, Citch and Selima's daughter, Sessa. This little girl is going to be the most spoiled girl in District Two. Most people don't know this but I do have a soft side and the only people who ever see it is my family and sometimes my friend Clove, she's only twelve.
It was just yesterday that the new shipment of recruits came in to train at the Academy and I was in the TR when I first caught a glimpse of them. There was only one that caught my eye though. She looked different than the others, she stood out. And when I tried to intimidate her, she brushed me off like I was nothing, when in actuality I was the top trainee for my age group, I was a force to be reckoned with. Which means I will definitely have to keep a close eye on her. But I haven't seen her since then, when Tag gave them all a tour. Did she already get into a fight and get sent home? My answers to my question will come soon enough.
"So what's her story?" A fellow Trainee, Kairo, says as he sets his lunch tray down on the table next to me. I look up to see where he's pointing and I see her, the girl I have to watch out for. She looks about my age, long dark brown hair, and gray eyes, just sitting there alone.
"Who is she?" I asked.
"Cato did you not see the new shipment of new Trainees?" Clove asked from across the table from me.
"I glanced. Why should I pay attention?"
"Because it was a surprisingly small one. She was one of them." Yeah I already knew that, I thought.
"Again I ask, who is she?"
"I hear people call her Spitfire but I know it isn't her real name. Well the Trainers call her that." Clove explains with some confusion in her tone.
"I haven't seen her train with anyone." Kairo says turning to his food.
"Must be a private lessoner." Clove muses.
"But hardly anybody here does that." I say annoyed. If she trains alone, she could be a threat, I think to myself.
"Well I guess she does." Kairo comments. I grunt, stand up with my tray and dump it in the garbage without another word on the subject. As I was leaving the cafeteria a Peacekeeper walked up to me.
"Cato?" he asked.
"Yes." I say irritably.
"Brutus wishes to see you in the TR after training hours today." he says then turns to leave again. I continued in the direction I was heading, shaking my head slightly at the Peacekeeper. Brutus could have told me himself during training instead of having a Peacekeeper do it. But I guess he thinks he's too high and mighty for that. When I entered the TR the smell of metal hit my nose, and that smell was one of the best I've known, the smell of a sword or a spear. And what was music to my ears was the sounds of metal hitting metal and people grunting as they swung a sword, threw a spear, or threw a knife. This place was heaven to me. I went straight to the swords station, got in my stance and started swinging, chopping up any dummy in the area, soon an Avox had to come and replace them because I ran out.
I had spent the rest of the day in the Training Room listening to different Trainers teach us how to handle a spear, sword, mass, or any type of weapon. I rolled my eyes at them when they treated me like I didn't know what I was doing. But what really annoyed me was when I didn't see my own Trainer, Brutus, in this room at all. Where could he be? Oh well, soon training hours were over and I stood in the TR alone, waiting for him. He said he wanted to talk to me but about what, he didn't say. I might as well get in some training while I wait. So here I stood, throwing spears at targets twenty feet away when he walked through the door.
"You sent a message saying you wanted to talk to me?" I asked throwing the last spear on the rack and going to collect them.
"Yes, it's about training," he started.
"What about it?" I said putting the weapons on the rack and giving him a quizzical look.
"I've taken on a new Trainee." He states bluntly. I throw one with extra force at this comment. I was his most recent and his last student to take on. Why did he take another?
"No one new has been in sessions." I counter.
"This one wants private sessions." he states and it didn't take me long to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"It isn't the one they call Spitfire is it?" his silence gave me the answer I needed. "Why her? What District is she even from?" I yell.
"That isn't important. I want you to treat her with some respect. She doesn't want her District known." he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls. I scoff at him.
"Since when do you follow orders?" I retort. He takes a few steps towards me and push me again the rack of spears.
"Since I met this girl. She's a fighter and a survivor, I know her past and what she can do. I took her as a Trainee because I know that if she goes into the Games, she will win."
"If she goes in on my year, I'll kill her myself." I threaten. But he stood tall and proud, like he usually does, and looked at me.
"She got the drop on me when I met her. It wouldn't surprise me if she gets the drop on you as well." he said as he headed towards the door, not looking back.
In a rage, I ran towards the swords and cut up every dummy in sight. Until there was nothing left but little pieces on the ground. Imagining Spitfire's face on each and every dummy I chopped up, and her blood spilled everywhere everywhere on the floor.
Once every dummy and target had been chopped up into pieces I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that I had an hour to get home before the curfew was up. Who knows why we need a curfew but what ever. I put the sword back on the rack and raced out of the Academy and didn't stop until I got home. When I opened the door to my home the first noise I heard was the sound of Sessa laughing, which instantly brought a smile to my face. But Citch saw right through it. He was sitting at the kitchen table feeding Sessa her dinner. A jar a mush that I don't want to know what it is.
"Hey Citch." I said to him then looked at Sessa. "Hi Sessa." I cooed. This little girl definitely has a soft spot in my heart.
"You're not fooling me Cato. You walked in with a glare on your face. What's up?" he asked being the good big brother.
"Brutus took on another student." I say reluctantly. He nods slightly and sighs.
"Yeah I heard." he said and my head snapped in his direction.
"How do you know? He just told me today." I almost shout.
"Peacekeepers talk." he simply stated. "Do you know who it is?"
"I know who but I don't know anything about them. She wants to keep everything a secret." I explain resting my elbows on the kitchen table.
"So it's a she." he says looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I looked at him with a confused glare and he smirks, not saying anything.
"What?" I question.
"Don't tell me you're jealous of a girl. That's beneath you little brother." he said feeding another spoonful of something to the giggling girl.
"That's insane why would I be jealous?"
"Because Brutus hasn't taken on another student since you until now. She's gotta be talented at something. Do you know what it is?"
"No," I say glumly. "he just said that she's a fighter and if she goes into the games she'll survive."
"And what did you say?"
"That if she went into the games on my year that I'd kill her myself." I say repeating the threat.
"Lighten up man, maybe she's from an outer District where they don't volunteer." he suggested.
"Then why would she be here to train?" I ask.
"Maybe to protect her family." he said taking a pause. "What's her name anyway?"
"Spitfire." I reply.
"Well just don't get caught in her flame." he jokes before taking the now messy Sessa to give her a bath. I make a noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh before climbing the stairs to my room.
AN:
Dear readers,
I know that it has been a long time since I have updated but please know that anybody who gives me a review, on either story, that is harsh, rude, or maybe even threatening to try to get me to update sooner will not work. I have received a few reviews and private messages telling me to update using insults and threats. If this continues I will not only stop updating my stories but I will also pull them from fanfiction. I do not wish to do so but if it continues then I reluctantly will. Please keep this in mind when you choose to review for message me about my stories because I will not stand for this and I am not afraid to report these messages or reviews because I have already done so with a few that I thought were out of line.
Sincerely,
.Mockingjay