Chapter 8
~Katniss~
It's an hour after training hours ended and Clove and I have been shopping since then. We haven't found anything. We don't want to look like Capitol people but we don't want to look like outcasts either. We stood in a a dress boutique sorting through dresses.
"So how formal is this thing?" I asked her curiously.
"Pretty formal, like we have to wear heels." she said in disgust and I myself wrinkle my nose, and she notices. "You don't like them either huh?" she says with a chuckle and I shake my head no. "What about this dress?" she asked holding up a dark pink, thin strapped dress that looked like it ends just above the knee.
"For me or for you?" I asked pointing to it. She gave it a once over.
"For you. Pink it's really my color." she said.
"Same here, if it was a lighter pink then maybe." I said and she put it back on the rack and we continued looking. Finally after a few more hours of searching we finally found what we wanted. And since we can't wear the same dress month after month we bought seven, yeah seven. Mine varied in colors as did her's. One of mine was gold, another was red, another was a dark blue, two of them were black and another two were green. Clove had a red dress with black floral patterns on it, another was a orange, then one was black across her bust with a black belt and from the waist down was a light shade of pink, like me two of her's were black, she also had one that was white, and one that was black with a bronze lace overlay. (AN: there is a link on my profile, same for the shoes.) Now all we needed was shoes. With our bags in hand we left the store to find a shoe shop. We had about two hours left until curfew so we had to hurry.
"What size shoe are you?" she asked me and I had to think for a while. I only own a few pairs.
"A six a think." I say.
"Either you have small feet or mine are big cause I do too." she said and I laughed slightly.
"Well then maybe we don't have to buy so many pairs. We can just share?" I offered and she nodded.
"Perfect besides I don't want people think that I'm going all girly on them." she said and I chuckled.
"Come on let's find a shop so we can get home before curfew." I said and she snickered.
"You know this is actually kind of fun. I thought I would be torture." she said to my surprise. And I'll admit, I'm surprised myself that I am having a little bit of fun. Maybe I might have another find besides Luna. We walked into an interesting looking store that sold shoes and just got some plain red ones, black ones, gold ones, and white ones, to go with all of our dresses. We must have spent a longer time in there than I thought because when we walked out of the store talking about our new stuff the clock on the tower chimed eight.
"Oh I got to go. See you tomorrow." I called to her and took off to the Academy. When I shut the front door to the building it was eight twenty five. Five minutes to spare, I thought to myself as I walked through the halls to my dorm room. When I finally unlocked the door and opened it up I found Luna sitting on her bed messing with a tablet. When she looked up at me and noticed the bags in my hands she smiled.
"Hey, are those the dresses?" she asked.
"Yes, and wait til you see them." I set the bags on my bed and laid out all of the dresses, she gaped at them.
"You are gonna turn heads at the feast." she said with a smile.
"That was the plan. Shopping for these with Clove was actually kinda fun. We still have money left over too." I said taking the extra money out of my pocket and setting it on the night stand.
"Do you have to return it?" she asked and I shrugged.
"I don't know. I'll ask Brutus tomorrow." I said putting the dresses up on my side of the closet and setting the shoes on the floor. Clove and I agreed that I would hold onto them and she would just come to my here before the feast to get which ever ones she needed.
The next day was different, when I wasn't training with Brutus I was swimming laps in the pool, Clove and Luna were too so I got to introduce them.
"Oh Clove this is my room mate Luna. Luna, Clove." I said gesturing from one to the other. Clove took a little time to warm up to Luna but after a friendly swimming race in the pool they got over it.
"So Luna, where are you from?" Clove asked as we took a five minute break.
"District 5. And you're from here right?" she replied and Clove nodded.
"Any idea where Hot Shot over here is from?" Clove joked pointing to me and I snorted.
"Yep and I'm not going to tell you." Luna said and I thanked her.
"Why not? I mean what's the big deal about it?" Clove asked.
"If told you the reason you would definitely figure it out." I said.
"Fine." Clove grumbled. I shoved her in the pool and she came up and grabbed my foot, pulling me in. after the three of us got yelled at by a Trainer for slacking off, we earned ten laps. Once I finished them I looked at the clock and noticed the I had ten minutes to get to the PTR.
"Sorry guys, gotta go." I said pointing to the door. I raced to the locker room to change back into my clothes then raced to the Private Training Center where I found Brutus and a Peacekeeper dress in a uniform for Hand-To-Hand combat. Oh no, I thought.
"Today you're doing combat training." I mentally groaned and walked toward them. He taught me what I needed to know about getting in the proper stance and first we worked on blocking the attack. "Now before we can land any hits on the opponent you must block any potential hits. Now anticipate and react. Go." he said and we went as that. The Peacekeeper throwing punches or kicks and I ether tried to block them or dodge them completely. And so went on until it was time for lunch, I walked in slowly with a bruise or two on my ribs, arms, and face. One right across my left cheek bone, one on the top half of my right arm, two on the left side on my ribs and a third on the right side. I am going to be sore in the morning. When I got through the lunch line, getting water, chicken soup and a chicken sandwich I sat down at my table and waited for Luna to get her food and sit down at our table. And soon somebody set down their tray, but it wasn't Luna, it was Clove. I looked up at her and gave her a confused look.
"What? I can't sit with my other friends?" she asked taking a bit of her sandwich.
"Well yeah but I thought you'd be sitting at your other table."
"Yeah well I'm kinda getting sick of Cato's antics right now."
"What's he going on about?" I asked her and she was about to say something til Luna sat down with us.
"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" she said giving us a curious look.
"Cato is going on about something that's annoying her." I explained pointing to Clove and she nodded.
"It's like he's obsessed with you or something. He keeps going on and on about how he want's to figure out the mystery behind you and just figure you out. It's getting annoying." she says angrily and taking a harsh bite of her sandwich again.
"Why is he so obsessed with "figuring me out"? I mean come on does it really matter?" I asked her while eating a spoonful of soup.
"Well the fact the you're the first student Brutus has taken on since Cato has him upset. So obviously there's something you can do that interests Brutus and Cato is almost desperate to figure it out. He wants to intimidate you and he's upset that you're the only person, besides me, that doesn't fall for his charm." she explains further and we all turn to look at him, his face is red with anger.
"He's probably seeing red right now." Luna said.
"I'd watch out for yourself if I were you." Clove warned and I nodded. "By the way, nice shiner." she says gesturing to my bruised cheek.
"Combat training." I stated simply and took a big gulp of soup, letting the warmth of it trail down my throat.
"I'm surprised they let you leave like that." Clove says to me.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked her, confusion evident in her voice.
"Usually when you get a cut or bruise during training them give you this cream that makes it go away, I'm surprised they didn't give you any." she says and I just shrug in response.
"Maybe they'll drop some off by our room?" Luna suggests and I nod hopefully.
"Hopefully." I say as I lightly brush my hand over the not purple and blue bruise on my arm. "They'll probably say suck it up cause if I go into the Games I'll have to deal with it." I say turning back to my food.
"Well what do you know, only been here a short time and you're already thinking like a Tribute." Clove pointed out and I rolled my eyes at her.
"Damn Clove thanks for the encouragement." I reply sarcastically. She was about to say something before she looked over my shoulder and her face went blank. I turned around and came face to face with a seriously pissed off Cato.
"Why are you sitting here with these losers Clove? You should be over with me and Kairo." he taunts
"They aren't losers Cato. If you weren't such a dick and obsessing all the time you would know." she snapped back.
"Please, what can this piece of trash do?" he continued gesturing to me with his hand. I was starting to get pissed but before I could stand up for myself, Clove did it for me.
"Enough for Brutus to take her as a student when everybody knows you were his latest." she said with a smirk.
"Doesn't prove anything." he says with a deadly voice that almost made me shiver. Almost.
"Cato will you quit trying to figure me out? I'm not going to tell you or anybody else anything. So give it up. There is nothing special about me that you need to know about."i said standing up to face him, he just glared down at me.
"See that's where you're wrong Spitfire. There is something about you because you are a mystery, a mystery I intend to crack." he says, his voice getting strangely calm and low all of the sudden. His hand reached up and tried to stroke a finger along my jaw, but I slapped it away, making him glare once again.
"Good luck trying to figure out me and my past, I can guarantee that you won't like it." I say before grabbing my tray, taking car of it, and stalking out of the room. Only to have Cato trailing behind me. He grabs my shoulders roughly, turns me around, and shoves me into the wall, holding me there. I stare up into his cold ice blue eyes that are fixed in an even glare.
"I may not like it, but I'll sure have a hell lot of fun figuring it out." he says, his face ending up in a smirk by the end of the sentence.
"Tell me Cato, why the interest. Of all girls in the Academy to become obsessed with, why me?" I challenged.
"There is something about you that captures my interest Spitfire." he says and I give him a confused look, what could I possibly do to catch his interest? I thought. We hardly talk. "And besides, if I can't figure you out for myself, I'll do whatever it takes to get you to tell me everything about you." he says before letting me go. He turns to walk away and as he does I get the last word in.
"When Hell freezes ten times over." I state and he stops, turns back to me and glares. I just simply waltz up, brush past him, and give him the most fake smile I can must, and continue to my dorm room to see if there medicine for my bruises. And thankfully there is and Cato didn't follow me again.
~Cato~
That little rat! She thinks that she knows me so well, that she can get the last word in. she is crazy. She thinks that I can't figure her out? I know that I can. And if I can't, which I most likely will, I'll just get her to tell me. I will make her vulnerable and weak and she will succumb to me and she will reveal the her mystery of her to me herself.
But there is something about her that intrigues me. It's a feeling that I've never felt before. It isn't like I want to hurt her or kill her or anything. I just want to know her, something about her draws me to her. I'm not going to lie and say that she isn't pretty because she is, the way her eyes glow with fire, how her form moves when she walks, the way she'll stand up to me when no one else will besides Clove. Like I said, there is something about her. Maybe it's the fact that my niece that I love likes her, or the song that Sessa heard her humming. Does she sing? If she does, does she have a family to sing or? Does she have a family in general? And if so, what are they like? Does she think about me as often as I think about her? And when she looks at me, does she see the brutal Cato everyone else sees? Or does she see something different? These questions just keep running through my head as I make my way to the track out side to do some speed training. I don't know why my head fills with these questions and why I'm so determined to answer them. But someday soon, I hope she will give me those answers one way or another.
When I make it out to the track I stretch before I take off into a run. And as I run I think about the month ahead of me. Later this month is the feast, where all students mingle outside of training, and the Trainers monitor us to see who would be good in an alliance in the games. It a formal occasion, where the boys have to wear black dress pack, shiny shoes, a white shirt, and a jacket. And the girls have to wear a nice shirt with a skirt or a dress, and heels. My mind wanders to what Spitfire is going to wear. I know Enobaria made Clove go shopping to buy a dress because her exception to wearing pants has been terminated, but for Spitfire, it will be her first. Does she know that she has to wear a dress? And if she brought any, is it fancy enough for this dinner? As I run my third lap around the track I see Spitfire walking out the door to the track.
Her bruises are already fading from her arms and face. Brutus must have given her the salve needed to make them go away. She won't have that luxury for long, she better savor it as well as she can. I paused to catch a quick breath and watched her walk over to a bench, set her water bottle on the ground and tank off her t-shirt to reveal a black tank top. Her shirt lifted a little and I caught a glimpse of nasty blue and purple bruise on her ribs. She must know that she has to save the stuff as much as she can. Then without stretching she takes off into a run. Why isn't she with Brutus for training?soon as she runs she catches up to the spot where I stand and passes by, only sparing a glance in my direction. So again I start to run and it turns into a silent competition between us, seeing who can pass the other. We aren't the only ones out here of course. There are those who are running an outside obstacle course, shooting arrows and climbing trees being timed.
Time, the one thing that we can't get enough of. And the one thing that cannot be replaced.