Chapter 9

~Katniss~

I did not want to get up today, but I had to. Today everybody did not have to train because they had to be home and get ready for the Feast that started at four this after noon. Apparently, from what Brutus and Clove had told me, there was dancing and mingling before we actually eat. And we don't eat until six. It was currently two in the afternoon. and Clove was in our dorm room so we could all get ready together. I was trying to decide what dress I would wear and I was stuck between my black strapless dress covered in black sequins or my blue dress, with blue sequins across the top and a blue ribbon around my waist.

"Guys, which dress?" I asked them. Clove was currently doing her hair and Luna was drying her hair from the shower she just took. Clove had taken one before she came here and I took one before Luna.

"I say the blue one." Luna says and Clove agrees, I nod and lay it out on the bed while I grab the pair of black heels Clove and I bought.

"Okay so now I need to figure out what I'm going to wear since you're gonna wear the black heels." Clove said looking at all of the dresses she bought and brought over.

"How about the red one? You can still wear the red shoes with it." Luna pointed out.

"True." Clove said, slipping on the shoes and holding the dress up in front of her. "Yeah I'll wear it."

"Great." I said to her and she gave me a small smirk.

"And Spitfire you cannot wear your hair in a braid tonight." she said with a serious look on her face.

"Yeah I know how much you like it but not tonight." Luna agreed.

"Okay so then what should I do with my hair?" I asked them and they got sly smiles on their face. They took my arms and set me down in a chair and went to work on my hair. And after twenty minutes, they had my hair and make-up done. I looked in the mirror in the bathroom and saw it all in curls, not my natural curls but curls curls. My make-up was a white starting by the bridge of my nose and fading to a dark blue to match the color of my dress. I looked pretty.

"What do you think?" Luna asked.

"It's different." I said looking at myself.

"But it's all you. Now come on we have to finish getting ready." Clove exclaimed in slight excitement. We finished getting ready and I was wearing my blue dress, Clove was wearing her red with black floral print dress, and Luna was wearing a white blouse with a long flowing light pink skirt and her own pair of white shoes. I had my hair curled on my shoulders while Clove and Luna had their hair up in a pony tail and curled it. It was three fifty when we head down to the cafeteria, and when we walked through the doors people stopped and stared.

~Cato~

I stood in the cafeteria talking to Kairo and another student I train with Brent. There was music playing for those who choose to dance and tables set up for when it's time to eat. As Kairo made a joke Brent ran his hand through his black hair and I laughed with him. It was almost four and I had yet to see Clove and Spitfire, or her roommate Luna. That is until the door opened and everybody turned to look at them. I looked at them and my smile from laughing turned into a small smile of awe. She looked beautiful, I thought before I could stop myself. Her hair fell in curls around her shoulders, her dark blue dress fit her in all the right places and fell just above her knees, and her heels put her now a couple inches shorter than me.

"Is that Spitfire?" Brent asked. But I just kept staring as she, Clove, and Luna walked into the room and started to mingle with other students. Our eyes followed them.

"I think so." Kairo confirmed.

"I am so asking her to dance." Brent said and before I could stop him he walked over to her. I now glared after him in rage.

"Cato, you okay man?" Kairo asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah I'm fine." I say wiping my hand over my face wiping away the glare into a calmer look.

"Look man, if you like Spitfire then just go talk to her. Don't try to intimidate her or figure her out. Just make conversation." he said as Brent just got rejected by the girl in question and walked back to us with a disappointed look on his face.

"Get rejected man?" I teased and he glared at me.

"Yeah. She said she didn't want to dance and called me a prick." he mumbled and we started laughing at him.

"Why did she call you a prick?" Kairo asked him.

"I don't know." he practically shouted.

"Well what did you say?" I questioned more.

"I just walked up said hi, she said hi back. I asked why a hot little thing like her isn't dancing in the arms of any guy like me and she said maybe because I don't feel like dancing you prick. And I left it at that and walked away."

"Well for one you treated her like a piece of meat." Kairo said.

"Since when did you become the love guru?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Since my brother got married and taken his tips." he said. I chuckled and looked over at Spitfire and saw she will soon be alone as Clove and Luna walk over somewhere being called to by their Trainers. I took that as my chance to go talk to her.

"Watch and learn boys." I say clapping them on their backs and walk over smoothly to where she stands. She doesn't notice me until I am at her side. "Quite the entrance you made." I compliment, slightly shivering at the way it feels as it leaves my mouth. She turns to look at me and gives me a once over with her silvery gray eyes.

"Thanks." she said sounding a little confused.

"You're welcome. So why are you standing here alone?" I asked her and she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Why are you being so nice?"

"Trying something new." I simply reply.

"Trying to figure me out you mean." it wasn't a question that came from her soft pink lips, it was a statement.

"Not tonight." I said to her and she looked at me even more confused. I held out my hand and she raised her eyebrows at it in question. "Come on you deserve to dance with someone who isn't going to try and get in your pants tonight." I said and she let out a chuckle.

"You're not going to try?" she asked in disbelief.

"I maybe be cocky and arrogant and a total jerk sometimes but I'm not that kind of guy." I said with a small but serious smile on my face. She hesitated for a moment before putting her hand in my still outstretched one. I lightly enclosed my hand around hers and lead her out to the dance floor. People watched us and I took her hand in mine, place a hand on her waist, while she put her other hand on my shoulder and we swayed to the music. I couldn't tell if she had danced before or not, but she seemed nervous. When I put my hand on her waist she grimaced a little bit and and it made me remember her bruises from that day on the track.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Just hoping I don't get attacked by your female fan base tomorrow." she said making me look around seeing other girls that would fall at my feet glaring at the two of us. My instinct to pull her to me protectively sprung into my mind but that would only make them even more mad, so I didn't do it.

"That's not what I meant." I said to her and she looked at me perplexed so I explained further. "you had a grimace on you face when I put my hand around you." I said and she nodded.

"Training has left it's mark." she said with a sigh and I nodded. I was the same way when I started my training. I was coming home with bruises and cut a few times a week, my mother wasn't happy that I was taking it so seriously, she never had wanted me to train.

"It gets easier." I whisper to her. She gave a snort and nodded.

"Practice makes perfect right?" she asked sarcastically but I still nodded. When the song ended I reluctantly let her go off to her roommate Luna and they went to get a drink. I walked back to Kairo who was standing alone watching the entire thing.

"Where's Brent?" I asked him.

"He got mad that you succeeded in what he couldn't and went to find someone to dance with." he explained and I nodded. "So what happened on the dance floor?" he asked.

"Nothing much just made small talk."

"You didn't learn anything?"

"Training is taking it's toll on her." I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Well I need a drink." he said and I followed him over to the drinks table, where Spitfire was standing. We stood three or four feet away but I could barely hear what she and Luna were discussing.

"I think he likes you!" Luna whispered loudly and Spitfire scoffed.

"Please why would he? He's got all the other girls in the place." she denied.

"But he chose you to dance with."

"Probably to prove something to his friends."

"Maybe, maybe not. What if you two actually get together? Or what if he asks you out? Are you telling me that is he asks you out on a date you would say no?"

"I don't know what I would do and I doubt that he and I would ever be together, dating someone from another District is so," she paused trying to find the right word. "Unheard of." she finally said. My shoulders slumped slightly at he statement.

"So! My mom is from District three because of an arranged marriage, maybe when he gets older, maybe after he wins the games," she said elbowing Spitfire in the arm with a sly smile. "maybe he'll go for an arranged marriage and pick you. If he wins the games you'd be marrying a Victor." Luna encouraged.

"There is no way I would have an arranged marriage. I'm not sure if I want to get married in the first place." she said taking a sip of her drink.

"Why? You'd have someone there for you and start a family. What a lot of girls want." Luna responded confused.

"I'm never having kids. I will not put them up for the chance of going into the Hunger Games and have to kill anybody." she said defensively. "I will not have that on their conscience." she said then taking another sip of her clear and red drink.

"Okay, okay I get it. But you could still give him a chance."

"If we weren't in training for the games and we lived in the same District, I actually might." she said.

"But?" Luna egged on.

"But we're not so I don't think it's ever going to happen." Spitfire said before Brutus came and spoke to her, pulling her away from her friend and out of my sight. There was a weight on my chest after hearing what all was said between the two of them. Do I like her? Maybe. I'm still not sure of my feelings. I can't have them because I am training for the Games and I am not supposed to have feelings. So I try to push them down and into the back of my mind as much as I can, but a trace still lingers there.