Chapter Five: A Scare

Throwing spears quickly becomes boring, for me, anyway. Cato seems to love it. Of course, I'm decent at this – Brutus trained me in every weapon available to us. But the spears are so heavy, and after about half an hour I'm ready to move on.

"Where next, then?" Cato asks. I grin, and we head over to the knives.

The only other tribute at this station is the girl from Nine, and she's awful. She's aiming for a dummy about twenty feet away, and can't even get a solid stick.

"Want some help?" I say sweetly. The girl nods, looking relieved, and I pick up a knife. "Here, let me show you." I fling the blade at the dummy, and it sticks right in its forehead.

The girl stares for a moment; then she scurries away, clearly frightened. Cato cracks up.

"That was great," he laughs. "Did you see the look on her face?"

I laugh, too. "Yeah. The tributes from Nine are always pathetic."

Cato smirks at me. "Okay, well, let's see what you've got."

I raise an eyebrow in disbelief. "Um, hello? Did you not see what just happened here?"

He rolls his eyes. "Of course I did, Clove! But I'm sure you can do better than that."

I suppose he has a point. I pick up a short, very sharp blade and look around for an acceptable target – everything is so close! Then I spot the girl I just scared off over at the rock wall. She's clearly an okay climber, since she's already gotten halfway up the wall in the short time since she ran from me. But right now she's just hanging there, unable to reach the next foothold.

I think I'll help her out.

I judge the distance – she's about forty feet away. It's far, but I've been using knives since I could talk – it's within my range.

"Need some help again, sweetheart?" I call out to the girl. The tributes from Twelve look up at something I've said. I smile smugly at them, anticipating their reactions. I turn back to the rock wall – the girl from Nine is staring at me fearfully.

Taking a half step forward, I fling the knife toward my target. I'm not actually aiming for the girl, of course – it's against the rules, and I don't want to risk disqualification. No, the blade buries itself in the wall, halfway between the foothold the girl was reaching for and the one she's grasping now. Just as I knew it would, of course.

It's one of my best throws in years – the blade isn't visible at all, just the hilt. I wink at the girl, who's still staring at me, petrified. Grinning, I toss my hair back behind my shoulders, readjust my headband, and turn back to the other knives.

Cato, who I've all but forgotten about, nudges me. "Look at Twelve!" he hisses.

I look over at Fire Girl and Lover Boy – they're at the camouflage station. Fire Girl is staring at me with wide eyes – as she should be. Lover Boy looks scared, too – but he's looking at her.

"What the hell?" I whisper to Cato.

He shrugs at me. "I dunno, do I? Looks like he wasn't faking at the opening ceremonies, though, don't you think?"

I scowl and stalk over to another target, taking as many knives as I can carry with me. The target is relatively simple – it's just a larger version of a dartboard. I picture Fire Girl's face on the center of the board, and hitting the bulls-eye is effortless every time.

I'm aware that several tributes are watching me, and that makes it even more important that I never miss. And I don't, of course. But after a while it gets a little repetitive, so I turn to Cato.

"Want to try?"

He grins and picks up a large, serrated blade. Then he walks back to the dummies and aims for one that's maybe fifteen feet away. The knife doesn't stick, but it does slice open a large portion of the dummy's chest. It would be a fatal wound.

I'm pleased to see that Cato, though adequate with knives, isn't nearly as skilled as I am. As if reading my mind, he turns to me. "Save it – you're better at this. But I could take you with anything else!"

I roll my eyes. "You're on."

For a few hours, we try to go to every station with weapons. At least, that's the original plan – but we figure out pretty quickly that it takes too long for us to determine a winner with every skill. This will probably take the rest of today and a good portion of tomorrow.

So far Cato has beaten me with maces, archery, and, of course, spears. However, I'm the champion when it comes to axes and knives – and I'm about to win at the machete station.

"Fine!" he huffs. "You win at this."

I smirk. "Of course I do!"

His eyes narrow in mock (?) hatred. "Watch it, Flair," he warns playfully.

I feign innocence. "Well, I'm sorry, Vripah, but there's no use pretending. I'm only telling you what you already know!"

To be honest, I'm really surprised at how well Cato and I have been getting along. I mean, I always thought he was mad, but he's surprisingly… not. It's really easy to just talk to him, joke around a bit, and not be uncomfortable. I feel like, if we were anywhere else but here, we could be friends.

And that scares the hell out of me.

I bite my lip, uncertain. I know it's a bad idea to become close to Cato at all. Because we can't be friends. Not here. Anywhere else, absolutely. But not here, where in the next few weeks one of us is going to die.

Our conversation is interrupted when we're told that it's time for lunch. We immediately look around for our allies, and we all grab a table when we find them.

Naturally, one of the simplest ways to intimidate other tributes is to build a large alliance and show it off. Of course, Career tributes have been using this strategy since the Games began. Cato, Glimmer, Marvel, Shell, Zen, and I should be great at this.

"So, what do you think of everybody, now that we've gotten to see them up close?" I ask Glimmer.

"They're all pathetic," she snorts. We all laugh loudly. The other tributes – who are, for the most part, sitting alone – glance up briefly, then swiftly look away. It's nice to know they're already scared of us.

"Nice stunt with the knife earlier, by the way," Marvel compliments me.

Shell snickers. "For a second there, I actually thought it was going to hit her! Too bad that's against the rules," she sighs.

Zen nods. "Yeah, it's a shame," he says. Then he adds loudly, "Then again, they'll all be gone within a day or two. There may not even be a point in us forming an alliance at all!"

We all laugh again, but this time it's forced. That's not a smart this to say to your allies – like, at all – even if it is effective in scaring the other tributes. Still, I decide that Zen isn't my favorite ally by a long shot.

Cato seems to be thinking along those lines as well. "Watch it," he says, so quietly that at first I doubt that Zen even heard him. But then Zen looks up, and the expression on his face is terrifying.

The rest of lunch is pretty awkward. Sure, we act as if nothing ever happened, so we don't raise suspicion – but there's tension. I notice that Cato keeps shooting Zen death glares when he thinks that no one is looking.

Lunch ends after about half an hour. I'm grateful, but then again, it might be a bad idea for me to be around Cato any more today. Then I have an idea.

"Cato, we need to split up," I whisper almost silently. "I don't like having Zen and Shell together. It seems like they might be planning something."

This, of course, immediately puts him on the defensive. "They better not be!" he hisses.

"No worries, I have a plan," I tell him. Then in a louder voice, I say, "Girls, come with me. We're going to separate from them for a bit."

Cato nods. "Marvel, Zen, with me."

After they've gone, I grin to myself. That, I must say, was a pretty brilliant move on my part. This way, I can stay away from Cato for a couple of hours – just so I can clear my head – and he still thinks he knows everything.

I turn to Glimmer and Shell and decide to act a little bit. "Thank you so much for agreeing to this," I groan. "He was driving me crazy!"

Glimmer rolls her eyes. "No worries," she says. "Marvel's an idiot, too, so I was actually pretty happy when you said we were splitting up."

"And Zen's an overprotective fool, of course. It's good to get away from him," Shell scoffs.

That surprises me. I wouldn't have guessed Zen had any sort of protective side.

"What do you mean?" I ask curiously.

Shell sighs. "Why don't we go over to the edible plants station, and I'll tell you there. Zen wouldn't go earlier, he only wanted to try out all the weapons."

Glimmer and I quickly agree, and when we arrive, Shell sighs again. "See, Zen is technically my cousin. Our mothers were sisters, but his parents both drowned when he was really little, before I was born, I think. Anyway, he got sent to District Four's orphanage, but we see him every now and then. And for some reason he feels like he needs to protect me here, and I don't understand why. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!"

I just look at her, stunned. Zen and Shell are cousins? That's odd. I think back to when we first met the District Four tributes, and Shell was irritated with Zen when he tried to speak for her. It makes sense.

Then again, it's odd that Shell would reveal so much. Maybe she was too fed up and needed to vent a bit? Or did she make the whole thing up?

I stifle a groan, with a bit of difficulty. That'd be just great, because Zen would have to be in on it too. And if they thought they needed to pretend they were cousins, they're almost certainly planning something.

Yeah. That's just great.

I look over at my allies. Shell seems to love this edible plant stuff, not that I can see why. Glimmer just looks bored.

I have to take Glimmer's side on this. I honestly try to pay attention, but everything the trainer tells me just goes in one ear and out the other. Good thing Shell will be with us in the arena, she can be in charge of this stuff.

Finally, we get through all the plants and get to move on. "Where do you want to go next?" I ask.

Glimmer shrugs. "How about we go tie some knots?"

Shell and I are fine with that, so we head over to the knot tying station.

It's always irritating to find out that I'm not good at something, but I really suck at this. I peek over at Shell and Glimmer. It's obvious that Shell's great at this, because she already has a large pile of different knots. Glimmer is okay, she's successfully made a trap that leaves someone dangling by his or her ankle. But I'm struggling to make a simple noose.

I turn back to the rope for a few minutes, but I simply can't get the hang of this. As I throw it down in frustration, I hear someone sigh next to me.

It's Shell. She grabs the incomplete noose and works on it for all of ten seconds, and then it's finished.

I look at her in awe. "How are you so good at this? Did you learn in District Four?"

Shell surprises me by looking a bit… sad. "FinnickOdairismyuncle," she mutters quickly.

Fantastic.

This just gets better and better. One of my opponents – no, two, because Zen must be also – two of my opponents are related to Finnick Odair. The famous victor surely trained them for this… yeah, this is not good.

But the worst part is that now I have to tell Cato everything.

The rest of training drags. I keep glancing over at Cato – he, Marvel, and Zen are back at the machete station. I'm actually having a decent time with Glimmer and Shell, but Cato needs to know what I've learned. Immediately.

Ugh, but I wish that wasn't necessary! Because of course I can't trust him. But for now, we're on the same team. Sort of.

When training ends – finally – I march straight over to Cato. Grabbing one of his arms, I drag him onto the elevator without a word. It's not until we're safely back on District Two's floor that I take a deep breath and say, "We have a problem."

He scowls. "Yeah, we do. Zen is a little son of a –"

"Not him!" I say impatiently. "I mean, yeah him, but it's Shell, too." I quickly repeat what Shell told me, about Zen being her cousin. "And we were at the knot tying station, and she was really good, so I asked if she had learned it in District Four or something. And she said Finnick Odair is her uncle," I moan. "And if everything she's said is true, that means Zen is related to him, too. We're dead," I finish despairingly.

Cato stares at me, stunned. Then his eyes narrow into menacing slits. "They didn't mention anything about that at the reaping! What the hell?"

I shake my head. "I don't know! Maybe we should go talk to Yoh and Enobaria…"

He nods. "Probably. Yoh's a total moron, but Enobaria should know what to do."

We find our mentors in the dining room, waiting for us. As fast as we can, we tell them about everything Shell had said. When we finish, I collapse into a chair next to Enobaria. Cato remains standing.

"Okay, first thing: calm down," Enobaria commands us. For the next few minutes, she doesn't speak. Then she says, "All right. You said that Zen's mother was Shell's mother's sister, right?" I nod. "Good. So Finnick Odair must be the younger brother of either Shell's mother or Shell's father. We know her mother had a sister, but it's possible that she was her only sibling. If that's the case, Finnick is her father's brother, and that would mean that Zen isn't blood-related to Finnick at all."

I blink rapidly. "Um… I'm confused."

Cato looks a little dazed. "Can you say that again… more slowly this time?"

Yoh coughs. "Er, Enobaria?" he says tentatively.

"What?" she snaps.

Yoh coughs again. "Finnick Odair cannot be the younger brother of Shell's father. If he were, Shell's father's last name would also be Odair, and so would Shell's. But it's not. So Finnick must be Shell's uncle on her mother's side, which means that Zen is indeed blood-related to Finnick Odair."

I look at Yoh with wide eyes. Damn.

Biting my lip, I look at Cato. He looks as worried as I feel. He's staring at his mentor, as if willing him to take the words back, to make them untrue.

Mentor.

DAMN.

I start to hyperventilate. Enobaria looks at me, concerned. "Clove? Are you all right?"

"No," I manage to choke out. "OhmyGodhe'sthey'rementor. We're dead."

Enobaria looks at me, irritated. "Of course he's they're mentor. He takes the job every year, I would know!"

I shake my head violently. "No! Don't you see? I know every mentor wants to bring their tributes back, but he'll have a legitimate reason this year, something besides the fact that they're from the same district!" I'm a little hysterical at this point. "He'll work even harder to make sure either his niece or nephew gets home! We're dead!"

I meet Cato's gaze, and I can tell he knows it too.

Enobaria slams her hand on the table. "ENOUGH! I'm very disappointed in both of you! For one thing, you should know better than to fall for something like this! First of all, do either Shell or Zen bear ANY resemblance to Finnick Odair whatsoever? No! Do you really think that you wouldn't have heard about it if two relatives of Finnick Odair were in the Hunger Games in the same year? Don't you think I would have told you? I'm your mentor, and I would have done – will do – just as much as Finnick ever could to bring my tributes home. How can you not know that? I'm very good at my job. I needed to know how well you could handle both pressure and the chance that someone could pose a threat to you! And guess what? I'm not pleased with the answer I got. You're Careers, dammit! You need to start acting like it!"

I stare at her. What? She made this all up? But then, she must have set it up with Finnick himself, for Shell and Zen to go along with it…

This was a test. And we just failed it.

"How – how did you get Finnick to go along with this?" Cato asks in a strained voice. His face is white.

Enobaria scowls at us. "He thought it would benefit his tributes more than it would benefit you. He thought that it would give Shell and Zen an advantage over you, if you were even temporarily scared or uncertain of them. Clearly, he was right!"

I shake my head slowly back and forth. What's wrong with me? Somehow, I've gone from a vicious Career tribute to a frightened little girl who expects her mentor to solve her problems. How did this happen?

I'm absolutely horrified with myself. I don't understand what's going on. I was having a great training session – competing with Cato was a great way to push myself to levels I've never reached with some weapons. And then a little thing like this gets in the way? Maybe I'm stressed? Overworked? I don't know. We've only been here for a couple of days!

Enobaria is still glaring at us both, and Yoh is looking stern. Was he in on this? It seems like it, but I'm surprised that Enobaria told him. She must be obligated to, since they work together… and this was kind of a big deal…

I want to bury my face in my hands. This is unbelievable.

Suddenly I notice that I'm standing, and everyone else is looking at me. And I realize that I need to get away from them. Or I might lose my mind.

"I'm going to bed," I say in a strangled voice.

Yoh looks at me, concerned. "Don't you want any dinner? And the stylists will be here soon, don't you want to see them?"

I shake my head vehemently. "No. I'm really tired, I need to go to sleep. And I'm not hungry. I'll have a big breakfast tomorrow."

Enobaria scowls. "Fine. Go to bed. See you in the morning."

I somehow find my way to my room. I don't know how – I'm pretty disoriented. When I've closed the door, I fall onto my bed and scream into the pillow for a solid ten minutes. I have a lot to get out.

This is not how Careers act. And I am a Career, so I need to change. It's as simple as that. I'm not going to win – that thought is horrifying! – if I keep going on like this. From now on, I'm going to be completely focused.

I groan. Somehow, that seems… hard. Because something in me changed today, and not for the better. And I can't seem to figure out what.

So, here's the first day of training... it's my longest chapter so far, I hope you like it. (: Please, please review! It doesn't matter if it's only two words. I haven't been getting a lot of reviews lately, but they make my day so much better!

~What the Quell