I don't own The Hunger Games.

Cato

"Breathe that in deep, my friend. This is my domain, and it is good to be back."

Finnick spread his arms out and inhaled deeply. His eyes were shut tight and the people milling around in the hallway gave him a wide berth, though that might have been because he was 'OMG, Finnick Odair!' as the girls called him, before they suddenly grew shy and avoided eye contact.

"Fuck you." Johanna retorted. She was such a happy, bubbly ray of sunshine in the mornings. "This is hell."

Cato found West Palms High to be a little…tiring at times. Every high school had their popular students, but West Palms always seemed to take that to the next level. He would be followed around the building, shadowed during his lunch breaks and could never seem to get more than five minutes to himself. At least when he was with his friends, random students that he had never spoken to before didn't come up to him and start talking about his favourite sports teams and dietary requirements.

"It could be worse." Katniss helpfully reminded her. "You could have already been here for three and half weeks."

After the glare Johanna sent her, Katniss didn't say much else on the matter.

It was an unusually cold morning, like the weather wanted to reflect the mood of half the senior class. Nobody was ever happy when the Inter-State Games ended, especially when it was their last one. The party on the last night had been insane and when the time came to check out of the hotel the next morning, there had been a few tears shed by some.

The morning of the girls' soccer game, Cato and Melissa had become official. It was the talk of the school, how she had boldly asked him out and how he had said yes straight away- although, that part wasn't exactly true. He had stared at her for a solid twenty seconds before panicking and saying yes. Missy's admission into their tight inner circle would not soon be forgotten.

"Who has art with Mr Leroy first thing?"

"I've got AP calc."

"Sorry, I've got music."

"I have a free."

As they compared their schedules, Cato considered ditching. He wasn't in a good mind set, and he couldn't handle the prying eyes and the whispers of his classmates as they tried to figure out exactly what went down in Miami.

The entrance door flew open, and the group turned as one to face the almost-late comer. Clove strode through the door, her black coat billowing out behind her in the wind. Her hair was loose, which it rarely was, and instead of looking eternally pissed off she looked…Regal. She smiled graciously at Cato and nodded to him in greeting. She whispered something in Johanna's ear, who rolled her eyes and followed Clove down the corridor. Johanna Mason, who never followed anyone anywhere.

"Cato? Cato, have you heard a word I've said to you?"

He officially deemed himself a terrible boyfriend, as he hadn't even realised that Missy had been stood next to him for the last five minutes. He tried to push the thought of Clove from his mind- she had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want him to be a part of her life, and Melissa was a nice girl.

"Sorry. I'm listening now, I promise." He assured her, and showed off a winning smile.

"Good." She went on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. "I was just saying that I have cheer practice tonight. Walk me to class?"

…

Marvel was at a complete and utter loss. He was practically pulling his hair out at the sight of Cato and Missy- though not quite, because that might have been a little obvious. He had been in love with Melissa since the very first few times they had talked and watching her fawn over Cato for years had hurt. Marvel never thought that Cato would actually show any interest in her, she wasn't his type. But now…Here they were. They were together. She was the one that had finally pulled Cato out of his rut since Lyme, the one that Marvel had unknowingly been advising Cato about during the Games.

And to be perfectly honest? Marvel didn't blame Cato at all.

…

"I can't believe I'm doing this in my free period." Johanna grumbled as she pressed the 'print' button on one of the library's computers.

"Stop complaining." Clove instructed her brightly as she gathered up the printing flyers.

"Oh no. No, you didn't just go there. You're like the freaking queen of complaining, Clove." Johanna grumbled as she printed out the final flyer.

"If we don't advertise for soccer try-outs then nobody will show up." Clove smiled at her.

Johanna wasn't stupid. Something about Clove had changed, and not in the way that she had been expecting. After Cato and Missy's big reveal, Johanna and expected to put up with Clove being even more snarky, rude and cold than usual. But this was like an all-new Clove. She was bright, smiling, somewhat positive, and she had an air of control around her, like somebody had made her a queen overnight. Whatever had happened in the weekend after the Games, it had made Clove completely different. Johanna wasn't really sure what to think about it.

"We just won the Inter-State Games. People are going to be queuing up to join our team!" She protested as Clove all but dragged her out of the library.

"We don't know that." Clove simply shrugged and grabbed a stapler on her way out to toss to Johanna.

"Um, yes. We do." Johanna snorted.

"Well then, by attracting an even larger crowd we'll be able to weed out the brilliant from the brilliantly average."

"You have high standards, Captain Clove." Johanna stapled the poster that her teammate was holding in place to the wall.

"We can afford to, Jo. We've got one hell of a season coming up. We need to be prepared, and that means adding new great players to an already killer team. I'm not expecting them to be perfect, but I want them to be as close to it as possible." She explained as they journeyed through the school the staple up the posters.

"Who are you and what have you done with Clove?" Johanna asked, but the girl only rolled her eyes.

"I'm still here. It's weird, though. People kept looking at me earlier and in the halls before classes started, and I don't know why." Clove frowned as they pinned up their tenth poster.

"Ah, Clove." Johanna didn't know whether to laugh or sigh. "You know the way people go crazy for Finnick, or Glimmer, or Gale? Pre- Games, you and I were friends. Post-Games, you're one of the group. They're going crazy for you too."

"That's weird. They don't even know me." Clove's confused frown was nothing on the intense scowl she would have been wearing not even a week ago.

"Not yet. But they'll do their research. How else would Brianna Meyers have known exactly what I put in my protein shakes? Or the size of training boots compared to my everyday shoe size? Or what I ate for breakfast two weeks ago, when she wasn't even in Miami? It's weird and it takes some getting used to, but it's not bad." Johanna explained as they neared the end of their flyer trip.

"Why do they treat you like celebrities? You're exactly the same as them." Clove raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I don't know. It's always been like this. Maybe because we've always been a tight-knit group, and that's intriguing? Or maybe it's because we're so attractive?"

Clove was quick to silence Johanna with a quick, sharp elbow to the gut.

"There's the Clove I know and don't love." Johanna rasped.

"I'm not different." Clove insisted. It didn't take a genius to see that she completely was, and it definitely didn't take one to figure out why.