I don't own The Hunger Games.

"You have to choose."

"No, I don't."

"Yes you do! It's the rule!" Missy prodded Marvel in the shoulder and mock-frowned at him.

"But it's a stupid question!" Marvel whined, playfully prodding her back.

"I don't care." Missy laughed and brushed his hand away. "Pick. Peeta and Finnick. Who would you, if you had to?"

"Fine. Finnick. Obviously Finnick." Marvel sighed. Melissa laughed again, and Marvel admired the way it lit her eyes up.

"Good choice."

"Now it's your turn. Johanna or Katniss. If you had to." Marvel smirked back at her.

"Obviously Johanna." Missy shrugged.

"I'll tell her you said so." Marvel winked at Melissa, who laughed so hard she snorted.

"Hydration break's over; I have to get back to practice." She said when she'd stopped laughing. "I'll catch you in a bit, Marv."

"Yeah." Marvel watched as she ran off to join her team and sighed. "In a bit."

…

The locker room after West Palms' game that evening was pretty electric. They had narrowly defeated on of their biggest rivals despite being behind for most of the game. Cato had passed for four three touchdowns and ran one through himself. Everybody was congratulating him, patting him on the pack and cheering for him.

He sat on the bench with his helmet at his feet, running a hand through his hair as he stared at the ground. The team was celebrating around him, but Cato barely took it in.

"Lighten up, man!" Finnick yelled, clapping him on the shoulder. "We won!"

"Yeah." Cato grinned at him, but it wasn't real. "West Palms baby!"

"Melissa's waiting for you at the after party, Stone." Thresh, one of the biggest linebackers in the state, smirked at him and scrubbed his knuckles over Cato's skull."

"Stone! Get out here!" Coach Brutus had stuck his head through the door and was pointing a long finger at Cato.

"Uh, coming coach!" He answered. There were only two reasons Coach Brutus called you out like that- you were in trouble, or you were off the team.

"Hey." Cato said as he pushed the door open. He was still wearing all of his football gear, minus the helmet. In front of him, Brutus stood with a tall man with dark hair and glasses, decked out in an expensive looking suit.

"Cato, this is William Brooks. He's a recruiter for the University of Southern California."

"Mr Stone. A pleasure." He stuck out his hand, and Cato shook it firmly.

"No, the pleasure's mine." Cato smiled at him, instantly turning on the charms. He'd been waiting for this, for a recruiter to come knocking on his door.

"I'm in the area for a weeks on business. I travel around a lot, spotting potential future players for USC. I'm not making any promises, but you look like the ideal candidate to be a Trojan." Brooks smiled back at Cato, who was doing a good job of containing his excitement.

"I've told Mr Brooks about your extensive training sessions and professionalism. He knows that your grades are looking good. Except…"

"Physics." Cato sighed. It was the one subject that had been giving him trouble since the moment he first started lessons in it. His overall grade average was a solid B+, but his physics grade hadn't been upped from a D- since sophomore year.

"Exactly." Brooks stepped in. "Now, you may be interested in attending USC on scholarship. You may be weighing up your options. Every college you apply to is going to want the same thing- at least a C in every subject."

"I've assigned you a tutor." Brutus continued. "She's only a junior, but she's been acing physics since her very first term here at West Palms. Her name is Clove Ashlar- do you know her?"

"Uh, yeah." Cato rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Kinda."

…

Johanna Mason was bored. Completely, sincerely, wholeheartedly bored. It had been more than two weeks since the Inter-State Games and pretty much nothing interesting had happened. Cato and Clove's drama had interested her for a while, but now that the rest of the school were hedging bets on what would happen, it had grown boring. Rumours were spreading like wildfire about Finnick and Annie. Apparently they were engaged and moving to Colorado next month. Johanna wasn't sure who the hell came up with that one, but at least it had made her laugh. Aside from that and some four day old BS about Katniss secretly being in the CIA, the West Palm rumour mill was pretty subdued.

"Mason." Gale Hawthorne nodded to her in greeting as he slid onto the picnic bench so that he was facing her.

"Hawthorne." Johanna winked at him. They were sat on one of West Palm's picnic benches in the quad area. It was eleven o'clock and pretty cold, so Johanna was wrapped up in her autumn coat and a pair of black velvet clothes. Gale wore a long-sleeved West Palms basketball jersey underneath his unzipped Miami Dolphins sweater. His left wrist was bandaged, having sustained a minor injury the week before. He was ruled out of all sport for another few weeks, making him pretty unbearable.

"Why'd you call me here?" Gale asked, dropping his backpack on the floor. Johanna leaned forwards and smirked at him.

"Maybe I just wanted to see you."

"Down, Johanna." Gale raised a weary eyebrow. "You know I'm with Madge."

"Aw. You're just no fun anymore." Johanna pulled back. "You used to be."

"Are we going to talk about the past or are you going to tell me why you wanted to meet?" Gale sighed, fiddling with the fold on his bandage.

"Jesus Gale, would you lighten up?" Johanna rolled her eyes. "I have an idea. It's something I think you'll be very interested in."

"Jo, we're not going to-"

"That's not even remotely what I was implying, Gale." She snapped.

"Oh."

"You're bored, right? You're injured. The daily joys and pleasures of the lives we live have ground to a halt. Right?" Johanna asked. She pulled an apple from her bag and bit into, perfectly mastering an innocent look as she did so.

"Right…Where are you going with this?" Gale seemed sceptical, but Johanna knew that he would be on board with her plan.

"We're both bored, Hawthorne. I wake up. I run. I go to school. I get fucking stalked by Brianna Meyers, who brings me kale and blueberry protein shakes every morning. I train, I work, I train, I work. It's boring! Nothing interesting is happening! I know it's the same for you. You wake up. You hit the gym. You got to school. Basketball. Football. Basketball. Football. Boring."

Gale looked at Johanna for a while, appearing to be lost in thought.

"You're right. Life's been a little lacklustre since the excitement of the Games." Gale nodded in agreement after a while.

"Exactly!" Johanna grinned wickedly at Gale. "That's why I have a plan."

"A plan?" This time it was Gale that leaned forward.

"A plan." Johanna followed suit, leaning forward so that they were only a few inches apart. "West Palms is boring me. Cato and Clove. Missy and Marvel. We're going to get those fuckers together."