I don't own The Hunger Games.

"I'll see you later. Have fun."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Johanna watched as Finnick Odair kissed Annie Cresta goodbye outside her classroom. Those two were the Brangelina of West Palms High- nothing could, or would, ever come between the two of them. Luckily, that wasn't Johanna's intention.

Positions

She hastily texted the word to Gale as Finnick made his way casually down the corridor, slurping a soda. He didn't have anywhere to be, and classes for juniors and seniors would be cut short for that period so that all upperclassmen could attend the pep rally. He had nowhere to be- or so he thought.

Johanna followed him silently through the school hallways. She knew exactly where he was going- the canteen. The big guy never stopped eating. Gale was waiting along the way.

One corner away.

Her thumbs flew over the screen of her IPhone as she texted Gale. His reply came instantly, confirming that he was in position. Johanna turned the corner seconds after Finnick did. The door to the janitor's closet was open, and Gale was hiding behind it. Johanna pulled her hood up to conceal her face and charged at Finnick, full force. She shoved him into the closet, and Gale slammed the door behind him. The whole process took three seconds flat.

"What the hell? Let me out!" Finnick yelled, pounding on the door.

"Quick!" Gale hissed, struggling against Finnick to keep the door shut. Johanna pulled a padlock out of her hoodie pocket and quickly clipped it into place. Finnick still pounded against the door, but it didn't budge under the industrial strength lock.

"How do you know nobody's gonna let him out?" Gale asked, panting.

"I have the only key, and I slipped some sleeping pills into that diet Coke he was drinking just now. He'll be out like a light in a few minutes. And before you ask, I've tampered with the cheerleaders' wheel." Johanna informed Gale, and they high-fived.

"This is a lot of effort just to get Cato and Clove together, don't you think?" Gale asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She needs this. So does he. I won't let their stubbornness get in the way of their happiness." Johanna shrugged as they walked away from the closet. Finnick's yells were getting quieter, and he was slamming against the door at less frequent intervals.

"You know what Johanna? Sometimes I don't think you're as satanic as your personality suggests."

…

Cato was pretty pumped about the pep rally. It would be starting in fifteen minutes. The art students had made a huge wheel, split up into sections that contained every sports team. The cheerleaders would spin it four times. The first two teams it landed on would nominate two reps, who would work together against the other two teams in a challenge that wasn't known to the students yet. Cato couldn't wait to see what sorts of trouble his friends would get into with this. He unloaded his books into his locker, shut the door, and almost got the fright of his life.

"Jesus Christ!" Cato yelled at the tall, pale blonde girl that had seemed to materialize next to his locker. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Lyme smiled, but it didn't look very warm or inviting.

"Did you miss me?"

"No. No freaking way. I am not having this conversation with you." Cato turned to walk away, but the nightmare followed after him.

"I knew you wouldn't be over me." She said with a satisfied laugh. Cato stopped, sighed, and turned around.

"I am over you. It's why I don't want to talk to you. The months after you left, I imagined this conversation a million times. Now? I just don't care." Cato couldn't really describe how it felt to see Lyme again, almost a year after she had revealed her affair with Gloss and left to have his baby. He had missed her, then hated her and then been sad until he was completely over it.

"Don't you want to know why I'm here?" Lyme asked with that same awful smile. Cato was a little curious, but he would never tell her that. He simply raised an eyebrow.

"I need help. Gloss left me. I have no income now outside of my grandparents. You're my only hope."

Without meaning to, Cato cast his mind back to the Interstate Games. What was it Johanna had said to him? With everything that had gone on since then, he could barely remember.

"You have to promise me that you're over Lyme. If she comes back begging for your help, you have to turn her away. If she calls, you don't pick up. You don't talk to Gloss, you don't look at old pictures. You're not to love her again, because fucking over Clove isn't something you're allowed to do." Johanna said. "Can you do that?

Cato thought back to his relationship with Lyme, the one that he'd probably still be in if she hadn't cheated on him. He thought of the long winter nights, the Indian summer, their days together in the sun.

"Jo, I haven't loved Lyme in a long time. I would turn her away in a heartbeat if Clove asked me to, and even if she didn't." Cato said, and it was the honest truth.

He wasn't with Clove, but the point still stood. Lyme was nothing to him now but a bad memory.

"I'm sorry, Lyme. I can't help you."

She sighed, looking uncomfortable before a few seconds. Then she turned on the charm, plastering a dazzling grin onto her face.

"I missed you, Cato baby."

"Oh, fuck no." This voice didn't come from Cato or Lyme. It came from a certain dark-haired spitfire who was making her way down the hallway.

"Excuse me?" Lyme folded her arms against her chest.

"You don't get to do that." Clove came to a stop beside Cato. "You don't get to use him, cheat on him, have another guy's baby and then just come back and pout like nothing ever happened and you never hurt him."

Cato had never been so happy to see Clove in his life, and that included the time he had nearly fallen from a 27th floor balcony.

"Who the hell are you?" Lyme asked. She clearly hadn't changed from the popular girl that had so desperately wanted to run the West Palms social scene.

"I'm Clove Ashlar, and you are done here."

"I think that's up to Cato and me." Lyme smirked.

"You're done here." Cato said almost instantly.

"Didn't you, like, just give birth? Like a month ago?" Clove's confusion was clear.

"Oh, whatever. I'll be in town for a couple more days, Cato. Call me if you want to hook up, or if you reconsider my situation." Lyme scowled. She turned around and walked away from them, fists clenched and arms shaking furiously.

"I can't thank you enough. She's a soul-sucker." Cato shuddered. He knew she wouldn't like it, but he couldn't help himself- he pulled Clove in for a hug. They held each other in a tight embrace for a long time before Clove pulled back. Even then, Cato could see that she hadn't wanted to. Her feelings for him were there, even if she wouldn't admit it to him.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. Are you okay?" Clove looked genuinely concerned for his wellbeing.

"I'm fine, honestly." Cato checked the time on his watch. "Oh, crap. We have to get to the rally."

He took Clove's hand in his, and they raced down the hallway together.

…

They reached the rally a few minutes before it was due to begin. Cato squeezed Clove's hand before going off to sit with the football team, and Clove made her way over to the girls' soccer team.

"Just in time, cap." Johanna greeted Clove as she sat down on the bleachers in between her and Katniss.

"You're our rep, right?" Katniss confirmed.

"Obviously." Clove snorted. The other two girls rolled their eyes, but they were laughing.

The gym had been prepared for the contest. The colourful wheel was set up just in front of the stands, and beyond that a whole number of obstacles awaited the competitors. The cheerleaders ran out into the gym, and the stands erupted into cheers. A huge banner had been hung across the far wall, reading 'Warriors- Go! Fight! Win!"

"We've got spirit, we've got fight! We've got a team that's full of might!" The cheerleaders cheered as they gathered in their starting positions. Clove spotted Melissa in the middle, a couple of rows behind the co-captains Madge and Annie. They burst into their routine to a fast-paced song, flipping and twisting all over the floor. They ended in an impressive pyramid to the cheers of the upperclassmen.

"Ladies and gentleman, it's spirit week!" Madge yelled into a microphone that she had grabbed from the bleachers once the pyramid dismantled.

"Get pumped!" Annie hollered. She kicked her leg up, bringing her shin in line with her face. A couple of guys catcalled her.

"Like every year, we're going to spin the wheel that the art team have slaved over for the past few weeks. The first two teams for the spinner to land on will send their reps down to work together to run the gauntlet." Madge gestured behind her to the course that they had set up.

"The second two teams will do the same, and West Palms High will have a brutal race between some of their most ferociously competitive classmates!" Annie continued. Everybody cheered again. There was nothing like some cutthroat competition to get everyone going.

"But," Madge spoke into the microphone again. "Let's not forget what spirit week is really about! I'd like to welcome our panel of alumni back to West Palms!"

The whole front row of the bleachers stood and turned to face the cheering crowd. Clove recognized a few people from the smiling, waving alumni. Haymitch Abernathy, Beetee Latier, Cinna and Paylor had graduated years before Clove had arrived in Florida, but their achievements in academics and sports were known by all. There were some younger faces in the mix too, including Lyme, Darius, Octavia and Cressida. Mostly they were West Palms' old athletes, but a few of them were remembered for how seriously smart or creative they had been. Cinna was well on his way to becoming a renowned designer, and Beetee was practically a billionaire due to his inventions.

"Go Warriors!" Cressida yelled.

"Crush Miami this Friday!" Haymitch yelled.

Ah, yes. She had nearly forgotten. The schedule for the season had just so happened to fall so that when school let out at twelve o'clock on Friday for the big game, the Warriors would be facing a foe they had beaten during the Interstate Games. Bryce's team, the Miami State Hornets. It was sure to be quite the smackdown.

"The ladies' soccer team!"

Clove had been so wrapped up in her head that she hadn't even noticed that Madge had spun the wheel, or the suspicious way it had stopped on the guys' baseball team before dropping down to the girls' soccer team.

"That's you! You're the rep!" Katniss practically shoved Clove out of her seat. She made her way down to the gym floor to the cheers of her classmates. Clove had become somewhat of a mini celebrity recently, especially as she was so close to the dreamy Cato Stone and the infamous Johanna Mason.

"Welcome to the floor, Clove Ashlar!" Annie yelled. "Now for your teammate!"

Annie stepped towards the wheel and gave it a huge spin. It stopped on the cheerleading squad's section, before dropping down three segments to the football team.

"Our rep isn't here!" Somebody from the football team yelled. Finnick, their elected rep, had been a no-show.

"Cato! Cato! Cato!" The football team started to chant, and the rest of the crowd joined in until he reluctantly stood up.

"I'm captain. I'll do it." He announced. "Besides, I can't leave Clo hanging."

Cato joined her on the gym floor. Clove couldn't stop the flutter in her stomach at how close he was stood. She liked him, a lot. It sucked.

The wheel was spun twice more. Cato and Clove would be competing against Marvel and Melissa, after Madge suspiciously announced that she would not be the rep for the squad. Clove didn't really care. She was in the zone.

"The rules are simple! You had to collect as many as the black ties as possible. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you run the gauntlet in the appropriate order. No violence, but don't be afraid to play dirty and get creative!" Annie told them the rules. Madge raised a gun above her head, and fired a blank to signalize the start of the race.

For the first part of the race, each couple had to have their legs tied to one another. Once they had run the length, they could remove the black tie and pocket it. Clove ended up with her right leg attached to Cato's left. The height difference made it incredibly difficult to run quickly.

"Trust me?" Cato asked her with a grin.

"Always."

He picked her up, holding her so that she was only a few inches from the ground. It was all that was necessary for Cato to run the rest of distance and reach the next station slightly ahead of Missy and Marvel. For the next part, they had to swing on a rope from one crate to another. The only problem was, the rope was just out of their reach.

"I'm going to throw you." Cato declared, tearing the tie from their legs. He pocketed it quickly.

"What? Cato, no-"

"Get ready!" Cato picked Clove up again and heaved her towards the rope. Clove flung a hand out at the last minute, grabbing the rope. She swung across, watching Melissa out of her peripherals as she did the same. After removing the black tie around the rope, Clove threw the rope back across at Cato, who grabbed it before it could fly back. He swung across with ease at the same time as Marvel did.

"You're going down, Diamond!" Cato yelled as they raced to the next station.

"Is that a challenge, Stone?!" Marvel shouted back. Clove was glad for all her fitness training, because she would have been struggling by that point without it. The next station was a unicycle.

"Jump on my back."

Clove did as he said. She didn't realise this challenge would require her to be so close to Cato, but she wasn't complaining. She only felt a little guilty, knowing that Melissa was only opposite her. Cato cycled them across, but it was difficult. They grabbed the tie after Missy and Marvel had.

The gym was used for basketball games, and had hoops that retracted from the ceilings. They were suspended halfway to the ceiling, with a black tie dangling a few feet out of Cato's impressive reach.

"Quick." Clove said. She had seen Marvel toss Melissa, a flyer by trade, in the air. She had grabbed the tie, done a backflip, and landed safely in Marvel's arms.

Cato seemed to know what Clove was going to do even before she did. He knelt down so that she could stand on his shoulders. She felt his strong hands around her ankles, and knew that he wouldn't drop her in a million years. She grabbed the tie and they sprinted towards the next station.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Clove was panting heavily by the time they reached the next station- a ball pool.

"That ties gonna be in there somewhere, princess." Cato flashed her a grin before diving into the pool. Clove was briefly aware of the students chanting 'Clato! Clato!' as she dived in after him.

She couldn't see anything another than a blur of colours as they searched for the tie, covering half of the ball pool each. Completely submerged in the small pool, Clove felt her and Cato's limbs tangle as they hunted for the tie. He ended up on top of her, but she couldn't see. She could only feel all the places his skin touched hers. She rolled away before she could get too carried it away.

Clove spotted the tie and made a grab for it.

"Got it!" She yelled when she returned to the surface, spraying brightly coloured plastic balls everywhere.

They reached the final challenge ahead of Marvel and Missy, who had struggled in the ball pool for seconds longer than Cato and Clove. There was only one tie for them to compete for this time, not one for each couple. There were two pies on a table, and Madge was holding the final tie a few metres away from them.

"What the hell?"

"In the face! In the face!" The crowd's chants made it pretty obvious what they were meant to do.

They had spent too much time being confused, and their competitors were on them. Marvel and Missy reached the pies as Cato picked one up. Clove knew what she had to do to avoid a foot race. She ran off before Cato could offer her the pie.

"Go long!" Clove yelled, coming to a stop next to Madge. Missy had thrust the pie into Marvel's face. She was getting ready to run.

She was running.

Cato threw the pie like a football.

Melissa was halfway there.

The pie spiralled through the air.

Melissa reached Madge.

The pie struck Clove in the face and she turned, snatching the tie from Madge's hand milliseconds before Missy could reach it.

"Champions!" Madge took Clove's hand and raised into the air. She did the same with Cato's once he had joined her.

"You should have pied me. You're fast." Cato laughed. He wiped some of the pie away from Clove's check as she laughed with him.

"Melissa has longer arms than me. It had to go this way." Clove shrugged like it was nothing. And really, it wasn't. Spirit week was designed to pump up the students, and if getting a pie thrown into her face by the school quarterback had done that, then she was happy.

"Well," Cato dropped his voice to a whisper. "You still look hot, even covered in banana cream pie."

"Hey, West Palms!" Melissa had taken the microphone from Madge. "Don't forget to come out to the big bonfire tonight at the beach! And make sure you bring this pep to the girls' soccer team state final tomorrow evening right here at West Palms High!"

Melissa offered her the microphone to say a few words, seeing as she was captain.

"Sup West Palms?" Clove hollered into the microphone. The crowd cheered in response, thoroughly pumped up.

"We're going to smash it tomorrow, so be there or miss the game of a lifetime!" Clove whooped, and the crowd whooped back. She was confident in her words.

Come tomorrow, they were going to smash that state final straight off the soccer field.