I spend the morning hours practicing with the various swords, allowing all the pent up emotions of the last few days to slowly seep out from my pores. Before I know it, Leyla is by my side, handing me a towel and telling me it's time for lunch.
"I'm not hungry," I whine, attempting to slide around her and to the spear throwing station. I know I had to face Katniss soon, and despite being excited to speak to her again, I was also dreading it.
"Too bad, princess," she sneers, sticking her foot out so I almost trip. "They won't let you stay in here. Besides, aren't you supposed to talk to your girlfriend?"
"You can talk to her for me?" I suggest, not really wanting to make a fool of myself again. "She likes you better, anyways."
"Yeah, because I'm fucking awesome and you're weird…but no. Man up and talk to her yourself, Cato. I'm horrified that you even suggest such a thing. What happened to the Confident Cato that I saw this morning?" she demands, kicking me in the leg for good measure. Why did I surround myself with such aggressive girls? I hope Katniss doesn't try to beat me up…though that might be kind of hot. Ugh, not the time to think about this kind of stuff right now, I scold myself.
"You're right, she'll love me. What should I say to her, though?" I ask, debating on what I should say when she asks about my bruise. On one hand, admitting that Clove kicked me is super embarrassing, but she'd probably think I'm a vicious loser who attacks helpless people if I told her I got in from another tribute. Maybe I'll say Thresh did it? He's huge but doesn't seem like the confrontational type. Bah, I don't know, maybe I'll just tell her that I fell in the shower. Then, at least, she might picture me naked.
"Don't know, don't care. Be yourself, just less creepy."
"Easier said than done, my dear," I laugh loudly, causing her to giggle.
"What's so funny?" a voice behind us asks, and I freeze, unsure of how to respond.
Leyla casually stomps on my foot, shaking me from my stupor. I turn around to talk to Katniss who is looking back at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing much," I say, as I move to scratch the back of my head. "Leyla here is just quite the jokester."
Even before I finish, I die a little inside. Who says jokester, anymore? Shit, was that ever a cool word? I doubted it.
"Oh, stop, Cato," Leyla snickers as she moves to stand slightly behind Katniss. "It's easy to be funny when you give me so much material to work with."
Katniss smiles and I feel myself instantly relaxing. I could do this.
"You were pretty impressive this morning," she remarks, glancing towards the sword station.
"You noticed?" I ask, feeling smug that she paid attention to me and not the stupid baker from her District.
"You were kind of hard to miss," she responds. "I think everyone was mesmerized at some point… even Peeta, but don't tell him I told you that."
Of course Bread Boy would be impressed, I think to myself. Even he is intelligent enough to know talent when he sees it.
"Your secret is safe with me, Fire Girl," I remark, giving her a small smile.
Suddenly a loud noise interrupts our conversation, and I cringe when I realize it is my stomach grumbling.
"Not hungry, aye?" Leyla mocks, sticking her tongue out at me from her safe location behind Katniss.
"My body isn't used to not having dessert," I concede, gently patting my stomach so it shuts the fuck up.
"Why do the lower Districts not get dessert?" Katniss inquires, as we make our way towards the cafeteria located on the side of the gym.
I vaguely notice that we're the only tributes left in the Training area, and a few the station masters are giving us odd looks. I pick up Leyla once more and swing her on to my back just in case they decide to try anything funny.
"It's a conspiracy," I whisper darkly, trying not to smirk when she gasps in mock horror. "The Gamemakers want to deprive all the girls of their usual chocolate intake so they become even more insane when they are tossed into the Arena."
She nods, "That makes sense. What a horrible disadvantage that must place you in."
"Us males, we manage," I point out. "Because no amount of chocolate deprivation can make us that crazy since we are most definitely the superior gender."
"Oh, yes, obviously that must be the case," she laughs before giving a discreet nod to the red-headed Avox waiting patiently by the cafeteria door.
"Wait," I warn, before Katniss steps inside. "Be careful of Clove."
"Oh?" she questions, and I can see the curiosity in her eyes.
"Don't tell her I told you this," I continue, ominously, "But she's already planning to break into the kitchen on your floor…and steal your desserts. I'm just saying, watch your back 12."
"Duly noted," she smirks, stepping around me and joining the end of the line for food.
I stand behind her and take a look at my surroundings.
Clove is sitting with the tributes from District 1 and 4, looking completely annoyed. To most, she probably seems bored, but I can see the way her eye twitches slightly and the strong grip that she has on her fork that she's trying really hard not to stab someone. I'm proud she has gathered some self restraint over her emotions recently…the Academy had quite a few incidents of children getting stabbed with no one ever "knowing" who did it. One of the nurses feared we were being overrun by ghosts of dead tributes from other Districts.
All of the other tributes who weren't still in line for food were spread out across the room. Only the District 11 tributes were sitting together, and even they weren't interacting. The girl seemed to notice my gaze and looked up from her plate, giving Leyla a wide smile and a small wave.
I knew right then and there that there was no way I was going to not offer this little girl, Rue I think her name is, my protection. Not only could she be extremely useful as a spy, but with a few lessons in knife throwing, she could be lethal…that is of course, if she could handle killing someone (which I doubted, but I'd keep an eye on her for the rest of training to see what I was working with). Plus she reminded me so much of my sister, there was no way I could handle seeing her die, especially at the hands of one of my allies (because there was no way in hell I was going to kill her, even if we were the last two remaining).
"You're going to have to play nicely and sit with the District 12 boy," Leyla instructs quietly, interrupting my plotting.
I give a small nod because I know my words won't be very kind.
I fill my plate with all kinds of food, from chicken and rice, to bread and soup, ignoring the amused looks Katniss was sending me.
"Food for two?" she smirks, patting my stomach like people do to pregnant women.
I try to focus on breathing because I feel like I'm about to hyperventilate.
Katniss Everdeen is touching my abs…and I have no idea how to respond to this.
"Whoa…" she mutters, a blush forming on her tan cheeks.
I look down, hoping to god that my excitement isn't showing.
"What?" I ask, when I realize it isn't.
"Uh..just didn't realize someone could eat that much and still be uh, ya know, muscular?" she stammers out, and I suddenly feel proud that my perfect body has rendered her speechless.
"Oh, you mean like this?" I ask as I pull up my shirt.
"Oh my god, Cato!" she shrieks, turning away from me and covering her eyes. "Put it away!"
Not the reaction I was going for…
"Cato, ew, seriously? We're in public," Leyla mocks, using her best Capitol accent.
"How indecent!" Katniss screeches, mimicking Leyla's Capitol tone.
"Okay, okay, my bad!" I exclaim, pulling my shirt back down. "It's safe to look, Katniss."
She slowly turns back to face me, and I can see the faint blush on her face has gone away.
After grabbing a few cartons of milk and placing them on my tray, we awkwardly stand at the end of the line while we wait for the other to make a move towards a table.
"We can sit by Bread Boy, I'll be nice," I assure Katniss, who doesn't look convinced. "Pinky promise."
She raises her eyebrow at me.
"You sound like my twelve year old sister," she remarks as we head towards the middle table where her District partner is sitting. I shrug and tell her I learned it from Clove. I can't bring myself to say that my dead sister considered pinky promises the holiest of all promises. You did not break a pinky promise…you just didn't.
And now everyone is going to see that I'm eating lunch with this loser, I think to myself as we take our spots at the table. I deserved to be killed first in the Bloodbath at this rate.
"Hello," Bread Boy glowers as I sit across from him. He gives Katniss the most obvious What-the-fuck-are-you-doing look, which she ignores.
Ha, good, my sexiness must unnerve him.
"Cato," I say, as I stick my hand out.
I promised I'd be nice, so I would, no matter how much I wanted to run my fork through his misshapen face. I was so much better looking than him that it physically pains me.
"Peeta," he states, grasping my hand roughly. We squeeze each other's hand as hard as we can while we shake, but neither of us flinch.
I am confused by this, of course, because I've broken many hands of competitors this way at the Academy. Perhaps I've underestimated his strength? I will have to do research on this anomaly.
"And who is this?" Peeta asks, and I see him giving a small smile towards Leyla. I can't wait to wipe that smile off his face the second we get into the Arena.
"Hi, I'm Leyla," she declares, happily shaking his hand like an excited tween girl would do to a celebrity. "I'm a huge fan."
Now it's my turn to give Leyla the biggest What-the-fuck-are-you-doing look.
I am also ignored.
"It's nice to meet you, Leyla-"
"Uh, forgetting someone, Cato?" a voice behind me barks, and I want to smack my head on the table.
"Hey, Clovey," I acknowledge, relieved when I see that she didn't bring the others from her table with her. This was not supposed to be some sort of party.
"Scoot over, munchkin," Clove instructs to Leyla, who immediately moves closer to my side. I hand her the extra fork I grabbed, and she begins to dig into my food with a vengeance.
"I'm Clove," she verifies to Bread Boy, seemingly shaking his hand without malice. "Your work at the camouflage station was incredible."
Leyla shakes her head in agreement, and I am starting to feel like I missed some sort of memo. Since when did Clove give out genuine compliments? And why the fuck is she staring at him like he's anything but coal miner scum?
"Thank you. I can show you some easy techniques after lunch if you want," he offers, and I'm automatically suspicious. Why would he want to help a Career tribute? If he thinks he can score an alliance with us, he is severely mistaken.
"That'd be cool," Clove accepts, smiling. "Where'd you learn how to do all that?"
"I decorate the cakes back home in the bakery," he answers, and I know without looking over that he's won Clove over.
What in the flying fuck is happening right now? He's supposed to be her number one enemy in the Games, not her new best friend. I clearly slept through a strategy meeting.
Katniss's face is expressionless, so I can't tell what she thinks about all of this. She doesn't say anything, though, so I guess she's okay with it. Or as confused as I am.
"So where'd you get that bruise?" I sneer, not giving a damn that I just interrupted Leyla who was trying to ask Bread Boy some useless question. "Katniss catch you peeking at her in the shower and deck you?"
"Not quite," he growls. "You try to start a fight with someone else who didn't do anything to you?"
"Not quite-"
"I kicked him for hitting you," Clove interjects, glaring harshly at me. "We're sorry for his behavior, it is not becoming of District 2 tributes."
I snort, wondering if anyone believes her bullshit.
I resign myself to listening to Clove and Leyla chat Bread Boy up while I quickly finish my meal. In silent agreement, Katniss and I get up together, put our trays up, and head back to the Training room.
"Is he some sort of celebrity I don't know about?" I ask as we head towards one of the obstacle course.
"He must be," she jokes. "He does seem to be getting quite the fan-base."
I look over my shoulder to see they've all made their way over to the camouflage station again. Bread Boy has found himself surrounded by both Clove and Leyla, along with Rue, the District 5 girl, and even Glimmer. All of them were listening raptly to what he was saying about one of the paints.
"I guess this gives us plenty of time for you to teach me about swords," she comments. "At least, after I kick your ass in this obstacle course."
Before I can reply, she takes off, and I feel the need to pinch myself. What sort of dream world is this?