Jumping right into the story this time, hope you all like this chapter! Especially because CATO! Yep, this is it you guys, the chapter where ya girl Kalani is meeting her man, or should we say her future man. Now some of you may say that Cato seems a little OOC in this chapter, but remember that he hasn't actually been fully introduced yet. He's not stupid, and I refuse to portray him as stupid; he knows how to work a crowd and he knows when to take an opportunity should one arise in order to put focus onto him. Don't worry, he's still his old assholey self, just give it another chapter, you know, when he actually speaks and has lines. I promise he won't disappoint. Review and enjoy!
I'd only ever seen Johanna Mason on tv when she had won the 71st hunger games. She looked so sweet and innocent, and when it came down to the last few tributes she proved herself to be a forced to be reckoned with. Johanna was deadly; even just now standing in front of her while in absolutely no danger, I could practically feel the wild aura that surrounded her.
"Hi." That's all that I could bring myself to say to the woman.
"Finnick tells me we've got a winner on our hands, by the looks of it you've got just about everyone in this room either wanting to be you or at the very least be with you. The Capitol seems enchanted by your little show with Finnick earlier, you keep this up and you'll have all the sponsors you need." She smirked. "But sponsors don't always make a winner. I would know, I barely had any, and yet here I am."
I had no idea what to say to that. Luckily, I didn't need to say anything because Finnick decided to butt in. "Chill Mason, she's like a mini me, there's no way she's not coming out of that arena alive."
"Ok, we'll see I guess. I'll be looking out, not like my kids are winning this year anyways." She shrugged. I winced at her comment. How could she just have so little hope in the two children she was supposed to be helping. Maybe it hurt less to leave all hope behind. Maybe it was her way of not getting hurt. Ok then Johanna Mason, you're on, I'm gonna give you someone to root for.
"Oh god, here comes tall, dark, and terrifying." Johanna rolls her eyes. And then another voice comes from behind me. "Finnick Odair. Johanna Mason. Good to see the two of you again."
I don't have to turn around to know who that is. "Brutus, didn't see you over there, what with the light shining off your bald head and directly into my eyes." Finnick never did know how to keep his mouth shut. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but chuckle, and Johanna didn't even bother holding her own laugh back.
"Seriously, do you wax that thing before you show face, or is it just naturally that shiny?" Now Johanna and Finnick were going at it, insulting the older victor back and forth.
"Wait, tilt your head down for a second, I think I have something in my teeth."
"Hey when you're in front of the mirror and you lean down just a bit, does it look like one of those infinity mirror illusions?"
"Alright!" Brutus had finally grown overly irritated at the other two victors jokes. "Yeah, I'm bald, and you guys are just so funny. Not gonna be laughing when both your tributes end up dead in that arena and one of my own comes out." Wow, he really knew how to kill a mood. I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you looking at kid?" He called me out.
I almost back down. Almost. "I was seeing if I could really see my reflection in your head, sorry." Finnick and Johanna bust into little giggles next to me. If looks could kill, I would be dead; Brutus did not look happy with that comment. Luckily, I was saved by a message over the announcers telling the tributes to get ready to board their chariots, as the tribute parade was to commence in less than five minutes.
"Save it for the games baby shark." Johanna says to me lowly, but not low enough because the District Two victor laughs at the nick name. "Baby shark, cute." He says before walking away.
"That's right, walk away egghead!" Finnick shouts, catching the attention of a couple other people around us.
"Try not to blind anyone, there are a lot of lights around here, one wrong angle and we could have a huge accident on our hands!" Johanna and Finnick fist bump each other. It's kind of nice to see their interactions with each other, it reminds me a lot of my brother and I. "I don't completely hate you." Johanna quirks one of her eyebrows. "That's new. Good luck out there."
Johanna walks away as Finnick helps me into the chariot. "You're gonna do great out there honey, just be yourself. Pretend I'm up there with you, like we're getting out of that train together again. It's only a couple of minutes long, and then it'll be over."
"It'll never be over." I whisper. Finnick hears me, I know he does, but he doesn't say anything, just kisses my hand and repeats what he said before. "See you on the other side."
Kai is at my side suddenly, looking like the spitting image of the god Poseidon. He throws me a soft smile and looks straight ahead as we begin moving. My stomach is churning so bad that I have to hold back the puke that's threatened to make it's way up my throat and out of my body. That wouldn't be the best message to send to sponsors, one that says I'm vulnerable and scared and probably not worth spending your money on. So instead I pull out my best Finnick Odair smile once again, and the more the chariot moves, the more confident I feel.
Lights blind me temporarily as the chariot leaves the confines of the great hall we were once in and out into a grand stadium filled with screaming people. I ignored my heart telling me that these people couldn't care less about whether or not I died in that arena, as long as it made for a good show, and instead I listened to my head telling me that it didn't really matter what I felt right now, because I needed these people to support me, to like me, or else I'd go in with worse chances than I had before. Medication, food, extra weapons, matches, water - those kinds of things came from sponsors, and it could mean the difference between life and death in the games. I would play this strategically; if I could make sure that I was a fan favorite, I might be able to play all of my cards right. I could get in with a good alliance, but that would mean I may be forced to kill people, something I still didn't know if I could stomach. My only other option was to work by myself to stay alive, which was where being a fan favorite came in handy, as long as I made myself seem interesting and worth it, I could live off sponsor gifts and anything else I could hunt or find. Still, that little voice in the back of my head reminded me of what that meant: what about Rue and Kai? Then again, what about any of these kids? What about me?
I became hyperaware of the crowd around me. A bunch of people were trying to grab my attention, so I gave it to them, which made them scream louder. Flowers were thrown at us, mostly roses, but there was one that I noticed on the floor of the chariot, a hibiscus, commonly seen in my district. I smiled and picked it up before placing it in my hair right above my ear. I wasn't sure who exactly threw the flower, but I blew a kiss in the general direction I was sure it had come from. The people went nuts.
Finally the chariot stopped. I noticed a lot of the attention was on the district four chariot, in fact none of the other districts seemed to get anything thrown at them like we did. Looking down at the rest of the flowers in our chariot, an idea popped into my head. President Snow began his usual speech. While he spoke I leaned down and picked up a couple of different colored flowers before holding up a part of my dress as I climbed down off the chariot. I made my way to a couple of different districts' chariots and began to hand each of the tributes flowers. I knew exactly what I was doing; Aphrodite was supposed to be an embodiment of love and beauty (albeit she was also said to be extremely vain and kind of bratty, but that aside she was still enchanting) so I would make sure to emphasize those qualities in myself. I was also paying no mind to Snow, which I am sure would piss him off. What more could he do to me though? I was already fighting for my life these next few weeks.
Apparently, the capitol people loved it because it made the crowd grow louder, in fact it was now too loud to hear Snow speaking. I began at District 5 first since they were right next to us. Some of the tributes looked at me with confused expressions, while others gave little smiles and some even thanked me. My feet finally carried me to Rue's chariot, where she put on the biggest smile, going as far as to get out of her own chariot, hug me, and accept the flower. The tribute she was sharing the chariot with didn't smile, but he took the flower and gave a thankful nod while helping Rue back into her spot next to him.
By the time I made my way to the District 1, 2, and 3 chariots, the crowd had calmed down a bit. The district one girl rolled her eyes, but I could tell the boy was blushing a little from the exchange, which made me laugh. Aphrodite was a charmer after all, am I right?
Time slowed down as I looked up at the district 2 chariot. Now, I have never been thrown off by a guy before, I mean my best friend was the famous Finnick Odair for god's sake, but the male tribute from 2 was like no guy I've ever met. I guess you become accustomed to what you see all the time in your own district; in mine, the guys were all lean muscle from working and swimming all day, decent heights, handsome faces. There wasn't many rugged males there. But he was muscular, insanely tall, blonde, and devastatingly good looking. Yeah, he would probably be the one with the highest kill count in the games. My staring caused me to stumble just a bit. I brushed that off quickly. I tried to quickly place the flowers up onto the side of their chariot and make my way to the next, but before I could do that I felt something grasp my wrist and a pair of lips brush my hand, then I was let go. My eyes stared right into the piercing blue one's of the boy's the entire time. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who knew how to get a crowd going. I'm surprised my ears didn't start bleeding from the screeching of the crowd; that one little gesture was sure to spark an interest in everyone - seems like it already had. God, Finnick is not gonna be happy with me: rule number one is already broken, as I've just interacted with every single one of the tributes before training.
I lightly sprinted back to my chariot, practically throwing District Three's flowers at them on the way. I'm sure everyone could tell I was slightly flustered from the exchange. President Snow stared right at me, to which I held up a rose and winked. He broke eye contact with me and finally began his speech again. I couldn't help but steal a few glances at district two, catching a glimpse of the boy every time. I wasn't sure why he decided to make a show out of my show, but I was kind of pissed and also incredibly unnerved.
The ceremony ended soon after that. It wasn't a shock when I was met with Finnick the second the chariot pulled back into hall. Cinna had a shit eating grin on his face, Johanna was laughing and didn't look like she was going to stop anytime soon, and Finnick was a cross between pissed and proud.
"You little minx." He pulled me into a hug. "You interrupted the President, made an entire crowd of people fall in love with you, got one of the highest praises from Caesar Flickerman that I've ever heard, and made a District Two tribute look like a big softy all in under 5 minutes. If you don't win these games, I think the entire capitol would be livid."
"More importantly, did you see Snow's face?" Johanna was still laughing her butt off. "He- he was s-so mad! Oh man, I'm crying."
"I didn't know Two was gonna do that, he stole my thunder." I sighed.
"Honey, if anything, it just made you look twenty times more desirable. District Two is full of the fiercest, most malicious tributes and victors out there; do you understand what it means to have made him look like a lovesick fool out there?" Finnick explained to me.
"Yeah but did you see me? I probably looked like one too." I tried to argue.
"Yeah but you're supposed to be playing the part of the goddess of love, people hope and expect you to act like that. No one expects that from Two."
The more I thought about it, the more I could see the reasoning in Finn's argument. If the people saw me charming the pants off of someone like him, then there had to be something special about me; Finn was right, he made me look all the more desirable.
"Ok, let's get you out of these clothes and into bed." Cinna cut in. "You have a big day tomorrow."
We made it up to the fourth floor of the building we were staying in without any trouble. Kai and his team came back a little after we did. While the glam crew took the stuff off my face and cleaned me off I was able to watch the tribute parade playback on the television.
"There we have district three, very interesting outfits this year, I always love seeing them." Caesar Flickerman was narrating. "And then we have...my god, District Four has outdone themselves this year Claudius. Is that...Aphrodite and Poseidon? What a gorgeous pair of tributes. Claudius, just look at her, Ms. Kalani Maverick, oh I have been looking forward to seeing her again since the reapings. It was just so inspiring to watch someone take a stand and volunteer to save someone's daughter when no one else would." Was Caesar passive aggressively bashing the government? "She's gorgeous Claud, why if I didn't know any better I would say that was Aphrodite herself down there."
Claudius laughed along with his co-host.The two continued to talk about the rest of the tributes, and I was happy to see them not just brush over Rue but actually compliment her and go into light detail about her. That might help her gain some sponsors.
Nothing interesting happens for a couple of minutes, until President Snow comes onto the screen.
"Ah, and there's the man himself, President Snow everyone. Let's hear what he has to...wait a minute, Claudius look at this. Is that...ladies and gentleman, take a look, Kalani Maverick is out of her chariot, handing out flowers to the other tributes! What a beautiful saint that girl is. I mean, could they find anyone sweeter to play in these games?"
"Well, you know Caesar, Aphrodite was indeed the goddess of love and beauty, but there were many accounts where people underestimated her and she shocked them in the end with what she was capable of. She was not someone to be underestimated, and I hope none of these tributes do so with Kalani; after all, in the end, Aphrodite was still a goddess."
"Indeed, Claudius, indeed. Oh and look at that, she's headed for the usual career pack, wonder how that's gonna go down, they're not exactly known for their love and beauty - well maybe the beauty, but definitely not the love." They paused while the camera panned to a shot of me walking to District two's chariot. I could see the exact moment I laid eyes on the male tribute, and my stumble was definitely noticeable. "Oh Claud, look at this! Oh gosh, this reminds me of a certain tale I was told as a child. You do know that Aphrodite, although married, was taken with the god of war, Ares."
"Were they lovers?" Claudius asks.
"They were, they were! In fact, Ares is rumored to be her favorite lover - aside from Adonis - and it looks like mythology may be repeating itself here today folks, because Cato Hadley of District Two, dressed suspiciously like a war god, looks to be just as charmed by our very own Kalani Maverick! Look at that, a kiss on the hand! Oh, how sweet!"
"Well can you blame him Caesar?" They laugh. "Folks, we may have a love story to look forward to this year."
I turned the television off immediately. "Are they serious? Aphrodite and Ares? Love story? Who the hell is gonna believe that?"
"Well sweetheart," came my mentor's voice. "The answer to that question is everyone. As in everyone is loving this new plotline, they all wanna see more Kalani and Cato moments."
Cato. Even his name was hot.
"I'm not here to play along with some little love story, I'm here - against my will, might I add - to fight for my life." I sneered.
"I know, I know, but this could really help you."
"How?" My eyes rolled practically into the back of my head.
"More time is going to be spent on you and Cato, which means you'll be the talk of the games, there's not a single person, more importantly sponsor, that won't know who you are. I'll talk to Brutus...actually I'll talk to Enobaria, she might be more willing to work with me than the Brute, at least not after all those bald jokes earlier."
I sighed. It pained me to admit it, but he was right. Yeah, sure, I was able to bring a lot of attention to myself before, but I need to remember that this was a show, they just wanted something interesting to watch. And Cato and I were apparently very interesting. No one had ever done a love story before, in the whole 74 years the games have been on. It was a good angle to play, and shit, Caesar made it seem even more interesting with the whole development of the Ares and Aphrodite storyline. If flirting with Cato was a way to bring in more sponsors and keep the people rooting for me then I would do it; my stubbornness and pride weren't worth losing my life over.
I groaned, which made Finn break out into a smile, knowing what was coming next. "I'll do it. But I won't like it."
"Oh doll," Finnick smirked, "I saw you get all flustered out there over that little peck on the hand. You're gonna love this."
"Oh I'm gonna call you guys Catani!" Cinna says while brushing my hair. "Or Kalato! No wait, that sounds like gelato. Let's just go with Catani!"
Finnick busts out laughing while I let out yet another groan. "You guys are the worst."