I'm here, I'm here, I'm here! It's me! I'm updating! I know, what a surprise. I've never been more sorry about taking forever to update! This one is dedicated to someone who finally pushed me to write (and rewrite) the rest of this chapter, lol you know who you are! Just realize please that I do this as a hobby, and I have many other things going on, like school and working. Trust me if I could update more often I would spend days just zipping through this story, but I have to limit myself because, well life. Rest assured, I won't be giving up on this story, it just might take me a hot minute to update. Thank you for reading everyone, here's the next chapter and please remember to review and share your thoughts!
Xoxo
Cato and I didn't talk to one another on the elevator. I was grateful for the silence. He was intimidating in all sorts of different ways; one of them was in a mysterious way that intrigued me and the other was in a murderous kind of way that made me want to stay far away from him. But if I was going to die in the arena then I wanted to be able to see the sunrise a few last times, and though Cato might be the one to take my life, I wouldn't let him be the one to take this small piece of happiness away from me as well.
"You're awfully quiet this morning," Cato's voice was raspy, "what, no sarcastic comments?"
"I don't have the energy to think of clever insults for you right now, male Enobaria." I rolled my eyes and huffed. "Ugh, see that was terrible. God, I could've used anything else. Killer ambition, homicidal hunk, overgrown manchild with violent tendencies. I'm losing my touch. Give me a couple of minutes."
"Those are terrible insults, I was expecting so much more from you." There was a shadow of a smile that overcame his features. Don't do that,I thought, don't act so human.
"I said give me some time, they'll get better the more I wake up."
Silence again.
We were both perched on the edge of the building while overlooking the rest of the Capitol. The thing about it was...it wasn't at all awkward. In fact, sitting there and not speaking was actually kind of peaceful. For once since I'd arrived here, there was actual, uninterrupted silence. I peeked over at Cato who had his eyes closed and was lying along the edge of the building; I hadn't known him for long at all, but I knew that he'd never looked so at peace. All of his facial features that had once been hard had now softened. I wondered briefly whether he got many instances like this, ones where he didn't have to pretend to not care or act like the big bad Career that he was made out to be. Spending so much of their lives training in his District, I doubt he had time for anything else. He was a child bred from birth to fight a war that wasn't his to fight.We all were were being forced to fight, the difference is he probably believes this is all his life is worth. That seemed even worse to me.
"How long have you trained for these games?" Cato mumbled.
I didn't entirely know what to tell him. Did he think that all of the Districts were given the option to train for the games? It was technically not allowed, but 1 and 2 did as they pleased, and the Capitol let them because they brought in money, they were the stars of the games. I hadn't trained for these games, not in the way that he had. I'd prepared myself sure, but I hated the idea of calling it "training," as if I'd planned on going into these games. Unless that's what he thought.
"You think that I wanted to be in the Hunger Games?" I whispered.
His eyes opened and stared off into the orange and yellow filled sky. "Well you volunteered. Generally, that means you willingly are going into the games. And no one is stupid enough to go into them voluntarily without having some sort training or something that drives them to believe they have a shot at winning. So how long?"
The scowl that covered my face must've come as a shock to him because his face fell a little when his eyes looked into my own. "If I had a choice, I would never be in these games."
"But...you had a choice. You chose to volunteer-"
"I chose to save a little girl's life. I chose to give a family a second chance at recovering from an already tragic loss, and I chose to step up and do what everyone wished they had the guts to do but weren't stupid enough to. But I did not choose to come here and die. The Capitol, Panem, everyone who sits complicit with life as it is right now, they chose that for me."
He sat there, thoughtful. "We're not all that different, you know? You volunteered for your district, so did I."
"No, see, that's exactly where we're different." I huffed. "We may both be willing to die for our districts, but I'm willing to do so in order to save them, you're doing this for honor."
I could tell that statement was making him angry. "I don't know a lot about Four, but in Two honor means a lot, it's worth everything."
"Even your life?" At this point we were both facing one another, I had stood up, he was still sitting on the edge of the building, and yet he was still somehow taller than me. "I don't think honor is worth your life, Cato."
There was something that came over him then. It was anger, but I don't know if it was aimed at me for what I said, his district and the Capitol for putting him in this situation, or himself for finding truth in my words. And I would never find out, because he didn't bother saying anything else; instead, he stood up and walked away, taking the stairs back down to his floor this time.
"Everyone thank your female friend from Four, Ms. Maverick has brought up some concerns about problems in the arena that many of you may face but may not be able to survive given circumstances beyond your control, so we will be incorporating some new training into the program today that will hopefully help you." It was the same trainer from the day before that I had called out. "Some years ago, there was in fact an instance where the game makers flooded the arena and those who couldn't swim did not make it."
"They died. You can say the d word." I rolled my eyes.
"Thank you again, Ms. Maverick." She growled, which prompted me to throw her a cute little smirk. "Now I know it doesn't seem like much, but we will be having you tread water for as long as you possibly can. We will record the times and from there be able to see who needs more work in that area. After that you can all go back to training where you feel you need at any of the stations, we'll take lunch, and come back to run rounds on the obstacle course for the first time."
"Maikaʻi." Exciting. Kai mumbles next to me.
"I'm sorry, we're treading water?" A voice broke out from the line of kids next to us. It was one of the girls I hadn't spoken to before. "What does that mean?"
"It means we're gonna float for a long ass time, sweetheart." Kai smirked.
"Float?" Cato spoke up. "You're not serious?"
"You ever tried to float for long periods of time, hot Brutus? It ain't easy." I shot back at him. Surprisingly, he scoffed out a little laugh and muttered: "Insults are getting a little better."
"Four is actually correct." The trainer intervened.
"God, really? I wonder if it has anything to with being from the water district?" I feigned shock alongside Kai, who was holding in his laughter at my overt, albeit not needed, sassiness.
"Four, since you like talking so much, why don't you take over and explain to everyone what treading water is specifically, why it's important, and the reason it's so hard."
"Gladly." I stepped up to stand where she was. She definitely didn't think I'd actually do it, so when I did her eyes widened and she slowly walked off the platform. "Ok listen up kids. In Four, we have a saying: off the boat, stay afloat, lost in the ocean, lessen commotion. It basically means if you fall off the boat and are stranded at sea, your best bet is to keep position, which means no swimming off, you need to stay exactly where you are, which is where treading water comes in. Kai, why exactly do we have this rule?"
Kai didn't even hesitate. "Because there are designated fishing locations and staying near there gives you a better chance at being found and rescued by other boaters."
"Exactly. Treading water is all about preserving energy in the water, if you exert too much of it you could become too tired to continue on and you'll drown if that happens. You're body should never be horizontal, that would mean you're swimming, you should instead be vertical at all times. It's not easy, after a while it gets boring and you can cramp up if you're not doing it right."
"Ok but what if you knew where to swim to, why would you need to tread water then?" Clove, the younger girl from 2 and Cato's district partner, surprisingly asked.
"Good question, simple answer. You're ass better be making as little movements as possible in shark infested waters, I don't care if you can see the shoreline."
"Who the hell has gone swimming in shark infested waters?" Clove questioned.
"Me." Kai and I said at the same time. Everyone looked at us like we were crazy.
"Three years ago, fell off a boat while fishing, two sandbar sharks started circling me within minutes. Everyone was afraid that trying to get closer to pull me out of the water would spook the sharks and provoke one of them to bite me. I think I treaded water for a good twenty minutes." Kai recounted his experience.
"No shit, you never told me." I laughed. "I was twelve and got caught in a rip current that took me half a mile down the beach, right where a couple of reef sharks were hanging out. Sharks are territorial, but more curious than anything. I didn't wanna freak them out so I treaded there for like a half hour before they eventually swam away and I was able to swim back to shore."
All of the kids in the room were staring at Kai and me like we were crazy, which wasn't totally unreasonable for a bunch of people that had never dealt with experiences like that in their lives. What they didn't realize was pretty much everyone in District Four has had encounters like that, it's bound to happen with how much time we all spend in the water, and more times than not, sharks are more afraid of us than we are of them, they just wanna be left alone.
"Have you ever been attacked by one before?"
"Shark attacks aren't too uncommon in Four, but no I've never been attacked by one." I said.
"I've never been attacked by a shark but this one time," Kai started, I let out a quick 'Oh, here we go', "Can it, Kalani. This one time I was spear fishing and this fucking barracuda tried to catch these hands."
"You tried to spear the fish it was going after." I rolled my eyes.
"Law of the wild, the best hunter wins; that was my snook."
"It wasn't even that big of a barracuda, and you weren't technically spearfishing, you were spearing fish on the shoreline, there's a difference."
"Technicalities." He crosses his arms. "It bit me."
"It nicked ur leg and swam away right after."
"I have a scar to prove it."
"I gave you that scar when we were 15 and I pushed you off the docks!"
"No you didn't, but I remember that and I still have nightmares about falling on top of that shark! Thank you very much for bringing it back up by the way!"
"You fell onto a shark?!" One of the other tributes shouted.
"It was a nurse shark, they're bottom feeders, he was fine. The thing swam off immediately." I waved her off.
"What the hell is in the waters over in District Four?" Clove looked genuinely concerned. She looked up at Cato next to her. "And people think we're the insane district."
"Maikaʻi, Kalani, ke manaʻo nei lākou ua naʻaupō kākou." Good job, now they think we're crazy.
I shrugged, "E manaʻo lākou i kēlā," Let them think that, "We're just badasses."
"Ok that's enough," Leave it to the annoying lady trainer to ruin our fun. "Let's all get into the pools, we're wasting time."
I made sure to position myself on the outskirts of the group so that I wouldn't have to constantly turn to see everyone. While the trainers taught the other kids how to position their bodies, Kai and I began to mess around by splashing water at one another. We continued until lady trainer yelled out, "Begin!"
For the first ten minutes, things weren't too bad; of course, there were some who couldn't do it at all, obviously having no experiencing with swimming in general, so they were immediately out of the running. But after those first ten minutes, tributes started dropping off like flies. It began with the weaker or younger tributes, which was to be expected. And then the stronger tributes started to go, Thresh, both from District 1, Johanna's tributes in 7, the boy from 9, and the girl from 6. I looked over at Cato, who didn't look to be struggling too much. I wonder if they have lakes or rivers in 2, or maybe they teach them to swim in pools.
After half an hour passed by, most of the tributes were out. Cato, Kai, and I made it to the final 3 when both the tributes from 5 decided they couldn't go on any longer and Clove got too tired. I could tell Cato was running low on energy, and a part of me felt bad. My leg reached out and brushed against his, which gained his attention. "You holding up over there alright, lover boy?"
"I think that's my favorite insult yet." Cato ignored my question, but I could hear it in his voice, he was tired.
I got a little closer to him. "Focus on breathing. You need to keep your breaths steady and consistent, or it'll get harder and harder to breathe. Just try and keep your head up above the water and relax as best you can."
"Hey!" Kai yelled from a couple feet away. "Stop fraternizing with the enemy!"
"Calm yourself over there clown fish, we both know I'm gonna take this one anyways. There's no way I'm losing to the both of you." I laughed.
"What's the longest you've treaded water for?" Cato asks in a low voice.
"A couple of hours. Try not to talk so much, it'll waste oxygen. Steady breaths." I replied. "My family owns an animal rehabilitation center back in Four, so I spend a lot of time doing this actually."
Cato groaned. "So there's no way I'm winning this."
"Probably not, but don't sell yourself short." I whispered so that no one would be able to hear us. I could tell he wasn't too happy about losing this competition, but everyone knew it would come down to the two tributes from the water district. "You lasted a lot longer than all of those other tributes."
"I'd be dead if this were the arena." I didn't know what to say to that, because he was right. Did his sudden self esteem drop have something to do with our talk from this morning? Cato today was different from Cato yesterday, and I didn't know why, but what I did know was that I didn't like this new side of him.
He lasted another five minutes before getting a cramp in his leg, and even then they had to force him out of the pool. There's stubborn Cato.
"And then there were two." Kai chuckled.
An entire hour passed by, and while some tributes decided they couldn't care less about us and took the opportunity for extra time to go and train, those that didn't particularly need it stayed to watch us - that being the Careers and surprisingly Thresh, along with Rue who said she just wanted to see me win. It wasn't long before they started betting on us.
By the two hour mark, I could tell that Kai was starting to struggle. "How you holding up over there, gorgeous?"
"I hate you." Kai sang.
Ten minutes later, Kai gave up. "I know my limits. But damn it girl, how long can u go for?"
"I'm not even tired." I smiled, back stroking all the way to the end of the pool. "But I am hungry, so let's go get food."
Getting out of the pool, I started toward the jackets that were given to us for when we got out, but a tall blonde had already beaten me to it. "Here." He handed it to me. I was weary, but I put it on nonetheless and began to follow the rest of the group out of the training rooms and towards the lunchroom.
My hands dug into the pockets of the jacket, cold from being in the water for so long and then being exposed to the cool air, and the right one touched something. I pulled out a folded up piece of paper. Unfolding it, I read the short but concise message.
Roof. Midnight.
"Kalani, you good?" Kai's voice broke me out of my trance.
"Yeah, yeah," I cleared my throat, "sorry, let's go."
"What's that?" He asked, nodding toward my hand.
I shrugged. "Nothing. Just a reminder for myself." Whether or not he knew I was lying, Kai didn't ask anything else about it.
Passing the garbage can on the way out the door, I threw out the piece of paper and kept walking.