An 11.

Cato stared at the screen in disbelief. He thought the gamemakers would have hated Katniss' stunt, given her a miniscule score so sponsors would ignore her, target her in the arena, send mutts after her to ensure her death. Even in his amusement at her antics, he thought that she had no shot at a decent score.

Instead, they gave her the top score out of all 24 tributes. The top score out of anyone that had ever been in the games. It seemed Katniss's spark had spread not only to him, Haymitch, Peeta, and Brutus, but to Seneca Crane as well. Now that he thought about it, it made sense. The Head Gamemaker was a sucker for a good show. He would love someone unpredictable like Katniss. Someone who would take what he gave her and twist it in a way nobody expected, perhaps the man was a bit of a rebel himself. Of course, it was more likely that he was just too smug to see how Katniss' fire could quickly ignite a rebellion.

Good. I hope he keeps egging her on. I hope he favors her to win and watches as she rips the government to pieces.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He heard Clove shouting behind him, followed by the sound of shattering glass. She had picked up a glass vase and hurled it at the wall adjacent to him.

Cato felt a sharp pain in his chest, right below his collarbone. A large chunk of glass had lodged itself there, the blue coloring of the glass stuck out like a sore thumb against his skin. Instinctively, he raised his hand to the injury. The skin of his palm ripped open upon touching the sharp edges. He watched as the bright red blood started to drip from his palm onto the carpet below him.

"Clove!" He heard Enobaria yelling at her as Zinea started to scream in dismay.

"In all my years! I have never seen such a display of poor manners!"

"Fuck that stupid ass coal rat! I'm going to skin her from her damn eyes to her toes!" Clove was yelling as she was dragged back the hall by Enobaria.

Amerite and Vyan, who had decided to make an appearance, disappeared quietly. Cato was too transfixed by ripping a shred of his sleeve off and shoving it into his palm in his attempt to stop the bleeding. He didn't need an injury to his dominant hand two days before the games.

"Come on kid, let's go get that fixed." Brutus pulled him by his arm to the elevator. He led him down to the medical wing making up a fake story that Cato had fallen and knocked a vase over. The doctor was a bald man, with tattoos over his entire body. The tattoos looked like ivy, twisting and winding all over his body, even over his face and scalp. Cato wondered how long the process took to gain tattoos like that, how much money this man had wasted to look like a fool.

Probably more money than I've ever seen in my life.

Cato barely even flinched when the doctor started giving him numbing injections, he was used to being injured. In the Academy, they would have given him stitches without any numbing medicine and told him to suck it up.

Of course, he followed along with Brutus's lie. He despised Clove, but even she wouldn't deserve what the Capitol would do to her for injuring another tribute before the games. Even something as trivial as what she had done might condemn her to being an avox, or worse. The games would be postponed, there would be another public reaping in 2. Cato shuddered to think of what the gamemakers would come up with if they had extra time. No, he tripped over thin air and broke a vase. That's what happened.

"You're all done young man. Here is some cream for it, it should be all healed up before the interviews tomorrow. In the meantime, keep your hand wrapped and your chest bandaged and reapply this cream every 5 hours. The stitches will dissolve on their own." The tattooed doctor instructed him.

"Thank you." Cato told him, getting up to walk towards the door.

"Make sure you don't trip over anything else!" He called to him. Cato didn't bother giving a reply to that one, he left the medical wing with his bandages and cream and got onto the elevator with Brutus. He wasn't surprised when the man pressed the button for the roof, rather than the one for 2.

"That girl is a hellcat." The older man said as the doors dinged open.

It was particularly windy tonight. The men walked over to the far side of the roof, away from the windchimes. Their melody was so loud, it was hard to hear even over here.

"She is going to be a major problem for Katniss in the arena. I don't think you'll be able to do anything to get her to wait to hunt the girl down." Brutus explained.

"I know. I'm going to have to "pretend" to hunt Katniss and lead them away from her for a while. I don't think I can ditch the Careers until Clove is out of the picture." He answered.

"No, you can't. Besides you, Clove is the deadliest. Plus, she will be specifically out for Katniss now that your girl outscored her. You'll have to find a way to take care of her before you go, blindsiding her will give you the best advantage." The large man was running his hands back and forth. Hearing Katniss being called his girl gave him a satisfaction he had never felt before.

"I can't believe they gave her an 11." Cato shook his head, remembering how he ended up in the medical wing. He let a smile spread across his face at the thought of the way the sponsors would be throwing themselves at Haymitch.

"What the hell did she do to get that? Is she that good with a bow?" Brutus asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yes, from what she has told me. She is that good. But she missed her first target because she was nervous and hadn't used a metal bow before. They stopped paying attention to her and brought out a roast pig. So, she shot the apple out of the pigs mouth, took a big bow, said 'thanks for your consideration', and stormed out."

The man in front of him looked like he had been punched in the gut for a few moments. He had the same reaction that Cato did, shocked silence for a few moments before bursting out laughing.

"Well, that's risky." Brutus said through his laughter.

"I know. They must have liked her attitude or something. But with an 11, she's going to have sponsors lining up for her." Cato explained.

"Yes. Absolutely, she'll be a favorite." The man's laughter had died down, a smile still plastered on his face.

"I've been meaning to tell you, save up all of my sponsor money until I ditch them and find Katniss. Then, only use it to send in things for her. Okay?" Cato changed the tone to serious.

"Okay." Brutus nodded at him, meeting his eyes.

"Has Haymitch mentioned anything about Peeta's interview?"

The victor shook his head, "Only that the boy is pretty much refusing to talk to him about anything anymore. Who knows what he will do, we're just going to have to try to fix whatever mess he makes… you know what you're going to say to Caesar?"

Does Peeta really think telling Katniss he loves her on live television is a smart idea? She'd be more inclined to kill him than kiss him after that.

"Yeah, I've got it." He answered, walking towards the elevator.

"I surely hope you do kid."

Me too.