Eve walked with her district partner towards their designated table.
Their was a buffet with enough food to feed a small army lining the black wall in front of them. The careers were first in line, picked over whatever they wanted.
Eve shuffled along with the rest of the tributes behind them, looking over the piles of food.
There were things she recognized like fish, chicken, and bread, but there were plenty of foods she had never seen before.
She steered clear of the mystery meats and grabbed a lightly breaded chicken breast. There were steaks piled high and she decided on one of them as well.
She scooped a heavy serving of potatoes onto her plate and moved on to the fruits. Being one of the last in line left her with the ones at the back.
She reached and reached, but couldn't for the life of her get to red apple that was glistening like a beacon from God himself above her.
She stopped her struggling when a large hand reached past her. Eve followed the massive hand, up the massive arm, to Cato's shit eating grin.
He took a bite, which for him was half of the apple.
"Oh, I'm sorry." He smiled, holding it out to her. "Did you want this?"
Eve's fingers dug into the plastic of her tray as she tried her hardest not to swing the whole thing at the man's head.
"No thanks." She brushed past his overbearing figure. "I think I lost my appetite."
Eve sat down with a huff at her table.
"I hate that guy." She mumbled, stabbing her fork into the potatoes on her plate.
"He's scary." Ethan mumbled from beside her.
Eve watched Cato sit at his table. He sat lazily, laughing about who knows what with the others around him.
The rest of the tributes seemed to have their muscles permanently tense as they sat and waited for their impending doom.
Eve shook her head as she watched his charming smile light up his table. "It takes a particularly cruel person to volunteer to kill a bunch of kids."
"Or brainwashed." The kid said from beside her.
He poked at the ice cream on his plate. "That's what my dad always said."
Eve didn't think it was true. Cato was a man who knew what he was doing.
But she smiled none the less while she looked down at Ethan. "He sounds like a smart man."
She ate her food without another word. Her mind was too busy running over the other tributes to talk to the small boy.
He didn't seem to mind as he went back and forth between the dessert tables.
"Why don't you get some chicken or something?" She urged. "You need something to make you strong."
His face scrunched up. "I hate that stuff."
Eve knew the boy's chances to win the games. She wasn't going to force him to do anything he didn't want to.
"I heard the cake is good." She gestured to the different flavors lining the table.
His smile went wide. "I bet you're right!"
He ran over to the table, leaving Eve to watch him with a heavy heart.
It wasn't fair.
The second half of training went worse than the first.
She decided that she should broaden her abilities beyond spinning around a spear. It didn't go well.
The bow and arrow was a disaster. No matter how hard she tried her arrows always seemed to find the wall behind her target.
She pulled the string back and stared at her target. With a deep breath she let go.
She stared down at the arrow laying at her feet. "How is that even possible?"
Her eyes followed the sound of laugher to the careers, who seemed to get quite the kick out of her failure.
"Maybe you should stick with the spear." The old trainer laughed.
"Maybe you should kiss my ass."
"I deserved that." He laughed.
"Go work on hand to hand for awhile." He nodded towards the station. "It's more important that getting mediocre skills with a bow."
She gasped, slapping her hand over her heart. "Only mediocre?"
"My apologies." He nodded. "Less than mediocre."
"Ouch." She laughed, handing him her bow.
She walked towards the station he had gestured to. There were only a few kids there and she was able to walk right up.
The trainer she stood in front of was no older than 30 with buzzed hair and a brown toothed smile.
"Have you been to this station before?" He asked as Eve stepped forwards.
"Nope."
"Perfect."
He moved to stand directly in front of her. "First, let's see what you do when someone comes at you from the front."
He reached out his hand and she pushed it to the side.
"Good." He smiled through his rotten teeth. "Now I want you to try to hit me."
Eve threw a punch at the man and he easily blocked it. "Come on girl, you gotta be quicker than that."
It felt strange to be told to inflict pain on another person. She had gotten into fights in her days, but she had never punched anyone. She would play around with her friends, but to hit someone hard was foreign to her.
Her next punch wasn't much harder than the first and he blocked it. This time his elbow connected to her nose.
Eve stumbled backwards as her eyes watered. "Ow."
"Don't give up so easy." He scolded.
She shook out her fists and stepped back up to the man. When he threw his fist she blocked it, countering his with her own.
Her knuckles connected with the side of his face and he fell backwards, landing with a grunt on the floor.
"Payback." She smiled and extended her hand to help him up.
"Ha ha." His voice matched his vexed face as he pushed himself to his feet without her help.
"Let's try something different." He said, stepping behind her. "Let's see how you do when someone attacks you from behind."
His arm wrapped around her neck as he held her in a chokehold.
Her hands instinctively came up to grab at his forearm.
She waited for his instructions, unsure how she could possibly get away.
Eve felt her blood run cold when she noticed his second hand snaking it's way up her side.
"What the hell are you doing?" She squirmed in his hold as she felt her heart start to race.
"I'm making it more realistic." He said, trailing his hand over her chest.
When his hand squeezed down she felt herself snap.
Her elbow landed in his side and she grabbed his now loosened arm. She flipped him over her shoulder and he landed with a thud on the ground.
She drove her boot into his side, satisfied with the cry it pulled from his mouth. "Asshole."
Eve looked up to see Cato no more than 10 feet in front of her. His eyes were on hers and she watched him back away.
He retreat back to the other careers and she wondered what exactly he had been doing. Probably coming over to start another fight with her.
Eve didn't go back to the hand to hand combat station. She wanted to stay as far from that man as she could.
She spent her afternoon looking over the edible and inedible plants she might find in the arena. The task seemed hopeless as she looked over the hundreds of plants she was supposed to remember.
She watched a girl with red hair easily click through the edible ones on screen, then move to the inedible.
"Did you know these before?" Eve couldn't help but ask.
"No." She said. "I have a photographic memory."
Eve smiled. "Well that's handy."
"Nothing beats a brain." Her eyes were wide as they looked down at Eve.
Eve nodded before looking around the training center. Clove was standing in front of a group of targets, throwing her knives into the heads of all of them as if she was practicing the piano.
"That girl is creepy as shit." Eve mused.
"She's definitely enjoying herself." Finch nodded.
The slight twitch of a smile on Clove's face every time she successfully hit her target was unnerving to say the least.
Loud grunts coming from the hand to hand station caught both of the girls' attention.
Cato was absolutely pummeling the poor trainer that was unlucky enough to be picked by the brazen man.
Eve recognized his rotten teeth as he cringed each time he was hit. She felt a smile creep onto her face as she watched Cato bare his teeth at his target each time his fists connected.
"I wonder what he did to get on his bad side." The redhead pondered out loud.
"Maybe he took his knife." Eve mused.
"Hmm." Eve guessed the noise that came from the other girl's mouth was the closest she would get to a laugh.
"I'm Eve."
"I know." The girl nodded. "I'm Finch."
"It's nice to meet you, Finch."
"Knock it off!" Peacekeepers rushed to the giant tribute.
"Knock it off?" Cato laughed. "Alright."
He sent one last blow to the man's head, knocking him out cold.
"That's it!" The head trainer yelled. "Practice will resume tomorrow morning! Everyone back to your rooms!"
Eve was last out of the training room as she dragged her sore feet towards the elevators.
When she arrived she was met with Cato and the other careers as they stood in the elevator.
"I think I'll take the stairs." She said, turning on her heals.
"Oh no you don't." A peacekeeper took hold of her arm, shoving her into the full elevator.
He pressed the buttons for one, two, and four before leaving Eve to fend for herself.
Her back was turned to the others as she stared at the closing elevator doors.
She could feel their eyes burning into the back of her neck.
"Peacekeepers, am I right?" She mused, rocking from heal to toe.
They ignored her as the boy from one spoke up. "So who's gonna be our first target?"
"The bitch from four's been asking for it." Eve recognized Clove's voice.
"Awe, I thought we were friends." She turned around to show her puffed out lower lip.
The girl's eyes narrowed into slits. "Why can't I kill her now and get it over with?"
"Uh oh. You better hope I don't have a gem in my pocket." Eve shook her hands in front of her chest. "Or a little pebble."
Cato's deep rumble of a laugh put all eyes on him.
His allies from district one looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"I forgot you guys weren't there." He laughed.
"What are you talking about, man?" Marvel asked.
"This little piece of work threw a big ole ruby at Clove's head after the parade." Cato said through his wide smile. "Panged right off her helmet and everything."
"It didn't even hurt." Clove mumbled.
"Right." He laughed.
Eve couldn't help it as she smiled. She looked away from the group and back to the door in front of her.
The elevator door slid open with the sound of a bell.
"You two should eat here so we can strategize." Glimmer suggested.
The three careers left the elevator, leaving only Cato and Eve behind.
"You coming?" Clove asked over her shoulder.
"I'll be down in a minute." He assured the group. "I've got something I need to take care of real quick."
Eve saw the look in Glimmer's eye as she looked between her and Cato. It said she wanted her dead.
The elevator doors shut in front of Eve and she was left with the feeling of Cato's eyes on her back.
"How do you think Finnick's gonna react when he hears about your little incident?" Eve could hear the smile on his face and when she turned around she found herself correct.
"My little incident?" Eve happily took the bait Cato was hanging in front of her.
He crossed his arms over his broad chest as he grinned down at her. "That's right."
She clenched her fists at her sides. "He'll be happy I gave you a run for your money."
"Is that what you think happened?" His amusement grew with each click of the clock on the wall.
"Which one of us ended up on top?" She cocked her head to the side. "For someone with such a big ego it was surprisingly easy to knock you on your a-"
She didn't have time to finish her sentence as he lunged forward and shoved her into the elevator's control panel.
He held her in place with his hand at the base of her neck and his body pressed to hers.
"Tell me again how hard you think I was trying in that fight." His voice was low in her ear.
She was hardly paying attention to his words when she noticed the lights flicker on and off.
The elevator screeched to a stop and Eve felt her heart race.
"Cato." She whispered, grabbing hold of his thick forearm.
"Don't say my name like that." He groaned, shoving his body harder into hers.
"The elevator." She squeaked.
"What are you blabbering about?" He asked as he leaned back.
His eyes shifted up to the emergency lights.
"Shit."