Chapter 3: “Watch Your Back”
“Clove, give me the remote!” I yell at her.
“No!” she yells back. “I want to watch my show.”
“Well so do I, so give me the remote now!” I reach over to grab it out of her hands, but she’s faster than me. Stubborn ass.
“Ha Ha, too slow Cato.” she keeps teasing me. My face turns red in anger. Nobody ever teases me.
“What, Cato getting mad?” she smirks at me and I try to grab the remote again. “No, no, no Cato.” she moves the remote around in the air as I try to grab it once again. Ugh!
“Damn it Clove! Give me the remote now!” my voice gets louder but she only smirks and tease more. “What, can’t handle a girl?” That’s it.
I lunge for her and we both fall on the ground. She still has the remote in her hand as I try to hold her down, but she keeps squirming. I throw her against the floor again as I reach up to grab the remote, but she punches me in the nose and flings me off.
She gets on top of me now and she’s smiling. My nose hurts and I feel a little blood drip down. “What the hell Clove?” I scream at her as I hold my nose.
“What, can’t handle me? How are you going to handle the arena if you can’t even handle a punch in the nose?”
“Shut up! I can handle myself. You, you just caught me off guard.” I scowl at her and push her off.
I stand up and so does she with a triumphed almost devilish smile on her lips. She think she’s won.
I lunge at her and we both slam against the floor again. This time I get the remote and we’re both wrestling on the floor.
I hear a gasp behind us and turn around to see Enobaria and Brutus. Enobaria has a horrid look on her face while Brutus looks almost bored.
“What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing?” asks Brutus.
“She- he- and then-” Clove and I start at the same time. “Stop it!” Enobaria yells.
We both stop looking shocked. I have never heard Enobaria yell before. “Are you trying to get yourself in trouble or worse killed? You can’t fight other tributes, it’s against the rules!” she looks angry at us.
Enobaria pushes me off Clove with a lot of force. Damn, where did that strength come from?
“Stop acting immature and focus!” she yells again and Brutus gives us a pointed look.
“She started it!”
“He started it!” we both say at the same time. They both roll their eyes and walk away.
I look at Clove and she sticks her tongue at me. I narrow my eyes.
____________________________________________________________
I walk into the enormous gymnasium for training. There’s only a two other districts in here. Someone pins my number on my back as I take it all in. There’s a ton of weapons and obstacles.
I spot 5 shiny objects across from me on the wall. My eyes are in a trance and my feet are suddenly moving towards the weapons.
5 different sizes of swords glimmer in front of me. I am totally in a trance to even notice my own hand going towards the biggest one. I want one.
It looks so sharp and I can imagine it piercing through someone’s stomach already. Mmm.
My sudden urge to take it off the hook and run away with it, is interrupted by a tall, thin, and muscular arms snatches my hand away. “No touching until the training begins.”
I narrow my eyes in a challenge and one of her eyebrows raises up at me. Guess she’s not afraid of me. Maybe I need to work better on my intimidation skills more.
“Now, please go join the others who are forming a circle. I’ll be going over the training schedule in a moment.” I growl at her but do what she tells me. Whatever.
I walk over and stand next to the boy from district one. He has brown trimmed hair and brownish eyes. I can’t remember his name. He looks the same age as me and is an inch taller than me, but smaller in muscle size. I smirk at that thought.
“ Hey. Marvel.” he puts his hand out to shake.
“Hey. Cato.” I shake it even though I don’t want to.
The blond from yesterday comes up next to me. She’s also from district one. She gives me a flirty smile and I smirk at her.
“Glimmer.” she says while batting her eyelashes at me. Do girls really think that’s hot?
I cross my arms over my chest to flex my impressive muscles and also to look more intimidating. “Cato.” I say as I give her a wink. She blushes slightly and moves to stand beside me.
I look around the rest of the circle to see the “competition.” I laugh in my head. Like there’s a competition. God I crack myself up.
There’s a lot of younger kids then usual. Families will be sad. Like I care.
I notice that a certain brunette hasn’t shown up yet and she’s holding us up, but then I see her coming from the elevators with that stupid weak blonde boy.
Speak of the devil. She walks towards the circle.
“About time you showed up two.” I say to here as she passes me. She just rolls her eyes at me.
Blond boy shoots me an annoyed look and follows her. Lost puppy.
The woman from earlier walks in the center and starts to talk about the training stations.
When she releases us, I walk over towards the spear throwing and Markel or Marve follows me. I was never good with names. My thoughts wonder to Katniss. How come I can remember her name?
I look around for her and spot her at the knot tying station with Blondie. I bet he suggested that. Scardy cat.
I pick up a spear and move towards the 15 yard mark. I get my shot ready and throw. It hit’s the dummy right in the heart. I smirk. Damn. I’m just that good aren’t I.
Boy from district one gets his shot ready after me and throws it right into the heart. I’m guessing that was his strongest skill in training. I look around again and see Clove playing with her knives. I swear that’s her favorite thing in the world.
I move back a little from the 15 yard mark and make my next throw. Again I make my mark.
______________________________________________________________
We break for lunch and the career pack sits together. I look over at katniss and notice her hair is in a side braid this time. She doesn’t have makeup on and she looks pretty.
While as Glimmer has on tons of makeup. Clove notices my stare and kicks me from underneath the table. She scowls at me and I smirk.
I get up and load some more food on my plate. I make my way over towards her table aware of the glares I’m receiving from my table.
I stop at her table and sit myself in a chair. “Fire Girl” I simply say.
“What do you want two?” I smirk at her.
“Blondie” I say over to the boy.
“That’s not my name.” he spits at me. Looks like I get under his skin.
“What. Do. You. Want?” Katniss asks again.
“Mhm. I know what I want.” I smirk at her while wiggling my eyebrows. She looks at my with disgust. Her face is priceless.
Blondie’s face turns a bright red in anger. “Don’t talk to her like that.” he says.
“I think I can if I want to boy” I sneer at him. He looks like a ten year-old.
“Go away” Katniss says. “You have no reason to be here.” Oh, but I do.
“Oh, I just wanted to introduce myself properly.” I said. Katniss snorts at my English accent impersonation. “Cato” I say while extending my hand to her.
She looks at it as if she’s debating to shake it. She looks up at me. “I don’t bite. Well sometimes” I say as I wink at her. She rolls her eyes again. Blondie has smoke coming out of his ears. What? Don’t like me flirting with your girl?
Like she’s yours anyways. “I’m-” she begins but I cut her off. “Oh I already know your name beautiful.” Her eyes widen a little but not for long.
I turn towards Mr. Steam Machine and smirk. “And who might you be?”
“P-” he starts but I interrupt him, “wait, don’t care.” I said smirking.
“Go. Away. Cato. We don’t want you here” Katniss says. Her eyes lock with mine and I can’t help but gaze at them. I didn’t realize how long we’ve been staring at each other until Blondie had to ruin it. Wait what?
“Like what you see two?” he says and I glare at him. “Shut up twelve!” I yell at him. He narrows his eyes. Want to challenge me? Bring it!
I stand up from the table and so does he. “Why don’t you make me?” he says.
“That can be arranged.” I sat through gritted teeth. Our chest are touching.
“Show me what you got?” he says. Is this kid stupid? I have 5 inches on him and have more muscle than him and he’s challenging me.
“Oh I’ll show you what I got” I say getting in his face. A hand separates us and I stumble back. Katniss is in the middle of us as we are still death glaring at each other.
I suddenly feel tingles on my arm and I look down at my arm to see Katniss’s hand on me. The tingles spread up my arm and make me feel weird. Katniss notices my stare and looks down,
She immediately takes her arm off and looks towards blond boy. “Peeta, calm down.” she says and puts her hands on his chest. He looks down at her and immediately calms down. What the hell? He blushes slightly and looks at her.
Fire burns in me and I have no idea why. I feel like punching him, but I know I can’t. It’s against the rules. I point my finger at him and show all the anger on my face. “You watch your back lover boy!”