Forbearance • A Cato Hadley Story

1.08

Today was the last day of training before individual evaluations for each tribute competing in the games. Livia's last day to figure out what she wanted to do to wow the judges and to perfect those skills for the next day. Over the last few days Livia had just about perfected her skills with a spear, a bow and arrow, and knives. So that was exactly what she would work on to show the judges. She spent little to no breaks that day, working on each skill, each weapon hitting the dead center of each target every time. There was no way she would miss the next day.

One of the few breaks she took wasn't a long one. Not to mention she only took the break because she was demanded to by the three other careers. She didn't see the point in taking a break to watch the boy from District Twelve when she was told to. He had fallen. To her there was no point in watching him but she did what she was told and observed the scene unfold. "Weak." Cato muttered quietly with a smirk at the boy. Livia snickered at the comment but didn't look away from the frightened boy.

Peeta laid on the ground momentarily, gripping his ankle which Livia was sure had must have sprained. She almost called out to the boy, wanting to make fun of him for failing such an easy task but halted herself when Katniss ran to the boy's side. Livia had found it much easier after the almost full week of being a tribute to let out her rude and instigating side of her. It became easier when she realized she had a real battle to fight. When she realized she needed to make it home for her sister. And she now found it especially easy to have a burning passion to kill the girl from twelve.

Livia knew Katniss didn't genuinely care about Peeta, not that that bothered her, but the fact that she knew Katniss would willingly kill Peeta when it came down to it but she claimed to care for him. That was just one of the many reasons Livia hated her. The blonde saw the girl with the braid in her hair whisper something to the boy before both of them glanced over at the four careers. Livia crossed her arms and shot a glare at the two as she met eyes with the girl before the boy slowly got up and hobbled over to a rack that held a few arrows and weights.

Both the blonde girls eyed each other in suspicion with smirks on their faces and let out a quiet laugh as they looked back at the now injured boy. With a firm grip he grabbed one of the weights and pulled it off the rack with a grunt as it pulled his right arm down and he walked forward a few yards. The smaller girl could tell that he was slightly struggling. She desperately wanted to get back to her training but she was all too intrigued to look away now.

With another grunt and a giant swing of his arms, the boy threw the weight a good length away from him. Livia was impressed, just as the other three were. Not that she considered him much of a threat but she reminded herself to keep an eye on him in case he had any other tricks up his sleeve. "We need to watch him carefully from now on." Marvel told his allies, glancing back over at Peeta as they walked away.

The next day was, thankfully, going to be a much shorter day and wouldn't require as much energy from the girl who had started to become sore from the past few days of training. She was tired. She just wanted to sleep but she knew she just had to get through ten minutes of showing off her skills and she could head back up to the penthouse. All twenty four tributes sat in a room where the seats were just small metal boxes and they were quite uncomfortable. First to be called was Marvel.

When he stood up he smiled at Glimmer, giving her hand a squeeze before smiling at Cato and Livia, letting go of Glimmer's hand and leaving the room. It was around fifteen minutes after Marvel went in that it was Glimmer's turn. She seemed quite confident in herself as she stood, whispering 'good luck' to the pair from Two and leaving the room. Livia's leg bobbed up and down as she waited for Cato's and her name to be called. She was nervous.

Nervous that she would score too low and lose her allies, only making her chances of dying increase. Nervous that her score would be too high and make her a threat with more people wanting to get her out of the way. Nervous that she wouldn't make it out of that arena. Cato saw her leg nonstop moving next to him, starting to become annoyed with her antics. With a single swift movement the boy grabbed Livia's hand and interlaced their fingers, her leg immediately freezing in it's spot and her eyes shifting to his rather than the ground.

"What's this f-" she started only to be interrupted by the blonde. "You were nervous. You wouldn't stop moving." he told her flatly. But she had no response. She just sighed and went back to looking at the floor, zoning out after a few minutes. And then he was gone. He had already been called in. She hadn't even noticed the warmth of his hand leaving her now cold one. She almost started shaking her leg again but before she could she heard it.

"Livia Perez. District Two." the monotone voice of the woman on the platform from the first day of training called out. With a shaky sigh, Livia breathed out her nervousness and confidently walked into the oh so familiar Training Center. When she reached the center of the large room she looked to where the judges conversed with each other, paying no attention to her.

All she could think was the sarcastic realization of how she was already off to a 'great start'. "Livia Perez. District Two." she repeated just as the voice had moments before, but louder so the judges could hear her. All the males that stood yards above herself quickly hushed and turned their attention to the girl. Once all eyes were on her she layed out four items on the table next to her. A spear, a bow, an arrow, and a knife. First she picked up the spear and took a moment before tossing it towards the target where it landed directly in the center of the chest.

Next was the bow and arrow. Livia then turned to the target to the right of the last and shot an arrow to the stomach portion of it. Once again, she hit dead center. Last was her specialty. Her knife. She picked it up in her hand, feeling the weight of it in her hand as she turned towards the last target. With one last toss, she threw the knife and hit her final target dead center once again.

It was silent for a moment. Livia was sure that should have at least earned a bit of applause, but all she heard was the judges talking just as they had when she walked in. Had they even been paying attention? She wasn't sure. How much had they seen? She wasn't sure of that either. All she knew was that she was angry. Angry enough to grab a knife and throw it into the eye of a cooked pig that the judges would most likely consume later on.

All attention was now back on her. The men looked at her with wide eyes, shocked by her actions. But she showed no emotion on her face as she bowed and uttered a few words seriously. "Thank you for your time and attention." she spoke before she waltzed out of the room. Once she made it to the hallway and the metal door closed behind her she was met with Cato, who had apparently been waiting for her to finish her session.

"How'd you do, Golden Girl?" the boy smirked at Livia as she neared him with a confused face. "Golden Girl?" she asked, questioning the boy. Though he only snickered and wrapped an arm around her as they started walking to find the elevator. Livia wasn't sure why the boy was taking sudden interest in her but she wasn't going to question it. She mostly assumed that he wanted to at least be friendly since they would be spending most of their time together in the arena.

"The Capitol. They gave you that nickname after the Tribute Parade." he explained to her as they walked down the hallway. Golden Girl. She took a liking to the name. That must have meant that the Capitol liked her quite a bit as the only other person who had earned a nickname was Katniss and they seemed to like her, though she wasn't sure why. But she pushed that thought away as the words kept repeating in her mind. Golden Girl.