Victory - Cato Hadley

chapter sixteen

"What happened to your neck?" Johanna asks, suddenly standing next to me.
"Why?" I ask. I'm wearing a high neck shirt, so she couldn't possibly see.
"Well, there's a huge bruise on your neck. I suppose, that's why you're wearing the turtle neck shirt"
"Correct. You're good" I say still looking at the tributes in front of me. Cato's looking up time after time, making sure I'm okay. Brutus didn't even come here today. He stayed in his room. I must've really made him angry.
"Why do you have the bruise then? And why is Brutus not here today?"
"You never shut up, do you?" I ask and she chuckles.
"Not really" she says looking at me smirking.
"He chocked me last night after I called him a bad mentor" I say.
"And you hit him back or something?"
"Nope"
"Why? I've seen you fighting. You could easily take him out in seconds" she says.
"Trying to keep it entertaining" I say, and we both laugh.
"And your hand?" 
"Myself" 
"What happend?"
"Long story. Don't want to talk about it" I say, and look at her. She gives me an assuring look before walking back over to Finnick. Finnick's standing there with an elderly lady. She looks about sixty or something. She has long, grey hair. She looks quite lovely, to be honest. She must be from district four too.
Suddenly, all three of them look at me at the same time. I guess, Johanna told them about Brutus. I pull the neck of my shirt higher and concentrate on my tributes again. Clove is throwing some knives, while Cato's talking to the district one tributes. The blonde one, with the stupid name is clinging onto his arm. I'm not even annoyed though. I can see the tortured look on Cato's face. He doesn't exactly enjoy it.  It makes me giggle a little. Cato then turns his head. He must've heard. He looks at me questioning, and I slightly gesture over to the blonde girl with my eyes. He chuckles and rolls his eyes, causing me to laugh even more. I could never be jealous of her. Only one of them is going to come out there. And that's definitely not going to be her. 
I look over at her mentors. I believe that they're siblings, or at least that's what Enobaria told me. They've both won the games. She's very tall for a woman and has long, blonde hair. Her brother and her look massive in comparison with me. Even with Brutus. Brutus just looks old, if you ask me. That's why people respect him. Not because he's a victor. It's just that his scary looks and the elderness really goes well together. They're all afraid of him.

All of a sudden, I hear a loud bang. I look over to my right, to see Twelve on the floor. He just fell down from one of the parcours. He has a painful look on his face, at least until he hears the careers laughing. His face turns frightened pretty fast. Katniss walks over to him and whispers something into his ear. For a moment, it looks like they're arguing but then he gets up. He walks over to one of the weights and picks up the heaviest of them all. Cato lifts his head up to look at me and I give him a slight grin. Twelve then throws the weight across the room, hitting one a few of the spears. Both of one look a little intimidated but not Cato. He gives a short assuring nod, before they all walk away again. Twelve smiles at Katniss, as she returns one. 

...

Training goes over pretty fast and we all head up again. The elevators are full at some point, and I find myself with the tributes and mentors from one and twelve and of course mine and Brutus.
We stop on floor one and the blonde and her brother exit with their tributes. The female tribute winks at Cato, as the door closes. We both turn to look at eachother at the same time, causing both of us to giggle a little. I notice Katniss looking at us questioning. I guess she doesn't know we're dating. I politely smile at her, as the door opens at our floor. Brutus gets out first, followed by Clove and Cato who's holding my hand now. 
"I'm Athena by the way" I say still smiling at Katniss. She now slightly smiles back at me, as the doors close. 
Cato and I go directly to his room. I lay down on his bed while he goes showering. I'm pretty tired after all this observing today.
"You sure you don't want to join me?" he asks, his head popping out of the door with a huge grin on his face.
"Yup" I say smiling widely. 
"Your loss" he says shrugging his shoulders. I hear the shower starting and close my eyes. 

"Dinner's ready" I hear Cato say next to me.
"Did I fall asleep?" I ask him.
"Yes you did," he says smiling. "Come on. Dinner's ready"
I groan as I get up and walk after him. Brutus and Clove are already sitting at the table. 
"Are you finally coming too?" he asks us annoyed.
"Yes" I say smiling and sit down across from him. 
He's talking almost the whole dinner. Talking about the games and the arena and what they should do and what they shouldn't do. 
"The cornucopia is dangerous" I say, and he looks at me angrily.
"Yeah but they need the weapons" he says.
"Right" I say shrugging my shoulders. I don't want him getting angry at me again today. 
He continues blabbing about the arena until we're all finished. We all go to our rooms, trying to get some sleep. I do catch a shirtless Cato slipping into bed with me though at some point at night. It's not that I mind though. Quite the opposite.