Cage me like an animal • F Odair¹ •

IV

" - doesn't hold a candle to you, and he knows it,"

•∘♛∘•

The Training Center had a tower designed exclusively for the tributes and their teams. This tower was their home until they were sent to the arena. Each district had an entire floor. All one needed to do was step into an elevator and press the number of their district. Easy enough to remember.

Athena had ridden in elevators several times. There were elevators in the academy and in the Justice Building. They worked well and everything, but sometimes they creaked and they didn't move all that fast. The walls of this elevator were made of crystal so that they could see the people on the ground turn into ants as they shot into the air. It was an oddly exhilarating feeling for an elevator, and if she didn't already know that it would sound childish, Athena would ask if they could go on it again.

"Where were you, anyway?" Athena asks Mags and Finnick, as they stepped out of the elevator. "While we were getting ready and in the stables and everything?"

"We were doing our jobs," Finnick replied matter-of-factly. "Getting you sponsors."

"How'd it go?" Athena and Kai asked in unison, suddenly alert.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Finnick said with a smirk. "Unfortunately, there's nothing definite. As much as everyone loved you out there, nobody wants to invest money in someone they don't know anything about yet. We got people interested, but we're going to have to wait a few days before we can seal any deals."

It wasn't much, but Athena was comforted by the fact that they were at least on the right track. And they still had a few days until they went into the arena. As long as she didn't find some way to ruin everything in the meantime...

From the looks of it, Athena could probably fit a great deal of her house into her quarters. Like the train car, they were plush, but with so many automatic gadgets that she was a little disappointed by the realization that she'd never have time to push all of the buttons. The shower alone somehow managed to have a panel with more than a hundred options to regulate water pressure and temperate, soaps, scents, oils, shampoos, and massaging sponges. When she stepped onto the matt, there were heaters that came on instantly, blow drying her body. Instead of having to struggle with the knots in her hair, all Athena had to do was place her hand on a box that sent currents to her scalp, drying, untangling, and parting her hair, so that it fell around her shoulders, as tame as she had ever gotten it.

She could program the wardrobe for an outfit to her taste. The windows zoomed in and out of different parts of the city at her command. She only needed to whisper food from a menu into a mouthpiece for it to appear, hot and steamy, in less than a minute. Though Athena hated the Capitol, she was starting to understand them. If she lived in such comfort, such luxury, for her whole life while being told all the same lies about Panem and the Games, she might have become oblivious to the suffering of the rest of the country, too.

Soon, Alayne called her down to supper. Athena was glad she hadn't eaten anything, though she knew tonight's supper wouldn't really be about the food, but about strategizing. Finnick and Mags were already seated at the table when they arrived, speaking in low voices. Kai, Tatiana, and Syrio were seated on the balcony that overlooked the Capitol but walked over to the dining room at the sight of her and Alayne. Athena was glad Tatiana and Syrio were there. No matter how she felt personally about their ideas, they were smart and knew what the Capitol wanted to see. They could play a big role in getting the Capitol to like her.

A young, silent man dressed all in white offered them all stemmed glasses of wine. At first, Athena thought about turning him down but then reconsidered. Before money had gotten too scarce, her parents had had alcohol at home, wine included, but she had never had any herself; she didn't know how her parents would react if they found out, and Athena thought she had quite enough to be getting on with without getting an earful about drinking too young. Some of the sailors would pass around flasks of whiskey like it was water while they were at sea, but Athena never drank too much, scared it would throw her off her work. Then there were the parties the people her age would throw, celebrations that were only ever permitted because they never got out of control and they were always thrown in celebration of the Games. She was well-liked enough to get invited to them, but she didn't always go. When she did, though, the alcohol there was never wine and she never drank enough to get drunk. In any case, if she was dying in a few days, she figured it wouldn't matter if she drank, so she accepted the offer. The liquid was tart and dry, but she remembered her mother saying in passing once that it grew on a person, so she kept drinking.