The Mentor. (Cato Hadley)

Chapter Two.

There is no individuality in District Thirteen. Everyone wears the exact same bland uniform, there's no color, nothing. Completely the opposite of the Capitol. I couldn't say that I liked it here, but it's obviously better than the arena. It's only been about a month since I have arrived, luckily able to share Cato's room with him.

Every morning, you get your schedule. I thought life in District Two was rough before my Games, with the strict training schedule I had to maintain. That was nothing compared to my current life in District Thirteen. Sure, you can go outside for sunlight - but only if it's on your schedule. Every morning, you stick your arm into a contraption in the wall and it tattoos your schedule onto your arm. Meals are at specific times, and you only get certain rations. The ink is visible until the end of the night, when you bathe, and that's when it disappears.

At first, I was curious about why District Thirteen was so willing to not only take the District Twelve refugees but the rest of us as well. Finnick, from District Four, Cato and I, from Two, Beetee from Three. It seemed strange, why the district running out of resources was taking us all in. It wasn't until a few days after I got here that Dalton, a District Ten refugee who made it here on foot, explained to Katniss and I why that was. A few years ago, the district had a sickness that took half their population and left most women infertile. Back in his home district, he maintained the diversity of the herd with the implantation of frozen embryos on a beef farm. He told us the reality - District Thirteen takes any and all refugees because they need us to survive, repopulate, before they all die out.

Like Katniss, I mostly ignore the words scribbled on my arm. Apart from meals, I just wander around the district, meeting people, observing, even learning different medicinal things from Katniss' mother and sister. Cato, however, takes his job seriously. In the year that he has been held up in District Thirteen, he's become a well respected member of their military. Whether it be as a tribute or as a soldier, I can tell he always feels the need to have something to fight for. While his father did opt to send his daughter away due to the impending war, he was under the impression that Celeste was in the Capitol - not the forgotten district. And, as a Capitol loyalist, he's not aware that Cato Hadley is very much alive and well.

While the reunification with Cato had been great, I couldn't tell you that I see him often. In fact, other than the first couple days that President Coin allowed him to take off and help me settle in, I haven't seen my former tribute really at all. One year of not seeing him, yet he's taken from me at every moment possible. Of course, he is very high ranking, having been issued a communicuff. It looks like a watch but instead prints messages across it. It's a very high privilege, one that I'm not shocked Cato has earned so quickly. The only refugee I know of that has one besides Cato is Gale, who earned the privilege after saving eight hundred District Twelve lives from the bombing.

"Marblyn," I smile as the familiar blonde boy steps into our shared room, pulling me into a hug. He formerly shared a room with his sister, but Celeste had no issue moving into a separate room with my little sister. Celeste and Caelia have become inseparable, often being seen with Katniss' sister, Primrose. "I missed you."

"Well," I sigh, looking into his eyes. It's funny how I turned from a sick, twisted, sadistic killer to a lovesick puppy who misses Cato the second he leaves room. It's funny how much I became a teenager when I'm not spending my days drilled with Capitol brainwash. "If you weren't pulled away every time we had a second alone, this wouldn't be a problem."

"About that," I stare at him, annoyed, knowing he's going to push me into some rebel meeting at the Command. President Coin has told me she saved me for a reason. She said she could have left me behind like Johanna and Peeta, but she chose to save me - because I'm a means to an end. What a very simplistic way of trying to use me for her own cause. Little does she know, I've been used for the last three years of my life - I'm done with it.