A Game Of Justice ✭ Cato Hadley

Ten - Past Or Present

Clio throws herself in the seat beside Reef in the large mess hall, and her guards groan as the movement tugs on the chains and causes them to have to catch themselves from stumbling. Most of the members of District Thirteen have been crammed into the hall at once – except those deemed essential to their workforce – and even then, with little to no space, everyone avoids the table where Clio and Reef sit.

"What are we here for?" Clio mumbles as the officials switch on the large screens and begin to sync them together.

"There's a message or something." Reef shrugs, pointing her index finger at the screen where Katniss is above ground somewhere, sitting on a fallen marble pillar. "I heard someone say that they've sent a team to the Capitol to rescue the hostages. The guy you hate has gone, I listened to him tell Haymitch after curfew last night. It's three o'clock which Finnick said is the time for Beetee to work his hacking magic so they can distract the Capitol."

"You love to gossip don't you?" Clio smiles at the teenager next to her, watching her reach over and grab the biscuit that she had saved from lunch.

"It's boring here, and besides it's their fault for having their conversation right outside my room. We were going to find out anyway if we've all been brought here to listen to the information Katniss and Finnick have." Reef explains cheekily before biting into Clio's biscuit and allowing herself to be shushed as Katniss finally begins talking.

"When I met Peeta, I was eleven years old and almost dead..."

"Oh cute, a sob story." Clio grumbles, leaning her forehead onto her elbows on top of the table and having to force herself not to repeatedly slam her head onto the metal. "What is this supposed to achieve?"

"It might be cute." Reef answers. "She's talking about the love between her and Peeta, and I mean properly this time."

"Don't tell me you believed their whole spiel, Reef? I thought you were smarter than that."

"They were cute?" Reef tries, her tone sounding as if she's questioning herself. She hears Clio drop her head, bashing it onto the metal table and whines. "I take it that was the wrong answer?"

"Yes!" The victor exclaims before she is shushed by the citizens on the table to their right.

She listens to the symbol of the rebellion talk about a day when she was eleven, where she spent her time trying to sell her sister's baby clothes in the pouring rain to anyone with any spare money, including Peeta's mother who chased her from the door of their bakery, all whilst knowing she was starving. Of how the young boy took a beating so that he could bring her the loaves of bread. Clio tilts her head to the side to glance at the teen beside her who is watching the screen intently, and she whispers to grab her attention. "Reef?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever go hungry? As a little kid?"

Reef recognises that there's something akin to guilt, to shame, in the hushed tones of Clio's voice. It's a foreign feeling to the woman and Reef knows it, so she smiles at her. "Sometimes. It would've got worse if Luna hadn't offered to help."

Clio's eyes widen in disbelief. "Luna had to help you afford food? I thought District Four was well off enough that you didn't have to worry about that?"

"Not everyone struggles. We only needed Luna's help every couple of months, just for help with buying the food after paying our rent because it was harder without Jonah's income from the fisheries."

"If you need money after this is all over then you can have half of my inheritance." Clio offers her honestly. She's not stupid, she knows that the outer districts each have to take out almost as much tesserae as One and Two combined but neither Luna nor Finnick had ever so much as hinted to the residents of District Four requiring additional help; although she supposes she's never really cared enough to ask before meeting Reef.