Panem High School

Alternate Universe

What if Cato was never friends with Clove...
Cato's POV
I wake up to my alarm going off in my bedroom. I furrowed my eyebrows as I shut it off and looked around my room. It seems pretty much the same. I slowly took a shower and got dressed. This is weird. I was just in the Hunger Games, how am I home already? Not to mention, the only clothes that I appear to have are leather jackets, black T-shirts, and jeans. What's going on?
"Cato!! Hurry!! You're gonna be late for school." I heard my mom call from downstairs. For just a moment instead of my mom I heard Clove's screams for help. I shook off the feeling and went downstairs. I saw my parents sitting at the breakfast table, happily chatting away.
"You guys aren't fighting anymore?" I asked as I sat down and ate my breakfast.
"Fighting? Why would we be fighting?" My dad asked.
"You're always fighting."
"No we aren't." I finish my breakfast and leave. This is too odd. I go to my driveway where my car should be, but instead I find a motorcycle.
"Where's my car?"
"You said you wanted a motorcycle instead, remember?" My mom replied.
"How do I drive Marvel, Clove, and Glimmer to school on that thing?"
"Who? Honey, I think you've been riding that motorcycle without a helmet for too long." I walked over to the motorcycle and got on, no helmet in sight. How do I do this? Somehow I just know how to drive the motorcycle and before I knew it I was driving down the street.
"Hey Hadley!!" I heard someone call. I turned my head and saw Hawthorne riding a motorcycle beside me.
"What do you want?" I spat.
"Hey dude, chill. I'm your best friend, no need for the rage."
"Best friend? You're from 12, I'd never hang out with you."
"Look, I know you always tease me about that, but seriously, what is your problem?" What? We arrived at the school and after getting off of my motorcycle I finally saw a familiar face.
"Sagara!! You'll never believe what just happened to me." I exclaimed as I raced up to her.
"Hey you!!" She said with a huge smile.
"Uh hey, so my parents are being nice to each other and Hawthorne thinks I'm his best friend and I ride a motorcycle."
"Okay, anything new happen?"
"New? This is like opposite day."
"Okay then."
"Don't worry Sagara, he's acting weird today." Hawthorne said as he appeared next to me.
"Well, I have to go meet Adrianna and Katniss. I'll see you later, babe." Sagara walked off and I raised my eyebrows.
"Did she just call me babe?" I asked.
"Well yeah, she is your girlfriend." Hawthorne said as he walked off.
"My what?" The day just got weirder from there. First period I still had Coin and she still hated me, but my seat wasn't next to Clove. In fact, neither Clove nor Glimmer spoke to me. Hawthorne and Everdeen are still sitting next to each other, but I sit alone in the back. The class started with Coin taking attendance.
"Cato Hadley." Coin said.
"Here." I said.
"Mr. Hadley has actually decided to join us today. I feel so special." What does that mean? Sure I hate the class, but I haven't played hooky. Yet anyway. Coin went on to discuss the rebellion of area 13, and soon after gave us an in class assignment. With partners. That she will assign us. She read off the pairings and I listened for my name.
"Cato Hadley and Clove Sevina." Coin read. At least I can finally talk to Clove now about this weirdness. The gist of the lesson is that Coin wants each of us to choose a side of the rebellion and have a debate. Clove walked over to me and sat beside me.
"Let's get this over with." Clove stated and pulled out a notepad.
"Clove, this day has been one of the weirdest of my life. Sagara thinks she's my girlfriend, Hawthorne thinks he's my best friend, my parents are nice to each other, I have a motorcycle, and I haven't seen Marvel all day." I explained.
"Interesting."
"Interesting? Doesn't this sound the least bit odd to you?"
"Considering I don't hang out with you, Marvel James, Sagara Garner, or Gale Hawthorne, no. It does not."
"Don't hang out with me? Clove, we're best friends."
"As if."
"As if? What do you mean? As if?"
"What I mean is that I hate you. I thought that was pretty clear to the both of us. We don't like each other." Where the hell am I? Clove can't hate me. I definitely don't hate Clove.
"I don't hate you."
"I find that hard to believe."
"Why?"
"You totally bully my best friend and your girlfriend does the same to me. If only she knew you've been cheating on her all year."
"With who? Who's your best friend?"
"Like you don't know."
"Who?"
"Peeta Mellark is my best friend and it's pretty obvious you and Adrianna Hennessey have been fooling around for months." Peeta Mellark? Clove is not best friends with Peeta Mellark.
"Lover Boy? Seriously?" Clove hit me and glared.
"Do not call him that. Look, I don't like you and you don't like me, so let's just get this project over with. I'll be the rebel side of the debate and you can be the Capitol's side."
"Why would you voluntarily want to be on the rebel side?"
"Probably because if I were alive during the rebellion I would've been on their side." Now that is the last straw. There is no way this is real life. Clove would never slum it with those rebels in the outer areas. What the heck is going on? I turned my attention towards the assignment. It wasn't that difficult to think of reasons why my side is the right side. For one thing we won and the 13th area is completely gone. Another, I have an awesome life. Why would I give that up for some ridiculous group who thinks something is wrong? Who knows where we would be right now if the rebels had won. Probably all dead from the chaos of it all. No, the Capitol and the leaders are the right side, they give perks to the people who are loyal and deserving of it and that's just how I like it. Clove finished her reasons and so did I, leading to our debate.
"You go first." I said.
"No, you go first. It's the rule for debates." Clove replied.
"There's a rule for debates?"
"Yes, the person who is supportive of the issue at hand always goes first."
"Okay then." The rest of the class was spent arguing with Clove over whose side is right. Her reasons were things Clove would never say. I have no idea what's going on here, but I intend to find out. After that class I went to science. In this class I still sit next to Sagara. I'm not really sure what to do or say around her. She thinks she's my girlfriend, but she's not. Now I have to act like her boyfriend, well, I don't have to do anything. In fact, in whatever this world is, it sounds like I'm not the most faithful boyfriend. It wouldn't be the first time. I just highly doubt I would ever cheat on someone like Sagara with someone like Adrianna Hennessey. Anyway, I tried my best to just ignore her the entire class and focused on the lecture Professor Fuse was giving. It made no sense to me, but whatever. About halfway through the lesson, someone text me. I looked down at my phone and it said it was from Hawthorne. How did he get my number? I sure as hell didn't give it to him. Of course, in whatever world this is who knows what I did.
From: Gale
Dude, this class is killing me. Norris is making us draw landscapes. Let's skip the rest of the period and come back for lunch. Fake a stomach ache or something.
I may not like that guy, but he doesn't need to tell me twice to skip class. I told Professor Fuse I had a migraine and left. I'm not sure where I'm suppose to be "meeting" Hawthorne, or if I even should meet him, but before I can make my mind up about what I want to do, Hawthorne appears.
"I was feeling the need for a smoke. Let's go in the alley behind the school. I told Katniss and Adrianna to meet us there." Hawthorne said. I followed him.
"Smoke? I don't smoke." I replied. I mean, on occasion I do, but only when I'm stressed or drunk. Otherwise I care too much about my Hunger Games training to smoke.
"Yeah, right. We'll keep telling Sagara that. Speaking of which, are you and Adrianna still seeing each other?"
"Of course they are, if they weren't Cato would no longer be an even bigger ass than usual. Then life just wouldn't make sense anymore." Marvel said as he approached with his arm around Foxface, Glimmer trailing behind them. This is just getting outrageous.
"You're cheating on your girlfriend? That's despicable. I told you, Glimmer. You didn't believe me, but now everyone is gonna know." Foxface spat and Glimmer looked down at her feet.
"Of course, just our luck. The three people we run into out of the entire school is Marvel and his two rule following lackeys." Hawthorne spat.
"Watch your mouth, Hawthorne." Hawthorne threw Marvel against the lockers.
"Listen here James, as far as you are concerned, and this goes for the two girls, Cato and I were never here. As for Cato's love life, that is none of your business." I walked over to the two and threw Hawthorne off of Marvel. The reactions of everyone showed shock.
"Are we seriously fighting in a silent hallway? Come on, it's not like Marvel, Glimmer, and Foxface are in class right now." I spat.
"Foxface? That's a new one." Foxface remarked.
"As much as I hate to say it, Hadley is right. Let's go." Marvel said and the three of them left. Hawthorne looked at me oddly.
"What is with you today?" Hawthorne asked.
"Maybe I'm just tired of it all. I have no time for all of this drama." I replied.
"You really need a smoke. You're getting cranky." The two of us walked out of the school and into the alley beside it, where I could make out Everdeen and Adrianna in the dim lighting. Hawthorne took two cigarettes from Adrianna's pack and handed me one. Everdeen lit them and the four of us silently let out a puff of smoke, Everdeen and Hawthorne leaning against one wall and Adrianna and me against the other.
"So hot stuff, plan on coming over later?" Adrianna purred.
"No." I quickly replied.
"Why not?"
"I don't want to." What I want to do is figure out what the heck is going on. I should try to talk to Clove again, I want to see what her home life is like in this world.
"What are you gonna do? Hang out with your actual girlfriend? Please." She's getting on my nerves.
"She's a lot more interesting than you. No though, I'm not gonna hang out with Sagara."
"With who then?"
"Clove Sevina." That made Hawthorne scoff.
"Good one. She's so rebellious, and not in a good way. I mean, what 2 actively hates the Capitol? Her friend is even worse." Hawthorne remarked.
"Peeta isn't that bad. Clove gets on my nerves, but Peeta is a nice guy." Katniss said.
"Oh yeah, the guy you keep stringing along."
"I'm not stringing him along. I'm just being nice to him."
"It's so obvious he has a crush on you. If that girl, Clove, let him he would be following you around all day." Adrianna commented.
"Why do you guys hate them so much?"
"I don't hate them, it's just fun to annoy them and make fun of them." Hawthorne said.
"Behind their backs?" I asked.
"Like you've never done it."
"I think we're all focusing on the wrong thing here. Why are you hanging out with Clove Sevina all the sudden? You've never even brought her up before unless it's something to do with a prank." Adrianna asked me. Who do they think I am?
"I, uh, need to work on a project with her." I lied.
"Which one?"
"Coin."
"Coin's assignment was an in class project and it was only for today." Hawthorne reminded.
"Who knows with Coin. She probably held them back to go further into the project since Clove is her favorite student and Cato is practically failing her class. You know that's why she put them together." Katniss said.
"It's time for lunch. Let's go." Hawthorne said and the four of us put out our cigarettes and walked back inside the school. We went to lunch next and sat at a table with Sagara. The five of us were quiet as we ate our lunch. I studied the cafeteria and spotted Clove and Mellark sitting with Madge Undersee, Artemis Alessi, Plasmic Omega, Pexey Lingham, and some other people. How can Clove be voluntarily sitting with people who like to bake and study and pick flowers for their mothers? I'll never be able to understand this new Clove. She makes absolutely no sense when compared to the real Clove. At least the Clove I thought I knew. Lunch was over quickly and soon the rest of the school day was done, resulting in me being back on the motorcycle and driving back to my house. After checking in with my mom and dropping off all of my books, I began the walk over to Clove's house. I reached her house and rang the doorbell. Willow answered.
"Who are you?" She asked. She doesn't know who I am? You have got to be kidding me.
"Are you a friend of Slate's? He's not here right now, but you can probably find him at the Training Academy." Willow stated. Wait, Slate is here? In 2? Not in the Capitol?
"Is Clove here?" I finally managed to ask.
"Yeah, hold on, I'll get her for you." Willow walked away from the door, looking at me weirdly, as she went to get Clove. Clove appeared shortly after Willow left and glared at me.
"What are you? My stalker now or something?" She scoffed and began to close the door. I stopped her.
"Wait, I have to ask you something." I said as she opened the door again.
"What?"
"Where's your mom?"
"Okay, now I'm seriously closing the door on you." She began to close it again.
"Why?" The door swung open this time.
"I don't have to stand here and take this. I don't need to listen to your backhanded comments about how my mom offed herself and blamed my entire family for why she did it. I realize I'm a laughingstock and that everyone knows about it. Just leave me alone."
"Wait, I didn't know."
"That's a lie. Your mom sent us a fruit basket. I know you think it's funny, my situation, since you have the two most perfect parents in the entire world, but not everyone is as well off as you."
"So it's just your dad supporting you?"
"Besides my brother, yeah, are you done now?" How is this world so messed up?
"No. Were we ever friends?" I have to know. I have to know how this person that I'm suppose to be in this world has never been friends with Clove. How did that happen?
"No, we trained together because we were the best in the Academy, that's it. Are you suffering from amnesia or something?"
"Something like that." I walked away from her house and back to mine. I went to my room and sat on my bed, trying to remember everything that happened before I woke up this morning. I was in the games, in fact, the last thing I remember is the Muttations attacking me. How did I get from there to here? How does my face have absolutely no scars? How does my entire body seem completely intact, not even a bruise? This is getting really strange.
"Cato? Cato, can you hear me?" I heard Clove say. I looked around my room, Clove is nowhere in sight. What the-
"Cato? Come on, wake up." There's Clove's voice again. Where is her voice coming from?
"I'm getting nervous. Just wake up already." That's the third time I've heard her voice. I'm not crazy, I know it's hers and even if it isn't I'm still alone so the fact that I can hear someone's voice at all means I'm going crazy or something. A burning sensation began to overtake my hand. I looked down at my hand and saw a scar beginning to form in the middle of my hand. I winced as other parts of my body began to hurt. Was this all a dream or something? I sat on my bed as I really tried to remember going to bed the night before. Then I realized that I couldn't. And that's when I woke up.