Breaking Down Bridges ▸ Hunger Games

Chapter Twelve: Cato Demeir

Chapter Twelve:

Cato's POV

Thumbing through the pages of my fantasies

Pushing all the mercy down, down, down

I wanna see you try to take a swing at me

Come on, gonna put you on the ground, ground, ground

—Korn, "Thoughtless"

The morning after the Opening Ceremony, I woke up to the annoying sound of an alarm clock blaring. It was better than Alexis flipping me over in the morning, but still, the sound was similar to a damn siren.

It was pitch-black in the room; there wasn't even any sunlight creeping in behind the windows yet. Who in their right mind thought it would be a good idea to start training before the sun even came out?

My head still buried in a pillow, I smacked my right hand on the fancy Capitol nightstand next to the bed, searching for the alarm clock. I heard the smash!  of plastic when my fist slammed on the top of the clock. I then opened my eyes to find I had crushed it in half. Well, I guess it wouldn't bother me anymore...

Dressed in my training clothes, I headed downstairs to the breakfast hall in the Remake Center.

Hawthorne was the only one in the room, his face buried in his plate, sound asleep.

When I smacked him upside the head to wake him up, he nearly jumped out of his seat.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

I glanced at the eggs stuck to his face and then back down at his plate. "Did ya come down early for a snack, Hawthorne?"

He shot me a glare and wiped the food off his face. "My alarm clock went off at 1 AM. So, I came down here, got my breakfast... and well, the rest is history..."

"I think your clock's messed up," I stated, which caused him to shoot me a glare in response.

"Wow, Cato, you're so intelligent. I would've never  known that unless you would've said something," he replied sarcastically.

I smirked, just as the rest of the tributes began to pile into the room.

When all the tributes were ready, Alia and I headed off to the training center, where Atala and the rest of the trainers were waiting.

She turned to the two of us and said, "Well, I'm not surprised that the two of you are the first in here. You two were always the most excited to train."

Atala then turned to the rest of the tributes that had come into the gym. "Welcome, tributes," she said, "To the training center... or should I say, welcome back.  Now, let me just refresh your memories on how things work here. First, there is no fighting with the other tributes; you'll be doing plenty of that in the arena. You will all go through a series of exercises, and then you may train as you choose. Go line up now."

We all lined up behind a long set of steel monkey bars to test our strength and climbing abilities.

The skittish District Three girl, Doe, was the first to go. It was clear she had no strength or climbing skills whatsoever, since she fell on the first bar.

Next was Alexis, who made it halfway before collapsing to the floor below. Only eight of us made it all the way across: Alia, me, Sage, Cyra, Hawthorne, Finnick, Damian, and Crimson.