Chapter 8

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I tap Cato and signal him that they are coming over, he stops talking to Brutus and we walk to meet them halfway.

"I'm Glimmer and this is Marvel." The girl says with a smile while pointing to the boy next to her. Both of them are wearing bizarre pink outfits with sequins and long capes with pink fur. Somehow, Glimmer still looks fine, completely unbothered by the odd feathered headpiece. I look at Marvel, he looks like he's trying to come across as confident, but just comes off as if he's in pain. He is much more fidgety in his outfit than Glimmer, twiddling aimlessly with one of his sleeves. The costumes they have on make me much less embarrassed by my gold armor, I'd kill Azal if she made me wear anything as ridiculous as that.

"I'm Clove, that's Cato," I say, it becomes silent, I guess we're all thinking about what to say next.

"So other than us, do you think anyone else is worth talking to?" Marvel asks us,

"Yeah, the male from district 11 might be helpful, as well as the girl from district 4, the others don't seem like much of anything to worry about." Cato replies looking at the tributes standing by their chariots. I look around, most of the other tributes look scared, and the hideous outfits their wearing don't make them look any better.

"Yeah alright, what about the district 12 girl?" Marvel questions looking at Cato, we turn to the elevator to see the district 12 tributes exit and make their way to their chariot. Their costumes don't seem like anything special, they are wearing a black unitard with capes, and their stylist following.

"I don't know, we'll see how she does in training." Cato responds looking back at their chariot. I see Silvia nod over at us and signal for us to get into the chariot.

"See you guys after, we're being called back." I say before turning to leave, I see Cato say something to Marvel before following me back to our chariot.

"I think that was fine, don't you?" I ask him, he nods before walking to his side and climbing on. I start to climb up as well, but Azal stops me,

"Here, you forgot the helmet, remember don't smile act as if their beneath you." She says as she puts the helmet on.

"District 1!" I hear someone call and as they start out, the crowd goes crazy, I step onto the chariot, as the announcer shouts

"District 2!" Our chariot starts moving and I feel Cato look at me,

"Are you alright?" I ask him quietly,

"Yeah" He responds softly before facing forward. I see the crowd stand up and cheer, throwing flowers down. I remain unbothered, as the next few districts are called, I feel something brush against my hand. I quickly look over to see Cato's hand brush against mine. Whatever, he probably just didn't realize how close we were or something. I feel him take my hand in his, and intertwine our fingers so we're now holding hands. What on earth is doing? I try to pull my hand away, but he tightens his grasp. I could step on his toe, but he might fall off, and either get trampled, pull me with him, or just fall off and loose me sponsors. I decide against that, it's not like the others can see. I wave to the crowd and they start going wild, I wonder why, all I did was wave. I look to the screen to see the real reason for their excitement, district 12 is on fire. Their dull black outfits are now engulphed in flames and to top it off, they are holding hands. They wave and smile, the girl blows a kiss and the crowd erupts into cheers. They lift their intertwined hands up higher for the crowd to see. I bet they're loving this, it makes me sick seeing district 12 outshine us. The chariots loop around the City Circle and we stop as the President stands up. He walks to the balcony to welcome us all, they play the national anthem, before panning to all the chariots. The screen lingers longer than I would've liked on district 12 before the chariots start again and take us back to the Training Center. The rest of the chariots follow, and the doors close with a loud boom. I nudge Cato and he looks over at me confused before letting go of my hand. I take off my helmet and hop off the chariot, I look over at district 12 as their stylist extinguishes their capes. I make eye contact with the girl and glare, she looks away and goes over to her mentor. I wish these games would just start already. Cato walks over to where I'm standing and looks over at them as well.

"Maybe we shouldn't worry about becoming their allies and just focus on killing them instead." He says, I nod in agreement

"I think that is the smartest thing you've said since we arrived. And what was with you during the parade? What if someone saw that?" I ask him slightly annoyed, he grins and walks not saying anything. The stylists come over, and start muttering things about how we looked so great and the crowd loved us.

"Yeah we did, until those two fireballs showed up and stole our sponsors!" Cato yells angrily, pushing his way past us and heading for the elevator.

"Don't worry, you still have the interviews, and the scoring to impress the crowd. You're going to be able to kill district twelve anyway. So just be patient." Enobaria says leading me over to where Cato, Brutus, and Silvia were waiting. We get into the elevator, and Silvia pushes one of the buttons. We were only there for a few seconds before the doors opened and we entered the apartment we would be staying in.

"Go get changed and we'll talk after." Enobaria says as Silvia leads us to our rooms.

"The rules here are the same as the train, no-" she starts to say

"We know, no mingling." Cato states , causing Silvia to sputter out a response consisting of

"No! Well yes, but that isn't exactly the meaning. Just enjoy your rooms." She sighs before walking out, her blue heels clacking against the floor.

"I thought she would leave us after the train ride." I say choosing to ignore the previous conversation,

"Me too, guess we're stuck with her." He replies before entering his room.

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