Victory - Cato Hadley

chapter seven

It's been a couple of months since we've come back from the Capitol. Everything's back to normal now. It's June now. The weather's sunny and rather hot. Me and Cato have been hanging out a lot. He asked me out on a date last week and I hesistantly said yes. Not because I don't want to, it's because I'm scared. Brutus is a big fan of Cato and his skills and I kind of have the feeling that he's going to get chosen. It's only two weeks until the reapings now. I'm so fucking nervous, not gonna lie. I'm scared that I'm going to lose him too.

"Hey" I hear next to me and look to my right. It's Cato. He's leaning on to one of the lockers next to mine. He has a bright smile formed on his face.
"Hi" I say and smile back.
"So, about our date. Are you ready or not?" Shit. I haven't given him an answer yet. I have been thinking too much the past few weeks. 
"Uhm, I don't really know" I say and look down.
"You don't need to be ashamed or something. We can wait" he says, lifting my chin up with one hand. 
"No, Cato. We can't wait any longer" I say a little louder. A few kids turn their heads to look at us.
"What do you mean?" Cato asks.
"Yes. I say yes to the date. Let's talk about it tonight" I say, and close my locker. I turn to walk away but he holds onto my arm.
"What's wrong Athena?" he looks at me concerned.
"I'll tell you later okay?" He looks at me for a few seconds before nodding.
"Promise me?"
"Promise" 
He pulls me in for a quick hug before walking away. We have seperate classes. I plan on not attending classes. I haven't been really the past few weeks. I've decided that it doesn't matter if I do. I already won the hunger games and have a lot of money. I don't need a job. My job is to train the other tributes for the rest of my life and be a mentor. Not really what I wanted to do but that's the reality. 

I decide to go throw some knives. History doesn't matter. It's always the same anyway. Only Panem, Panem, Panem. I could care less. 
I walk inside the training centre and into the wardrobes. Quickly I change my clothes and walk out. I walk towards the knife throwing station. A slight grin crosses my face. I love throwing knives. As bad as it sounds, but it calms me down. I take a few from the box and twirl them between my fingers. I always do that first. It's almost like a compulsion. I just do. Sometimes I don't even know myself.
I start throwing one knife and then another, and another. They all hit the target straight in the middle and I go to take them out again. I do that over and over again for hours on end. I only stop, when a few kids come in. I take a look at the clock above me. It's already three o'clock. I have been throwing these knives for three hours now.

It doesn't take too long for everybody else to arrive. I gather the knives together before standing into the middle. Enobaria and Brutus don't have time to be here today, so it's only me. The other victors don't want to do it anymore. I can't blame them.

I stand straight while everybody forms circle around me.
"Okay, lets start" I say, and take a deep breath. "Brutus and Enobaria will not be here this week. Maybe they'll be here next week but I don't know. Not that I care. This week you know, training will be as usual from three to seven. I want you all to give your best. This weeks training is going to be hard. Next week the training is going to be about showing your skills. We are going to have training from eight to three. Get it? I want everybody to train the best they can. Depending on how good you are from now on, I'll choose who will be in the games. Don't disappoint me. Now, run ten rounds" I say. They all look at me with wide eyes and a few of them sigh. 
"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I said run!" I say, and they all start running.
I go over to my bag and take out my bottle. I don't want to be mean to these kids but I have no other choice. I'll be alone with them for the next two weeks and I need them to respect me. 

I wait for them to stop running. They all form a circle around me again.
"Great. Now a hundred push ups. If someone stops, everybody is going to start over again"
I take out my whistle and blow into it very hard.
"One" I say, and everybody gets to the ground to get started. I walk around watching them all closely. 
"We're starting over. Lavender, keep up" I say and she mumbles something under her breath. I notice that it wasn't very nice, because the others around her look at me shocked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?" I ask her, walking towards her slowly.
"I said, you don't need to be such a bitch"
"So, you called me a bitch?" I ask with a slight smirk forming on my face.
"Yes I did" she says, and crosses her arms infront of her chest.
"Okay" I say. I pick her up by her shirt and drag her over to the knife throwing station.
"Come on Athena. Stop it" Cato says but I continue. I put her infront of the matt in the very back. It's usualy for catching the knives that miss the manequinn but not today. 
"So, does anybody else want their chance to shoot a knife at little miss blonde in the back?" I shout loudly and they all shake their head. 
"Now, for everyone to hear. You do whatever the fuck I tell you to, okay? I am your trainer and I'll be this years mentor. You'll not get rid of me this easily. If you don't do what I tell you, it's going to have consequences. You got me?" I shout, and take a knife from the box. Dolion takes my hand but I quickly put it behind his back.
"Never, do that again" I say and push him forward. 
I take a look at Lavender still standing there, where I told her to. I then turn my head towards all the children there. In not even a second. I shoot the knife without even looking at her. I know I missed her. Only by an inch or so, but I did. 
I catch Cato's eyes, who looks at me with fear. I only now look back, to see that the knife really did miss her. She has a slight cut on her right shoulder and she's shaking.
"Does anybody else have a problem with me?" I ask, and they all shake their heads frantiqually. 
"Great, keep going now. Lavender come here. Cato, help her with the cut. Since you're so desperate to do so" I say, my eyes full of anger. 
In this hall, we're not friends. Neither we are lovers. I'm his mentor and he is my tribute. Nothing more. These are the rules. 

I keep drilling them for about an hour until they get time to do the stations by themselves. I walk over to the knife station and see a tiny girl standing there. Clove is her name, if I'm right. She's very talented with the knives. 
"Clove, right?" I aks, and she nods her head.
"Great shot" I say, and she smiles.
I continue going through all the stations looking after my tributes. A few are terrible in literally everything they do. They would be dead within the first hour in the arena. I clear their names off the list and continue watching everybody. I look over to the hand-to-hand combat station. Cato and Lavender are there. My blood starts boiling. Her evil laugh is hear all over the hall. She's clinging onto his arm and his friends stand next to him. He looks sort of proud of himself. When he's with his friends, then he's a disaster. I can't even really talk to him then. He just looks weirdly at me and his friends laugh at me. A wonder they respect me at training. It's a little annoying but I've accepted it. That's also a reason for me holding back. The way he acts around his friends is fucking annoying. When he's with them, he only looks down on everybody else as if he's better than them.
I decide to keep going with the training and to talk to him about it afterwards.
"Training's finished. Great work. See you tomorrow" I say loudly, and everybody runs off to the wardrobes. I walk over to the bow station and take one. I haven't held one since my games. I shot a boy with it. I guess nobody was expecting me to be good with it. Mostly, the tributes are good with one weapon of their choice and that's it. Not me. I've learned to manage every weapon by the age of twelve. That's also a reason why Enobaria chose me. She loved my guts and the skills I had with every weapon. I even won against Brutus once in a sword fight. That's why he doesn't like me. Not that I care about that.
I take an arrow and start shooting at the aim. I continue doing this, until I hear footsteps coming up behind me.

"Are you finished with your little fling? Or wait. Am I the fling and she's your woman of choice?"
"Come on Athena. That's not what it looked like" he says coming closer.
"That's exactly what it looked like Cato" I say, and cross my arms infront of my chest.
"You know I like you" he says, and steps directly infornt of me. His chest almost touching my arms.
"And that's the reason why you shouldn't let her clinge onto you like that" 
"I know, I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again"
"I know it will happen again. How many times have I told you that I don't like it? A lot, right? You are going to stop with that or there will never be something with us two. Are we clear about that?"
"Clear. Are you ready for the date now?" he asks with a soft voice. 
"Yeah" I say still mad at him. I walk past him towards the wardrobe. 

I sometimes really wonder if he's just playing with me. When we're alone, he's this nice, caring and loving Cato. When we're alone though, he's this arrogant, player Cato. I don't like this Cato. That's not the one I started to like. That's not the one I'm starting to love.