The Hunger Games: Entropy (A Clato Fanfiction: NTI Series, Book 2)

Chapter 40

CATO’S POV

Great. I finally get the chance to do well again and Clove has a panic attack?

I don’t know what to think right now. It can’t be the serious. I mean, come on, it’s a PANIC ATTACK. She’s not dying. It’s probably her sour attitude, at worst. She’s not hurling-over-the-toilet-bowl sick, is she? The panic attack thing is nothing but a load of bull.

“Are you kidding me right now?!” I snap back at Brutus.

“No, boy,” he gruffs. “Your district partner is under medical supervision as we speak.”

“How the hell did it happen?” I complain, feeling the once-contained frustration in my nerves resurfacing with each word.

“It’s beyond me,” Brutus sighs in frustration, throwing his hands in the air. “We did everything in our power to control what happened during this Tour, and we still managed to miss something in the process.”

“She doesn’t need it!” I gripe at him. “How bad can this ‘panic attack’ actually be?” I hold up my fingers and place air quotes around “panic attack” to embellish the intended sarcasm.

“Don’t blame it on me,” he complains. “Her mentor woke me up in the middle of the night and rushed me into her room, saying that she ‘needed help’ and that ‘she was dying.’ What was I supposed to do about it?”

“I don’t know,” I retort back. “You probably should have called their bluff.”

“Bluff or no bluff, we’ve been delayed by an hour, possibly more,” he tries to explain to me, clearly unable to do anything about what happened in the last few minutes. “Those women are crazy, right boy?”

“True that,” I play along, still maintaining disdain towards Clove and her mentor for making bad things worse.

I’m still not entirely convinced that Clove was even capable, let alone weak enough to let emotion take her over. We’re CAREER TRIBUTES from freaking DISTRICT 2. We trained ourselves to suppress emotional weakness and use circumstance to rationalize everything. She and her little act are not accomplishing one thing right now.

“Tone down your strategy today,” Brutus advises. “You may be here awhile, so make the most of it. Just stay calm, cool and collected, alright boy?”  

“I’ll try my best,” I sincerely try to tell him. He nods to me and exits the area.

This is going to be a long wait. I don’t know when this happened or if it did, but Clove’s attitude is only making things worse for us. This is the LAST thing that needed to happen right now and I’m not entirely sure if we can help the most honorable Capitol maintain their good ratings if they have to delay their entire television schedule by a whole hour just so Clove can have her little tantrum.

Cleo emerges from the front of the curtain and marches straight past the district official directly towards me, her heels generating a loud CLOMP with each step.

“That little imp better come out of her little fit soon,” she spits menacingly right into my face. “The most generous, noble and honorable Capitol doesn’t deserve to deal with stupid little issues like panic attacks!”

“You said it, not me,” I return her bitterness in my words. “No one does. She’s just asking for trouble.”  

“She’s not the only one in trouble,” Cleo continues, “The peacekeepers are holding everyone inside the square until the appearance ends. This is positively ridiculous!”

I look at Cleo while her face glows red with pure fury as she drives her left foot into the floor, generating a loud and penetrating CLOMP unlike any other. She stops griping, but I maintain an awkward silence between as she slowly returns back to reality from her emotional outburst and makes herself look like a complete fool. After a few seconds, she closes her eyes and looks at me with a straight face again.