They like to say it was a fluke: that no one saw it coming, because the stocky boy tribute from District Six was never supposed to win that year. Because nobody had their eyes on Patrick Stumph until it was too late.
(They're wrong, of course. They often are, about these kinds of things.)
When asked about it, Pete will say he has a thing for underdogs. Patrick Stumph was never supposed to win—but neither was Pete Wentz (all bark and no bite, they sneered through pearly-white teeth over crystal wineglasses, that smart mouth of his will get him killed; three weeks later he was crowned victor and they were groveling at his feet).
It is an incredibly cynical answer (typical for a victor, though the tabloids call it profound): Career victories only get you so far; every once in a while you need someone who isn't a trained killer to win, to show even the gentlest of souls can be broken when you push them to their limits.
But the truth, which drips out from black-blue-glitter pens onto scraps of paper in train cars and empty bedrooms, manifests itself in metaphors and sentence fragments and this thing called apostrophe that they taught in English class the year he was reaped—the truth is this: the moment Pete first laid eyes on Patrick Stumph was the moment he realized, amid flame and fury and twenty-three teenagers being led to their deaths like lambs to slaughter, how it felt to be united with something you didn't even know you lost.
so like.
it's the hunger games.
it'll probably be from joe's pov tbh bc joe gets reaped from district 5 (or volunteers for pete's younger brother, idk) and pete's his mentor but also his best friend and honestly this'll focus less on the actual games and more on the lives of the victors afterward, leading up to the eventual rebellion.
pete and joe were both in a band (along with andy) until a series of riots led to the district banning music and andy's disappearance (though joe continued to play in secret, while pete writes).
patrick is a victor from district 6, or a career, idk i'll figure that out, but pete's basically had his eye on him since the games (patrick won two years after pete and a year or two before joe) and it becomes this whole flirting game they play even as they're both "dating" people in the capitol.
several games pass (brendon wins one, but not before falling for ryan, a member of his prep team; hayley is the youngest victor of the lot at fourteen; travie's a stylist who becomes one of pete's best friends) and at some point they all go enough is enough and pete and patrick start writing the songs that will fuel the rebellion and collaborating with other victors.
and then the quarter quell is announced.
it's catching fire.
in other words, the tributes will be reaped from the existing pool of victors.
pete volunteers for joe and patrick gets reaped; there's a lot of fighting about this and tears and kissing and (offscreen) we're gonna die might as well confess our love for each other-sex and halfway through the games some of them get pulled out but patrick gets captured by the capitol (along with ryan because angst) and it turns out revolution doesn't come without its costs...
(i originally had pete mentoring patrick finnick/annie-style but then i thought about it and was like y'know what nah)
