Our Love Could Be Lethal

Act II: Brother Dearest

It's probably a good thing that we were interrupted because I swear Haymitch and I were about to get into a fistfight. I don't know what it is this year, I usually get along really well with Haymitch, and now it seems we're at each other's throats and it's not just our usual sarcasm.

Atala explains the rules to the tributes, and several of us older Victors recite her speech along with her. "...no fighting the other tributes, there's plenty of time to do that in the arena..." Augustus looks at us as if he's stepped into a meeting of crazy people. To be fair, he totally has.

Once Atala is done with her speech, the rest of us watch intently to see which stations our tributes go to, but more honestly, to see if they've listened to us.  We're finally allowed out of the glass waiting area above and into an area on the same level as the tributes by the locker rooms so that if tributes want to come to speak to their mentors they can. I keep a special watch out to see what tributes go where, hoping that it could give away parts of their strategy by the tributes going to whatever station they feel most comfortable with.

The girl from 5 goes to the plant identification station first, pretty typical. Cato Clove and the four other careers go to their preferred weapons stations, all eager to show off their skills and intimidate the competition. Cato swings his knife, butchering a few of the dummies by chopping off their heads and then stabs the last one in the chest.

I smile smugly. Even after a few days of not being able to train with weapons, he's still got it. Finnick must've seen this too because his eyes are wide.  I turn to him, "Not too shabby, right?"

I wish I could read his mind because he's having a serious conversation with himself right now. I nudge him and he snaps to attention. "Octavia, he's lethal."

I shrug. "It runs in the family." He gives me another look that I can't discern. "Who do you think taught him how to do that?" To be fair, I wasn't the only person who taught Cato, he was already a prodigy when I met him, but I taught him that combination. I deserve some credit, right?

"Before we meet up with the others, what were you thinking about allies?" asks Finnick.

I look over the other tributes. Katniss is making snares so whatever, Peeta is painting camouflage, the girl from 1 is doing some really bad archery, and the boy from 11 is beating up one of the trainers in hand to hand combat. "I'm hoping the boy from 11. He's huge. Even if he's no good with a weapon, his bodyweight and build is enough to make him dangerous."

Finnick nods, seemingly agreeing with what I had been saying. We go over to meet with the rest of the career mentors and strategize. Everyone else seems to concur that the boy from 11 seems to be our best bet, and of course, it's left to me to try and make that arrangement.

I signal Cato over to where I am and fill him in. "We're thinking the boy from 11 for an ally. What do you think?"

Cato nods. "He looks strong. I'd want him on my side if I can help it, if not we'll have to try and take him out early."

"Go try and see if you can get him to talk with you, invite him to train with you guys, the whole works. Make him feel like he could be apart of the group," I say motioning to where Thresh is.

Cato goes to walk away but turns back to talk to me last minute. "Hey, how's my form look? Is it okay? I feel a bit rusty. And I'm a little nervous honestly. I'm trying to act all confident but like, this is real. I'm here in the training centre, you know?"

I nod. I do know what he means. Training to get to one place in your life and then finally getting to that place is world-changing. Now for me, I realized my whole life goal was actually terrible not long after I was reaped, but that's beside the point. Having Cato suddenly realize the terrible situation he's in would not be good. Learning that the games aren't everything is hard and an earth-shattering realization, so needless to say, it's not one that would be productive in winning the games.