Our Love Could Be Lethal

Act II: The Scores Are In

No song for this chapter but feel free to drop a comment with a song that you think would pair well with the chapter! However, there is a song/musical reference in this chapter so see if you can spot it!

Octavia's POV

Three days out and the morning line odds are looking to start to sway into our favour. Cato is sitting as a nice 3-1 while Clove is at 7-1, meaning if Cato wins anyone who bet on him will triple their money and anyone on Clove will septuple it. While it doesn't always reflect who will actually win it can show something more important, which tributes people are willing to spend money on and how the money is flowing. Both Katniss and Peeta dropped to 23-1 meaning they're now considered long shots. Hopefully, this means that the hype around them is finally dead.

Naturally, Thresh said no to Cato's offer, but that wasn't much of a surprise to me because Chaff was right; people in District 11 don't see it the same way as we do in the career districts. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't been raised in a career district. With my luck, I probably would have been reaped anyways. However, Cato couldn't seem to comprehend why Thresh said no fully.  In other games, he'd seen how the outer districts didn't want to pair with the careers, but I don't think he realizes that it's because they think we're crazy. And nine times out of ten, I would have to agree with them. But I can say, at least I'm alive and crazy instead of sane and dead.

The hype around the girl from 12 has also started to die down, at least within the facility, because she seemed to be mediocre with nearly every weapon. But there's something that just doesn't sit right with me about her. I can tell that there's a lot going on inside her head but she doesn't talk much except to the trainers or her district partner. She watches everyone with little subtly, I wouldn't be surprised if she's figured out quite a few weaknesses of the other tributes. I hope she didn't pay attention to Cato too long, but with how loud he is I highly doubt that.

On the other hand, her district partner Peeta has proven to be quite strong. But I doubt he would ever turn against Katniss unless they had some sort of falling out.

So that all leaves me going over all my notes to present to Cato and Clove. As a collective, the mentors and Victors from two all wait for them to get back from their private sessions. Luckily, District 2 goes second, therefore they get back pretty early in the day. Cato must've waited for Clove because they both walk in at the same time.  Everyone stands to greet them. "So? How'd it go?" asks Enobaria.

Clove begins to enthuse about how well her knife-throwing went, she hit some moving targets from a pretty far distance in the dead centre. Cato, on the other hand, apparently did some real damage to the dummies with his sword and now they were likely cleaning up dummy heads from the assessment room's floor. We have to wait until tomorrow night to get the scores, so, as District 2, we usually take the day to go over observations from training.

I get right down to business and pull out my notebook and the other Victors also pull out whatever they've written their observations on. I don't question when Enobaria pulls out a napkin with writing scrawled on it because I don't know where to start. But when it comes to the tributes I do.  "Hopefully, District 1 will be gone before you have to even consider taking them out, but unfortunately, we do have to talk about this." Both Cato and Clove's eyes go wide. They've gotten to know Marvel and Glimmer over the course of the past few days. "I don't think Glimmer can hit anything with her bow unless it's within a short distance. However, and this goes for both of you, I think you'd both easily beat her if it came to grappling. Marvel is the bigger threat between the two of them, but with him, you should take the opposite approach; I think he's better at throwing than he is at a close range. Cato, you could likely take him out with your sword as long as you use the correct blocking, and Clove, I would try to avoid engaging with him unless it's a surprise." Neither Cato nor Clove say anything.