"it's just a game" my ass | monteath

[MATTIO]

h e a t h

losing
is
not
an
option

You've been plotting your revenge against Montadelo Steel for weeks. It was an insufferable punishment to have to do bathroom maintenance in response to your fight with him. From scrubbing bloodied floors to making sure all of the bathroom appliances worked properly, you were sprayed and splashed with more dirty water than you might care to admit.

And it was the Ames boy who thinks he's higher than everyone else that instigated it all. Why is honor punished by people trying to exploit and abuse it? When Thirteen is ready to make their strike against the Capitol, you'll be in one of those planes making sure that everyone and everything gets where it needs to go. What's Steel going to do? Spy on the Capitolites you kill to ensure they don't rise from the dead? It tickles you have heard from him that your job is senseless.

Today, though, is competition among the two biggest rivals in District Thirteen: the Kostas and Ames Academies. You're eager as ever to win and show the other academy exactly why the skillsets taught at Kostas are superior.

The rivalry comes in the form of rugged and made-up games and challenges. Some people take on the shooting range and others fistfight. While everyone saw you win that fight in the bathroom, or at the very least heard about it, you still somehow ended up as the second alternative for the Kostas side. Despite your desire to be a standout solo competitor, you're stuck as team captain for Capture the Flag. It's a five-on-five competition, and the team that gets all ten of the game's flags on their side first will win.

You stand with your team at the back of your side in the gymnasium. It's a quick pep talk, a warning of none of you better fuck this up, because you see on the other side a boy you'd wished not to see ever again huddled up with the Ames team.

"Let's go!"

elegant