~- Clove's POV -~
The moment I opened the front door I hear my mother's voice calling out to me,
"Where have you been?!" she cries "You had me worried sick!" I guess she had every right to be worried because after my father died in a freak explosion in the factory he worked in; I have been all she has left.
"I got a detention" I reply,
"Why? What did you do?!" she questions,
"I got in a fight with some guy at training, but its all sorted out now" I say.
"Oh, are you okay?" she asks,
"I'm fine" I reply.
"Dinner's almost finished cooking so go and get dressed quickly and I will call you down when it's ready" she says
"Okay" I call back as I walk up the stairs. I walk up to my room and change into my normal clothes; I look at myself in the mirror. I really do look a lot like my mother; long dark hair, pale skin the only difference is my eyes which instead of being green like my mothers, they are a very dark shade of brown like my fathers were. I think of Cato's amazingly crystal blue eyes and how I couldn't stop staring at them. No one in my family has blue eyes, I think to myself. My mothers green eyes are very pretty but they are still nothing compared to Cato's- mymother calling me for dinner cuts off my thoughts and I rush downstairs to join her.
~- Cato's POV -~
Clove waves a quick goodbye to me as she turns down her road and I keep walking towards my house. When I finally get home, I open the door and I am welcomed by my father shouting.
"Where have you been you stupid boy?!" he yells,
"Sorry, I was in detention" I reply
"Detention?!" my mother gasps "what did you do?!"
"I got into a fight with this girl, nothing serious" I say
"Well this is just brilliant" my father barks "now how do you expect to be chosen to volunteer if you keep breaking the rules?!"
"I already have been chosen to volunteer dad, I was chosen 3 weeks ago remember?" I reply, slightly aggravated, "oh wait of course you don't, because you were probably drunk when I told you!"
"Cato! Do not talk to your father like that! And how do you expect to win the games if you keep messing around during your training classes?!" my mother hisses.
"Whatever, I'm going having a shower" I call back while walking up to my room.
My parents, both being victors themselves, will never appreciate me as their child until I win the games. It's all about winning with them, they're always going on about how I have to win so I 'bring pride to my district' and 'build up a confident personality" but I know that really all they care about is the money they will be getting if I win. When I was younger they would constantly go on holidays to the Capitol to have a spending spree and leave me here with my crazed aunt who may as well have not been there at all because all she did was sleep.
I turn on the shower, put my head under the warm spray and wash myself over. I wince as I touch the bruise on my shoulder; I had completely forgotten about that. I wonder what Clove is doing now, I think to myself, no Cato stop thinking about her, she's just some girl that you met today. I shake my head to clear it of all thoughts and step out of the shower. I walk to my room and slip on some comfy clothes and lie down on my bed; there's a knock on my bedroom door.
"What?" I call to whoever it is on the other side of the door,
"Dinners ready and we're going to watch a recap of last years games, come down when you're ready" says my mother, and with that, she walks back downstairs.
I sit up and groan; I really can't be bothered to watch another recap of the games. I walk downstairs and hear my mother and father rooting for their favorite tributes. It's disgusting, I think while picking up my plate from the table. Its almost as if they don't know that they are going to die but to be honest, my parents have watched so many recaps of the games they probably know the exact order of who dies first through to who dies last.
I carry on walking back to the stairs while carrying my plate, I try to be quiet but considering my size that has never really been my strongpoint.
"Aren't you coming to watch?" says my father ignorantly.
"Nah, I'm kind of tired and I want to rest so I have lot's of energy for tomorrow" I lie,
"Suit yourself," he replies with a mouthful of food.
I roll my eyes and continue walking up to my room where I eat my dinner and relax for a while. My mind backtracks through my day, but I can't stop thinking about clove. Just don't think about her! How hard can that be Cato?! I shake my head angrily and try to think about other things, but nothing works. My eyes eventually start to feel heavy and I fall to sleep…
...
The small glimmers of light that are shining through my partly opened curtains are what wake me up early this morning. I groan and drag myself out of bed; I walk to my cupboard and put on my training clothes. I might actually make and effort to get to training on time today I think as I walk down the stairs to grab a quick snack before setting out for training.
I walk into the kitchen to find my father sitting at the table; he almost looks as if he has been waiting for me.
"Morning" I say dimly, he just glares at me slightly and sighs.
"You better work hard today" he says "No son of mine will be going into that arena unprepared"
"Whatever" i say dismissively as i begin to walk to the front door
"Well come back a victor, or don't come back at all" he snarls
"That is kind of what the hunger games is all about dad" I say arrogantly whilst rolling my eyes. He replies with a huff and walks out of the kitchen. I grab a piece of toast and walk out of the front door.
While I am on my way to the training centre I think about what my dad said before. come back a victor or don't come back at all, I knew he didn't exactly love me but now it's obvious that I'm just a pawn to him. I sigh and look up to see a figure walking just ahead of me, I almost instantly recognise her dark hair and realise it's Clove.
~- Clove's POV -~
I leave my house and start walking towards the training centre when I hear someone call my name. I turn around to see Cato jogging towards me,
"Hey Clove" he says as he slows down to walk beside me
"Hi Cat" I say "'I can call you that right?"
"Sure thing Clover" he says with a smirk. Clover... I like that I think, I've never really had a nickname before, well, I have never really had many friends before because i have a short-temper and some people seem to be scared to approach me. But Cato isn't... Considering his size, he has no need to be.
We walk in next to each other chatting until we get to the training centre. We walk inside, signed in at the front desk and then walked to the training hall where we find a small portion of our group doing some early morning training. Valdus looks over to us and he looks almost shocked when he sees Cato, He checks his watch and then back at Cato.
"Well well" He purrs, "I never thought I would see the day you got here early Cato"
"I woke up early and had nothing better to do" Cato shrugs and Valdus just smirks and shakes his head slightly in amusement.
I walk over to the Knife station and start throwing knives, while Cato walks over to the sword station and starts showing off by slashing a few dummies' heads off. We carry on like this for about 10 minutes while the rest of my group arrive and then Valdus calls us over. We group around him to hear our instructions for today.
"Today I want you all to try and learn how to wield a new weapon so that if your preferred weapon is not in the arena you have at least one fallback" He says. I groan quietly to myself, I have never really been very good at using any other weapons than knives. We start to split up and many people rush over to the stations they desperately want to try. I look over the room; most of the stations are full except the knife station, the sword station and the axe station. Great I think I already know how to use knives and there's no way I can pick up an axe! That just leaves the sword station...
I sigh and walk over to the sword station where Valdus is speaking to Cato about something, when they eventually finish Cato turns to me and smirks,
"You just can't keep yourself away from me can you Clover?" he laughs,
"Don't flatter yourself" I smirk "this is the only good station that isn't full, which reminds me, shouldn't you be at a different station?"
"Nah" he responds "I already know how to use a sword and a spear so Valdus said to stay here and coach others. Grab a sword and we'll start" I roll my eyes and try to pick up the sword that is closest to me but it is far too heavy and I end up straining myself to lift it an inch off the ground. Cato laughs and picks it up with one hand and points to a smaller one hanging on the shelf by my head.
"Try that one," he says "It's made of a much lighter metal and its smaller so it... suits you" I give him a look and he just laughs. I pick up the sword and it is a lot lighter than the other one.
"Ok, slice that dummies arm off" He says whilst pointing at a dummy ahead of me. I take a deep breath and swing the sword at the dummy; the sword lodges itself in the middle of the dummies arm but does not go completely through. I try to pull out the sword but it is completely stuck.
"Try twisting your wrist and putting more downward pressure on the sword" Cato says, I twist my wrist and push down hard on the sword and sure enough, it moves the rest of the way through the dummies arm. I smile and look up at Cato who just claps and smiles back.
"Now try to cut its head off," he says with a smirk "you might need a slightly heavier sword though" He grabs a sword off the shelf and hands it to me, its a little heavier than the other but I can still use it. I take another deep breath and draw the sword back, apparently a little too quickly as its weight pulls me back with it and I lose my balance. I feel myself falling backwards, I close my eyes and brace myself for the contact with the floor but it never happens. I open my eyes to see Cato who has his huge arms under my back, supporting me. I feel my cheeks instantly start to heat and I look in the other direction so that he doesn't see.
~- Cato's POV -~
I acted on impulse! I saw her fall backwards so I caught her before she hurt herself! What else was I supposed to do?! I- Wait, is she blushing? I can't tell because she's looking away from me now.I put her back on her feet and she looks up at me, then she looks down to the floor and murmurs something incomprehensible,
"Huh?" I respond
"Thanks..." she says quietly
"Err... no problem" I reply awkwardly while I pick up the sword she dropped when she fell and handing it to her. She takes the sword and slashes at the dummies neck; the sword gets quite far before stopping and lodging itself about 3cm from the edge. She twists her wrist and the head of the dummy pops off and hits the floor with a 'thud'.
We continue training like this for the rest of the lesson and I teach her various attacks and fatal cuts but the aura between us is awkward. When the bell rings to signal the end of the day, Clove says a goodbye and leaves quickly; it looks like we won't be walking home together today then.
I walk home alone and ignore the usual nagging from my parents as I walk through the front door. I go straight upstairs to my room, change out of my training clothes and lie on my bed; I don't feel like eating dinner tonight so I try to go straight to sleep but there are so many thoughts floating around in my head that I know it's useless. Does Clove hate me now? I could swear she was blushing... or was that just me? Will she be the same tomorrow or will things just go back to normal? I grunt in frustration and put my pillow over my head in an attempt to block my thoughts. After what seemed like hours of frustration I finally fell to sleep.
...
Well that was Chapter 2! I don't want to rush into all the lovey-dovey stuff yet so you will just have to be patient! I'm trying to develop their relationship steadily but its just so hard! I have decided to try and update and add a new chapter weekly so that it fits around school stuff. Please don't forget to leave reviews and constructive criticism is very much welcome! I will do my best to put it to good use throughout the story! Until next chapter ^_^
~NekoNinjaXx