Slam! I looked up to see the wall I had walked into.

"Ow!"

My head throbbed as I walked to school, curse words swirling around in my head.

"Hey, Clemensia!"

I paled at the words, the dream still fresh in my mind. I shakily turned around.

"Hi sweet…" Atticus' words trailed off when he noticed my paled skin and frail body shaking.

"Clem, what happened", he asked, voice full of concern. Great, the last thing I want to do is tell him.

"I… um, I had a... dream", I began reluctantly.

"Oh, not one of those. Don't start this Fae", he said. "You know I hate those dreams." Despite his words, he gathered me in his arms nonetheless.

"It was him, Cyprian's… killer. He was the one who killed you. It was horrible." I began to sob all over again.

"Shush. Its okay. It was all a dream and I'm here now. Its all okay", he said with a soothing voice. It took about 5 minutes of lulling to subdue the choking of tears. I slowly lifted my head and looked at his now tear soaked shirt. Great!

"Are you ready to go in", he slowly asked. "Or we can skip completely and go to the park and talk more", he offered.

"You know daddy will beat me if he found out."

"I won't let him do that and you know it." It was true. Ever since Atticus and I fell in love, he's been shielding me from my very abusive father. I've known him always, but it took until I knew we both felt the same way until I could choke it out and tell him about my father.

"Come on", I started. "We have to go in. We will be late if we wait any longer."

"Urg, I HATE school. Its sooo boring", Atticus whined.

"Oh, stop whining!"

"Fine", Atticus mumbled. I smiled.

We walked into the school and navigated the halls until we got to our classroom.

"Great class started", I whispered. We have been late many times before so we knew what to do. With the door already open, while the teacher's back was turned, we walked backwards into the room until the teacher, Mr. Elk, turned around. With Atticus already at his seat, I was the one caught.

"Mrs. Bloom, now is not the time to take a bathroom break, sit back down."

Works every time! I walked to my seat while everyone who I passed gave me high fives, and others snickered.

"Now as I was saying, the Hunger Games are a big part in our history." Mr. Elk, or as I like to think of him as Mr. Einstein because he seems to have memorized every fact of our rebellion and the history of the Hunger Games, also because of a past power plant accident which caused his hair to stand straight up, began to drone on.


After 6 hours of boring school and annoyingly hard homework we were finally released from prison.

"Can I stay at your house for the night", I asked. "I don't want to go home tonight."

"Sure, Clemensia, he said, holding my hand.

We walked the 2 miles to his house. I looked at him while we were walking. With his 6'1" versus my 5' 7", he REALLY had to bend down to kiss me. His shaggy brown hair, warm brown eyes, and perfect skin stretched a-crossed his sharp cheek bones instantly labeled him very handsome. I had no clue what he was doing with a girl like me. I was rail thin because of my dad always eating and spending all the money I worked 10 hours every weekend to get, ( it was always spent on alcohol). With my curly brown hair and high cheek bones, the only thing that really made me special were my eyes. They were a deep blue and always reminded me of my brother. He and I were the only ones in our family with blue eyes.

Atticus and I finally got to his house. As we walked in I was greeted by his mother.

"Oh Clemensia, what a lovely surprise! Are you staying the night again?" She knew of my fathers horrible state and always had a room prepared, clothes and all. Even though I really didn't sleep in the bed.

"Yes, my father woke me up early so i'm not really up to more babysitting."

"Well dear your room is ready as always and we are having vegetable soup for dinner tonight", she said in her always chipper voice.

Mh, my favorite!

"Thank you Mrs. Blackburn!"

"Oh no problem dear!"

Atticus and I went to his room. As we walked to his room, his little sister came out of his room.

"Clemensia your here", she squealed. "Do you want to play dolls?"

"Not now Augusta, Clem's here with me", Atticus declined.

"Maybe later Aug", I told her. She smiled and gave me a happy "Okay!"

We went into his room and I collapsed on his bed.

"Finally, this is home to me!" Atticus just smiled and pulled me onto his lap.

"Now that we are here, no thinking of your actual home, no mention of school, or anything! Got it?"

"Got it."

We snuggled, kissed, and laid there for a couple of hours. It was soothing and relaxing and romantic. It almost made me forget this morning. Almost.