Clove
The first thing I feel when I wake up—well, am woken up, is pain. My cheek is stinging, badly. I am about to open my eyes when something hits my face again. I moan in pain and cradle my right cheek with my hands.
"Get up!" A harsh voice commands me. A voice that is all too familiar. I open my eyes to see my trainer, Puck. And his face is just inches from mine. "Get. Up!" He screams in my face.
"I'M UP!" I yell back before pushing him away harshly.
He takes a step back from my bed and folds his muscular arms over his broad chest. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" He asks me.
I sit up in bed. "Why are you in my house?" I ask, ignoring his question.
"I said: Do you have any idea WHAT TIME IT IS!" He says angrily.
I narrow my eyes. "I heard you the first time."
"Why didn't you answer?"
"I was a little confused. Because you're in my house!" I say, exasperated. "Who let you in, anyway?" I ask, knowing that Patch must have already gone to work. He has to go to the hospital early every morning. He works over time almost every day, and we still don't have enough money. Which is why I'm volunteering for the games.
Well, part of the reason. We actually aren't too bad on money. Our parents were murdered in a car accident four years ago. We were pretty well off, almost wealthy, you could say. So we still have some leftover money. It doesn't hurt that my great grandfather was a Hunger Games victor. But we could always use some extra money, because we are both aware that our inheritance could wear out soon. I've always been fascinated with the Hunger Games, and I'm positive I could win.
"I let him in." Patch appears in my doorway, wearing his hospital scrubs.
Oh, Lord. It must be like, the crack of dawn if Patch is still home! "Whyyy?" I moan like a child. I finally look at the clock. It's 4:30. AM. What the hell? Puck made it sound like I slept in for hours. My training sessions usually don't start until 8.
"Great to see you too, darling." Puck says sarcastically. "Meet me downstairs in no less than twenty minutes." He says, his voice harsh again.
When I hear his heavy footsteps going down our wood stairs, I turn to Patch. "Why is my session so early?" I whine.
Patch sighs. "I'm sorry, Clove. Since the reaping is tomorrow, you can't be sore. Puck told me you're going to train extra hard this morning so you can have all day to recover." He comes and gives me a kiss on the forehead. "You'll thank him later. I'll see you when I get home from work!" He says and walks out my door.
I groan and swing my feet onto the cold hardwood floor. I tromp over to my bathroom and stand lifelessly in the hot water of my shower for about five minutes, achieving absolutely no cleansing whatsoever. I sigh and give up on the shower, although it did end up waking me up a bit.
I pull my hair back and get dressed in my usual training outfit—my short shorts and sports bra. The skimpy outfit chills my tan skin, and I shiver, but tromp downstairs to get my breakfast. It's a little intimidating eating my bowl of cereal with Puck sitting there with me, especially since he apparently has nothing else to stare at but my face as I eat my breakfast. At 5:00 on the dot, Puck pulls me out the door and then we're in his car on the way to the gym. It's nice, usually I have to walk there.
When we get to the gym, we do my usual routine. I run on the treadmill for twenty minutes, punch some stuff that Puck holds up for me, do some conditioning exercises that hurt my stomach and legs like hell, run again, and then finally take a water break, only to start again.
As I'm punching a big red thing that Puck is holding up for me, I hear the door open and I glance over a second. And then I become infuriated. No one is supposed to be here! I have private training sessions.
Especially not Cato Bowman.
Cato
The look on Clove's face when I walked in was priceless.
But I'm sure mine was just the same.
"What's he doing here?" she hissed at her trainer. Who I then saw was Puck Goldman, one of the best trainers in District 2. I tried to get him, but he was already taken. How did she get him?
"He always has his sessions at 6:30. I made a compromise with his trainer to be here." Puck explained.
Clove shakes her head. "I can't train with him here." She says, glaring at me. She crossed her thin arms over her chest. Until then, I never noticed how muscular she was. Not in that gross kind of way, but in the hot kind of way. She has an eight pack! I never noticed. Well, maybe because every time I see her she actually has a shirt on.
"Which is why we're going into the other room." Puck says, speaking to Clove like she's an animal that could attack her at any minute.
I've talked to Clove here or there, but not too many times. I've never really noticed that she was attractive. With her light brown hair pulled back, her big eyes really stand out. They're a very interesting color, chocolate brown for the most part, but the outsides are a dark grey, almost but not quite black, and there's just a tiny hint of emerald green that is wedged between the brown and grey colors. When they're not narrowed at me, the whites of her eyes don't show, but you could tell they were almost big enough to. She also has full lips, and a naturally tan complexion.
But then the truth suddenly dawns on me as soon as she turns around and stomps into the other room. Clove is planning to volunteer for the Hunger Games, and she didn't tell anybody. Why? I feel a wave of…what? Astonishment? Awe? Respect? Foolishness? A lot of different feelings. But I push them all away as I remember that Clove is my enemy, and it will have to stay that way.
But as I go through my training, I still can't stop thinking of Clove. Well, who knows…maybe we'll be allies. There's always the Career pack, right?
Hi everyone! I decided to change from the diary format, because i wanted to get a little bit of Cato's POV in there, too. :) Most of the time it will probably be from Clove's point of view, but i'll go to Cato every so often. :) Please review, review, review! Tell me what you think. :)
