Alight this chapter's about Clover and what her pleasant life is like in District 8. Enjoy and review!
Chapter 4: Clover
District 8
The morning light streams in through the large window. The light hit's me right in the face like a punch to wake me up. In attempt to hide from the harsh light I pull the covers over my head. It's not like I have to wake up early anyway, today's a day off for all of Panem. The only thing needed to be done today would be to arrive at the reaping at 1:30. So I might as well sleep in, but the light steams through the fabric covering me and I am forced to wake.
I walk downstairs and into my Mom and Dad's clothing shop, right in the center of town. I walk past the countless dresses and outfits and into the backdoor which is where the family actually lives. I enter the kitchen and make myself some eggs and bacon. We are rather rich so I won't need to be signing up for any tesserae. There are some in this town though who really need the tesserae. I guess I'm lucky in that sense. My fourth year into the reaping and I've not even come close to being reaped. Being fifteen, my name will only be in four times.
Once finished, I sit at the table to eat. I stick my fork into the eggs when I hear the ring of the front door opening. I quickly fix my hair and go out to greet whoever came it. I walk into the shop just to see my boyfriend, Leather.
"Hey," he says with a smile.
"Hey to you too," I return the smile and we hug. Leather and I are the same age and have somehow been in every class together since pre-school.
"Happy Hunger Games," He says.
"Happy Hunger Games," I reply, "You have a good feeling about today?"
"Oh yea I feel great!" he says, "It's like I'm walking on air!"
"Well then come back to the ground and eat with me," I laugh and he follows me into the kitchen. I make him some eggs and bacon and we dig in, laughing and talking as we go.
"Wow just think," I say after a few minutes, "One year ago today you told me you loved me and we started going out."
"Yep," he says, "I wanted to make a depressing occasion happy for use once we started having anniversaries and look, here we are, completely happy."
"Yea," I agree. Over the course of a minute, our hands find each other and our fingers intertwine.
"Nothing bad will happen to us," he says, "I promise."
"Ok," I murmur.
I am suddenly reminded of being scared all of the time at the reaping. My first time at the reaping, I was actually crying even before it had begun. Each year I had gotten slightly braver, but until now, I was always scared. Now the only thing I could be scared of would be losing Leather. He's brought me so much comfort that I couldn't bear losing him.
"What time is it?" I ask, wanting to know how much longer until the reaping.
"It's…" says Leather checking his watch, "It's eight o'clock so we have the rest of the mourning."
"What do you want to do?" I ask.
"Well," says Leather, pondering the question, "Let's go for a walk around town."
"Really?" I ask.
"Sure, why not," Leather smiles and leads me out the door and into the colorful streets of District 8.
The plaza has any and every type of clothing store you could think of including my family's store, there is a bridal boutique, and laundry store, anything and everything that has to do with clothing. After all this is the textile district.
To make it even more colorful, bright neon banners hang from balconies that were put up by the Capitol. It's their attempt to make it a real celebration, but I'm not fooled… no one is. We all know that it's a death sentence, that they are openly mocking us, punishing us from what happened Thirty three years ago, in a war that my great Grandfather fought and died in. To him, it was all worth it, but the war means nothing now except for a constant reminder that we can't win.
One day… things will get better. I just know it. It may not happen while I'm alive, but the districts will be free from the Capitol. They can't expect us to tolerate their mockery forever.
I push my thoughts aside and enjoy my walk around the District with Leather. We joke, laugh, talk, and every once and a while stop to say hello to someone we know. After about an hour, we reach the electrocuted fence that is draped with beautiful fabricated patterns on the poles in between each section of the fence to keep it up.
Here in District 8, no matter how ugly or evil things are, we sugar coat it with pretty fabric. If you ask me though, District 8 will be holding their frustration in so long that they'll be the first to start an uprising.
"Well," says Leather, "That's the end of the line."
"Yea…" I sigh.
We turn around and head back to the square.
It's still only nine o'clock. On the way back, we do the same of what we did on our way there, talk, laugh, and say hello to people we know.
When I say that we say hello, I mean we engage in ten minute small talk of:
"Hi, Happy Hunger Games."
"Happy Hunger Games."
"How are you?"
"Good, how are you?"
"Well, it is the reaping today…"
Leather and I would laugh at the same joke over a million times and sometimes we'd re-say hello to the people we passed on our way to the fence, but this was hardly small talk. This was basically;
"Hi, again." And laugher for no reason other than to be friendly.
Being friendly usually doesn't help people get what they want though. Sure if you're friendly then people will want to help you but if your scary, or intimidating, then you get what you want. Being friendly hasn't ever helped anyone in the arena.
Why am I thinking about this though? Life for me is great, I'm rich, I have a boyfriend, good grades, and great friends. Why am I being so cynical all of a sudden? I brush my ugly meanness away and smile.
"What's gotten into you?" Leather asks, taking note of my sudden happiness.
"Nothing," I say, "I'm just happy about my life. I have a feeling that today's going to be a good day."
Well, that's Clover Wool, a girl from Disrtict 8 with a great life that it to be ruined by the Capitol. Aww... Well tell me what you think! Review!
