Training the next morning started at 9am sharp in a big shed outside labelled 'archery shed 1' which Gale and I managed to find without getting lost once which we were quite proud of. His good mood was short-lived however when we walked in and saw his roommate Marvel already there.

"Why does he have to do archery!?" He complained angrily "All these sports, and he does archery as well? It's like they're forcing me to be friends with him!"

I rolled my eyes "I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Let's hurry they're already starting."

We reached the group where a tall man was standing with a relaxed smile.

"Welcome, Gale, Katniss" He nodded at us, and I wondered briefly how he knew our names. "My name is Cinna and I'll be your instructor while you're here. I was just explaining to the others that we're going to have some free practice to start with so I can come around and look at your techniques. You may begin"

Brilliant, I'd been itching to get my hands on a bow all of yesterday. Gale and I set up in a corner away from the others and begun shooting from close in to get used to the new fancy bows we were supplied with. In no time we'd got the hang of it and moved back to a normal distance, getting comfortable with the slightly different strength we had to use to pull the string back the right length. I let one fly.

Bang, bulls-eye.

I wonder what Clove was doing right now.

Bang, another bulls-eye.

I wonder if she enjoyed her training like I did, or if she saw it as a chore like some others did. I guessed for her it was a bit of a combination.

Bang, yet another 10.

I wonder how Clove looked boxing, with a singlet and shorts and sweat dripping off her and-

Damn it. I hissed to myself as I shot a 7. Concentrate Katniss.

"Katniss" Cinna glided over to me, "You're angling the bow too low, make sure to keep it straight."

He moved onto Gale and I glowered angrily as he complimented him on his perfect technique.

At dinner my arms were aching after a whole day shooting and I was thankful to finally be able to sit down and catch up with everyone. Peeta and Thresh had apparently found they got along really well after spending the day together at weight lifting and were now chatting away, which I was happy about because Peeta never seemed to have many friends and I felt sorry for him. Speaking of not having many friends, I'd been watching the careers table through dinner and thought it strange that Clove hadn't talked to anyone the whole time. The tall blonde boy was sitting next to her but he seemed more interested in making the whole table laugh than having a conversation with her. Across from him Marvel was doing his best job to catch the attention of the blonde girl who was sitting on the other side of Clove. I watched as she twirled her spaghetti around her fork and seemed to study the table.

"Katniss" Ashlee called in a way I could tell wasn't the first time she'd tried to get my attention, and I suddenly realised I had a forkful of spaghetti halfway to my mouth.

"Oh" I exclaimed and shoved the food into my mouth "Yessh?"

Gale shot me a quizzical look as the others laughed. "We were just talking about the classes we're in for tomorrow. I'm in 10-11 A with Peeta, and Gale and Thresh are in 11-12 B, what about you?"

I checked the piece of paper we'd had handed to us earlier that day and felt my heart sink a little bit. "I'm in 10-11 B, does that mean I'm by myself?" I glanced around the table and there was no response, which settled it. "Great" I groaned.

"Maybe you can make friends with some of the careers!" Rue pipped up

"Yeah right, I don't think that's even possible."

"She's right" Thresh joined in "I've got that blonde idiot over there called Cato and he's the worst. Luckily he spends all his time in girls' rooms so I hardly have to see him."

"Speak for yourself," Gale grumbled again "I've got the tall brown haired one and all he wants to do is talk to me! I'd gladly swap for yours. How's yours Ashlee?"

"I've got no idea, she's the blonde one and she hasn't spoken to me since she got here. Apparently her name's Glimmer but that's all I know. Well that and she snores."

Rue giggled. "Well I'm the lucky one, 'cause they didn't want to put me in with a big one and the careers are all old so I got a nice one from a school near ours."

"Lucky! What about yours Katniss?" Ashlee asked me

"I don't think she's too bad, she's a bit shy actually. And she offered me burn cream." I added as an afterthought.

"Well I think we've stalled as long as we can, better get going" Gale pointed out regretfully, everyone around us was leaving for their rooms. We stood up and Gale said he wanted to walk me to my room, so we said goodbye to the others and headed off.

"What did you need to talk about?" I asked him once we were out of earshot.

"You like her" Gale stated shortly, his tone accusing.

"I like who?" I asked bemused.

"Your roommate. Clover or whatever her name is."

"It's Clove." I corrected, "And what do you mean? I don't really dislike her, but we've only just met and we're not exactly best friends."

"No that's not what I meant. You've got a crush on her."

"What?!" I spluttered. Had he gone mad? "Me? On Clove? You've got to be kidding. I just think she's nice 'cause she offered me the cream."

"You do! Katniss I've known since before we could walk, I know you. You spent the whole of dinner staring at her with your mouth hanging open. You go red whenever someone mentions her. And when you talk about her you get...this look."

It was official, he was crazy. "I so do not!" I replied, my voice going squeaky and I knew I sounded childish.

"Look it's not a problem, I'm just saying - you've got to be careful. I can see she's got you under some kind of spell or something but she's a career, they're not nice people!"

"How can you tell that? I think she's just misunderstood."

He raised his eyebrow and smirked. "And you think you don't like her." He shook his head. "Whatever. Just don't let your guard down easily around her alright? We don't know what they could do." He started to walk off and then called back over his shoulder "Oh! And stay away from the brown-haired girl in archery! I call dibs!"

I was left standing in the middle of the hallway utterly gobsmacked. Me? A crush on Clove? It was ludicrous. Besides, I was straight wasn't I? I'd never exactly been interested in boys but I was sure I just hadn't found the right one. Gale was wrong, he was crazy. I didn't like Clove. What an idiot.

Somehow I found myself at my door and went inside, thankfully Clove was nowhere to be seen, I needed some thinking time. I sunk down against the wardrobe and leaned my head back, and suddenly realised the water was running in the bathroom. And that Clove was singing.

If I thought I'd heard good singing before, I was wrong. The voice coming from the bathroom was surely an angel's. Her voice sounded nothing like her speaking voice, which was rough and low-ish, this voice was flawless and pure. At the moment she was belting out some catchy pop song I'd heard on the radio a few times, but no pop song had ever had me captivated like this. She changed to a different song, a slower one, and her rough voice reappeared, suiting the song perfectly. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes, enjoying the private concert.

Eventually the water was switched off and she appeared wearing black button-up pyjamas that made her look so innocent and cute I probably would've needed to sit down if I wasn't already. I cleared my throat to make sure she knew I was there, and she jumped in fright.

"What the hell!" She glared at me, her face turning crimson as she realised I must have heard her singing. "Why are you here?"

"This is my room."

"So...does that mean...did you hear..." she glanced back at the bathroom.

"Yeah I did, but there's nothing to worry about, your voice is amazing! You definitely have a gift."

She stared at me, unsure how to respond. She was obviously uncomfortable so I took another stab at starting a conversation.

"You're always back so early, don't you ever feel like hanging out with your friends?"

"I don't have any" She replied flatly and moved to her bed, pulling a few things out of her drawers.

'What do you mean? What about the other careers?"

"Nah. They don't like me, I'm not very interesting."

"That's not true! I think you're interesting!"

She gave me a look. "That's 'cause you're strange Fire girl."

Sigh. Maybe getting to know her really was going to be an impossible task. I tried one more time.

"What's that you're working on?" She was concentrating hard on something in her hands but I couldn't quite make it out.

"What? This?" She looked surprised that I was asking, "It's, uhh... well if you go have your shower then some of it will be ready and I'll show you."

"Ok" I agreed, confused but happy she was opening up, even if it was only a tiny bit.

After my shower, which was easily the best I'd ever had, I found her still working away on whatever it was she was doing. I wondered briefly if I should sit next to her on the bed but quickly decided that was probably a dangerous idea and opted instead to just stand next to her.

"Ok look," She said and showed me the piece of wood and knife she held. "I use this, to carve this. And make things."

"Wow," I breathed, and with a small confirming nod from her I carefully took the small piece of wood. All the while she was speaking she'd been spinning the knife expertly between her fingers and I was getting slightly worried for both of ours safety, but she seemed not to notice she was even doing it. "So this is going to be-"

"A guitar" She nodded, and when I looked closely I could clearly see the outline forming and a few dints that were perhaps going to become strings.

"That's really cool!" I enthused, "Is it hard?"

"Not really. Just takes a bit of practice. I practice when I'm bored at home."

I wondered where she lived if she didn't have parents.

"It's really great. You'll have to show me when you're done."

A strange expression crossed her face as I said it and I realised finally that she didn't know how to respond to compliments. Judging from what I'd heard of her, she probably hadn't received too many.

"Well, school tomorrow, I better get some rest. What class are you in?"

"10-11B, same as you" she replied without looking up as I hopped into bed.

"Oh, how'd you know that?"

"All roommates are in the same class" She shrugged.

"Oh" I hadn't known that "You going to sleep anytime soon?"

"Maybe" came the vague response.

"Ok, well night!"

There was no response so I just pulled the covers over my head to block out the lights of the room. No sooner had I shut my eyes than I heard her bed creak, a small pattering of the lightest possible footsteps, before the main light was switched off and another creak meant she was back on her bed. I poked my head out and saw her calmly turn the lamp next to her bed on.

"Hey thanks" I called out, but she refused to look over so I just lay back down again. The soft pillow was almost dragging me into sleep but I just couldn't get her out of my head. I became another person when I was around her, how did she make me talk so much? Time spent with Gale was usually in comfortable silence, but something about Clove was making me yearn to know everything about her. I wanted to learn what had happened in her life to make her the quiet, blunt, un-trusting girl she was now. From the other side of the room I heard her yawn and I couldn't stop a smile spreading across my face.

I don't know what it was that woke me up but I'd always been a light sleeper and it could've been something as simple as the click of a pen. Either way I was now awake at a very similar time to yesterday morning, and sure enough so was Clove.

"Don't you ever sleep?" I groaned

Her head shot up and she looked at me, but then went back to her work, which was maths again.

"Or speak?" I muttered not loudly enough for her to hear. I rolled off the bed and went and crouched next to hers.

"Look, I'm good at maths and-"

"Oh I bet you are." She sneered "So is everyone! 'Maths is so easy Clove, what are you doing? Why don't you get it?' That's what they all say, I don't need you to come rubbing it in my face as well!"

I sat slightly shocked, "No Clove that's not what I meant I promise. I want to help you, I'll explain it for you."

"I don't need help. 'Specially not from someone like you" She said harshly.

I ignored the comment. "Ok ok. How about I just sit here and if you get stuck you can ask me and I might be able to help."

"Fine"

I sat patiently and watched as she worked her way through a question. Her hands were freckled with long fingers and had the kind of knuckles along her fingers that stuck out.

"What's 57 take 28?" she mumbled

"Uh, 29"

"Ok" she jotted down a few more things and then threw her book down in frustration.

"It still doesn't work!"

"Ok look," I picked up her book, "You got the formula all right, but see here, when you've got a negative outside of the bracket you've gotta change the signs of everything inside. So try that."

She hesitated, but did what I suggested and sure enough came up with the right answer. She brightened and a tiny smile appeared on her face.

"C'mon let's do the next one," I prompted her as I picked up the next book. "We'll try to get 10 right and if we do, we can sleep. Ok?"

"Ok." She nodded slowly.

Despite one or two tantrums from Clove, we had got through them and half an hour later she sat looking at her book with a proud smile.

"Awesome!" I cheered "Now time for me to get some shut-eye." My legs were cramping from crouching for so long and I was happy to finally get off the floor. Clove put her books away as I turned off the light.

"Hey Fire girl."

"Mmhm?"

"Thanks" came the murmur.

"Anytime. Night Clove."

"Goodnight"