Cato POV
"CATO!" My mother shrieks, I know it's weird, but this is the first time I've seen her since I've been back. She hugs me so tightly, I'm afraid she might be trying to suffocate me.
"Mom," I complain, Clove is standing by my side, she has a slight smile on her face. "Embarrassing…"
"I haven't seen you for weeks and you're complaining that I'm embarrassing you in front of your 'girlfriend?'" My mother demands.
"First of all, mom, I'm a 16 year old boy, so yeah, I'm embarrassed and second of all don't say 'girlfriend' Clove is my real girlfriend."
"We'll see how long that lasts," my mother mutters.
"MOM!"
"It's true," she has no shame in her voice; I grip Clove's hand in my own, showing her that it wasn't at all true.
Clove puts out her hand, for my mother to shake, but she ignores it. "I told you to kill her first in the Arena, and what do you do? Fall in love."
"Mom!" she has no filter, none at all.
"CATO!" Solis comes running down the stairs in our house. "I missed you!"
I pick Solis up and spin him around in the air, he laughs in delight.
Clove is smiling when I put Solis down.
"Solis, this is Clove, my girlfriend."
Solis looks up at Clove with his big blue eyes (whoa someone is looking up at Clove, that's a first).
Clove smiles at him and kneels down, "Hi Solis, I've heard a lot about you from Cato." Not true, is it?
Solis smiles a toothy grin at Clove, "Nice to meet you, your pretty."
Clove laughs, "Thanks, I can see where Cato got his flirting tips from."
"What-? Hey!" I say, mocking offense.
My mother is not able to finish her rant on Clove, since she wouldn't say bad things about Clove in front of Solis. At least one of my family members seems to like Clove.
-0_0-
"Well that was… fun." Clove says, we are walking back from my old house, where we just had dinner; my mother was evil-eying Clove the whole time.
"Sorry about my mother, she's more protective than Rex." I say apologetically.
Clove laughs, "I didn't even know Rex had a protective bone in his body until yesterday."
"Well, my mother's been protective forever."
"I don't know whether to say luck, or poor you." Clove says.
"How about the second?" I ask.
-0_0-
8 days later
"I can't believe that we're going to be training the Advanced Class members!" Clove laughs; she looks beautiful as always today, wearing a royal blue shirt, jeans and combat boots.
"It'll sure be interesting." I say.
"If you didn't want to do it, why'd you sign up to?" Clove asks.
"Because you would have just done it without me if I didn't do it."
"That's true," Clove admits.
-0_0-
"Ok guys! We have a new pair of trainers today, otherwise known as the Victors of the 74th Hunger Games!" Deus calls.
There's some enthusiastic clapping from a few people but others just stare, probably because Clove and I are younger than most people here.
"Clove, you'll be training, ah, Ethan over there," Deus tells Clove, my heart sinks, "The one with the black hair standing over there," pointing to Ethan, and there goes my chances of there being 2 black-haired Ethans in the class. "And Cato," Deus says, "you're with Amara," leaning in closer to me Deus tells me, "Good luck, you'll need it."
Amara it turns out can use knives pretty well, but that's about it. She misses the person outline by quite a few feet with a spear (worse than Glimmer, wow), with the bow, she can't even get a few feet close to the outline, the ax, just forget about it. Then there's Amara with a sword, her swings are powerful, but she can't block, or dodge, I can't help but wonder how she even got into this class, then I remember, she has a rich daddy. I keep looking over at Clove and Ethan, she's helping him with spears at the moment, and they're both laughing at something. "C'mon," I say to Amara, "We're going to spears."
"But we already-"
"Let's go." I cut her off.
"Alright, whatever." Amara says cheerily enough, this girl is sickening me with her flirty smile, and winks every now and then.
The training center in 2 is a lot like the Capitol's (obviously, since everyone here is training for the Games) so there are different stations around the room, though, there aren't any survival stations, just weapons of all sorts.
I walk up to Ethan and Clove, both of whom are clutching their sides. "Hey," I look directly into Clove's green eyes, filled with laughter.
"Hey," Clove replies, "We were just talking about this one time when I was training Ethan and-"
"Enough of your useless mumblings," Amara says huffily. "We're supposed to be training, remember?"
"Yeah, I do." Clove says, "So let's see it."
"See what?" Amara asks, momentarily confused.
"You throwing a spear," Clove hands Amara the spear she was holding in her left hand.
"Alright," Amara says, taking the spear from Clove.
Amara throws the spear and I cover my eyes, it misses by several feet.
Clove smirks, "Nice job."
"It slipped from my hand." Amara tells Clove confidently.
"Whatever you say," Clove rolls her eyes.
Amara picks up another spear.
20 spears later
Amara finally kind of hit her target, but she hit it in the foot.
Clove has a gigantic smirk on her face, "Let me guess, it slipped?"
"Like you could do better," Amara huffs.
"Actually, shockingly enough, I could." Clove picks up a spear, and backs up 5 feet, closing her eyes, she throws and it hits the target in the heart (A/Nit's like those human target things). That was impressive, but closing her eyes was just showing off.
Amara turns red, "I bet you he couldn't do better," Amara points like a five-year-old since "you know, he hasn't trained in the Capitol like you, you probably took ages to learn how to do that."
Clove again, rolls her eyes. "Wanna try for it, Ethan?'
Ethan smiles blandly at Amara, "I'd love to."
Picking up a spear, he aims, and throws, and I can see the power of his strength in the throw. Ethan misses the heart by a couple inches, but it would still probably be deadly to someone in the Games. I can't help but feel good that Ethan didn't hit straight in the heart, it shows that he's still training, and that I'm better than him. This isn't jealousy is it? No, just protectiveness over my girlfriend…
I snort, "Miss."
Clove shoots me with a glare. "That was good, you just need to straighten your posture and make sure you aim well before you throw."
"Ok," Ethan says, he's gazing at Clove with longing, longing.
"ALRIGHT," I say. "How about we trade Trainees for the rest of the day?" I ask Clove. "You get to try to train Amara and I'll train Ethan."
"But-"
"Nope, it's just for the rest of the day, anyway Amara needs expertise help."
"Excuse me?" Amara, who was previously looking at her finger nails, looks up.
"Yeah, I know great idea." I say. "Why don't you two go over to the knives station, your both fairly good at that." With that, I push the two girls towards knives (the station).
Ethan stands next to me, watching after Clove.
"Alright, why don't we go and train with swords for a while, shall we?" I ask him.
Ethan shrugs, "I guess."
Where I am more 'muscle' as Clove would say, Ethan is leaner and more agile, more like Clove's build. But he is strong, you just can't see it, I saw how much power and strength Ethan used to throw that spear, it's another way he's like Clove, he looks thin and agile, yet he is stronger than many other people you might see with a 'muscle' build, and if he's really like Clove, he'll be extremely smart. That's some high competition. Wait- it's not a competition, I remind myself. Clove is mine, we love each other, and there is no competition with Ethan, because she just likes him as a friend.
Why do I have to be so competitive?
I pick up two swords and toss one to Ethan, who catches it easily. We both walk to an empty matted area, "Ready?" I ask Ethan who is standing opposite me, holding his sword in his left hand. He nods.
I lunge towards him with ferocity, Ethan blocks, when our blades meet, there is a ringing noise and I can feel the strength of my blow reverberating back through me. Ethan presses against my sword, pushing me backwards.
No, swords are my best weapon, there's no way anyone is going to beat me. I kick Ethan backwards in the stomach; he staggers backwards on the mat. Aiming the sword at Ethan's side, I swing; the two swords once again clash. This goes on for about five minutes, then, I finally trip Ethan, so he falls backwards and put the sword point to his throat.
"I win." I say, I suddenly notice that the whole room of is quiet, looking around I see that everyone is staring at the two of us.
I remove the sword point from Ethan's neck, but I don't help him up, he can do that for himself.
"Uh, hi." Ethan says to everyone staring at us.
"Oh shut up already," a very annoyed voice sounding from my left says.
Turning my head, I see that Clove and Amara are at the knife throwing station, Clove is holding a knife so tightly in her right hand, that it is white and trembling.
"You're doing it wrong," Clove says, her voice says that she's been saying the same thing to Amara for a while now. "You have to go like this." Clove lifts up her arm and in one swift motion, she throws, the knife lands where it's expected to- the dummies heart. "Not like this." Clove leans her entire body backwards and throws the knife like it's a spear, where it hits the dummies heart again, though she looked ridiculous doing it. "Flick your wrist, don't use your entire body, just your arm strength, and unless you're running at someone just using your wrist will work fine. Especially since it makes it easier."
"What are you saying I'm not talented?" Amara asks Clove haughtily.
Clove expression plainly says YES. "No, I'm just saying that it's easier to use your wrist instead of leaning backwards and holding the knife like it is a spear."
"So you're saying that you like to do things the easy way instead of the complicated way?" Amara questions. "Wow, I wonder how you ever won the Games, you never even deserved to get into them anyway."
"I didn't deserve to go in the Games?" Clove's face is flushed with anger.
"Never, and you should have been killed in there, my bet was that you were going to be the first to die. You just got lucky well not even lucky, you were screwing the best fighter who fought all your fights for you." Amara says boldly.
"Oh, is that so?" Clove asks Amara through gritted teeth.
"Well, duh, no one as small as you could ever win the Games, I mean look at you, are you sure you're fifteen? Not 12?"
I start towards the two girls, nothing good could come from this fight, especially with Clove's temper, I'm surprised Amara's not dead yet. Ethan follows behind me. Everyone is still watching what's happening.
"What no good comeback?" Amara jeers.
I saw what was coming even before it happened. Clove's fist rose up and punched Amara in the jaw, making a satisfyingly loud crack. "Is that too small and weak for you, Amara?"
Amara is clutching her left cheek, I'm guess that Clove probably broke her jaw, by the looks of it, she did it hard, since her cheek is already starting to swell and bruise. "Bitch," Amara says.
Clove just laughs, without humor. "Takes one to know one."
"Alright, that's enough," I say, finally reaching the two girls.
"Did you not hear what she said?" Clove asks me, her face is red from anger.
"I heard her," I try to sound calm, but truthfully I feel like murdering Amara. "But you need to calm down."
Clove gives me and angry glare, then she shoves past me, and stomps out of the room. Ethan is about to go after her, but I put my hand in front of him, "I got it." I tell him. Not waiting for a reply, I go out of the room to find Clove.
Last time Clove stomped off out of anger, she went down a laundry chute, I smile at the memory, our first actual conversation.
"How did you find me?"
"I went into your room and the carpet was rolled at the corner where you jumped through," I admit.
"You went into my room?" She smirks and raises an eyebrow.
"Um, yeah…" I want to change the subject, "are you alright? Sorry about Chelsey she can be a little…."
"Bitchy." Clove fills in.
I laugh, "I guess you could say that, but I don't advise doing it in front of her."
Clove lets out a little smile, "So, Cato, I have a question for you."
I am hesitant but I don't show it, "Shoot," I say.
"Why did you volunteer?"
Should I answer truthfully or just lie? "Um, I did it because nobody should have to kill their own flesh and blood, also I warned everyone else from volunteering so it would be my fault if one of you killed each other," a sliver of the truth.
Clove smiles, it's beautiful. "Thank you," she says.
"No problem, I've wanted to be in the Hunger Games for a while now anyway." I tell her, I have, just not in the same games as her.
"Same," Clove says. "I've seen you use a sword, you're really good, though, probably not as good as me." She smirks
"Oh really?" I raise my eyebrows at her.
"Really," She says with an arrogant look on her face.
"Well, maybe we'll just have to test that theory of yours so I can prove you wrong." I say.
"Maybe we should, so I can prove I'm right," Clove replies. Every minute I get to know her better I seem to like her more.
I roll my eyes, "You can try, knife girl."
"Did you just call me knife girl?" she grins.
"Yes, I believe that I did." I grin back.
"You're going down Cat."
"Seriously Cat?" I ask her.
Clove laughs.
"Or you could just call me hottest ever-supreme-destroyer," I inform her.
"But Cat fits better." She fakes whining.
I laugh, I haven't laughed like this for a long time.
"So Clove, are you planning on sitting here until we get to the Capitol?"
"No, just for a while, to think." She says. "I think best when I'm alone."
"There's a lock on your door for that." Clove smiles.
"Well, I guess, but down here seems more… private, if you hadn't noticed no one's been here in ages."
I look around; it is rather dusty down here. Clove is sitting atop a blanket, I'm pretty sure that my clothes are being covered with dust at this very moment.
I guess Clove notices me looked at my clothes because she says, "you can come sit on the blanket if you want," she scoots over and pats her hand beside her.
"Um, thanks." I get up and sit next to her. "Wow," I look around, "I didn't think it was possible for a train to have a laundry chute."
"Yeah, neither did I," Clove admits. "I just saw it, and thought why not? I mean, I did grab a blanket first though, no one's used these types of room in centuries."
"Yeah, well I just came down here head first," she laughs again, I love Clove's laugh, it's like a bell.
"Cato, did you come down here just to say that you're sorry for Chelsey?" Clove asks.
"Um, I came down to see if you were ok too…"
"How gentlemanly of you," I turn to face Clove; I see merriment in her eyes.
"Yes, I'm known for my gentlemen tendencies."
Clove smiles. "Yeah, and I'm known as the President-in-training of Panem."
I can feel how close she is to me, and that if I just leaned forward the slightest I could kiss her. But if I did that, she'd probably slap me in the face, ruining any chances of my friendship with her.
"I also came down here to see if I could find an ally, one that I can trust that won't stab me in the back in the Games."
Clove sighs, "The Games, I've been waiting for my chances my entire life, now that I'm actually going to be in them, I'm unsure if I made the right choice."
"Well," I check my watch. "5:30 right now and they are replaying the reapings every hour, so if we go upstairs and clean up, we can watch the reaping at 6."
"Ok, Cat, be ready then." Clove stands up. "Meet me in my room at, 5:50?"
"Sure, but why not my room?" I ask.
Clove smirks, "because you seem to know where my room is better than I know where yours is."
I feel heat rising to my face, what the heck?! Am I blushing?
"By the way," Clove adds, "since you're the last one sitting, you get to take the blanket." With that she bolts from the room, opening a door that I didn't even notice, leaving me alone with a dirty dusty blanket.
Well, there's not a laundry chute in the Training Center, so where would Clove go? She did say that she liked the park, but that would be too public for her, too many people there at this time of day. I remember when we spent that night talking, she told me that she enjoyed hiking, but she couldn't already be hiking up a mountain, where is she?
Clove likes high places, she always likes being on top of training scores, knowing what's going on, and she likes climbing trees. Stepping into the elevator, I look at the buttons, there's one for the roof, I press it.
When the elevator dings open on the roof, the first thing I notice is how windy it is. Even though the Training Center is only 4 stories tall, it looks like it's at least 9 stories tall, because each floor has an extra-large area in it, for training.
I had a lucky guess; Clove is sitting on the ledge of the roof, looking down over everything.
"You know," I call over the wind. "Jumping would be a very bad idea."
Clove turns her head at me, her expression says she's angry, but her eyes say she was waiting for me to come up here.
"I'm not going to jump," Clove rolls her eyes. "I'm just looking over 2, we're in the tallest building, so you can see pretty much everything. It's beautiful."
I walk over to where Clove is perched and try to ignore the wind that's trying to push me off the roof, it's surprising that Clove, considering how light she is, hasn't been blow over.
I look over; I can see a small lake glittering at the base of a mountain miles away, that's where I learned to swim. The lake is so far away that it looks like a hand-held glass mirror.
"Right?"
"Uh what?" I ask.
"I just stated plainly that Amara is a crazy prideful bitch."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry I zoned out there for a moment."
"You seem to do that a lot, don't you?" Clove says thoughtfully.
"Yeah, sorry." I tell her. "I don't have the biggest attention span."
"I don't care, as long as you're with me," Clove smiles at me. "I could just rip out that blondes eyes and feed them to the mountain wolves."
"Amara isn't the most pleasurable person is she?"
"Nope, but I noticed she seemed to take a liking to you," Clove raises an eyebrow at me.
"Well who wouldn't, I got abs harder than rocks, tested by you."
Clove laughs, "That's true," she pokes me in the stomach.
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