"…..Don't ignore the survival skills. Everybody wants to grab a sword, but most of you will die from natural causes. 10% from infection, 20% from dehydration. Exposure can kill you as easily as a knife." I made a twisted smile as Atala, the head trainer, explains. Anything related to knives satisfy my ego so much. After we were released, I walk to the rack of weapons. As I walked, I see Cato and the boy from district 1 laughing beside the racks. I see something silver hidden under a container of snares and ropes. I pull it out and it was my silver mat. I hugged it towards myself as if it were a baby. Happiness sank inside me. I open it and saw a small piece of paper with a loopy handwriting.
Consider this as deal. You use this only if you follow everything I say. I've already told you the first thing to do.
Oh, it's from Enobaria, obviously. She wants me to make an alliance with Cato. Probably with the other Careers as well. I hurry to the station for knife throwing and started training. I threw a couple of times, and of course, I never missed. The trainer here even left me alone because he knows I can handle myself on this. "Oh well, what do we have here?" I hear a slightly deep and sarcastic voice. I look back, and Marvel was playing with my silver mat of knives. He leans on a dummy carved through a wall and tosses my mat up and down. "Get away from my mats if you don't want to be slain early." I threatened. He laughs like a dork who never met humans. "I'm only playing with it. Where did you get this anyway? Breaking the rules, Clove?" He kept on annoying me until I got fed up and I threw the knife I was holding. It landed on the wall- barely an inch away from his head. He glares as he stomps towards me with anger. He pokes my left shoulder. "Who do you think you are, huh?" He pushes me. "You think you're so clever?" He thrusts the knives I held and continued pushing me. I didn't even care. I saw how much he could handle his anger. Oh wait, he didn't handle it right one bit. That only means he won't be off to a good start in the Games. Someone nudges him away from me. "Dude, are you seriously that weak?" Cato teases while actually stopping Marvel from doing something worse. "She's just a girl, man. Let it go." Marvel cools down and Cato drags me to a corner. "What are you doin-"
"I saved you." He cuts in. "Now do me a favor and try to be less aggressive to the other Careers. You can scare other tributes but not Careers like us. We can get them later."
I butted. "We?" I laugh with full ego. "I know Enobaria sent you those. Now, if you don't want me to tell the trainers or even the game makers that you brought those here, just follow the plan. Alright?" He was holding unto my shoulders and I shoved them off. "Fine." I rolled my eyes and walked passed him. I release some tension from my far and tried to look less aggressive. I continue with my knife throwing. I shoot a knife straight through a dummy's heart. "Oh well, well, Clove. Mind teaching us a little bit of that?" Great. Now, the bitch from the flamingo district is here. "Oh come on, Glimmer." Marvel retorts with pride. "We can do that too." They both laugh and Cato catches up and stands beside Marvel. Glimmer walks away. "Hey, Clove, mind letting us play with your little knives?" He asks in a playful, but of course in a massive amount of cockiness, tone. I wave my hand to show that I wasn't interested, and they started playing with my knives. Marvel throws too high and hits the wooden wall of a dummy. Cato laughs. He threw his, and it landed on the head of the dummy. Not bad. I walk away with not interest, and proceed to another station, clearly to ignore them.
"Hey you took my knife!" I hear Cato. I leaned to my left to see what was happening ahead of the line. He was accusing the boy from 6 for taking his knife. Wait. He doesn't own a knife. I squinted my eyes and realized that Cato must have lost one or maybe the whole of my knives. I ignore for a moment since it was almost my turn to run through the training field. Geez. He's too much angered just for my knife. They have loads of knives here anyway.
Oh I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
And kissed me till the morning light
The morning light
And kissed me till the morning light
I brought myself back unto my feet when Atala shouts my name. I didn't realize it was my turn already, so I sprinted to catch up, and went up the field.
I sat down an oddly-shaped, crystal bench and wipe the sweat I had obtained from all the training. The rest evaporated because of the Acs implanted in the room. My silver mat dropped unto the bench. I look up and see Cato. "There you go." He says in his cockiest tone ever. "I heard you lost a knife," I questioned. "Was it mine?" He nods as he tries to keep his look fro me. The usual ego-bombarded Cato. "Speak up." I order. "I know your guilty. It's obvious." He looks at me as I unroll my mat. I scan my knives. Yep, one of them is missing. I inhaled and released the heck of a stress out of me. "It's alright." I say. I see relief in his eyes. "You thought I'll hate you more, eh?" He grins and nods. "Well, I do, but, there's not point of ranting when I've still got 11 more." I force myself to smile. "You're lucky I didn't cut you back there." I say. He chuckles cockily like he's not afraid of me at all. Well, he is. I think. "But if we weren't allies, I would have." I stand up and leave.
Sorry for a late upload! x
