Clove
I stand there for a few moments taking in Cato in his school uniform. His blazer just fits over his large and sculpted arm muscles, and his hair ruffled just enough to look like he put no effort into it, but everyone knows he spent a good twenty minutes getting it just perfect.
Needless to say I have never seen anyone look so handsome in a school uniform. I feel a blush creep across my face as I think how handsome he looks right now.
He cocks his eyebrow at me and I see a faint smirk creep across his lips.
"Hey." He says casually, finally breaking the silence
"Hi." I nervously run my injured arm over my ponytail
Cato intently watches my arm as I trail it over my pony tail, his eyes turn an ice blue and become little slits. Realizing, a little to late, I was exposing my injured wrist to him for the first time, which was something that I did not want to do. I quickly roll down the sleeve of my blazer hoping he didn't notice the damage too much.
And I was wrong.
I can see the anger radiating off of his body. He quickly grabs my wrist yanks up the sleeve of my blazer exposing the black, blue, and purple to him.
"Ow! Cato!" I yelp, as my breath shortens from the sudden burst of pain
"Is this what he did to you?" He growls
"Yes! Now please let go!" I plead with him, but his grip is making the throbbing worse
Memories of that night start flooding back, and Cato's grip on my wrist isn't making me feel any better. For the first time I am actually scared to be with him.
"Cato! Please let go, you're hurting me!" I yell as the tears start to stream down my face from the constant pain
Marvel bursts around the corner in a full sprint and has a really angry look on his face when he sees what is going on in front of him.
I swallow hard making the tears go away and take in a deep breath.
"Cato, look at me." I say as calmly as I can, taking my free hand and pressing it against his cheek "Please, you need to calm down. You're not helping either of us acting like this."
He lifts his head to look at me straight in the eye, and when he sees my tear stained face he drops my wrist from his grip like it was a hot potato.
I cup his face in both of my hands, and watch as Cato's eyes change from the piercing ice blue to the familiar soft ocean blue.
He has the coolest eyes I have ever seen.
As I stare at him I find all I want to do right now is just crash my lips against his. He has a girlfriend, I remind myself quickly and drop my hands from his face and just was away, before I can do anything stupid.
"Clove go wait down the hallway,"Marvel points passed me "that is in the direction of our class."
I take one quick look at Cato, who is now leaning with his back against the locker and looking straight at the floor and head down the hallway where Marvel told me to go. I turn the corner and stop try to listen to Marvel and Cato's conversation.
"Alright out with it." Marvel says pacing back and forth in front of Cato
"What do you mean?"
"What the hell was that?"
"I don't know man." Cato says in a low mumble
"Do you want to scare her away for good? Because that's what it looks like. First, your stupid stunt with Delly at the party at Jackie's, which I now hear your dating Delly. How many beers did you have that night?"
"Only two."
"That was two beers too many." Marvels voice is starting to become more frantic now
"Did you see what that asshole did to her?" Cato snaps back at him
"Of course I did and I got a black eye from it. I hate Kensington as much as the rest of you do. But, its no use to take it out on the one girl that I know you really care about!"
"You don't know the shit that is going on right now Diamond." Cato growls
There is clanking of lockers and a low grunt. I peek around the corner and see that Marvel now has Cato pinned up against the locker.
"Rhodes, we are best friends. But, right now I am not exactly sure who you are. When you find the Cato that the rest of us are friends with, let me know because I miss him." Marvel says through gritted teeth
"Cato, our first class is about to start come on!" Delly's whine suddenly chimes into the conversation
My stomach has become so used to twisting into knots when I hear her nails-on-a-chalkboard voice.
"Your Slut-erella awaits you Prince Charming!" Marvel says bowing to Cato
I try to hold in my laugh, but it comes out as a loud snort Marvel finds it just as amusing when he joins me with a large smile plastered across his face.
"That was brilliant," I say giving Marvel a hug "the look on her face, she was so appalled."
"How's your wrist Calloway?"
"It's been better."
I hear Cato's familiar footsteps bounding down the hallway in our direction and then stop. I internally cringe really hoping he is not seeing me and Marvel hugging right now. I quickly pull away from Marvel and turn to see Cato with a really pained and angered look on his face. He just gives a low growl and walks away dragging Delly behind him
"He doesn't know about you and Jackie does he?" I ask Marvel, while I feel tears start to fill my eyes
"Nope." Marvel replies staring straight ahead
Cato has to have the worst timing of anyone that I know.
"He has to have the worst timing of anyone I know." Marvel says echoing my thoughts
My feet start moving before I can completely think what I am doing next, I am running in the direction that Cato just disappeared too. I spot his blonde hair and Delly with her stupid slutty arms wrapped around Cato's.
"Cato wait!" I call after him choking through the tears
I swear I see him stop and peek back over his shoulder at me and I feel a little glimmer of hope rise in my heart. But, Slut-erella whispers something in his ear and he gives her a quick kiss on the lips. I swear it feels like my heart just got knocked off of a shelf and smashed into a million pieces that hurt more then what Ryder did to me with Glimmer.
"Come on Clove we better get to class." Marvel says behind me
I turn around to walk and meet him, keeping my head staring on the ground, and wiping the stray tears from my face. Marvel, being the good friend that he is, swings his arm around my shoulder giving me a reassuring hug.
Cato
That asshole! How dare he touch my Clove, MY CLOVE! I hate him! Right now I don't know who I hate more, Ryder or me.
That is all I can think of as I sit through first period, while I watch a blue Caesar Flickerman lecture my media arts class. The massive ugly black, blue, and purple band that has invaded her perfectly tiny wrist, it makes me sick just thinking about it and the pain that she was in that night. And the fact that I should have been the one to save her that night, beat the living shit out of Kensington and then spend the night with Clove in my arms, keeping her safe and making sure she was happy.
Now that I am think about it Marvel was right, two beers too many and look what it got me. I am stuck with Delly and Marvel swooped in to save the day and now he has the one girl I ever truly cared about. I could kick myself repeatedly in the head for not saving her when she needed me most.
Clove
First period is practically a free period, our teacher Mr. Abernathy was hungover apparently and all he did was put a movie in and fell asleep for the rest of class. How he still has his job here I have no idea.
Finnick, Peeta and Annie are also in first period with me and Marvel, needless to say they were immediately filled in on the adventure we had in the hallway. Finnick had a deranged look in his eye and I had to calm him down multiple times telling him 'I am okay.' and 'No it is not necessary to beat Cato up.' If you have managed to piss sweet, innocent Annie Cresta off that is a huge accomplishment and right now Annie is not Delly's number one fan. Poor Peeta looks so appalled by the story, I am afraid I may have broken him, he hasn't said anything since that class.
Second and third period was a blur I really don't remember much of what happened. Now Peeta, Marvel, and I are walking to fourth period together. Peeta and I have art together and Marvel is right across the hall.
"Clove?" Peeta finally asks after almost two hours of not saying anything
"Holy shit Mellark has finally spoken! Someone call the newspaper!" Marvel makes a grand announcement
"Shut up, Diamond!" I laugh smacking Marvel in the chest "What's up Peeta?"
"How did you do it?"
"Do what?" I stop walking and cross my arms
The three of us stop in the hallway and form a little clump together.
"Cato. I mean everyone knows he ... umm can't control his anger very well. It was like one touch from you and he was practically putty in your hands."
"Mellarks got a point. How did you do it?"
I look at the two of them completely stunned, not really sure myself how I did it.
"Honestly, I am not really sure. I just knew if he calmed down he wouldn't do something that he would regret later." I say giving my best convincing smile to the two of them
Peeta and I walk into art class and meet Katniss at one of the empty tables. Our art teacher, who tells us just to call him Cinna, has to be the coolest teacher ever, he is so laid-back. He told us to draw a portrait of anyone that we want. I choose my mom, Katniss chooses her sister, and Peeta chooses Katniss. No surprise there.
I cock my eyebrow at him as I see his hand fly over his sketch pad. He stops after about two minutes of intently drawing and he has half of Katniss' face perfectly sketched out. I look at my own sketch pad and barely have my mom's head drawn.
"How?" I say pointing Peeta's sketch pad
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Katniss giggles waving it off
The bell rings to end the period and we grab out things to head to lunch.
Cato
I guess since she moved on, its time for me to, as well. Marvel is better for her anyway. We'll both be happier. Now I can focus on that full ride to USC that I want.
I honestly don't mind having gym before lunch, going to the weight room clears my mind and having full advantage of the football locker room to take a shower is always nice.
I turn the nozzle on the shower to off and wrap my towel around my waist. Checking the time on the clock I see I have five minutes before the period is over. Just enough time to get dressed and head to lunch.
I walk out of the locker room tightening my tie and see a girl with dark hair in a pony tail leaning against the door frame of the locker room. My heart suddenly sparks with happiness.
"Clove?" I ask placing my hand on the girl's shoulder
She quickly turns around and I am face-to-face with a pair of brown eyes not Clove's emerald green ones.
"Oh, Hey Maria." I mumble then walk pasther and for the cafeteria
I walk into the cafeteria and find the table with all my friends and slip into the end seat at the end of the bench near Katniss, Peeta, Madge and Gale. Out of the corner of my eye I see Clove at the opposite end of the table across from Jackie and next to Finn laughing about something that Marvel just said.
She's happy, right? I should be happy at least for her. I can't help the pit in my stomach that isn't going away.
A while later Jackie and Clove return from the lunch line with their trays full, Clove places hers on the table and I see Delly walking with two of her friends in the direction of Clove.
This is not going to turn out good.
I cringe as I watch Delly "accidentally" spill her entire tray all over Clove. Clove is just standing there stunned holding her arms up, Jackie slams her fist down on the table and stands straight up.
"Hey Slut-erella, go bug someone else we don't need you here!" She yells at Delly
Clove lets out an annoyed moan and Jackie mumbles something about 'getting her fixed up right away!'
"Dude!" Gale pounds the table in front of "Four words: Get. Rid. Of. Her."
"Ughh! I know!" I moan covering my face with my eyes
Clove
Jackie is a miracle worker. Plain and simple. There is not one particle of food left on my uniform.
Today can definitely go down as the worst first day of school ever. The last two periods of the day I just stayed to myself. It turns out Cato is the only one that I know that is in my English class. Unfortunately I got assigned to the seat next to him in class.
The whole period I just kept my head down writing all the notes that Mr. Havensbee gave, and Cato kept one of his ear puds plugged into his ear even though its against school rules.
I didn't focus much during last period either, I was just focusing on getting home to forget this day ever happened. I think the only thing I got out of that class was Ms. Trinket has some strange fashion sense.
I am now in BeeTee's room, he is the computer tech guy. He is helping me with fixing a problem on my computer, to make sure I can get all the schools emails.
While I am waiting at BeeTee's table I hear footsteps coming in behind me and stop. BeeTee looks up, pushing the arch of his glasses up his nose.
"Ahh, Mr. Rhodes. This is our new student Ms. Calloway. Have you two met before?" He says
I slowly turn on my heel to face him. He has his blazer slung over one arm and is carrying his back pack by one strap.
"Cato." He states before placing his hand out in front of him
I look from his hand back up to his face to see if he is joking. I have never seen a more serious look on his face before.
"Clove." I say placing my hand in his and shaking it
"Well I am glad we all now each other!" BeeTee says happily
Oh how wrong BeeTee is!
With that simple hand shake we went from two friends, who were barely talking, to complete strangers.
A/N: Soo what do you think? Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions always welcome :)
Don't worry! I think you are all really going to like next chapter! :D
I have already contacted the winner for my trivia thing! But, I just wanted to thank everyone who submitted answers! I may do another thing similar in the future so don't worry there could be another chance to help out with the story!
Shout out to the other people that did get all three questions right though:
PhoenixRetribution
EvIL-CakEs-EaT-U
finnickandannie4ever
silvernight92
Charlie3Cato
Stockhorse
RealMcCoy18
Thanks again everyone for reading my stories and all the reviews! You all help me keep going with writing this story!
Love you all!
xoxo,
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