Hi! Yay, another chapter! I feel like writing lately, of course, reviews help... Just saying.

I'm pretty sure none of you care and just want to start reading but... I got a 94 over 100 in my Cambridge English exam (PET/b1)!

Now start reading.

What happened to Clove (mentioned in chapter 17):

PLEASE READ:*This might affect people with anxiety, depression,... So if it's your case please don't read it, you'll still be able to understand the story, it doesn't affect the rest of the story, I don't want anyone of you to feel bad.

3rd PERSON'S POV.

:*:*:*FLASHBACK:*:*:*

A twelve old Clove plays with her knives in the living room. Her parents stare at her from the other side of the room. They look too young to be parents of a eleven year old girl and wear extravagant clothes.

-Why has she got to be so weird? Always playing with those stupid knives, and she has no friends. -Clove's mother whispers looking disgusted at her daughter.

-She has a friend, Cato I think. But she's pretty weird. We're good parents, I don't think it's our fault. We do as much as we can, honey. -He says putting a hand around his wife's waist.

-Of course we're good parents. I mean, we're Victors. What more could she ask for? -She asks, accentuating her Capitol accent.

-Nothing dear, nothing. -They start kissing.

Clove hears her parents, turns around and sees them making out. She's used to that. Her parents aren't like the ones of the other kids at school. They don't take her on walks or to the park, but that's ok, it always is. They don't go to the performances in which she participates in the end of the school year or always remember her birthday, but she loves them, they're the only people she has and they never leave her side. There's also Cato, but he must want something in exchange of his friendship, because everyone at school wants to be his friend, but he has chosen Clove, who no one likes. Even knowing that, she loves spending time with Cato.

Clove gets up and walks to her parents.

-Mum, can we go to the park today? -She always asks the same question, and the answer never changes.

They take a step back to make some space between them. Her mother grunts and his father sighs.

-What have we told you about asking that? -His father asks tiredly.

-To stop doing it. -She says sadly staring at the floor.- But today's a beautiful day!

-That's what you said yesterday, and the day before, honey. -She spats the word 'honey' like it tastes bitter in her mouth. -Oh, shit, we're running out of time Jeff! -She runs up the stairs.

-Where are we going to daddy? -Clove asks excited. They never go anywhere.

-Mum and I will be gone for a day, ok kiddo?

-I'm... I'm staying alone? -Her eyes are glassy from the tears she won't let fall. She must have understood him wrong. She's afraid of staying alone at home.

-Sure! You're a very mature girl. You have some food in the fridge.

-Ok.

They were always next to her, they weren't the best parents in the world, but they were there. What is there left now?

She sits in the couch, staring at the floor, not letting the tears in her eyes fall.

Her parents are talking in the second floor of the house, she can hear them, she always does. They don't know she hears them. She's used to hearing them call her weird, but what she hears today hurts her more than everything else they've ever called her.

-Why does she get so sad? It's just for a day... Or so... -Her father asks her mother angrily.

-Why do you care? Come on, we both know she's just one of Snow's orders, to make our "romance between Victors" more credible. It's not like we chose to have her. And the Capitol loved to hear I was pregnant, so what's wrong?

-You're right. Everything's ok, Sarah-Love.

Now she can hear her parents making out again, she doesn't care, she never does. They wave her goodbye and she tells them Cato will be over later. They don't hear her voice crack or the tears falling down her cheeks, they just nod and leave.

She goes to her room and sits down in her bed. The wind coming from the window blows her hair, and it sticks in her wet face. She doesn't care, she never does.

She sits in a corner of the bedroom, the bed is too comfortable, she doesn't deserve that, she is just a burden. After thinking that, she gets to the conclusion that she doesn't have bad parents, it's them who have a bad daughter. She should be nicer when people from the Capitol visit them, she should have more friends, she should be prettier, more intelligent, useful, worth it. But she isn't any of those things, she notices. She's just Clove. Why can't she be another person?

She presses her hands tightly in her ears. Why can't the voices insulting her shut up?

She closes her eyes tightly and lets all the tears fall. And for a moment she can stop being Clove, she's not Clove, she's not Clove, she's not Clove. She keeps reciting that mantra in her mind.

Someone touches her shoulder and she looks up to that someone'a face.

-Clove, are you ok? -Cato says looking at her worriedly and as though seeing her like that hurts him. Has he leaves in the hair? Has he climbed the tree in front of the window in her bedroom? It's not very difficult she thinks, she has done it a couple times. He must have rung the doorbell. She looks back up at his eyes and something snaps inside of her. Clove is not ok, but she is ok because she's not Clove. Why could she not be ok? Her parents haven't left her, they don't hate her, she's not alone. All of that happens to Clove, but she's not Clove.

-I'm ok. I'm not Clove. Everything's ok. -She says in a whisper. He falls to his knees, takes her hands away from her ears and hugs her. She starts crying harder. He know the knew t-shirt he's wearing (he had wore it specially because he was meeting Clove) was soaked in Clove's tears, but he doesn't care.

-It's ok Clove, shh, it's ok. I'm here, I'm not leaving.

Between sobs she tells him everything, from the first time she noticed they didn't care, when she was six and they said she could come back from school by herself from then on, to today, when they left her, and even if they came back home it was never going to be the same.

After Clove had calmed down they played with her knives, watched TV, eat a four cheese pizza and had and sleepover at Cato's.

Her parents didn't come back in a week, Cato's didn't come back in five days.

They were both alone, but having each other was more than they could have hoped for.

~M.

Whenever I try to publish this chapter with the words wider and in black, when posted it appears with codes before each sentence. If someone knows what I can do to stop it, please tell me.