Hi! The number of people that have read this fanfic already is just blowing my mind. Thank you so much to everyone who has read! It means a lot.

Chapter 6:

Cato

I couldn't get the waitress out of my head. Ever since I saw her at the Capitol Café two days ago, she is all that I can think about. It isn't just the fact that she is gorgeous, because she so is. She just has this fierce energy about her that is so magnetic. I think about the way her dark hair had floated gently onto her freckled cheeks when she handed me my order. The way she had called out Finnick. And the fact that she was reading The Art of War.

"Yo Cato!" I felt Marvel slap me over the back of my head, forcing me out of my daze.

"Huh, what?" I say dumbly. Everyone at the lunch table is starring at me. Glimmer lets out an obviously fake laugh and Gale smirks across the table at me.

"You thinking about that waitress again?" Finnick asks in a joking tone, pushing his sunglasses up. He has been wearing sunglasses for the past few days and won't tell anyone why.

"What waitress?" Glimmer's voice loses the sweetness slightly, but just enough so that you can hear a bitter edge in her voice. Glimmer has been trying to get me to go on a date with her since our Sophomore year, and despite the fact that I told her I will never see her that way, she seems to think that if I am not with her, then I can't be with anybody. Not that there has been anybody to be with. Before now.

"She works at the Capitol Café," Marvel says.

"Said she goes to school here," Finnick adds.

"What does she look like?" Gloss chimes in.

Gloss is actually two years older than the rest of us, but he has flunked senior year twice because he missed so many days. Now he is in our grade with his younger sister Cashmere. Cashmere and Glimmer are almost always attached at the hip, but today Cashmere is off making out with one of the boys on the football team.

"Short. Dark hair," Marvel says.

"Kind of a b***h," Finnick chimes in. I laugh.

"You just don't like her because she called you out for sleeping with like half the girls in the grade."

Finnick flushes, but everyone laughs, knowing that he can't deny it. He has been with more girls than Gloss, Marvel, and Gale combined.

"I think I actually know who you are talking about," Gloss says. Everyone looks over at him. He points over to a table on the other side of the courtyard. There are only three girls at the table, Johanna Mason, the new girl, I think Finnick said her name was Annie, and...her.

"Yeah. That's her," I say.

All at once, everyone at our table turns to look at her. I stare down at my sandwich and take an embarrassed bite of it. Of course, they just have to turn and stare. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Johanna get up and stalk towards us. The girl from the café tries to grab her arm but misses. Within seconds, Johanna is at our table, with the dark-haired girl close behind her. Annie is still at their table but when I just make out her wary glance.

"Jo, come on. Just leave it." The girl from the café pleads.

"No Clove."

Clove gives Johanna one last look before sighing in defeat.

"What you all staring at?" Johanna snarls at us.

"You and your little freak friend," Gloss hurls back.

"Oh, and how do your balls feel?" The Clove fires back.

I look up at this, confused. Everyone else at the table shares the same look, but Johanna goes for angry to livid.

"So you are the guy that harassed Annie?" Johanna asks her loud voice carrying across the courtyard.

Now I see Annie grabbing her stuff and rushing over to our table.

"You did what?" Another voice joins into Clove and Johanna's angry chorus but is not the voice I expected.

Everyone turns to Finnick, the looks on their faces varying between astonishment and confusion. Mine, I'm sure, is no exception. Annie reaches the now silent table. When Gloss doesn't answer Finnick is on his feet and grabs Gloss by the front of his shirt. Gloss is a big guy, but everyone knows not to mess with Finnick. When he wants to be, he can be very strong and very forceful. What I don't get is why he is being this way because of Annie, a girl that he can't stop complaining about.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Finnick's voice is strong and slow as he holds Gloss only an inch or so from his face. I don't think I have seen Finnick this mad since, well, ever.

I hear a choking noise come from behind me and hear Clove say Annie's name. I turn and see Annie running away into the apple trees that lay behind the school. Then I see Finnick running past me, following her. His glasses have fallen enough and I see what they were covering. A black eye.

"Annie wait!" Finnick shouts. He disappears into the trees and I turn back to face the table. Everyone is stunned.

"What just happened?" Gale asks.

"I have no idea," Johanna says.

When school is over, I finally decide to go back to the Capitol Café. I didn't want to go back to soon cause I didn't want to seem too desperate. Now, I not only hope that she is working at the café again, but I am also hoping to get some answers on what happened today at lunch. I arrive at the café quickly and take a seat at the bar. To my dismay, a different girl is working behind the counter. I heave a sigh and order water before pulling out my math homework and getting to work on it. I finish the glass and sit it down on the bar counter absentmindedly. I silently scold myself for being disappointed that Clove isn't here. I finish my math homework pretty quickly, and I lean down to put it back in my backpack.

"Do you need any more water?" Clove's voice says.

I jerk my head up so quick that I hit it on the underside of the bar counter.

"You're here," I say, rubbing the top of my head where it hit it and trying (but failing) to keep a smile off my face.

"Yeah, my shift just started," Clove says. She has a small, sheepish smile on her face that is absolutely adorable. It feels like the world falls away as I look into her green eyes. I know it is kind of cliche to say, but she has such beautiful eyes.

"Uh, thanks," Clove says blushing.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" I ask, and I can feel the blood rushing into my own cheeks.

"Yeah."

I just smile at her for a second, taking in every part of her features.

"Do you need anything?" She asks.

"No," I say, but then I remember part of why I came here. "Actually, yeah. What happened at lunch today?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, like what did Gloss do to Annie?"

"I found him cornering her after the second day of school. He had her like shoved against a wall. It was probably payback for the fact that Annie accidentally spilled coffee on Glimmer that morning. I kicked him in balls though," When Clove says that last part, a look of satisfaction passes over her face. Damn this girl is cool.

I roll my eyes at what she says about Gloss. "Of course Glimmer would set him on Annie. Cause heaven-forbid anyone trips."

Clove laughs at that. Her laugh soft and breathy, but it doesn't sound like she is giggling like it does when other girls laugh. It, like everything else about her, is perfect.

"What's going on with Annie and Finnick though?" Clove asks.

"I have no clue," I say. "When he ran off his sunglasses fell off and it looked like he has a black eye."

"See that might have been Annie," Clove says.

"Really?" I ask incredulously. I haven't actually really met Annie, but from the brief encounter I had with her at lunch, she doesn't really seem like the type of person who would punch someone in the eye.

"Maybe. I mean, it's just a theory, but Annie went over to Finnick's after the second day of school to work on their project, and the next day her knuckles looked a little bruised."

Immediately my mind runs to bad places of Finnick pushing himself on Annie. I immediately stop my brain before the train can go too far off the rails. Finnick is my friend, I should probably give him the benefit of doubt, but his history with girls doesn't really help his case.

After that though, Clove and I move off of the topic of today's lunch and we just start talking. By the time her shift is over, I have learned that her favorite color is silver, she doesn't like trampoline's because when she was eight she fell off of one and broke her ankle, she used to love going to the zoo but hasn't been in years, her favorite animal is a tiger shark and that her full name is Clove Amelia Stark. When her shift is over, I offer to walk her home, but just like the first time, she stiffens and her voice is cold when she turns me down. But it is darker tonight than it was two nights ago when I offered so after letting her get about a thirty-second head start, I follow her.

Nothing much happens for five minutes, and I almost consider turning back, but just as she reaches an alley, and a large man emerges from the shadows. I freeze in fear.

"Why hello there little pretty," The man says. "Care to join me inside?"

"No." Clove's voice is strong and harsh.

"Well that's not a very nice way to speak," The man says in a sour and vile tone.

When Clove goes to turn away, the man grabs her arm, yanking her back. I see a glint of metal in the moonlight, a knife, and my body catches up to my brain. I launch myself forward towards Clove and the man. I hear a thwack of metal hitting wood before I reach her and I panic, moving as quickly as possible. When I reach Clove, I see that the older man who was harassing her is pinned to the wall of the building behind him. A knife had perfectly snagged both his jacket and shirt and is stuck in the wood mere centimeters from the man's neck.

Clove walks over to the man, and grabs the handle of the knife and pulls. As soon as the knife is free, the man runs off down the alley, muttering something about the "crazy teens these days". Then Clove turns to me. I almost cower at the look of pure lividness on her face.

"Why the hell were you following me?" She asks. She isn't yelling, but her voice is so hostile and angry that she might as well be.

"I was just worried about you walking home at night!" I say. "And rightfully so!" I gesture around to where we are and what just happened.

"I can take care of myself!" She is yelling know. "I don't need some stupid rich boy trying to play my protector!"

"I wasn't..." I start, but she cuts me off.

"Just leave Cato!" She yells. When I don't move she shoves me hard and I stumble backward onto the sidewalk. "GO!" She yells.

I look at her, with her strands of her dark hair flying array on her freckled face, her green eyes shadowed by darkness, but still obviously full of anger. She still has the knife in her hand, and I watch as she tucks it neatly into her skirt. I sigh and glance at her one last time, silently pleading that she will just let me walk her home.

"Go," She says again. Her voice is softer this time, but still full of anger and...hatred I think.

"Okay," I say. I glance at her face one last time, and then I turn and leave.

What do you guys think of Clove's behavior towards Cato trying to protect her? I hope you guys liked this chapter. I am going to try to incorporate Peeta and Katniss into the story soon, maybe in the next chapter or two. Please review or PM me with any feedback you have.

As always, stay happy, healthy, and safe,

-Jewel.