"Clove? Clove!" somebody's yelling and banging on my door. I sit upright in my bed, gasping for breath and covered in sweat and feel like I've been crying. I glance over at my clock and see that it reads 2:17 a.m. The banging on my door continues. "What?" I say breathlessly. My door opens and Cato's giant figure, wearing only pajama pants, fills the doorway.
"I heard you screaming. Are you ok?" He asks with a worried expression on his face. "I don't know" I say in between breaths. Suddenly, my nightmare comes back to me, and I can't help the tears that begin to fall. Cato immediately notices and comes and sits next to me on my bed.
"You want to talk about it?" he asks quietly as he takes my hands in his. I nod slowly and begin to speak "We were in the games, and at the feast. I went after Firegirl, and was about to kill her when I was snatched off of her by something huge. It threw me on the ground and I get my first look of who it is. It turned out to be Thresh." I say quietly
"He picked up a huge rock and I got scared and called out for you, but you never responded. Before I knew it, he hit me on the temple with the rock. The last thing I remember is calling out for you and faintly hearing you before I black out." I finish as the tears come back and my body begins to shake with sobs. I don't know what's going on with me. I've never been this vulnerable and weepy before.
I look up to Cato, "I'm afraid to die" I say so quietly I don't think he heard me. I know he did though because he wraps me in his arms and silently kisses the top of my head as I continue to cry. I keep sobbing for another ten minutes until it begins to subside and I start to dose off. Cato notices and unravels his arms from around me, gently lies me down, and stands up and walks to the door.
"No! Wait." I say as I grab his arm. He turns towards me with a confused look on his face. "Stay with me?" I ask innocently. He looks taken aback for a few seconds until what I've said registers in his head. He walks back to me and lies down on the side opposite of me and crawls under the blankets. He opens his arms and I immediately go into them.
He wraps them around me and kisses my head again. I don't know how long it took, but I finally was lulled to sleep by the constant thudding of his heartbeat.
I wake up with a lot of weight sprawled on top of me. I open my eyes and see that it's Cato, who's taken up ninety percent of the bed and is snoring away peacefully. I'm a little alarmed at first, not remembering late last night but when I do, I relax. "Hey, big ton of bricks" I say to him, trying to wake him up. He just moans and goes back to sleep. "Cato!" I yell. "Hmm?" he mumbles a little bit more awake this time. "Would you mind getting off of me so I can go to the bathroom?" I ask.
"Oh, sorry" He mumbles groggily and rolls off of me enough to let me up and falls back asleep. I roll my eyes and walk towards the bathroom. I take a longer shower because it's so early and think about last night. What came over me? I've never cried that much before, in fact, I've hardly ever cried before.
All I could think of is how childish I was. That's definitely not how a Career should act. I turn off the water, towel off and realize that I forgot to bring clothes in with me. "Crap." I say to myself as I realize that Cato's probably still passed out on my bed. I crack the door, peek out and am relieved to see that he's still out cold and his back is to me now. I tiptoe out and to my dresser and as quietly as I can, open the drawers and pull out something to wear then, I practically run back to the bathroom. Once I'm dressed, I walk back out to the room and shake him awake.
"Go away. It's too early." He moans as he covers his face with the blankets, exposing his feet because he's so tall. I rip the blankets off of him and he almost lets out a noise that sounds like a velociraptor but in a deeper voice. "You monster" he says when he turns to face me. I shrug "It's time for breakfast and then training. Get out of bed." I demand.
"Make me" he says like a 3 year old with a pouty look on his face. "Fine" I say as I flip him off the mattress. I'm surprised I had that much strength to move him and he is too. He sits on the floor looking very confused and shocked. "Where'd you get so much muscle?" He asks jokingly as he stands up to his full height and looks down on me. I suddenly become aware of his exposed upper body and begin to blush again.
"I'm not exactly that little you know." I say up to him. "To me you are" he says cockily. That irritates me and without him expecting it, I throw a hard punch to his center of gravity that causes him to double over in pain. "Not now, huh?" I say over my shoulder as I strut out to the dining room confidently.
I drop down on the couch and wait for breakfast to be served. It's not long before Cato comes out and sits next to me and lays his arm across the top of the couch behind me. I look over and slightly up at him "Thank for staying with me last night." I say shyly, still irritated for being so vulnerable. "No problem" he says with his signature smile.
An avox rings a bell to signal that breakfast is ready. We walk over to the table, sit down and wait for Brutus and Enorbia to come. They finally make their appearance and sit down, slightly hung over again. We eat in silence and are about to go change into our training uniforms when Brutus speaks.
"You two, today you show off as best as you can. Use all of the weapons and be accurate. Show them who's gonna be in charge in the arena." He says with a slur. We both nod and head to our rooms to change. We ride down to the training center and are the first ones there. I simply sit down on the pedestal in the middle of the room and wait. Cato walks around all of the stations again and looks for any weapon he's never used before.
He obviously doesn't find any because he comes back to me without looking worried at all. I'm not surprised though; District 2 processes mainly weapons so we're trained with everything imaginable. But the little runts from Districts 8 thru 12 have probably never even wielded a weapon before.
The rest of the tributes arrive and we begin training. We don't have to listen to Atala again, which saves us about an hour of time. I decide to skip the knives for now and head over to the swords by Cato. I can't wield quite as big of a sword as him, but the one I'm using is pretty decent sized. We both work on a ring of dummies, slicing and stabbing our way through all of them, working back to back, until we're both panting.
"Ok, that's enough here for now." Cato says breathlessly as he observes our damage. The trainers wheel in more dummies for the next tributes as we put our swords back on the racks. "How about spears?" I ask him. "Sure, why not?" he says with a shrug. We stand in line and watch as helpless tributes attempt to at least hit the dummy when they throw the spear, all to no avail. The only one who does decent is Marvel, who's in front of us. But we don't have to be worried, he's already with us.
It's my turn first and I pick up a spear, heft it up in my hand, look at the target down the range, and as effortlessly as throwing knives, I send it flying into the dummy's heart. I take a bow as a small round of applause begins and walk to stand to the side while I watch Cato take care of his dummy with a spear to the head.
We walk over to the archery station and stand in line. I watch as Glimmer shoots an arrow towards a dummy, but barely nicks its arm. I attempt to stifle a laugh but don't succeed. She glares back at me and I look over at the knives and act like I didn't laugh. This time, Cato goes before me. The bow seems a bit small in his hands but he's still quite good with it. He gets an eight on the target. I go after him and get a nine, just beating him.
We go to the knives next. I know that this is Cato's weak point in weaponry, so I offer to go first. He gladly accepts, and watches intently as I crack my knuckles and roll my neck and back like before. It helps to loosen me up and get rid of any tension that could affect my accuracy.
I pick up five of the deadliest knives I can find and throw two of them at the first target; I finish the next one with a perfect bull's eye and send the last two knives flying at the same time towards the last dummies head. Cato knows that he can't top that, but looks at me cockily. He chooses three knives and simply tosses them at the targets, getting two eights and a nine on the last one.
He seems fine with it and walks over to me. "Not bad" I say. "Thanks, you're not too bad yourself" he says with a slight grin. The bell rings for lunch and we head to the cafeteria. We have lunch and nothing different happens from the day before, I just notice that Firegirl and the boy from her District seem to be having a good time. They keep laughing and smiling and it's starting to make me sick.
We finish lunch and head back into the gym. "Well, the only stations left are the obstacle courses and hand to hand combat." He says. "Well, the obstacle courses look pretty fun." I say while watching a few tributes on them. "Think you could beat me?" he asks proudly. "Ha! It'll be as easy as pie." I laugh as we walk over to the courses, sensing a competition coming on.
We walk up to an area that has many different levels of blocks to hop across as trainers swing at you with what look to be, padded spears. I hear one kid call this course, The Gauntlet. Cato goes before me and steps up onto the first block. A trainer asks if he's ready and he nods as he begins to move. He jumps, ducks and dodges his way across without getting knocked off once. He jumps down from the last block with a huge grin on his face.
"Beat that Shorty" he says, looking at his time of 1 minute and 26 seconds, still abusing of the fact that he's taller than me. "I think I will actually." I mumble as I put on my helmet and mount the starting block. "Ready" I say as I position my feet to move. I leap over the first gap and land on the second block just before a trainer swings at me.
I jump over his weapon swiftly and continue to move. I clear another three blocks before I'm targeted again. This time, I duck under the spear, and for extra measure, I ram myself into the trainer, causing him to fall off. I leap onto the next two blocks and can see the last one ahead, but just before I reach it, two trainers swing at me simultaneously.
I barely catch it in time and I jump up and practically do a flip onto the last block. I jump off, glance at my time and am very pleased to see that it reads 1 minute and 20 seconds. I jump off of the finishing block with an air of confidence as I walk over to Cato, get right up to his face and say plainly, "Beat you" as I walk away boldly.
We continue our little competition on the next couple of obstacles. There's a set of giant monkey bars that you have to cross, but you have to do it using two rings. I got three quarters of the way to the end and then my arms gave out. Cato, however, had no trouble at all and he beat me by default for not falling.
There was another that's like a big bridge over the gym, full of obstacles to jump over and crawl under, but you do it while the bride is rotating, causing the task to become slightly more difficult. Needless to say, I beat Cato on this one due to my agility, balance, and speed.
The last obstacle was a big weaving of ropes all along the walls and ceiling of the gym that you had to climb up, cross over and climb down without falling. I had a good bit of trouble getting up, but crossing and descending came quite easily and I drop at the end with a time of 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Cato goes next and doesn't have the least bit of trouble on any of it, finishing the whole thing in 2 minutes and 23 seconds.
"So, we're tied so far" He says a little breathlessly as he drops off of the ropes. "Yep, I guess the deciding factor will be the hand to hand combat." I reply. He nods and walks over to the large black mats on the floor with me following closely behind.
We're not allowed to fight each other because it's against the rules, but we can however, fight a trainer and Atala will score us on how we take our opponent down. Cato goes first and uses shear, brute strength to fight the trainer and has him pinned in less than a minute. I however, prefer to put on a bit of a show and dance around my opponent to confuse and disorient him. When I can tell that he's getting a little bit irritated, I decide to take him down easily.
I jump on him and he holds me on his back for a few seconds, but then collapses from the pressure that I've begun to place around his neck. I flip him over so he's on his back, straddle his waist and pin his legs with my knees and feet while I hold his arms above his head. No matter how hard he fights, he can't get me off of him. Atala calls the match after me holding him for 5 seconds and I get off of him and help him to his feet.
"Very nice" Cato whispers to me as Atala is deciding on the scores. "Thanks, you too" I whisper back. "Ok! I have a winner." Atala says as Cato and are eagerly listening. "The win goes to-"she pauses for effect I suppose. "Cato!" she yells and Cato jumps up with a hoot and fist punch into the air. While he's having his victory dance, I ask Atala why I didn't win.
"You put on a good show, and that's what the audience will want in the games, however, it just took too long for my personal taste." She tells me. "Oh, I got it." I say a little bit disappointed but I walk over to Cato to congratulate him. "Good job" I tell him with a hint of jealousy in my voice. "Thanks, Shorty." He says with a grin. I have a feeling that this nickname is going to stick with me for a while.
Just then, the dismissal bell rings and we all file into the elevator to go back to our floors. This time, the ride's different. I actually have a conversation with Marvel as Glimmer's still trying to flirt with Cato. Marvel isn't that bad, actually, he's quite funny plus I saw what he can do with a spear. I have a feeling he'll make the games a little bit more enjoyable.
He and Glimmer get off first and it's not long before Cato and I step off too. I can almost feel the sighs of relief from the other tributes as we get off, but who said that was a bad thing? I go to my room and quickly shower and change my clothes for dinner, and I actually put some of the perfume from my bathroom that doesn't smell too awful.
I walk out and take a seat next to Cato at the table. Dinner is some kind of beef served with gravy and roasted vegetables. I think they call it pot roast and it's quite good so I help myself to seconds as Brutus starts talking.
"Your gamemaker sessions are tomorrow; do you have any idea about what you'll be doing?" he asks with his mouthful of meat. I swallow what's in my mouth and say, "I was planning on showing off all of my knife tricks." "That'll be fine" Enorbia says "What about you Cato?" she asks him. "Oh, I'll probably just chop up a bunch of dummies." He says plainly as he puts another piece of meat in his mouth.
"Eh, you'll do fine, kid." Brutus tells him gruffly. "You both will make at least an eight just for knowing how to use a weapon." Enorbia says confidently."Although, a nine or a ten could get you some more sponsors, not that I've already gotten you a bunch or anything." She adds. "Well, that's a relief." I say before I take a swallow of water. "Mmhmm" Cato nods with his mouth full. We finish dinner, and then Cato and I head to the living room while Brutus and Enorbia head out to get us more sponsors.
Cato plops on the couch and drapes his arm across the back, controlling the remote with the other. Since it's a small couch, I have no choice but to sit right next to him. He turns on some old movie about superheroes or something, and it's pretty good. It's really long though and I begin to fall asleep three quarters of the way through. By the credits, I'm conked out, using Cato's chest as a pillow.
"Hey, hey" He says as he shakes me, trying to wake me up. I moan and open my eyes, realizing that he's been my pillow. "Sorry" I mumble as I pick my head up. "It's ok" he says with a wink. I roll my eyes and stand up, stretch and pop my back. I'm thirsty and I ask an avox for something to drink, and he brings me a glass of water not 30 seconds later.
I finish it and head towards my room, dreading the thought of having another nightmare again. I shower and put on pajama shorts and an oversized t-shirt, and just as I'm getting into the bed, someone knocks on my door. I open it to find Cato standing there, in just pajama pants again. "You gonna be ok tonight?" he asks concerned. "I'm not sure" I say nervously, looking at the floor, wanting him to stay with me, but being too ashamed to say it.
He reads my mind and steps inside my room, closing my door and hopping into my bed, as I stand there motionless. "Well, you coming or not?" he asks jokingly while patting the spot next to him. I let out a small sigh of relief and walk over to join him; very glad I don't have to sleep alone. I climb in next to him and get comfortable laying on my right side and rest my head on his arm, which is big enough to be like my own pillow.
He doesn't move any closer to me, but allows me to use his arm as a pillow. He's just close enough to where I can feel his body heat, and to me, that's comfort enough. "Goodnight" he mumbles as I turn off the lights. "Night" I respond and drift off to sleep