Glimmer comes barging into our tent in the middle of the night to wake me up for the watch. "Clove, It's you turn to-"she stops short as she sees Cato holding me while sound asleep. She gives me a grimace and storms out, heading into the tent occupied by Marvel.
I hear a little verbal scuffling, and protesting on Marvel's part, but it settles down after a minute or two. I groan and gently remove Cato's arm from my waist without waking him, which isn't that hard to do considering he sleeps like a rock.
I quietly put my clothes, boots, and knife belt back on, and then head out into the brisk night air. I feel the wind on my face and the chill causes goose bumps to rise up on my arms, even through the sleeves of my jacket.
I quickly make my way over to the dying fire to attempt to warm up, but realize I'll need to find more fire wood in order to do so. I grab a short sword and a machete just in case, and make my way through the brush to find wood.
I don't have to walk long before I find a large dead tree lying in the middle of my path. I pull out the machete and begin hacking off pieces of it. Only after I have two arms full of wood, do I realize that I'm making a lot of noise.
I stop and listen for any sign if being watched or pursued, but shrug it off after a minute of silence. I begin walking back, but about halfway back, I hear something. I drop the logs; grab my sword in my right hand and two knives in my left.
I wait and listen, finding cover behind a patch of briars when I see him walk out from behind a tree. It's the massive boy from District 11. I gasp in surprise, knowing if he sees me, I'll only have a small chance to beat him due to his sheer size.
I decide it's best to remain quiet and wait for him to wander off and hope he doesn't take any of my wood. I'm lucky, because he does walk off in the opposite direction of our camp quite quickly. But just to make sure, I wait patiently for 10 minutes before heading back on my way.
I arrive back and pile the wood onto the almost dead fire, blowing to revive it. It flickers back to life and I take a seat on a crate and warm myself up. I realize it probably wasn't the best idea to leave the camp unattended, and decide to not tell anyone about it.
I wait till the end of my shift, or what I think was 2 hours, and go off to wake Peeta. When he's situated, I climb back into the warm tent away from the freezing air.
I strip off my jacket and boots, but keep my t-shirt on and wiggle my way back into Cato's warmth, trying to get the feeling back into my fingers and toes. I fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly until Cato's woken up to take the last watch.
I grumble in protest, because my heat source is leaving. But, he tucks the sleeping bag around me and kisses my forehead before heading out. I'm nice and warm and toasty, so I get back to sleep in no time.
Cato wakes me up a little after the sun rises, so it must be around 7:30. I dress and go out to the fire to eat breakfast. I notice that neither Glimmer nor Marvel aren't up yet, so I head to their tent to rouse them.
I'm both surprised and not surprised by what I see. Marvel is lying on his back with his arm around Glimmer who is sprawled out on top of him. "And you were giving me grief." I mumble.
I give marvel a sharp kick to the side and he jumps awake, jostling Glimmer in the process. "Well, well. What do we have here?" I taunt them jokingly. "It's nothing" Glimmer says hurriedly as she gets off of him, straightens her hair and clothing and steps out.
"Well?" I ask a confused looking Marvel. "Hey, all I'm saying is that it's not what it looks like." He says defensively. "Mmhmm." I mumble in disbelief and I leave him to dress, noticing he had next to nothing on.
I walk back to the fire and begin grabbing some dried fruit out of a bag to eat for myself. We sit around the fire, eating quietly. "So, today, we don't have much to do. I was thinking, we all smell pretty bad now, so we'll take bathing shifts in the lake." Cato begins.
"I think I saw some bars of soap around here somewhere. But, we should wash our clothes as well. So, Ladies, you go first." He says as he gestures to Ellie, Glimmer and I.
I groan at the fact of having to strip down naked in front of Glimmer of all people, but I do smell pretty bad. I'm surprised Cato has even stepped near me.
We finish up eating and walk towards the lake. "No peeking." I whisper teasingly to Cato as I pass him. "No promises!" he yells behind me, but I know he has enough respect for us to make sure that not only him, but Marvel and Peeta stay out of the line of vision.
We reach the lake with our bars of soap in hand, and I find a large rock that I'll be able to spread my clothes out on to dry. Ready to get this over with, I strip off all of my clothes, underwear, and socks and then toss them onto the bank of the lake.
I wade into the slightly brisk water up to my neck and begin scrubbing my clothes with the soap. I rinse them off, then walk back out and lay them flat on the rock. I then go back into the water to wash myself.
I go under water and just hold my breath and sit on the bottom, enjoying the feeling of peacefulness until my lungs are screaming for oxygen. I come up, and begin scrubbing all of the dirt and sweat off of my body, loving being clean again.
I go under the water briefly to get my hair wet again so that I can wash it with the soap. I work my hair into a lather and scrub until I feel it's clean, then I rinse it all out. I realize that my clothes won't be dry for quite a few minutes, and I glance over to see that Glimmer and Ellie are in the same situation.
I sigh and float onto my back, knowing that all of my modesty is gone anyway. I swim around, even catching a few fish and banging their heads on rocks to kill them and toss them onto the bank.
After what feels like an hour, I know my clothes have to be dry, so I walk out of the water, feeling fully exposed, knowing that all of the capitol is looking at my naked, wet body right now.
I quickly pull on my under wear, feeling much better with even the small articles of clothing on my body. I follow with the rest of my clothes, leaving my jacket off because it's really starting to warm up. I sit on the rock and begin lacing my boots up.
I look up and see that Ellie is doing the same as me, but Glimmer is just now getting out of the water. She's sashaying her hips back and forth as she walks, knowing all eyes are on her. I roll my eyes and mumble "Hey, whatever floats your goat." to myself.
I grab my jacket and soap the walk back to the camp. I hand Cato my bar and he heads off to the water pulling his shirt over his head "No peeking" he mimics me from earlier. "Hey! No promises! I yell after him with a smirk. Marvel and Peeta follow soon after already stripping off their jackets and shirts.
I sit on the same crate as last night and sit in silence with Glimmer and Ellie. It's then that I realize that I left my fish on the bank. "Crap" I mutte, knowing that I need to get them gutted fast otherwise they'll start to rot.
I stand up and head to the lake without saying a word. I just receive a questioning stare from Glimmer. When I get close enough, I yell to Cato. "Cato! I need to get those fish on the bank. They'll rot before you get done. All you guys get in the water, I'm coming!"
I warn and hear a few splashes and feel that the coast is clear. I cautiously make my way up to the bank and am relieved to see they're all in the water. "Hey! I told you no peeking!" Cato yells jokingly. I glance up to see him barely waist deep in the blue water.
"Do you mind going a little deeper?" I tell him annoyed, know that he's doing this to me on purpose. "Why? Can't stand the view?" he teases me. I look at him to see the glistening water dripping off of his tanned, taunt muscles, but quickly snap out of my thoughts when I see his knowing smirk.
I roll my eyes as he laughs and jumps underwater swimming to the far bank. I quickly gather the fish and head back to the camp. I gut the fish quickly and put it onto sticks to roast over the fire. I work on the food until the guys come back.
Then I serve up the fish, putting it onto smaller sticks to eat off of. We eat slowly, all feeling much better from out baths. Then we wait around, saying hardly anything to each other, but joking about what the other tributes have said before being killed.
"We won't hunt until dusk. I'm taking a nap. Ellie, you keep watch." Cato says as he heads to his tent and I follow behind. I take off my clean jacket and climb onto the sleeping bag in my shirt and pants.
Cato strips off his upper half, and lies down next to me. We don't climb into the bag because it's so hot outside. I roll over and get situated, using my jacket as a pillow.
"I have no privacy left…at all." I mumble before closing my eyes. I hear him laugh slightly, but he is quiet after and goes right to sleep.
