Okay, here we go, the first actual chapter...
One
Pretend
Once and a while I act like a child to feel like a kid again.
It gets like a prison in the body I'm living in,
Cause everyone's watching, quick to start talking, I'm losing my innocence.
Wish I were a little girl without the weight of the world.
-Pretend
Age 12
Clove
So here we go. I'll give you the short version of the last five years, my mom had two more kids after Nutmeg (The baby when I was 7) who is now 5, Then she had Hazel who is 3 and Paprika who is 1. It was reaping day and I was bathing Hazel. Mother was cooking breakfast and then there was a knock on my door. I sighed, wrapped Hazel in a towel and walked over to the door.
My house was small with two beds, One my mom (and sometimes my dad when he was home) and Paprika slept in and one Me, Nutmeg and Hazel slept in. There was a small "Kitchen" which was really more of a stove, refridgerator, counters and an oven all backed against one wall. In the center of the room was a small, old and somewhat dingy red sofa, and the small fuzzy TV we watch the games on.
I opened the door, and Cato is standing on the other side, he's in his best outfit for the reaping. I smiled at him. "Morning."
"Morning Clo." He smiled and ruffled Hazels hair. I shifted her to my other hip and look down at myself, I was still in the tank top and shorts I wore yesterday, I haven't bathed yet and my hair is a rats nest.
"You're way too early." I shook my head.
"I know, I'm here to help with the spice rack." He grinned at me. The spice rack is what he called me and my sisters, because we're all named after spices.
"Okay, then you can get me Hazel's dress while I dry her off." I stepped back and let him in.
"Hello Cato." My mother said smiling from the stove, where she was cooking soup for dinner.
"Morning Ms. Ash." He smiled.
"Clove you need to hurry up and get in the bath." My mother scolded.
I groaned I've always hated bath time. To me it's a waste of five trips to the water pump. "I know." Cato grabbed Hazels dress off the bed, it was white, I wasn't so sure why though she got so dirty putting her in black was more practical. I dry her, put her cloth diaper on, and pull the dress over her. Then I started to French braid her blonde hair.
She really did look like my mom. Blonde hair, her heart shaped face and her hazel eyes. I wish I looked more like my mom, because my apperence was only a painful reminder of my father. The father whom I can't trust, a father who I haven't seen in five days, and who I want nothing to do with.
Cato helped me haul water for my bath and then took a seat on the bed while I bathed. I poured the water over my hair, and scrubbed under my finger nails. Then I got out and dressed in a white dress that was getting too tight around my chest, and too short, but we couldn't afford another one. I stepped out from behind the screen and towel dried my hair.
I decided to stay simple and put it in two braids. By now we were running late and I was grabbed and pulled out the door. We set Hazel and Paprika in the stroller, Paprika in Hazel's lap. I had Nutmeg by the hand and together we made our way to the reaping.
It was already crowded by the time we arrived so Cato and I left our families on the sidelines and went to sign in with the thousands of other kids. The peacekeeper looked at me and said. "Name, age and date of birth.
"Clove Ash, age 12, I was born June 18, 2220." I said.
"Any Teassere?"
I actually had to think about that, there was no doubt that we needed more oil, it had been much colder than usual but I'm not sure that my family would want me to have it but I decide to take a bit. "Yes, just one extra time please." I heard Cato's breath catch behind me and I stepped on his foot. A silent – 'say a word and I'll kill you'- he gets it, I can't let anyone know that a career – and one through a scholarship at that- has an unloyal father.
Most other careers have fathers or mothers who work at the training center or make weaponry. Some even have victors for parents. Others have Aunts or Uncles in the career 'curcit'. A very small handful of us were there from a scholarship and if anyone else in my year was, they didn't admit it and I didn't blame them.
I filed into the girls section and found my self in a sea of nervous, excited 12 year olds. I found another girl I knew from training and stood next to her.
"Hi Clove!" Bubble bouced excitedly. Her blonde curls flew into my face, I scowled, but quickly turned it around to a smile.
"Hi Clara." I said. Clara was Bubble's actual name, but in my head and to Cato I called her Bubble because she was so overly happy and bubbly. It got kind of annoying sometimes.
I turned around and saw my family, my sisters with their blonde tangles, and my mom smiling and waving at me. The smile was the nervous one though, she was worried about me. I was the only way out of the hole we were stuck in. If I won we would be fine, but I wasn't ready yet I still needed a few more years.
The reaping seemed to drag on until we finally have out two volunteers. A boy named Orion, and his twin sister Ryan. After the reaping I wave goodbye to Cato and take my sleeping little sister and we go home. I had a big career test in the morning and I needed to get and much sleep as possible so I could be prepared for it.
At around 9 my sisters and I went to bed. Only to be awoken at midnight by my father banging the door open. He's drunk again. I knew instantly to run. So I wake Nutmeg up.
"Meg!" I whispered shaking her gently to wake her. She wakes up and looks at me the fear evident in her hazel eyes.
"Clove, what?" She whined.
"W-we have to go stay with Cato now. Okay?" I said.
"But I don't want to." She frowned, coming to the conclusion that I woke her for no reason other than a sleep over.
"You have to!" I snapped. She saw immediately that I was deadly serious. I grabbed the baby and nodded at mom, I swung Hazel on to my back, grabbed Nutmegs hand and drug them out the back door.
It was a mile and a half to Cato's, and that was through the woods, if we went by the streets it would be faster, but we could also have been caught and executed for roaming at night. Hazel was awake and crying for mother, the baby is sobbing, so once we're about five hundred feet from the house I stop.
"You have to be quiet Hazel, please, we're going to Cato's then you can go back to bed, I promise." I pleaded. Rocking the baby back to silence, they were too young and didn't get it, this was a life or death situation.
After a bit she stopped, then the back door opened, and I could see my father's silloute. I hoisted her on to my back where she wrapped her arms around my neck and we continued running.
Nutmeg is out of breath with in a hundred yards but I drag her on. She was only five, not very coordinated yet, she was exhausted, in a nightgown and the woods is full of trees and she stumbled a lot. I had no choice, but once my father is out of sight I pull her to a bush.
"Stay here with Hazel, I'll be back with Cato. Don't leave until we come, stay quiet and even if Daddy comes by don't get out. Do not move." I said.
"Okay." Nutmeg nodded.
"Here's this, don't ever use it unless someone other than me or Cato tries to get you." I said, handing her a knife, cutting a good sized cut on my leg when it almost slipped out of my sweaty hand.
"Not even daddy?"
"Especially not daddy." I scooped up Paprika and turned, racing through the woods.
I could go much faster without Hazel and Nutmeg In minutes I was bursting out of the woods I was out of breath and I couldn't scream so I just kept going until I got to the door. I started to bang on it and a light flickered on and the door open.
"Clove?" Cato's mom asked. Cato stepped out from behind her and looked at me. I was sure I was a sight to see, in my dirty white nightgown, my hair in tangles, and bleeding. I shoved the screaming Paprika at Cato's mom and motioned for him to follow
Cato got the urgency and fallowed me through the woods, it was a mile back to where they were hidden but we made it easily. I call out to the girls.
"Clove?" I herd Megs small voice call back.
"Meg it's me and Cato we need you to come out right now." I said. She and Hazel scrambled out of their hiding place and Cato grabbed her, and I took Hazel and ran.
We continued running as fast as we could to his house. By then Hazel and Nutmeg were crying again. We didn't stop though we just ran. This wasn't training. This was reality. We got to his house, and I set the girls down. The adrenalin rushes out of me and I sank down on to the floor, drew my knees up to my chest and cried, I was only vaguely aware of Cato trying to do something about the cut on my leg.
