Disclaimer: The characters belong to Suzanne Collins but the universe in which they live belongs to me.

A/N: WOW GUYS. JUST WOW. You're all really supportive, I was really shocked when I kept seeing emails pop up saying I had more reviews, favourites and followers. I was really inspired!

Truthfully, I could've posted yesterday, but decided against it as I wanted to rest because I just broke up from school. But unfortunately, for me, this joyful holiday period is not going to be relaxing as I have a week and a half of exams as soon as I go back. So I will still be sticking to updating every 4/5 days as I do actually need to revise for these exams. But my mood fluctuates a lot, and if I feel inspired by reviews and stuff when I'm not revising, I will begin writing chapters. So there is a chance I may write a chapter early if there are more reviews... I feel like I'm being spoiled though by you guys.

SO, I wanted to thank these special people for reviewing:

Kato45

AlphaClove

Guest (you know who you are!)

Shae101 - and in answer to your question, the main couples will be eventual ClovexCato and PeetaxKatniss.

In regard to this, if anyone has a specific couple that they ship that they know will not affect the main two relationships above (like I won't write in Kato *insert sad face* because it affects the two main relationships... But I do like Kato, just not as much as Clato :P) please let me know and I may write it in.

Clato 27

Abnegation25 (haha I'm Dauntless, I even got it in the Aptitude Test! My favourite character is Tobias... And Uriah. (And Marlene *sniff*) I love them. PANSYCAKE!)

Obsessedchick44

AND OdairBear!

THANK YOU GUYS!

To the people who favourited, some of whom I have mentioned above. Thank you! And to the people who have followed, again some of whom I have mentioned above, THANK YOU! Thank you all!

Finally, this is a REALLLY long A/N. Sorry about that :/

-R

PART 1

Chapter 2

Clove found herself in Peeta's form, so she didn't have to worry about where she would sit during registration periods, but then a problem occurred. Katniss Everdeen was also in their class. Clove had groaned inwardly at the thought, after all, it was like she was a third wheel, but both Peeta and Katniss tried to make her feel better about it. So she ended up sitting behind them, in the back left corner, in a window seat. The windows faced east, so she watched the sun rising as the teacher called out their names.

"Marvel Hertz?"

The answer came too close for comfort and Clove whipped around, facing her new neighbour. Hair darker than her own and stormy grey eyes, the boy – Marvel – watched her with a grin permanently set on his face.

"Why are you sitting there?" she hissed. Marvel's face feel slightly and he put on a show of being sad. He then straightened back up.

"You're in my usual seat. So I figured I'd go for second-best." he explained. Clove looked down, flushed.

"Sorry," she mumbled. He waved her off.

"I'm Marvel, if you didn't hear the teacher." He held his hand out.

"Clove. Clove Roxen."

"Yup, I heard from the teacher. Well, I heard your first name in the corridor because of this guy." - He jabbed his thumb at Peeta - "He was pretty loud."

Clove groaned and threw a ball of scrunched up paper at Peeta's head. He turned around, glaring at both of them as they sat laughing.

"We'll get along just fine." Marvel said in between laughs. Clove smiled and then her smile literally dropped off her face when he touched her left cheek.

"Why does such a pretty face have cuts?" he asked good-naturedly.

Clove felt her cheeks burn. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"I think people misunderstood me at my old school."

"Well we can't have that here, right?" he whispered. She smiled, feeling like they were both conspirators.

"And how do we do that?" she whispered back, making a show of looking around to see if anyone was watching them. They continued to talk until they were forced out of their seats. Out of the corner of Clove's eye, she saw Peeta and Katniss looking at them, their mouths open. Spinning around, she stuck her tongue at them, before turning back to carry on talking with Marvel. He was a good conversationalist.

They step out of the classroom together, still locked in conversation, until someone bumped into Clove, sending her stumbling into Marvel's chest.

"What the hell?!" she yelled. Marvel chuckled as he up-righted her, staring at the idiot who bumped into them.

"Smooth, Cato." he said sarcastically. The boy from earlier, stared down at them, specifically at Clove, who shrunk back slightly.

"What?" she bit back the urge to insult him. She raised an eyebrow. "Like what you see?"

Cato chuckled. "Sure, what about you?"

Clove's answer was short and sweet. "No."

She tugged on Marvel's arm, smiling. "Come on. Let's go!"

"See you, Cato." Marvel gave his friend an apologetic smile before letting himself be pulled away. As soon as Cato was out of earshot, he bent down and whispered into Clove's ear. "Why so eager to get away from him?"

"He was staring at me earlier." she growled. Marvel laughed, thankful it wasn't anything serious.

"Honey," He drew out the word. "Everyone is staring at you."

She slapped him on the arm.

Marvel and Clove sat together as the headmaster introduced himself as 'Mr. Snow'. He told them many things, like if they misbehaved, they were out, if their grades slipped, they were out. He introduced some of the teachers, like Mr. Crane, the deputy, who taught art alongside 'Cinna', whose last name wasn't mentioned. All in all the assembly was exactly as Clove expected, boring and long. It wasn't until he mentioned the school's personal league table did she become interested.

Snow coughed. "So, in order to increase... competitiveness here, we're releasing the names of the top 5 students of each year group."

Clove leaned forward in her seat slightly. This should be fun. Snow read out name after name until he finally got to Year 12, her year. Licking her lips in anticipation, she listened closely, ready to commit each of these names to memory so she could whip their asses in the future.

"5th, Katniss Everdeen." Clove wasn't too shocked at that, Peeta was always bragging about his girlfriend.

"4th, Marvel Hertz." Snickering, she hit him on the arm, muttering 'nerd'.

"3rd, Cato Darrow." Her eyes widened at that name. Who knew the idiot had some brains?

"2nd, Finch Glass." Whispers broke out through the crowds. Clove looked at Marvel, confused. She didn't know this person or why it was so controversial their name was in the top five.

"She's always first-" he whispered in her ear.

"MARVEL!" Snow interrupted. Marvel stiffened as Snow's gaze fell on Clove beside him.

"And 1st..." The tension was thick in the air. Snow knew they were hanging on his every word. "Clove Roxen."

Clove's eyebrows shot up. Huh, I didn't think I did that well. Snow carried on reading the names for Year 13, before releasing them from the torture that was morning assemblies. She stretched her arms above her head, eager to move.

"Pretty and intelligent. People'll be staring even more now." Marvel commented.

"Don't forget athletic. It's a killer combination, right?" she teased.

"Mmhmm. A dangerous one." He matched her tone.

Clove's map skills obviously left something to be desired, because she found herself lost three times before she burst into her Biology classroom, two seconds ahead of the teacher. People stared at her, just like Marvel had promised, like she wasn't human. Clove set her jaw as she walked through the groups of friends, most of which had probably been together since kindergarten. She sat at the back again, alone and happy with that. She only needed a few friends to keep her going. She wasn't a loner, but she wasn't exactly charismatic either. She imagined that having too many friends was tiring. The teacher shuffled in, a young man in his middle-twenties, by the name of Finnick Odair. A graduate of the school, he had come back as soon as he had finished his teaching course. He was renowned for being the most handsome boy to have ever graced the school's halls. Also renowned for marrying an former pupil by the name of Annie Cresta, an unknown until they started dating. And Clove found all this out by just listening to the girls around her gush about him. His eyes swept the class, looking fairly pleased with the motley crew he had been assigned to teach. He wore his trademark smirk and wrote his name on the blackboard – which Clove thought were extinct – in giant letters, as if people didn't know his name.

"If you think you're sitting in those places, you're mistaken." He wagged a finger from side to side as if he was scolding a puppy. The girls loved it though, breaking out into nervous whispers, some shrieking as he pointed at them. Clove groaned, letting her head fall to the desk. Just great, another male specimen who thinks he's on top of the world.

"Sit where I tell you to."

People nervously gathered up their belongings, ready to move.

Clove's name was called out first, so she got the seat directly in front of Odair.

Just my luck. she thought as she made her way over.

The rest of the class fell into line, the girls glaring at her for sitting in their rightful place, the boys glaring at Odair for, one, being such a flirt, and, two, taking away the most interesting girl in the class. There was a space next to Clove, which a boy offered to fill, but Odair shook his head.

"That seat'll be filled soon."

Clove wondered what kind of idiot would be late to his first lesson on his first day. And the the idiot walked in. Clove sighed softly.

Of course. That idiot. she thought.

Cato greeted Odiar, offering no explanation of why he was late or apology. Odair was used to it though, having known Cato for a long time. They made mud pies together in Odair's garden once when he was a teenager and Cato was a toddler. He pointed at the empty seat next to Clove, who was glaring at Cato, and Cato grinned.

"So we'll be lab partners." he said as he sat down, his arm brushing against hers.

"You weren't my first choice" She laced as much poison in her voice as possible.

Cato batted his eyelashes innocently. "Oh, really? I would never have guessed."

Finnick watched them bicker and sighed as he handed out the folders, slightly relieved when he saw that at least someone else was immune to Cato's charms apart from Annie. Clove officially became his favourite and he knew how to show it. He leaned in close as he put the folder on her desk, his hair brushing her ear.

"I like you," he whispered. Her response was to hit him in the face with the folder he'd put on her desk.

"Pervert." she shot back.

Finnick tried to look scandalised. "Not in that way!"

Clove snorted. This school was crazy. She didn't know how Peeta had hacked it for all these years. Then she remembered who she was thinking about and decided he had in fact been scarred by the school. Why else would he bake bread and cakes all day if not for being crazy?

By the time break came, Clove was exhausted. If Cato's constant questions weren't enough, Odair's constant flirting with the female population pushed her over the edge. The icing on the cake.

Great, she thought, Now I'm hungry.

Peeta appeared before her wielding some more baked goods. He didn't even have the chance to offer her some before she had taken two and stuffed them in her mouth, not caring that they'd just been in a science lab.

"Who says they were for you?" Peeta asked, smiling.

Clove rolled her eyes, reminding him, "You love me."

"Oh, yes. Sorry, I forgot for a moment."

"How could you?" Clove gasped. Peeta ignored her.

"What's your next lesson?"

"Maths." she told him, her excitement dropping twofold.

A familiar voice interrupted her self-pity. "We can be mathletes together then!"

"Really, Marvel, mathletes?" She turned around to face him.

He nodded, completely serious. "Don't tell me you don't lurv it."

"I won't if you don't say 'lurv' ever again."

"Deal," he laughed shaking her hand. "It sounded better in my head."

"Everything sounds better in your head. Must be why half the things that come out of your mouth is shit."

"I am offended, Miss Roxen." He feigned being annoyed.

"Sure you are."

Cato watched from across the hallway... "Bitch," he muttered, but he didn't actually mean it. Finch didn't say a word.