How could he. How could he. She cupped her face in her hands, backing up against the wall and sliding down to the floor. They've made a fool of me. He's made a fool of me. Her eyes stung red and her cheeks began to match as she silently listened to the rest of the subject, before moving on to something less concerning. Clove drew her shaking hands from her face. They were empty back abysses staring into the floor. She turned to face her open door, to see him still peacefully asleep. Her brow creased furiously and she dived up off the floor, marching bare footed back into her room, and silently closing the door behind her.
"Okay, Clove. Calm. Just get him out and then you can destroy the place." She whispered to herself. As her own words sunk in, she tip-toed to the side of the bed, this was going to need all of her acting skills. Carefully clambering over him, she rested both knees in the soft bedding at either side of him, gently shaking his shoulders to wake him.
"Marvel, Marvel." She whispered, he eventually came around and dozily smiled into her eyes. No, don't let this get you, just carry on. She thought to herself, as she smiled back into his. Still sat on him, Clove leant down and pressed her lips to his ear. He used both his hands to push her down closer, and not to arouse suspicion, she let him.
"Cashmere is looking for you; you better get back down to your room before she finds you here." She whispers softly into his ear. He groans and tilts her chin toward him and plants kisses from her collar bone, up her neck and over to her lips, where she must kiss him back. She pulls back and sits away from him, allowing him to get dressed properly. Turns he ended up sleeping with just his underwear on. Clove makes sneaky glances at the door to back her story up, and fortunately, Cashmere was making a point about her little Marvel and called his name pleasingly loud. His head shot towards the door, he quickly laid a kiss on her cheek, before leaping from Clove's balcony onto his own. She sat still for a while, the shaking had returned and her eyes were puffy again. Had she been the only one that this has been hidden from? She had only to find out. Seething, growling, burning up, she shuffled off the bed and marched straight into Cato's room. He was sat up slightly with the top of his chest showing above the covers, he was resting his cheek against Glimmer's head, who was huddled into one open arm at his side. They were both naked.
"Cato." She snapped with such urgency, that Glimmer and her lover boy both jolted at the sound. Glimmer being Glimmer, squealed and hid from her nose down underneath the covers, even though nothing was on show. Cato had to squint for a second, which soon turned into a scowl.
"What the fuck are you doing, prick. You'll get Brutus in here!" He hissed, sitting up slightly whilst Glimmer buried even deeper into him.
"Did you know." Cloves voice was shaky, and her fists were so tight that her knuckles turned white. Cato must have picked up on her manor because his voice softened.
"What? What are you talking about?" He leant forward, ignoring Glimmer completely.
"Did you know about Marvel." Clove seethed, her eyes fixated on the beautiful carvings on the foot of the bed, tears began to drip from her eyes and splash out on his marble floor.
"Well you did a pretty bad job of hiding it." Cato almost laughed. Clove squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head. Cato sat back and lifted the covers to find something. After a whole lot of wriggling, he appeared from the covers with some pajama trousers on. He was at my side now, he angled my body to face him, away from the bed.
"No, I don't mean that. Did you know, did Brutus tell you that it was all an act." She edged around the point at far as she could, thankfully, Cato got her straight away. His shoulders relaxed and he paced slightly.
"Look this wasn't meant to hurt you-"
"Why didn't you tell me!" She cried, slapping the hand away he went to comfort her with. There was a shuffle from the living arena and then heavy footsteps running towards the room. Cashmere and Brutus burst in. Clove spun round, the sight of them both disgusted her, and she barged straight through the middle of them. Slamming her door behind her, she could still hear the conversation from Cato's room.
"How did she find out!" Brutus exclaimed in despair, it was funny, it almost seemed as if he cared about what she'd think of him afterwards rather than if he'd hurt her or not.
"I didn't tell her if that's what you're saying!" Cato bellowed. Clove zoned out of listening by that point. She'd found the neat pile of training gear that Piper had folded into a drawer for her, she dragged them on, braided her hair like the night before, hauled on her boots and stormed from the room, bee-lining for the lift. Before she could press the button, Brutus was on her like a ton of bricks. He held her back and tried to turn her body but she held strong.
"Look, I know you probably don't want to talk to me, but –"
"Piss off." She interrupted him, jabbing the button for the lift so hard the controls fell back into the wall slightly.
"Where are you going?" He exclaimed as she stepped in the crystal case.
"Anywhere away from you." And the doors closed. As she passed District One's floor, she could see into the living area, but no one was there, not even an Avox. On the ground floor, she followed the arrows along the walls that lead to the training center. Every clock she passed read out the time 7:43AM, so no one could possibly be training at this time. But they were. When she barged in, a startled Peeta Mellark spun around with his mentor Haymitch. Must have requested private sessions. I think I might do that. Haymitch gave her a nod of acknowledgment and returned to Peeta. Fortunately, knife throwing was at the other end of the center, so Clove had her own space to brush up on her skill. It was around 11:00 when everyone else began to show, but she hadn't paused since she first came in. So far, everything had been a direct hit. The head, the heart, she hadn't missed either every time she threw.
"Clove!" Cato called from the entrance. She turned her head in his direction for a second, before returning to the moving target ahead of her. His hand weight down on her shoulder, causing her hand to unbalance slightly, none the less, she still hit straight.
"Clove, stop." He snatched the knife from her hand. She had nothing to throw, all of the other knives were lodged in different targets, some in moving ones. She stepped forward to retrieve them, but Cato's steel grip on her shoulder said otherwise.
"Sit." He ordered, when she didn't he forced her shoulder down, "Now." Finally she gave in, he sat beside her not sure of what to say.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She interrupted the silence. Cato frowned in frustration, she knew this was a tricky question to answer. He racked his mind and finally pieced together a reasonable answer.
"Because," He began, "Because we knew that if I and Glimmer acted like we are now in the Games, you'd grow tired of it and leave the career pack. So Brutus came up with the idea before we came, that if you befriended the district one boy, you would want to stay." Clove stay silent, these people knew her so well, too well. Of course she'd leave the career pack if Cato carried on prancing around with that Glimmer for much longer, but why couldn't they just accept that?
"Why would you try to stop me leaving?" She finally said. Eyeing him whilst tracing circles on the floor with her feet.
"Because we knew that if you left, we would have to kill you much sooner." Trust Cato to make it sinister 'sooner', he was planning on killing me anyway.
"And I didn't want that. And ironically, neither did Marvel." Cato explained, he was good at explaining. Even being the gigantic tank he is, he's very good at explaining. Clove checked up at the center clock, each tribute is allowed four hours in the morning of training and four hours in the afternoon. The time was 11:30AM, her time was almost up. She quickly analyzed the look on Cato's face, his explanation, and his role in the entire situation. Clove knew he only did what he did because Brutus told him to, she would have done the same.
"I forgive you." She mustered, eyeing him meaningfully. He looks up at her, a faint smile to match hers on his lips.
"Thank you." He murmurs, only over the sound of the mechanical door opening to let someone else in. Marvel. Clove glares over Cato's shoulder at him, and abruptly gets up and marches towards him. Ignoring Cato's calling behind her, she whips out one of her knives as she approaches him and lays it into his cheek swiftly as he tried to explain.
"Aw SHIT!" His other hand makes it up to his face, blood seeping through the gaps in between his fingers. He looks at it, then back up at Clove. Seeing the anger and hurt on her tiny face.
"Clove, please-"
"You lied to me!" Clove's interruption silences the whole center, Staff and Peacekeepers watching cautiously from the balcony above.
"You made a fool out of me!" She continues. Her voice echoing back at her. By now she's got the entire contents of the training center's eyes trained on her. She takes a minute to look around her, at all the concerned faces, and finds Cato now stood behind her. Marvel steps forward,
"Please just listen!"
"NO!" She barks, they knife poised in the air above her head. Before she could callously bring it down, Cato grips her wrist high above her, forcing her to let go. She drops the knife and it rattles to the floor. Clove glances up at the clock, and it's 11:42AM. She sharply tears her hand from Cato, her eyes still on Marvel.
"You are nothing to me." She hears the woman's voice call out from the speaker telling the crowd that Clove Vinewood's time is up. And exits the center, leaving Marvel behind.

She finds herself on the roof for the rest of the afternoon. Watching the day go by, and missing her second training session. She didn't need it anyway, she was fine the way she was. Leant up against a flower bed, Clove lets her head fall into her knees. She was a strong woman. But not now. When everyone who she thought she could trust, turned out to be the people who she can't. He made a fool out of me. She tells herself. NO ONE, makes a fool out of Clove without paying for it, and she guesses that the cut on his cheek paid well for that. The door behind her suddenly opens, and she senses a figure sit down beside her.
"He can be a dick, I know." Glimmer's voice rang in her ear. Glimmer? What was she doing here?
"But don't think, just because Brutus and Cash thought it was a good idea, that he went along with it just for them. I'm pretty sure there were some of his own feelings in there." She continued. She snagged some berries off the bush behind her and began throwing them off the roof, for them to bounce of the field and straight into her awaiting mouth.
"I've known Marvel since I can remember, and trust me, he has fucked up way worse than this." Chewing on the berry, Clove see some of its juice stain her lips and fingertips as she tosses another one off the side of the roof, yet again catching it in her mouth.
"Do you think I was harsh on him?" She turns to face her, and she does the same.
"No, I just think that there's a time to forgive and forget. And if there was a spark between you, maybe you should forget before the Games." Glimmer spoke the honest truth, and maybe she was the only one for a while who had done that. Clove was wrong about Glimmer, she wasn't your usual district one, completely made up over everything girly. In fact, she even seemed ready to fight.
"But, I just don't want it to be because you want me to stay in the career pack." She snaps. It's a good thing Glimmer ignores her snide, nasty manor, anyone else would have walked off a long time ago.
"Make that clear then." She stuffs a berry in her mouth.
"What if I don't want to" She stops stuffing her dainty face with berries and looks over at me, her face turning serious.
"If you don't, that's fine with me, I'd rather have Marvel away from you if you want to be like that. If you didn't take note because you've got too much pride, Marvel wasn't in the District 1 bed last night, he was with you – and I can tell you this now, neither Brutus or Cash told him too. If you'd listened to their conversation properly, you'd realize all they wanted him to do was get to know you, not fall in love with you –which he has. It's your loss and if you want to be the stuck up cow you are being right now, Marvel is better without you." And with a flick of golden hair, she vanished.