The other students filed out of the room, Cato, Clara and Dylan's faces dark with anger. Araya trembled slightly. She, like me, knew that she had done something unforgivable.
She had beaten them.
"Clove?" called Kieryan, as the door slammed shut behind Cato. I paused, my hand on the door handle.
"Yes?" I prompted, after a few moments of silence. He walked over to me, using his fingertips to tilt my head up towards him.
"You look so much like her," he whispered. To my shock, I noticed that his eyes were moist.
"Who?" I asked, confused.
"Your mother."
I stared at him, shocked.
'You knew... You knew my mother?"
"Clove, do you know how she died?"
"I was too young. I was 2 years old when she died. Whenever I tried to talk to dad about it, he'd have a breakdown." I replied. Then I bit my lip. I had told him too much already.
"She was 16 when she became pregnant with you, Clove. Young, I know, but people die so young these days." He sighed, "Lack of food, lack of clean water..." he trailed off.
"Okay... So?"
"Which means that she was 18 when she died."
"What are you trying to say?" I asked him.
"Clove... Your mother died in the Hunger Games. The Games that I won."
I stared at him, lost for words for the first time in as long as I could remember.