CHAPTER FIVE
Clove was in a tiny, 8x8 room, waiting to speak with her loved ones before she got on the train, capitol bound. Her parents entered first. "Five minutes, folks," a voice spoke from the other side of the doors. Her mother nodded to the voice and ran in to hug her daughter. Clove accepted it and even hugged her back.
"You're gonna do great, sweetie," her mother cooed to her. Clove smiled at her mom's caring and kissed her on the cheek. She went to sit on a nearby chair and Clove's father went up to her next.
"I am not worried about you at all, my lovely Clover. You are going to make this family proud." Clove's dad put his hand on her cheek and she held it. He hadn't used his nickname for her for a long time, on account of Clove hating it. She wished that she could go back and treat her parents better.
"I will, dad."
Clove's mom started crying and Clove spent the next four minutes trying to comfort her.
"That's it, folks," the voice spoke again. Her parents exited the room almost as quickly as they entered.
Clove's sister, Cady, went in the room next. "I wanted to come in separately so I wouldn't have to deal with mom's mushiness."
"I understand that. She was pretty mushy." Clove and Cady hugged, then Cady said, "I love you so much, Clove. You know that, right?" Cady's voice broke at the end of her question.
Clove felt a tear roll down her own cheek but quickly brushed it away. "I do. And I love you, too, sis. Even if you do get on my nerves sometimes... all the time." Cady started crying and Clove had to spend the rest of their time comforting her, too.
"Time's up, little miss." There was that voice again. The door opened.
"I guess I'm just as mushy as mom, huh?" Cady remarked.
"That's okay, you're just as loving," Clove whispered to her. Cady went out the door, wiping her eyes.
The next person to enter Clove's room was her boyfriend. All they did for the whole five minutes was make out, and that was just fine with Clove.
"Alright loverboy, get out of there," the voice chided when their time was up.
"Knock 'em dead, babe." Those were Menelaus' last words to Clove, and they couldn't be more perfect. Clove grinned and thought about doing just that.
Persephone was the last person to visit her. "Hey, girl!" She squealed and ran over to Clove.
"Seph! I still can't believe this is actually happening."
"You're living the dream." Persephone squealed again and sat down. Clove sat in the chair next to her. "You should volunteer next year. Although you might have to fight Cady to do it," Clove said.
"Maybe." Persephone's voice sounded far away and she started to stare off into space. Clove shook her playfully. "What's wrong, girlie?"
Persephone sighed. "I just don't want you to get hurt."
Clove scoffed. "I'll be fine. Trust me. I've had all the training. And I've got Scarlet Price as my mentor." Seph's eyes lit up. "She's my favorite victor! You know I see her at the mall, sometimes." Clove spent the rest of their time just trying to keep Persephone's mind off of the Games.
After she left, Clove had a couple of seconds to think. All I've done is comfort everyone else. I'm the one going into the arena. It's a good thing I know I'm going to win or I'd be pissed.
Clove was led outside of the meeting room and was joined up with Cato again. Candola silently led them somewhere. "How were your visits?" He asked her.
"Poignant yet enjoyable. You?"
"Heartfelt yet boring." They both laughed at their lame joke. "What's your mentor like?" Clove asked Cato.
"He's... very friendly."
"What do you mean?"
"Just that he's kind of loud. And he's so nice to everyone. It's Pierse Masacco, from the 60th Hunger Games. I think he might have been wasted."
Clove laughed. "I don't remember anything from those Games. I was about one. Did he tell you anything?"
Cato shrugged and slowed his steps down. "He said that he won because he was nice to all the tributes and tried to make fake alliances with all of them. Then he betrayed them all and killed them."
"Wow. He sounds very two-faced. Be careful with his advice."
"Well, him and Scarlet will be working together. I'm sure I'll be fine."
Clove nodded and kept walking. This was the first time that her and Cato had talked amicably since their break-up. It was freaking her out. Clove was surprised at the amount of times she had to remind herself that she was still with Menelaus.
Candola stopped in front of a train. "Here we are," she said with a wide smile, "the train that's going to take us to the most wonderful place in the world, the capitol."
Clove and Cato stopped to stare at the sleek piece of machinery before them. They had never seen a train before, just lots and lots of cars.
"How fast does it go?" Asked Cato. The doors to the train opened and Candola walked up to the steps. She turned around to face Cato. "Very fast." She went up the steps and disappeared on the train.
Clove and Cato hurried to catch up. "We're right under the capitol, it's going to take us like, two seconds to get there," Clove said in amazement. They got on the train and the doors whooshed closed behind them.
Scarlet motioned excitedly for Clove and Cato to join her and Pierse. They were sitting by the most glorious food Clove had ever seen. There was meat, pastries, fruits, and veggies. So much that it would be impossible for them all to even make a dent in the food, even if they were stranded on the train for three days.
"Sit down, sit down!" Scarlet said and patted on the couch next to them. There were couches lining the walls of the entire section of the train. Candola walked in from the other side of the train and sat down on the couch opposite of the other four and the food. She pulled out a compact and started dusting her cheeks with blue powder.
Cato grabbed a large chocolate cupcake and sat down by Pierse. Clove grabbed a small strawberry cookie and sat next to Scarlet.
"The food on the train is great, but the food in the capitol is fabulous! Just wait, they have everything you could ever want there. Even the shower has a hundred different settings!" Scarlet was speaking so fast that Clove could barely keep up.
"It will take approximately three hours to get to the capitol," Candola said when Scarlet let her get a word in edgewise. Clove nodded and Cato just said, "Sweet", then went back to eating his cupcake.
Pierse then started talking about his experiences in the capitol and Cato seemed to be hanging on every word. Clove didn't really care and tuned him out. She got bad vibes from the guy.
Pierse looked to be in his early thirties. He had long, dark brown hair and eyes that seemed almost black. Clove had to admit that he was very handsome, for being old. And from the look in Scarlet's eyes, she thought so, too.
After what seemed like hours of Pierse's droning, he took Cato somewhere else. Clove had just tuned back in to reality when their footsteps were already receding.
"Where are they going?" Clove asked Scarlet.
"To talk strategy on the other end of the train. Boys like to be alone when they're discussing murder techniques."
Candola stood up. "I'm going to retire to my quarters for the trip. See you girls at the capitol."
"So, I guess now's the time to tell me how to survive in the arena," Clove said. She was so excited to hear from Scarlet and what she did to get out alive.
"Alright," she rotated her body to Clove and scooched closer to her, "one of the main things is sponsors. People that can give things to you such as food and medicine, when you need them most. Being from District 2, it's pretty easy to acquire such things, but it helps if the audience likes you. What's your edge going to be?"
Clove had already been thinking about it since she started being a career and didn't miss a beat after Scarlet's question. "I'm going to appear threatening and bloodthirsty. I hope to make all the other tributes afraid of me, before I even get in the arena."
Scarlet nodded slowly at her response. "That's good. And you'll do that starting with your training sessions. Get in with the other careers, which won't be hard. What are your talents?"
Clove thought about it for a second. "I'm fast and quiet. And I'm really good at throwing knives. I never miss my target." She loved boasting to Scarlet. Clove knew that she was good at throwing knives, and she loved to brag to anyone who would listen.
"That's great! I became very good at using the knife myself. So in the training sessions, show the other careers that you're a force to be reckoned with. There will be knives and plenty of targets there. Just don't start any fights with any of the other tributes. That looks really bad and it can affect your final training score."
Clove was taking all the information in. She wanted to go in the Games with as much confidence and knowledge as possible. Scarlet continued her speech. "Next will be your interview with Caesar. He's very nice so he'll make things easier for you if you get nervous. Just don't forget your threatening persona while up there. Then will be the best part- the actual Hunger Games! Make sure to get a weapon as quickly as possible. Then you're going to want to try to kill as many people as possible, to keep them away from the Cornucopia. Remember to not chase after anyone if you don't get to them. Always stay by the Cornucopia during the Bloodbath. And try not to kill any of your fellow alliance members. The rest will follow through on its own from there. You'll do fine, I know it." Scarlet finally stopped talking and gave Clove a warm smile.
"I think I got everything," Clove declared.
After a while of making small talk and eating the delicious food, Scarlet looked out the window across from them. "Ooh yay! We're in the capitol! Wave to the crowd, they like it."
Clove turned around and kneeled on the couch. Sure enough, outside of her window was the capitol. People were milling around all over the place. They all looked ridiculous to Clove, in their colorful wigs and loud clothing. Some of them had dyed skin, some had weird body shapes and facial implants from plastic surgery. The train slowed down quite a bit and people outside started noticing it. They looked in the windows and when they saw Clove, they started waving. Clove waved back but kept herself from smiling. She had to keep up her persona.
The train pulled into the station and stopped completely. Scarlet exited first, then Clove, Cato, Pierse, and finally, a tired looking Candola. Scarlet led them to a gigantic building. "This is where we'll be staying. District 2 stays on the second floor, so you don't have very far to wait on the elevator," she commented.
"You two can hang out in your rooms until your prep teams come. When you feel hungry, just order room service. Suppertime is coming," Candola chattered as she hurried ahead of the others. How she can move so quickly in those heels of hers, I'll never know. Clove, Cato, Scarlet, and Pierse all entered the building and got in the elevator. The elevator was pretty large, yet Scarlet stood quite close to Pierse. It didn't take long for the elevator to stop and the doors to open, since they only had to go up one floor. There was a large hallway that seemed to go on forever. To the right and left of it were rows of doors, just like a hotel.
"Cato, you're in room 201. Clove is in room 203, Scarlet in 202, and me in 204," Pierse rattled off from a message on his phone.
"Don't hesitate to visit, sweetie, if you have any questions," Scarlet said to Clove. She then blew a kiss to her and disappeared in her room. Pierse was just waiting around by the elevator, so Cato and Clove went to their rooms. After Clove closed her door, she opened it again and peeked out. She saw Pierse go in Scarlet's room, and laughed silently to herself. I hope I don't have any questions for Scarlet. I wouldn't want to interrupt anything... or walk in on it. She closed the door again and walked around in her hotel room.
The main room had a ginormous bed, a tiny kitchen, and a living area. There was a small dressing room off of the main room, and a door leading to a fancy bathroom. Clove went in the dressing area first and found the armoires to be filled with clothes. She picked out a simple orange tee and black jeans to put on after her shower. Then she went in the bathroom and just stood staring at everything in it. Even the toilet looked high-tech. It was square and silver. When she walked near it, the lid opened by itself and colorful lights lining the inside of the bowl lit up. When Clove took her shower, she didn't even know which buttons to push, so she just experimented with all of them. There were settings to make the water flow different, to change the temperature, and to change the angle of the shower head. There were also many different levers that dispensed different smelling shampoos and soaps. Clove had to say that it was the best shower she had ever taken and stood wishing for a moment that she lived in the capitol. She finally got out because she was hungry. She went back in the main room to dry off and change.
After she was done, Clove was startled when she noticed a tiny slip of paper on her bed. That wasn't there before. She walked slowly to it and opened the paper. Inside of it was a note that read, Come see me in my room. -Cato.
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