CHAPTER NINE

Clove woke up at 6 the next morning. It was the second day of training and she was pumped. She had all her energy back and she was ready to try other weapons out.

The breakfast was delicious. It was a lot of filling food, to help them gain weight. Cato piled his plate with eggs, sausage, and pancakes. Clove took some waffles and eggs. There were at least ten different syrups. Cato picked the blueberry one and Clove took a white and red swirled one. When she tasted it, her eyes flew open. It was delicious! The white was whipped cream and the red was cherry, all to the consistency of a thick syrup.

Pierse broke the sound of chewing in between bites of his pancake. "I want you two to focus on life-saving skills today. No weaponry."

Cato dropped his fork and Clove almost gagged on an egg. No weapons? "Why do we have to do that?" Cato asked angrily.

Clove could see a vein popping out in Pierse's head so Scarlet intervened. "Why do you have to do this? Hmm, let's see. In case you run out of food, can't get to a weapon, want to build up some skills that could end up helping you. Seriously, guys. The Hunger Games are not all about adding to your kill count."

Cato sighed dramatically. "Fine, fine. I guess some things could come in handy."

"Thank you," Scarlet and Pierse said at the same time.

Clove and Cato were momentarily creeped by the unison and looked at each other. They laughed, which caused Scarlet and Pierse to laugh.

Then Clove's thoughts turned to Cato and she realized that she couldn't lose him. It hit her that only one of them could survive and her mood turned to melancholy.

Cato noticed Clove's sudden sadness and said to her quietly, "What's wrong?"

Clove couldn't say anything or the tears would come. She put her fork on her plate and ran to her room. She slammed her door and laid face-down on her bed. She let the tears fall then. She was sobbing so loud that Cato could hear her as he was walking down the hallway.

He opened the door to her room and ran to her. "Clove?"

His voice surprised her and she lifted her face up, wiping away the tears. Cato brushed Clove's hair behind her ear. He was waiting for an explanation.

"I don't want to lose you." She said it with such a broken voice that Cato had to take a second to translate the words. He sat down on the bed next to her.

Clove was stunned that the sentence finally came out, right after she admitted to herself. She still liked Cato, maybe even loved him. He was just so different from Menelaus. Menelaus was the kind of person that always put others before himself. He always tried to make Clove laugh, and always brought her presents. But Cato was competitive like Clove. He liked to tease her to make her laugh, and his presents were rare moments of compassion and love. He was Clove's best friend, and that's what made him the perfect boyfriend.

Cato sat down next to Clove on her bed. "You're not going to lose me, Clove."

She raised her eyebrow and scoffed. "But you are. There's 24 people and only one comes out. That means one of us is going to die." The tears were spilling out again.

Cato pulled Clove into a warm embrace. "We'll figure it out."

Two hours later, Clove had a fresh face and they were back in the training room. Her and Cato decided to start with the fire starting station. They were there until they felt confident that they could start fires in their sleep.

Thresh walked by and Cato jumped up. "I'm going to go recruit him," he said, and left. Clove used her alone time by going over to the edible plants station. She could only absorb some of the plants' appearances before she started yawning so she left.

Cato walked back up to her with anger painted all over his face. "What happened?" Clove asked.

Cato shook his head. "He just said 'no'. That's it. No explanation… or anything. I don't get it."

Clove shrugged and she led him over to the shelter making station.

"This is stupid. We could just stay in the Cornucopia," Cato said.

Clove gave Cato a shove. "What if it's roofless this year. The Gamemakers are always changing things up."

Cato shoved Clove back. "If it's not, you're staying in a makeshift shelter while the rest of us are staying warm and dry."

Clove stuck her tongue out at him but they stayed at the station.

At dinnertime, Pierse asked the two if they followed his and Scarlet's instructions.

"Yes. We went to the fire starting, plants, and shelter stations," Clove replied. Pierse looked satisfied with the answer and they kept eating.

"What do you want us to do tomorrow?" Cato asked him. Pierse just said that he didn't care and went back to his roast beef.

"Tomorrow's also your private Gamemaker session, so make it count." Scarlet put pauses between the last three words to emphasize them. Clove already knew what she was going to do, and it involved a lot of knives.

That night, Clove was woken up at 3:30 from a terrible nightmare. She was sweating and breathing heavily. She had dreamt of watching Cato's death in the arena. He was getting torn apart by wild dogs. The worst part of it was that Clove was one of the dogs attacking Cato. She tried to get her breathing under control but was still troubled from the nightmare.

She got out of bed and opened her door. Clove tiptoed down the hallway and opened the door to Cato's room. She stepped in and was surprised to see his eyes wide open, staring at the television set. She walked further in and his eyes darted to her.

His face lit up at the sight of Clove. "Hey! Why are you up so late?" He got out of bed and walked toward her.

Clove's breathing was ragged and she couldn't speak. Cato brushed her hair out of her face again and hugged her. He held her until her breathing was deep and even.

"I - I had a nightmare," she sputtered out while they were walking to Cato's bed. He looked deep in her eyes and Clove felt her heart rate speed up.

"Tell me what happened," Cato urged. Clove sat down next to him and took a deep breath, telling Cato everything. Feeling the danger of crying, she focused on the television and swallowed back the tears.

Cato rubbed her back. "It's probably just stress. I'm fine, you're fine, it's okay." His voice was so soothing that Clove felt her eyelids grow heavy. She laid down in his bed and Cato pulled the covers up around her. She fell asleep listening to the light drops of rain outside.

When Clove woke up, she had to stifle a gasp. Cato was holding her. His arms were wrapped around her waist. His face looked so peaceful, she didn't want to wake him by moving. It was only seven, anyway. Breakfast was in an hour. So she settled down again and put her head on Cato's chest. Her head bobbed up and down with his breathing and she fell asleep again.

She was woken up again by the sound of the shower. Clove reached her hand out but couldn't feel Cato there. After she got her lucidity back, Clove knew that Cato was in the shower. She looked at the clock and saw there was half an hour until breakfast.

She walked back to her room without saying good-bye to Cato. They'd be seeing each other in less than an hour, anyway.

Clove stretched her arms over her head, feeling the pops of her back. She felt well rested for the first time since she'd been reaped.

The dining room was empty of people when Clove entered it, yet the food was all ready to be served. She collected her food and sat down. Cato appeared in the doorway with a smile on his face. "Sleep well?" he asked her.

Clove smiled back while she reached for a fork. "Yes, I did actually. You're very comfortable."

They had to stop their conversation because Candola walked in the room. "Where are Scarlet and Pierse?" she asked.

Clove and Cato shrugged their shoulders, causing Candola to release a sigh full of exasperation. She stormed down the hall, in search of the missing mentors.

"I guess everyone is late for breakfast today," Clove said.

"Wonder what those two are doing," Cato responded with a wink. Clove shuddered and tried to eat her sausage without gagging.

Both of them were practically dragged to breakfast by Candola. Scarlet had lipstick all over her mouth and Pierse had it… everywhere else.

Clove had to stifle a laugh and Cato pretended to cough. Hopefully they'll find the time to get us sponsors in the arena.

In the training room, her and Cato focused on what they were going to show the Gamemakers for the private session.

During lunch, trainers started calling people down for their private sessions. Marvel went first. Glimmer was called next and Marvel didn't come back, so Clove assumed that after the tributes were done, there was a different exit.

Cato was next. Clove didn't want the other tributes to know that her and Cato were… whatever they were - she wasn't too sure herself - so when he was called, she just gave him a reassuring smile.

Her stomach was in knots and the butterflies were getting worse every second that Cato was in the room. She felt like she was going to throw up and she started getting light-headed.

After what seemed like hours, Clove was finally summoned for her session. The moment she stepped in the room, the nerves went away and were replaced by confidence and a bit of arrogance.

She glanced around and saw that the training room looked the same, except everything was replenished and looked brand new. She saw the Gamemakers up in their viewing box, with their eyes on Clove. Good, she had their full attention.

Clove cleared her throat and sauntered over to the table full of knives. She belted some around her waist, put one in each shoe, and grabbed two in her hands.

She took the two in her hands and threw them simultaneously at two dummies. They both struck their dummies right in the heart. The Gamemakers clapped, which only gave Clove more confidence.

She saw the Gauntlet - an obstacle course - to her left and decided to incorporate that to her routine. She climbed up to the highest step and as she was climbing, she took the knives out of her belt and threw them at targets, hitting the bull's-eyes every time. When she reached the top of the Gauntlet, Clove grabbed the last two knives she had, the ones in her boots, and took a deep breath.

She saw the last two knifeless dummies and calibrated where the knives would land. She turned around and did a back flip off of the Gauntlet. When she was mid-air, Clove released the knives and they landed perfectly, right in the dummies' foreheads.

The Gamemakers all stood up and cheered for Clove, especially when she stuck the landing. Clove gave a little bow and waited for the cheering to stop. One of the Gamemakers finally thanked Clove and told her she could go back to her room. She gave another little curtsey and walked confidently to the exit.

The elevator stopped on the second floor. Clove was too excited, she did not want to just go back to her room and wait for dinner. She danced over to Cato's door and lightly knocked.

He opened the door with a huge smile on his face, to match the one on Clove's. "How'd you do? As if I can't already tell," Clove asked him. They were both beaming, so confident that they had gotten the best score among the others. They both sat on Cato's bed, relishing in their awesomeness.

"I did great. I think I used every weapon in the place," Cato answered.

"I showed off all the ways you can kill someone with a knife. And I did a back flip," Clove bragged. Cato clapped for her and his smile faded. He just stared into Clove's brown eyes.

Then, very slowly, he leaned in and kissed her.

Thank you for reading. As always, please review telling me what you think. Follow and favorite if you like the story. Happy Hunger Games!