Chapter 14

Answers

"Did he just-" I began. Cato nodded silently. His whole body was stiff. My heart was stopped. Cato took me off his lap and stood up to pace. "Surely they can't do that." I began to try and reason, muting the tv again.

"They can, they're the Capitol." he said sternly.

"Yeah, but, this has to be a joke or something."

"Clove, it's not a joke." he motioned to the tv where they were now showing all the pictures of the existing tributes. He motioned to it right as our pictures showed up.

"There's so many others though, Cato. They can't possibly pick one of us." I offered.

"It's possible."

"Well, what do we do?" I asked.

"I don't know." he sat back down and rubbed his thighs.

"We should probably start training again." I pointed out.

"Yeah." he mumbled, his mouth in a tight line.

"Do you think Felix is still there?" I was wondering about our old trainer. And then I wondered about Derrick, Cato's friend from the training center. I figured that after the games, I wouldn't have to see them again.

"I don't know."

I stood in front of the knife throwing target, stretching my shoulder. I moved my arms in circles and gripped the knife tight. Cato was already at the sword fighting station, taking all his rage out on the dummy. Whenever he was mad, he took it out during training, and then I started to wonder, how was he taking his anger out when we weren't in training?

"You two, huh?" Derrick asked, standing to watch me throw my knives.

"Why are you even here? You won't get picked for the reaping this year anyway."

"Doesn't mean I can't size up all the competition."

"Or maybe you're just trying to figure out who you're going to bet on." I replied snarkily.

"Maybe." he shrugged, smiling. "let's see that arm, Clove. Haven't gotten weak over these past few months, have you?"

"No weaker than you are." I replied. He thought about it for a second before giving me an angry look. I smirked and turned to the target.

I took a deep breath, extended the knife behind my head, and let it go. The blade flew through the air and hit the center of the target. I smiled.

"Beginner's luck." he mumbled.

"Oh, no. I'm not a beginner." I replied, placing my next knife blade under his chin while grimmacing at him. "Where's Felix anyway." i asked, throwing another knife.

"He quit." he shrugged.

"OMGEEE" Sam burst through the doors of the training center, breaking everyone's focus. I thought she was going to tackle me with a hug, but instead, she tackled Derick, kissing him. I was officially grossed out.

"Sam? Out of all the dumb asses in this district, you picked the dumbest ass?" I said.

"Course I did. Wouldn't expect anything less from me? Would you Clove." she smirked and kissed him again.

"Cato," I walked over to him as he swung his sword wildly and almost hit me. "Woah there hot shot, just coming to talk."

"Oh my gosh Clove, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"No," I laughed. "I'm fine. I was wondering if you want to practice some hand to hand with me."

"Can't you fight Sam or something?"

"Well the people in the arena won't be like Sam." he nodded in agreement and dropped his sword. We walked over to the mat. "Don''t go easy on me now." I said, smiling.

"I won't" he replied in a serious tone. He lunged at my and i kicked the inside of his knees. He fell to the floor and I climbed ontop.

"Gotcha." I whispered. He turned us over and pinned me down. We rolled back and forth for a while until he was on top again. And then, all the sudden I got this horrible feeling. The world was turning upsidedown and my stomach was pulling itself apart. It was like period cramps but a lot worse. "Ow, ow, ow" I said. Cato jumped off me, worriedly. Normally I would jump up and insist that I was fine, but I couldn't get up. I curled forward to see if it would relieve the pain, but it didn't.

"Whats wrong?" Cato asked.

"I- I don't know." suddenly, everything was fine. Cato looked at me suspiciously as if to ask me something. but I didn't have an answer for him.