I couldn't remember if I'd given Clove a surname, so I gave her one in this chapter. I don't own The Hunger Games.
In a hotel full of teens, rumours spread like wildfire. Cato and Missy were hooking up. They were an official couple. They had been secretly dating for a year, they were in love. Melissa was pregnant, Cato was going to propose. They were moving to France next year to go to university together and raise their child in peace.
It fucking pissed Clove off.
Of course, Missy had gushed all about it to Clove when she had gotten home after her date with Cato. She had tried to describe what finally kissing him had felt like, before telling Clove 'not to worry about it because she would never be able to imagine the way it felt'.
Why couldn't people mind their own business? It would sure as hell make her life a lot easier. That way she wouldn't have to hear another Cato-Missy rumour every time she opened her goddamn door.
Because of course she liked Cato. They had had a rocky start, but he had more than made up for that. They could have been something amazing, but it seemed like they were destined to end things the same way they had started them. If Cato and Melissa got serious…Well. It would make for one awkward as hell Thanksgiving next year.
"I can't believe it's the last day." Katniss sighed as they changed into their soccer uniforms with all the other girls on the team.
"Yeah." Clove grunted. To be honest, she couldn't wait for the whole nightmare to be over.
"The only thing that can make these Games better is a win for us today, and a win for the football team." Johanna said, and whooped loudly. Some of the other girls joined in. The whole school was turning out for their game today, and then they would go down to the football field to watch the guys. Clove wasn't sure if she would go- in fact, she knew that she didn't want to go. Still…at the same time, she felt like she couldn't miss it.
"If we win today and the football team win as well, we'll be partying until checkout time tomorrow morning." Johanna laughed and high fived Katniss. It had, undoubtedly, been a great Games for West Palms. The boys' track and field team had a win rate of sixty six percent from all the events, and the girls weren't far behind with their sixty three percent. Clove's win had helped with that. The boys' basketball team, the girls' baseball team and both swim teams had all won their tournaments. The cheerleading squad, boys' baseball team, the boy's wrestling team and the girls' basketball team had all placed second. None of the teams had come outside of the top six, which was a massive achievement for the school. Now the pressure had been shifted onto the shoulders of the girls' soccer team and the football team to win their games, and their championships.
"Huddle up!" Clove called out once everybody had changed, and they formed a circle in the middle of the locker room.
"This is going to be our toughest game of the season until we play in the State Championships at the end of the soccer year. We will fight our hardest, we will play our best, we will run our fastest and we will win with our finest!" Clove yelled, and all of the girls cheered in agreement.
"Let's fucking do this!" Johanna yelled. She put her hand in the middle of the circle and the girls place their hands on top of hers.
"We are so ready for this." Clove promised as she placed her hand on the top of the stack.
"One…Two….Three…West Palms!" They shouted together, and their hands flew into the air.
Running out onto a soccer field felt right for Clove. She knew what she was doing, she knew where she was going- she ran that shit. She could run it in her sleep. She spotted her friends whilst warming up, and in her game day haze she managed to look Cato in the eyes and almost not feel anything.
The referee blew the warning whistle, and the team ran into their positons.
"Go hard or go home!" Clove yelled to her team as the starting whistle blew and she flicked a quick pass to Katniss. They worked their way quickly down the field, but were stopped short by the defence. The teams continued in a back-forth play for a long time before a goal was scored.
And another.
And another.
And another.
West Palms two, Sarasota two. Full time, plus extra time, was up. That meant only one thing.
"Johanna, you shoot second. Katniss, you're third." Clove instructed as she guzzled water from a bottle. Beads of sweat were trickling down her forehead. It was no surprise, really- she was responsible for a goal and an equalising assist.
"Then Kelly, then Leanne, then Gabby…" She reeled off the order, but they already knew it. They had prepared for this.
"Well." Johanna rubbed her hand together gleefully. "I love a good penalty shootout."
"Good luck." Katniss and Johanna slapped Clove on the back supportively as she picked up the ball and walked towards the penalty spot. She put it down and took four steps back. The goalkeeper was pulling faces and stretching her arms out wide in a desperate attempt to put Clove off. But she was Clove Ashlar, the girl who never missed.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Her eyes narrowed. The stadium fell into silence. She pictured the ball striking the back of the net. She took her short run up, extended her foot, and struck the ball in the centre. It flew through the air and past the diving goalkeeper to land exactly where she had envisioned it. Half the stadium burst into cheers and Clove did a back handspring into a backflip to celebrate. Once again, she had scored.
The rest was history. West Palms won, six penalties to five. Clove was launched into the air by her teammates, who were then thrown up high themselves by the fans that had rushed onto the pitch.
"Number two! Number two! Number two!" The crowd chanted Clove's soccer shit number as they held the girls above their heads. Clove tipped her head back and laughed, feeling free for the first time in weeks.
…
"Go fight win! Go fight win!"
The West Palm cheerleaders were doing a great job of pumping up the crowd in the minutes before the teams were set to run on. After the soccer team win, it hadn't been that hard.
"Reckon we'll win?" Marvel asked Clove. He had been one of the firsts to congratulate her after their big win, and he hadn't stopped grinning since.
"Well it wouldn't be very patriotic of me to say no, now would it?" Clove grinned back at him. She was elated, happier than she'd been in a while. Nothing could stop her from smiling.
"This is pretty exciting." Katniss nodded in agreement. They spotted Johanna making her way up the bleachers carrying more food than Clove had ever seen in her life.
"Here." She tossed Clove a bag of fries and a diet cola. Katniss took a hot dog and a Sprite, and Marvel took a bag of popcorn.
"If we don't win, I can't afford gas for the next three weeks."
"Johanna!" Marvel frowned. "You bet on this?!"
"Of course." Johanna snorted.
"I did too." Clove laughed. "I've got Peeta for two catches, Finnick to rush sixty eight yards and Cato completing three passes."
"I've got Peeta on three, Finnick on fifty two and Cato on four." Katniss chimed in.
"I can't believe you three." Marvel rolled his eyes and shook his head as Johanna reach a hand behind him to high five Clove subtly.
The stadium was packed full and the crowd roared as the two teams ran out onto the football field. The four of them clapped and cheered loudly, and yelled their friends' names. Katniss turned to grin at Clove.
"Here we go!"
They were well into the second quarter when Cato called for a time out. West Palms were down by two after two missed PAT kicks. Clove was praying that Peeta Mellark wouldn't take a third catch- she had fifty dollars on it.
"Look!" Katniss pointed up towards the jumbotron. "Kiss cam!"
The football final pulled in the largest crowd every year at the Inter-state games so they fired up the kiss cam for it, instead of just using it for the basketball games.
"Ugh. I had to kiss an old, married guy at a Miami Heat game one time." Johanna shuddered. Couples started to get singled out on the screen and kissing. Clove was oblivious to what was happening as she tapped away at her phone until Marvel jabbed her side.
"Look."
Of course it had to be them.
"Come on then, Marv." Clove watched herself say on the screen of the jumbotron. She pulled Marvel in for a five second kiss, which was followed by a cute animation of two chipmunks chasing each other's tails. Clove looked down at the football field again to see if they had resumed play, only to catch Cato watching her. His blue eyes raked over her face intensely before he turned away and yelled something to his teammates.
The next time he completed a pass, Cato's celebration was a little different. Usually, he did the Macarena with Finnick and Gale or did an act with the crowd where he got them to scream his name. This time, he jumped three feet into the air and came down onto his knees. He point his fingers into the bleachers, and the crowd followed them-
Right to where Clove was sitting.
Johanna, Katniss and Marvel screamed and jumped up down, and after a few seconds Clove joined in too. At least that would make it look like he was pointing to all four of his friends. At least, she hoped.
…
"Warriors win! Warriors win!" The announcer yelled as half the crowd surged forward as one to get onto the field. They cheered and jumped up and down in excitement as they hoisted the football team into the air, like they had done to the girls' soccer team earlier that day. A few of the cheerleaders had also been thrown up onto the shoulders and hands of the excited fans.
"Cato! Cato! Cato!" The crowd cheered for their team's captain. Clove had lost her fifty dollars when Cato completed a fifth pass and Finnick rushed seventy three yards to demolish the other team, but she really didn't care.
"Yeah baby!" Johanna screamed with her head tipped back and her fists in the air. One of the players pulled her up next to them and she continued to whoop happily.
"Inter-state champions! Suck on that, Tampa High!" Finnick shouted as he crowd-surfed past Clove, who laughed in response.
"Come on, get up here!" Gale reached down and grabbed Clove's waist to pull her up into the sea of hands.
"Congratulations!" Clove yelled over the crowd.
"Thanks!" Gale yelled back, but he was already being passed on over the sea of fans. Clove turned around and spotted Cato ten metres from her, talking to somebody on the ground. She wanted to congratulate him, to show that maybe they could be friends. She watched as he hoisted Melissa up next to him and pulled her in for a long kiss. When they finally pulled away Cato turned around, and his face fell when he saw her silently watching him. She didn't even look mad, or upset- just blank and empty.
It took milliseconds for Clove to find the gap in the hands and hit the floor running. She weaved her way through the people towards the tunnel. She couldn't think, she just had to get out of that stadium.
She knew that Cato and Missy were dating, but she didn't think that it would hurt her so much to see it.
Sorry if there are a lot of errors in this, it's like four in the morning here but I realy wanted to get this finished.