There's generally a lot of cussing in this, but there's a bit of an argument in this chapter so it will be a little worse. I don't own The Hunger Games.

"It's cold. You know what that means, Gale?" Johanna asked the dark haired boy opposite her. They were seated in a coffee shop not too far from the school, except this time Gale had brought a guest.

"You wear a sweater?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Madge, his honorary guest to their little meeting, let out a laugh.

"No, dumbass. It means winter is approaching. Autumn is in its' midst. Spirit week is coming!" Johanna snapped at him, before taking a long sip of her Americano.

"Spirit week?" Gale asked. His bandage was off, meaning he could play again. This made him a little happier- but not by much.

"Yes. Spirit week. Why is Madge here?" Johanna leaned back in her chair, one perfectly slim eyebrow arched.

"Because if I keep cutting class to meet you one-on-one, she'll get the wrong impression." Gale said, clutching his girlfriend's hand under the table.

"I'm not interested in Gale." Johanna deadpanned, focusing her cool gaze on Madge.

"I didn't think you were." Madge laughed again.

"Even if I was, I'd never try it on with a friend's boyfriend. Others', sure. But never a friend's."

"Now that we've got that cleared up," Gale coughed uncomfortably. "What's so important about spirit week?"

"Spirit week is centred on sports. Cato and Clove live and breathe sports. Spirit week leads to a dance and a parade- it's simple really, Gale. That's our deadline." Johanna explained.

"Deadline?" Madge asked with a ghost of a frown.

"Why, our Cato/Clove deadline, of course."

"What steps are you taking to get there?" Gale asked, knowing that his favourite mastermind always had a plan.

"I spoke to a girl on the soccer team today. Words, and money, were exchanged. She knows what to do." Johanna explained.

"How will this affect Cato and Clove?" Madge asked. She was getting invested in the situation already.

"Cato will be nearby. He'll see what happens." Johanna ripped open a packet of sugar and poured the whole thing in her coffee. She used her spoon to stir it in, grinning at the idea of her plan.

"Trust me, losers. There will be fireworks."

…

It was five o'clock. It was raining. It was freezing. Clove was tired. She wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up underneath a blanket with a hot cup of coffee, a good book, and re-runs of The X-files. Instead, she was leading soccer practice with coach Enobaria for a rather unenthused group of girls.

"Come on, girls!" Enobaria barked as Clove led them through their laps. "Get into it!"

The girls cursed under their breath, but carried on running.

"This effort level blows." Johanna, who was running next to Clove, sighed.

"I know. You'd never guess that we have a playoff game this weekend." Clove grumbled. The team had been pretty pumped to have made playoffs in yesterday's session, but it hadn't been raining or freezing cold yesterday.

"Take five for water!" Enobaria yelled as the team finished their laps. "Clove will lead you in attack and defence drills next!" She dropped her clipboard on the ground and headed off towards the equipment cupboard, narrowly avoiding a stray football from the practice field.

Clove grabbed her sports bottle and took a long drink. They had a lot of work to put in if they wanted to make States, but she was confident in her team's ability.

"This fucking sucks. Clove, you shouldn't be captain."

Ebony Miller, a senior benchwarmer that had barely made the cut when the squad was announced, was not about to get away with calling Clove out as captain. Especially not in her first, and last, season.

"Excuse you?" Johanna folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes dangerously at the midfielder.

"I got this." Clove slapped Johanna on the shoulder. Weeks of trying to be nice and doing her best not to flip tables seemingly dropped from her mind as she took a step towards the girl.

"You got a reason for that kind of thinking?"

"Yeah, I actually do. Firstly, you're not a senior. How the hell do you except to get a good level of respect from girls older than you than are under your control? Secondly, you're fucking pissy all the time- you're a bitch. And thirdly, we all know that you got with Cato during the Games and that that's why you're always angry at practice and take it out on us, because even when you're playing soccer you can fucking see him making plays on the practice field."

Out of the corner of her eye, Clove could see Cato with his teammates. But that didn't affect her. A guy, no matter how much she wanted him, would never get in the way of her future and soccer was her future through and through.

"Alright Ebony, you'd made your case. Allow me to shoot it down." Clove took another step forward, coming within an arms width of the girl. "I'm not a senior. But I am the youngest captain West Palms has ever had. I was brushing shin guards with the senior players in my very first week here at the Palms, and I'm one of the only girls who has ever led this team to Inter-fucking-State victory. I think you'll find I'm more fucking accomplished than half the players on this team combined. And that's not arrogance, it's fucking fact."

Clove took a breath, never taking her eyes off of Ebony.

"Secondly, yes I'm a bitch. I'm a raging bitch that takes no prisoners, and you know what? That's how I get shit done. I might spend a lot of my time pissed off, but I think you can agree with me that my attitude gets us results, yeah? How many games have we lost this season? One. Fucking one. But you, in your first year on this team with an ass that warms the bench nicely, seem to think you know better than me. And thirdly- prepare yourself- Cato doesn't mean shit to me. Not when I'm here, on the field, playing the game I love. Nothing is more important to me than soccer, and I've learnt to leave my quarrels off of the field. Who the fuck do you think you are, coming out here, calling your captain out with a weak, shitty argument? Sit the fuck down and pipe the fuck down slacker, because this season is far from over."

The team starred at her in near silence. The only noise came from the wind, the rain, and the quiet laughter of Johanna Mason. A low whistle drew Clove's attention to the fence separating the soccer field from the football practice field. Clove shot Ebony one last irritated look and barked at the girls to run three more laps before walking over to the fence.

"That was quite the show."

Cato, face sparkling from the falling rain, smirked at her from where he leant against the fence.

"Don't you have practice to get back to?" Clove asked, stopping five feet away from the fence.

"Yeah."

"I can't have you distracting my team."

"It's good to see that you're done playing nice." Cato said, suddenly serious.

"What do you mean?" Clove tried to look nonchalant, but knew that she was probably failing. She couldn't look into Cato's eyes and hide her exhaustion.

"Come on, Clove. You've been smelling the flowers and admiring the sky for weeks now. It's not you. The Clove I know and love isn't like that. The Clove I know is a fighter. She doesn't take time to compliment someone's hair or say what a nice day it was. She was too busy making people feel her wrath." Cato explained. His left hand was curled through the metal of the chain link fence, and he watched her in a way that made Clove want to step back.

"I don't understand what's so wrong with me trying to become a better person." Clove shrugged.

"There's nothing wrong with a girl that stands up for herself. Don't waste your time pretending, or you'll be out of it. You're fire makes you different. You've bottled it up for too long, and that girl just felt the brunt of a Clove who wasn't snapped at anyone for weeks."

"You make me sound terrible." Clove sighed. She pushed a weary hand through her wet hair and closed her eyes for a long time.

"I made you sound ideal." Cato said. By the time Clove opened her eyes to question him, he had pushed off from the fence and disappeared amongst his teammates.

"Coach!" Clove yelled as she jogged back towards her team, who were stuck into drills. "I've gotta shoot off. There's something I have to do."

Perhaps she had never need to change after all.

…

Marvel was happy to see her. He stood up when she walked into the coffee shop and pecked her on the cheek. It felt entirely platonic, but Clove was glad of that.

"You're soaking." Marvel commented as they sat down.

"I noticed. Thanks, by the way." Clove added as she sipped at the strawberry and blueberry smoothie Marvel had ordered for her.

"What did you need to talk about so urgently that you left practice early for it? You live for practice." Marvel said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Clove had expected this to be hard, but it wasn't. She could see how Marvel felt about her. It was the same way she felt about him.

"Marvel, I know you don't want to be with me just as much as I don't want to be with you." Clove said.

"What?"

"Okay, that wasn't a great start. What I mean is, you were there for me during the Games and after. I valued you as a friend so dearly. I think you were hurt when Missy started dating Cato, and I was going through shit as well. We were both pretty lost, and we found each other. That may have seemed like a good option at the time, but we both know that me and you just shouldn't happen. We worked so amazingly as friends. I love you, I truly do, but I think we both know that we shouldn't be doing this." Clove said it all at once, but something told her Marvel wouldn't be sad.

"Thank you, Clove." He looked more relieved than she had ever seen him. "I think I knew that you felt like that, I was just worried you didn't. I didn't want to say I only think of you as a friend and wind up hurting you. I think we both deserve a little more than what we give each other as a couple, but I would have been devastated if we couldn't still be close as friends."

"I agree. I also think that you should tell Missy how you really feel." Clove said. "Someone said something to me recently, and…Well, if you waste your time pretending then you're just going to run out of it."

"She's my cousin's girlfriend." Marvel said unsurely.

"Yeah, and she's my sister. I'm sure Cato will understand if you tell her." Clove smiled at Marvel in an attempt to look encouraging. He smiled back.

"What if he's angry?"

"Something tells me he won't be. If he is, just drop me in it instead. He won't get mad at me."

"When did you get so wise?" Marvel joked.

"You can't always have what you want. But you have the chance to try, Marvel. Take it."

"Thank you, Clove." Marvel said, reflecting the sincerity that Cato had shown her earlier.

"Don't thank me. Just take your chances before you end up regretting something."