AU: Thank you to everybody who reviewed or added my story to Story Alert/Favourite. I also like constructive criticism, as my grammar is truly awful; I'm looking to get a beta. Anyways, here goes Chapter 2…
Chapter 2:
Once we boarded the train, I pulled Cato on to the balcony part of it that's outside, where the listening devices planted around it can't hear us.
"Why did you drag me out here Clove?" he asks a bit too loudly
"Shut up you idiot!" I say harshly
I can see he's still angry at being taken out here in the cold, but I don't care, I need to know if he realizes how much danger we're in.
"So why aren't we inside, in the warm?" he asks
"Did you see the look President Snow gave us?" I ask him
"The look…?"
"Didn't you see how he glared at us? Cato, he knows that we're faking." I tell him
"So he glared at us, and you think that he knows that we're not in love? You think that he's going to kill our families and us?" Cato sounds incredulous
"Unlike you, I'm not a complete dumbass; I can tell that he's out to get us." I reply
"You can't tell that much about a person from a glare they give you." he says
"Yes you can, and besides, you didn't see The Look, so you wouldn't know." I say
"But-"
"Shut up Cato, you know I'm right."
Cato obviously doesn't believe me, but we've have arguments before and he knows that I almost always win, so he gives up.
"So, even if he is going to kill us, what can we do about it?" he questions
"We've got to try and change his mind." This was the only solution that I had thought of at short notice, it wasn't perfect and I was hoping that Cato would have another idea.
"Easier said than done…" he mutters
"Have you got any other ideas?" I question, putting my hands on my hips
"No, but we'll think of something." he says
I can't sleep during our train journey back to District 2, I'm too terrified, thinking of the revenge that President Snow is going to exact upon us. I spend the two day long journey eating, taking very long showers and talking to Cato, trying to pass the time till we get back.
When I get off the train, I feel relieved, relieved that I'm back home in District 2. It's a typical day here, cloudy with the sun shining somewhere in the distance. The wind ruffles my dress and I have to take off my shoes so that I don't have to hold on to Cato to walk, to hold it down. The crowd is cheering at our return, but in the crowd, only about three people and my family are there for me, and the one person who I really wanted to see isn't here. It's the opposite for Cato, his hundreds of friends are all here, but I don't see his father. I don't think they have the best relationship though if the bruises Cato had when he came to school were gifts from his father. The rest of the population of District 2 is here because it's always exciting to come and greet the new Victor, and they sort of have to be there.
I walk through the crowd of people, greeting the people I remember and saying hello to my two friends, Lia and Tristina, promising to meet up with them later. I look for Saff, but I can't see him, my fake smile for the horde of people fades a little.
"Clove, Clove over here!" I hear someone yell
I turn towards the voice and smile as I see Griffin. He's my nephew, and only six years old, he's my brother, Wade's son, and he's my favourite family member.
"Griffin! I've missed you!" I yell back
He smiles, showing that he's lost a few teeth. He's really adorable, I don't usually think of children as adorable, I normally just label them disgusting, but Griffin's the only exception. It helps that he wants me to teach him how to throw a knife, that's a very endearing quality.
We hug and for the first time since I hung out with Saff before volunteering for the Hunger Games, I smile for real. I listen to his babble as we walk to my new house in Victor's Village; my brother's going to pick him up later. We spend the evening attempting to bake cookies and laughing, both are activities which I don't do on a regular basis. Sometimes it's a bit irritating that he's so little and that he doesn't understand as much as I do, but whenever I feel that way, I generally get over it pretty quickly, that's how adorable Griffin is. We're eating cookies out of a packet after our attempts at baking failed when he asks me a question.
"Are you and Cato going to get married?" he asks me innocently
I smile at him and shake my head, if he was older, and if the house wasn't bugged (which I'm pretty sure it is) I would answer him honestly and tell him that I'm faking being in love with Cato.
"Why not?" he asks
"Because…"
How am I going to tackle this? How do I explain to a six year old that I'm not getting married to this guy because we've only started 'dating'?
"Because?" he looks up at me, his big brown eyes waiting for an answer
"Because we're too young, I'm only sixteen and he's only seventeen." I reply
"But Mama and Papa got married when Mama was sixteen." he counters my argument
This is a delicate subject, my brother married Theta, because she got pregnant when she was only fifteen. They got married on her sixteenth birthday; it was quite a weird experience for me, seeing as my brother was sixteen, two year older than me at the time.
"Well Griffin, not everybody gets married when they're sixteen." I answer, hoping that I've satisfied his curiosity.
"Okay, can you teach me to throw knives now?" he asks
I sigh with relief that this isn't another awkward question.
"Sure."
The next day, after sleeping comfortably on my big bed, I decide to practice throwing knives. I go to the basement of my house, where they've taken my collection of knives and given me a few new ones, and set up a few targets around the room. I take a look at my knives and pick out my favourite one, a long knife with a slightly curved silver blade, and a handle made of black leather that my hand curls around comfortably. I close my eyes, and fling it at the nearest target.
I lack my usual precision, and it hits just above the forehead on the target dummy. I choose another knife, one I haven't used before, and aim it at the head. However, I'm not used to how light the knife is and I miss the spot that I was aiming for on the forehead.
I scream with frustration, and pick up another knife and throw it at the dummy, but again I miss. Enraged at missing targets, I pick up the knives and start hurling them at the targets. I throw with force, taking out my anger at everything on these target dummies. I hit them, wishing they were the President, the Gamemakers, Caesar Flickerman, and everybody else who helped create the Hunger Games, the people that created the situation that I'm in now. Throwing knives doesn't satisfy my bloodlust, so I go and rip the dummies apart. I survey the damage in front of me; nothing remains of the target dummies but fluff from the stuffing inside of them. My anger is still boiling inside of me, and I want to take my favourite knife and cut open a vein in somebody else's arm, and listen to them scream out in pain. I smile at the thought, and I wish that there was someone around that I could cut.
I snap out of those bloodthirsty thoughts, almost ashamed of them. I'm a Career. I always was one, but I always thought that I was slightly better than that. I'm becoming what the Capitol expects of me: a complete monster. I don't think I'm a monster, I throw knives to have something to do, for fun, and before the Hunger Games, I hadn't killed anyone. But the Games changed me, I killed, not to survive, I was a Career after all, but for fun. I don't want to be a monster, but I think that I might be turning into one, especially if my yearning to make somebody bleed means anything. I run upstairs to the bathroom, slamming the door to the basement behind me. I don't want to be in that room anymore, I need to get away from there. I go up the stairs two at a time till I get to the bathroom where I collapse.
I decide to take a long shower to think, I'm not some weak little girl who cries because they wanted to cut a person up, I'm Clove Redpath, the girl who escaped the Hunger Games and outwitted the Capitol. During the shower I realize something, if President Snow knows that I'm not in love with Cato and vice versa, then we can stop pretending.
I come out of the shower smiling, and in m good mood, I decide to go into town to try and find Saff who wasn't there yesterday. He's probably my best friend, we've known each other since we were both thirteen and in need of friends. At the time, we were both loners, so we started hanging out. Eventually, we made other friends, but we're still close. After wandering around town aimlessly, I find him talking to his friends near the park where everybody goes to hang out.
"Hey Saff." I call out
He turns and smiles when he sees me. He's changed a bit since I left District 2, he's grown taller, and the ever elusive summer sun has given him freckles, but other that, he still looks like the auburn haired idiot who also happens to be my best friend.
"Hey Clove, come join us." he waves me over to where he and his friends are standing
I walk towards them, I don't really want to be around any other people, but for the sake of appearing normal, I go join them, the only thing that I can't help is the scowl that's appeared on my face. I'm surprised when Saff throws his arms around me and hugs me.
"I missed you." he murmurs
"Same here." I reply
For some reason, my heart skips a beat when he hugged me. What's going on? Do I like Saff? I can't like Saff, he's just my friend.
One of his friends clears their throat, and I realize that we've been hugging for longer than is strictly necessary. We break away from the hug, but I forget to be worried about people realizing that I don't like Cato when I realize something else, Saff's hot. Not as hot as Cato, but still pretty good looking. How did I not notice this before? Was I completely obtuse or blind? Or maybe I was too busy crushing on somebody else to notice.
"I though you and Cato had a thing…" says the friend who cleared their throat, Majoris.
"Looks like Cato's got some competition." adds another one of his friends, Struve
I roll my eyes, "There's no competition."
From the corner of my eye, I see that for a split second, Saff looks slightly disappointed.
"Lay off Clove, she's just won the Games." says Saff
"My knight in shining armor" I say jokingly, but nobody laughs, I guess they're surprised that I tried to joke
"Clove, can I speak to you alone quickly?" Saff asks me
"Yeah, sure." I reply as we walk away from his friends
He doesn't say anything for a while and I wonder what he's called me out here.
"Listen Clove, there's no easy way to say this, but-your father's dead." he says solemnly
I don't know whether to be relieved or upset. I'm not upset that he died, but I wish that someone had told me before now, and that he actually had any money left. Not that I really needed money seeing as I had won the Hunger Games and all, but more money can't hurt right? When my dad wasn't in my new house in Victor's Village drinking away, I simply assumed that he was passed out drunk somewhere or high with his druggie friends. My father was eighteen when he married my mother, who was seventeen. They had four kids together, before she left him for a richer man. But even before she left us, he had a habit of drinking and smoking funny things, but after my mother left, it only got worse.
"He overdosed on drugs, and they found high levels of alcohol in his blood." Saff adds
"Took him long enough to die." I say
If Saff's shocked by my answer, he doesn't show it. But he knows how bad my father was, so it can't come as any surprise to him that I'm not bursting out in tears.
Anyways, even if the news had upset me, I'm Clove Redpath, I don't cry.
I spend the next two weeks hanging out with either Saff or my other friends Lia and Tristina. Lia wanted to know if Cato was a good kisser, and Tristina told me that I was lucky to have such a hot guy as my boyfriend. I'm not sure why I tolerate these two, but I guess it's better to hang out with people then be seen as some sad-ass loser. Technically, since I'm a Victor now, I won't be considered a loser, but I still meet up with them, I'm not quite sure why, maybe it's just habit.
I haven't seen Cato; he sticks to his house most of the time. I think it's because after what he's seen in the Hunger Games, he can't just walk back into his old life. It's kind of funny actually, I thought that he was totally fine with brutally murdering other children. He should just do what I do, act like everything's fine in front of everybody, that you're the same person you always were. I've even convinced myself that I'm fine, but deep down I know that I'm scarred for life, that the sound of Fire Girl and Lover Boy's screaming as they got torn apart by the muttations are going to haunt my dreams forever.
I come home at the end of the second week, but I know something's off when I see Peacekeepers stationed outside my house.
When I get to the front door, one of them opens it for me, "The President's waiting for you in the study Miss Redpath."
My blood runs cold and I pale as I think about all the possible situations that would cause the President to come to my house. Snap out of it, he's just an old man, I try to tell myself. But it doesn't work; I'm still terrified as I slowly ascend the stairs. I open the study timidly, and see that Cato's in there as well.
"Ah Miss Redpath, how nice of you to join us." he says
The man disgusts me. His lips are too big, his hair is unnaturally white, the rose he wears smells bad, but the smell of blood surrounding him is worse.
I sit down, and I glance at Cato who looks just as terrified as I do.
"Down to business, first of all, we're going to promise not to lie to each other. I have no need to lie to you two, and this will all be over and done with faster if you don't lie to me." he says
We sit there in silence until President Snow speaks again, "I'll start, I promise that I won't lie, now just agree that you'll do the same so we can get started."
"I promise that I won't lie." Cato says, and feeling like an idiot, I repeat what he says.
President Snow smile and clasps his hands together.
"It's nice to see such cooperation. I know that you two aren't in love." he says
"I-I k-know." I stutter
"Yes, I believe that I made that very clear to you at your crowning ceremony. Because of you two, people are starting to believe that they can defy the Capitol. That's not good, if there's rebellion, this delicate, but effective order crashes, pandemonium ensures and people die. That's not good now is it?" he states condescendingly, as if he's talking to children the same age as Griffin
We shake our heads dumbly, unable to do anything else.
"I never expected rebellion to come from District 2, when the new rule as introduced, I expected that Everdeen girl to be the one to spark a revolution." he muses
"But sir, we didn't mean to start a revolution." says Cato
He looks at us, "I know that you didn't and there is a simple remedy to this situation. Convince Panem that you two are in love. The Victory tour is going to start earlier than usual, in a few weeks' time, so that you two can show everybody how much you care about each other. And if people still see you as a sign of rebellion and the people who purposely outwitted the Capitol, then I'll have to take drastic action."
I'm worried about what he means by drastic action, but I'm hoping that I won't have to find out.
"Sounds good to me." I say, Cato agrees
"Good, I'm so glad that you understood how important this is. There's just one last thing that I'd like to bring up."
"Which is?" Cato asks, as eager as I am for this man to leave
"This concerns you Miss Redpath, you and your friend Mr. Laporis."
"Who?" I ask, unsure of any of my friends' last names
"You know him as Saff." he tells me
What little colour my face regained fades away just as quickly. He knows, somehow President Snow knows that I like Saff, which I don't, but I might, but either way- I just don't want him to die.
He chuckles at my facial expression, "I see you know what I mean, stay away from him, people are never going to believe that you're in love with this young man", he gestures towards Cato, "if you continue to visit Mr. Laporis every day. If you completely disregard my warnings, then Mr. Laporis will pay the price. This was a pleasant visit, and I believe that you understood what is at stake, hopefully we won't see each other any time soon, goodbye."
He puts his coat on, and walks out of the study like nothing happened, like he hasn't just threatened us and told us that we need to behave or he'll take drastic action which probably involves killing people.
We sit there for what feels like an hour before Cato speaks.
"This sucks."
"No shit, I never thought this kind of thing would happen when I won the Hunger Games." I reply
"Me neither, I thought that I'd be living the good life. Rich enough to have servants, my family would finally be respected after my uncle died in his Games, and my sister wouldn't have to volunteer. I'd be hanging out with my friends every day, and I'd have hot chicks chasing after me. Instead, I'm stuck here with you, and we have to go out or everybody that we actually care about will die." he runs a hand through his blonde hair, and leans backwards on his chair, and closes his eyes
I've never heard Cato sound this depressed, he's given up, and he's realized that we're stuck together.
The next day, I receive a letter from President Snow.
Dear Miss Redpath,
It slipped my mind to mention this yesterday, but please make an effort to be seen in public with Mr. Selkirk. The Victory Tour has now officially been scheduled to start in three weeks, and the announcement shall be broadcasted tomorrow night . Your prep team and your stylist shall arrive a little before you depart on your tour, so that by then, you are camera ready . And try not to destroy the basement again.
Good Luck,
President Snow
I throw the letter away after reading it, and go downstairs to the basement to throw knives. It was rebuilt after my little incident two weeks ago. I throw knives, but my heart isn't into it. This time I have perfect aim, but I don't take any joy in my achievement, I'm too worried about the Victory Tour. After eating breakfast, I go over to Cato's house, and he doesn't looks surprised to see me.
"Did he send you a letter too?" he asks
"Yeah, so I figured we could walk around town and go to the park or whatever."
"Sounds good." he closes the door behind him as he takes my hand and we walk towards town.
People gawk as we walk to the bakers and buy cheese buns, this is the first time we've been out together as a couple. We kiss a couple of times, it's all meaningless and I can't help but wish that I was kissing someone else.
We stroll to the park and sit down under a tree and act like a sickeningly cute couple, the kind that feed each other food and kiss for no reason whatsoever. I lie down, my head on Cato's lap as we wait for time to pass so as many people as possible can see how much we love each other.
We get up to leave, and we kiss again, but as I pull away, I see Saff behind Cato, looking like I've thrown one of my knives at his heart.
Just another quick AU:
Can somebody come up with a better title? I've been looking into it, but I haven't found one yet, so ideas would be much appreciated!