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Chapter 24

Clove's POV

Word Count: 3,601

I sigh heavily as I watch a girl around eleven struggle to hit a target that's just a few yards away from her. Today we're supposed to help the younger kids train. Which is a complete waste of time if you ask me. Apparently we're supposed to show them 'technique' and 'inspire the to persevere'. The girl I'm stuck with doesn't know her left from her right and has a better chance of accidentally killing herself then getting the knife to land on the target.

"No no no." I say impatiently as I grab the knife from her small hand and roughly push her aside.

"You're practically throwing it at the ground." I growl as I grip the knife tightly by its blade.

"Throw it like this." I instruct as I pull my hand back and release. The blade goes whizzing through the air and lands on the target with a small thump. I smile in satisfaction when I see it has landed in the dead center of the target, as expected. The younger girl appears to be in awe at my skills. He mouth is hanging open slightly and her eyes are fixed upon the very spot where the knife is embed.

"Can you teach me that?" She says in excitement.

I roll my eyes. "Of course, but you'll never be as good as I am." I say indifferently. It's true, there's no point In lying to her and saying she'll be perfect at it. It's not right to fill her mind with false hopes.

The girl frowns. "I won't?" She asks in small voice.

I shake my head. "I'm afraid not kid. But it's not all about having perfect aim." I tell her. "As long as you're victim isn't expecting it, you'll be fine." I reassure her.

The girl gives me a tight nod.

I look to both sides. "I'll give you an example." I say as I reach into my belt and pull out another knife. I look around for Cato and spot him a few meters away. He looks pretty pissed as the moment. He's yelling at some kid who looks like he's about to pass out from fear. It's so loud in the training center that I can't hear what he's saying. I only see his lips moving a mile a minute as he continues yelling at the small boy.

"Watch and learn." I say over my shoulder. This time I hold the knife by it's handle. I wait until Cato turns around to throw. He looks to his side, almost as if facing the kid he was just yelling at is too much for him.

I take the opportunity and release the knife. The younger girl gasps at this, clearly realizing who my target is.

"That's Cato!" She squeaks as my knife cut through the air. "He gonna kill you." She says nervously.

I bark out a laugh. "He is not." I say as I brush it off.

I look up to see that the knife has infix itself into the wall, directly next to Cato. I watch as he jumps jumps several feet back in surprise. I pretend yawn as I hide my snickers.

Our eyes meet and in that moment I realize that I made a mistake. My smile slowly fades as realization floods me. Without a bit of hesitation, Cato yanks the knife from the wall and sends it flying back at me. The younger girl who seems to be distracted by the ends of her hair, doesn't see the blade coming. Cato has never been perfect at throwing knives, and so the blade that's meant to hit the wall next to me is instead thrown off course and has changed it path so that it just so happens to be inline with the small girl I'm teaching.

"Hey!" I say loudly.

The girl looks up and gives me a quizzical stare. I quickly take a step forward and roughly push her shoulders cause her to fall. In the same moment I duck, barely missing my own knife being implanted in my skull.

The girl's pupils dilate and her lower lip begins to quiver.

"Don't cry." I say quickly. It seems as if my words have the opposite effect on her because she burst out in tears. I groan.

"Why are you crying, you're fine." I say in a rush as I try to help her up. She refuses to take my hand and instead scoots back in fear.

I make eye contact with Cato once more and glare at him. I point my finger at him and gesture for him to come to where I stand. He gives the young boy he's helping one final look before making his way over to me.

I cross my arms over my chest and try to stand a little taller as I wait for him to reach me. The girl is still on the ground, soaking herself in a river of tears. I let out a particularly long sigh. Why does he have to make everything so difficult? Because he's Cato, that's why. And for some odd reason he thinks the more difficult he is the more sponsors he'll recessive. Which is probably true.

"What is your problem?" I hiss once he reaches me.

"My problem? You're the one that threw a knife at me." He says while scoffing.

"I was demonstrating!" I yell.

"By chucking a knife at my head?" He questions with raised eyebrows.

"Don't even go there Cato. You knew damn well that that knife was not going to touch you." I tell him firmly.

"So? No harm done." He says while shrugging his shoulders.

"No harm done? Look what you did." I seethe as I gesture with my head to the girl. For the first time he notices her on the ground.

His eyes fix upon her crumpled form that's withering with fear on the cold floor of the training center.

"Sorry." He says flatly as he walks toward her.

The girl scrambles to get away from him, whimpering the whole time. She resort to crawling as she tries to escape what she surely thinks will be some sort of punishment. I'm guessing she heard one to many rumors about him and what he's capable of. Cato seems very confused by her actions- and acting as if he doesn't have a care in the world, bends down and picks her up. He holds her like she's a baby, one arm under her knees while the other is around her shoulders.

By now she's terrified, and she let's everyone in the training center know it by letting out a very loud, very high pitched scream.

It's an ear-piercing cry that makes me cringe. Cato however, seems unphased by her actions and the fact that she's desperately trying to break his hold. He begins walking to our trainer, nice and easy as if nothing's wrong. Several people stop what they're doing to stare. I slowly leave my spot from where I'm standing and follow him.

"Don't hurt me." I hear her plead in desperation. "Let me go!" She says a little louder as she continues to try to wiggle loose. It's futile. There is no way someone as small as her will ever be able to break his hold.

"What's your name?" He asks her casually.

I quicken my pace so I can hear her answer.

She stops try to escape and stares at him for several long moments. "L-l-lil-y-y. Lily." She stammers out.

"Nice to meet you Lily." He says with a sigh.

I'm surprised at how calm he remains, despite her many attempts to get away from him. He fully knows that if he places her back on the ground she's most likely going to fall back onto the floor. Plus any sensible person knows that crying on the floor of the Career Academy is like walking around with a sign that says 'target' on your back.

"Please don't hurt me." She whispers shakily.

I peer over his shoulder to see tears streaming down her face.

"What? Me? Hurt innocent children? Never." He says sarcastically.

This only makes her cry harder.

"Good job." I sneer at him.

He looks over his shoulder and glares at me. "It's all your fault, you're the won that started it." He shoots back.

"So? You almost killed her." I say smugly, fully aware that there's absolutely nothing he can say as a response. I'm right, and he remains silent.

Our trainer looks up as we approach him.

"Good lord, what have you done to her?" Our trainer asks us with a groan.

"I dunno." He says while shrugging his shoulders.

"He threw a knife at her." I chime in.

"By accident." He says quickly.

"Cato would you care to explain how you 'accidentally' throw a knife at someone?" Our trainer says while pinching the bridge of his nose.

Cato looks at him for a few seconds before he finally speaks. "I-I. . . . ." "I don't have time for this." He snaps, suddenly angry. "Here." He says as he roughly pushes Lily's body into our trainers arms. He automatically extends his hands to catch her.

"What am I supposed to do with her?" He asks us.

I roll my eyes. "Just give her to one of the female trainers, they'll know what to do." I say as I emphasize the word female. Clearly men have absolutely no clue as to what's going on around them.

"She can't sit out the whole day, that's unacceptable." He says firmly.

"Give her a cup of water, let her wait ten minutes, and send her back out." Cato say while clapping his hands together.

Lily steals a glance at him.

Our trainer doesn't respond for a few moments, almost as if he debating on weather or not to take Cato's advice.

"You know what? You have ten minutes, use them wisely." Our trainers says to her. He releases her a few seconds later and she quickly scampers off to who-knows-where.

"Cato, I want you to swap partners with Clove." Our trainer says once Lily is out of ear shot.

"But she's terrified of me." Cato mutters.

"I know that." He says impatiently. "That's the entire point." He explains. "I'll send her over to you when she comes back, I'm the mean time. . . .do something productive." He tells us.

"Some trainer he is." I mutter under my breath, too low for anyone to detect.

Cato and I decide to wait by the plant identifying table until Lily gets back.

We walk over to the station and take a seat on the floor.

"You really scared her." I say after a moment of silence.

"Yeah. . . . .I know." He says with a laugh.

"I don't think you're that good with children." I point out.

"Really Clove? I had no idea." He says sarcastically. "I train everyday to fight, what do you expect?" He asks me.

I shrug. "I dunno." I mumble. We remain quite after that.

I watch everyone in the training center while I wait. My eyes find a particularly young boy who seems to have a knack for throwing spears. They fly through the air at such a speed it make it impossible for my eyes to follow. Again, again, and again I watch as spear after spear lands on the target. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. He looks like he's around fourteen? Maybe fifteen? I don't know. He's definitely not sixteen because he's not in my age group and I've never seen him before.

I feel Cato nudge me slightly. I turn my head and look at him.

"Are you checkn' him out?" He says with a smirk as he gestures with his head in the direction of the boy that was throwing the spears.

I roll my eyes at him and say nothing.

"Why would you look at him when you can stare at me all day long?" He asks me, his tone is somewhat teasing but I sense a general curiosity on his part.

"I'm sorry." I say as sincere as I can manage, though my tone mocks him.

"You better be." He growls playfully.

Before I know it he's pushed me from where I sit on the floor so I fall on my side. The second I try to get up he rolls over to he's on top of me.

"Get off me!" I groan.

I try to move my arms but they're firmly pinned down by his hands. I can see now why Lily was so petrified, there is absolutely no way I would ever be able to escape him. He smirks from above me as I continue to thrash around madly.

"What is with you today?" I demand.

He smiles stupidly at me in response which lets me know he's enjoying this way to much.

He reaches into my belt and pulls out one of my favorite daggers.

"Poor little Clover can't get up." He teases while sticking out his lower lip.

He presses the dagger against my neck with lightest amount of pressure. I stop trying to break his hold because I know that one wrong move means he'll have the pleasure of extracting the blade from my lifeless body.

"You're ruining my fun Clove!" He whines when he realizes I've stop trying to fight him.

"Oh boo hoo." I say apathetically.

"C'mon, move." He complains. I see his eyes light up a moment later. A slow grin spreads across his face.

My eyebrows knit together as I try to understand what's possibly going through that messed up mind of his.

He bends his head down almost as if he's going to whisper in my ear. I wait to hear what he's going to say but his words never come. Instead, I feel lips run over the sensitive skin under my ear.

"What are you doing?" I say in an incredibility high pitched voice as I try to pull away from him.

He lets out a bark of laughter.

"Cato there are people here." I hiss. "Let me go." I demand.

Cato opens his mouth to say something else but the sound of someone softly clearing their throat stops him.

He looks up and quickly scrambles off me but remains seated on the floor. I roll over and look up to see who stands before us.

My eyes meet Lily standing about four feet away from us, staring at the knife that lays beside Cato.

"Hi Lily." He greets as cheerfully as he can manage. She looks from me to Cato, then back to me.

"Did you hurt her?" She asks him in a small voice.

Cato quickly shakes his head back and forth. He pulls me onto his lap and places the sweetest kiss he can muster up on my cheek.

"We were just playing." He tells her innocently as he rocks us back and forth. "She's fine." He adds after a moment of silent. Lily looks unconvinced. "Really." He insist. "I don't hurt girls- well, until I have to volunteer." He says with a cheeky grin. "Does that bother you Clove?" He purrs as he leans his face in close to mine. He seems to be forgetting that Lily is standing right in front of us.

I push his face away and stand up. "As long as you get out alive I don't really care what you do." I tell him. "C'mon Lily." I say over my shoulder as I grab her arm and walk her over to the plant table which sits a few feet away from us.

Cato remains on the floor, still clearly amused by the younger girl's assumptions of him 'hurting me.'

"Now I want you to identify all edible plants." I tell her while glancing over at Cato.

She nods.

A large screen with several pictures of different types of planets and many rows of buttons allows anyone in training to master the knowledge of poisonous and nonpoisonous plants to a high degree of expertise.

I turn the machine on and watch as the screen lights up.

"Go on." I tell her.

She takes a step closer to the table and stares at the buttons. They have the name of the plant written along the bottom with its picture show clearly in the middle. As she begins to press the buttons I turn around to face Cato. I gesture for him to join us and I watch as he stands up and walks silently towards her.

He stands directly behind her as she continues identifying the plants. I slowly slip away undetected. After all, Lily is his training partner. And I'm supposed to help the kid Cato was working with before, who is currently laying on the floor without a care in the world.

I glance over my shoulder to see that sure enough, Cato has absolutely no idea that I left. He faces the large screen that has almost turned completely blue due to the fact that she's identified a good portion of the plants.

I'm guessing Lily has no idea Cato's behind her because if she knew he was she would be a good mile away from him by now.

As I approach the boy Cato was working with I notice he's asleep.

"Up!" I bark at him.

He remains unmoving. I bend down and roughly shake his shoulder. He jerks awake.

"What are you doing?" I demand.

The boy sits up and shrugs his shoulders. This gonna be harder than I thought.

Cato's POV

I watch as Lily finishes identifying the remaining pants. The screen blinks several times indicating she's completed the course.

"Oooo, look! I did it!" She squeals happily. A moment later she turns around and wraps arms tightly around my waist.

I feel her jump back, causing her side to hit the table.

"Hi." I greet.

"W-where's Clove." She stutters.

I look to my left to find her missing. I scan the training center till I find her yelling at the kid I was trying to help before. Huh. I never even noticed she left.

I turn around to face a very intimidated looking girl.

"She appears to be busy." I explain.

She doesn't respond and shifts uncomfortably in her place.

"You can hug me, I'm not going to snap your neck." I tell her.

She shakes her vigorously back and forth.

"Getting soft Cato?" I hear someone call.

I whip around to see a red head girl smirking at me. I find it somewhat creepy that she knows my name and I've never even seen her before. Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, everyone should know my name.

"As if." I scoff.

"Really? I just assumed you were getting soft since little girls like to hug you." She said with a shrug.

"She thought I was Clove." I say indifferently.

"Really? Because you don't really look like her." She points out.

"No shit." I tell her.

"If she thought you were Clove she's either stupid or has a death wish." The red hair girls say while look at Lily.

"Hey." I protest. "Lily isn't stupid." I say as I defend her. Lily pushes her face into to fabric of my training uniform as I say this.

"Awww, how cute." The girl says affectionately as she looks at Lily.

She walks closer to me and bends down so she can talk to her.

"Sweetie, if you want to live, I suggest you step away from the big career." She says with fake sweetness.

Lily listens to her and takes a step away from me.

She crosses her arms over her chest and tries to stand taller.

"That's not true." She tells her. "Cato's nice." She says while turning her chin up at the girl.

"Let's see if you think he's so nice after the Games. People change."

A/N I HAVE MAJOR NEWS! YOU MUST READ THIS ENTIRE AUTHOR'S NOTE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE DEEDS ON MY NEW STORY!

I was nomminated for 'most promising hungergames Fanfiction! Don't forget to vote for me on Nov.13 Go to my bio and copy and paste the link :)

ALSO I HAVE MAJOR NEWS ABOUT MY NEW STORY! I'M THINKING OF PUBLISHING THE FIRST CHAPTER EARLY. THOUGHTS?

I'm thinking of publishing the first chapter of my AU very soon, because I'm paranoid someone will have the exact same idea as me. I know, it's stupid. But let me know if you want the first chapter!

I love you all so much and a big thanks goes out to whoever nomminated me! You have no idea how much it really touched me! ! ! !