Sharp Objects

chapter ten

And now,for me "clove," Says claudius. I'm practically on the edge of my seat, desperately hoping for that 9,that 9 that would give me a proper career status. " also a score of 10."

What?me,a 10

I'm Utterly speechless, shocked at my own skills.

"Clove thas brilliant!" shouts crystalline, actually jumping from the sofa this time,and cheering madly.

"Well done,girl with the knives" says cato, chuckling. I gave him a genuine smile and he returns it, bright blue eyes sparkling.

Most of the other scores were insignificant, except from zafira, who ended up scoring the same as marvel a 9.

Finally the district 12 scores where out. " from district 12,peeta,with a score of 8." Says claudius happily " and finally Katniss with a score of.." claudius looks at his paper, then does a double-take, confusion plaguing on his face "11."

What? District 12 got an 11.i didn't even notice the girl on fire in the training gym! Now she has pulled out all the stops and got an 11? She's hiding something, definitely, I'm pretty dam sure of that. And I've got to find out exactly what that thing is .

But,right now, I've got to concentrate on the madman sitting beside me.

Cato's face contorts from subtle boredom to pure rage, hatred brimming in those previously sparkling blue eyes. It's scary,to see him like this, it's even worse than the cato from the gym. At least he wasn't throwing cushions and shouting incomprehensible curses over cheering television presenters.

He stands up and storms off to his room,still cursing loudly, until he slams his door behind him, and they become suddenly muffled.

"He will be okay later," says crystalline, waving of the matter and then going down to her room, leaving us in complete utter silence. Silence is dangerous, so I pick up my sketch pad, and follow her down to my room.

I sit down at the window seat, folding my legs up so I could rest my sketchpad on them, and I begin to draw, I started to draw the features from outside view overlooking the Capitol . The elaborately designed building. I captured every aspect of the city in my sketchpad. This place could be a place of dreams . But it's not, because it's the Capitol, and the Capitol created the hunger games.

Once my Capitol sketch is Finished,I turn my page and begin to draw something else . I don't know what it is, all I know is that the pencil is dragging my hand across the page, and I have no clue what's going on. That is, until I see those familiar eyes staring up at me from the blank white.

Clove,get a grip! You cannot like him!

I tear out the page and toss it into the bin, frustrated because I let myself be carried away,once again. Then I draw something much more normal, well, for me anyway. I draw me throwing knives in the training gym, with Glimmer as one of the dummies, and Katniss, the girl on fire as the other.

I like how I can always vent my anger at people through drawing or throwing knives.it calms me down and let's me hide my emotions, something that I am an expert at. It's taken me years. But I have succeeded: I am emotionless and heartless as ice.

Tallulah calls us for dinner at around 8 o'clock, and she tries liven everyone up for tomorrow, I will spend the day with crystalline, going over the basics of interviewing, and how I am going to present myself on stage, it should be ok, seeing as it's crystalline. So the fact that my day should be ok, apart from the whole Katniss thing.

After dinner, I go back into my room and do some sketching. Cato crops up twice, but I throw both of them into the bin where my fist one sits , and then draw some knives and a rather oddly plant that resides in the corner by my closet.

When I look at the clock next to me, it's already 11. But I'm not tired, and I need some new things to draw. So I stand up, and go into the main room.

When I see him there, sitting on the sofa, I almost back-ped into the wall. But he notices me, and Pat's the seat next to him on the sofa. I reluctantly sit down, setting my pad down on the glass coffee table.

"Hey,why are you still up?" He asks

" cant  sleep, and I needed something new to draw." I say simply, looking around the room for a new drawing subject.

"Me,too," he replies " although obviously, I don't draw. Can I see your drawings?" I stop in my tracks. I hope there is none of him still left in here. That would be disastrous!

"Yeah,ok."I say, handing him the book. He opens it, looks at the first one, and his eyes widen.

" clove, they are amazing!" He says in awe " really really good! How did you learn to draw like this?.

" I don't know" I say, looking down towards my feet. Pretty sure that the redness is already creeping up my pale cheeks " I guess I just figured it out,like I did with knives.

Suddenly, he laughs,pointing to the book . " so, I'm guessing you don't like our district 1 ally then?" Oh no, he's seen the picture of glimmer as a dummie.

" not exactly no." I say, giggling slightly myself "she annoys me."

" same here. She keeps following me around the gym, it's really wired." He says, still laughing.

"She likes you ." I say, matter-of-factly " it's obvious, she follows you around,always tries her hardest with weapons when you're there, and trys to please you with everything!"

" you think?" He says, screwing his face "no way!" I could never put up with her! She's so annoying! " now it's my turn to laugh. Not because it's funny. But because I'm one up on the blonde stalker girl.

"That's good, because she's an idiot and I would think you were one if you actually liked her."

" clove, " he says, so quietly that it's almost a whisper " why didn't you tell anyone about the couger? Like,at home or anything. I know that you haven't told anyone, otherwise you's be popular and I'd be labelled a village idiot."

Okay,that was unexpected. Why is he bringing this up now? I thought we were talking about how annoying glimmer was?

"Well,um.." I father, unable to think up any such excuse that would  satisfy his question. Because, to be frank, I don't know why I didn't tell anyone. Maybe I'd I had,I might be loved by my district, instead of shunned, like an outsider with no true place. "There are many reasons why, but I'm not going to say them," ok now I have a plan, and an excuse " because, if I did,you'd know more things about my real life, and that gives you advantage in the arena. Sorry, Cato, but I'm not saying anything." I Finish brimming with happiness: how could he have a comeback to that?

"Ok,ok calm down, I was just asking. Don't worry. And anyway. I'm going to sleep now, night clove,see you tomorrow" he stands up and waves as he turns and walks back down the corridor to his room.

As soon as he shuts the door, I follow, back to my room,back to my window seat, where I draw him, over and over and over, each and every one of them half-finished, screwed up, and tossed into the bin. Exactly like how I carelessly tossed away my father when he left me