The Lost Chance

Chapter Twelve

[Clove's POV]

"There will be three days for all of you tributes to practice together, then by the fourth day, yoo'll show the Gamemakers what you've got," Lyme explains as Cato and I head for the training center.

"Cato, show those tributes who they're up against," Brutus says to Cato, "Scare them off,"

He merely nods. I see the bags and dark circles under his eyes, and I know he didn't wake up well. Maybe he even didn't sleep well. He was eating a lot during breakfast, but right now, he seemed like he still had no energy.

"Cashmere! Gloss!" Brutus waves at two people when we arrive at the training center. When they came over, I could see it's the classically beautiful brother and sister who have won two consecutive Games in the past. 

"Hello there, Brutus," Cashmere nods at him, her blond curls bobbing up and down. "Enobaria, Lyme,"

"Cashmere, what a pleasure to meet you. And you too, Gloss," Lyme says. She pushes Cato and me forward, "These are our tributes. Both volunteered, and both are Careers. This Cato, and this is Clove,"

Cashmere and Gloss look at us up and down, but I held my gaze. I had to look strong and capable. And I am.

"Glimmer, Marvel, come here!" Gloss calls, and I immediately take a step back when I saw Glimmer. Tall, pretty, downright sexy. Only her emerald green eyes told me she isn't Angel.

"Hi, I'm Glimmer," she took my hand and shook it, then she turned to Cato and gave him a flirty wink, "This is my District partner, Marvel,"

I hated her immediately. 

As all the tributes gathered round, Glimmer stood next to Cato, batting her eyelashes and flipping her braided hair. She looked so girly, I didn't think she'd be capable of anything.

At least Cato isn't noticing her. Unfortunately, he isn't noticing me as well.

"Hey," Marvel stood beside me as Atala begins to read the list of stations. I look at him and narrow my eyes suspiciously. "Easy. It's not like I'm going to kill you or anything,"

"Maybe in the arena, you would," I say coldly, but he just laughed and said, "Good point,"

Atala finishes reading, and we head off towards the weapon section. The girl from District Four is there, weighing a trident in her hands.

"Are you a Career?" Glimmer asks sweetly, and I almost puked myself.

"Yes," she says simply as she picks up a net in her free hand. 

"How come Finnick didn't introduce you and your partner?" Glimmer asks again, and I could see in her eyes she's disgusted. "Where is he anyways?"

"Finnick is a little bit busy," she explains. "As for my partner... he's just a kid. He can't even hurt a fly,"

I thought that would soften Glimmer up, but she proved me wrong. Instead, she linked her arm with the girl's arm and says, "Then we're going to be best friends. What's your name? Oh, never mind. I'll just call you Fish,"

I raised my eyebrows at Cato and for the first time that day, he looked at me. He raised his eyebrows back and I knew he was thinking of how much this girl looked and acted like Angel.

"Look at District Twelve," Glimmer says with so much loathing. "Seriously, knots? Weren't those two taught that at preschool?"

"Well, we show them what we've got," Cato flexes his arms.  "Let's show them our strength. Clove, don't show them yet, though,"

"Why not?" Marvel, Glimmer and I ask at the same time.

"Same goes for you two," Cato beckons towards District One, "We show them brute strength on the first day, what we can do with weapons on the second, and everything on the third. We introduce them to fear,"

He's speaking like this? That's a little bit impossible.

"Ooooh," Glimmer detaches herself from Fish and struts to Cato, "A thinker. I like that,"

And I like you. In a bed. A coffin bed.

And so there we were, jumping over obstacles, dodging our blocking the trainer's weapons. I saw the looks on everybody else's eyes, and I knew they were starting to get scared.

We're the Careers. We always win.

Lunch time came, and we all sat in the same table. Cato and Marvel seemed like they wanted to train more, so they skipped it, leaving me, Glimmer and Fish alone.

"So, Clove," Glimmer laced her fingers together and smiled at me sweetly, "Are you and Cato... dating?"

I don't know why, but it made me blush fiercely. Yes, I liked Cato. But no, we're not dating. No labels, nothing at all. I'm not even sure if he's gotten over last night.

"No... it's nothing like that," I say, trying not to stammer. "We're just... friends,"

"Good!" she clapped her hands together, which made me regret what I said, "So you don't mind if I hit on him?"

Yes. Yes, I do. "No, not at all. It's not like we're a couple or anything," I force the words out. "We're not even in love,"

I regret it. I regret volunteering, I regret saying that nothing's going on between us, and I regret the day I first met Cato. But seeing him washes those doubts away, and I hate myself even more for that.

The second day of training came.

"Look at the losers from Twelve," Marvel grins. Katniss and Peeta were talking, and I feel a pang of jealousy. They were holding hands at their chariot ride. They looked so close to each other. They look like a couple.

Something Cato and I will never be.

Suddenly, Peeta stands up after Katniss whispers something to him. He picks up a steel weight, and carries it in his two arms. No way could he throw that.

But he did. He threw it a good twenty feet away from them. Cato got so mad his face and ears turned red. Glimmer's mouth was open and Marvel says, "Well... that was unexpected,"

Cato grabs his sword. "Clove, throw those knives. Marvel, Glimmer, Fish... do what you guys do,"

Cato hacked at dummies, the way he used to back in our District. Every other tribute looked at him with fear in their eyes, then their eyes shifted towards Marvel, who was throwing spears at incredible distances. He couldn't hit the bull's eye sometimes, but it was still impressive.

Fish was welding axes and throwing them at the log dummies so hard, they were cut in half. Glimmer was at the obstacle course, and she managed to dodge every obstacle with grace.

 Suddenly, the eyes were on me. I took a deep breath, got out five knives and threw the five of them at five different targets at five different distances.

All of them hit the bull's eye.