That night I have a dream.
I stand in a sandy arena. There was a battle going on between the guy from 11 and Cato. They were both fighting with swords. The whole thing is a gorey mess. At some point he was able to stab Cato through his stomach. Cato fell to the ground and District 11 ran away. I ran over to Cato and sob.
"No! Please don't go! You're my best friend!" I say. I wrap my arms around him and cry into his hair.
"Clove, it's okay, stay strong." He touches my face and stares into my eyes.
"No! Come back please. I- I love you." I confess.
I heard a cannon go off and I know it is too
late.
ᘒ
The next morning I hear someone knocking on my door, saying one hour until training, in a the Capitol accent that drives me insane. I go into my bathroom to wash my face. The bruise is finally fading away. Luckily I find a bottle of foundation in my shade.
I run to the dining room and see breakfast is ready. No one is here, though.
I grab eggs, bacon, toast and sausage and eat in silence. A few minutes later Cato's door opens.
"Good morning." I say.
"Morning." He looks at me. I suddenly remember the dream from the previous night and glace away to keep from blushing. I continue to eat my food. I hear the elevator go off and the doors open. Brutus and Enobaria walk in.
"Nice to see you two up, training in half an hour, so eat your breakfast quickly." Enobaria says.
"Remember, show off as much as you can, intimidate your rivals." Brutus instructs.
I nod. I scrape up the last of my food and quickly go wash up. Ten o'clock arrives, and so does Training. We go to the elevator with Maia. It is a pretty quiet ride.
"Remember what your mentors said." Maia tells us.
"Okay." I say.
Cato nods.
The elevator bell goes off and the doors open. We both step into the gym. There were weapons everywhere, targets to aim at and higher up in a closed-off box with a glass window was all the Gamemakers. I guess they're going to watch us train. The other Tributes were in a tense circle. We join them and wait for a few others. A couple minutes later they arrive. The head trainer, whose name is Atala, starts explaining all the rules. Don't fight with the other Tributes, it's not recommended to do something that will get you injured.
After she finishes her list she let us go train.
I, of course go straight to the throwing knives. I threw them all perfectly, and impressed some of the Tributes that have no idea what they're doing.
I make sure to try other things, like climbing, learning to start a fire, even though its not that Career hot spot and I already know how, I need to refresh my memory.
I look around for a moment and take a note of all the Tributes for once. Most of them were average hight, but you can tell they've never been properly fed their entire lives. I do feel a little bad..
At lunchtime, we all go to the dining room and get served some food. And for Capitol food, I have to say this didn't look very appealing. I sat down at a random table and waited for the others to come. The girl from District 1 joins me first.
"Hi I'm Glimmer!" She says. She sits down across from me. Her bubbly personality is getting on my nerves. She seems so plastic and fake. I don't think I'm going to like her very much.
"I'm Clove." I reply.
"It's so nice to meet you!" She says in her high-pitched voice.
"Likewise." I grumble.
"By the way my District partner, Marvel is like, such a jerk." She warns me.
"How?" I ask.
"He's annoying and a terrible housemate. And he's messy, and I don't think he likes me very much." I don't think anyone does, Glimmer. I think.
The rest of the Careers come. I look at Glimmer to see her jaw drop to floor when she sees Cato. I roll my eyes and continue eating my food. Glimmer was introduces herself to Cato. Her voice was so annoying. I can't wait to kill her.
"Do you ever shut up?" I ask Glimmer, who's been talking for about five minutes straight.
"Leave me alone." She sneers.
"What you gonna do about it?" I mock.
She looks at me with an evil glint in her eyes. Like she would pull out a bow and arrow and shoot me. I don't care. I would throw a knife at her first.
"Ladies, ladies, calm down." Marvel says.
We ignore him.
"You're lucky we're not in the arena right now." Glimmer tells me.
"You're luckier, bitch." I growl.
This is how it went for the next few days. Glimmer and I are now sworn enemies.
Nothing very interesting happens, except on the second day Cato misplaced his knife and thought the kid from 3, Jason, took knife.
Finally, it was time to have our private sessions. I'm really nervous, because if I get a bad score, I won't get sponsers. Glimmer goes in first. After about fifteen minutes Marvel follows her.
I was shaking my right leg up and down.
"Nervous?" Cato asks.
"Yeah, I'm worried I'll miss or something." I reply.
He laughs. "You never miss."
I opened my mouth to say something, but the robotic voice beats me to it. "Clove Kentwall."
I get up and the mechanical door opens.
The Training Center looks too empty. I walk over to the throwing knives a grab one.
I turn to the Gamemakers, "Clove Kentwall. District Two." They nod.
I take my knife and stand around fifteen feet away from the target. I throw the knife and it lands dead center. I look at the Gamemakers and they nod in approval. I throw three more.
"You are dismissed." Seneca Crane tells me.
I nod and head over to the elevator. I think I did pretty good, but do the Gamemakers think so too?
I reach our floor. Brutus and Enobaria are waiting for me in the living room.
"So how did it go?" Enobaria asks.
"Pretty good. I think I did well. I just threw a few knives and then they dismissed me." I sat down on the couch.
"That's good." Brutus says.
"Yeah." I sigh of relief.
"It's going to be a little while before we have to watch the training scores. So you're free to do whatever you want." Enobaria says.
"Okay, I guess I'll get some fresh air." Of course I can't go outside, but I'll do the next best thing, which is go on the large balcony I haven't been on yet.
I sit down and lean against the wall, looking down into the Capitol. Just one day until we're in the Games. Just one day until I'm never coming back to the real world.
I hear the elevator go off and I know Cato's back. I overhear Brutus and Enobaria ask him the same questions.
"Where's Clove?" He asks.
"I think she's on the balcony." Enobaria says.
"Alright, see you guys later." He opens the door, "Can I join you?"
I shrug. He sits down next to me.
"How did you do?" I asks.
"I think I did pretty good." He says. "What about you?"
"I guess I did well." I reply.
We sit in silence.
"Remember the time we snuck out of the District and found the treehouse and lake?" Cato asks.
I turn to look at him. That was a very random thing for him to say. But it is true. When we were younger, eight and ten to be exact, Cato had a brilliant idea to illegally leave the District. We found the treehouse that day. Cato kept pleading to go further until I finally gave in. I'm glad I did too. We ended up finding a huge and pretty lake. The water shimmered in the sunlight and the mountains scattered in the distance made it a beautiful sight. Later that day my dad found out what we had did and beat me.
I never mentioned that to Cato.
"Yeah I remember. It was one the best days of my life." I smile.
"Yeah." He gives a soft laugh.
We sit in more silence.
"Clover, there's something I need to tell you." I smile when he uses my nickname.
"What?"
"I- I don't know how to say this but I-" He gets interrupted by Enobaria, though.
"Guys, it's time for the training scores." Enobaria says.
We both got up and followed Enobaria. "Tell me after." I whisper.
He nods.
"Okay."
We all sit down on the couch and Brutus turns on the TV. Caeser Flickerman pops up on screen and introduces himself.
"Now for the scores. Glimmer, with a score of nine. Marvel with a score of nine. Clove with a score of.." I hold my breath, "Ten."
"Good job Clove." Enobaria says.
"Thank you." I plaster on a smile.
"Cato, with a score of, ten." He smirks at the number flashing across the screen.
The rest of the tributes get an 3-6 range except the little girl from 11, Rue, manages to get a 7, and her district partner, Thresh, gets a 8.
"Peeta, with a score of 8." Why did they put the male first?
"And Katniss with an...eleven?"
Eleven.
Eleven.
My chances of survival just went down.