Today is the day. The day Clove turns 11. I know it's not a huge birthday, but, it's the first birthday I get to share with her. It's only been 2 weeks since my birthday, but since I've been grounded and it was the end of the year, I feel like I haven't seen her in weeks.
I ran around my room, putting on my uniform, before grabbing the necklace Clove had given me for my birthday. I put it on and searched for her present. After 10 minutes I finally found the necklace I had gotten for her and put it in my bag. In an attempt to avoid my father I opened my window and slid out of it, onto the balcony and roof of the first floor. Sliding to the ground, I heard a voice.
"What exactly are you doing son?" My father asked, glaring at me.
"I was just taking the fun way out of the house, and I'm going in early, so I was trying to go the quiet way and not wake anyone else up," I reasoned. I didn't lie though, I was going in early, and I didn't want to wake anyone up, so I could avoid this.
"Well, I was already up, and I saw the shadow of your light under the door so I figured I would talk to you, but you're obviously a young man on a mission. But tonight, we will talk."
"No can do. It's Clove's birthday, I'll be gone all night," I responded politely.
"Don't spend too much time with that Sevina girl."
"She's my girlfriend and best friend, I'm going to spend as much time as I can with her before something wrecks it," I responded, leaving my dad in the shadows.
"It's not going to end well," he called after me. I know that what he's saying is possible, but for today I'm going to pretend things are different, it's Clove's birthday. In the old days before Panem, things were celebrated with the only thought being whatever was being celebrated, so that's what I am going to do.
_____
"Attention Class, today is a very special day," Mrs. Collagen yelled once she had taken attendance. "President Snow himself has made the trip out here to visit us, so all of you better be on your best behaviors. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am," we responded in unison. Well, there goes my plan to act all sweet to Clove. If Snow's here, then he could plan to have both of us get reaped at the same time. Because I know what really happens, he spies on the districts, and he purposely chooses the people that he thinks will make his games the most interesting for the Capitol Citizens.
"Mr. Hadley, Ms. Sevina please go to the gym for your training session in front of President Snow," Mrs. Collagen spoke again once we had started our papers.
Sighing, I stood up, along with Clove, and walked out of the classroom. I looked to Clove quickly, trying to judge how she was feeling. She must have noticed that I was looking because she flicked her gaze over to me and pointed to her neck, like where I have the locket. I took that as her telling me that we're acting like we hate each other, but that she still actually wants to be with me.
Nodding, I looked away, creating distance so that I didn't even hold her hand. From now on, we act like we don't like, actually, scratch that, can't stand, each other. Wether that means today, until Snow's gone, or whenever we're in public, I don't know, but I'm willing to do this to protect her. My lucky, and rare, four leafed Clover.
<><><><>
"Hello Mr. President Snow," Clove greeted politely, like all girls are trained, even adding a little curtsy.
"Good morning Ms. Sevina," he grinned, before turning to look at me. "Mr. Hadley."
"Good morning sir," I responded, trying to mask how creepy his grin was. He had overly full and puffy lips, which were a sign of his Capitol citizenship. Other than the puffy lips, and his bizarre and over-the-top clothing he looked like a normal old man.
"I heard you two are getting to be quite good, especially for such young, children," he stated, allowing me to catch the scent of blood in his breath. Does this man drink blood? What if he's a cannibal? What if he kills people who don't obey him?
"Oh, whoever said that must be very generous in their opinion when it comes to him," Clove hissed, sounding like she did that first day.
"Are you sure that they weren't being nice to you? I mean, look at you," I snarled, stepping angrily towards her.
"Children, children, stop wasting my time, show me what you've got to offer, then you can go back to hating each other," Snow interrupted angrily.
"Sorry Mr. President," we responded in unison, causing Snow to grin again.
"Well, get to it, I want to see you're strengths, and weaknesses."
"Yes sir," I responded before rushing to the sword station. I picked up my favorite sword, walking to the button that made the dummies start moving. I ran through them, slashing at ones neck, then stabbing another in the heart, the gut, anywhere I knew would kill someone. By the end of the course I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins, the want for fun, to just run.
"Ready to be amazed?" Clove asked, smirking at President Snow and me.
"How could you possibly amaze me," I replied, smirking right back.
"Just wait," she responded by slamming the button to start the station. I knew what she was going to do, picking up a handful of knives she threw one after another at the moving targets, all landing dead center in the lethal target zones marked in the dummy. By the end I was fighting myself to not be amazed, I had seen her throw before, but when she was mad, it was so much more mesmerizing, because had zeros in so much more.
"I'm impressed. Brutus was a good mentor to you," Snow commented to Clove.
"He helped Cato too, he took pity on how hard Cato was trying, with no success," she sneered, trying to fight back a vicious smile. I knew this was all a game, but, she was getting out of hand.
"Well, thank you both, but if I'm going to make it back to The Capitol by tomorrow morning I must move on. You are dismissed," President Snow stated, motioning to us to leave.
"Thank you for your time," I replied, bowing before leaving. Clove followed me and together we walked back to class.
"I thought he wanted to see our weaknesses," Clove muttered.
"Well, maybe we got too caught up in arguing and ran out of time," I suggested.
"Yeah, about that," she trailed off. "I'm sorry, I was trying so hard to be convincing that I forgot about your feelings and that we are together. The way I was acting is how I would feel if we broke up," she admitted, sighing.
"I'm," I started, unable to figure out how to reply. "It's ok. I know that you did what you thought would help, and in a way I think it did. But I'm just worried that he'll think a girl in all of the boys is a bad idea and remove you," I stated, looking to the shiny, tiled floors of the hallway.
"We'll talk about this tomorrow," she sighed. "But today, it's my birthday, and we are going to act like those people from before the dark days, before Panem."
"Ok," I responded, still keeping my distance.
<><><><>
Sitting in class waiting for dismissal sucked. We didn't have training today, unless if you hadn't had a session with Snow yet, so I was walking straight home with Clove, well, maybe we would wander a little. But I couldn't think about that until I was done with my test, which seemed to be never ending. I couldn't remember half the stuff on the test, which was really freaking me out.
I managed to finish the test right before the bell went off. Sighing, I stood up and grabbed my coat off the back of my chair. I walked out of the classroom alone, since Clove finished the test early, she was aloud to leave early, so we would meet up at Clove's old house, since I wanted to give her my present for her birthday to her there.
Knowing I had a long walk ahead of me, I flipped up the hood on my jacket and started off. By the time I had managed to get to her old house I was thanking God that it was spring, or else I would have been dying of heat or cold.
"What took you so long?" Clove teased, smirking at me before walking over to me and hugging me. I knew it was hard for her to be here alone, but I was here for her now.
"Oh, you know, just that stupid test, and then the walk wasn't exactly a Sunday stroll," I sighed, still tired from the walk.
"Hey, how about you go sit down on that rock?"
"Only if you come with me," I smirked, pulling her along with me. Once I had gotten comfortable on the rock with Clove, I reached for the little box that held the locket inside of my backpack.
"What are you doing Cato?" She groaned, obviously mad that I was moving.
"Just close your eyes," I responded, finally finding the box. Pulling it out I opened it, smiling before placing it in her hand. "You can open them now."
"Cato, what is this?" She asked, looking at the box.
"It's your birthday present, just open it," I insisted, hoping that when she opened it she liked it as much as I liked mine.
Hesitantly she flipped open the box, pulling out the necklace before opening the locket, as soon as she saw the picture she jumped onto me, wrapping me in a hug.
"How did you get this picture?" She asked, still smiling.
"Well, Brutus took it one day when we were walking out here, well running, and then he gave it to me," I told her, smiling, and remembering that day. It was only a few weeks ago, at the beginning of spring.
"Hey Clove," I greeted once I had walked through the door. Brutus looked at me and smiled, he had appreciated the fact that I came by since she was upset during school.
"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" She begged, obviously wanting to escape the watchful eyes of the camera's.
Nodding, I pulled her up. "You were slacking at training, let's go for a run," I suggested, smirking at her.
"I'm going to beat you," she smirked, pushing me backwards and sprinting off.
Running to catch up to her, I yelled, "You don't even know where we're going!"
"Well, I'm the one who wants to go somewhere different so I chose!" She yelled back, still running.
By the time we had stopped we were both out of breath, unable to run past her old house. Slowly, she walked over to the front door and opened it, walking in. She pulled a cover off a chair and flopped down in it.
"Sit down, no use wasting energy standing when you could be sitting down, relaxing," Clove sighed.
I walked over to her and pulled her out of the chair, sitting down, then pulling her back down into my lap. "Tell me what's wrong."
"I'm tired," she stated. "Tired of, training, missing my parents, hearing that we're going to end up just like our siblings, hearing that Brianne wasn't worthy of becoming a victor. I'm tired of it all," she finished, her voice wavering, then turning to crying.
"I wish that I could take all of this from you, make myself suffer for you. But all I can do is be here for you when you want to talk, need to talk," I replied, stroking her hair.
"Thank you Cato," she had whispered, crying herself to sleep in my arms for the first time.
"I love it Cato," she whispered once again hugging me. "I love you."
"I love you too Clove," I responded, taking the necklace from her, putting it on. From now forward, it would serve as a reminder that I would always be there for her.
___________________________
Hey. I feel like I say that all the time. How are y'all doing? How do y'all like this book so far? Please don't be a silent reader. I don't know if I mentioned, but I'm going to start adding songs to chapters, wether they match the events of the chapters, or just the characters in general. Or they might just be songs I'm obsessed with. By the way, anyone on Spotify who likes what I put on my chapters, go ahead and find me on Spotify @Swimdolphin11 if you want, and I can share other awesome songs with y'all. Anyways, enough, talking about me, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Have a lovely, whenever you read this. Until next time...