Clove's POV:
I woke feeling something warm shining on my head. I opened my eyes and looked at the grassy surroundings. I soon remembered that I was still in the arena. I looked around and saw a sleeping Cato laying next to me, fast asleep.
I looked away quickly, making sure that no one caught me staring, and walked towards the others. I sat down and grabbed an apple. I sat next to Lover boy and started eating. "Did you have a good sleep?" He asked me out of the blue.
"It was okay." I replied blandly. He smiled at me when I glanced over at him. "You're awfully friendly." I stated.
"Well, I think that everyone should get a chance. Even if they are a career." He said while continuing to smile at me. In all honesty, I found it kind of strange that he was so friendly, but I didn't say anything. "You don't talk much do you?" He asked.
"I guess not." I shrugged. In the corner of my eye, I saw a small boy staring at us as I ate my apple.
I carefully planned my attack and reached for my knife as stealthily as possible. Before anyone knew what was happening, I was on my feet and bolting towards the boy. He stood, petrified, in the middle of the trees and I backed him into a tree while I held the knife to his throat. I didn't bother looking back, but I could hear heavy footsteps behind me.
"What's going on, Clover?" Cato said, but I quickly shot him a look when he used my nickname. "Clove."
"This one was caught lurking." I sneered as I pressed the knife towards the boy's pale neck. "Any last words?"
"I can help. I can build a trap, so that no one steals your supplies." He offered quickly. I rose an eyebrow, but I didn't loose my grip.
"That's an interesting offer." I said with a smirk. I could see the fear on his face, as if he thought that I would kill him anyways. "If you try anything I will kill you." I whispered before letting go.
He gasped as Cato glared at him. Cato grabbed my forearm as I passed him and he whispered, "Why'd you do that?"
"He's going to protect our supplies and he's from three which means that he's good with tech." I explained quietly before ripping my arm out of his grip and walking back to the others.
"Three! Hurry up!" I yelled as I turned around. He jogged towards me and let me just say, he wasn't the fastest runner. "Guys this is Three and he's building a trap to protect our supplies while we can't protect it." I explained boredly before taking a seat next to Marvel and Anastasia.
He stood around, looking confused. "What do you want me to do first?" He asked shyly.
"Plan." Cato said as he purposely knocked his shoulder while walking past. Three was knocked quite a bit due to Cato's push, but quickly regained his balance and started walking towards the supplies. He looked at the pile and almost immediately came back to us.
"The supplies need to be stacked in a large pyramid, this is too spread out." He explained cautiously.
"What are you planning?" I asked while eyeing him suspiciously.
"I'm going to reactivate the bombs from the cornucopia and put them around the supplies." He said in the same quiet voice.
"We're hunting today." Cato announced. "Three, you won't be much help, so you're staying behind and protecting the supplies."
Three gave a small nod before Cato walked over to him and whispered something that I couldn't hear. "Let's go." He said while taking the sword it of the sheath and walking towards the forest. We all followed and I shot one last warning look at Three.
Cato walked in front, obviously in a bad mood, and the rest of us followed closely behind. Glimmer and Anastasia talked while I walked in silence with Marvel.
"Got many kills yet?" He asked.
"Three so far." I explained.
"Nice, I only got two." I smirked at this. "Don't get cocky, I'm just as good as you." He said, puffing hie chest out.
"Your training score says differently." I said in a singsong voice.
"Shut up." He said jokingly as he pushed me. We laughed slightly, but stopped when Cato shot us a dirty look. He looked as if he was going to scold us like children. This thought made me chuckle slightly which made Marvel look at me.
"How'd you spot Three this morning? I don't think anyone else saw that shrimp."
"Well, I do have amazing vision." I said jokingly.
"Oh, of course." He smiled as he said this.
Throughout the day, we hadn't found any tributes and we were all getting rather restless. We spotted a few tracks, but they were too old. Whoever made them could be anywhere by now. I had told Cato that I would track, since I'm better than him, but he just pushed me away and told me to go to hell.
I'm pretty sure that he's on his man period or something. We had walked for endless hours and everyone seemed pretty tired. Lover boy's footsteps had gotten louder than when we started and I'm pretty sure that Cato was about to crack.
The sent of smoke suddenly filled my nose. I looked around and saw a large fireball coming straight for us. "Duck!" I yelled as I dropped to the floor. Everyone dropped the the floor and the fireball narrowly missed Cato's hair.
As soon as it passed, we got up and bolted away. Fire flamed up in front of us and smoke filled our lungs. We coughed as we ran through the forest and away from the fires. I heard a short scream before turning around.
Glimmer was laying on the floor as if she had tripped. I ran over to her and pulled her up and forward, so that she didn't get burned. I felt a searing pain on my calf as I skidded away from the blaring flames. Glimmer seemed like she was choking on the smoke as we ran through the forest.
When we exited through the clearing, we saw Cato, Marvel, Anastasia and Lover boy trying to catch their breath. "What took you guys so long?" Cato asked, clearly worried.
"Glimmer fell." I said with a cough.
"Thanks for helping me." Glimmer said as she smiled at me.
"No problem." I said while walking towards Cato.
"You okay?" He whispered, careful for the others not to hear.
"I'm fine." I said before looking around. I thought that I'd seen a brown braid through the branches of the trees, so I started running. The others followed in suit and it seemed as if Cato has seen her too. We looked around and saw Fire girl sitting in a small pond.
She turned around and spotted us before getting up and running. We cheered as we followed her through the trees. As we followed her, she started climbing up one of the larger trees.
We continued cheering as we reached the base of the tree. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lover boy standing a few metres away, looking sad. I continued to cheer, so that I didn't seem strange.
"It's not going to help you up there." Glimmer commented.
"How's things with you?" She asks, we all look at each other, confused.
"Well enough." Cato replies as he smirks up at her.
"You?"
"It's been a little warm for my taste, but the air's much better up here. Why don't you come join me?" She replied, clearly not worried.
"I think I will." He said as he grabbed his sword.
"Kill her Cato!" I yelled.
"I'm coming for you." He said as he started climbing. I could tell that he probably wouldn't make it to her because of his weight, but I still cheered him on.
"Get her!" We all yelled. I suddenly heard a loud snap and Cato came tumbling down. He hit the floor with a loud thud and we all groaned. Fire girl started climbing higher and higher up the tree.
"I'll do it myself." Glimmer said as she loaded her bow. She aimed at Fire girl and I swear I could hear Lover boy gasp. I looked back at him and saw the worried expression on his face.
Cato stood next to me and I noticed that the arrow had missed Fire girl's head by a few metres. Cato snatched the bow from her hands and also tried to shoot her. Cato's arrow was even further than Glimmer's.
"Why don't you throw the sword?" She suggest. We all scowl at her.
"Why don't we just leave her up there? She'll need to come down eventually." Lover boy said making all of our head turn.
"Someone make a fire." Cato commanded.
"Lover boy." I nodded towards the forest to signify that the two of us were going to get wood. He followed me with one last look at Fire girl.
"You can call me Peeta if you want." He said once we were it of view from the others. I shot him a look as if to say "seriously?".
I looked around and picked up a few sticks before thinking about speaking. I thought about asking him something, but decided that it could wait.
"Come on." I said when we had a sufficient amount of wood. We walked back to camp and saw the others sitting around waiting.
"It's about time." Cato said frustratedly. He walked towards the two of us and tried to grab the wood, but I took the wood first and started building the fire.
It was starting to get dark, so I lit the fire and sat down next to Marvel. Remembering the burn on my calf, I turned my leg slightly to see if it was bad. Luckily, it didn't seem too bad, so I decided to leave it alone. While the others talked about who knows what, I stared at the fire and threw knives at some lizards. I soon reached into my bag which was stocked with food, water and some weird night vision goggles.
I grabbed a pack of dried fruit and started eating and the others did the same. As it got later, the others went to sleep and Lover boy and I took the first shift. As the others slept, I looked at all of their unsuspecting faces. I could easily slaughter all of them right now, but I won't. Not yet.
"So Lover boy, you love her or is it fake?" I asked as I remembered my question from before.
"What do you mean fake?"
"Don't act dumb with me. I used to think that your 'love' was insincere, but now I'm not so sure. I saw the way you were looking at her." I said to him. He seemed surprised by this.
"The truth is that I'm not sure anymore." He said so quietly that even the camera's wouldn't pick it up. "I actually did like her in District 12 and this was just an excuse for liking her. That's why we did this whole romance thing."
"So you do love her?" I asked in a hushed tone.
"I guess in a way I do, but I wouldn't expect you to understand." He said while looking down.
"Well, I do understand." I said while looking at Cato's sleeping figure.
"You love Cato?" He asked, shock clear on his face.
"Yeah, I guess I do." I said with a small smile.
"How could someone like you love a monster like him? He's so rude to you and so demanding."
"He wasn't always like this. This him isn't who I'm in love with. I'm in love with the old him. The one from District 2." I said, my eyes never leaving the floor.
"He was different? I can't imagine him being anything but rude and cocky."
"He was always cocky, but he was sweet and caring. He doesn't like other people to know, but he does have a soft side when dealing with me or his mum and sister."
"You think he's going to win?" My head snapped up and I looked at Lover boy.
"I don't know. As much as I want him to win, I want to win. I don't want to die yet. I still want to go home to my family, but if I do die, I want him to go home. At least one of us will be happy." I said, sadness taking over my body.
I could see Lover boy contemplating whether to hug me or not, but he seemed to decide against it because of where we are. I looked up and saw that it was time to wake up Glimmer and Anastasia.
"Come on, you wake Anastasia and I'll wake Glimmer."
"Okay." Lover boy said quietly before getting up. I walked over to Glimmer just as I did yesterday and shook her softly. She groaned slightly and opened her eyes.
"Is it my turn already?" She asked. I nodded slightly
as she got up. She sat by a tree while I took my jacket off. After taking my favourite knife out, I laid my head down on my jacket and placed the hand with the knife near my stomach before falling asleep.
A/N Hey everyone, I've gone back to my regular updating schedule now. Please comment and vote. Thank you all for reading my book.