Imagine if...?

Chapter 9: Living a Lie

Clove's POV

As we drive off, I can't help but think what life is gonna be like from now on. I'm gonna have to basically be a bitch for the the rest of my life. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by the bright lights of the victors village gates, I'm home. I'm gonna move into my house another day cause I honestly just wanna go to my bedroom and lay down. The car stops in front of our house and people open the doors for us, we all step out and walk into the house everyone happy to finally be home. I hold Adri close to me and run upstairs to my bedroom. I open the door and plop down my bed, as I'm laying down, I realize I still have the bracelet on so I quickly take it off. I set Adri down on the bed, and get up to place the bracelet on my nightstand. As I'm going back I hear rustling in my closet, I walk towards the closet cautiously and as soon as I'm within a centimeter of the doors a girl jumps out and hugs me.
"SURPRISE!", she screams. I get out of her hug and see her face, it's Abbey.
"Abbey!", I say as I hug her back.
"The one and only", she says while laughing.
"How have you been?", I ask motioning her to sit on one of the chairs in my bedroom.
"Well, first me and Chris got together...", she says when I interrupt her.
"Ha I knew it", I yell.
"Second, you remember my cousin Delphine, you know the one that used to visit she was around our age, really curly brown hair?", she asks.
"Yeah, the one you didn't like much", I say.
"Yeah that one, well she did something and is now an avox and she had a daughter and she asked me to care for her", she says.
"Well, are you going to?", I ask as I make my way to my daughter who Abbey hasn't noticed yet.
"Obviously, I'm not gonna turn down a baby, she's actually really cute, her names Océane", Abbey says as I being Adri into her view.
"Who is this?", she says rushing over to me.
"Well this is my daughter", I say looking down at her.
"Your what? You were pregnant? Who's the father? Is it Cato?", she starts gasping.
"Whoa slow down Abbey, and no I wasn't pregnant and am not planning to be anytime soon, this is my friend Bianka's daughter, she was the District 4 female, we became friends and there was an accident, she didn't make it, and her dying wish was for me to take her daughter and raise her", I say.
"Oh well I'm sorry for your friend", she says hugging me.
"What's her name?", she asks.
"Adrianna, or just Adri for short", I say.
"Oh that's beautiful, just like her, how old is she?", she asks.
"About 9 months", I say.
"Oh so is Océane!", she says.
"Really? We need to get them together!", I say.
"Yes, but first we need to talk about you and Cato", she says with a smirk, oh I knew she would bring this up.
"What is there to talk about?", I say acting like I don't know what happens when I "died".
"Oh come one, I know you know", she says nudging my shoulder.
"What do I know?", I ask. She just chucks a pillow at me.
"I've known you for like 7 years, I know when your lying!", she says.
"Fine! I do know what happened in the arena but it doesn't matter now..", I say my voice trailing off at the end.
"What do you mean?", she asked.
"Cato had amnesia, he doesn't remember anything, he didn't even know his own name", I say with a sullen look.
"What? Is this some kind of joke?", she asks disbelievingly.
"No, I swear, it's real", I say.
"Wow", she says shocked.
"I know, that's why we came home, to see if maybe it helped his memory come back", I say.
"Oh well I pray to God that it does", she says. I don't want to talk about him anymore, it just kills me to even think about him.
"So I threw a knife at President Snow", I say matter of factly.
"You what? Girl you crazy!", she says while laughing.
"I threw a knife and it hit like 2 centimeters from his face", I say with a grin.
"And may I ask why?", she says still laughing.
"That", I say pointing to the bracelet.
"This?", she says skeptically picking up the bracelet.
"Yes", I say.
"Why?", she says sitting back down with it in her hand.
"Ok, so you know how I "died" in the games, well apparently the capitol and everyone in the district except my family, Cato's family, and you and Chris think I'm actually dead so the Capitol designed these things for all the tributes of the 74th games, when you put it in it makes you look like a different person with a hologram type thing and he told us that we had to come up with new names and personalities and that really pissed me off so I threw a knife at him.", I rush out all in one breath.
"That's insane", she says shocked.
"Yeah, no shit", I say rudely.
"Jeez, you don't gotta be mean about it", she says hurt.
"I'm sorry, its just that ok really pissed off about this whole situation.", I say not ready to tell her that I'm bipolar yet.
"Well I'm probably going to need to go soon so can you please put on your bracelet and tell me your fake name and personality", she says interested while holding the bracelet out to me.
"Fine", I say grabbing the it. I slip it on and go look in the mirror, I see the a beautiful reflection but the sad part is it's not mine.
"Wow", is all she says.
"Yeah, my fake name is Elara Nova Kentwell, and apparently after my death my parents wanted to fill the void and adopted another girl my age, and my personality is like bubbly, flirty, and dumb so that's gonna so fun", I say already dreading it.
"Yeah good luck with that", she says getting up to leave.
"Thanks, bye!", I say getting up and hugging her.
As she's walking out and she turns and says
"Hey, you coming to school and training tomorrow?"
"No", I answer I don't really what too.
"Yes you are pick you up in the morning!", she says with a smirk as she walks out. After she leaves I turn back too Adri and play with her for a couple minutes, I decide to ask my mom if I could go shopping for some clothes and stuff for her. I rest her on my waist as I walk downstairs, I find her and tell her I'm where I'm going. She just nods and continues what she's doing, I put on my coat as it's chilly and slip out the door. Before I'm out of the victors village I realize that I left my bracelet, shoot. I turn back and quickly go and get it and then continue my walk to the square. I get odd looks everywhere I go, it's really annoying but I can't do anything. I look around for a baby clothes shop and finally find it, I walk in and begin looking around. Adri doesn't seem to like it here she just keeps fussing and thrashing around. I try to calm her but it isn't working, the shop owner suddenly comes up.
"Here give her to me", the owner says sweetly. I hand her to the woman and stare skeptically. She walks over to the counter and pulls out what looks like a little blue jay. The lady hands it to her and I see it's fake. She stops fussing and just admirers the little toy, I'm in awe she loves it.
"What is it!", I ask still confused as to exactly what it was.
"Oh well before the dark days, years ago children had these, I believe they were called stuffed animals, I saw it in a book and tried to replicate it", she says.
"You did a beautiful job", I say taking bag Adri.
"Thank you, your little one seems to love it much more than I do, she can keep it", the woman says with a smile.
"No, are you sure?", I ask.
"I insist, she can love it much better than me", the lady says.
"Thank you", I say with a smile. I then resume walking around, I finally find some clothes I like, they are all little doll dresses. I walk over to the counter pay for the clothing, thank the lady again for the blue jay and continue around the square. Before I head home I decide to stop at the cafe and grab a hot chocolate. I walk in and find an empty table, I bounce Adri on me knee, and she starts giggling. All of a sudden I see Lisette and her group walk in, and I immediately regret coming in here in the first place. She catches my eye and walks over her entourage behind her.
"Hi! You must be the new Kentwell! I'm Lisette Paige Bellona!", she says in a fake sweet voice.
"I'm Elara Nova", I say.
"Pretty! Who's this? Another one of their children, jeez learn how to use protection", she says with a smirk.
"Excuse me, this is my daughter and don't you dare speak about my parents that way", I say with a scowl.
"Wow, someone's feisty, reminds me of little Clover, a shame she died, but let's be honest it's not like we expected more of her I mean she was the size of a 10 year old and had the strength of one too", she says in a typically bitch tone. I get up move past her and walk out knowing that if I stay one minute longer I might kill her.  Oh how I'm dreading school and training tomorrow.