Before either Cato or Clove knew it, another day had gone by fleetingly. They were now just two days away from the games and tensions were growing increasingly high. Day three of training hadn't gone exactly to plan for two reasons in particular. That previous morning, before heading down to the training centre, Cato and Clove had pre-established their three objectives for the day; Discover Katniss Everdeen's skill or talent, recruit the District 11 boy into the careers and the most important objective of them all; Remain united. Out of the three, only one had been achieved; Despite their frustrations on that day, Cato and Clove successfully managed to remain a team, throughout it all. "That bastard." Cato spat, Clove watched as Cato continued to pace up and down his bedroom, something he'd been doing for almost half an hour. "Where the fuck does he get off telling me no?"
"It's his loss, Cato." Said Clove, with a sigh of defeat. "It'll be him wishing he'd have said yes when the opportunity presented itself."
"You're right." He sighed, abruptly pausing his movements. "And besides, I was thinking;" He continued, "When we get into the arena, we pick off all the difficult ones first. That way by the time the competition comes to an end, it'll be pretty straightforward going forward."
"That is a good idea." Clove said with a nod, eyes following Cato, as he continued to trail up and down the room.
"Don't even get me started on that bitch from 12." He began again, very clearly riled up, "I don't know why she decided to make her special talent so dam hard to figure out?" He spat. "You know, I'd almost be impressed, If i didn't hate her so much." He said with another head shake. "But I'm getting sidetracked," he mumbled with an affirmative nod, "we should be more focused on the assessments." He continued.
Clove sighed deeply to herself at the mention of the individual assessments, "Actually, I appreciated the distraction." She said with a seemingly anxious laugh.
It was the afternoon of the individual assessments and Clove found herself admittedly nervous. Not only was she nervous about her own performance, she found herself feeling nervous and slightly threatened by District 12. 12 had managed to best herself and Cato a number of times up until that point and Clove knew that there was absolutely nothing stopping them that time too. Although whether they knew it or not, Cato and Clove had an advantage, and that was that they were from District 2. Talented or not, Career tributes historically outscored the outlier Districts, putting them at a further advantage. Another advantage the two had over everybody else, was the fact that they were incredibly well-versed at their chosen talents and didn't simply claim to be unlike others they knew.
"Why are you nervous?" He said, almost instantly stopping in his tracks.
"No." Clove snipped.
"Bullshit." He retorted with a teasing smirk, striding over to the bed, where she sat. "You're nervous."
He continued, jabbing her in the side playfully as he sat beside her. Clove could feel his eyes lingering on her, it was painfully obvious that he was staring intensely and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her not to cave in and make eye contact with him.
"Fuck off," She said, using her hand to swat his shoulder lightly. "I am not." She lied, blatantly. Cato wasn't stupid and Clove knew it, he simply looked at Clove with a straight face and an unconvincing smile, a look that confirmed that he knew she was lying.
"You forget how well I know you." He said after a while, a short but effective sentence.
Clove knew a lost cause when she saw one, and soon admitted in a sight of defeat, "Maybe a little." Clove received a condescending smirk in response, from Cato, something which angered her slightly. "Oh, go fuck yourself Cato." She sighed, quickly rising onto her feet. Cato watched as Clove hastily made her way out of the room and towards the living room. Both Cato and Clove had been due to meet Brutus and Enobaria for one final rundown before their individual assessments, almost five minutes prior, but were late as a result of procrastination.
