Victory - Cato Hadley

chapter nine

I walk down the halls of our school with the biggest smile on my face.
"What are you smiling about?" Dolion asks me.
"Nothing" I say.
"Come on. I know you. Did your date with Cato finally happen?" he asks, and I nod.
"And what did you do?"
"Well, we had a picknick together. We ate sandwiches and strawberries with chocolate"
"And that's everything?" he asks. I'm not sure if I should tell him the truth. He doesn't like Cato very much. They don't hate eachother or anything like that, they just never liked eachother really. I don't even know why.
"Yup, that's all" I say, looking forward again.
I say goodbye to Dolion and start walking to my locker.

I see Cato standing there with his friends. Lavender is there too. Where else. I decide to watch them from a little further away. Lavender laughs at something Cato said again histerically. I hate that laugh. She goes to clinge onto his arm but he gently makes a step to the side, causing her to almost fall. A small laugh escapes my lips.

He looks over at her annoyed and catches my eyes. At first, he looks like he's panicking but that all stops as he sees me smiling at him. I guess, he thought that I'm mad at him because of Lavender. He tells them something before jogging over to me. A wide smile is plastered on his face.
"Good morning" he says, and pulls me in for a hug. I can see the jealous look Lavender has on her face. His friends look rather prouldy.
"Good morning Cato"
"So, am I allowed to kiss you or not?" he asks, a wide smirk on his face. 
"Do you want to?" I ask teasingly.
"Of course I do. I just want to know if you're okay with that" 
"I'm okay with that" I say, and giggle as he pulls me in for a kiss. Our eyes stay on eachothers for a bit until I look around. There are a lot of other eyes on us. 
"So, are we official yet?" he asks.
"Like, boyfriend and girlfriend?" I ask, and he nods. "Yeah" I say and kiss him again.
"I'll see you later then" he says as the bell rings.
"See you" I say and hug him again. I wish I could stay like this forever but unfortunately not. I readjust my bag and walk into the other direction. I look over at Cato once again. He's walking over to his friends. They're meeting him halfway and proudly pat him on his back. He has an uncomfortable look on his face, that causes me to laugh a little. 
I decide to might attend a few of my classes today.

...

I enter the training centre a little late. I got hold up with a teacher. She told me that I'm missing out on a lot of classes and if I keep on doing so, they'll have to talk to my mother. I told her that I won't be missing too much in the future and attend my classes. She looked like she believed me, that's great. I walk straight to the wardrobe and change my clothes. I walk outside into the hall and see all of them standing in a circle already. All of their eyes look towards me.
"Great. Lets start. I want you to do a bit of stretching first and then we will do like half an hour strength. After that, you'll be free to train whatever you want to. Only one condition, I want you to learn something you're not very good at. For example Clove here," I say and look over at her. She looks at me with a surprised look. "Clove is the best here, with the knives. Why not train something different today? Another skill won't be too bad for her. I want you to do that for the rest of the week. Learn a few new things and new skills. Now lets start stretching" I say. We all start stretching. I look over at Clove and shoot her a little wink. She looks at me with a smile. She's a bit of a loner. She has a few friends here but not a lot. Most of them are quiet scared of her. Even the eighteen-year olds. 

I drill them a little while doing the strength part and then send them off to different stations. It looks hillarious. The one with the knives have no clue how to do so. They're missing the targets by a lot of inches. 
I stand next to them and help them a little with the knife throwing. They're not doing too bad. 
After a bit, I walk over to the bow station. Cato's there too. I look at him trying to shoot the aim but he misses by a few inches.
"You have to breathe and stand steady" I say laughing.
"Oh, show me then if you're so much better than me" he says clearly annoyed. 
I take the bow from him and put an arrow in. I look him deeply into the eyes and shoot at the aim. Him and the other kids there look at me surprised. 
"It's all a mind game. You tell yourself you can do that and you can. Simple as that. Now, stand steady and breathe. Take your time to shoot" I say, and hand him the bow back. He does as I say and starts shooting again. He misses a few times but the fourth one hits the target straight into the middle. 
"Great, keep going" I say mockingly and pat his shoulder. He laughs annoyed and gives the bow to another kid behind him.