Clove: Life behind Lies (Clato)

Chapter 2

All rights go to Susan Collins

As I walk into my house I see my brother in the kitchen. I smile and run over to hug him. As I embrace him I smile. Not a smile where I'm feeling cocky or my evil smile when I throw knives, but a real genuine smile that only comes out when I'm with my brother Griffin.

"Hey kiddo how have you been?" He asks

"You know, same old same old. Mom and Dad ignore me most of the time and I throw my knives and keep to myself. What are you even doing here?" I ask. 

He rarely ever comes around. When he turned 18 he moved out to go live on his own. Now he lives with his longtime girlfriend Charlotte who was his high school sweetheart. Charlotte lost her brother when he was in the games. Charlotte was always a very nice girl and we got along quite well.

"Well you're 15 and you will go into the games in 3 years. Mom and Dad thought it would be nice if you got trained from a Victor instead of a random trainer."

"Wait so you are saying Mom and Dad are going to be training me!?!" I stare at him with a horrified look on my face.

"No" He laughs at the look on my face. "They want me to train you. Plus they know that we will get along and that we will cooperate."

"This is amazing!" I shout. I hug him again smiling. I finally get to ditch my old trainer for my brother who will actually help me!

"Well I have to get going. I told Charlotte that I would be home in an hour. Love you sis and I'll see you at the academy after the reaping.

We hug again and as he walks down the driveway I go to find my parents. I find them in the living room watching the pre-game interview with the game maker Seneca Crane.

"Mom, Dad. I just want to say thank you for letting Griffin train me."

"Mhmm" my mom says, not really caring. Of course she wouldn't.

"You needed a new trainer anyway. Your old one was getting lazy. Be down here in 2 hours for dinner by the way"

I nod and head up to my room laying out my clothes for the reaping tomorrow. I chose a shiny emerald green dress that goes down to my knees and short black mini heeled boots.

I spend some time reading in my room. I always love reading because it lets me escape reality because my world sucks. It brings me to a happier place and I wish I could just be sucked in there instead.

Soon the 2 hours pass and it is time for dinner. I see that our cooks made Salmon with a brown sugar coating. This must have been hard to get with the problems in District 4 right now.

I take a seat and my parents who have already started eating look up at me.

"So Clove your time for the games is very soon. We would like to know if there is anyone to keep a lookout for or to fear." My dad says after finishing his bite of Salmon.

"Well there was this one boy named Cato Hadley. He is an arrogant jerk but he is really strong. He also is very flirtatious and is trying to make me fall for him. Though it's not like it's going to work."

I barely finish what I'm saying before my parents drop their silverware and start shouting at me.

"YOU ARE NOT TO TALK TO THAT BOY!!"

"HE IS A DISGRACE!! STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" And all of these other things

My god I didn't know this was such a big deal!!

"Will someone please tell me why he is so bad besides the fact that  he could throw me off my game for being a distraction or something???" I ask

My parents calm down as my dad says "His family are just very terrible people."

"This is a very touchy topic that we don't like to discuss very often so just listen to us and ignore him." My mom says

After that it goes back to a silent dinner. Eventually my parents leave the table and I'm the last one there. I put my plates in the sink and thank the cooks. I go outside for a walk and bump in to Cato.

Great. Just great.

"What's little Clover doing put here all alone in the dark?? Don't you need to run home before it's passed Clovers bed time?" He coos

"Shut up and leave me alone." I say and keep walking 

 Cato looks confused considering literally every girl just fawns over him. He catches up to me and puts his hand on my shoulder making me turn around

"Hey why so defensive?" He ask

"Look, my parents don't want me to hang out with you and I agree with them! You are just a distraction from my training."

"A distraction hey? He does his trademark grin and winks at me as I roll my eyes.

"Look just back off!" I say

"Wait! Why don't your parents want me to hang out with you?" He asks

"I don't know!?! Something about your family beings disgrace or something?"

Cato looks like he wants to punch someone or something

"How dare they say that to my family!! They can't be speaking like that!" He shouts

"My family can say whatever they want to say jerk!" I slap him across the face and run off back home furious. I take a shower and fall asleep thinking about what he said