Clato: The forgotten love.

Chapter 7

A/N This chapter was super fun to write hope you like it (:

Cato's POV:

I've been trying to avoid Ian ever since that day in the locker room. Of course that got much harder when Mrs. Lopez , my language arts teacher, sat us right next to each other.

"Cato," Ian says as he walks in the door and sits down next to me. I try to ignore him. "Cato," He repeats. "I'm sorry, I was being rude, I shouldn't have said what I said."

"Thanks," I reply, "I'm sorry too I shouldn't have yelled back at you, I was just having a bad day." Ian has this weird look on his face, like he's hiding something. "What?" I ask him.

"I went to your house and...," He starts

"You went to my house!?" I ask raising my voice slightly.

"I'm sorry, it's just I felt bad and I wanted to talk to you after you left and... when I opened the door a little blonde girl opened it, she asked who I was, I told her I was your friend and I wanted to talk to you. She said you were at your boring job and that you wouldn't want anyone coming into the house and I told her I would go and then I left," Ian says. I'm horrified, did he see my mom?

I look at him "How old was the girl?" I ask.

"She looked about 12," Ian responds as the teacher walks in the room. Emma. Why hadn't she told me?

"Also Cato, I saw your mom," My heart drops.

"What did you see?" I whisper.

"She was stumbling threw the house with a can of beer in her hand and-," He starts to say but gets cut off by Mrs. Lopez's booming voice.

"Boy's, I hope you two are talking about the assignment we have," She asks thretaningly.

"Yes ma'am," I say and Ian nods. We stay silent for a few minutes while Mrs. Lopez explains what we'll be doing.

"Ok class, you can work with a partner on this," I look at Ian. Usually I would choose to work with some of my closer friends but not today, today I needed to partnered with Ian.

"Partners?" Ian asks as if on cue.

"What else did you see my mom do?" I reply.

"When I closed the door...," Ian starts, but Mrs. Lopez comes by and handouts the work sheet.

"What?" I ask. "When you closed the door, what?

"When I closed the door... I heard your mom yell at your sister about talking to strangers and about having a bad training score or something." As soon as the words come out of his mouth I'm mad. I'm furious. Why the hell does my mom have to be such a jerk sometimes? My siblings and I have done nothing wrong, while she just sits there watching TV and wrecking her life while I have to do all the hard work and she takes it out on my 12 year old sister. Why the hell does she have to do this?

When I get home from work that night I know something is wrong. I hear yelling and things being smashed.

"Hey!" I yell throwing my bag on the floor. I find my mom in the other room yelling at Kirsten and Walker.

"Mom," I hear Emma's tiny voice say from the other side of the room, she tugs on my mom's shirt. "Mom," She says again.

"Mom," I hear myself say. My mom's head whips around staring at me.

"Oh Cato, nice of you to join us," My mom slurs in her drunken state. She stumbles over to me. "Where were you Cato? Out with your friends or was it your girlfriend? Why aren't you ever here Cato!?" She screeches, getting dangerously close to me.

"Mom," I say, trying to sound calm. "Mom, you're drunk. Give me that." I reach for the glass of mystery juice in her hand but she jerks her hand away fast splashing drink on the carpet and my sister's bed.

Kirsten's crying in the corner of the room, Walkers holding her tight to him. Emma on the other hand walks over to my mom. She grabs the cup out of my mom's hand and throws it in her face.

"Mom!" She screeches "Snap out of it. Kirsten and Walker did nothing, and neither did Cato. You're the one who's been gone, maybe not physically gone but you've sure as hell been mentally gone. You never cook or care for us anymore. Cato spends all his time training or working so we can have food to eat and a place to live, don't blame Cato for any of this. This is all you mom." I'd never loved Emma more than at this moment.

"How dare you talk to your mother like that!!" Mom yells, throwing herself onto the ground.

"Mom!" I yell "Get up! Get up!" Kirsten and Walker are both visibly sobbing. "Emma, Take your siblings out of this room. I need to talk to mom!" Emma obeys and takes them into the living room. "Mom! I've been caring for this family for the past year, you need to pull yourself together!" It's raining outside and I'm so very angry, I'm scared of what I might accidentally say.

"I am together!" My mom counters, stumbling onto her feet.

"Oh please, You're nowhere near together! You're always drunk or passed out at some bar!"

"I am not! I am April Hadley, the proud wife of Leo Hadley! Where is he anyway?"

"He's dead mom, Dad's dead! That's why your in this whole mess for god's sake!" Mom goes silent for a minute.

"That's no excuse to treat me this way!" and she slaps me across the face. I've had enough.

I storm into the other room look at my three younger siblings. "Pack. Pack your bags. Go now," I try not to yell at them but I want them to go fast. Emma and Walker jump off the couch and start to run to there rooms but Kirsten is confused.

"Where are we going?" Kirsten asks.

"Somewhere safe," I say, trying to sound reassuring.

"Cato, Where are we going?" Emma asks sternly.

I'm silent for a minute, I have no clue. "A friends house," I answer, not knowing which friend or even where some of my friends lived. Emma nods, satisfied with my answer. Walker and Emma run into their separate rooms to start packing. I help Kirsten.

We walk into the girls room and see mom on the ground. She doesn't notice us and I'm thankful that neither Emma nor Kirsten say anything as we throw clothes into bags. I run into my room and start on my own bag. 2 minutes later we're all packed up.

We're about to leave when mom comes stumbling into the room. "Where ya going in such a hurry?" Her words are slurring together as she stumbles into the kitchen and grabs another drink out of the fridge. I don't even try to stop her. I'm done trying to help her.

"Lets go," I say taking little Kirsten's hand and ushering them all out the door. Right before we leave I remember to grab my training bag and coat.

We wonder around the town for a while until we come to the richer part of town. Walker has been complaining about being cold for the past ten minutes and we're all tired. I see her house. I know It's her house just looking at it.

"Here's the house," I say to the three of them. We walk up the stairs and I knock twice. I don't know if anyone will answer but I really hope someone does.

The door creaks open. "Hello?" A women asks.

"Hi," I say.

"Who are you?" she asks.

"I'm a friend of Clove's," I say. "I really need her help."

A/N thanks for reading, please read the next chapter and maybe even vote. The charecters belong to Suzanne Collins.