JULY 4TH: REAPING DAY
In what essentially felt like a blink of an eye, the day had finally arrived. If anyone had asked Clove a year ago how she felt about being chosen to participate in she likely would've expressed her undying excitement. She would've gone on and on, about how it was an honour to have been given the chance to represent her District. Even if it meant she lost her life during process of brining pride to 2. However, if she was to be asked now, her answer would differ drastically. All she felt was overwhelming uncertainty. Clove's apprehension towards the games had been more or less inevitable. She'd felt it start almost a year prior, and now it had caught up with her completely. It didn't help that Cato now played a role in that uncertainty, up until the day she met him, Clove was almost positive that she'd be leaving the arena with the title of Victor. Now she wasn't positive about a thing. Sleep deprivation and uncertainty weren't at all a good mix. Clove had found herself particularly tired that morning which was generally an inconvenience considering, that morning was in fact, reaping morning. Forcing herself out of bed felt surreal, as did everything else she did from that moment, on. It all felt like a fever dream she was yet to awake from.
After a long shower, Clove trudged back into her bedroom and made a beeline towards her wardrobe. Clove knew exactly what she going to wear, the same simple pale blue dress she had worn for the last four years or so. It was nothing special, but it did the job, even still it was more of a miracle that the dress still fit. Clove never wore her hair out, it was long and often untameable, so to make life easier for herself she almost always wore it in a bun or a high pony tail. However, reaping day was special, she knew she had to look somewhat presentable as her face would be broadcasted to the entire country. As a result, Clove settled on wearing her out and down, using one of her mother's old hairbrushes to neaten her already pin-straight hair.
Irate was the word Clove would use to best describe what she felt, as she'd descended the stairs of her home, to find Orion's sprawled out and immobile body lying at the bottom of them. She knew something had gone terribly wrong, when the very pungent smell of vomit, hit her nostrils instantly causing her grimace. She felt repulsed, so much so she had to change the rate of her own breathing, to keep herself from vomiting. That's when Clove noticed the puddle of vomit, Orion was passed out in. Clove quickly established that she didn't have time to deal with him, she had more important things to think about and decided that leaving the house without receiving any form of confrontation was her goal.
Unfortunately for Clove, before she could make it out of the front door, a string of slurred profanities alerted her to the fact that Orion had woken up and wasn't at all pleased. "What—" He mumbled to himself, as he severely struggled to lift himself up. Clove watched in shame as Orion had finally managed to pick himself up onto his feet, and wondered just how long it would take him for him to finally notice her presence. That's when his lifeless, green eyes, snapped up to meet hers. "And just where the hell do you think you're going?" He slurred.
"To the reaping." She said simply. "And I won't be back." She added, for further clarification.
"And why the hell not?" He asked, raising his voice slightly.
"I turned eighteen in September." She replied, grimacing at the lingering smell in the air. "It's my turn to volunteer.
Part of Clove knew that saying goodbye to Orion was practically pointless, he hadn't expressed any interest in her wellbeing in three years, and he'd proved multiple times that he wasn't going to start either. He simply looked at her in her eyes, and said nothing. Whether or not it was due to his prominent eye bags, Clove didn't know, all she knew was that she found it impossible to trace even a semblance of emotion in his eyes. This was made her decided to continue her journey out of her house. Before she could leave, however, Clove heard him speak up once again. "You'll die." He said with a pause.
