To Be A Career (A Very Clove Story)

Chapter 16- To Be Pissed off

I think this might be the best, worst, and most confusing thing to ever happen to me. I swore to myself the day my mother died that the only person I needed and loved would be my sister Karma. But here I am, falling in love with someone in the Games. I know, I'm just wonderful, aren't I? I'm breaking promises into pieces. Very small, very tiny pieces.

"Why did I drink that latte so fast?" I ask Cato.

"I don't know," he laughs.

"You sure are helpful, Cato," I say to him.

"Yeah, I know."

We make it back to camp, still in good spirits. Sometimes the silences with Cato are awkward, sometimes they're as natural as breathing. You can never know. It's unpredictable.

"What happened out there? We heard a cannon. I was hoping it was Clove," Adrian says.

"She killed District Ten. And if you want to stay here, you shouldn't say, or even think, about wanting Clove to be dead. Got it?" Cato says.

"Got it," he nods, going back to the pathetic wimp that he is.

Marvel comes out of the tent, still the reigning Mr. Depressing.

"Who died?" he asks in a flat tone.

"District Ten. It was fun. Shame you missed it," I say to him. Cato gives me the "Leave him alone" expression that I decide to ignore for right now. The only reason he isn't bugging Marvel too is because they're going through the same thing, I guess.

"I would rather not watch you cut someone to pieces," Marvel says.

"Okay," I say. I don't care.

"You do have to hand it to her, it takes effort to kill someone as well as she did," Cato says to Marvel.

"I guess so..." he sighs, trailing off.

"You were right. Again," Cato whispers to me.

"I know. It's one of those times where I wish I wasn't," I whisper back to him.

"Yeah," he agrees.

We go about our normal day. Everything is fine and normal. Cato gets up randomly.

"Okay, I just can't sit around and wait here. We're going to hunt her down," he says.

"Those are the words I've been waiting to hear," I smile, getting up. That was a lie. The words I'm waiting to hear are "I love you." But that's pretty good too.

"Okay, let's go!" Cato says.

"Come on, Marvel," I say.

"She's going to die, right?" he asks.

"Of course. Why else would we hunt her down?" I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"I don't know!"

"Okay, why are we still sitting here?" I ask.

"Adrian, come on!" Cato says.

"No. He has to guard the food. Someone has to, and it sure as hell isn't going to be me," I protest.

"We need him in the woods. Besides, no one can touch those supplies," he says. He picks up a spear, and thrusts it into Adrian's hands.

We go, getting ready to hunt her down. We leave, and she's going to die.

Hunting her down is hard. Until I see something familiar. Smoke.

"Cato," I say, nudging him.

"What?" he snaps at me.

I point to the sky.

"Oh," he realizes. We head towards the smoke, but it's far away.

We arrive, and no one's there. There are some leaves around it, but I don't see any people.

I put out my knife, and say, "If someone's here, they better get out, or I'm coming to find you!" I growl. No one moves, nothing happens.

"Well, that didn't work," Cato states.

"Thank you for that wonderful observation, Kitty Cat. Now let's find this person," I say.

We walk around aimlessly, with no leads. Adrian says something at random times, but when he does, Cato and I glare at him. He shuts up.

"Smoke!" I hear Adrian exclaim.

"Let's go then. But something isn't right. I don't know what," I say. Something seems wrong, but we go towards the fire anyway.

No one's there. Of course not.

"I told you so," I say to no one in particular.

"You were right again," Cato laughs.

"I know," I say, a happy smile on my face. I don't know why I'm so cheerful. Maybe it's realization, maybe it's Cato. I don't know.

I hear a boom behind us, probably at camp. I know what it is. The mines. Cato and I are off before Adrian and Marvel realize what's happening. It's lucky Cato knows his way through these woods, because I have no clue what I'm doing. We get back to camp, and it's all ashes. I walk up to it, my knees giving out on me. The ashes are everywhere. I want to go in there, and find some stuff. But I no longer know if the mines are activated.

"Test it, Adrian," I say hollowly. Cato is freaking out.

He throws in some stones, and nothing happens.

"They've all been activated," he sighs. I go pocking around in the mess, trying to see what I can salvage. Cato is kicking what he can find. He is pissed off. Adrian has done his job too well.

This must occur to Cato He turns towards Adrian. He starts to yell, but I tune him out. Adrian starts to run, but not fast enough. Cato catches him in a headlock from behind. I watch the muscles in Cato's arms ripple as he jerks Adrian's head to the side. Adrian falls over, dead.

I see the rage in his eyes, and I throw caution to the wind. It just might be suicide, but it's what I have to do.

I walk over to him. "Cato, calm down. We'll find the bomber, and we'll kill them. And one of us will be closer to home," I say, grabbing his hand, which makes him look at me. Oh yeah, I'm an idiot sometimes.

"Let's go find them, then!"

I sigh. "Cato, you can't hunt down a tribute when you're so mad you can hardly pay attention to me. You'll get careless, and you'll get killed," I say to him.

"They're probably dead anyways," Marvel says.

"There would have been a cannon," I remind him.

"It could have gotten lost in the explosions," Marvel says.

"Good point. We'll know for sure at the endo of the day," I say.

"Let's go, so they can pick up the body," Cato says. We nod, and move to the far end of the lake.

I put my feet in the water, and close my eyes for a bit. The afternoon sun relaxes me. I can tell Cato is more relaxed. He isn't pacing, but he isn't standing still. I can hear him fidgeting from over here.

The sun goes down, and the moon rises. I open my eyes, and I watch the sky for the anthem. The familiar song rings in my ears, as I watch the sky. They show Adrian and the boy from District Ten. Then it's over. The bomber lives. I close my eyes, using all of my strength not to scream. Cato comes over next to me, and nudges me. I open my eyes and glare at him.

"Hmm?" I say, opening my eyes. He hands me the night vision glasses. I put them on. Cato puts on his, and Marvel lights a tree branch.

"We're going hunting," Cato grumbles as we walk into the woods. I nod, and we go.