To Be A Career (A Very Clove Story)

Chapter 25- To Be Home (Kind of)

This sucks. My mother is only feet away from me, yet unreachable. As with my father. I have to stop crying, but I can't stop the tears.

Yes, I miss my parents, I always have. But they're so close, yet they're unreachable. Like Cato. Thinking about Cato, who watched me die, and Glimmer, who's here right now makes me wonder what their relationship was like. Was it true love for them? Did I remind him of her? I can't think what ifs now. I have to collect myself.

I stop crying, and ask where the restroom is. Crying is embarrassing enough without it showing all over your face, I guess. I wash off my face, and look in the mirror. I don't look like I've been crying now. Good.

I walk out of the bathroom, looking at the floor. All of my focus is on getting back to the door, where Glimmer is waiting for me. I find my way back easily; the whole building is set in a square.

"Ready to move on?" she asks me.

"Yeah," I say softly.

"Okay!" she shouts, already back in annoyingly peppy mode. God, she needs to chill.

"Alright, you already saw the bedrooms, kitchen, TV room, the Training Center, and the main hallways. But I found something that isn't technically supposed to be here, but it's here anyways," she says. I nod as she drags me along through the hallway, right to a closet looking door.

"The whole place is set up a bit like a square. So I got wondering what's in the center. And here it is!" she exclaims, opening the door.

It's home. Really, it's District Two. There's the bookshop and the bakery. It smells like home, looks like home.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Glimmer says.

"It looks just like home," I say simply.

"This is how we know Cato's going to die," Glimmer tells me.

"How does District Two being here prove that Cato's not going to win?" I ask.

"Because, according to the words carved into that wall over there," she points to a wall, which has some words written on it, "it says that this whole city shows the home of the last person to die, nine times out of ten. So we don't know for sure, but we're pretty certain Cato's going to die," she explains.

"I know Cato. He won't die!" I insist. It's nine out of ten. Cato has a chance. A very small one, but it's still there.

"Okay," Glimmer says, giving up on it. Or maybe she's seen sense. Cato's more talented than Thresh, the ginger, Katniss, and Lover Boy. What's going to happen is that Lover Boy's going to die of the cut Cato gave him, Katniss is going to go psycho and kill the ginger. Then Cato, driven by revenge, will kill Thresh and Katniss and become the victor. And finally, he'll meet someone who deserves him, fall in love with her, and live the typical happily ever after. It's what he deserves.

I linger in the city, remembering my way around. But no one's in here but me. Glimmer has left me to my own devices. As always.

I leave the room. It's not worth having a replica of something without what you want the most out of it. Karma isn't studying at the kitchen table. My friends aren't at the Training Center, working on their skills. Cato isn't here with me. He'll never be here, if I have my way.

But I want to see him again. I want to hear his voice, see his smile, feel his hand on my hand, and just be with him. A selfish part of me hopes he dies so that I can see him, but the rest of me wants him to move on, even though I know I won't.

I hear a high pitched giggle in the hallway, and duck back into the city, but then open the door to see who it is. Fish Face and Glimmer.

"And then she was crying and oh my God, you should have been there!" I hear Glimmer finish. I almost reach through the door and kill her, but then I remember that she's already dead. And can you kill the dead? No, sadly even I can't pull that one off.

"Sounds hilarious! She's probably off somewhere, thinking about her darling Cato." They both say the last part at the same time, and then burst out laughing. They make me feel sick inside.

I walk out of the room calmly, and I wave at them as I walk away. They both looked shocked. They know that I heard them, and Glimmer knows that her secrets aren't exactly safe anymore.

I plan to tell as many people about what Glimmer did as possible. That may be stooping down to her level, but a lot of them probably knew anyways. So it's not that bad. Or is it?

I walk into the main room, and watch a bit of The Hunger Games. Right now, Katniss is knocked out, and you can see Peeta's over caring expression as he watches her. And then the anthem lights up the sky. I watch my face appear, and then the camera goes to Cato.

He's in the fields, where I saw Thresh run towards. His face is blank, but I see a tear in his eyes. It's nice to know I'm missed, but I wish I was there, with him, hunting Thresh down.

"Stay strong," I whisper, as if he can hear me. All I get is a few strange looks from the other people watching. I glare at them in return.

Time passes, people come and go in and out of the room, but I don't move. Eventually, I leave to go to bed. I walk in as quietly as I can, so I don't wake anyone up. I'm almost to my bed when Rue wakes up and silently walks over to me.

"You miss him," she states.

"How do you know?" I ask her, on defense.

"It's alright. Plus, your face tells me everything I need to know. You miss him. You want him to win and move on, but you also want him with you," she lists all of my thoughts to me.

"Is it that obvious?" I ask.

"No. I'm just observant," she says. We both stand there for a few awkward moments, until I'm about to burst with awkwardness.

"Well, goodnight. And try to get some sleep," she says as she walks away. I nod as I walk to my bed. But I know that I won't sleep.