TWO

Chapter Five

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Would you stop?" I hiss at Cato. He glances at me and smirks.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Seriously, I will shove that pencil down your damn throat if you keep tapping it."

"You get pissed off easily, don't you?" he asks, tapping his pencil against his chin now.

"No, you're just being annoying." I give him a look and turn the page of my textbook. Cato chuckles and starts writing again.

"How's that nose of yours?" he glances up at me quickly.

"Still broken."

Cato hums before speaking again, "Some of these plant names are ridiculous."

"Like what names?"

"Trifolium? What the hell is that?" Cato looks up at me, his eyebrows in a furry.

I begin to smirk, "That's the plant Clover."

Cato tilts head a little and rolls his eyes, "Of course it is."

"You asked," I look back at my textbook.

"Is that why your name is Clove? Because your dad is in love with plants?"

I turn my attention back towards Cato and nod, "Yeah, that's exactly why."

"Huh," is all he says before looking back at his paper.

"Do you have any more stupid questions, sword boy?"

Cato takes a moment to look over his notes before looking at me, "How about you quiz me."

"You want me to quiz on you on material you've hardly studied in the past hour?"

"Yes, that's right." Cato smirks.

"Alright, fine." I close my textbook after bookmarking my page and grab his notebook, reading over his scribbled handwriting, "What are some edible plants?"

Cato sits there for a bit thinking before responding, "Pond Lilies, Dandelion, Cattails, Bamboo, Clover," he smirks at me and I roll my eyes, "Acorns, Milkweed, Nightlock-"

"Dead."

"What?" Cato huffs, looking at me frustrated.

"Nightlock kills you, you fucking idiot." I toss his notebook at him and cross my arms on the table.

He rubs his chin before looking at his notes, "I feel like I knew that, but said it anyways."

"Which means you'd probably eat it in the arena if you saw it." I open my textbook again and flip through some pages then point to a picture, "This is Nightlock."

Cato inspects the image before sighing, "Well, looks like I know what to put in your smoothies."

I glance at the smoothie next to me and give him a look, "Wow you're so clever."

"Aren't I though?" he smirks and taps his pencil against the paper again.

"If you want to live at all in the arena, you're going to need to know this kind of material. Plants are important to survival whether you believe that or not."

"I'm not going to need plants when I have sponsors throwing themselves at me." Cato gloats. He runs a hand through his blonde hair and flexes a little.

"My god," I shake my head, "how do you have friends?"

"How do you have friends?"

"Because unlike you, I'm actually somewhat decent of a person."