I rest my chin on my hand with my elbow on the table as we eat. Cato sits across from me, in exactly the same mood I am in. I can feel it.
We are not eating, just sitting in silence looking at our plates and each other. Emille, Bailey and Amelia eat in silence, exchanging glances when they think we're not aware of them.
I felt upset, angry, and for some reason betrayed. Watching Peeta and Katniss made me realise that maybe the chemistry that I thought was between Cato and myself may not be there. I can tell Cato is angry. I've seen him like this after training when someone else brought back heavier bricks and the teachers told him to calm down.
I excuse myself and head to my room. I sit on the bed for a few minutes, toying with the idea of going and watching television back in the other room. I know it will just be re-runs of the Tribute Parade, or President Snow being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman. Sighing, I lie down, resting my head on the thick, fluffy pillow and stare at the ceiling. After around ten minutes, there is a light knock on my door.
I see Cato stick his head around the door.
"Hey." I say
"Hi, Clove."
"I couldn't eat, I wasn't hungry and Emille's glances were pissing me off." I sigh.
"They were annoying me too. I found something the other day. Want to come and look?"
"Okay." I say, and I follow him out of the door.
He leads me to a hidden door behind a large collage of all the past district 2 tributes. I see spaces available for photos of Cato and me, and many more years of tributes.
He takes my hand and leads me behind the framed collage. There is a dark tunnel with another door at the end. Cato looks down at me and grins. He opens the door and we are plunged into daylight. There is a section of rooftop that is big enough for all 24 tributes to lie down on. I grin at Cato.
"The first proper sunlight since reaping day." I smile. We look at each other for a minute, remembering our families and friends back in district 2.
"Come on," He says, leading me to the edge. He holds my hand and we look over the edge at the ground below us. The grass is mostly green, but has been dyed different colours in some places.
"That's weird." I say, and I look up at Cato.
"This is weirder." He says, picking up a stone and dropping it over the edge. It bounces back to us, landing at my feet.
"Okay, yes, that is." I grin. Suddenly, Cato sits down, pulling me down with him. We dangle our legs over the edge of the building and let the sun beat down on my face. My pale skin hardly got any sun, and I was sick of looking white as a sheet of paper next to tanned Cato.
I open my eyes and look at him, and I realise he has been watching me.
"Did Katniss and Peeta kissing have any effect on you?" He asks
"I suppose. I felt angry. I can imagine them using that as an excuse to get sponsors or something."
'Katniss and Peeta aren't the only star crossed lovers, you know." Cato says. I hold his gaze, confused. "You don't get it do you?" He sighs.
Before I could protest, he leans forward and kisses me on the lips.
He pulls back and watches my face. There is one emotion that stayed with me, and that is happiness. I'm sure that my face displays only shock, because I never, ever thought that Cato would feel the way I do.
"Get it now?" He grins.
I beam at him. "I think I do."
"The only way you'll be able to win-"
"-The only way I'll win?"
"Yes, I'd rather you won and lived a good life than you dying. Anyway, the way to win is to separate them. Katniss will be easier to pick off on her own than she would if she were with us. I don't think she could ever trust us to be our ally anyway. I say we get Peeta on our side. Agree?"
Scowling, I nod my head. "I don't think Peeta would trust us, but I think he'd be a good ally with some manipulation. It'd take a lot of work to get him to be our ally."
Cato nods, seeming to be completely oblivious to my confusion. He'd talked about how Katniss and Peeta weren't the only ones who were 'star crossed lovers', then starts talking tactics. He's so confusing. "Yes, I agree. We'll see how good he is in training. From there we can work out how easy he'll be to take down. Speaking of training... It must be nearly time to go."
"I'd forgotten about that." I say.
"So had I, when I brought you out here. I'm glad I did." He says, standing up and walking to the half shut door. I join him, and he plants one more kiss on my lips. "We're secret, okay?" He says, then pushes me through the door.
* * *
A woman named Atala stands in the centre of the circle of tributes. She is telling us the rules of what we can and cannot do. I am not listening, I am too busy looking at the other tributes and seeing how much potential they have. Glimmer and I have already exchanged smiles, and I've noticed Cato make eye contact with her companion, Marvel. There is a very small girl with dark hair and skin from district 11, and the male from her district is huge, taller than Cato.
Everyone starts to move, and I realised she's given us the go ahead. Cato and I immediately team up with Glimmer and Marvel, and we exchange names and smiles. We are joined by Alexius from district 4 and the female, who is called Ellie. She is quite shy and talks very quietly.
We head over to the heavy weapons station, where Cato finds a sword and starts swinging it about. I am already good with throwing knives, and so I practice against one of the dummies. Ellie turns out to be exceptional with a spear, which is to be expected, as she is from district 4. Joshua is okay with both swords and spears. Glimmer likes the look of the bow and arrow, and so heads off to that station to try her hand. Marvel stays with us and tries to get some tips out of Cato about swords.
I turn, and watch Peeta climbing up the rope ladder. Cato turns as well, as Glimmer joins us. Ellie and Joshua continue practicing with the trainers, and Marvel watches Peeta too.
Peeta looks as if he is struggling, then has a good climb for about 5 metres. Suddenly, he falls, and we all laugh. Katniss runs over to him and looks to us as she speaks to him.
"Are you sure you still want to team up with him?" I ask Cato quietly.
"He'll be easy to take out, so yes." Cato looks back to Peeta, and I do too. Katniss finishes speaking, and Peeta picks himself up off the floor and he heads over to the throwing station. Those balls are extremely heavy, and we all snigger as he stumbles over. We watch him, ready for some hilarious entertainment, until he picks up the ball, and hurls it, one armed into a wall of spears. The spears clatter to the floor and the smiles fall from our faces and we take a step back.
I look for Katniss, and I see her watching us with a smug grin etched across her face.
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Woo, chapter four finished! I know this is a shorter chapter, but I'll try and make the next few longer.
I'm getting into writing this, and I feel like I'm taking on the role of Clove that you see in the films a bit more. She still isn't what she seems to be, but I hope you like it. Anyway, please vote, comment, like, tweet, whatever! :)
