When I wake up I hear voices next to me but I can’t see anyone, only hear them. I can’t seem to be able to open my eyes but after about five minutes I finally succeed in opening them and then I see Cato and my father next to me talking. “Hi Ca…” I try to say but I just end up trailing off. “Oh, Clove! How are you feeling?” Cato asks me and I can see him and my father watching me. “I…’m ok…” I say but I’m not feeling good at all. “What happened?” I manage say. “No one knows, sweetheart”, my father say. My father leaves the room for a couple of minutes and when he comes back my mother and little sister come with him. “Clovey! Clovey!” Winnow calls, running and jumping onto the bed. “Are you okay? I really missed you!” She has started to cry hysterically. “How long was I out?” I ask my parents while Winnow is crying. “You were out for two weeks and they think you were poisoned by foxglove but don’t know how you got it,” my father says. Foxglove? That’s what I saw Althea take out of her pocket! I even saw her take it out of the class the day before! “Althea Perthshire poisoned me!” I tell my parents but they don’t seem to believe me. They were going to say something but then Cato walks in and they give us some privacy.
“What happened, Clove?” He asks. “Althea poisoned me with Foxglove!” I tell him. I can see in his eyes that he believes me. “That’s what I thought.” He says. “Wait. What do you mean?” I ask him. “I saw her take some Foxglove the day before and Libo also told me that I should have said goodbye to you when I sat down at the same table as him and then he started to laugh. I guessed that she would give you some Foxglove. I told Professor Keene but she didn’t believe me.” Cato says. I shake my head. “When can I go back to the academy?” I ask him. Today, I asked your doctor but he said that if you have any dizziness you have to come back.” He says. I don’t care what that stupid doctor says I’m not coming back if I get dizzy. When someone enters I look up and I see it’s my doctor. “You can leave now but if you get dizzy I need you to come back because I need to make sure that all the poison is out of your system.” He says. All I say is “mhm”.
I get out of the hospital bed and go to the bathroom and get dressed. When I come out of the bathroom Cato rushes over to me and picks me up in a hug. “I’m so glad that you’re okay!” He says. “I can’t wait to get back to the academy but I’m not excited to see Althea and Libo, though.” I tell him. I’m really nervous to see them, I’m sure they’ll try again. “They’ve both been expelled. Althea was expelled because she poisoned you with Foxglove and Libo was expelled because Professor Keene was close enough to hear him say that I should’ve said goodbye to you.” He says. I’m relieved to hear that they’ve been expelled. Now I can go to the academy tomorrow without having to worry about them.
We leave the hospital but I don’t want to go home. “Could we go and practice?” I ask him. He nods. The hospital is at the other side of the district so the walk there is much longer than from the academy. “Everyone at the academy is worried about you. More people like you than you think.” He says. “I just think that they’re jealous of you.” He adds. “Why would they be jealous of me?” I ask him. “You’re beautiful and skilled with deadly weapons.” He says but he hasn’t convinced me that they’re actually jealous of me.
When we arrive at the Meadow, which is what we call our secret spot in the forest that surrounds the district. “Can I, please, kill Althea and Libo?” I ask. Cato looks at me like I’m an idiot for asking that. “Well, I thought I’d try asking.” I say. Cato shakes his head. I get my knives and I get in my stance to throw but there are 3 targets. I’m not sure which one is the real one. I throw the knife and I get a bulls-eye. “Good job, you just got out of the hospital and you get a bulls-eye right away. This just shows that you’re a professional knife thrower.” Cato compliments me. I throw a couple more times and each time I get a bulls-eye.
I’m about to throw again but I hear a branch break behind me and I throw my knife in the general direction of the noise but it hits a tree. “I’m sure I heard a branch break behind me.” I say to Cato, turning around and when I see Cato, I see that Lydia is standing there. “What are you doing here?” I ask her. “You don’t sound happy to see me when you almost died.” She says laughing.
I want to be here alone with Cato but it’s nice to see Lydia. “I thought you had some Capitol thing you had to do?” I ask her. “Well, yeah… But I bailed. I’m 14 years old, why would I want to do that?” She says, shaking her head. “The older victor’s may want to do it but I don’t. I’d rather hang out with my best friends.” She says, beaming.
Even though I want to spent some time alone with Cato I have to remember that Cato and I are Lydia’s only friends. Mark Aldjoy was the most popular kid in the academy and Lydia had a lot of friends but when she killed Mark she lost all of her friends, except for Cato and I. Everybody said to her when she got back that she should’ve killed herself so that Mark could come home, I’m glad that she came home because I couldn’t live life without her.
“I think I’ve had enough practice for today. I just want to sit down right now.” I tell them. I’m really dizzy and I know that I told my doctor that if I got dizzy I’d go and see him but I really don’t want to go because I don’t like him. “Are you alright?” Lydia asks. “Are you dizzy?” Cato asks. I shake my head but my head hurts so I inhale and exhale slowly. I close my eyes and I hear Cato and Lydia walk off whispering to each other. I don’t hear everything they say but I hear a couple of words which are, “Dizzy”, “Poison”, “Doctor”, “Hospital” and “Sick”. I’m not sure what they’re going to do but if they want to take me back to the hospital then they can forget it. I stand up and walk off but it’s hard to walk straight so I’m walking circles. I hear footsteps running behind me and I try to run away but Cato picks me up and says, “You’re going to the hospital, I’m not taking the chance that you could die.” I struggle in his arms but he just holds me tighter so I just sigh.
Cato shakes me awake and when I open my eyes I see that I’m back in the hospital in a hospital bed. “If only I had my knives I’d kill everyone here and get out!” I mutter so low that no one hears. Cato walks in shaking his head. “You know that I took your knives from you and you won’t get them back.” “I know all of your hiding places.” I sneer. “Yes, I know but you don’t know all of Lydia’s hiding places.” He says. “Why would you do that?” I ask him. “I needed to hide them somewhere you’d never find them because I know that you’re mad enough at me to kill somebody, you’d never kill me though so I realized that you’d kill your doctor.” He says. “IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS WHO I KILL!” I yell at him. “It is my business if you kill him because if you die from the poison after you kill him then I’ll blame myself.” He says. I ignore him because I have nothing to say to him.
My doctor walks in. “How are you feeling, Clove?” He asks me. “Fine. Now leave me alone or I’ll kill you.” He has no idea what to say so he just walks out of the room, as he’s opening the door he says, “You may leave now.” I jump out of bed and say, “Finally!”
Cato and I leave the hospital. I’m beaming but Cato looks annoyed. “Why are you annoyed?” I ask him. “Because of your attitude!” He barks at me. There’s nothing wrong with my attitude, I’m just annoyed! “When you started at the academy you were more fun!” He says. “When I started the academy I was innocent, innocence is weak and I’m not weak!” I growl at him. “You’re also really mean. You don’t have to be weak to be nice!” He says, stopping me. “Cato, I’m small and I don’t look intimidating. If I’m nice then people will think that they can walk all over me!” I say. “They won’t walk all over you. Not with me next to you, pro-“ “WHAT? YOU THINK I NEED A MAN TO PROTECT ME?! YOU DON’T THINK I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF?!” I yell at him. “That’s not what I mean-“ “Yeah, well, that’s what it sounded like!” I cut him off. “Will you let me finish?!” He asks me. I can hear that he’s annoyed but he’s trying to stay calm. I shut my mouth and glare at him so he continues, “I don’t think you need a man to protect you but if I at your side all the time then people will most likely leave you alone. If someone tries to intimidate you then I’ll let you take care of him.” That’s not a bad idea but I’m still mad at him so I’m not going to be all nice to him now. “Yeah okay. We can do that but I have to go home now. Bye!” I say and run off home. I’ll see if I can change my attitude tomorrow.
