When I get home Winnow gets over excited and she starts to scream out of joy and run around the house. We don‘t like it when she acts like this but there is nothing we can do or else she‘ll have a fit.
“Mother, can I go to sleep now?” I ask her. “Why?” She asks me. “I had a really long and tiring day today so I just want to go to sleep.” I say. “Do what you want.” She says.
I leave the kitchen and go to my room. I don’t even take a shower, I tell myself that I’ll shower in the morning. I go straight to bed and fall asleep straight away.
***
When I wake up the next morning I see Winnow is sitting on my floor playing with something. “Good morning, Winnow.” I say and she jumps up and hugs me. “Winnow, I would love to stay here all day with you but right now I have to take a shower and then I have to go to the academy.” I say.
I stand up and go to the shower. It’s nice to finally take a hot shower. I take my time washing my hair so I can be here as long as possible but in the end I finally have to get ready for the academy. I put on a simple black outfit. I don’t want to get more attention than necessary.
“Good morning, mother.” I say, walking into the kitchen. “How did you sleep?” She asks worriedly. “Alright, I guess.” I say absentmindedly. “Are you hungry? I made some breakfast.” She says. She never makes us breakfast so I wonder why she’s doing it now. “No I can’t. I have to get to the academy.” I say. When I leave the kitchen and I hear Winnow say, “I’d love some breakfast, mommy.” I open the door and hear my mother say, “Bye, honey.” I close the door without answering, I know I was rude to her but I’m still tired and annoyed because Cato is going to make me act nice to people today.
I don’t walk my usual way to the academy because I don’t want to see Cato until I have too so I walk a longer way. I’m glad that I went early today so I won’t be late.
I get to the academy and I see Cato standing by the gates. “Hi, Cato.” I say. “Hey.” He says and takes my hand. “Have you been thinking about what I told you?” He asks. “Yeah but I’m not sure I’ll do it.” I say. I hope he just realizes that I’m not going to do this and forgets it. “But-“ He begins. “I don’t want to fight with you but stop this! I don’t want to be nice to people!” I yell at him.
I stalk away from Cato and I immediately regret yelling at him and I also attracted more attention than I wanted. I go straight to my knife throwing class and wait for Cato. When I see him come I smile to him but he doesn’t return the smile and he goes to the opposite side of the room. When Professor Ivory tells us to start practicing I walk over to Cato and ask him why he didn’t come over to me. “You told me to leave you alone so that’s what I’m doing.” He says. “I didn’t mean that I just meant that I wanted you to forget me being nice to people because that’s not who I am.” I say. “Okay, I’m sorry.” He chuckles and tosses a knife towards me. “CATO!” Professor Ivory yells. We turn around and see her walking towards us. “Don’t throw knives at Clove!” “Professor, he was just passing me the knife-“ I say but she cuts me off. “Don’t help him Clove! He needs to learn the own up to the things he does wrong!”
Professor Ivory drags him over to the dummy that’s in the middle of the room and tells him to stay there until class is over. My first thought is that she’s just going to make him stand there until she gets Melanie, who is the worst knife thrower in class and tells her to throw knives at Cato. “NO!” I yell. “Please, professor Ivory, don’t kill him!” I beg her. Melanie never hits what she’s aiming for so I know that if she’s not trying to hit Cato then she will hit him. “I’m not trying to kill him but if she happens to hit him and he dies then that will be called an accident. Accidents are very common here in District Two.” She says. “Let me stand there instead.” I say. Professor Ivory says that we can change places and for the rest of the hour I have Melanie throwing knives at me. One knife hit me in the shoulder so I’ll have to go to the hospital to make sure it’ll be fine, another knife landed less than half an inch away from my face.
When Professor Ivory calls, “Class over!” I am really relieved. I didn’t want to die during my best class!
Cato and I walk out of class together. “I’ve never seen any professor here do that.” I say. “Yeah… But everyone’s been talking about how professor Ivory is going a bit crazy. She did that quite a bit while you were out.” He says. “Do you have any idea what happened to her?” I ask him. “I’m not sure but I think it’s because when she won her games she must have gone a little bit crazy and then when she was called on some capitol business a few days ago she just went completely crazy.” He says. I feel really bad for professor Ivory.
The rest of the day I couldn’t help but worry about all the kids who have to be in class with professor Ivory. “Cato?” I ask. “Hmm?” He answers. “Do you think we should tell the headmaster about what’s happening to professor Ivory?” He doesn’t say anything but turns around and starts to walk in the direction of the headmaster’s office.
When we arrive we hear him yelling. “Michiru! I’ve been getting complaints from the students that you’re trying to kill them!” He yells. Michiru? I think that’s professor Ivory’s name. “I haven’t been trying to kill them but they’ve been attacking each other! That’s the only reason why. Today Mr. Jet threw a knife at another student and Ms. Greenleaf was helping him!” We hear her say. I look over at Cato and the look on his face tells me that he has no idea what going on either. “Okay, I’ll go and get them. You stay here.” He says and we hear him walking towards the door. “We’re in a lot of trouble.” I whisper to Cato but we don’t dare move.
