Heart or Head? Clato Fanfic

Chapter One

I pulled on another jacket as I ruminated on the upcoming events. Today, I would determine the future of the rest of my life­­- whether I would be destined for fame, glory, and money (not that I wanted for that particularly), or if I were to be condemned to a life of monotony. Nothing seemed worse to me than the idea of working in a menial job for the rest of my life, leading a perfectly average life and then being expected to settle down and get married, have children, and hope that one day they could succeed where I couldn't. No, I thought to myself, I would not allow that to happen to myself. Today was the day I could finally prove that the years of training had paid off, and that I was meant for this. The Games were my only goal for as long as I could remember. From a young age, I sat in front of the television, wide eyed in amazement as people overcame every possible obstacle: nature, poverty, even each other. From the first Games I can remember, I wanted to be like them. I wanted everyone to know me, to know that I was the best of the best, and nothing could defeat me. That's why I trained so hard, pushed myself past injury, soreness, doubt, until I was a top competitor at the Academy. But none of that would matter if today didn't go as planned. I smoothed the fly-aways from my ponytail back onto my head and set out from my house.
              The Academy doors were propped open as I strode inside. A line of people was facing a check in table, and I fell in with them. I looked around me at my competition and smirked. If this was what I was up against, today would be a piece of cake. As I glanced towards the line of boys, one I had never seen before caught my eye. He looked older than me for sure; and towered over the boys in front of him. I even saw Brennon anxiously fidgeting with his hands, and I frowned to myself. Brennon and I had been training partners for years, and we had our hearts set on going to the Games together, even if we knew only one of us could make it out. If Brennon was worried about this new guy, I had to wonder if they had spoken. Brennon was so confident in his abilities- and for good reason. He was top of our year at the Academy, and though we were not the only Academy, we were situated at the center of District 2 and had a reputation for turning out the most victors. And since I had never seen this boy before, I knew he had to be from an Academy on the outskirts. I caught Brennon's gaze and tried to give him a reassuring nod, but he looked away quickly. Shit, I thought. If Brennon was this scared, I started to doubt myself. I hadn't given myself time to think about possible competitors from other Academies. I was positive we received the best training, and me being at the top of our year, I didn't take time to consider competitors from other places in the district. Wrapped up in my thoughts, I missed the line in front of me moving and the attendant barked at me.
              "I said next" He spit out. I frowned and approached the table.
              "Clove Kentwell, 14." I said evenly, not letting the attitude faze me. He handed me a sheet of paper with the number 13 on it and instructed me to pin it to the back of my shirt. I thanked him coolly and headed into the locker rooms.
              I tapped my foot anxiously as I waited for my name to be called, and went over the plan in my head. Hand to hand combat, then an obstacle course followed by rudimentary survival skills, and then 3 weapon evaluations. Those were all that stood between me and getting chosen for the 73rd Hunger Games. A female voice came over the speaker giving me instructions to enter the room, and I took a deep breath and opened the door leading to the rest of my life.
              "Thank you Clove, and good work today. We will let you and everyone else know the results of the try-outs tomorrow." Rehan, the trainer told me. I was still panting from the exertion of my last skill, knife throwing. I saved the best for last, a grand finale to prove to the evaluators that picking anyone else to represent District 2 would be a mistake, and I daresay it went well. I could feel the approving stares of the judges as I rolled, coming up throwing and hitting every dummy and target perfectly in the center, each one somehow becoming more precise than the last. I knew no one else had this kind of skill with a knife, and what I lacked in strength, I'm sure I made up for with my last display of prowess with a knife. I nodded to him and the panel of people evaluating me up above, and left the room.
              As I opened the door back into the locker room and walked across the space, another figure barreled into me. I whipped my head around, ready to curse out whoever tried to get in my way, but my voice died in my throat, I was looking at the boy from earlier. He was even bigger than I thought, standing at at least 6'4", and his muscles rippled under is shirt as he began to speak. I immediately understood Brennon's fear, and sent a silent prayer that this boy's looks were a fluke, maybe all he had was strength, and he lacked agility, or skill in handling a weapon.
              "Watch it" He spat scathingly.
              "You're the one who ran into me, so take your own advice" I hissed back. I couldn't believe this person had come into my gym and tried to tell me what to do. Clearly his ego was massive, and I sent another prayer that Brennon- or anyone- would show him up and he would be crushed by the disappointment of not qualifying for the Games.             
              He ignored my accusation and said a simple "Don't do it again".
              I won't, I thought, I won't be seeing you again after today. The thought put a smile on my face and I strutted over to my bag. I quickly left the locker room, not wanting to spend another minute of time with that arrogant boy, and left the Academy. I waited for Brennon outside, as usual. When I saw him exit the building, my face broke into a real smile.
              "Brennon!" I exclaimed. "How did you do?" He looked over at me, seemingly in better spirits than he was before our evaluations.
              "Just like practice" He replied confidently, and my worries melted away. If Brennon had performed as he did in practice, it was settled. Not even someone as strong as the blonde boy could mess it up.
              "Brennon, we're going to the Hunger Games" I said breathlessly. He picked me up and twirled me around. "You bet" he answered.
That night, I slept easily.
In the morning, I sprung out of bed. I rushed to get dressed and ran a comb through my hair. I briefly greeted my mother in the kitchen and grab a slice of bread. I had no time for small talk with my mother, and she seemed to know I was too buzzed about the results of try outs to have a real conversation with her. I broke into a jog as the Academy got closer, and met up with Brennon, Kalen, and Brea, my closest "friends" from the Academy. Although we were essentially competitors, working with someone else to better your skills was the easiest path to success, you had to hope that you benefitted more than they did. They were already chattering as I approached, debating on who would be chosen. Kalen was close to Brennon in talent, but I knew that Brennon edged him out in crucial categories. Brea was my closest girl friend, but I knew that I was better than her, and she did too, though she would never admit it. The crowd grew silent as Calla, the lead evaluator on the panel, stepped out of the Academy. In her hand, she held a list. My face grew warm as I anticipated the rest of my life. The words printed on that sheet of paper were my ticket out of ordinariness, and I couldn't wait for them to be read and confirm that I was destined for something better. I looked around the crowd, barely able to suppress my smile, and I caught the blonde boy from yesterday staring at me. As I looked at him, his eyes flitted away from me, and I furrowed my brow, wondering why he was staring at me. Caught up in these thoughts, I missed Calla's introductory speech. But I had heard it for years, always coming to watch this ceremony in the years before, preparing myself for what would soon be my fate.
This ceremony was the culmination of years of training, it decided who would be allowed to volunteer for the Games. Each year, the top trainees at the Academy would compete for the chance to win a spot in the Games essentially. Although other Districts saw the Games as the worst time of the year, we in 2 looked forward to it, trained for it, and competed against each other for the chance to get into them. Every year, 2 people were chosen for the year after next's Games based on the talent they showed in evaluations. The best male and female were selected, trained even harder, and groomed for the Games, their personalities cultivated to appeal to the audience, and then they were sent to volunteer at the Reapings. The idea in this was to ensure that District 2 was represented as well as possible and had the best chance of winning. After all, how could the majority of districts, who could barely feed themselves, compete with someone who had trained their whole life to defeat them.
"Well, now for what all of you are waiting for," Calla broke me out of my reverie. "For the honor of representing District 2 in the 73rd Annual Hunger Games, our male tribute will be..." she looked at her paper, "Brennon Mora!" "Congratulations Brennon!" she said brightly. "Represent us well, and best of luck to you!"
I couldn't believe my ears. Even though we were confident in our abilities, hearing it confirmed was shocking. I turned to Brennon who was grinning ear to ear. We threw our arms around each other and he whispered into my ear, "I knew we could do it Clover,". I smiled, knowing that Brennon and I's dreams were coming true. Even though I had not heard my name yet, I knew that if Brennon was chosen, my chances were almost perfect. Our skills were unmatched, honed in by each other. Calla attempted to quiet the crowd, who had started chattering excitedly at the news. Everyone knew Brennon, so those from our area were not surprised, instead talking about how we had this year's Games in the bag, but there were a few discontented grumbles, and I looked sharply over to see where it came from. Seeing the tall blonde boy looking very put out, I pressed my lips together to prevent the look of victory from spreading across my face. Serves him right. My prayers for Brennon seemed to have been answered. I slipped my hand into Brennon's as Calla got ready to announce the female.
"And for the girls we have... Farrah Kaye" Calla said, congratulating the girl. The girl who was not named Clove Kentwell. The girl who was not me. My hand slipped out of Brennon's along with the smile from my face. This was unthinkable. Farrah was nowhere near as talented as me, we had trained together for 5 years and I had never seen her show any kind of skill in any weapon. Sure she was agile, but she couldn't take people 3 years younger than her in hand-to-hand combat, and she had no specialized skill. My mouth hung open and I felt Brennon's gaze hot on me, but I couldn't look up at him. I couldn't let him see the tears welling up in my eyes or ruin his day. Even if I hadn't made it, Brennon had, and I had to let that be enough for me. I cursed myself out internally. I let myself get cocky, I should've waited another year to try out, but instead I blew my one and only chance. After all, you only get one shot at try-outs, and if you don't make it you're resigned to go back to school, and train for your future job. But how could I refuse Brennon, my constant companion for years, who desperately wanted to go into the Games together as an unbeatable pair. Now that dream was ruined. At least we wouldn't have to turn on each other now. Brennon could win, and I would be there waiting for him as he returned. Brennon grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to look up at him.
"Maybe they didn't want me to have real competition..." he trailed off. Surely he knows too, Farrah could never have outperformed me in that room. I nodded listlessly. "Win for me Brennon," I whispered hoarsely. He gave a small nod, and we turned back to Calla, who was about to make another announcement. I frowned, usually the speech was over after the volunteers were announced. Brea and Kalen gave me what were meant to be comforting pats on the shoulder, and I gave them a tight smile in return. Their hopes were just as dashed as mine, so I tried not to appear more upset than I was.
Calla began to speak again, and a hush fell over the crowd. "This year, we have decided to do something somewhat, unprecedented shall you say?" Calla began. "We have decided to select our tributes for the 74th Hunger Games early, to determine whether this extra year of training and grooming will be beneficial." A wave of shock coursed through the crowd and whispers along with it. Many were angry, people had lost their opportunity to try out for the next year, and no doubt complaints would abound. Someone who had waited until they almost aged out to try out for the 74th Games would be robbed, never getting their shot at the Games. But I was not among one of these malcontents. Hope began to spring back up in me. I could still go to the Games, I hadn't lost my shot. Maybe my partner, but not the Games. I found Brennon's hand again, and squeezed it. "All right, everyone. The lucky boy and girl representing District 2 in the 74th Games will be Cato Hadley and Clove Kentwell!" And then Calla disappeared back into the building.
Many emotions washed over me at once. Excitement, disbelief, anticipation, and a tiny bit of fear. I knew I could not have been overlooked, and here I was, finally getting what I had wished for for years. I could hear the people around me talking, congratulating me, but I couldn't make out the words. I looked up at Brennon, seeing his shining brown eyes, and I came back to the present.
"So you'll let me know how the Games go, give me some insider tips?" I asked him.
"Maybe I'll even get to be your mentor" He shot back, and I laughed at the idea of my best friend trying to instruct me. Suddenly, a thought hit me.
"Who's Cato Hadley?" Brennon turned and pointed towards the last person I expected. The blonde boy I had run into yesterday. Well at least now I would have my chance for revenge.
"Brennon, now we can both be victors," I squealed, putting my thoughts on Cato Hadley away for now.