Hunger games. Clove's POV.

Chapter 3 - Training before Reaping

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Cato and I start walk in a circle, while I'm fighting with the weight of my sword Cato is flipping his sword around and I can't do anything but stare. Cato makes an attack at me and with one hit, he strikes away the sword from my hand. I'm completely defenseless. Cato laughs at my expression and kicks my leg so I fall down on my back with a thud. Ouch. When I try to get up he puts his foot on my stomach and it's impossible for me to get up now. I groan in disappointment and Cato laughs at me. He lifts up his sword so the edge is hanging right over my face. My eyes widen and I lift my hands slowly up level with my head, a gesture that I give up. Cato smiles proudly and offer me and his hand to help me stand. I actually take it and he pulls me up.

The trainer tells us that the next event is archery. I hear Cato curse and I grin. I've never been the best at archery but I'm good enough to beat Cato since I've never seen him at the archery station. And by that I think he sucks, but he can bee have lucky, like I had with the spears, but I quickly push that thought away.

We walk over to archery station and I'm the one to start so I pick up my favorite bow and load it with an arrow. We have 3 shot each, that should be enough. I pull back and aim at my target, the arrow flies and hit the dummy in the shoulder. My other two arrows hits in the stomach and the head. Thats good enough.

Cato's first arrow misses the dummy completely and he curse out loud. His next arrow hits the head and when he pulls back to shoot his last arrow, I'm starting to bite my nails. Surprisingly the arrow hits the dummy right in the heart. I gasp when I realize I've lost. 

"God, um....You were just lucky!!" I say but Cato just grins at me. 

"Naahh... I think I'm naturally talented!" he says cocky. Ugh, such an ass.. I shake my head and glare at him as we head to our next event. Knife throwing. BOYAH! If I lose now, I'll probably kill myself but lucky me because it's not going to happen! It can't happen. Knife throwing is my thing! And Cato knows that.

Cato is the one to start. I watch him walk up to the knives, and I can see he's a bit unsure. I chuckle quietly at him, but apparently not quiet  enough. He slowly turns around and gives me a hateful look. I roll my eyes at him and nod my head, telling him to hurry up since it's just a couple of hours left untill the reaping and I really want to talk to Clary.

Just like at the archery station we have 3 shots/throws each. Cato throws his knives with not much skills but he hits 2 of his knives in the arm of the dummy and the last in the shoulder. He shrugs and backs, giving me enough space to throw my knives. I walk to the knives and picks up my 3 favorite knives. I put 2 knives in my left hand and one in my right. 

I throw the first knife which I held in my right hand, not caring where it hits. Then I quickly put one of my knives, who I held in my left hand, to my right hand and throw the other knife with my left hand. And with only one knife left I do some weird turn so I throw the knife over my shoulder, or should I say, backwards? I turn to see where every knife hit, and I'm pleased when I see everyone sitting right in the heart, exactly where they should.

"Well... That was...Impressing." I hear Cato say behind me. I turn around and smile confidently at him.

"I know." Is all I say before heading to our last and final event. The one who wins this one is the winner of this whole competition. Suddenly I feel and hand grabbing me, dragging me backwards I bit. I Turn around to see it's Cato.

"Uhm...I think we should stop the competition... I mean it's okay if we both are the "leaders" or what it's called. And...I don't want to cross you." his words surprises me and I widen my eyes a bit. Then I smirk at him.

"Big bad Cato...Afraid of losing against a girl, I see...Well, I'm not backing off, so either you back off and lose or you compete against me and lose. It's your choice." I say and turn around making my ponytail smack him in the face. I start walking to hand to hand combat station and I hear Cato curse behind me. I grin, satisfied with making him angry.

I wait for the trainer to give us the instructions and Cato joins my side. One of the trainer glance quickly at the clock and says:

"I'm really sorry but we don't have time for the final event. It's one hour left untill the reaping and we still haven't got a volunteer, since they can't stop fighting and the head trainer refuse to do something. You're gonna have to finish this another time because now, you have to go home. The training center is closed to everyone under 18 from here by."  he gives us a weak smile and walks away. The only thing I feel now is: big disappointment. But Cato seems relieved by the news.

"I guess you're happy now!?" I snort at him, taking all my disappointment out on him. 

"Yes." he says simply. I start to mutter for my self kicking the ground with my feets.

"It's good that no one of us won. And actually a king and a queen is supposed to rule togther, right?" he continues. Dammit he's right! But I don't want to rule with him! Actually, I don't want to rule at all. It's just silly and pointless.

"Go on." I say when I realize he wants something out of this.

"And...I thought...We could 'rule' together then?" haha, that was unexpectedly...

"Naah..." I say trying to find a way out of this awkward conversation. Cato opens his mouth to say something when the speaker shrieks at us all:

"Every person under 18, leave the training center immediately!!" Every group of ages, except the 18 year olds, start moving and so doI. Just to get rid of Cato. I push myself through the people. When I reach the door I swing it open and start running away from Cato's voice behind me, shouting to me to come back. It's about 3 miles to the training center from my house so when I reach my house I'm breathing heavily. I open the door and take a look at the clock. I curse out load when I see there's just half an hour left before the reaping starts.

I sprint up to my room and take a quick cold shower and picks a dress. It's unusual for me to wear a dress but since this day is the most important day of the year, according to the Capitol citizens, I guess I have to look different. The dress is all black with no straps and with it I take matching black boots. I dont bother to do my hair, since I'm so late, and make-up is just for jerks.

Downstairs my parents wish me good luck and then they leave because parents have to bee there a little earlier than the kids. I suddenly remember Clary and I panic, because she is later than me. When I'm about to do something about it she opens the door and steps in. I sigh in realief.

"So...?" I say watching her carefully. She frowns at me, not understanding what I'm talking about. "How did it go? With the not-volunteer-thing-tactic?" I continue.

"Ahh...Well, I'm not the one to volunteer so I guess it went pretty good." she says and laughs a bit. I smile to her, glad that she is out of danger, almost.

"Well, you better hurry up, the reaping starts in ten minutes." I say and her eyes widen and she run up stairs.

5 minutes pass and then she's back again. "Good, now we have to hurry." I say as we walk out of the door.

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