Forever and always: A Clato story

Chapter 8

Clove

I'm dreading seeing Cato today; telling him that we may only have a week or so left together.

"Cato...", he pulls me into a hug.

"What's wrong?", he said whilst looking me in the eye.

"I..I", the tears come again, "I am no longer tribute. We only have a few weeks together before I may never see you again".

"It's gonna be okay Clove", Cato reassures, "I will win for you and when I get back, we will be together. Forever". I take a deep breath then smile.

"I'm sorry. Mum rang Jake last night", I say as we enter the training centre, " I will see you in a bit", we then went our separate ways. Me to the knife station and him to the spears.

"Clove", said a voice. Jake

"I'm so sorry it.. It wasn't my choice!", I stutter.

"It's fine Clove. It was for a good reason, let's just hope that the odds are in the female tributes favor!", he then walks away to a young girl who looks about 11 or 12. It will probably be her first year, "Oh Clove! I forgot to ask you, this is May and it's her first year in the reaping. She has good aim would you mind teaching her a bit!".

"No problem Jake!", I cheerfully say, "So, let's see what you can do". May picks up a knife and walks into the simulator. Targets appear around her. First there is a dart board and her knife lands a few millimetres away from the centre target. Next there is pretend people. She hits all of them: a few in the stomach, one in the head and one directly in the heart. She is good but needs to work on her positioning. May comes out of the simulator and just stares at me, "I no I am not very good".

"Never underestimate yourself May. You did better than you think. I'm going to get you to go into the simulator again but this time, when someone is aiming for you, if you don't thrown in time drop to the ground and run round the back of them to hit them from the back or duck, get up and throw. Okay?". She nods and goes back in. 5 in the heart and 1 in the stomach.

"Perfect May! You will be an excellent tribute", she smiles but I can tells its fake, "You don't like the games do you?".

"It's just....my s, sister died a few years ago and we were so close!", she bursts out into tears. I get a pang of pain in my heart. I no what's it's like to lose someone you love, and it could happen again.