Forever and always: A Clato story

Chapter 10

TWO WEEKS LATER

Clove

"Happy birthday Clove!", exclaims my family. Today is my birthday and we are one week away from the reaping, "Here are your presents!". A pile of presents are placed in front of me. The first one is open is in a little box; inside is a locket; inside the locket is a picture of all my family on our holiday a few years ago.

"It's beautiful! Thank you", the gift truly is beautiful. Next, I open up a package containing some of the most beautiful clothes ever! A blue and white lace dress with matching ballet shoes, denim and floral print dress, black jeans, denim shorts and a few sweatshirts and jumpers. "I love them all thank you!". Time flys past and we are down to the last present. Once again, it's in a box, not a very big box. I carefully unwrap the paper and open up the box to find a.... Puppy! Only very few people own pets apart from District 10: life stock. I have wanted a pet for so long, ever since I was very young and I saw the other children playing with dogs and cats.

"Thank you so so much! This is the best present ever". The puppy jumps up to lick me and I laugh in delight. Things just keep getting better and better! Later on; once I'm dressed, I decide to take my puppy who is now called Poppy out for a walk. I walked over to Cato's house and knock on his door. His mother answers.

"Hi Clove! You looking for Cato?", she asks.

"Yes, I was wondering if he wanted to come and walk my dog, Poppy?", I reply trying to make a good impression. She calls for Cato and he appears seconds later in jeans, t-shirt and hoodie. We wave to Cato's mother as we leave. Once we make it to the town centre, he turns to me and says, "Happy birthday beautiful!". He kisses me on the cheek and hands me a small box. I open it up, still keeping a firm grasp on Poppy's lead; inside is a necklace and a bracelet. I take the the bracelet out and admire it, I then turn it over to see 'Clato' engraved, "Clato?", I ask.

"Our couple name", he said and kisses me again but, on the lips this time. The necklace has the letter 'C' on it.

"For Cato?", I ask.

"For both of us", we then share a kiss that I will never forget. Poppy barks at us, obviously being impatient. We laugh and keep walking, talking about everything imaginable. A head of us, a gang of girls and boys are age are gathered.

"Let's go this way!", suggests Cato and pulls my arm. I make him release it.

"No. We are aloud to walk up here, they don't own it", I scoop Poppy up into my arms and drag Cato along beside me.

"Oh, look who it is!", grins one of the girl, "The lovers taking a stroll in the park! Isn't that sweet?"

"Hi! Come on Cato, we need to get going", I whisper.

"Bit bossy aren't we? You no Cato", a blonde girl says whilst touching Cato, "If you ever get board of that thing, I'm available". Cato doesn't say anything.

"Come on Cato, hang out with us and we can get to no each other a bit better", says the blonde girl again, "Clove, your not welcome here. Get lost or else". I'm not leaving without Cato.

"Or what?", I have to be brave. The next thing I know, my hair is getting yanked from behind. I react quick by bringing my heel up in-between the guys legs. He screams in pain. The blonde girl comes up to me and punches me in the nose making blood ooze from my nose.

Cato is burning up, I can feel it. He grabs the girl and puts her in a headlock threatening her whilst I fight off attacks and protecting Poppy at the same time. Another guy gives Cato a dead leg, he drops to the ground, "Cato!", I scream punching the guys face then kicking anyone who goes near us.

"Let's leave guys! We don't want to create trouble", shouts a member of the gang. Before they leave, I finish them off by kicking and punching. When we are alone, I attend to Cato who if lying on the ground with a bleeding arm.

"Cato?", I whisper, "Can you hear me?". He nods, "Its gonna be alright, trust me, I think I have some bandages in my bag". I always carry a small supply just in case. I wrap his arm up and put Poppy beside him, my nose still bleeding.

"Clove-", Cato whispers, "Your nose". I grab some tissues and hold my nose in them whilst Cato props himself up and holds Poppy.

"See? I'm fine", I say even though I'm blinking back the tears, "Let's go to the Willow tree". It's quiet up there. I help Cato up and put Poppy back on the ground. When we reach the Willow tree, we sit and assess one another. He touches my face and I move a little as it hurts.

"It's not broken, just a bit red and tender", says Cato. I remove the bandage from his arm to reveal a cut, not deep, but quite long. He looks down at it and sighs, "I've had worse". Haven't we all? We sit there for a while talking, kissing, cuddling and just enjoying our time together. Around midday I say, "My family are out today, we can go back to mine for lunch?" He agrees.

At my house, we sit in the kitchen and talk and eat, holding hands the whole time. A few minuets later, everyone is back and entering the house, "Great!", I laugh. Why? They come into the kitchen and Isabelle, my older sister announces, "Clove has got a boy over so no one be embarrassing!". My mum walk in and see's us and mouths hi. Cane, Kayla and father come in carrying shopping, "Hi I'm Nicola and this is Isabelle, Cane, Kayla and Michael, and you must be Cato! Clove never stops talking about you!" I feel myself blush.

"Never!", giggles Kayla. I give them a 'shut up' look.

"Well, we will be in the lounge if you need us!", and then mother and father left the kitchen followed by Isabelle and Cane.

"Can I stay?", asked Kayla.

"Out!", I say firmly. She sticks her tongue out at me and leaves.

"I never knew you were like so... Confident!", says Cato. He is talking about what happened earlier.

"I wasn't gonna let them hurt you, or Poppy". We did not speak again of it, it was best not to. After lunch, we make our way into the lounge to find the whole family there playing with Poppy. Cato and I sit down and join in. Time passes quickly and the sun starts to set. I decide to walk to Cato's house with him.

Once we were outside his house, he kisses my goodbye and tells me to be careful on the way home. I come across part of the 'gang' hanging outside some shops.

"Look who it is!", I say, "The so called fearless gang!". I walk towards them with no fear.

"We are not scared of you Clover!". No one every calls me that. I don't show any fear towards them. I swing my arm out to punch and one of the girls gets hit. She tries to punch back but I just catch her arm.

"Just get away from us! No one likes you because of your temper! Your a threat". A threat huh? At long last, I am feared!