Chapter 1

Clove glowered her eyes at the score underneath the photo of the girl with the trademark braid and tanned skin as the results were revealed on the enormous T.V. screen.

An eleven! She thought, astounded and repulsed at the same time. Katniss Everdeen had beaten her score by a point.

Unbelievable! Clove thought angrily as she kicked at the mahogany coffee table in front of her.

Cato flinched slightly from Clove's sudden angry outburst. "Hey!" he called out to her as Clove jumped off the couch and stormed off to her room. The rest of the careers only looked at Clove storming off with confused looks.

Cato shook his head at Clove's irrational behavior. He had to admit, he was a bit pissed off too because of the fact that a poor District 12 female had beaten his score, but he knew what would count in the end were the results in the arena.

Clove sat at the edge of her bed and sharpened one of her throwing knives with skill and precision. Her dark and sharp features shone clearly on the knife's clean blade. She smiled at her own reflection and imagined all the ways she would show the judges that she clearly deserved a perfect score of twelve by killing Katniss in the arena.

Clove giggled, delighted at the thought of having Katniss under her, writhing and begging her to end her life quickly. Oh, how she planned on torturing her! Clove fell back onto the large bed and threw the sharpened knife up at the ceiling above her where it stuck firmly.

Clove walked with Cato and Glimmer to the training room to get some practice in before the start of The Hunger Games. They joked amongst themselves on methods of killing and which one would be the most painful for their victims. Clove loved talk of brutality and maiming, after all, she was brought up to be a cold, merciless, killing machine - any other emotions were taught to her to be useless.

The three entered the training area to find that they had company. Peeta and Katniss occupied the usually empty survival section, with Peeta instructing Katniss how to paint herself to match the hue of tree bark.

Clove's eyes glinted with fury at the sight of Katniss. Something about the girl stirred a storm of frightening emotions in Clove - jealousy, spite, and fear. Fear that the girl may actually have a chance of beating her with her remarkable skill.

No, not fear, Clove tried to convince herself as she walked into the room with Cato and Glimmer.

"Well, well, look at Peeta Mellark painting his nails like a little girl," Cato taunted as Peeta's face became flushed with embarrassment.

Glimmer laughed obnoxiously at Cato's joke as Clove couldn't help but smirk at the look of embarrassment and shame clearly plastered on Peeta's face.

Katniss furrowed her brows and frowned angrily at the Careers staring arrogantly at the two of them.

"Oh, did we upset your little lover boy?" Glimmer teased, egging on Katniss' rapidly rising temper.

Katniss balled up her fists and looked as if she was ready to pummel Glimmer when Peeta placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from doing so. "Don't bother," Peeta whispered. "They're not worth it."

Katniss felt her body relax from Peeta's calming words and turned her back on the Careers before giving them one last spiteful look.

Cato and Glimmer laughed uproariously and called them pathetic before they got sick of bullying them and proceeded to walk off to the sparring section of the training room.

Clove stayed behind and continued to stare at the girl whom she planned to kill and relish every moment of it.

Katniss could feel someone stare at her back so she turned around to see Clove smirking evilly at her specifically.

Clove stared deep into Katniss' eyes and imagined looking into them before she took her life - something beautifully dark about the fantasy made Clove shiver with anticipation.

"Just so you know 'girl on fire' I'll be gunning for you first once we enter the arena," Clove said confidently as she took out a throwing knife to throw at a dummy on the other end of the large room. Without even one single glance at the dummy, Clove had struck it perfectly on its head.

Katniss stared at the dummy, admittedly impressed with Clove's skill with blades, but tried her best not to show it. "See you in there then," Katniss retorted as Clove gave her a long, hard look and walked away to join Cato and Glimmer.

"Hey, what took you?" Cato asked Clove when she finally joined up with them.

Clove had a faint smirk on her face as she took out a couple of throwing knives and skillfully placed them in between her fingers. "I was telling fire girl over there that I'll enjoy carving up that face of hers."

Cato chuckled at Clove's sadistic nature and Glimmer giggled alongside him as they watched Clove throw every single knife with deadly aim.

"She never misses," Cato said and laughed.