"Clove, are you insane? What if someone catches us?" Katniss demanded as Clove pulled her down the hallway.
"Nobody's gonna catch us, Kat, we're fine!" Clove insisted, dragging her girlfriend around the corner and out toward the side exit.
"And when the fire alarm goes off?" Katniss questioned, dragging her heels so Clove would have to slow down. Clove paused, and gave her a single raised eyebrow.
"Kat, I have it on very good authority that this door does not ring when opened. In fact, only three in the entire building do," Clove stated, casually pushing the door open. Katniss braced herself, waiting for the blaring alarm to bring teachers and principal running. When nothing came, Clove laughed at her reaction and pulled the older girl out the door.
Despite having a year and four inches on Clove, Katniss found herself incapable of denying her girlfriend anything. The little brunette whirlwind had come crashing into Katniss's life only a year after her father's death. Back then, Katniss hadn't seen much of a point in anything, she just went through the motions, faking smiles for Madge, Gale and Peeta, occasionally giving a false laugh, but still just living hollowly.
Then in blew Clove, a cousin of Madge's from a different city, and with her, Katniss had slowly come out of the shadow of her father's death. Things had gotten better, and when Clove was fifteen and Katniss was sixteen, Clove got Katniss to smile.
It was awkward at first, her mouth rejecting the now-unfamiliar contortions, but the joyful look on everyone's faces was enough to ease the strangeness. Peeta and Gale had exchanged glances that said everything, and Madge had beamed with joy at seeing a genuine smile on her friend's face. They were so pleased it didn't come as much surprise to them when Katniss came out and asked Clove to the Junior Prom.
Clove had accepted immediately, of course, and they'd been together ever since.
They worked well together, Clove pulling Katniss out on adventures and Katniss helping Clove in her studies. Now, of course, it was Katniss's senior year, and Clove was going out of her way to give her the "Full Senior Experience", which apparently entailed skipping class as much as possible and causing a ruckus.
Clove spun around the wall of the school, pinning Katniss there and kissing her breathless for a moment before pulling back and tugging Katniss to her car in the lot.
Maybe Katniss could get used to this whole 'smiling' thing.