Author's Note: So I've been talking to one of my best friends lately and we were talking about my writing and I realized how much I missed writing (I took a hiatus from my other Kato/Catoniss fanfic) and this is kind of modeled after that. But it's in high school. Because I'm a high school girl. And even though it's summer, I can't think of anything better to write right now. So yeah!

Also for some reason I've had this urge to put in song lyrics relating to a certain chapter before every chapter. And I only listen to country music…well, sucks for you guys who don't like country.

Like always, read and review! Comments are very much appreciated :)

~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~

When I think about you

I think about seventeen

I think about my old Jeep

I think about the stars in the sky.

Funny how a melody sounds like a memory

Like the soundtrack to a July Saturday night

Springsteen.

"GIVE ME BACK MY IPOD!" Katniss Everdeen screeched at the top of her lungs, snatching away at her best friend and biggest enemy, seventeen-year-old Cato Evans.

"What iPod?" Cato asked playfully, tossing the small black iPod back and forth in his hands and moving his arms out of Katniss' reach. He ran around the pool deck, showing the small device off and taunting his friend. "This iPod? This is mine."

"Shut up, Cato! And give it back! I don't trust anyone with it, and certainly not you!"

Cato slipped the iPod into the right pocket of his maroon colored basketball shorts. "Finder's keepers, loser's weepers! So I guess you're a loser. A weeping one, too." He danced around Katniss, avoiding her flailing limbs.

Katniss dug her hands into Cato's left pocket and grasped the device, but Cato moved too fast and she lost her grip.

"Ooh, sorry, Catnip! And besides," Cato reached into the other pocket—the one that Katniss hadn't dug into—and pulled out her precious iPod. "That's my phone. This is my iPod."

Katniss' grey eyes burned with anger. "Give them back, please," she said through clenched teeth with the most patience she could muster. She outstretched her palms in front of her, only about a foot from each other, gesturing for her childhood friend to return the iPod to her.

Cato looked at the two palms, and smirked. "Aww, Katniss, you want a hug? Here you go," he said as his 6-foot-2 frame enveloped—well, more like engulfed—her much smaller 5-foot-3 structure.

Katniss sighed. "I hate you."

Cato laughed, and gave her back the electronic device. "Here. You're too much fun to play with. Honestly, you're like a little kid."

"Shut up, I am not!"

"The brain of a forty-year-old with the mindset of a six-year-old," Cato joked as both teenagers sat on the old bench that he and Katniss had painted when they were, in fact, six years old. "You're really quite the freakshow."

Katniss stuck her tongue out at him, but retracted it quickly before Cato could grab it with his fingers. She remembered the last time he'd done so, and it resulted in ten minutes of Cato laughing at her while she tried to tell him to let go.

Cato laughed at Katniss' action, recalling the same memory. He looked around at the pool—the neighborhood pool where so many kids grew up, where countless memories had been made. The pool had a swim team which he joined at the age of four, the youngest anyone had joined it, and he quickly became the fastest swimmer to have ever swam for Panem's finest and fastest team, "District 2". This summer, he coached for the team as one of the two head coaches, and Katniss served as an assistant coach for the four to six year olds who were still on the developmental team. Cato had met Katniss at the pool at eight years old, and he remembered how awful she was at swimming and how he would make fun of her constantly. They were loathed enemies until the age of eleven, when they realized that they had a lot in common and would be better off as friends—well, more like siblings. Their families spent so much time with each other, it was practically as if they were related. Cato loved Katniss—as a sister, of course. He enjoyed her company, and though sometimes he felt as if there was a little more to it than platonic love, he quickly cast the thought aside. Such an idea was preposterous.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Hmm?" Cato was woken up from his reminiscing.

Katniss rolled her eyes. "You've been sitting here staring at the water for the past three minutes."

Cato flashed his signature smirk. "Just thinking about how terrible you were at swimming back in the day. Oh wait, I forgot. You still are!"

Anger darted in Katniss' eyes once again. "Well I remember how much of a dick you were back in the day. Oh wait, I forgot, you still are!"

Cato exaggerated a gasp, and feigned hurt in his sapphire-blue eyes. "Goodness, Katniss, language! We don't want to be negatively influencing young children in this public environment."

Katniss punched Cato's shoulder as hard as she could, and grinned at him as he winced in pain. "Says you! Mister Carefree-I-Don't-Care-What-I-Do."

"I care what I do! I just care if it's fun or not. And I care about not getting caught," Cato winked.

Katniss shrugged and averted her eyes, pretending Cato's actions were no big deal as she fiddled with the single braid that fell onto her right shoulder. She was aware of the things the seventeen-year-old swimming sensation participated in, and she wasn't so fond of them. If she wasn't as close to Cato as she was, she would've immediately called their friendship off. Katniss was raised to value herself and have friends who had strong morals and values, too—not teenage boys who partied and got completely wasted every week, and certainly not teenage boys who put girls in—well, compromising—situations.

Cato sensed Katniss' slight hesitation at his words, and immediately regretted it. At the same time, however, he couldn't help himself. He was a seventeen-year-old boy, captain of the swim team since sophomore year, had the looks and chiseled body which made the entire male population envious, and was entering his senior year of high school. What was he supposed to do? Sit home and watch episodes on Animal Planet? He knew Katniss was uncomfortable with it, and he wished she'd warm up to it a little bit. Maybe then, they might actually be able to—

"Are you excited for senior year?" Katniss broke the awkward silence between them, consequently interrupting Cato's thoughts.

Cato nodded. "Hell yeah. You? First time in a public school."

Katniss smiled. She had been homeschooled all of her life by her father, but when he passed away earlier during the summer, she and her younger sister, Primrose, realized that they'd have to go to public school for the first time in their entire lives. It wouldn't be so bad if Katniss wasn't the youngest in her grade—she had started school early, so she was still sixteen going into senior year—and if she wasn't going to be in the same classes as all of the girls Cato used to constantly complain about. "It doesn't sound too hard. Plus I'll have you to protect me from anyone trying to steal my books."

Cato laughed at her remarks. "God Catnip, you are such a fucking nerd—good thing you don't look too shabby though, or you'd be hanging out with the marching band."

"What's so bad about the marching band?"

Cato gave her a quizzical look. "Seriously? They're like the biggest losers in the school. Them and the computer team are probably tied for the bottom of the period."

Katniss shrugged. "They don't sound too bad."

"Well you gotta lot to learn, kid."

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Don't call me that, I'm not that much younger than you!"

"Are you kidding me? You're practically a baby! You've never done anything bad in your entire life," Cato teased.

"That's not true! Remember when I—"

"Stole money from Prim? Ooooooh, what a rebel!"

Katniss hit Cato in the arm again.

"Ow!"

"You deserved it!"

Cato chuckled. "Alright, well, you need a ride home? It's getting pretty dark, plus school starts in two days—I'm sure a nerd like you wants to get a head start on her homework."

Katniss stood up and brushed off her jean shorts. "Sure."

As Katniss began to follow her childhood friend out of the pool area and into the lot where his Jeep truck was parked, she couldn't help but admire his physical features. He was quite the specimen—dirty blonde hair tousled in the perfect way, blue eyes that switched between blue, green, and grey depending on his mood, a killer six-pack and the body of an Olympic swimmer, and his signature smirk that had every girl in Panem squealing. Stop thinking about him, Katniss thought to herself. He's like your brother, not some guy you can start fawning over like the rest of the girls.

Katniss sat silent in the two-minute car ride from the pool to her house, as Cato played the country music radio station in his Jeep and sang out loud to it.

"Wanna hop in the back for a bit?"

"Huh?" Katniss said, slightly startled and very confused.

"Hop in the back, we can lie down and look at the stars like we used to."

For some reason, Katniss felt her heart swell a little bit. "Mmhmm. Sure."

Cato helped his friend hop into the back of his Jeep truck, where a blanket already covered the hard metal of the car. He had kept it there since two years before, when he first started driving, in case he wanted to stop and gaze at the stars. It may have sounded silly to some people, but it was calming for Cato. It allowed him to relax, and most of all, think clearly.

Cato and Katniss lay down next to each other in the truck, looking up at the stars.

"There's the Big Dipper," Katniss stated, pointing up at the ever-so-large night sky.

Cato smiled at his best friend. "Yep."

"Cato?"

"Yeah, Katniss?"

Katniss bit her lip. "I'm—I'm kind of nervous about school. What if no one likes me? What if I don't have any friends? I only know you, and Peeta, and Gale, and Clove, and she's not even in our grade and she's your younger sister so of course I would know her! I don't know anyone else."

Cato chuckled at her worries. "It's fine. You're like a sister to Clove, she fucking adores you and wouldn't leave your side anyways. Plus I'm sure you'll make friends, you're pretty decent when you're not judging or making smartass comments all the time. And you're not ugly or deformed or anything like that, so you'll get some of the boys' attention."

Cato hated saying that last sentence, and immediately wanted to take it back. He hated the thought of any boy from his school even touching Katniss. Peeta Mellark had swam with Katniss and Cato since he was little, but Cato was almost certain he was gay, and Gale Hawthorne, another swimmer, had a girlfriend already. But any of the other douchebags at his school—sure, he was just as much of a douchebag, probably even more, but still. He'd rip their heads off if they even lay a finger on her.

"Cato?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you gonna ditch me when we get to school? Like, be with all the pretty cheerleader girls and the swim guys?"

Cato sat up and shook his head. "Naw, Catnip. Promise. I wouldn't do that to you—at least, not for the first day," he teased.

Katniss hopped out of the truck and onto her driveway. "Well, okay. You should probably go home now, your parents are probably wondering why you're so late."

Cato shrugged, climbed back into the driver's seat, and rolled down the windows. "Alright, just don't worry too much. It's not that bad, I promise."

"Okay," Katniss agreed as Cato began to pull out of the driveway. "Bye! Drive safely!"

Cato waved his hand out of his window and as he drove away, he couldn't help but feel like there should have been something more to that time spent in the back of the truck. Something was missing—he just couldn't put his finger on it. Little did he know, the girl becoming smaller and smaller in the distance felt the same way.