A week later...
"Finally we made it!" Annie squealed as she pulled her red Toyota Solara convertible up in front of a rather fancy looking beach house.
"Who would your connections be Miss. Manson? President Snow himself?" Madge peered over the rims of her sunglasses.
"You will find out soon enough." She laughed as she hopped out of the car and pulled the seat forward to let Katniss and Madge out of the car.
The 4 girls gathered their bags and walked up to the front door before ringing the door bell. It looked to be 2 levels and big enough to have at least 5 bedrooms. There were voices to be heard behind the house and behind the door before it was thrown open by a man with bronze hair that had a goofy grin on his face.
"Jo! About time you showed!" He pulled the girl into a hug and the two laughed as when he let go she punched him in the shoulder.
"Heya Finn." She then turned to her friends to introduce. "Girls this is my friend Finnick Odair. Finn this is Madge, Annie, and Katniss." She pointed to each girl as she said her name. "Course Annie already knew that, you are basically all over her room."
Madge gave a quick hello as she stared with wide eyes, Annie flushed a bright red and yelled a quick 'JO!' , and Katniss just nodded her head and gave a small smile.
"The pleasure is all mine ladies." He gave a quick bow before he ushered them inside and shut the door. "Come in side and i'll show you all to your room. Hope you don't mind sharing one, got quite a few guests this year."
"How do YOU know Finnick Odair?" Annie whispered to her friend still beet red, "And why didn't you ever tell me!"
"How did I get Katniss a week off with pay? I have my connections." She grinned.
The entry way was quite spacious that held stairs that lead up stairs and then 2 doors on either side of them that led to different parts of the house. It was covered in windows. Finnick led them up the stair case and down the hall towards the back of the house before opening door at the end. As he opened it up it was quite a spacious room that held 4 twin beds in it with a night stand and small dresser for each. The walls were a sky blue with small black and white pictures of the ocean framed above each bed. The amazing part of it was that one of the walls was made completely of glass that opened up onto a balcony with a breath taking view of the ocean. With the optional curtain of course.
"Saved the best room for you girls." Finnick went and opened the doors leading out on to the balcony. It held a few chairs on it so that you could sit out and enjoy the weather.
"It's beautiful." Annie whispered as she walked up to the railing and looked out the view. They had their own stretch of beach for hundreds of yards each direction.
"Now this end of the house is for the girls." Finn spoke as he lead them out of the room. "This room is for girls as well." He knocked his hand on a door that was almost immediately to the left. "The group for this room isn't here yet." As they got to the end of the hallway he stopped and pointed to the left. "That end is for the guys. I set strict rules for sleeping due to some personal preferences per person, but if you feel the need to snuggle up with someone, there is a room down that hallway," he pointed to the right, "along with my room. Don't worry about being a stranger if you want to come visit." He waggled his eyebrows at the girls and made Annie blush.
Finnick continued his tour of the house starting out with pointing out the 3 full baths and 2 ½ baths. Once he took them down stairs back into the entry way and pointed to their current left the dinning room that held mahogany chairs and a large table that could easily sit 12 people. He then led them through the door to the right that held the living room with 2 couches and a chair circled around a 64' flat screen tv. The room was opened up into the kitchen where there were large windows that had the ocean as a backdrop and the smell of something delicious cooking in the stacked ovens. To their current right there sat another small table and chairs.
He then led them through the large double doors out onto the large blacony that held a fancy looking grill, patio table and chairs that sat 8, a hot tub and a set of stairs that led out onto the sand. Out on the sand was a group of boys playing a game of beach football. The 4 girls leaned against the railing watching the guys playing. The saw one guy with short blond hair easily duck and evade a tall black man that tried to tackle him to the ground as he ran with the ball. Another blond with shaggy hair managed to snatch the ball out of the other's hand as he looked back at the fallen male. He then ran and managed to evade another man with short brown hair to make it to their described goal post, which happened to be a cooler. Johanna, Annie, Madge, and Finnick gave shouts of encouragement to the group as the shaggy haired boy did a small victory dance.
"Gale?" Katniss did a double take as she called his name out.
"Catnip!" The brown hair guy gave a large smile as he ran up to the blacony. "What are you doing here? And who managed to convince you of all people to take a vacation?" He laughed as he picked her up in a hug after he approached the girls.
"That would be me." Johanna purred to him as she held out her hand. "Johanna Mason. Then this is Annie Cresta and Madge Undersee." Each girl gave a smile and a wave.
"Gale Hawthorn." He nodded at her. "Then the big guy here," he motioned to the large black man as the other 3 men approached, "is Thresh." He just nodded to the group with a smile. "This slinky one here is Cato."
"Pleasure to meet you ladies. Hope we can have fun this week." He winked at them.
"And that was Peeta." He motioned to the guy who ran inside quickly. They heard the sound of the oven opening then shutting as a pan was set down on the stove before he walked back out. "He keeps us feed." Gale laughed as he came out scratching the back of his head.
"Sorry, about that. I almost forgot about my cheese buns." He gave them all a smile and wave. "It's nice to meet you."
"Guys this is my friend Katniss from back home." He put his arm around her shoulder as she turned a little flushed in her cheeks.
"Ah that Katniss." Cato gave a sly grin.
"Gale!" She turned and punched him in the shoulder which made everyone laugh. "What the hell you been spewing?"
"Nothing too harmless." Peeta pipped up, "Just every moment he spent with you."
The group started laughing again when she then punched him in the chest with a scowl on her face. "You are so dead Hawthorn if you revealed more than you should have."
"Don't worry Catnip, I left that part of our lives out." He groaned as he rubbed his chest. "That fist of yours has gotten stronger i'll say that much."
Katniss huffed and folded her arms over her chest as she walked back inside. Madge and Annie followed after her knowing what their friends temper could be like and wanted to get her outside of their room for the rest of the break. She tended to lock herself into cupboards or closets when she got too upset.
After much coaxing from her friends, Katniss finally retreated from her room in a change of clothes. She wore a pair of daisy dukes with a tank top on top of her swimsuit that Johanna insisted that she get because she looked 'hot' and a pair of flip flops. Ever since she moved in with her room mates, Johanna made it her mission to get Katniss to 'loosen up' as she called it. Which in her terms meant show more skin, she was pretty sure that if given the chance she would have the entire apartment running around naked like she did sometimes.
"Hey Annie can I borrow your car?" Katniss suddenly stopped in the hallway and turned to her friend.
"Yeah what for?" She cocked her head to the side with a raised eyebrow.
"I forgot something at home."
"I'd be glad to take you." A male voice came from behind her. She turned to see Peeta standing there with keys and a phone in his hand. "I gotta head into town any how. Out of all of Finnick's stocking of the kitchen he forgot to get some essentials. Apparently it is all about beer and alcohol for spring break with him." He gave a small chuckle.
"Um...okay sure." Katniss turned to her friends who had sly grins on their face as they noticed a bit of pink to their friend's face. "Just let me go get my wallet." She pushed past them back to her room and as she was about to turn to go out the door she saw the two standing there with the door shut.
"So Katniss what do you think?" Madge grinned. "He is basically a god and you get to be alone with him."
"It's just a trip to the store."
"And? Get to know him Kat, maybe have yourself a spring fling." Annie giggled.
"For all you know he is dating someone. Besides you know i'm not looking for a relationship. It'll just get me where my mother is." She pushed past the two out the door and down the stairs where she passed Peeta as he talked to Gale about something.
Peeta bid his friend goodbye seeing her storm by with a 'Good Luck' from Gale seeing her scowl on her face. When he shut the door behind him she was standing at the bottom of the stairs with her arms folded. He walked past her and put his hand on her shoulder briefly to guide her to where his Jeep Wrangler sat in the drive way. She flinched for a second at the contact before relaxing a bit. Katniss climbed into the passenger side as Peeta folded back the roof before he got into the driver side.
Peeta pulled out on to the road and started the 5 mile drive into the city. The first part of their trip was spent in silence, Peeta driving and Katniss leaning against the palm of her hand with her elbow sitting on the edge of the window looking out at the sceanery, the wind blowing strands of hair from her braid.
"So...I take it you got conned into coming out here this week huh?" Peeta finally broke the silence.
"In a way." She turned her head to him. "More like they took care of all the arrangements before they even told me. They knew I wouldn't take the time off of work so Johanna took it upon herself to do it. They say I'm too uptight and need to get out more." She then turned her head back to the window.
"Well you don't seem like your uptight to me. You are just set in your ways,it seems, and want to stick to what you know."
Katniss turned her head back to him and studied him for a moment. He was dressed in jeans that had a hole in the right knee, a light blue button up shirt over a white shirt, his blond hair blew in the wind and a small smile rested on his lips as he paid attention to the road.
"That's exactly it." She finally replied. She didn't know why but for some reason he seemed to know the exact reason to her being. "Gale told you something didn't he."
Peeta laughed and it sounded like music to her ears. Something about this guy seemed to make her feel stuff she hadn't felt before. And that scared her.
"No, I had around the same thing happen to me. Except it was my brothers that did it to me. See I work in my families bakery and that is pretty much my life, aside from going to school. They conspired with Gale to get me out here. I wasn't happy about it at first but I'm actually glad I did. It's nice to get away." He glanced over at her as she watched him.
"I can't afford to think like that." She turned back to the window, the town now surrounding them. "I gotta keep working to make sure I don't live the rest of my life like I did growing up or end up in the same position of my mother. It seems like another reason the girls brought me here was to get me to hook up with someone even though they know I'm not looking for a relationship. I don't plan on ever being in one."
"I feel ya. I just ended a relationship and she is about the only one who doesn't seem to think that it's over. She has basically been stalking me for the past few weeks." Peeta answered as he pulled into the parking lot of the local supermarket and parked the car. "So I propose that we both enjoy ourselves this week and forget what our friends have in mind for us and do what we want." He looked over at her and held out his hand.
Katniss looked at his hand before taking it in her own. "Sounds like a plan to me." She nodded and gave a smile.
"Good now lets go get some REAL sustenance for everyone's bodies." Peeta laughed as they got out of the car and walked into the store.
The two walked around the supermarket gathering up the supplies on Peeta's list successfully filling 2 carts with food and collecting Katniss's items. During their entire trip they talked about various things including Peeta's crazy ex-girlfriend who Katniss discovered name is Glimmer. She couldn't figure out for the life of her why her parents even name her that. Peeta explained to her exactly how it was explained to him, apparently when she was born she 'glimmered' in the light of the hospital room. To which Katniss retorted that if that was the case then then entire world would named Glimmer. This caused both of them to laugh.
Peeta learned that she was going to school to be a teacher. She had fun teaching children, especially her little sister and Gale's younger siblings. She said since she never planned to have children that she got the joy of them by teaching. She explained that she planned to move back to her home town to teach.
The rest of their trip was spent laughing at some of the antics of their friends caused that created more problems then expected. When arriving back at the beach house they each gathered a hand full of groceries. That didn't seem to extinguish their conversation as they walked into the house.
"And then Gale had gotten his hand stuck peanut butter jar just trying to cover the stupid pine cone." Katniss stated as Peeta opened the door and they walked in.
The next thing they knew they heard a shrill voice crying out 'Peeta!' in joy from above them. Peeta looked up with a stern look on his face as he recognized the voice. The bags in his hand fell to the ground as a girl with blond curls latched herself onto him.
"Oh Peeta I'm so glad to see you! We get a romantic beach vacation together. Well as romantic as you can get in a house with like 20 other people besides there are rooms for couples too." She rambled on as she pulled back and looked at him with a huge smile on her face. Katniss could see that she also had blue eyes, but nothing compared to Peeta's.
"What are you doing here?" Peeta basically snapped at her as he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back.
"Well duh, I was invited silly. Clove heard that you were coming and invited me along." She answered with a chipper tone. She then noticed Katniss standing there still holding bags staring at them with an eyebrow raised and laughing slightly. "Who is this?"
"That doesn't matter. All that matters is-"
"Names Katniss." She answered. "And you must be Glimmer. From what I heard about you I expected you to be a little less, I don't know, blond?" She grinned, "Oh wait he did say that you were exactly that. Oh and hey," She leaned forward a bit and whispered quite loudly, "Just fyi for ya your roots are showing." And on that note Katniss continued her walk to the kitchen.
Glimmer gave her a look of pure hatred before she felt Peeta's hands leave her shoulder and when she looked over he was covering his mouth with his hand stifling his laugh. She gave him the best glare she could muster as she huffed and turned around and headed back upstairs her hand going up to the top of her head. Leaving the group that had surrounded them giggling as well, except for of course her friends.
Madge had happened to catch the whole thing and ran after her friend with a big old grin plastered on her face. "Where did that come from?"
"I-I don't know." She stuttered a bit. "It just came out. It felt good tho' I mean she just won't take a hint that he doesn't like her. I mean he told me but I didn't think it was THIS bad." She looked up at her friend, "But I can tell you this, it's going to be a fun weekend."
Okay so some have some faith in my writing. Lol Of course I am my own worst critic. Unfortunately posts won't be so close together. I work 60 hours a week and am a full time mom on top of that. I'll try to get at least one chapter a week. Besides, it won't be that long of a story. Thank you all for your reviews!