Hey readers! Sorry for the slow update :( my life has been super crazy with all the planning for my graduation and trip and stuff like that so I didn't really get a chance to write. But summer's right around the corner, so I will be updating more frequently. Don't worry :D I doubt you came to this story to read this author's note so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games
Annie POV
"Morning mom" I greet cheerfully as I come down the stairs. I slip my feet into my fuzzy blue slippers, and walk into the kitchen.
"Morning sweetie" she answers while I place a kiss on her cheek.
She hands me a plate full of pancakes, bacon and fruit. I smile at her in thanks, and head over to the dining table. I place my food on a placemat and head to the fridge for some juice.
I locate the orange juice, and pour it into a glass. I place the juice back into the fridge, when the doorbell rings. I place my glass with my food, and shuffle over to the door to answer it.
I open the door and there stands my boyfriend, ready to pick me up for swim try-outs. He looks so hot. I look down at my outfit consisting of a loose tank top and plaid pajama pants, and feel self-consious. Finnick sees my discomfort, and kisses me in reassurance. We break after a few seconds for air, so I grab his hand and lead him to the dining room. My mom sees Finnick and grins.
"Good morning Finnick" my mom greets while grabbing some more food. She places the food on the table along with a plate and a glass of orange juice.
"Thanks Mrs. Cresta" Finnick says while piling his plate with food. I giggle at his expression of pure happiness. He looks up at me, but I dismiss it with a wave of my hand. He shrugs and goes back to eating.
I soon finish my plate of food, and take it along with Finnick's to the sink. I also place our glasses in there, and head up to change for the swim team try-outs.
I emerge from my room 10 minutes later with everything ready but my hair. I check the time, and just toss it into a messy bun knowing I'll just take it out to swim. I grab my swim bag, and head out the door to meet Finnick.
I squeeze my hair to get and remaining water out as I walk to Finnick after try-outs. Finnick's arm goes around my shoulders as we walk to the crowd that surrounds the official swim team list.
I let out a squeal of delight as I see my name along with Finnick's on the swim team list. Finnick smiles next to me knowing how much this meant to me.
"What a great day" I think to myself.
Peeta POV
I clench my teeth as Katniss kisses my cheek once again. I love the feeling of her lips on my cheek, but it hurts like hell. Stupid dad. I mentally curse.
Last night, my dad came home drunk again. He wasn't in a very good mood, and decided to take it out on me.
Again.
I don't really remember everything, just that I punched in the jaw then passesd out. I woke up this morning in my bed, and assumed my brothers put me there. I put some of this cream on my cheek and jaw so that the bruises wouldn't show as much.
I'm still lost in thought when a pair of fingers snaps me back to reality.
"Peeta, what's wrong?" Katniss asks.
"Nothing" I sigh, not wanting to bother her. Her grey eyes narrow as the search my bright blue ones for the truth. She eventually nods her head when she can't find it.
The bell then rings, and Katniss gives me a quick kiss goodbye. I hiss at the sudden pressure, but Katniss hears me. Her head snaps up, and stares at me.
"Am I bothering you?" she asks hurt.
"No, of coarse not Katniss" I reassure her. She stares at me again, but then her gaze shifts to my jaw. I freeze and hope she doesn't notice, but of course, she does.
She cups my cheek and uses her thumb to gently rub my jaw. She gasps as the cream comes off and the purple starts to show. Her look of concern quickly shifts to anger.
"Who did this to you?" she hisses.
"No one, Katniss" I sigh.
"Then how do you explain that?"
"I can't tell you"
Hurt crosses her face, and her hand slips from my face. Then she sprints away and doesn't look back.
I run a hand through my blonde frustrated and check my watch. Math is almost over, so there's no point in going in now. I look outside and decide to take a walk to clear my head.
Scarlette POV
"Okay class, you may now pass your papers forward" says with a nod.
I place my essay into a binder and pass it to Glimmer. She flashes me one of her signature smiles, and I cover my mouth to prevent the giggles from escaping. Wedged between Glimmer's teeth, is a piece of spinach. She raises an eyebrow, and I mouth 'later'. She shrugs and turns back around. Once everyone's papers are collected, we are excused. Glimmer turns to me.
"What were you trying to tell me?" she asks when we get to our lockers.
"There's something in your teeth" I giggle. She shrieks and looks into the magnetic mirror she has in her locker. She then frantically begins to try and take it out. She succeeds and takes a drink from her water bottle.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ryan Hyep and nudge Glimmer. She looks up and sees him too. She gives a small smile and I nod, telling her that she's fine. Ryan leans against the lockers and begins to flirt with Glimmer. She twirls her hair and flirts back.
I grab my books and wave at the couple. Glimmer waves back then goes back to flirting. I roll my eyes at how focused she becomes when she wants a guy. In the end, it always pays off because she's gotten the guy every single time.
Even when she went after Harry Fashion in freshman year.
He and Danielle were off at the moment, so he and Glimmer dated for a bit. Until Danielle decided that Katniss and Peeta were too hard to break up and went back to Harry. When she found out that he was dating Glimmer, she was beyond furious.
So Danielle and her twin sidekicks Christine and Paige, did a little research and found out a little secret about Glimmer and told the entire school. Glimmer became an outcast after that, until she became friends with Johanna, and eventually got into our group. Now, she's one of my best friends, and I trust her with my life.
I smile at the memory, and snap back into reality. I slip into class and slide into my seat. Mrs. Trinket continues with her lecture compltely oblivious, and gives us out homework.
I whip though the homework, and begin to study for the history quiz coming up. I get good grades in all the other classes, but I just can't focus when it comes to history. I give up trying to study after a while and just relax.
I close my eyes, and lose myself in my thoughts. A bell pierces its way into my subconsious, and I lift my head off my desk. Huh, I guess I fell asleep.
I gather my stuff and and put it away in my locker. I grab some cash and head to the cafeteria.
I spot Cato and Clove making out at our usual table and roll my eyes. Ever since they got back together yesterday, they've been kissing and flirting non-stop.
I turn away from the couple to look at the food. I scrunch up my nose at the meat and I grab a salad and an apple. I pay for it and plop down in my seat at our table. Clove breaks the kiss to smile at me and I smile back at her. Cato glares at me for taking Clove's attention away from him. She looks back at Cato, who kisses her again hungrily. I bite my lip to hold back a giggle.
Soon the rest of my friends show up, and I sigh in relief. I was about to kill Cato and Clove purely out of annoyance. Madge takes a seat beside me and gives me an apologetic smile. I glare at her in return, and she laughs.
The whole table starts to joke around, but we stop when we see Peeta show up to the table with a large bruise along his jaw, and across his cheek. I look at him in concern, and he just glares. Johanna however, ignores the glare.
"Peeta, you look like crap. What the hell happened to you?" she asks while gesturing to the bruise.
"I don't want to talk about it" he snaps. Katniss stands up abruptly, and walks away. Peeta glares at her retreating figure and starts to eat. A silence falls over our table, because no one knows what to say.
I look around the cafeteria intead, and spot Danielle whispering to Christine and Paige then pointing to our table. Christine gives a nod and runs out of the cafeteria. Paige runs out the back doors. Danielle catches my eye and smirks. She then proceedes to strut out of the cafeteria.
This can't be good.
The day passes with no incidents, and I shrug off what I saw in the cafeteria as nothing.
I grab my stuff from my locker and head out to the front to meet my friends. I see them sitting under the shade of a large tree, and head over to them. I drop my bag in a pile with theirs' and take a seat beside Katniss.
I look around at the group, and notice that Peeta and Gale aren't there. I voice this thought, but no one had an answer.
"Does anyone know what happened to Peeta?" asks Annie.
Once again, no one knows.
"Maybe he got into a fight" Johanna suggests.
"Peeta wouldn't do that" Cato says. (He and Clove broke their little make out session after my arrival)
Everyone sits in silence for a few minutes, deep in thought.
"So who's gonna host this years back-to-school party?" Katniss asks desperately needing a change of subject.
"I can't, my mom is still pissed because someone ripped a hole in the couch cushions with a knife last year" Finnick says while glaring at Marvel.
"It's not my fault the bee landed on the couch" Marvel said in defense.
"You could've gotten up and walked away"
"Yeah but that takes too much effort"
"So knifing something that can fly takes less effort?"
"Ummmm yes?"
Finnick rolls his eyes and smiles into Annie's hair.
"Anyway" Madge says "I can host it at my house"
"Thanks Madge" Katniss says smiling. "Now we have to figure out the guest list, the playlist, the food, the" Katniss babbles on. Usually Peeta's here to control it, but he's not so we all just bear through it.
Katniss finishes her list and smiles. She then proceeds to give us each our jobs. I end up in charge of chips and drinks.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and I see a text from my mom.
Sorry Carls but they have to clean out the vents in the house and the fumes aren't safe to breath in so your father and I will be staying at your aunt's. You can come if you like, but I thought you'd like to stay with a friend. Love you.
I sigh after reading the text, and slip my phone back in my pocket.
"Hey can I crash at anyone's house tonight?" I ask the group.
"You can come to my house" Johanna offers.
"Thanks Johanna" I say smiling. Then I remember something. "Wait, will the twins be there?"
"Why of course they will" Johanna replies smirking. I glare at her.
When I say 'The twins' I'm referring to her little brothers Dylan and Alex. They're thirteen years old, and have crushes on me. At first I thought it was cute, then it got a little weird, then it was just plain creepy. Once, they pulled out strands of my hair and ran into their rooms.
"Anyone else?" I ask hopefully.
"Prim's having a sleepover too so my mom will probobly say yes" Katniss says. My mood brightens and smile apologeticaly at Johanna. She just smirks at me.
"Speaking of Prim, she needs to be picked up from her middle school. Anyone wanna come?" Katniss says while checking her phone. I get up along with Cato.
I glance at Cato, and see him looking at Clove. Seeing my chance, I bolt towards Katniss' car. I hear a faint 'hey' from Cato and his heavy footsteps pounding across the parking lot. I quickly snag the front seat and strap myself in.
Cato arrives a few seconds later, and I stick my tongue out at him. Katniss rolls her eyes at us and starts the car. I turn on the radio, and hear the beggining of one of my favourite songs.
Up All Night by: One Direction
It feels like we've been living in fast-foward
Another moment passing by (U-up all night)
The party's ending but it's now o-ur never
Nobody's going home tonight (U-up all night)
Katy Perry's on replay, she's on replay
DJ got the floor to shake, the floor to shake
People going all the way, yeah all the way
I'm still wide awake
I turn it up and begin singing at the top of my lungs. I see Cato muttering something and sliding lower in is seat. Katniss joins in at this point, and begins to laugh.
I wanna stay up all night
And jump around until we see the sun
I wanna stay up all night
And find a girl and tell her she's the one
Hold on to the feeling
And don't let it go
Cause we got the floor now
Get out of control
I wanna stay up all night
And do it all with you
Up all night
Like this, all night (hey)
Up all night
Like this, all night (hey)
Up all night
Don't even care about the table breaking
We only wanna have a laugh (U-up all night)
I'm only thinking 'bout this girl I'm seeing
I hope she'll wanna kiss me back (U-up all night)
Katy Perry's on replay, she's on replay
DJ got the floor to shake, the floor to shake
People going all the way, yeah all the way
I'm still wide awake
I wanna stay up all night
And jump around until we see the sun
I wanna stay up all night
And find a girl and tell her she's the one
Hold on to the feeling
And don't let it go
Cause we got the floor now
Get out of control
I wanna stay up all night
And do it all with you
Up all night
Like this, all night, hey
Up all night
Like this, all night, hey
Up all night
Katy Perry's on replay, she's on replay
(We're gonna want to stay up all night)
DJ got the floor to shake, the floor to shake
(We're gonna want to stay up all night)
Up all night, up all night
(We're gonna want to stay up all night)
I wanna stay up all night
And jump around until we see the sun
I wanna stay up all night
And find a girl and tell her she's the one
Hold on to the feeling
And don't let it go
Cause we got the floor now
Get out of control
I wanna stay up all night
And do it all with you
Up all night
Like this, all night, hey
Up all night
Like this, all night, hey
Up all night
We finish the song giggling, and we don't stop until we reach Equate middle school. Katniss pulls into the parking lot and waves her sister over. I spot Prim with a few of her friends making their way over to the car. I recognize Rue, Rory, Cato's brother Daniel, and Annie's sister Faith. But I don't recognize a little girl with blonde hair or the little boy with black hair.
Prim notices my stare and catches on. "Scarlette, meet Kate" she says while gesturing to the blonde. Kate gives a small wave. "and Andrew" she points to the remaining boy. I nod and wave to the two of them.
Prim and her friends all climb in the back with Cato and I can't help but laugh. He glares at me in the mirror. "Hate you" he mouthes to me.
Throughout the entire ride to the Everdeens' house, Faith and Prim talk non-stop. We get to their house and Cato bolts out of the car, up the tree, and into his room.
I help unload the kids' stuff from the back and take it into the house. The living room's already set up for them so I drop their bags and walk to Katniss' room.
I plop myself down on her bed, and wait for her to arrive. She comes a few minutes later, looking frustrated. I raise an eyebrow and she dismisses it with a wave of her hand. She sits on her bed, and we begin to talk.
After a while, we decide to go bother the sleepover going on downstairs. When we get down there, we spot Prim and Daniel cuddled up on the sofa, both asleep. We smile and take pictures with our phones.
We head back upstairs and get ready for bed. I pull out the bed under Katniss' and am asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
