I updated…. Wow. I feel horrible; I shouldn't have left you guys hanging for so long, but I do have a reason, which some know, and others not. My best-friend who lives with me, had an epileptic fit; and we have been in hospital for about 2 weeks getting her tests done, and then we finally got home about a week ago- and I look like a walking zombie, she insists to sleep in my bed, as she is scared- that I don't mind, but then she also kicks, and screams, and I have to wake her up at least 2 times night, I know how Peeta feels now!
BUT, she has decided to help me write this chapter, she has the ideas, and I have the writing skills, and here it is.
And YES, I do understand that a lot of you probably weren't bothered to read this, but thank you to everyone who did- I am so sorry that I took so long, and I promise I will update sooner next time!
Sabine X
Previously….
"Don't mention childhood to her. Ever again." She says, in a really serious tone, and I can tell that she means it, unlike the silly tone she had earlier when we were talking about unicorns.
"Why?" I ask, as I am just curious.
"Because, unlike ours, hers is fucked up" She says simply, as she pushes open the heavy doors to the cafeteria, and the chatter of all the students takes over my thought
Clove POV
The warning to Peeta is soon forgotten, as the crowded chatter fills my ears, slowly but surely capturing my attention. I slide into a seat, not my regular spot- as if I were to sit there, I would sadly be sitting next to Glimmer, and while I don't mind her, her idle chatter of unimportant things like fashion or what colour her nails should be painted is not what I need right now, no, right now I need silence, so as I take my seat down next to Finnick, he just nods his head in understanding, knowing the reason why I am here, and makes no effort to interrupt my thoughts.
I like Finnick, not in that sort of way- no, I could never do that to Annie, I mean, sure he is pretty hot, but I don't really date, and plus, I see him more of a brother. Cato and I are inseparable, but he always knows what is going through my head, and sometimes, I need my space. That's why I turn to Finnick, he is my other guy-best-friend, and me and him, we have an understanding. I sit, and block out the world, only catching snippets of the conversations going on around me. I am anxiously waiting for Katniss to get her skinny little ass in here, I need to talk to her, but as the minutes drone on, she still hasn't made an appearance, nor Cato.
I am about to voice my realisation, but just as I was about to break my silent streak, I no longer have to, as Gloss has done it for me.
"Hey, where's Katniss got to. I wouldn't mind a bit of a view while eating this" He pauses while dropping the spoon full of sloppy excuse this school calls a stew onto his plate, splattering it everywhere "I mean, if I have to endure swallowing what looks to be hair" He pauses again, pulling out what looks to be a never ending piece of silvery hair out of the spoonful he was seconds away from shovelling into his mouth never to be seen again "I think I deserve to see her pretty little face" Gloss finishes, by shovelling the spoonful once containing hair into his open mouth.
"Ewww! Do you know how dirty that could have been? Have you seen the lack of care the lunch ladies put into their hair?" Glimmer squeals, referring to what Gloss just ate.
"Whapp?" He says, opening his mouth, purposely showing chewed up yellow chunks of unsanitary stew to Glimmer.
"Ewww! That is so unhygienic! I am not eating" Glimmer says, shoving her tray of mush further away from her, glaring at it.
"Back on topic, where is Katniss?" Annie returns to the question at hand, but in response just gets a handful of shrugging shoulders- all as clueless as the other.
I look around the cafeteria of sweating adolescence, and notice that Marvel is looking at the table, surveying us, probably hoping for hints of where to find the missing Katniss, but is coming up with nothing, because we are probably just as clueless as him.
"Well last we saw she was with Cato, so where have they gotten to? She might have been upset other Peeta's comment about child hood and crap?" Finnick says.
"No. Katniss is the master of masks. I was best friends with her for 3 years, and not once have I ever seen her cry. Not at her father's funeral, not when her mother tried to kill her, not once." Gale says. Everyone in the group is quite from then on, mulling over the news. After a short while- not quite sure how long, but long enough- of silence, Cato blesses us with his presence, sliding in next to me, glancing towards me, than to the seat I would normally be taking, with a slight furrow of his brow, I just do the slightest shrug of my shoulders in return, but luckily Cato takes the hint and drops it, but not without giving me a glance, which I translate into 'we will talk about this later'.
Before anyone can bombard him with questions of the missing Katniss, we all see her hollow figure slowly trudge over to the table. We all look at her, but my eyes hover the longest, not that she was to notice, she seems out of it. She sits down next to Glimmer, not acknowledging us in any sort of way. We all sit in silence.
Our eyes filled with respect for the small girl; I could almost feel it cascading off us to the floor. Katniss looks up slowly, looking us all in the eyes, slowly resting on Cato's, giving him a questioning look, he just looks back with the same confused expression. She slightly shifts her eyes to the left, looking at me with the same expression, and for a while, we just sit like this, not braking our contact. I can sense Gloss staring at her intently from a few across, next to Annie. I am about to say something, but yet again it is deemed unnecessary, as the words are taken from my mouth again.
"Gloss" Katniss starts, not braking eye contact with myself. He hums softly to announce he is paying attention to this god-like women "Please stop looking at me as if you are a forty year old preying on his first victim- or else you won't be making it to forty" She says in an all serious tone. I unknowingly drop my gaze and close my eyes, pulling both my lips into my mouth to contain the uncharacteristic giggles from trying to escape. My effort is then deemed pointless, as slowly they seep out, leaving me in a fit of giggles, leaning against Cato for support. I see Gloss' cheeks getting overtaken by a light red shade, as he averts his eyes from Katniss. I give her a high five under the table. Glimmer puts her fist up for a fist bump, but Katniss just looks at her fist, as if she was unsure of what to do. Some people giggle, thinking she is rejecting Glimmer, but Gale and I know the truth- she doesn't understand what to do. I wouldn't have noticed, but the confusion that flashed through her silver eyes, giving her away to us. Glimmer gives off a huff, while folding her arms, upset that she was left hanging. Katniss drops her eyes, to her fiddling hands in her lap. I look up, and I notice Marvel is staring, once again.
"Kat" I say quietly. She looks up with raised eyebrows, showing me she is listening.
"You're getting eye-fucked again" I say, trying to keep my smile in.
"He is going to ask about the jersey. Look, it is in his left hand" Cato states, tilting his head slightly towards Marvels hand.
"He's what?" Katniss says, looking at us as if we were crazy.
"His jersey- it is like this tradition for the guys of the football team to give their jersey to their girlfriend, or if they are single, to someone they are either interested in or someone they think is hot, or both, in this case. It is like this silly competition they all have to see who can land the hottest chick. Shoulda heard them all fight over giving it to you today. Sadly Marvel called you first- so he gets first shot, meaning they have to back off until another week, or if they get rejected, then they can call the chick themselves" I fill Katniss in.
"Well that is just stupid. I wouldn't like to be 'called' by some air-headed ass anyways" Katniss says, with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Hey! I'm an air-headed ass, thank you very much!" Cato says, teasing her.
"You can be the exception, along with anyone else in this group who is an air-headed ass, but other than that, I stand by my statement- all football players in my experience have massive heads with an ego to match" Katniss says freely, as if she didn't care if she was talking to us or to the President.
"That about sums it up" I say, grinning cheekily at Cato who just sticks his tongue out at us.
"Why aren't you eating?" Cato asks her gently- so as not to provoke the same outburst as the last time this issue seemed to have come up, which was mere hours before at first break.
"Just not" Katniss replies with a shrug of her shoulders, and a hefty sigh, making it seem like she is sinking into her seat once more.
"You hungry?" I ask "I have more than enough- my mother insists on me getting enough food" I say, jokingly, but serious as well. My mother thinks I am too skinny, and insists on over packing my lunch box AND giving me money.
"No" She replies, but she eyes the roll I get out of my bag for myself, giving away the otherwise flawless lie.
"Have it" I saw, pushing it towards her.
"No, it is yours. I already owe you enough- this will be too much" She replies, pushing it back towards me across the table.
"Honestly, it is just a ham roll, not going to be the death of me" I say jokingly. I grab another roll out of my bag and slide it towards Cato.
"Oh, gormet today?" He replies, ripping the messy cling-wrap job I did this morning in a rush.
"Yes. Today I think you got some lettuce, tomato, chicken, avocado, beetroot and maybe even pineapple" I say. Cato takes a bite of it, handing it back to me. I take a bite bigger than necessary, watching the sauce drip down the roll.
"5 stars" Cato mumbles, as he greedily takes it out of my hands, as I whip another one out of my bag.
"Jesus Clove! You feeding the whole army or something?" Katniss says, with a look of disbelief across her face. Her hand twitches slightly, towards the ham roll. I slide it across the table at her. She hesitates for a moment, unsure whether or not she should take it, but slowly, her hunger gets the better of her, as she lift it up and slowly tears off the cling-wrap, as I slide the other roll up to Finnick. Katniss graciously takes a bite out of the roll that is now hers.
"5 stars" She says with a wink towards me, greedily taking another bite of the plain ham roll.
"Katniss! It looks like you haven't eaten in your life, slow down!" Shrieks Glimmer from next to Katniss.
"Well I have learnt that eat when you can or don't eat. So I am eating" She replies.
"It is so un-ladylike" Glimmer says, sticking her nose up at Katniss' ways.
"Oh, I am terrible sorry" Katniss starts, in a posh accent "Is this better for you?"
"Yes, in fact, I think I could tolerate this." Glimmer replies, not realising the sarcasm dripping of every word out of Katniss' mouth.
"Well to bad" Katniss replies, with food almost falling from her mouth and spit bubbles forming at the corners of her mouth. Glimmer shrieks once more, looking in the other direction. I once again try to hold in the giggles, but fail at doing so, as they slowly but surely erupt from the inside of me. I take quick, short gasps of breath, about to say something, but something else comes out.
"Marvel" I say, short and cut off, but with meaning to what I say. Luckily Katniss understands my clipped messaging, or so I presume, as she tenses, unnoticeably to most, but I was keeping a close eye on her at the moment, and the clenched fists under the table also give it away. She sighs, and, without turning to us, she just nods.
Marvel slowly wonders up behind her, and whispers in her air something illeedgable to us, but Katniss must of heard, as she clenches her fists into tight balls, the knuckles of her hand losing the normal olive colouring to a faded red to white, as they slowly lose circulation. She closes her eyes. And, slowly, she whispers something so quiet that I could barely hear it.
"I don't want your shirt; nor anybody else's. So if you would please leave us to our lunches, I was rather enjoying eating"
Marvel looks mildly shocked, but regains his composure quickly, before whispering back, but luckily a little louder for my human ears to hear.
"But we could have so much fun together baby" He presses his nose into the side of her neck, running it slowly upwards "Just you and me" He finishes, tilting his head up to see her reaction.
"If I were you, I would remove your face from my neck, before I re-brake your nose. And, for future reference; that was not sexy, in the slightest, in fact I found it quite the contrary, you running your plastered nose close to my face made me want to throw up a little in my mouth- so if you would please remove yourself from my vicinity it would be greatly appreciated" She finished calmly, her eyes still shut, but the colouring in her hands slowly returning.
Marvel huffs, but slowly straightens up and scowls at all of us, with the exception of Katniss. He folds his arm and sulks back to his table, probably lying threw his teeth to his fellow ass-holes.
I turn back around, realising I could have just been caught staring. I turn back to Katniss, only to see she is in fact looking at me. She slowly stands and flings her backpack onto her back. Another thing I like about her- practical, none of those silly little handbags that the girls at this school insist on using, and yet she still is rocking it. She mumbles something to Cato, and then turns to me, not saying a word, but her eyes dart from me to the door back to me. I understand- she wants me to come. I pack up my stuff and stand.
We say our farewells to our other friends, ensuring them we shall meet them back her before second half ends, and that we are just taking a breather.
We make our way silently towards the exit, Katniss staring at the floor. I let my eyes drift, and notice that almost all populous of this high school is looking at is; well, more specifically her. Not that I mind, I am not one for attention, and to what my understanding of Katniss is, she is not one for it either. We push the door, and it flung open, ensuring a light breeze to engulf us, the idle chatter of the school droning out as the door seals shut.
Ok, I am so sorry. I know the past few chapter haven't been my best work, but I shall update again soon! In fact, I have ever intention to do one again by this time next week (fingers crossed!)
Thank you to all my amazing reviewers, you guys seriously make my day. And Thank you to an anon reviewer, going by Monica C. I think, you are quite lovely, and you should get an account- I would love to talk to you more!
I would also like you to appreciate my amazing beta. Miss Dedicated WallFlower has taken her time and effort just to check my silly little chapters, even with so much stuff going on with her lately. I love you, you are too amazing for words.
NOTICE: I am planning on a new story. Now, it will either be Twilight or Hunger Games, probably a Finnick Katniss story – I am loving that pairing now, so good! Anyways, the Hunger games is most likely, and I have the plot already in my head, so tell me if you are yay or nay!
Thanks!
Sabine X
