Chapter 38: Fireworks

The group of friends gets together for an Independence Day pool party at Tanner's house. His parents are out partying with their friends, so the boy decided to make plans with his friends. Locke and Jason agree to help out with the grilling hotdogs, and the others all have food to bring that afternoon.

Rue and Skeeter are the first to arrive, carpooling with Skeeter's mother and father. Tanner shows them in and the three all sit on pool chairs, waiting for the others. The O'Callaghan boys show up next, and after them comes Bonnie, Posy, and Prim. The next to appear are Marvel and Poppy. Locke and Jason show up last, and everyone throws their bags against the gate, taking seats on pool chairs.

Tanner leans back and says, "How have all your summers been?"

"Good," Rue says, smiling.

"Alright," Prim says. "I haven't done much." There's a chorus of "Me neither"s. The kids heave a collective sigh. This year, most of them have been forced to take summer gym in the second session for multiple reasons, and it starts that Monday. Some, though, like Marvel, have already finished their gym time first session.

"I get my wisdom teeth out on Monday," he confesses. His stomach ties itself in knots thinking about it.

"It's not that bad," Poppy tries. "I've gotten it done already."

"I know, it's just… I hope I react to it as well as you did."

"Yeah. I got them out on Monday and was up and swinging again by Friday."

Marvel smiles affectionately at his girlfriend.

"Yeah, it's not that bad," Tanner says. "I got these nasty bruises around my jawline but they went away within a week or so."

Rue smiles mischievously. "I don't have any wisdom teeth," she says triumphantly.

"Lucky lucky," Skeeter grumbles. Rue grins at him, her brown eyes twinkling happily. He can't stay upset with her for very long.

"Au'm gonna hauv' ta git 'em out in th' year," Edward sighs.

"Me too," Jason mutters.

"You have nothing to worry about," Poppy says certainly. "None of you."

Tanner nods, "She's right. It's not that bad, you'll be fine. End of discussion."

Everyone nods and the conversation switches.

"Alright, on to love-lives, then," Bonnie says.

"Or lack of," Posy adds, gazing for just a second at Kelley.

Kelley, who is either oblivious or uncaring of Posy and Bonnie's crushes on him, doesn't look at either of them and instead grins at Edward. He glares at them and stares at the ground, embarrassed.

Since nobody jumps at the opportunity to talk, Kelley says, "He's bin' talkin' ta 'is little girliefriend!"

Edward glares but doesn't say anything. Kelley laughs gleefully and says, "He's head-ov'r-heels 'n love!"

"Aum not!" Edward protests, trying to hide the fact that he's blushing bright red.

"Yer in love!" Kelley sings out. Bonnie and Posy giggle quietly and Marvel grins at him.

"Hate to say it, but you look like you're lying," Marvel says.

Edward glares at all of them and mumbles, "Jus' a little cr'sh."

"Knew 't!" Kelley grins, "Knew 't!" Edward buries his face in his hands to hide the blush, and everyone in the group laughs.

"I think you've got a good shot with her, Edward!" Locke says encouragingly.

"Yeah, you'll be good for her," Jason says with a smile.

Then the conversation shifts slightly.

"Vick got Madge back," Posy says, "Finally."

"Just for a summer trial, though," Prim says. "She can't trust him still, but she's trying. If it goes well this summer, they'll keep it up in college, too."

"Can't say I expected her to date him again," Marvel comments. "Why would she date someone that she saw cheating on her?"

"Well, I dunno," Posy says, "But she won't be let down. Vick's planning to be faithful this time, and he's told us all that it's our job to keep him that way."

"Though it shouldn't be," Prim mutters to herself.

Posy overhears this and nods in agreement, "She's right. I think he's got it in him to be faithful without our help, but he's scared he's going to get himself into another bad situation. He can do it."

Everyone nods.

"Your brother's not a natural scumbag," Marvel comments. "It just happened once but it's not in his nature."

Posy smiles, "Exactly. He'll be smarter about everything this time. And better to his girlfriend."

"I'm glad for him," Poppy says, "Really, I am. He took relationships a little bit too fast for my taste, but hey, that's nothing really against him." Marvel puts an arm around her and she smiles, leaning against him.

"We're doing good," he remarks, when nobody else has anything to say about the subject of Vick and Madge.

"Yeah, we are," Poppy smiles. "Summer gym was torture for both of us but hey, we're here now, right? So glad it's over," she says as a side remark.

"Ours starts tomorrow," Skeeter says, a chord of dreading in his voice.

"Ben's in my class, and I have no friends with me," Tanner sighs, "Just my luck."

"Don't worry, though," Jason says, "We'll watch 'im."

Skeeter, Locke, and Jason all reflect on the scene last year in which Jason had threatened Ben with a knife in the swimming locker room, while Skeeter watched in shock and Locke tried to instill peace. That was when the boys first met Elijah and Nate, when Elijah pulled Jason off of Ben by the scruff of his neck. The seniors had scolded them and called them all bullies that day, not knowing of Ben's nature until later in the year.

It's hard to tell that those two boys are the same people they are now. Good friends of the glee club that see Ben for the jerk he is; but they would still probably not be very keen with Jason's death threats. It was one of Skeeter's happiest memories, though, and it still is. Locke is still unamused by the thought, but Jason and Skeeter exchange an impish grin. Santana would sure appreciate that story, thinking back on it.

"Ben's pretty scared of Jason," Skeeter reflects, grinning.

Locke looks over, sighing, "Are we really going here right now?"

"Yes we are!" Jason's voice chimes a little bit with pride. "He got acquainted with my knife last year," he reflects happily.

"I'm left-handed, bitch!" Skeeter cheers, and the two boys high-five. Locke sighs.

"Oh well," Tanner says. "I still have faith in him."

"I don't understand why," Jason sighs. The others agree quietly.

"I dunno, maybe I'm just being too faithful in him. Maybe I'm just being too optimistic. But I just feel like he gets a lot of shit from everyone and maybe if he didn't, he'd be different."

"He shovels loads of shit right onto himself," Skeeter points out.

"Maybe he's just weak," Tanner says, "Emotionally weak."

"I doubt it," Jason says.

"Maybe he's onto something," Locke says, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "I mean, it's possible. It's not like his life's been anything great."

"I still can't wrap my head around the thought," Skeeter says.

"Me neither," Marvel adds, and the others agree quietly.

"Maybe we will someday," Rue says encouragingly.

"Maybe," Tanner agrees.

The group sits in awkward silence, in which Jason wonders if he should've mentioned the fact that Santana bought Locke's watch back from Ben. Jason knows that Locke wouldn't have any faith in Ben as a person if he knew. In fact, he'd probably end up hating Ben more than Jason, almost as much as Skeeter, really.

The group sits in awkward silence before Locke clears his throat and says, "Uh, let's make hotdogs!" The others quickly agree. While Tanner and the two friends go to the grill, the rest of the group continues the conversation.

"What about the rest of you?" Rue asks, curious. She takes Skeeter's hand and holds onto it, smiling.

"In terms of love? Nothing," Posy confesses. She's gotten good at hiding the fact that she has a crush, not even blushing at the statement.

"Really?" asks Prim, "Nothing?"

"Nope!"

Bonnie, who thought that Posy did like Kelley, breathes a sigh of relief. Now she feels reassured that she won't have to compete against her best friend for the boy's affection. Posy will never admit her crush to Bonnie, because Bonnie was the first to admit it to her.

Posy vowed to herself that she'll never reveal her crush. She doesn't want to cause any drama or trouble. Besides, she figures, we're only freshmen: no, future sophomores: in high school. The only person she's told so far is Madge, and she didn't tell Madge his name. Bonnie's confided in all of her female friends, including Prim, Rue, and Posy.

"H-How about you, Kelley?" Bonnie asks shyly, instinctively twirling one of her brown curls around her finger.

Kelley blinks. "Me? Nouthin'. Nouthin' 't all." When the future sophomore says it, he means it. Nobody's caught his fancy quite yet. Maybe someone will in the year, but not now. Kelley likes it better that way; he doesn't want to love anyone right now: his life is too busy to have to worry about the well-being of someone else as well as his own.

Kelley is naturally selfless, of course, and takes care of his friends and family well, but nobody in particular that he would want for a romantic partner, and Kelley's okay with that.

On the outside, he just shrugs and smiles when everyone else chimes in with, "Aw, why!?" This makes both Bonnie and Posy suspicious of his statement. They both think he might secretly have someone, deep inside, that he has a special affection for. Both of them are curious and determined to figure out who that mystery girl might be: though in reality, it's nobody at all.

"Hotdogs are ready!" Locke calls. "Who's hungry!?"

There's a chorus of happy, "Me!"s, and the other kids all get plates and fill them with chips, hotdogs, watermelon, and plenty of desserts.

Then the group sits back down, and the conversation continues.

"Hey Jason," Rue speaks up, after swallowing a bite of hotdog, "How's Santana?"

"Wh-Why are you asking me?" he squeaks out, embarrassed. He doesn't mention that he has been talking to her a lot through the early parts of summer.

"Because you're the closest one to her here."

Jason blushes as red as a tomato and mutters somethingthat sounds somewhat like, "Shut up, she's okay I guess. Not like I'd really know…"

Everyone laughs and Locke grins, amused. He pats Jason's back and says, "You're just as bad as O'Callaghan with Artelind, buddy!" which causes everyone to giggle more.

They all exchange a big grin, except for Jason and Edward, who exchange an embarrassed look before both burying their faces in their hands, waiting for the others' eyes to leave them.

After everyone eats up, they all quickly get changed into their swimsuits and get into the pool.

The pool-time antics begin when everyone is able to get a squirt gun and start a water war. Poppy takes an intertube and a long, thin, board-shaped squirt gun and makes a hideout. Skeeter takes a bucket and pours loads of water on everyone in big attacks. Soon, everyone agrees to team up against Tanner, and they all giggle and laugh as they shoot at him and pour water on him.

Tanner laughs and fights back to the best of his ability, before Marvel turns on his allies and joins Tanner's side. The two boys are shot at and everyone has a good laugh about it, exchanging huge grins and soon shooting each other again in another big free-for-all.

After a while of shooting each other with water, the group decides on a truce and thinks of another game to play.

The group makes a circle and hits a ball around. Poppy silently counts the number of hits the group can get before the ball hits the water, and reports the count if it's over ten. The group decides to aim for twenty. Every time someone hits it too high or misses an easy shot, the group screams that person's name, and everyone laughs.

The ball is hit out of the pool more times than it's hit in, and each time, someone new chases it, picks it up, and quickly throws it back in, running back to the warm water to escape from the chilly wind.

The circle of friends decides to aim for twenty hits before the ball hits the water, though it takes a long while for them to finally be able to accomplish the goal. When they finally reach twenty, there's a great deal of gleeful celebration that goes on, and they all cheer and whoop like they don't have to go to summer gym early Monday morning.

After ending their game of volleyball, they play Marco Polo. Edward picks up Kelley and uses him as a human shield, much to the despair of the younger Irish boy. He tries repeatedly to squirm out of his brother's grasp, but Edward holds on.

Kelley is it after he's tagged by Skeeter, and then he tags Posy, and the game keeps on going. Kelley gets tagged every other time because of Edward using him as a shield, and everyone laughs at him every time. Kelley even laughs at himself, though.

The group spends some more time playing assorted games and having fun together before getting out of the pool and sitting together, wrapped up tightly in towels. They talk and giggle some more before getting dressed again and playing a game of Apples to Apples until parents showed up to collect the friends, one by one.

Locke and Jason are the last to be picked up, and they help Tanner clean up the plates and silverware, put the pool toys away, and close up the pool. The senior-to-be smiles at his friends and says, "Thanks for everything, you two."

"It was a lot of fun," Locke comments.

"Yeah," Jason says, smiling. "We should have more get-togethers."

Tanner shrugs. "Well, we'll all be seeing a lot of each other in gym," he grunts.

"Yeah," Locke says, sighing, "That sucks. But we'll all survive. I promise."

"Hoffsteader won't if he decides to be a jackass," Jason mutters.

Locke gives him a disapproving look. "I think Tanner's onto something, Jason. Might want to be careful what you say about Ben."

Jason shrugs as his family's car pulls up to the driveway.

"Thanks for having us, Tanner. It was really fun," Locke says, smiling.

"Sure thing," the graduated junior says, "I guess I'll see you on Monday."

Locke and Jason leaves, and Tanner watches them get to their car before shutting the door.

In the night, Tanner sits out on his deck, where he can see fireworks that are being shot off not far from his house. The bright colors spread out across the dark, clear, starry sky. Each color is accompanied by a bang, and Tanner jumps at the booms at first, but gets used to them.

As he sits back and relaxes, staring at the colors in the sky, Tanner thinks about his day. A grin spreads across his face at the memories he made today

He's always spent his Independence Days alone, but he's immensely glad that he had friends with him this year. Tanner's never experienced the power of friendship until he got to Panem, and he loves it. He truly believes that his friends have made him a better person.

And Tanner wonders if maybe he can do the same for Ben.