Hey everyone. Hope you are all doing great. I am going to introduce a different POV in this chapter as well as doing some development for a lot of the character relationships for this story. Enjoy!
Chapter 12:
Finnick's Party Pt.2
Marvel's POV
We're we back in Finnick's basement and Glimmer is fussing over her lake-ruined makeup in the bathroom mirror. Gale, Peeta, Katniss, and Madge are laughing in one corner of the basement, and Finnick and Annie are like half cuddling on the couch, and Cato and Clove are standing in the far corner of the room having a very heated discussion. But I have found that I can't take my eyes off of Johanna. I feel kind of dumb for staring at her, but I can't stop thinking about the fact that she kissed me. Knowing Johanna, it probably just means that she hated the idea of kissing me the least and it barely lasted two seconds, for some reason I feel like it is more. Clove's "I knew it!" keeps running around in my head. I almost decided to get up and walk over to her when Glimmer comes strutting out of the bathroom. I roll my eyes as she walks over to me. I love my twin and all, but I can't wait for the day when she stops walking around like she is all that. As she walks past Johanna, she bumps her with her knee causing Johanna to fall off of the ottoman.
"Glim," I start, but she immediately cuts me off when she sits down.
"Ugh, this party is so boring. I wish Cash had decided to come. And now I have disgusting fish pee lake water in my hair," She complains.
"It's not that bad," I say. "At least your shoes are still fine."
Glimmer smiles the mention of her 95% intact shoes and I think of how shallow Glimmer can be sometimes. She is beginning to get unruly now that her cup of liquor is wearing off and I pray that something happens before she gets bored. A bored Glimmer is not kind to deal with. In the eight grade, she once got so bored at a sleepover party that she cut off another girl's ponytail while she wasn't looking. In our sophomore year, she decided that homecoming was "too boring" so she started a rumor about some random couple and they ended up having a messy breakup during the dance over something that never even happened.
That's the thing about Glimmer, at Panem Public High School, she is the Queen Bee and has been since Freshman year. Everyone either loves her, hates her, or fears her, and not only does she know it, but she can figure out who is in which category. This is probably why she hates Clove and Johanna so much because they don't care.
It's something that I have always admired (from a distance) about Johanna. She doesn't buy into any of Glimmer's games, and my sister has a lot of them. I still remember Glimmer dragged me to a party last year and we ran into Johanna. It was when she had just put the red streaks in her hair. Glimmer had told her that it made her look like someone who lived with rats and got high every day of the week. Johanna had grabbed a bottle of red wine, poured it all on Glimmer's all-white outfit, and left the party. That is when I really noticed her for the first time.
"What are you looking at Miller?" Johanna snaps, referring to me by my last name. I didn't realize I had been staring at her for so long.
"Nothing," I mutter.
"So you are saying I'm nothing?" She fires at me. That is the one thing I don't like about Johanna Mason, she is always so ready for a fight and always thinks that everything is a dig at her.
Clove and Cato have wrapped up whatever they were talking about and Clove gives Johanna a meaningful look before pulling her upstairs. I hear her say something to Finnick about getting some snacks, and after he gently lays down a now sleeping Annie on the couch, he follows the other girls upstairs.
Annie's POV:
"Stop, stop!" I hear Johanna laughing.
I open my eyes and look around, a little confused about why the world is turned sideways. Then I realize that my head is lying on Finnick's lap. I don't think he realizes that I am awake and I feel him absentmindedly stroking my hair. Johanna, Clove, and Katniss are stretched out on a Twister mat, and they are all laughing. Despite the fact that Finnick's fingers running through my hair feels really good, I sit up. I love Twister. It was one of the few games that I actually enjoyed playing when I was at my all-girls school and by junior year, I got really good at it. I also used to do gymnastics, and even though stopped last year, I still make sure to maintain my flexibility.
"Hey, sleeping beauty," Finnick whispers in my ear.
I turn to Finnick and smile. I lay my head on his shoulder as I wait for this round of the game to be over.
Marvel spins the spinner and calls out "Clove, left hand on yellow." Clove reaches over Johanna but when she goes to place her hand on the circle, she slips and her, Katniss and Johanna fall on a heap on the mat.
"Who's next?" Cato asks.
"Me!" I say.
"Annie! Your up!" Clove says with a large smile on her face.
"Yup, and I am going to crush you!" I say confidently.
"Wow, the shy girl getting cocky," Johanna teases.
"Oh yeah," I say.
Glimmer joins me and Johanna says that she will play again. I stop and stretch for a minute and everyone laughs at me, but I don't care. You have got to stretch if you want to win.
"Alright Glim. Right foot on blue," Marvel calls out.
After a few minutes, Glimmer falls to the floor and walks back to the couch with a sigh. She grabs a bottle of vodka and takes a large swig from it.
"Annie, right-hand green," Marvel says with a laugh. Both of my feet are on yellow circles, one in front of the other, and my left hand is on blue. Johanna is right in my way and the only way that I can get over her is by arching my back and going into a bridge.
"Wholy crap!" Johanna says from beneath me. "I didn't know you were that flexible."
"I know. Get ready to lose," I say.
"Did you know Annie was this competitive?" I see an upside-down Clove ask Finnick.
"Nope," He says.
"Johanna left foot on green."
Johanna's left foot, which was previously on red, stretches all the way to the other side. She just manages to get her foot on the dot without falling.
"Annie left foot on blue."
I take a brief glance around and see that the only blue circle I can get to is on the other side of Johanna. I smile to myself.
"Ready to see real flexibility?" I ask Johanna.
I move my right foot onto my toes and I bring my left foot over my head and place it on the blue circle. I hear Glimmer let out a gasp and my legs go into splits and I am only really supporting myself on my hands. I have to lower myself a little to make sure that my feet are still touching the circles and it is just enough for Johanna to fall and slither out from under me. I kick my legs up, going briefly into a handstand before kicking my legs back into a lunge and standing up.
Everyone has a shocked look on their faces, but I can't take my eyes off of Finnick's face. His mouth is opened in surprise and his face holds a mixture of surprise, awe, and something else that I can't place.
"How did you do that?" Madge asks.
"I used to be a gymnast," I say casually.
"That is seriously awesome," Madge replies.
"What else can you do?" Marvel asks.
I wink at Finnick before going into a back handspring with ease and then go back into a handstand and walk back to the couch on my hands. I sit next to Finnick and ask what we are doing next without a second thought. There aren't many things that I am good at, but I am actually pretty good and gymnastics.
"You are just full of secrets aren't you?" Finnick whispers to me. I turn so my lips are right next to his ear.
"You don't even know."
"Okay you two, break it up," Johanna says. I can tell that she is forcing a joking tone in her voice but when I look at her face I can see the tense look on her face.
I don't really know what is going between Finnick and me right now, but I don't really want to have Johanna's overprotectiveness screwing it up. I mean, I love the fact that she and Clove want to protect me, but I don't think they are right about Finnick, and even if they are, I want to figure it out on my own. Well, I don't want to figure it out, but still.
Cato's POV:
It is almost midnight, so we are all starting to get ready for bed. I am in one of the spare bedrooms so I can change and I am just about to pull my t-shirt for bed on when Glimmer walks in.
"Hey, Cato," Glimmer says in what I am sure is supposed to be her seductive voice. It does nothing to me.
I rush to put my shirt on but Glimmer quickly snatches it away from me and runs her hands over my sides. I try to pull away, but I have backed myself into the wall.
"Glimmer stop," I say coldly.
"Why Cato?" She traces my lips with her index finger and even when I try to pull my head to the side, she won't let me. I can smell the alcohol on her breath. I know that Glimmer has always wanted me to go out with her, but she gets worse when she is drunk.
"Because you're drunk."
"That doesn't matter. I would want you even if I wasn't drunk. And I'm not that drunk." She tries to press her lips to mine but I shift my head to the side just as I hear Clove's voice.
"What the heck?"
Glimmer moves off of me and I can tell that she is about to yell at Clove, but I am already rushing past her to Clove. Clove is faster than I am and she is already rushing past Johanna and up the stairs of Finnick's basement when I am just exiting the room. I can hear Glimmer drunkenly calling me to come back to her but I ignore her and run after Clove.
"Clove!" I call after her. I see her dark hair flash around and corner and follow her outside. She stands in front of Finnick's pool. I hear a loud splash as Clove hits the pool.
"Clove," I say.
She spins around and she looks like she is about to kill me.
"Please let me explain," I start, but Clove angrily cuts me off.
"I can't believe that I was actually about to say yes to moving into your house! I can't believe that I thought that you weren't like all of Glimmer's boy toys! So no thanks to living at your house while girls like Glimmer are at your house on you."
I move towards Clove, so we are both standing next to each other.
"I'm not! Glimmer..."
"What, she pushed herself on you? Well, I didn't exactly see you pushing her away!"
"I..."
"Tried? Sure you did! Stop lying, Cato! I saw you!"
She turns to walk away and I grab her wrist to stop her. She spins around and pushes me into the pool. I sink to the bottom and start flailing my arms around, pretending to drown. When I reach the surface, I sputter out, "Clove, I can't swim," before going under again. I feel the splash of her jumping into the pool and I swim up to her and wrap my arms around her, dunking her under before pulling her up to the surface. She coughs up a little water and hits me in the arm.
"You said you couldn't swim!"
I ignore her yelling.
"Glimmer is drunk and she has been trying to get with me forever. I don't want her. Please reconsider it. She not going to be over at my house, I swear. Just please, you can't live underground all year long. It isn't safe."
"Cato-" Clove starts.
"Clove please."
"Fine. Whatever. Um, can we not tell anybody about my living with you? I mean, your the only one that knows that I live there and..."
"Of course I won't tell. We can move you in tomorrow after we leave."
"Can you let go of my now?" She asks and I realize that I am still holding her bridal style in the water and that I am shirtless. Her hair is stuck to her face and I am so close to her that I can make out every single freckle on her face.
"Let go of you, of course." I stand up as tall as I can and then I release her into the water. She splashes under and when she comes up, she splashes me with water, but she is standing on her tip-toes. I climb out of the water and grab her hand and pull her out. When we walk downstairs, everyone is already under blankets Johanna, Gale, Peeta, and Madge seem to be already sleeping. Clove and I rush an unoccupied corner of the room and tuck ourselves under our separate blankets before anyone notices that we are both wet and dripping water across the floor.
Do you think Clove made the right decision by agreeing to live with Cato? What did you guys think of Marvel's POV?
Until next time,
Stay happy, healthy, and safe,
-Jewel.