This new table alliance was a strange one that caught everyone's attention, especially with the new students obviously a part of the large group. They'd quickly bonded over their hour lunch break, having gotten to know each other on a much more personal level, but it's Gale and Myka whom have become particularly close. Though they didn't exchange many words, there was a mutual understanding of something deeper between them, something neither could explain. When the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch, Gale and Myka stay behind to continue their conversation while the others get ready to head to their next classes.
"See you guys later." Katniss says as she leaves the table with Madge, Rue, Kielli, and Domi. Their classes are in the opposite direction of the gym on the east wing of the campus. Everyone waves goodbye as Finnick, Thresh, Johanna, and Peeta start to get up from the table as well. Noticing that Myka hasn't got up yet, Finnick eyes him suspiciously as he continues talking to Gale. He didn't want to think of Gale as competition, and he'd heard he was straight anyway, but it doesn't ease the jealousy of the two getting along so well.
"You guys coming?" He asks, finally making them break their conversation with one another. Whatever was going on between them made him feel uncomfortable. They nod their heads in his direction and stand from the white table, scooting themselves off the attached bench seats. Finnick waits for them to catch up, not wanting them to continue building whatever connection they had. It wasn't that he didn't trust them or felt Myka belonged to him, but seeing them together just didn't settle quite right in his stomach. What did he have to worry about anyway? He was Finnick Odair. He got everything and everyone he wanted… right?
They make it to the gym locker rooms, separated by gender. Once inside, Thresh has already made it to his locker, Peeta and Gale headed towards theirs. Finnick smiles at Myka, who pulls out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Know what locker you have?"
Studying the paper, Myka finds the assigned locker number just beneath his schedule. "Yeah, it's 409."
Where was locker 409 again? Finnick bobs his head in the direction he wants Myka to follow him in. Okay, row one had the 1-100 lockers, row two has 101-200, row three has 201-299, row four is 300-399, and row five- damn it! Gale is already topless, his smooth olive skin exposed to the two of them. It would only make sense that Gale's locker happens to be 411, which is above 412 and right next to 409, just his luck.
"You okay, Fin?" The concerned cat-like yellow-green eyes stare into Finnick's sea-green ones. Something was obviously bothering Finnick at the moment.
"Yeah," his radiating grin returns to his face, masking his jealousy. "I must have been daydreaming about what lays underneath those clothes is all." The comment is obviously a sexual joke, something Finnick is notorious for. While most people find it endearing and appealing, Myka scrunches his eyebrows in distaste. He wasn't offended by the comment, but this wasn't the man he'd met yesterday. This was someone else; someone who used his looks and sex appeal to draw in the people around him, someone who was worshipped by everyone with his charm. This person was fake. And he didn't like this person one bit.
Myka's expression throws him off, unsure what he did wrong. The huge grin falters from his face, suddenly becoming worried. "Did I say something wrong?"
But Myka just shakes his head, pulling the strap of his black backpack from his shoulder to the bench in front of his locker. "Nothing. Thanks for your help."
Disheartened, Finnick decides to walk away, frowning at the ground and sulking while he makes his way to his own locker by Thresh. Myka doesn't notice, too preoccupied with putting his belongings into his locker, taking off his shirt and pants to change into his gym clothes. Gale had secretly been observing the scene from the corner of his eye, pretending to be texting on his cell phone. "I don't like that fake bullshit either." He suddenly says.
Myka looks up at him, surprised he had the balls to admit something like that. "You know, we hung out yesterday, decided to cut last period and go to a beach. He's different when he's not around a bunch of people."
"I wouldn't know." Gale admits. He's never hung out with Finnick or seen anything other than the flirty playboy persona he'd been so accustomed to. He suddenly whispers, "Fuck fake people. Feel like cutting a second day?"
The offer is nothing less than exceedingly tempting. Let's face it, sports really aren't his thing. And a cigarette sounds absolutely delicious at the moment. He hasn't had the chance to smoke much since having to go to a public school; he'd usually smoke a whole pack of cigarettes a day. Then again, it was a lot easier to do when the people around you didn't care and you were "home-schooled." Having to go without one of those precious sticks for too many hours made him fidgety. He was constantly twiddling his fingers, biting his lips, and chewing his wooden pencils down to the graphite. The choice seems pretty simple at the moment. "Fuck it. Let's go."
Smirking, Gale puts his gray tank top back on, never having changed out of his jeans. Myka does the same, tossing on a forest green shirt and searching through his locker for his pants. Gale can't help but sneak a peek. He wasn't trying to check him out or anything, and he didn't find men sexually attractive, it was more of a curious glance. He spots a large tattoo of a gray wolf on the side of Myka's right thigh. It's a beautiful wolf; standing in a stance is if it were stalking. It's a pleasant sight rather than the stereotypical howling pose. He asks, "When did you get that?"
Puzzled by what Gale had meant, he looks up at him from his hunched position, brows furrowed and eyes curious. Gale simply looks back down at his thigh when he understands what he'd meant. "Oh, that. I got it done last year. Thought it'd make a great totem."
A grey wolf, that certainly did make a great totem for Myka, it described him perfectly. Impressed, Gale nods his head respectably and grabs the rest of his things, waiting for Myka to finish getting dressed. It isn't long before the tall boy with the wolf tattoo has his things packed and backpack thrown over his shoulder, signaling he was ready to leave. The other students are either finishing up in the locker room or they're already in the gym. Gale and Myka sneak through the back exit of the locker room and hastily take off away from the campus and towards the parking lot.
In the gym, Finnick is looking around for any sign of the boy with the cat-like eyes. It looked like everyone had left the locker rooms, already present in the gymnasium. Frowning, he jogs over to the locker room, wondering if he perhaps just stayed behind. But the locker room is completely empty. He walks back out into the gym and searches around a second time. A hand slaps his shoulder blade, and when he turns around he sees Thresh and Johanna with confused looks on their faces.
"What's up, Fin?" the bulky teenager asks. "You okay, man?"
"Yeah…" Finnick brushes his fingers through his hair. "I was just looking for Myka is all."
Johanna is the one to answer him. "The cute one? He left with the other hot guy, what's his name- Gale."
"He did what?" Finnick shrieks. Whoops, he hadn't meant to let that one slip. Thresh and Johanna eye him suspiciously, wondering why the comment had bothered him so much. If Finnick and Myka were a "thing" it would surprise them, not because they don't believe Finnick wouldn't sleep with someone of the same sex, but because Finnick never got attached to anyone, at least not in a romantic sense. Finnick had been known to have many lovers, but none ever serious or lasting longer than a couple of days at a time. It just wasn't in his nature.
"Yeah, I saw them heading towards the parking lot just a couple minutes ago." Johanna continues. "They snuck out when everyone was heading to gym." After a long pause, Johanna bursts out asking, "Why do you care so much?"
The question catches Finnick by surprise. Johanna could be very blunt sometimes, but she was just curious, as was Thresh, though he typically kept to himself. "I was just supposed to get something from him for a class," he lies. Johanna and Thresh shrug it off, buying into the story. It made sense anyway. Finnick was always worried about maintaining his grades.
Naturally, Cato and Gloss have overheard the conversation. So Myka and Gale decided to split together and are suddenly best friends. "What the fuck?" The look on Gloss' face is filled with disgust. "Are they creating an army of dipshits and cocksuckers or something?"
"Makes sense since they're both faggots." Cato snarls. What were the chances of those two not only attending the same school, but also becoming really good friends? It hit too close to home and the territory was starting to burn dangerously. The two needed to be put in their place publicly for the whole world to see. If they were going to be friends, they were going to be friends with the rest of the world hating them. He decides to find a way to make both their lives a living hell.
Gloss is laughing at the situation. He's never liked Gale, not since he stole his girlfriend in middle school. Well, she was technically Gale's girlfriend, but she promised Gloss that she would leave Gale so they could be together. Whatever, it doesn't matter. The fact is Gale should never have been competition in the first place. As for Myka, he really didn't know anything about the new guy, but Cato obviously hated his guts, and he had publicly battered Cato and Marvel in front of the school, and that was reason enough to hate the guy. "Marvel said he got the address to the new kid's place and work. Wanna handle some business when he's walking home or something?"
Originally, that had been Cato's plan as well. But then he remembered how disappointed Peeta became when he talked about "handling business" in front of him with Glimmer. Needless to say, he was still going to settle his score, but he couldn't do anything that would point back to him. He had to be sneaky about it. "No. I'll think of something. Until then, don't do anything."
Cato was their leader and whatever he says goes. Gloss nods his head, "Yeah sure."
Just as Gloss is about to say something else, Peeta hesitantly walks up to them. It feels awkward, but he doesn't want to be alone and he had no idea where Gale is. He'd chat with Delly, but she doesn't seem to be present either. Wondering if he'd overstepped some sort of boundary, he offers a discomforted smile and shifts from foot to foot. Luckily, Cato isn't one to feed him to the wolves. He instantly grins at Peeta's company. "Hey man! Why don't you meet my friend, Gloss. He's Cashmere's brother. Gloss, this is Peeta."
Relaxed, Peeta's discomfort softens and he extends his hand to the blonde boy with curly hair in front of him. "Nice to meet you, Gloss." The resemblance to his sister is uncanny; they look more like twins than anything else.
"Uh… yeah. You too, bro." Gloss looks over at Cato, silently asking how he knows the bashful new kid with his eyes.
"Peeta is my study partner for one of our classes. He's a good friend, too." He explains. At this, Peeta smiles, it was nice to be considered a friend by someone like Cato. He's also relieved that it doesn't look like Cato has mentioned anything about the other ways they know each other. "Come on, Peeta. Let me introduce you to a couple of my friends."
The group walks over to another group of three, all female. "Hey bitches, come over here. I want you all to meet someone."
The girls roll their eyes. Cato could be such a dick when he wanted to be, but they all meet them in a circle. "What do you want, asshole?" a tiny girl with brown hair asks.
Instead of being offended by the comment as Peeta would have expected, Cato laughs. "Ladies, this is my friend, Peeta. Peeta, you've already met Glimmer and Cashmere. The other one is Clove. Don't let her tiny figure fool you, she's concentrated evil."
"Says the devil himself." Clove retorts effortlessly. Aside from Marvel, she really is one of Cato's best friends. He could trust her with just about anything. Sometimes he wished she and Marvel could switch bodies. Marvel may be his right hand man, loyal to a tea, but Clove was definitely much more fierce and ready for a fight.
"Where are you from, Peeta?" Gloss asks, interested in finding out more about this new kid. Most of the school has known each other for years, having practically grown up together. To be accepted into this group, they needed to know a little more about him or at least understand why Cato was so willing to accept him into their pack.
"Barkley County. My family and I just moved here." At least they weren't ignoring him and talking about cheerleading or some other gossip this time.
"Oh, that's cool." Gloss says.
Suddenly, Glimmer asks the question they've all had in the back of their minds, "Why do you hang out with those other losers? You don't seem so bad."
Ouch, talk about getting straight to the point without any disregard for anyone's feelings or who she might be insulting. Cato narrows his eyes at her stupidity before Peeta can reply. "Glimmer!"
But she feels justified in her question. "What? I just want to know why he's wasting his time with that group of swine. If you guys are friends, he shouldn't be hanging out with that asshole that broke my boyfriend's nose… or the guy that stole Gloss' girlfriend! They're all disgusting vermin anyway. Did you know that Katrina chick actually told him that Gloss was trying to steal her away from him? That stupid slut."
Feeling his cheeks burn, Peeta corrects her. "Katniss. Her name is Katniss. She's actually really nice."
"Whatever. My point is they're all losers. You seem cool enough, so if you want my advice- ditch em. You'll have more fun with us anyway. Besides," she points at the exit, "it looks like your new friend left you without even saying anything or inviting you along. We'd never do that."
This girl might have been a bitch in every sense, but she was right about Gale. Peeta was bummed out that he just decided to take off without saying anything to him or inviting him along. Did Gale think he was too innocent? Or maybe he just wouldn't have enjoyed his company as much. Whatever the reason was, it still hurt his feelings.
Noticing the gloominess starting to take over, Cato attempts to disperse the mood. Normally, he wouldn't care less, but with Peeta it was different. He actually hated to see the kid sad. He knows exactly what to say to distract everyone, including Glimmer. "Fuck that. Let's talk about this awesome party that's happening this weekend!"
Sure enough, it was the perfect out. Glimmer is much more excited to talk about herself than anything else going on at the moment. Besides, this was her senior year which meant it had to be the best party to ever go down. "I want a Cinderella birthday party." She states.
"What? We're not doing a fucking princess party!" Cato scoffs. He'll be damned if she thought she'd ever get him to dress up as some bullshit prince. "Think of something else."
"No. It's my birthday and I want a Cinderella party!" She stomps her foot like a child. This girl was perfectly spoiled.
"Glimmer, I don't want to dress up like a prince either." Gloss says.
Irritated and heated, Glimmer rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. "I'm having a Cinderella party. If you don't like it, you can cry about it after the ball."
The guys groan in frustration. They're about to argue when Peeta chirps in. "Um… what about a masquerade ball? You can still do a Cinderella theme, but add more mystery and you'll be able to wear more colors. You're too pretty for a black collar and blue dress. You should wear something as pretty as you, like diamonds."
This boy was a genius. The way he explained the masquerade ball made everyone excited, the guys would still wear suits and button-ups, but they'd be more inclined and excited to dress up for a gathering like this. Not to mention, Glimmer loved being the center of attention, and so his suggestion of a more glamorous dress to suit her beauty was really the icing on the cake. Cato and Gloss pat his shoulders in appreciation. Glimmer, Cashmere, and even Clove are giddy about the idea as well.
"Peeta, you are so right!" Glimmer beams. "And you'd better come to my party. Cato, I can see why you're friends with him. Peeta is so cool, and so sweet!"
"What's this about a masquerade ball?" An ever charming Finnick pipes in curiously.
"I am having the most amazing birthday party in the world at my place this weekend. Spread the word and make sure you're all in formal clothing and masks." Glimmer looks so smug with herself as if it were her own idea.
"Awesome! This is going to be just as good as your tiki theme party last year! Especially now that you've sacrificed your virginity and all." He winks. This was not to say that Glimmer got around or that she was cheap. Last year, she was the virgin sacrifice of her party, dressed in very provocative attire made of flowers and drenched in a pool of lava- or water with yellow, orange, and red lights reflecting under the surface. It was a great party and people were still talking about it. But this year was going to be greater still.