Most teenagers enjoy summer - the freedom from school, the sunny beach weather, the warm nights - but Johanna enjoyed the cold. She liked the soft quiet of snow, the bloated gray clouds that waddled in front of the deceivingly cold blue sky, the bundling of scarves and coats. And now that she was with Katniss, she enjoyed the red blush on Katniss's cheeks as they met the sharp slap of wind in the air. Each day she waited on the corner of her block for Katniss and Prim to come down the sidewalk, breathing the brittle wind as she did so. She waited to see the blips of brown and blonde hair through the fat snow and the rosy cheeks of her girlfriend.

I'd say you make a perfect angel in the snow. All crushed out on the way you are.

Winter spelled death for a lot of things - flowers, warmth, trees, bare skin, easy walks through clear streets - but to Johanna it always smelled fresh. Snow covered everything that was within the earth and froze it, keeping the nutrients ready for the inevitable warming of spring. That particular day there was an overcast above her head, drooping pregnant gray clouds pushing out large but light crystals of snow. Johanna shoved her hands into the pocket of her wool coat and tilted her head back to stare at the sky. Her tongue automatically emerged from her mouth to catch the fresh flakes and feel them melt in her mouth.

The February wind wrapped around her as she waited for the sisters to arrive on her block. While Katniss was fairly punctual, Prim was a time-sucking disaster who took decades to get ready for anything. When she finally saw the peek of blonde hair bouncing down the sidewalk a smile widened on her face, even though they would probably be five minutes late. She withdrew one of her earbuds from her ear and tucked it into her coat.

It was worth it though, to see Katniss's reddened face approach her happily, hurrying her sister alongside her. "Keep up, Little Duck! We're going to be late." Johanna heard Katniss's voice through the gentle snow and smiled. Once the girls got to her she took Katniss's gloved hand in her own. "I'm sorry," Katniss said, leaning down slightly to kiss Johanna on the cheek as they begin their short trek to the school. Immediately her hand replaced her lips on Johanna's face. "You're freezing."

"I have been waiting about ten minutes in the freezing cold because some little blonde wants to look pretty for her boyfriend." Prim nudged Johanna as she walked beside her, a pale red blush coming across her alabaster skin. Prim let out a small whine and Johanna sighed. "I know, I know, he's 'not' your boyfriend. He's just a boy you talk about nonstop every time I come over to teach you piano."

Prim gave a haughty sigh and compressed her lips. Katniss chuckled at the exchange, letting go of Johanna's hand in favor of wrapping it around her arm and snuggling into her side as they walked. Winter could never feel cold with Katniss leaning into her like that. The season was only cold if you were lonely, otherwise there was warmth to be found inside the curled embrace of someone else. While she missed seeing Katniss's extraordinary legs in skirts and shorts, she was just as lovely in thick jeans and knit scarves.

Don't you know that I love you? Sometimes I feel like a cold still life that fell down here to lay beside you.

Johanna was still insistent that they keep their relationship a secret even though it was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the natural touches between them. It had gotten to the point where she'd text Katniss a set of coordinates - bathroom, north wing, second floor, ten minutes - and meet her there to kiss her until they both saw stars. She was also still insistent that they not become intimate in spite of Katniss's repeated attempts to persuade her otherwise.

It was getting harder and harder every day for Johanna to resist the primal urge inside her to explore their relationship further. Sex had always been very easy for her. It came as naturally to her as breathing and walking; more accurately, it came to her like music. You could wax poetic all day about the similarities between music and sex - Johanna was equally talented and interested in both. However, her interest in sex was not as deep as her love of music. She could spend weeks poring over a great classical piece but she could only spend a few hours with a girl before she was bored.

She had never "come out" in any sort of strict sense of the term. Her preteen days were spent plowing through lesbian movies she downloaded online and fawning over posters of attractive women on her walls. Of course there was that lost year she spent absolutely hating herself for having these thoughts, nearing full-blown homophobia until her mother finally intervened and set her "straight." Johanna never took for granted her mother's wide open acceptance. She wouldn't have been herself without it.

The first time she had ever kissed a girl was at summer camp when she was thirteen. Some girl from another town that she never saw again; a freckled brunette named Jamie with murky eyes and full, kissable lips. The first time she had slept with a girl was Cashmere back when she had just entered high school. There was nothing particularly special about it. They got drunk at a party and somehow fumbled their way upstairs and ended up having an awkward but exhilarating night of discovering how their bodies worked.

Cashmere demanded they not tell anyone for a myriad of reasons: Johanna was a freshman, a girl, not exactly popular, and all of the above would ruin Cashmere's carefully constructed reputation. Johanna had no qualms about obliging this deal and used the experience to embolden her sexual prowess. In a matter of only three years she had slept with another handful of girls, each time seducing a girl who had never been with a female before. She became addicted to the thrilling passion of bringing a girl to a place she had never been before. Johanna enjoyed the sensation of eliciting reactions from her partner that she never experienced. It was like peeling the plastic off of a new electronic.

The churning of the gears in her mind cranked differently as she and Katniss slowly coupled. For both their sakes, she had been putting off getting to that step. Her past experiences had taught her one thing: sex was the death of the thrill. Once a girl was had, all her vulnerabilities and skin laid bare, there was little more to her that Johanna cared about. It reminded her of a song she really loved: "Talking leads to touching, touching leads to sex...and then there is no mystery left." What was beyond that step for them? She didn't know.

Today was special. It was February 16th, which meant exactly two months until Junior Prom. The walls of the school were a smattering of blood red and crisp white posters depicting the "Roarin' Twenties" theme the class had chosen for the event. It was a '20s style dress-up dance held in the larger gym inside the school, and in spite of its campy theme it was still a big deal with the stressed class. The process of beginning to select colleges and prepare for the next year was always a stressor on the sixteen and seventeen year olds. To alleviate this, the junior prom was held a month before the senior one to give them something to break up the endless amount of applications and midterms that normally plagued that time of year.

For Johanna, that meant asking Katniss a very important question: If she would mind going to prom together. In one of their many small arguments about being "closeted" Katniss had repeatedly said the only compromise she would make would be agreeing to this forced abstinence in exchange for being "out" at school. Going to prom officially as a couple would settle that argument and hopefully stave off Katniss for a while.

As their relationship had progressed over the last six months, Johanna realized she was being unreasonable. She didn't need to protect Katniss, especially if she didn't want the protection. So since the beginning of the year she and Finnick had been brainstorming ideas on how to ask Katniss to prom. This way Katniss could have both things she wanted - to be out and to go to prom.

She ruled out some big announcement or an attention-getting gesture. She also didn't want to decorate her locker or do something tired and cheesy. Instead they decided on something they both thought Katniss would like: Archery.

A few miles outside of town there was an archery range that Johanna knew Katniss like to frequent. A week earlier Johanna had approached the owner, a kind older man who knew Katniss well by now, and asked about putting together a special archery range just for her, for just one day. On February 16th Johanna would drive Katniss to her bi-weekly archery lesson, but the targets would be a little different. They would be equipped with a special mechanism Johanna had built herself in woodshop.

Finnick could barely contain his excitement and both Annie and Johanna had to keep him away from Katniss for the entire week leading to the date. But his nervousness was contagious and as Johanna drove to the archery range with Katniss she felt herself fidgeting. Katniss watched her body language carefully, as she always did, with a delicate eye that detected even the smallest amount of movement.

"Is everything all right?" Katniss ventured in a soft voice, looking over at her girlfriend.

Johanna was quick with a smile and a tight-lipped response. "Of course!"

Gray eyes squinted in her direction but she let the topic drop as Johanna pulled the old car into the lot. She cut the engine and turned to Katniss, who was busy putting together her things. Johanna got out of the car and walked around to Katniss's door, pulling it open for her. Katniss smiled in thanks and got her duffel bag with her quiver and strapped her bow over her shoulder.

"You're coming in with me?"

Johanna nodded. "Yeah, I thought maybe I'd hang out for a few, if that's okay?"

Katniss tensed a little before she responded. She didn't like to show off but she was very good at archery. At one point she had been the best in her home state for three years in a row. She was on the verge of a national championship when her father had died. She would have given up on it entirely but it was one of her father's favorite things to do. She kept a part of him alive, she felt, by continuing to put the arrow on the bow and let it fly.

What harm would it do for Johanna to see just how good she was? "Sure."

They entered the facility and Katniss greeted the familiar faces behind the desks. Some of the range was indoors, mostly for beginners. Katniss preferred the outdoor range that was set on a large field of plowed-over grass and high walls made of bales of hay. Once she got her things together she noticed something strange. For starters, there was no one else using the targets. Additionally, there were only five targets instead of the usual eight.

A skeptical glance toward Johanna went unnoticed by the brown-eyed girl, who was busy eyeing the intricate woodwork on the outside of the facility. With her suspicion firmly in her bones she lifted the bow and aimed at the first target. After a few moments of concentration she let the arrow fly.

It sunk into the fabric of the target dead center and suddenly a huge wooden 'P' popped up behind it, bidden by the target itself. Johanna watched from behind Katniss, arms crossed over her chest. She bit down hard on her lower lip to subdue a smile that was fighting hard to emerge. Katniss moved a few feet to her right and went to hit the next target.

'R'

She side-stepped again to her right and hit the next one.

'O'

And the next one.

'M'

And the last one.

'?'

Her bow slowly was aimed toward the ground as she looked out into the range. Each target was rigged with a letter behind it, spelling out the words Johanna clearly couldn't have just said to her like a normal person. She whirled around on her heel and looked at the girl who was poorly suppressing a grin. "Really?" Johanna nodded eagerly. Katniss placed the bow on the ground and jogged to Johanna, throwing her arms around her shoulders and planting a large kiss on her. "Of course I'll go to prom with you."

Johanna was secretly relieved. In spite of the trouble she had gone through securing the range for them and engineering the pop-up letters, she wasn't sure Katniss would say yes. "Yeah?"

"Yeah you secret romantic." Katniss placed her hand on Johanna's sternum affectionately, her other hand cupped around the back of Johanna's head, gently stroking her hair. Katniss filled with an irregular pride at how she was the only one able to draw out this adorable, romantic side of Johanna. The abrasive, enigmatic side she showed at school was clearly a front for the sentimental girl beneath. She kissed her again, then pulled Johanna's head to rest on her shoulder.

"Together? Like, together-together?"

"Yeah," Johanna breathed onto Katniss's neck, giving her a small peck on her pulse. Katniss shivered. "Together-together."

As winter melted into spring, the blankets of snow on the ground rolled up into bundles to expose the fresh green grass underneath. They only had two full months of school left and Katniss was glad to see the white devilish material disappear. Johanna seemed to like the winter festivities of making angels in the snow, snow-tubing and freezing at night staring up at the clear, cold sky, but Katniss hated the staleness of it all.

She was overjoyed to see the ice melting into the streets, making little rivers and straits that lead to the gutters. She was even more overjoyed to be nearing the end of their junior year. Katniss had done much better this year than last and had diligently been applying to colleges near and far. Her SAT scores were high and her grades were good so she had the pick of any college she wanted.

Of course, college was the furthest thing from her mind tonight. It was an unseasonably warm April night and Katniss had all her windows open in her bedroom. She sat in front of her dresser applying her make-up for the prom dance. Johanna had given her several "helpful" jazz records and documentaries to get Katniss properly suited for the party. They played in the background as she applied a heavy dose of eyeliner around her eyes.

She had decided on a short flapper dress in a deep crimson with knee-high stockings and a pair of impossible to walk in stiletto heels. Her mother had found a long boa of ambiguous provenance that Katniss didn't question and she tossed it around her neck. Outside the loud rumble of a car engine brought a smile to her features as she gave herself a look in the mirror.

Johanna's pearl black car sat at the curb, rumbling loudly at the edge of the Everdeen property. Like Johanna did with all things, she took impeccable (near obsessive, Katniss thought) care of her car. She loved old things and her vehicle was no exception: A pristine 1966 Pontiac GTO with all its original parts. Katniss liked the smell of old leather and pine from the small air freshener that dangled from her rearview mirror.

Hold you in my arms. I just wanted to hold you in my arms.

Her eyes scanned Johanna's outfit and it curled her lips into a smirk. She was wearing a tailored pinstripe suit and a wide-brimmed fedora. Instead of pants she wore a pinstripe skirt that cut just above her knee. In the small section between the two seats sat a wooden Tommy gun that rattled quietly with the shaking of the car's engine.

"We look like Bonnie and Clyde," Katniss remarked as Johanna accelerated and they took off toward Finnick's house.

Johanna chuckled and shook her head, reaching her hand over to adjust the knob on her radio. She refused to outfit the car with any sort of modern appliance so they were often forced to listen to some shoddy FM station on their trips in the car. "Bonnie Parker wished she was even a third as hot as you are," Johanna replied with a scoff.

My life. You electrify my life. Let's conspire to ignite. All that souls that would die just to feel alive.

"Such a charmer," Katniss replied in a faux New-Yorker tone. "Such a sweetheart." Katniss pretended to chomp gum in her mouth much to Johanna's visible chagrin. She parked outside Finnick's house and the thunderous rumble of her car spoke instead of the car's horn. Finnick, dressed in a sharp black suit and a pair of spats, emerged from his home with Annie - dressed in a modest sequin black dress - hanging off his arm.

His hair was slicked back and Annie touched it lightly as they approached the car. Katniss got out to let them in behind her seat and the four of them were off toward the school. "Jo! Are you like the female Al Capone?"

"Excuse you, it's Stephanie St. Clair." Finnick raises a pale eyebrow and Johanna sighed. "Madam Queen? The most notorious female gangster in America?" No one in the car supplied any support and Johanna rolled her eyes. "Whatever, fine, yeah, a female Al Capone."

But I'll never let you go. If you promise not to fade away, not to fade away.

Once the car was parked and all four teenagers filed out of the vehicle, they stood at the threshold of the school together. This would be the first time anyone knew for a fact that Johanna and Katniss were a couple. Her palms were slightly clammy and despite the Tommy gun she had made from wood strapped to her back, she felt defenseless. The two of them were at the mercy of everyone inside.

Finnick and Annie opened the door to the gymnasium, flooding the outside with bright lights and neo-jazz music. Johanna stood still, wide brown eyes with tiny pupils trying to gather up the necessary courage to enter the building. Intuitive by nature, Katniss turned to Johanna, taking the girl's chin and forcing Johanna to look at her. Her heels added extra distance to their natural height difference; her mouth was perfectly at level with Johanna's nose most of the time, but tonight it was at her forehead so she found herself looking down at the other girl.

"Johanna Mason, do you need a pep talk?" Katniss asked with a hint of humor.

"More like a shot of tequila and a billy club to beat anyone who says anything." She looked up at her girlfriend and smiled weakly.

Katniss guided Johanna's lips toward hers and kissed her - when she felt her pulling away she slid her tongue along Johanna's bottom lip and pulled a shudder from within the dark-haired girl. The flash of desire in Johanna's eyes was very rapidly replaced by fear. "It doesn't matter what happens in there, Jo. Literally nothing they say or do or even how they look at us is going to change my mind about you."

Johanna sighed. "It's not just tonight. It's every day until we graduate."

"So what? So they're going to tease me? Big deal I've been teased all my life. I'm not very good at making friends and I'm not going to get better anytime soon." Katniss tucked her arm into Johanna's and guided them both into the gymnasium.

Johanna found herself expecting the scratching of a needle on a record, the immediate freezing of everyone in the room, or some kind of overblown comical reaction. No one noticed them enter. Finnick and Annie found them immediately and brought them to get some punch and take goofy pictures. Maybe the night wouldn't be so bad after all.

Not one for school-sponsored dry dances, Johanna found herself toward the back of the room. She had danced with Katniss nearly all night but was nearing the height of her already low tolerance point for revelry. She talked amicably with Mr. Abernathy who actually seemed to be enjoying himself, possibly for the first time ever inside the school's walls. A slower song came on and Johanna watched as many of the students coupled up.

When he left to go break up two kids having an argument, his presence was replaced by another blonde. A smaller, but equally as miserable blonde. Johanna filled her lungs and leveled her eyes at the taller blonde. Whatever stupid junior boy had invited Cashmere as his date was going to get a punch in the groin. "What do you want, Cash?"

My love must be a kind of blind love. I can't see anyone but you.

Cashmere played a remarkably sinister grin on her lips and looked out toward the dance floor. She tucked one arm across her chest and under her elbow, the other bent to drink from her red solo cup. "First of all, don't even act like you're not going to miss me when I graduate in two months." Johanna loudly scoffed. "How long have you and Everdeen been a thing?"

"Why is it that every time your mouth moves I immediately want to stick a gun in my mouth?" Johanna eyed the dance floor nervously but found Katniss dancing the slow dance with Peeta Mellark. Hopefully she wouldn't see their interaction because she imagined a jealous Katniss was not a pleasant one.

Cashmere whistled. "My my, Jo, what a temper. If I recall correctly I think you're pretty fond of how my mouth moves." The older girl watched Johanna's fingers grasp her cup even tighter. She let out a low chuckle. "Does she know about us?"

Johanna's head snapped to the side. "'Us?' There is no 'us,' Cash. If you're asking if she knows you and I used to fuck around then yeah, she knows."

Are the stars out tonight? I don't know if it's cloudy or bright. I only have eyes for you, dear.

Cashmere wasn't bothered by Johanna's attitude. She had always found Johanna's temperament incredibly attractive. It was one of the reasons she had sought her out at that party. That and about three shots of tequila too many. Their agreement had been beneficial for her: she didn't have to deal with anyone knowing what sexual proclivities she preferred, and she had sex on a fairly regular basis. It was always violent and hurried and she had found herself slightly addicted to the rush. Not that she would admit it to Jo, but she was suffering withdrawal. Sex with her boyfriend was ...unsatisfying, to say the least.

"I guess that's why you haven't met with me in months, hm?" Johanna ran her tongue along her teeth and didn't answer back. Cashmere had texted her off and on over the last six months, but she had barely returned them. Cashmere pursed her painted lips. "So how is she?"

"The fuck do you mean, 'how is she?'"

"At soccer, you dumbass. What do you think? In bed! What's the new girl like?" Cashmere took another long sip of her drink before returning her attention to the incensed younger girl. She enjoyed squirming her way under Johanna's skin. Only second to squirming her way under Johanna's clothes. Having known Johanna for the past few years, she had been able to begin unraveling the younger girl. She knew what made her tick. And by the slow blush on her neck and the diverted eye contact, she knew she struck a nerve. "Oh my God you haven't fucked her yet? Isn't that just adorable? Pure as a freshly fallen snow." She tipped her gaze. "You must be dying."

You are here, so am I. Maybe millions of people go by.

"Shut the fuck up, Cash. I don't have to stand here and listen to this."

Johanna made one step toward leaving but she heard Cashmere's singsong-y tone behind her. "You do if you don't want me to go over there and give her all the details about us." Her sentence had the desired effect of freezing Johanna where she stood. The shorter girl turned around slowly and Cashmere took a moment to drink her in appearance. "Wouldn't it just kill her pure little heart to know how truly fucked up you are?"

"How fucked up I am?" Johanna coughed out the question as she advanced toward the blonde. Nothing about Cashmere's vindictive personality attracted her. She was already plenty angry herself. Her attraction was purely physical. It's like Frank Underwood said on House of Cards:" Everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power." Their "relationship" was about power. Fooling the other into thinking she had the upper hand. They each held each other's reputation over the edge of a building and that mutated into brutal, wicked sex that aimed to both satisfy and punish. For a while Johanna had craved it.

But since meeting Katniss, she felt she was losing her taste for blondes. For the violence. She was losing her taste for anyone else.

But they all disappear from view.

"Mhm." Cashmere knew the longer she talked to Johanna the higher the chance that someone would see them together and question it. So she opted to swoop in for the kill. "The next time I call you, you will answer. If you don't I'll just drive all the way down to Twelfth Street and have a little one on one with your new thing." The blonde brushed passed her to make her way back toward her friends. She tilted her head down toward Johanna's ear. "I'll tell her all about the dark, dirty things you have done behind closed doors." Johanna looked at her from the corner of her eyes. She could see the mocking pout on Cashmere's ironically angelic features.

She knew this wasn't going to be easy. While most of the class had acknowledged them by now and nothing had happened, Johanna was forever waiting for the other shoe to drop. And there it was. An ultimatum if there ever was one. Cashmere, for reasons Johanna could not figure out, knew the three secrets that she kept from Katniss. Well, the three secrets Johanna kept from pretty much everyone:

1. The scope of Johanna's physical relationship with other girls.

2. Her father.

3. Her involvement in a jazz band.

Cashmere knew how many girls Johanna had slept with because she had personally tracked down each and every one. She knew about Mr. Mason because of Polly's friendship with Cashmere's father, and she knew about Johanna's band because she had accidentally discovered her last year. The manipulative blonde had been using all of the above information to keep Johanna wrapped around her finger.

Since she had started seeing Katniss (a fact she also knew prior to confronting her) she felt the grip she had around Johanna loosen. That was ...unacceptable. She did not lose. She did not lose volleyball games, boyfriends, or fuck buddies. She especially didn't lose to homely girls from the outskirts of town. She rejoined her friends gathered around the punch bowl, but her piercing green stare was not on the dolled up girls and guys around her. No, she was stealing sly glances at a certain wannabe female gangster cutting into a dance between the baker and the new girl. She watched their easy movements, the simple way they seemed to fit together, the mirrored images of smiles on their faces. She watched, and she calculated.

And I only have eyes for you.

Music: Elliot Smith "Angel in the Snow," Muse "Starlight," and The Flamingo's "I Only Have Eyes For You."