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"The Treaty of Ghent ended which war?"
Cato groaned. "The Spanish-American war?"
"The Treaty of Ghent," Clove began to read the other side of the notecard, "was an agreement signed in 1814 that concluded the War of 1812."
Cato shrugged carelessly. "Oh."
"Oh," Clove mocked, "the midterm is tomorrow, Cato."
"And?" he asked, bored. His eyes wandered around the room as he focused on everything except the history of the United States.
"The Emancipation Proclamation, decreed by Abraham Lincoln, became effective January 1st of what year?"
Cato stared at her blankly.
"1863, Cato," she said disapprovingly. "1863."
"I knew that," he said with a lopsided grin.
Clove frowned. "You're a terrible liar."
"But I'm a pretty good kisser," he said, breaking eye contact only to glance down at her lips.
"Too bad you can't kiss your way through the AP U.S. History midterm," she replied, cold as stone. His grin faltered.
They were seated directly across from each other at Cato's dinner table, which had been overtaken by American History textbooks, notes, and charts. Clove was doing everything in her power to help him pass the upcoming midterm, but he was pretty much a lost cause at this point. Perhaps if he had done any of the assigned reading the first semester, he would at least have a shot at passing. While he had somehow managed to bullshit his way through all the tests and quizzes, the midterm was purely multiple choice along with two thematic essays. He would be lucky to get a D.
He smirked, running a hand through his tussled hair. "Maybe I just need some incentive."
She couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Here's some incentive for you: pass the midterm or go to community college."
"I could drop out of high school today and I would still be a billionaire the day I turn eighteen," he said arrogantly.
"Don't be so entitled."
"Don't be such a killjoy."
She tipped her head back in frustration. "The only killjoy in the room is the impending F that you're going to get on this midterm if you don't suck it up and study."
"I have a little proposition for you," Cato started, clasping his hands together. It wasn't hard to tell that he came from a family of successful businessmen. "You spend the next two hours just hanging out with me and having fun and doing basically anything other than U.S. History, and then I will go home, study my ass off, and make at least a C on the midterm."
Clove folded her arms across her chest, a look of amusement on her face. "I need to study, Cato."
"Come on," he pleaded, all the excitement of a child on Christmas Eve displayed across his face. "It's noon right now. By two o'clock, I'll be out of your hair and we can both study more effectively for the rest of the day."
She raised her eyebrows at him, unable to resist the annoyingly cute look of anticipation on his face. "What the hell," she said with a shrug, pushing her textbook aside.
His lips turned upward in the cutest smile she'd ever seen, and she fell in love with him all over again.
Ninety minutes later, Clove was cuddled into Cato's side as they lay together on the luxury recliner in his living room. She loved the feeling of his arms wrapped tightly around her, like she was the most valuable thing on the face of the earth. He was running his fingers through her hair, and they were just talking. About their lives, about their futures, about each other. Clove just kept thinking about how glad she was that she hadn't refused this because nothing could be better than what they were doing right now, not even acing her midterms.
"Can I tell you something I haven't told anyone, not even Johanna or Kat?" Clove asked, staring intently at the ceiling.
Cato nodded.
"Sometimes I question whether or not I want to go to Yale," she confessed. "I know it's stupid because I obviously have to go there. My whole family has gone there, and I will not be the fuckup who doesn't go to an Ivy. But I just wonder sometimes what would happen if I for once did something I wanted to do rather than what my family wanted me to do."
He didn't say anything in response. He didn't need to. She didn't want his advice; she just needed someone to listen.
"Did I ever tell you how my brother died?" he suddenly blurted.
"It was a car accident, right?" she replied.
"Drunk driving, to be exact," he said. "He wrapped his car around a tree, going ninety on Mulholland."
She hugged him a little tighter.
"I mourned his death by getting wasted," he continued in a hoarse voice. "How fucked up is that?"
Clove's stomach did a few flips at the sound of his voice sounding so raw and emotional. Never in her sixteen years of life had she ever imagined that the sound of Cato Astoria's voice would be giving her butterflies, yet here she was, curled up in his arms with an uncontrollable fluttering in her stomach. "We all grieve differently," she finally said with a shrug. "You can't be mad at yourself for wanting to numb the pain."
"You don't have to say that."
She tilted her head upwards to look into his pained blue eyes. "I mean it. You've been friends with me long enough to know that if I was still pissed about how you acted, you would know."
The corners of his lips tilted upwards. "I'm so fucking lucky to have you in my life."
She placed a tentative hand on his cheek, and without thinking, she pressed her lips to his. To her surprise, he kissed her back. God, had she missed the feeling of his lips on hers. Never in all her years of experience with kissing had she come across someone who could kiss her with the same perfect balance of dominance and tenderness as Cato. Somehow she knew that he didn't kiss most girls like he kissed her.
Maybe tomorrow the two of them would pretend like none of this had happened. But today, she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.
Clove was finishing up the conclusion paragraph of her second thematic essay when the bell that signaled the end of the first day of midterms echoed loudly throughout the school. She was radiant with confidence as she handed in her U.S. History midterm. Her pre-midterm make out session with Cato certainly had its intended effect.
She was feeling around the bottom of her bag for her phone when she collided with another student. She was half a second from bitching the girl out when she looked up only to make eye contact with Glimmer. There was a second of hesitation as Clove did a one over of her former best friend. She looked good, happy even.
"Sorry," Clove said. Tense was an understatement.
The two of them were practically strangers, which was beyond unusual for them both. They had spent their childhoods dreaming about being best friends for eternity, yet they hadn't even made it past junior year of high school.
"It's okay," Glimmer replied with a small smile. Clove wondered if there was a little bit of a double meaning in their words.
It looked like Glimmer was about to start walking again, but she hesitated. "How," she paused, almost as if she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. "How have you been?"
Clove wanted to cry. She hated that their friendship had come to this. "I've been okay. I just nailed that midterm," she said with a laugh. "What about you?"
"I'm doing pretty great actually. I've been doing a ton of modeling lately."
Clove smiled. She'd always known Glimmer would end up in modeling. "So I'm friends with a supermodel now?"
"Are we friends?" Glimmer asked tentatively.
Clove sighed. "We'll always be friends, Glim."
To tell the truth, she hardly remembered what they were fighting about in the first place.
"I miss you so much," Glimmer admitted. "So much."
By this point, people around them were starting to notice that the two of them were actually having a civil conversation with each other. Nearby conversations hushed, and nosy students took longer than usual retrieving books from their lockers.
"I'm really sorry," Clove admitted. "I never meant for things to end up like this."
Glimmer shrugged. The two of them started to stroll casually down the hallway, confused murmurs of the student body echoing throughout the school in a matter of minutes. The dynamic duo was possibly maybe not quite sort of back together. It was big news in the world of Panem Preparatory.
"Which midterm do you have tomorrow?" Glimmer asked as they walked out the front doors of the school and started walking down the steps. Even in December, the air was relatively warm on their skin. Yet another perk of living in southern California: the season of winter lasted for approximately two and a half minutes.
"Pre-calc," Clove huffed.
Glimmer opened her mouth to respond but closed it as she caught sight of something in the corner of her eye. Clove squinted to see what had captured Glimmer's attention. Off in a corner at the bottom of the steps were Johanna and Marvel in what looked like a pretty tense conversation. Johanna looked pretty distressed, and Marvel, as usual, seemed to be trying to comfort her, which didn't really bother Clove until he grabbed both of Johanna's hands tenderly. The moment was suddenly much more intimate than she first imagined, and she knew she was seeing something that she was not supposed to be seeing.
"They've sure gotten closer," Glimmer stated.
"Yeah," Clove replied impassively, narrowing her eyes at the two of them. "They sure have."
Finnick was finding it especially difficult to focus during his pre-calculus exam the next morning, partially because he couldn't get his mind off his upcoming date with Annie and also because Clove had been nervously tapping her pencil against her desk for the last fifteen minutes. He desperately wanted to whisper to her to cut it out, but Mags would fail them both without hesitation if she caught them talking during the exam.
He glanced over at Clove. Her mind looked like it was in a completely different world than where it needed to be. And then, all of the sudden, her eyes snapped back into reality and wandered right down to Jacqueline Fox's paper.
Holy crap.
He blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing correctly. Clove Carlton was cheating. On a midterm. The school board didn't take kindly to cheating, and they would all but expel her for cheating on a midterm.
There went any opportunity he had left to finally be able to focus on pre-calc. A little less than fifteen minutes were remaining to finish the exam, so he carelessly scribbled down some nonsense for the last three questions and turned it in just in time for the bell.
He had to jog to catch up with Clove, who was already out the classroom and halfway down the hallway.
"What the fuck?" he said between breaths when he caught up to her.
She gave him a confused look.
"I saw you cheating," he whispered urgently.
She sighed. "And?"
"I'm not going to tell on you, if that's what you're asking," he started. "I just – why?"
"I couldn't focus for shit," she admitted. "There's been a lot on my mind lately."
"About what? Cato?"
"No," she replied skeptically. "What makes you think it's about Cato?"
Finnick chuckled. "He told me about you guys' make out session the other night."
Clove blushed, rolling her eyes to cover up her embarrassment. "Well, no, it's not about Cato," she paused. "What do you know about Marvel and Johanna?"
Finn furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
She rolled her eyes again, annoyed less with Finnick and more with Jo and Marvel. "I mean I saw them getting very up close and personal with each other yesterday after midterms."
"Marvel and Johanna?"
Clove nodded.
"Okay, define up close and personal."
"At first they were just talking," she started off slowly. "And then all the sudden they're holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes and hugging very tightly, and I'm like 'What the fuck?' but I don't actually say that because Glimmer is right there with me and I don't want her to know that I don't know and-"
"Slow down," Finnick interrupted. "Glimmer was with you?"
"Yes," Clove said, as if it was the most obvious, normal thing in the world and why wouldn't she be with me? even though they'd spent the last four months despising each other's existence.
"And you saw all of this from how far away?" Finnick continued.
Clove shrugged. "We were at the top of the steps, and they were at the bottom."
He nodded, processing this information. "Well, I don't advise that you think too much about it. It's Johanna, for heaven's sake. How serious could it be?"
She chuckled in agreement as she spotted Glimmer at her locker. "I gotta go," she started before a mischievous smirk appeared on her face. "Have fun on your date with Annie tonight."
Finnick smiled, perhaps the most genuine smile Clove had ever seen on his face. "I will," he replied with his signature wink.
"To winter break!"
The whole crew clinked their glasses together clumsily, toasting to the end of the first semester. As usual, they were in the midst of a party at Marvel's house because surviving midterm week was definitely something to be celebrated. There were at least 150 people scattered around Marvel's property, but the ten of them had met up in the kitchen for the first drink of the night.
Glimmer and Clove were attached at the hip again, Finnick and Annie were in a world of their own, Marvel and Johanna kept sneaking glances at each other, Katniss was sandwiched between Peeta and Gale, and Cato just wanted to get drunk.
Everything was right in the world.
"Ladies," Cato said smugly as he wrapped one arm around Clove and another around Glimmer, "it's been quite a long time since I've been able to annoy both of you at once."
Clove chuckled. "Over the last four days, I have successfully completed four AP and two honors midterms at one of the most challenging college preparatory schools in the nation." She paused. "Please hold off on the annoying for another day or two."
"That reminds me," Cato started with a proud smirk. "Guess what I got on the U.S. History AP midterm?"
Clove smiled. "What?"
"B minus," he replied.
"Cato!" she squealed excitedly, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She would have kissed him if half the student body wasn't there to see it.
"We should study together more often," he said with a smirk, and she blushed furiously because she knew exactly what he meant by that.
A sarcastic response was on the tip of her tongue when she hesitated, momentarily distracted by the sight of an eccentric redhead headed in her direction. "Since when does Jacqueline Fox get invited to our parties?" she said to no one in particular, folding her arms across her chest defensively.
The rivalry between Clove Carlton and Jacqueline Fox was an age old one that had started in the first grade when Clove got runner up to Fox in the spelling bee. Ever since that day, the enmity between them had continued to grow, with Clove always being more popular and Jacqueline always getting a point or two higher than Clove on tests and quizzes. They had a mutual respect for each other that could only ever be overshadowed by their eternal loathing for one another.
"Clove," Jacqueline said in a sickeningly sweet voice. She glanced down at the red solo cup in Clove's hand with disdain. "We have a pressing matter that needs to be discussed."
Clove strongly resisted the increasing urge to roll her eyes. "Do we?"
"Do you want to do this here or somewhere more secluded?" Jacqueline said, clearly bored with the party atmosphere.
Suddenly Clove knew exactly what the "pressing matter" was, and her heart sunk to her stomach. Jacqueline couldn't know, could she? Clove was an expert cheater, not from experience but from sheer shrewdness. She covered her tracks well; even if Jacqueline did know, she wouldn't be able to prove anything.
"Whatever you prefer," Clove said breezily.
"Follow me," Jacqueline deadpanned, turning on her heel and leading them into Marvel's front yard. It was vacant. "I know you cheated off me on the pre-calc midterm. I saw you."
"So what?" Clove challenged.
Jacqueline looked disgusted. "So I'm turning you in to the principal, that's what."
Clove laughed, and Jacqueline furrowed her eyebrows. Nothing could quite compare to the joy Clove got from messing with Jacqueline. "No, you aren't."
"Yes, I am."
"No, you aren't," Clove repeated. "And if you do, I won't hesitate to tell Principal Snow all about your little illegal substance business."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied.
Clove rolled her eyes. "You're too smart to play dumb."
Jacqueline slumped a little, narrowing her piercing green eyes at Clove. "How do you even know about that?"
"You can leave now," Clove said with a smirk.
Jacqueline huffed. "You narcissistic, superficial, cynical fucking bitch."
Clove held up a hand to silence her. "Stop making a fool out of yourself and turn around, get in your car, and drive away."
"Fuck you, Clove," Jacqueline spat, turning on her heel and walking away furiously.
Clove let out a small sigh of relief as Jacqueline got into her car and sped away.
"What was all that about?" Cato asked from the doorway.
"Don't worry about it," Clove said carelessly, and because she was Clove Carlton, he listened.
"Okay," he shrugged. "Want to get drunk together?"
She smiled. "Hell yes."
She hated herself the next morning when she woke up naked in Cato's bed with a raging hangover. Memories from the night before came back in bits and pieces. "Where's the aspirin?" she mumbled to a half-sleeping Cato.
He grabbed the pill bottle off his bedside table without even opening his eyes and handed it to her.
Her phone pinged as she swallowed an aspirin. She reached down and picked it up from the ground. Twelve messages from Katniss?
"Shit," she groaned. She was supposed to go running with Kat at ten today, and it was…eleven sixteen. Shit. She was a terrible friend.
"Shh…" Cato mumbled, pulling the pillow over his head.
"I gotta go," she whispered hurriedly. "I was supposed to meet Kat at her house over an hour ago."
She grabbed her clothes, which had been gracefully discarded on the ground next to Cato's bed, and threw them on. "I feel you watching me," she said, and sure enough, when she turned around, Cato was staring at her with a smirk on his face.
"Go back to sleep," she scolded before hurrying out of his room and down the stairs.
Her hand was almost on the front doorknob when Annie appeared at the top of the stairs. "Wait, Clove," Annie said, jogging down the stairs, "can I talk to you for a minute?"
Clove glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 11:20. She was already eighty minutes late; what was another sixty seconds? She nodded.
"I, um," Annie's voice cracked. "I think I have a problem."
Her eyes started to brim with tears, and Clove got the feeling that she was going to be a little more than sixty seconds.
"What's wrong?"
Annie exhaled nervously. "I'm late."
Me too, she almost replied when she realized what Annie was trying to say. Oh, shit. "How late?"
Annie was practically shaking. "Two weeks."
Clove's heart sunk to her stomach. "You guys have been using protection though, right?"
"Most of the time," Annie replied.
"But not all of the time?"
Annie shook her head slowly.
Clove sighed. "Annie…"
"I can't be pregnant, Clove," she paused, letting out a shaky breath. "Cato's gonna kill me."
"Well, he'll kill Finnick first," Clove pointed out with a small smile.
Annie blinked away tears.
"Come here," Clove said, opening her arms and pulling Annie in for a hug. Annie cried quietly into her shoulder.
"What do I do?" she asked dejectedly.
"I don't suppose you have any pregnancy tests lying around?" Clove asked.
She shook her head.
"Then get dressed and let's go buy some."
AN:
Hellooo beautiful souls :) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you want to see more of/less of in the upcoming chapters. Teasers for the next chapter…peeing on sticks, packing Louis Vuitton suitcases, and flying on private jets to…wait for it…the Hamptons!
For now, please follow, favorite, and REVIEW! Your feedback means the world to me!
xox