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Chapter 7

It must be about 11 at night. I lay on the concrete ground shivering. I could hear my teeth chattering. I tried my best to stop them, not wanting to wake Prim up. I failed miserably. Prim poked her head over the edge of the bed with a smug grin on her face, "What's the matter Nicky? You cold?"

All I could do in response was continuing to chatter my teeth.

She rubbed the bed's mattress, "You know, this bed is really warm, even if it only has one blanket."

I stared at her, "Prim, you're not making this easy…"

She smiles teasingly, "Wasn't trying to."

"I said I wanted to wait."

"Sleeping in a bed with me doesn't mean sleeping with me," she rolls her eyes, "Yeesh, don't get your panties in a knot."

I lay there shivering for a long time. I finally sigh in defeat. I stand up, "You're right, scoot over and make some room."

She smiles brightly, "Why of course Mr. Purity Ring."

"Don't push it."

She laughs and scoots over. I let out a sweet groan as my head hits the pillow and I am overcome by the warmth of the blanket. I roll over so I am facing her. Our faces are only inches apart. I want to kiss her, but I don't want her to get any wild ideas tonight.

She giggles, "You know what I always liked about your costumes?"

"Do I want to know?"

"You always are dressed as a guy with a job, like a miner, a business man; except for the time you were a merman that was just kind of weird."

I shiver at the thought of that costume, "Why do you like me to be dressed like I have a job?"

She shrugs, "It makes me feel like you can provide for yourself. Like you can take care of yourself, take care of me."

"That's me, bringing home the bacon." I say sarcastically.

"Don't make me hungry." We both quietly laugh, "So, what do you like about my costumes?" She raises her eyebrows suggestively.

"Nothing, I hate your costumes," she looks insulted and slightly embarrassed. I quickly explain myself, "What I mean is, is that they remind me of what you're going to have to do. I don't like seeing them send you away all those nights. I don't like seeing you hurt."

She smiles slightly, "That was kind of corny."

I smirk, "I'm a corny kind of guy."

She kisses me softly on the lips, "I know," then she turns over to go to bed. I wrap my arms around her and am soon asleep myself.

I wake up early in the morning. I smile to greet Prim. I frown as I open my eyes, she's not here. I jump out of bed. I look under the bed. I turn in quick little circles. The first thing that pops into my mind is the lustful looks she was receiving from everybody yesterday.

I decide to check the bathroom before jumping to conclusions. I run to the other side of the community center and push open the free swinging door of the girl's restroom, "Prim," I call inside. A couple of late teens- early twenties women look at me in surprise. I can feel myself blush in embarrassment as one winks at me.

I let the door close and start running through each row of beds. My head flashes from side to side as I run down, No. No. Not there. No. I'm about ready to loose it as I end up back at our room. I sigh in relief as I see Prim sitting on the bed. I frown, she's been crying.

She nearly knocks me over as she sees me and leaps into my arms. She buries her face in my chest and finally is able to choke her sobs.

"Prim, what's wrong?"

She mumbles into my chest, "You would laugh."

"I probably will."

I let her sit there in silence for a moment. Finally, she has to tell me, "Well, I went to go get breakfast," for the first time I notice the two bagels sitting on a disposable tray on the bed, "And when I came back… I thought the Capitol took you."

I let out a low chuckle.

"I knew you'd laugh."

"Never said I wouldn't." she frowns at me. I'm afraid she's going to start crying again, "Look Prim, I just find it funny that… I don't know. I find it funny that you think the Capitol would actually be able to take me away from you." She smiles, trying to hold back laughter, "Corny?"

She finally lets out her laugh, "Completely." She smiles up at me.

We quickly eat our breakfast and walk over to school. On the way, we have the most random conversation about the stupidest pet names. "I swear if you ever call me Bo…" I laugh, but she sounds serious.

"That means I can't call you Bo, Sugar, sweetheart, candied lips, or honey. Anything else you want to add to the list?"

She thinks a long time, "You know Honey includes 'hun' right?"

I nod, "I figured. So what can I call you?"

She smiles, "I always liked Dr. Delicious, but that's going to be my name for you."

"Delicious?"

She laughs hysterically, "Oh yeah, wait until a bunch of people are around. I can't wait to embarrass you!"

"It's fine by me Honey bear."

"Hey, I said no honey."

"Yes, but you said nothing about honey bears."

I watch her frown, then she starts laughing. "This game is going to be so much fun!"

"So how do we officially win?"

"Whoever gets embarrassed first and has to ask the other to stop looses."

"You're going down Cutie Pie."

"Whatever you say Hotcakes."

We finally arrive at school; I think it's the first time I've ever actually been on time. We go to our lockers, hardly anyone is here yet. We take the extra twenty minutes of time on our hands to go get Prim her schedule from the office.

I start showing her where her classes are and we're both happy to see she and I both have the same cooking class, lunch, and English together. First period is English. Second, I show her where her science class is. Third she and I have cooking. Then I show her the locker room where she can change into her dance leotard. Lunch, drama, and math finish up her classes.

The first bell rings. I can tell she's pretty nervous about today. I give her hand a reassuring squeeze as we walk through the door. We're the first ones in the room. The teacher introduces herself to Prim and tells her about the main rules of her class: no food, no drinks besides water, she's okay with gum, pick your own seat, etc.

Prim and I get seats next to each other in the middle of the back row. Almost immediately, Prim's desk is surrounded by several guys trying to introduce themselves. She's sitting there giggling at the attention she's getting. One finally asks the question I know they were all wondering, "So, do you have a boyfriend."

She starts into hysterics trying to sputter out the words, "Ye, ye, ye," then she's out of breath and cracking up again. The guys all smile and snicker at her reaction. I know the only reason she's laughing is because I've been here the whole time this mob flirted with her. I must look ridiculous. I feel ridiculous, I've tried several times to get their attention away from her, but they can't hear me. She finally quiets herself, "He's right there."

I give an annoyed wave. Most of them get embarrassed and turn away to find seats. John, the known 'player' at this school lingers behind for a second, "When you get bored with him, call me, K?" He gives her a wink and walks away.

Before I can even say anything she starts cracking up again, "You should have seen your face!"

"You're really loving this, aren't you?"

She's trying to catch her breath and just nods. She starts to look a little mischievous at the number of people watching us. Oh no. She leans in and pinches my cheeks, "Oh, Sugar Plum, you know that you're-" she can't finish her sentence before she busts up laughing again.

I'm about to do something embarrassing to her, but the final bell rings and the teacher calls us to attention. Our senior teacher's assistant walks through the door. He's smiling, and of course, as everyone is, is slightly dazed at the sight of Prim. This makes me angry, I mean, the other guys were one thing, but the T.A. is way too old to look at her that way.

Prim acts like she didn't notice anything even though I know she did. The rest of class consists of us silently reading the class book. I can tell Prim is confused by the level of reading. I lean over to explain some of the trickier plot lines and the more difficult vocabulary words.

"Nick, stop talking to Ms. Rose," the teacher scolds me.

Prim puts on a fake angry expression, "Yeah Nick, stop it," she says sarcastically. So instead we start passing notes. The teacher doesn't notice.

The bell rings and we start packing our stuff to leave. The T.A. walks up to talk to Prim, "Hey, my name's Darrin," he smiles at her. I want to gag, in fact I do a little, just to entertain Prim, "You're new here right? That was a stupid question; I mean I would remember seeing you around." I roll my eyes, "So if you need any help finding your way around, I'm your man. Where's your next class, I'll walk you there." He reaches out for her to take his arm.

She smiles politely, "Look, that's really nice of you but-"

"That's my job." I butt in and smile smugly up at Darrin. He looks slightly confused, good. Prim tries to hold back her laughter, as do I, at his face. She takes my hand and we walk out the door. I'm going to have to start beating these guys off of her with a stick. But really, who could blame them?

Sorry it ended kind of abruptly. I felt bad because I haven't updated in a couple of days. Btw, anybody see 'women of SNL'? "And I'm Judith" hahaha, I couldn't stop laughing! Sorry if you don't know what I'm rambling about. Reviews!