Chapter 9

The week passes slowly. We return back to my house on Wednesday. My mom has finally calmed down. Prim sleeps in my bed. I refuse to sleep in it myself but she started threatening to go back to 12 when I made myself a bed on the floor. Much to her dismay, I put a body pillow between us. She hated it, yes, but I received no more threats.

Prim chose her outfits out of my mom's closet much more carefully. She avoids anything that looks like it may have come from the Capitol during any time period. She usually ends up wearing a pair of jeans and a nice blouse.

Friday comes around. I count as we walk up to school. I frown; Prim has been asked out twelve times this week. "It's too many," I say.

She finger laces my hand with her own. She laughs, obviously knowing what I was talking about, "Your one to talk, have you ever counted your own number?"

I shake my head, "No, why, do you know what it is?"

She smiles mischievously, "I know what it would have been this week had I not scared off the girls trying to approach you."

Curiosity gets the better of me, "How many?"

"Fifteen."

I raise my eyebrows in surprise; "Really?" all she does is nod.

We reach our lockers. I give her hand an extra squeeze. She holds her breath and closes her eyes. We stand there for a long time. "Hey Delicious, should I go first or do you want to."

"Delicious is my name for you," she frowns. "You can't go stealing."

I sigh, "Fine, but it suits you so much better."

She giggles, "Whatever. I came up with it, I get to use it."

"So should I go first?" she was stalling, it's time to come to the present.

She bites her lip for a second, "Let's go at the same time." We both put in our lock combinations. I close my eyes for a second then open it. Inside is a strange loin cloth. It's made out of snow leopard skin. Prim laughs as she looks at her costume. She holds it up to show me. It matches mine except hers includes two pieces. I hold up mine to show her my new discovery she laughs for a second then grows confused, "Why would they match?"

"I don't know."

"Do you remember last year?"

Somehow I knew exactly what she was talking about, "Do you think they'd do another 'big entertainment' party?"

She shrugs, "Why wouldn't they? After all, it was a huge hit last time." I shutter at the thought. She giggles, "You were so wasted! Do you even remember it?"

"Bits and pieces," I give her a dark look, I'm remembering last weekend, "Prim, please don't get drunk again-"

She glares me down, "I'll stay sober if you will."

"Fair enough."

The first bell rings and we go to English. We don't talk too much in that class. I think we're both trying to figure out if there really would be another 'big entertainment' party. Those ones were always really awkward. It's just like any normal party except there are several entertainers. We just go around looking pretty, seductive, flirty, whatever we sense our present person in conversation wants. We like to remember each other in our natural states, on the train. To see our friends 'in business' makes train trips feel strange for a long time.

I walk Prim to her next class. She holds onto me much like she did that day I tried to teach her how to swim. Like if she let go, she would surely fall to her doom.

As cooking comes around, we both put our thoughts out of our minds and start having fun again. Today we are to make some wonderful rich cake and we are to also make our own frosting. It is a 'test' day. We will get one partner and no help from anyone or anything else.

Prim and I team up, duh, as cooking partners. Prim recalls the recipe from her mind and recites it to me and I search for the ingredients around the kitchen. I come back with them all. I get out a large mixing bowl and electric mixer.

We stare at it for a long time. "Do you remember how much of each thing we put in?"

She hopelessly shakes her head. Then she appears to have remembered, "Wait, there's two and a half cups of…yeah I got nothing."

We stare at it for a while longer. I watch as Prim starts randomly putting amounts of stuff in. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Nope," she flicks a puff of flour in my face as if it is going to further prove her point. She looks at the bowl of salt and sugar. She puts in a pinch of sugar and a whole bunch of salt.

"Prim, I think you just mixed up the salt and sugar."

She stares at it emotionlessly. Then in a strange as-a-matter-of-fact tone she asks, "Can we start over?"

"I highly doubt it."

She looks at it again, "Crap," she looks up at me, "Let's just go with it, hopefully Ms. Smith won't notice."

I shrug, "Maybe if we make the frosting super sweet no one will be able to taste the saltiness!"

She puts some cake batter on my nose, "That's the spirit."

I put a glob on her cheek, "You bet it is."

She plugs in the mixer and turns it on. Almost immediately, cake mix is everywhere. It splatters all over us, the group on both sides of us, and all over the kitchen. Some even got on the ceiling. I laugh at Prim's horror struck face. Everybody is staring at her big mistake. "Smooth," is all I can say.

She giggles, but I can tell she is still pretty embarrassed. "Do we get marked down in breaking the kitchen?"

"I sure hope not." We both laugh. I risk looking in the bowl, "There's not much left is there?"

She looks disappointed. Then she starts swiping globs of cake batter off the counter into the bowl, "Don't tell anyone." I laugh and start helping her. Soon we get enough put together to fill up the cake pan.

As it bakes, we begin to make the frosting. We stick to our words and put in a bunch of sugar. I shake my head as I watch Prim ruin this too. Instead of corn syrup, she accidentally puts in maple syrup. I hold it in front of her, "Prim, I didn't even get this out."

She shakes her head sadly, "I can't cook."

I tease her, "Well obviously."

She tries to cover it up by putting in some random spices. I watch in disgust and horror as she puts in garlic salt, paprika, and poultry seasoning. "Prim, what would make up think that this would make it better?"

"What?"

I hold up each spice and tell her what it is since the labels long ago fell off, "Garlic salt."

"Oh I thought it was those yummy tasting sprinkles like you put on Christmas cookies."

I smile a little, "Paprika?"

She clenches her jaw and flinches in disgust, "I thought it was cinnamon."

"What about this?" I lift up the poultry seasoning.

"Not honestly sure what I thought that was."

I look down at our frosting. It was a puke greenish yellow color. "Get the food coloring." She does as I say. We experiment with different colors until we get something that resembles chocolate.

The cake comes out and we frost it. We get down on our knees from the counter and examine it. I look at Prim, "If we're really lucky, she'll just look at ours and won't taste it."

Prim looks rather amused, "What if she does taste it?" we both bust up laughing.

The teacher walks around the room, taking small bites of everyone's cakes and then recording a few notes about it. She simply looks over a few and decides they're good enough. After she's done, she excuses people to eat their creations. She reaches ours. We hold our breath as she decides whether to eat it or not, "This one looks especially yummy, but I'm starting to feel rather full." Prim and I both let out breaths we didn't know we were holding. "Why don't you take a quick taste?"

I smile, I can now take revenge on Prim ruining our cake, "Go ahead Prim, take a bite."

"Oh no, my tummy can't handle such rich foods, you can try it for us Nicky," She blinks at me. I definitely was not expecting her to turn it around on me like that.

I lift a fork. I can tell that Prim and everyone else who saw the whole ordeal our cake went through is watching me with much interest. I slowly cut away a bite-size piece of the cake. As I bring it closer to my face, I can smell the various seasonings. I hear a couple of people gag and gasp as I put it in my mouth. I nearly have to spit it out but I pretend that it's really good, "Mmmmm." I mumble as I chew it in a way to keep most of it away from my tongue. I try to swallow. It gets stuck in my throat for a second, "Yummy." I lie.

The teacher smiles and moves on. I look at Prim. She's holding back laughter, "Well, how was it?" she teases.

"Tastes like chicken. And by the way, now I really get to call you Delicious."

"What? No!"

"Oh yeah, anybody who ruins a cake that horribly totally earns the name."

She pouts for a little and then laughs, "Was it really that bad?" All I can do is nod.

The bell rings and we're excused. I drink several bottles of water to get the taste out of my mouth.

Before I know it, school is over and we're at the train station. I begin again wondering about the 'big entertainment' party. 6 O'clock approaches, I guess it won't be long before I find out.

Ok to me this chapter just seemed kind of off topic, but regardless, I want reviews. I have a four day weekend coming up so I can make it up with better chapters soon.