Heyyy guys. Whoa I'm not late on this chapter (finally). The beta-ed version of the last chapter is up now so please go reread it if you have time :D

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Anons

S: Good to be back :) Work is finally over so yay but i have homework now so boo. Oh cool class of 15 too! Lucky u u get to see them earlier now ;)

Grace: This chapter is the root of the johanna drama tbh :)

Guest: Thanks for reading!

Last time on Freshman Year: Glimmer had a birthday party and everyone was invited including all the victors. Glimmer was worried Peeta wasn't going to show up after Peeta met Glimmer's horrible sisters a few days before. Peeta ends up showing up late and he comforts Glimmer's insecurities about her sisters. Glimmer tellings Clove her real reason for dating Peeta is because of his popularity. Glimmer's problem is that is actually falling for Peeta Mellark now and she wants to call of her plan. Annie overhears Glimmer telling Clove she is using Peeta. Annie doesn't overhear anything about Glimmer falling for Peeta.

Chapter 27 "Telling"

Johanna's POV

"Are you sure, Annie?" Finnick asks.

"Maybe you heard her wrong," Gloss says in a hopeful tone.

"Doubt it," Cash says. "Sounds like something Glimmer would do."

Finnick, Gloss, Cash, Annie, and I are all gathered in the boys' bathroom waiting for the next period. We hadn't planned on ditching class today, but as soon as Annie told Finnick about Glimmer, everyone wanted to know. Thus the five of us alone are in the bathroom while Peeta is in class.

"I didn't mishear her," Annie says. "She is only with Peeta because he is a victor. Glimmer wants to be a victor too."

"So now what?" Finnick asks and really, what kind of question is that?

"Obviously we tell Peeta," I say.

"We can't tell him."

"Why can't we? Glimmer is just using him. She doesn't care about him."

"Johanna," Gloss says. "Think about it. It's our word against Glimmer's. Why wouldn't he take her word when we've never really been fond of Glimmer? We waited three days to tell him and he's in love with her."

He is not in love with Glimmer, I want to shout out but that's not what is important right now.

"My brother has a point."

Has everyone just lost sense of their brains today?

"No," I argue. "This is ridiculous. We have to tell him—"

"They're right," Annie interrupts me. "Peeta won't believe you guys, but he'll believe me. I'm the only one of us who has been accepting of Glimmer. I'll tell him."

Finally, someone is thinking clearly.

"When are you going to tell him?"

"Soon…when the time is right."

That's when someone walks in. In a panic, Annie pulls me into one of the stalls and shuts the door.

"Annie!" I hiss. "What are you doing?"

"Do you wanna explain to a teacher why three girls are in the boy's bathroom with two boys, alone?"

"I serious doubt they'd think we were having an orgy or something," I laugh at the end of my sentence.

"Well, I can't take that chance," Annie says. "I have my good girl reputation to protect."

Yeah, I think, that was gone after she met Gloss.

"Cash is still out there," I remind her.

"Better her then us."

"Gee, thanks Annie," Cash shouts through the stall door. "You can come out now. It's just Gale."

Annie and I slowly step out of the stall.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Gale asks confused.

"Oh, you know," Gloss says. "Just chilling."

"In the boys' bathroom?"

"Psh, like you've never done this before. Don't judge."

"I—"

"Gale," I say interrupting. "The bell is about to ring. Wanna walk to Cinna's class together?"

Before Gale can answer, I take him by the hand and drag him out into the hallway. There are still a few minutes left in this period, so it's just Gale and me in an empty hallway. We walk hand in hand in silence before Gale decides to break it.

"Congrats by the way," he says and I can't help but groan.

It was announced on the intercom during first period, the cast for Romeo and Juliet. Most of the parts went to seniors but there were those surprising four freshman that received roles. Marvel who will play Tybalt, Annie who is the nurse, and then there's Peeta and me, Romeo and Juliet.

"I didn't even know you auditioned," Gale adds.

"I didn't," I say. "It's kind of a long story, but yeah, I never did audition. I never wanted the role but the extra credit is what's gonna save my grade in that class."

"So you and Peeta, huh?"

I raise my eyebrows at him. "That doesn't bother you, does it?

Gale shakes his head. "I'll admit I was kind of jealous of Peeta before, but I know you guys are just friends now. Plus he's with Glimmer and I trust you."

The bell finally rings when we walk into Cinna's classroom.

"After school today, Cinna is looking for understudies for Romeo and Juilet. You should come by," I tell him as we sit together. "Warning though, I'm reading the balcony scene with the guys so there could be kissing."

Gale laughs. "Thanks for the warning. Valentine's Day is coming up, though. Make sure you don't have rehearsal that day."

"Have plans for us already?" I ask surprised, cause Gale isn't the romantic type.

"Of course. It's our first Valentine's Day together. I'm not going to fuck it up."

The second bell rings and everyone goes to their assigned seat. I give Gale a kiss on the cheek before he leaves for his seat. Annie and Peeta take their usually seats next to me. As soon as everyone is seated, Cinna begins to talk about the importance of an understudy and I tune every word out.

"Where were you guys last period?" Peeta whispers to Annie and me. "I was alone, so thanks for that."

"We were umm—"

"Buying pads," Annie says, interrupting me.

I squeeze my eyes shut in embarrassment at Annie's lie. This girl needs to be a better liar.

"Okay," Peeta says awkwardly. "Didn't really need to know that."

"Well you asked."

"Anyways," I say changing this conversation. "Annie, has Finnick told you anything about Valentine's Day plans?"

"Nope," Annie says popping her 'p'. "Cause I'm the one planning it. All he has to do is show up and look pretty."

"Something he's a master at," Peeta mumbles with a smile.

"I've got it all planned already," Annie continues with. "It's going to be so romantic."

"I already have my day with Glimmer planned, too," Peeta says.

Then Peeta goes on to tell Ann and me his plans for Glimmer. His plans are as sweet as he is. Annie and I both share a sad look with each other. All this planning for a girl who doesn't deserve his sweet heart is sad.

Cinna goes to explain our next project. Every group will be assigned a scene from Romeo and Juliet and will have to complete four parts. Then Cinna breaks us up into groups. Cash, Marvel, Gloss and Peeta are together; Cato, Annie, Madge, and Delly are a group; Clove, Finnick, Thresh, Gale, and I are another group.

"The project is due the week after Valentine's day," Clove says, clearly taking charge of the group. "Since the project technically has five parts—the visual, the analysis, the rewrite, the actor and the actress—we can all just split it up."

"I'll do the visual," I say. I'm not much of an artist, but I'm sure if I ask Peeta, he'd help me out.

"You don't want to be the actress, Juliet?" Finnick asks somewhat mockingly.

I flash a smile. "Still jealous I got the lead role and you didn't?"

"The understudy is a thing for a reason," Finnick says.

"Okay, I'll be Juliet if you both shut up," Clove says with an eye roll.

I give her a thumbs up. I didn't want to be Juliet for the play in the first place so no way am I going to be Juliet in this stupid project.

"I'll do the analyzing," Gale says. "I've already analyzed this book for English class, so."

"I'm no actor so I'll just rewrite the scene," Thresh says.

"So I guess that leaves Romeo for me," Finnick says looking at Clove.

Clove sighs. "I'm regretting this already."

"Love you too, Juliet."

"Don't make me hit you."

I laugh. This is going to be fun project.

…

"Why did I agree to be Juliet?" I mumble to Peeta standing behind me.

"Cause without that extra credit, you'll fail this class," He mumbles back.

Gee, thanks for the reminder.

Peeta and I have been in Cinna's room for the past hour since school ended. Apparently a lot of people want to be our understudies. I've read lines with eight guys already and Peeta has read lines with eleven girls and that's including all our friends and the Careers.

"Did it feel weird kissing your girlfriend's best friend?" I ask Peeta mockingly.

"Weird? Yes, but I'm not gonna lie Clove is a good kisser."

I snort. "Better than me?" I say before I even realize what I'm doing.

Peeta doesn't answer right away and I panic, thinking he realized I was flirting.

"Well," he whispers. "You are my Juliet for a reason."

"Next!" Cinna shouts breaking the conversation. "Ah, the last of today. Glimmer for Juliet's understudy."

Oh, God. That's just fucking perfect. I can't help but glare at her as she makes her walk in. She walking in like she owns the place and does a hair-flip the moment she sees me. I roll my eyes so hard that they might as well fall out of my head.

Since Peeta lights up when he sees her, I'm assuming Annie hasn't told him anything yet.

Glimmer reads the lines with Peeta and it kills me to admit how good she is. She hardly has to look at the script for the lines. Then there's the way Peeta looks at her as she reads them as if he is hypnotized by her voice. It makes me sick to my stomach to have to see them together. Having to see them kiss makes it worse.

"That was very good, Glimmer." Cinna says as Peeta and her pull away. "But I'm not sure about the kiss."

I bite my lip to hide my smile.

"Excuse me?" Glimmer sounds very offended.

"It's just that I don't believe it," Cinna goes on to explain. "There was no passion in the kiss. It makes it hard to believe there is a romance between you two." As much as I try to stop myself I can't help but let out a loud laugh. Peeta glares at me causing me to stop. "You know Glimmer, if I hadn't found Johanna, you would have been a good Juliet." Glimmer sends me a death glare and I just smile. "But no. Johanna is the perfect Juliet."

"Thank you," I tell Cinna. "And I didn't even try." That last bit was for Glimmer.

"The understudy spot is yours," Cinna tells Glimmer. "You just have to work on the kissing. Johanna, read your lines with Peeta."

The 'show her how it's done' is implied.

Peeta and I read our lines to each other. Neither one of us needs a script our lines are already memorized. We stare into each other's eyes with every word. Then our lips brush against each other for a few seconds before we kiss. It's soft and sweet at first but then Peeta takes over the kiss giving it more heat as Cinna instructed him to do for all our kisses. I pull away a few seconds later than I should have. No one seems to notice.

"See!" Cinna exclaims. "Such chemistry. It's perfect."

"Have you chosen an understudy for Romeo yet?" Glimmer asks, obviously trying to change the subject. "Because it looks like there is another waiting to try out." She points to the door.

I turn to see Gale standing at the doorway. Hands in his pockets and a slight frown on his face. He saw the kiss. Oh no.

"Actually I wasn't," Gale says. "I just came to pick up my girlfriend."

"Well, since there are no more auditions you guys are free to go," Cinna says. "I'll see you all tomorrow in class."

I saw a quick goodbye to Cinna and then rush out the class to be with Gale. He greets me with a kiss on the forehead.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" I ask.

"You told me to come by," Gale says. "Remember?"

"I meant to try-out, not see me kiss Peeta."

"Well I'm gonna see the two of you together anyways. The play is in April, right?"

I nod. "Late April."

Gale is surprisingly very calm about my kiss with Peeta. I expected his jealously to get the best of him, like how it usually has in the past. I feel guilt now for not expecting better from him.

I turn my head back towards the classroom to see Peeta giving Glimmer a kiss and then Peeta leaving in the opposite direction. I turn back to Gale.

"I forgot. I have to talk to Cinna about a scene in the play," I lie because I have to. "So I'll call you later when I get home."

I can see that Gale is upset but he doesn't say anything. He gives me a kiss and then leaves down the hall.

I take a deep breath.

We may have all agreed that Annie was going to tell Peeta about Glimmer but we never discussed anyone telling Glimmer. Peeta might not take our word for it, anyways. The only way to end things is to go to the source: Glimmer.

I hear Glimmer's heels click against the floor behind me. Then she walks past me as if I'm not even here.

"I know," I say after a moment.

Glimmer stops in the middle of the hall, then turns towards me. She raises an eyebrow. "Know what?"

"Annie heard you talking to Clove about Peeta at your party."

Her eyes bug out. "So you know that I'm—?"

"Just using Peeta? Yeah, we know."

"Using him—oh." Glimmer bites her lip. "I don't know what to say, Johanna."

I'm actually surprised that she isn't denying anything. She isn't even snapping at me or lashing out.

"I want you to break up with him," I blurt out. "Peeta Mellark deserves so much better than you."

"Who? Someone like you?"

"What? No."

"Come on," Glimmer says. "If I can admit I'm using Peeta, I think you can admit you have feelings for him. You don't just think I'm not good enough for Peeta, you're jealous of me."

I want to scream at her. Tell her how wrong she is. That I only see Peeta as a brother and the thought of us together makes me sick. But I can't bring myself to say anything cause maybe I am jealous. Maybe I should stop lying to myself, I am definitely jealous.

"If you keep leading Peeta on, I'm going to kick your ass. I don't care if I get in trouble again. I will end you."

Glimmer sighs. "Okay. I'll break up with Peeta tonight. Make sure you're available. I'm sure he'll need his best friend's shoulder to cry on."

I nod and begin to walk away.

"Also, Johanna?"

I turn back around. "Yeah?"

"If you don't make a move on Peeta soon, someone else will." And now Glimmer is the one walking away.

Valentine's Day is next guys! :D It's going to be split into two parts. One couple will get into an argument so look forward to that xD

Please Review! :D Maybe anything u want to see someone do for valentine's day?

Thank you to my new beta reader: Chocovian (aka S)