I am so happy to see more feedbacks! Special thanks to one of the reviewers who pointed the Texan accent. Will definitely take note about it and will drop the "aye" in future.

My apologies to those who felt that my previous chapter was such a cliffhanger. I didn't mean to do so. As compensation, here is another chapter. By far, this is one of the longest chapter ever written.

Special thanks to my faithful followers who never stop to drop by your feedbacks. My heart melts whenever I read them.

To those who favourite this story, I hope this chapter will not let you down. I'm still trying to build up the plot. So please be patient with me. Again, I would appreciate more feedbacks from all of you if you want to see a better chapter in this story.

Enjoy!R&R

Chapter 7

Katniss POV

I was awaken and whoever who was trying to shake me awake was definitely doing a fantastic job. As my eyes were opening, I saw someone was jumping on the bed while another figure was shaking my shoulders lightly. I rubbed my eyes to clear my blurry vision. I saw Prim was jumping and Madge was the one shaking my shoulders.

"Why are you all waking me up so early in the morning," I looked at the clock and it showed 5 o'clock in the morning.

"Maybe you need to go in earlier to move your thing you lazy bum," Madge giggled while Prim was clapping her hands.

I quickly got myself ready and wore a black tank top and paired them with my favourite Blue Drama Modern Rise Demi Curve Bootcut Skinny. As usual, I tied my hair in my day-to-day hairdo which is the diagonal Dutch braid.

"Oh my god, not that jeans again!" Prim rolled her eyes.

"Why not?" Katniss looked confused at Prim's statement.

"It's just that you're so boring. It's always, white, green, black and that boring jeans of yours," Prim answered while looking at Madge to find someone to support her opinion.

Madge nodded but she helped me by saying, "Prim, it's true that it's so boring but that made Katniss…Katniss right?"

"Are you implying that I'm a boring person, Miss Undersee?" both of my hands were on my waist and I pretended to be angry.

Madge and Prim was laughing hysterically at me, "Ah ah ah, I did not say it. But you said it yourself!"

"Girls, come down and have your breakfast!" Uncle Haymitch yelled from the ground floor.

When Madge and I reached our campus, it was already almost 7 o'clock in the morning. We went back and forth from Uncle Haymitch's car to move the boxes to my new room. We headed to room 401 and entered the room. To our surprise, my room-mate was already up.

"Hello, I am Katniss, I'll be staying here with you from today onwards," I offered her hand to my new room-mate.

My new room mate had a bold appearance, girl with a short boy-cut punk hairstyle. She had an athletic body structure and made me wondered for a while. It seemed I knew this girl from somewhere.

"Hi, I'm Johanna Mason," she shook my hand firmly.

"Hey, I know you, you were in the selection right?"

"Ah, you must have witnessed my awesomeness," Johanna shrugged her shoulder and gave me a cocky smile.

I smiled to myself as I knew that I was better than her but I did not want to reveal it, "Yes, I saw you. You were very good."

"Need help?" Johanna asked.

"Not really, I actually moved all the boxes outside the door already. I just needed to shift in those boxes to the room," as I pointed to the boxes situated outside the door.

"Cut the crap, girl," Johanna shoved me to the side and began moving the boxes.

"She is not that bad after all. She has a good heart although she tries to portray the bad girl look," I thought to myself while looking at Madge who was smiling at me. We seemed to have the same thoughts about Johanna.

By the time we finished moving the boxes, it was already 8 in the morning. I realized I was sweating like a pig and regretted that I wore my favourite jeans as they were drenched with my sweat. I jumped into a quick shower.

"Katniss, I better get going!" Madge shouted from outside the bathroom.

I changed my top to an off-white long sleeve loose blouse and paired them with Capri black pants. I looked at my phone and it showed 15 minutes before half past eight. "Oh shoot, I'll be late," I quickly wore my tan ballerina flats.

"Hey wait up, let's leave together. I'm kinda lazy to lock the door," Johanna caught with me at the front door.

While walking to class, I realized that Gale was supposed to be in the same class with me, after all it was Principles of Biology and Lab. I took out my phone and texted Gale,

K: Hey, are you coming to class?

G: I'll be late so don't wait for me.

In the class, most of the seats were either taken or the empty seats are left with one side. As I would like to sit with Gale and would want to reserve a seat for him, I tried to find seats which could fit both of us. Luckily, I saw there were two empty seats in front by the window.

I settled in and put my books and bag on my seat. I then, pushed some books to the empty seat to indicate the seat was taken.

At 830 sharp, Miss Wiress entered the room but Gale was not in the class yet. I decided to send him another text message.

K: Where are you?

G: Don't think I can make it for the first half. Text me when it's break time J

5 minutes towards the lesson, there was a knock at the door.

My heart stopped but I could hear the clock in the class was ticking. My eyes were trailing at the familiar monstrous figure. It was Cato!

"You're late, young man," Miss Wiress removed her glasses and gave him a questioning look.

Cato smirked and handed the late attendance sheet to Miss Wiress. It was quite obvious that it was the late attendance sheet as it was bright red. Miss Wiress just looked at the sheet and nodded, "Very, well then. Please find a seat."

He looked around the room, and his eyes froze towards my direction as if he found his target. He was walking towards my direction,

"Oh no, not here, don't you ever think of coming here," I thought to myself while looking at the window to avoid his gaze but I stopped looking outside when I heard thump on the table beside me.

I was stunned but I brushed the feeling off, "Excuse me, but this place is taken."

Cato just took the books which I placed on the table beside me and tossed them to my place, "There are two Katniss in this class?"

I was angry at his sarcasm and stood up from my chair while hitting the table, "I said this place is taken!"

And everyone in the class looked at Cato and me. I just ignored the stares given by everyone.

"Any problem?" Miss Wiress asked in a stern voice. I had no idea why I always been into this kind of situation.

"Seems like this place is empty but she said it is taken," Cato answered while taking every book from my place and started to flip the page.

"But I don't think so, because all the books belonged to a girl named Katniss and she conveniently placed them on the empty seat here to claim the seat is taken," Cato continued.

My blood was boiling and I could feel there were steams coming out from my head.

"Class, you do know that the seats here are on first-come basis. It will be unfair to those who come in earlier. It will be even more selfish if you all want to have the seats on your own. So, I hope I get my message right here," Miss Wiress announced to the whole class without looking at me directly.

As I understood her intention of not humiliating me further in the class, I gave up fighting for the empty seat and just sat back. When Cato sat at the seat beside me, I glared at him and looked at the Miss Wiress' direction.

Not satisfied with the whole situation, I took out my phone and messaged Gale to release my anger on him.

K: "Gale, you screwed me up."

G: "Huh, since when?"

I chucked my phone in my Alexa bag, not wanting to reply him. My mind wandered to the time where Cato abused me, insulted me, humiliated me. My body was twitching with all the painful thoughts running through my mind.

I let out a sigh thinking that I'm stucked with him in today's class, breathing the same air with him made me feel suffocated. My thoughts were distracted when his right elbow accidentally brushed into mine. I jumped a little from my seat and I gave him a killer stare. He looked at me with a blank emotion without apologizing to me.

I stopped at my thoughts about him thinking that he was not worthy to be in mind, let alone distracting me from my concentration in class. I told myself to stop thinking about him and placed my attention on the lesson as I did not want to miss anything like how I did yesterday cause of Peeta.

"Ok everyone, there will be an assignment for each and every one of you. You need to find a partner to complete this assignment."

My mind quickly beamed at the idea of having Gale as my partner but my bubbles burst when Miss Wiress broke the bad news, "To make this interesting, your partner will be the one sitting beside you. Ice breaking session and completing the assignment, that's like killing two birds with one stone."

"Killing birds with my ass," I thought to myself and somehow I found myself turned to Cato.

That's when both of our eyes met. His icy blue eyes were staring into mine. When I stared into his eyes, I thought to myself, "No way am I going to pair up with that abusive bullock empty can Cato."

Somehow I loved to use bullock to describe someone who was stubborn and Uncle Haymitch worked with British people before. So that was how I picked up some British words.

As I thought further, I couldn't stand the fact that I would need to spend time with him to complete the assignment. I put my hands on my head while looking at my table, "I'm screwed. Fuck my life!"

That just showed how angry I was as I wasn't the type who threw the F bomb. Only Cato had the power to make me so furious but no way I'm allowing him to fuck my grades. I angrily took my notebook and started to jot down the points given by the lecturer on what we're needed to excel in the assignment. I glanced at Cato for a moment and I saw him leaning back comfortably on his seat and not writing anything down as if he did not care about the assignments.

"Great, why I am not surprised? He is a certified dumbo." I rolled my eyes while thinking to myself. My hands were on an autopilot mode as I continued taking notes. On the brighter side, I already had an idea on how to approach the assignment, so I didn't see any problem if I was to do it on my own although it annoyed me to allow Cato to free-ride on my work.

"Ok class, break time," the lecturer announced.

I took my phone out and called Gale. He did not answer my call so I just texted him to inform him the class is on 20 minutes break.

Cato was still sitting at his place and I felt uncomfortable with his presence, so I left my place to get a breather. I somehow made my way to the archery centre and I was like a kid in a candy store. My eyes were flickering and my fingers were running through the bows and arrows. My eyes stopped when I saw a silver bow and arrows set. I grabbed the bow and brought the string all the way up to my nose and shot the arrows away.

Every shot I took, I thought about Cato. I imagined the target was Cato's body. Feeling irritated with my partnership with Cato, I shot few more arrows to the target while shouting, "Fuck my life!"

"Why fuck your life?"

The interruption made Katniss startled. I looked around while lowering her bows.

"Sorry if I interrupted," Peeta appeared at the door while slowly approaching her.

"I really didn't mean to interrupt you but I was amazed when I saw your wonderful shots." Peeta explained while looking at the target where all the arrows hit bulleyes.

I blushed a little because I was never the type of girl who showed off my talents to anyone. Only when it involved competition, people would be able to see my capabilities. I just smiled at him and went to the target to pull the arrows which were shot by me. Then, I kept the bow and arrow back to the place where I found them.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable till you stopped shooting," Peeta was moving away from me as he thought he disturbed me.

I grabbed his shoulders to stop him from exiting the room, "Peeta, don't worry about it. I am here cause I'm having a break. I needed to stop anyway as I only have 10 minutes left."

Peeta's face was blushing but Katniss did not know why his face was red as tomato, "Are you okay? You're feeling warm?"

Peeta's POV

Her touch was so soothing and was feeling shy with her soft touch. I looked at the mirror at the wall and realized I was blushing so I played along and said, "Oh yeah, it's pretty warm in here, want to grab something to drink at the vending machine?"

I was feeling restless upon asking her. It was my first time to have a proper conversation with her, and now I asked her to grab a drink with me?

"Yeah sure, why not. I've been trying to find something to cool myself," Katniss gave me a light smile and I returned her smile with my wide toothy white smile. I could feel my eyes were glowing when I walked with her.

"You're feeling warm too, Katniss?" I asked her when we were walking towards the vending machine.

I could see Katniss was struggling with herself. Knowing her since we were young, I somehow knew she was not the type to share her feelings. I was surprised when she answered me, "Nah, I'm just upset and angry."

Her words made me slowed down my steps, "If you're comfortable, you can always share with me."

She paused for while, "It's just some jerk that I'm forced to pair up with." Katniss' tone was monotonous.

We reached the vending machine and she chose iced black coffee while I chose iced tea, "Katniss, if he's a jerk, don't let him influence your emotions. Based on your character, he must be the typical jerk who is an empty can and a bul—"

"Bullock!" both of us said in unison. We looked at each other with serious face, and we burst out laughing. It surely caught attention from some people nearby. I was amazed at the sight of Katniss' laughter; it was surely a rare sight to see her laughing and she was breathtaking, mesmerizing…she was just beautiful.

"Wow" I exhaled accidentally which made Katniss stopped laughing almost instantly.

She raised her eyebrows, "Wow?"

I shook my head and came up with something quick, "Wow, we have the same choice of word. Out of so many words, bullock."

Katniss smiled at me and had a sip of her iced coffee, "Great minds think alike."

Everytime she smiled at me, I could feel my pulse running faster than usual.

She looked at her phone and I realized it was probably due to her class was going to start soon, "Katniss, it's better for to you get going now. See you later at lunch?" I was trying to push my luck to grab another opportunity to spend time with her.

"Sure, catch up with you later," she headed to her class.

I was elated when I heard her reply. As I saw her disappearing from my sight, I made a victorious dance as I managed to spend time with her later during lunch. I was caught up with my joy and happiness, I did not realize everyone was looking at my silliness. I stopped my dance and headed back to my art class. I brushed my hands over my blonde messy hair while smiling to myself.

Little did Katniss and Peeta realized, they were being watched by Cato at the corner of the hallway.

Cato's POV (at last?)

When I opened my eyes, the clock showed 5 minutes before half past eight in the morning.

"Fuck!" I cursed myself as I was about to be late for my first class (well technically it was second but I did not attend the class yesterday because I enrolled in the university last-minute). I jumped out from my bed and quickly got myself ready. I grabbed my navy polo shirt and paired them with light grey cotton skinny chino.

I went to the admin office to get my late attendance sheet done. All I needed to do was to flirt with Miss Portia and lied to her I had some bad headache. I was pretty impressed with myself when I stepped into the class about 5 minutes late only.

"You're late, young man," a dark hair with ashen skin lady asked me. "I guess she must be the lecturer for this class," I thought to myself.

I was already anticipating that the lecturer would question me on my punctuality, so before she could speak further, I just passed her my late attendance sheet to shut her up.

"Very well then, please find a seat," the lecturer put her glasses on and continued looking at her lecture kit.

I scanned through the entire class to look for empty seat. I saw there were few seats available but there was one seat which caught my eyes, it was the girl with the braid. Without thinking twice, I went to the empty seat next to hers. I saw there were some books on the seat, so I just flipped the book and realized there were all hers. I smiled to myself and tossed the books to her place.

"Excuse me, but this place is taken," she glared at me icily while putting the books back to the empty seat.

"There are two Katniss in this class?" I told her sarcastically while tossing the books back to her place. I could see her eyes were burning with fire after I did that to her. I was pretty amused with her reaction until her patience hit the boiling point where she stood up from her chair and hit the table, "I said this place is taken!"

I was taken aback by her reaction and felt awkward when everyone's head turned to our direction.

"Any problem?" the lecturer asked in a stern voice.

Instinctively I told the lecturer while flipping the each of her first page of books which had Katniss' name on it, "Seems like this place is empty but she said it was taken. But I don't think so, because all the books belonged to a girl named Katniss and she conveniently placing them on the empty seat here to claim the seat was indeed taken."

In the corner of my eyes, I could see she could almost eat me up alive. I couldn't help myself but to find her reaction slightly entertaining.

After the lecturer told her indirectly to give up the seat, I had a winning smile on my face and just sat on the seat beside her. I couldn't take my eyes off her as I could still feel the anger in her. It felt like she was a time bomb, any second, any minute, she would just explode.

Halfway through the class, I realized the lecturer name was Miss Wiress Plummer, but my concentration in the class did not last long when I found my eyes kept looking at Katniss. As I was busy looking at her, I accidentally felt itchiness on my right foot. So I bent over to scratch my foot but accidentally brushed my right elbow to her left elbow. That's when I felt warm tingles from the brief touch. It was surely an odd feeling, an alienated feeling…I have not felt that way for a very long time.

Moments later I heard Miss Wiress announcing to the class that there would be an assignment and the partner would be the person sitting beside us. Upon hearing that, my eyes automatically went to Katniss' direction and that's where our eyes met. Her grey stoned eyes looked into mine and I felt petrified. It was again another odd feeling because I was never fearful of anything, I was always known as fearless to anything since I was named as Cato except for one thing…

"Ok class, break time," Miss Wiress announced.

Almost everyone left the class during the break time but Katniss was surprisingly still at her place. As I peeked from the corner of my right eye, I could feel she was uneasy based on her body language. Before I could start a conversation with her, she stood up and left her seat.

The sight of her leaving had somehow drawn me to follow her trail. I followed her from behind and I could see there were a lot of guys staring at her. They stared at her so hard as if they had wanted to burn an imprint of themselves into her brain but she seemed oblivious to her surroundings. I did not know why but I somehow found myself in a mixed emotions, angry and happy but I just shoved the feelings off.

I followed her till she reached the archery room. I managed to sneak into the room and hid behind a big cupboard which stored all the equipments. She was already holding a bow and the arrows were placed on the table on her left. Her posture and her grip on the bow were beyond perfection. She aimed her shots carefully and took her time to get into a proper shooting stance. The technique and precision of her shots were amazing. As much as I am an egoistic person but to see someone who was so talented in something, I would surely acknowledge the person's capability.

As Katniss yelled ,"Fuck my life!" the archery door opened. I was startled when the door opened. A figure was approaching Katniss and I realized it was Peeta. What was he doing here?

I heard them exchanging conversation and somehow I felt myself gripping my own fists tightly. I could hear them saying they wanted to get drinks from the vending machine. So, I waited for them to exit the room and I trailed both of them few seconds later.

They reached the vending machine and I managed to find a place to hide which was not too near but not too far either which was just enough for me to listen to their conversation.

I could hear Katniss was telling Peeta that she was upset and angry cause of some jerk that she was forced to pair up with in her class. Instantly, I thought it was me. I chuckled to myself as I was amused with her reaction. At least I made some impression on her.

I leaned in closer to listen to their conversation, when I heard Peeta said, "Katniss, if he's a jerk, don't let him influence your emotions. Based on your character, he must be the typical jerk who is an empty can and a bul—"

"Bullock!" both of them said in unison.

What? Me? An empty can and a bullock? That doesn't even make any sense. Annoyed with the whole conversation, I peeked through the corner of the wall and I could see Katniss was laughing her heart out. That's when the whole damn world had stopped revolving. The sight of her laughing sent butterflies in my stomach and I could see from far that her grey stone looking eyes were also smiling. Fuck man, why on earth I've been feeling so weird with Katniss.

My mind wandered too much on my own emotions when I realized she had left Peeta for class. I was about to go to the class till I saw Peeta was dancing stupidly at the hallway. Somehow I felt it was so annoying to see him being so cheery and it annoyed me even further that it was probably due to Katniss.

As I walked towards the class, I pushed every single one who was on my way. I couldn't think straight after seeing the whole incident. I felt stupid to even follow Katniss at the first place. When I reached the class, Katniss was sitting at her place already, smiling to herself.

I just pulled my chair angrily and sat at my place, sulking. Little did I know, my anger somehow overtook my mind and I snapped, "Someone's grinning at some horny thoughts."

Her lips from a "U" shape turned to "n" shape as soon as I opened my mouth. She turned to me and hissed, "Mind your own business, steroids!"

"Steroids?" I looked at my muscles on my arms. "All these are pure hard work, all my sweat and blood invested in these," I continued while flexing my arms to her.

She scoffed, "Yeah right."

"Want to test my urine to confirm your doubt?" I asked with a cocky tone.

"Look, Cato. I don't fucking care and don't fucking want to know your damn business. You're on steroids, drugs or whatnot, it's definitely not my slightest concern. It's beyond bearable to even sit here with you, let alone to be in the same team as you. So, please do me a god-damn favour. Just shut the fuck up and release all your nuisance at some other people!"

I was stunned at her meltdown and somehow my heart felt a little weird. It was as if someone was pinching my heart. But more importantly, how she knew my name? I couldn't help myself but to ask her to clear my doubt, "How'd you know my name?"

That question made her turned to me with a surprised pair looking of eyes.