My eyes get all wide and I feel my cheeks get very hot and I know I'm bright red.
Shit, I need to say something. "Well I've never met her." I spin around to face my locker. Johanna snickers.
"Oh, I'm sure you have." He says. "You probably know her even better than all of us do. You know, she's on the cheerleading team, she's a level ten in gymnastics, her middle name is Joy and her dad is Haymitch."
"I'm telling you right now, I have never met her."
"Okay, well, do you want me to show you a picture of her?" he asks.
"Fine." I get the rest of my stuff from my locker. "Then I can tell her I'm jealous." he raises his eyebrows.
"And why would you be jealous?" he asks.
"I would be jealous because my crush has the hots for her."
"So you're saying you have a crush on me?" he asks.
"Just show me what she looks like." I slam my locker.
"Okay." He takes out his phone and takes a picture of me. Then he hands me his phone. "That's her."
"She looks a little bit familiar, but I still don't know her." Johanna moves out of the way and all of them are whispering about how we better kiss. He comes up behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder and puts his arms around my waist, plucking his phone from my hands and clicking to the camera.
"Now do you know her?"
"No." I lie.
He sighs and takes Annie's hand mirror and spins me to face him, using the mirror to show me my own face. "Now do you know her?"
"Maybe a little bit. I mean, she looks familiar, but I've never really met her.
My eyes get all wide and I feel my cheeks get very hot and I know I'm bright red.
Shit, I need to say something. "Well I've never met her." I spin around to face my locker. Johanna snickers.
"Oh, I'm sure you have." He says. "You probably know her even better than all of us do. You know, she's on the cheerleading team, she's a level ten in gymnastics, her middle name is Joy and her dad is Haymitch."
"I'm telling you right now, I have never met her."
"Okay, well, do you want me to show you a picture of her?" he asks.
"Fine." I get the rest of my stuff from my locker. "Then I can tell her I'm jealous." he raises his eyebrows.
"And why would you be jealous?" he asks.
"I would be jealous because my crush has the hots for her."
"So you're saying you have a crush on me?" he asks.
"Just show me what she looks like." I slam my locker.
"Okay." He takes out his phone and takes a picture of me. Then he hands me his phone. "That's her."
"She looks a little bit familiar, but I still don't know her." Johanna moves out of the way and all of them are whispering about how we better kiss. He comes up behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder and puts his arms around my waist, plucking his phone from my hands and clicking to the camera.
"Now do you know her?"
"No." I lie.
He sighs and takes Annie's hand mirror and spins me to face him, using the mirror to show me my own face. "Now do you know her?"
"Maybe a little bit. I mean, she looks familiar, but I've never really met her." He kisses my cheek with the mirror still on us.
"Now do you know her?"
I giggle. "Nope."
He hands Annie back the mirror and leans in and kisses my right ok the lips. I shut my eyes without meaning to right when they collide and start kissing him back. It's not a very long kiss. He pulls away. "Now do you know?"
I smile. "Oh yeah, Katniss Everdeen, right?"
He smiles. "Right."
The tardy bell rings. "I have to go." I say.
"Remember everything I told you!" Johanna says.
"Okay bye." I pick my bag up and walk into first period. Every person I catch staring at me, I smile and wave. The guys are looking at me like I'm a piece of meat.
"Whoa, babe," one of the most popular people sit down next to me. "You are so fucking sexy."
"Um...thank you." I reply.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" He asks.
"Um..."
It feels wrong of me to say yes when I like Peeta and we just kissed. "No. Sorry though, but I kind of have this thing for someone else."
"Oh, alright girly, I get it." He pats my shoulder. "I'm Gale by the way, Gale Hawthorne."
I laugh softly. "I know who you are."
"And I know who you are." He smiles and goes back to his seat. Madge sits down next to me and nudges my arm. I look at her and her eyes are laced with concern.
"Are you okay?" She whispers.
"Yes." I whisper back.
"Okay, good. Listen, we have a championship coming up and Clove wants you there tonight because you need to help stop the kids." Clove is our instructor and she is also my boss.
I sigh. "Alright. What time?"
"Right after school." She says. "I can drive you if you'd like."
"Right after school?" I repeat. I already have plans with Peeta and I don't want to break them. "I already have plans after school. I guess I can break them...I'll get someone to drop me off..."
"Are you sure you don't want me to just take you?"
"No, no it's fine." I wave her off. Honestly, I rode with Madge before and she is a terrible driver. She stalls all the time because her car is a manual and she does terrible with pressing the break and she jerks the car. I get car sick by the time I get to the gym. Doing gymnastics all nauseous is not a good idea.
.. ..
The next four periods fly past, and every time I see anyone I know in the hall, I smile and wave. Glimmer shoves me into a locker one time on the way to lunch, but some hot guy that I know she has eyes for tells her to stop being such a bitch and knock it off and then she runs off to the bathroom. I look at the guy. "Thanks."
He nods. "I would kiss you right now, but I saw Mellark kiss you, and I'm not willing to press into his territory."
"Um, okay," I walk into the lunch room. My friends are looking around and then Annie elbows Johanna and nods at me. I walk over to them and toss my bag on the table. "I have been asked out and hit on and told people want to kiss me way too many times today."
"Really?" Peeta asks. Someone taps my shoulder and when I turn around, I see Glimmer.
She slaps me.
Should I slap her back?
It didn't really hurt to be completely honest. "Remember what your Mom always told you." Finn whispers. Be the better person.
"Was that supposed to hurt?" I ask. She takes a step closer to me. She wants to fight me. "Go ahead. Do it. I'll kick your ass if it comes down to it."
She looks at my bicep and then huffs and stomps away.
I turn back around. "I don't know why she hates me so much."
"Let's not talk about that." Annie says.
"Are we still getting the henna after school?" Peeta asks.
"Um...about that..." I bite my lip. "I have to go to the gym."
"You have to or you want to?" Finn asks.
"I have to, for work."
"Oh." Peeta says. "I'll drop you off."
"Are you sure?"
Johanna looks like she's getting an idea. "Well we are all in Peeta's car. How about we stay to watch?"
"Yeah." Peeta looks at me. "We are going to stay to watch."
"I'm going to be spotting the kids. Probably I'll have to show them some stuff...but other than that..." I bite my lip.
"Well we can stay after the kids leave." Annie insists.
I let out a long breath. "Fine. Don't embarrass me. If I laugh in the middle of doing something I could mess and get really, really hurt."
...8...
I walk into the gym and my friends follow me. Clove looks at me and then at the kids, "Oh thank god you're here Katniss. Go get changed before I pull all my hair out!"
I toss my bag on the floor and walk into the locker rooms and change into my red leotard. I go back out the bend over and put my hair up in a bun, put the chalk on my hands and then look at my friends. "Remember what I told you."
They all nod excitedly and then I walk over next to Clove.
We stand there and just watch the kids try and fail to do a handstand. It's depressing they can't do a handstand. They are very young though, three or four years old.
"I heard about what happened to you last night." Clove whispers. "I knew you weren't acting yourself when you started high school." She sighs. "Just…don't let the girl get to you, okay? She's wrong, okay?"
"Yeah, I've got my idiots over there telling me that." I point at my friends and my brother.
"Ah, they're here to see you do some stuff?" she asks.
"Yeah, but I told them that I'm going be helping the kids, so they probably won't see anything."
"Oh, they'll see you in action." She smirks. "Go ahead and stretch."
"Oh god, what are you going do to me?"
"I'm going to make sure you do the hardest in the book so your friends can see you. Now stretch. The girls will enjoy this." I bend over and touch my toes and I stretch my hands and my back and my legs and basically every part of my body.
"Put more chalk." She says. I put more chalk on my hands, and then I turn to her. "Bars," she orders. "Alright girls!" she calls, "How about we watch a level ten?" the girls all look excited. She turns to my friends. "If you want, you can come over to watch, so you can see well."
They jump on the chance, kick their shoes off and go running across the gym. I walk over to the beam and get on. "What do you want me to do?" I ask. She thinks for a moment.
"Let's start off easy." She says. "Do a handspring swing down." I down a simple handspring, and land elegantly on my crotch, and then I swing down my legs and look at Clove.
"You watch the gymnastics Olympics, right, Katniss?" Clove asks.
"Yeah,"
"And you memorized Gabby's routine?" Gabby Douglas was in the Olympics and she was my favorite.
"Um…are you going to seriously make me do it?"
"Yes." I hop off the beam, and get on the way she did, and then I do the whole routine and get off with three handsprings across the bar and a double pike. Everyone is cheering.
"Alright," Clove says. "Next we do floor."
I walk to the floor and do Gabby's routine, which I memorized. I do the same on the vault and the uneven bars.