It's a Jungle Out There

by Blueberrychills94

When head cheerleader Katniss Everdeen is found in her bathroom unconscious and surrounded in pills everyone thinks the same thing: suicide. Her life is thrown into turmoil when nobody believes her when she says that she didn't try to kill herself and the only person she can turn to is Peeta, the boy who she has bullied for most of her life and is now tutoring her for math. OCC.

6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews both on fanfiction and wattpad! You guys keep me writing ^_^

Thank you to the Penn State Homecoming page for the idea of the Colour Run and other homecoming activities that will be used throughout this story :)

Chapter Six

I went to my first counselling session with Dr. Aurelius. He tried to trip me up, make me admit out loud that I tried to kill myself. It failed, obviously, for the simple reason that I didn't try to commit suicide. He asked me other things, like how I'm feeling and what has happened since he last saw me in hospital. I'm vague about everything as I don't believe it's any of his business what goes on in my personal life.

After the session, Dr. Aurelius tells my mother that he thinks I'm closed off because I refuse to admit to myself that I'm depressed. The man is obviously deluded, I don't know what else I can do to convince him that I'm not suicidal or depressed. The only thing I'm depressed about is the fact that the Homecoming Game is drawing nearer and nearer and I'm at a loss as to who I'm supposed to go with. I dumped Marvel shortly after the fight with Peeta as I don't want to be around someone who's so violently driven. I know Homecoming is usually about welcoming back students who left last year but it's still really important to get a date. It's about celebrating our school, not just giving the graduated students a pat on the back.

The Colour Run is this week. It's basically when the Cheerleaders and the Football jocks all adorn colourful clothing and do a run for charity. Ms. Trinket gave me an informal pardon due to my broken leg and I'm devastated that I don't get to do it. I had planned to wear this rainbow tie-dye boob tube that pushes my breasts up and a pair of small denim shorts. All while running beside Gale and constantly flirting to get his attention.

Instead, I am trapped in the side lines with Clove. She is pretty enthusiastic about these sorts of events and gets super into it, screaming encouragements and throwing confetti and water at whoever passes. At least we got a good day for the run, since it's pretty much been raining all week and this is the first time the sun has come out in what's felt like forever. I'm the only spectator sitting down, as apparently the teachers are uneasy about me standing too long in case I 'hurt myself' and they'll get the blame. Clove took to the idea more than I did, shaking my crutches at everyone who passes and telling them to pick up the pace.

It's when I see Glimmer that I immediately turn sour. She's wearing a skimpy camisole that displays her black bra and a mini-skirt so small I can see the curve of her ass cheeks from where I'm sitting. Who runs with a thong on anyway? But that's not what bothers me. She's wearing a lettermen jacket. Cheerleaders don't get lettermen jackets. So she must be wearing someone else's.

It's tradition for the footballers to give their girlfriends or people they want to take to the dance their lettermen jackets to wear. Gale must have given Glimmer his. The idea makes my blood boil and I clench my teeth angrily at the sight. He's really trying my patience. He obviously knows that Marvel and I's reunion bombed and is just pushing the success of his jealousy ploy into my face. Is Madge ever going to come back?

Speaking of Gale, he rushes up behind Glimmer and lifts her into the air. Glimmer squeals and throws her head back, laughing like a mouse whose tail has been stepped on. She kicks out while playfully hitting him and I swear to God I saw her gash up the legs of her shorts. Clove turns to me and mimes hurling up her lunch before turning back to the road and yelling, "Pick up the pace, Hawthorne, you're slacking!"

Gale laughs and puts Glimmer down, despite her disappointment. He spots me sitting and scowling and winks. I promptly flip him off in response. Then he's running towards me. I sit up straighter, wondering why he's coming over. Gale reaches over the barrier and grabs me by the waist, lifting me up and over and putting me on his shoulders. I scream in surprise and grab his hair for support.

"Can't have the Colour Run without the Head Cheerleader!" Gale says.

"Oh my god!" I exclaim, feeling like I'm going to fall right off his shoulders. My cast is unbalancing me but Gale has a tight grip on both of my thighs while he jogs. I crane around to look at Clove but she grins and shrugs, nonplussed as to what she could do in this situation.

Glimmer jogs beside us and casually mentions, "Technically I'm the Head Cheerleader."

"Yeah but for what? Three more weeks?" asks Gale. "When is your leg healed Kat?"

"It was a compound fracture," I explain. "It could take up to six months to fully heal . . ."

Glimmer's grin is so sickening I want to punch it off her face. "Really?" she asks.

"Yes, really," I fire back. "But I'll definitely be healed for the final game of the season."

"It'll be great to have you back," Gale says. He squeezes my thighs and I feel my blood heat up in excitement.

Glimmer wears an expression that resembles a smacked ass and I snicker in amusement. She scowls at me and asks, "So Katniss, everyone knows about what happened between you and Marvel at Cash's party. Any gritty details you'd like to share?"

"Other than the fact that Marvel knows nothing about sex? Not really," I reply.

Cato runs up beside us. "Why are you going so slowly?" he asks. "Finally decided that you don't stand a chance against me?" He grins this shit eating smirk and ducks as I swat at him with a laugh.

"Hey, man, who'd you give your lettermen jacket to?" Gale asks. Glimmer smirks and dusts hers off, even though nobody is looking in her direction. I'm kinda curious as to who Cato's given his jacket away to as well because he doesn't seem to be with anyone right now. He can't go to the Homecoming Game alone though, surely he wants someone to be cheering him on?

"Ah, well, it's a secret," says Cato.

"How much of a secret?" asks Glimmer, her interest peaked by possible gossip.

"It will be he who reveals it, not me," Cato says with a shrug. I narrow my eyes. Who could he be talking about? I suppose Cato's never been one to flaunt his relationships in other people's faces but . . . come on, surely he isn't going to be this coy about it?

"Does he go to our school?" Glimmer presses. "Do we know him?"

"Come on, man, don't be so secretive!" says Gale. I'm suddenly reminded of what Gale said about Cato at Cashmere's party. He called Cato a pansy. Yet here he is, grinning like the Cheshire cat and pressing Cato for information he clearly isn't going to give up. How . . . two faced. In fact, why are they even pressing Cato so hard about this anyway? Why do they want to know so desperately?

Gossip. It has to be. They want to know what's latest before anyone else. What could be more juicy than finding out who Cato-the only open homosexual football player in the school-has given his lettermen jacket to? Who is this mysterious guy who is clearly secretive about his sexuality to the point where Cato won't tell anyone who he is? Either that or the guy doesn't want to go out with Cato but has taken the jacket anyway. Although the odds of that happening are slim.

Cato doesn't give in to Gale and Glimmer's probing and simply zips his lips, closing the lid on the matter for now. "So Katniss, still have to go to those after school math classes?" he asks me.

"Yeah," I sigh.

"How's it going?"

"Alright," I say. "I mean, it's working so that must count for something."

"Do you think you'll pass?" asks Gale.

I shrug. "Dunno. I've never passed before. It's like my quirk. Peeta may be many things but I doubt he's a wizard." Glimmer snorts and immediately looks horrified afterward. She covers her mouth, eyes wide in shock. I snicker at her clear surprise and bite my lip to hold back laughter. Ah, it's nice how small wonders can brighten someone's day.

The rest of the run is filled with idle chit chat. When we reach the end, Gale swings me off his shoulders and holds me like a bride in his arms. He stinks of sweat and his skin is so wet I feel like I'm going to stick to him like glue. I wonder if Clove will have the initiative to make her way to the end of the track with my crutches . . .

Gale grabs a bottle of water-still holding me, might I add-and walks to the end of the football fields, where he sets me down in the grass under the shade of a tree. I squint through the sunshine at him as he stands over me, pouring the water over his head and shaking it like a dog just out of the shower.

I lean against the tree and fold my arms. "So Glimmer has your lettermen jacket, huh?" I say flatly.

Gale quirks an eyebrow at me. I raise my own back. He shrugs and says, "She just kept harping on about it. I decided to give her what she wanted; simply because it would make her shut up!"

I smirk. Okay, that is good to hear. "So you two are getting pretty serious, huh?"

Gale rolls his eyes. "As if." He smirks and approaches me. "Why, you jealous?"

"Per-lease," I say, blowing a raspberry. "Do you really think I'd be jealous of you and her? Besides, I've been busy with my own relationships . . ."

"You mean Marvel?" Gale retorts. His expression falters for a moment. "Is it true that you and him . . . ?"

"Fucked?" I finish for him, suppressing a shudder at the memory. "Yes."

"What about that he made you cum five times . . . ?"

My eyes widen. "What? No! I only orgasmed once. I wasn't even thinking of him when it happened!"

Gale grins at me. "Who were you thinking of?"

I had been thinking of Peeta, I recall with horror. I swallow hard and go for the coy card, saying, "Oh, I don't really remember. It was mind-blowing, though. You know, when Marvel wasn't making me scream in pain when he did something bone dead stupid."

Gale laughs and shakes his head. "Sounds like Marvel. Everything about him is bone dead stupid."

I stare at the grass and grunt in agreement. Someone calls Gale back from the finish line of the run. From the high pitched tone, it sounds like Glimmer. He looks at me pleadingly, begging me to do something, and I shrug helplessly. "Sorry, nothing I can do," I tell him. I smirk and add, "Your girlfriend is waiting for you."

Gale's expression darkens and he says, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing Everdeen. We will be going to the Prom together."

I quirk an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Will we?" I ask.

"Yes. And that night we will fuck like animals and you will cum so many times you will forget where or who you are," Gale growls.

A shiver shakes through me and I smile. "I'll hold you to that."

Glimmer screeches again and Gale winces.

"Better go," I tell him. I watch Gale as he slowly gets smaller and smaller the further he gets from me. When he is nothing but a tiny speck, I lean my head back against the bark of the tree and close my eyes. The sun is warm against my face and I absorb every ray I can. A content sigh passes my lips and I know that I will be content staying this way until Clove finds me with my crutches.

I'm reminded of when Prim and I used to play outside when we were younger. I used to climb the trees and she used to time me, using her new counting skills as a toddler to tell me that I took ten seconds every single time. I didn't realize until I was older that Prim couldn't count past ten and that's why she didn't tell me any different. She simply reached ten and stopped.

You'd think since I climbed trees so much that I would have broken a limb before now. Weirdly enough, I was strangely adapt to scaling trees and adventuring in the forests behind my house. My dad used to take me out-when Prim was too young to come with us-and showed me how to shoot arrows at the tree trunks. He had this gorgeous bow, made of sleek mahogany wood with Everdeen carved into it near the top. It has been passed down through the generations on Everdeens from way back in the 1700s.

Dad left it to me in his will.

I open my eyes again and stare at the grass. My love of nature and exploring died when he did. I threw myself into something I could focus on wholly: cheerleading. I was at the end of my elementary years when he died so for the entirety of Middle School I trained myself for cheerleading, putting my blood; sweat; and tears into it. It became my life.

Now I don't even have that.

I see the Loser's End freaks studying at the picnic tables. Of course they didn't go to support the Colour Run. Doing that would just have been asking for trouble, especially with so many football players there. Except . . . they don't seem to be doing homework. Don't they live off their homework or whatever? It looks like they're just socialising. Polar Bear; Nuts; Foxface; and Fatbo-I mean, Peeta. I suppose since I misjudged Peeta-labelling him unfairly-I should probably stop calling the others by their nicknames as well . . .

I feel an urge to go over to them. I wonder if Peeta would talk to me if I went up to him and tried to strike up a casual conversation. I know Johanna wouldn't like it. I'm not so sure about Annie or Finch. They don't talk that much. I suppose Johanna does enough talking for the three of them. If I subtracted Johanna's mood swings from the equation, would Loser's End mind me joining them? Chatting to them? Or have I always been someone they've loathed? I wouldn't be shocked if it was the latter, especially since I have treated them like dirt ever since Middle School.

Clove appears, swinging herself on my crutches like she's the one with the broken leg.

"You know when you play with crutches you're basically asking for trouble," I say. "You do realize it's bad luck, right?"

"I don't believe in that pish," says Clove. She holds a pale hand out and I grab it, using the leverage to heave myself up. I take back my crutches and hook them under my arms.

"Who won the run?" I ask as we make our way back to the main school building. "Gale kind of whisked me away."

Clove raises her eyebrows in question but when I don't elaborate she answers me. "Marvel," she says, grinning when I sigh heavily. Trust him to win.

"What was Glimmer screeching about?" I ask.

"She tripped and broke a nail," Clove shrugs. "I would have laughed but I'm beyond her now."

I want to agree with her but I know I can't. The simple fact that I'm still bothered by Glimmer dating Gale is evidence enough that I can't let go of her just yet. When Gale and I are at Prom together and she's a lonely spinster then I'll be over her. I might even set up everyone from Loser's End with a date just so Glimmer is the only one without one. That'll teach her to cross me.

Clove stops in her tracks. I immediately follow suit. "What?"

"Fatboy Mellark," she says, nodding her head in the direction of the picnic tables.

I twitch, smothering the urge to tell her that it's Peeta, not Fatboy. "What about him?"

"There's a lettermen jacket poking out of his satchel."

"What?!" I lean forward and squint at Peeta's black satchel which sits by his feet. There's a spill of red poking out from a gap in the zip. Huh. I wonder where he got that from. Did he steal it or something? I can imagine Johanna sneaking into the boys' locker rooms just to steal somebody's lettermen jacket. "You go on without me, I'll go ask what that's about."

"You think he'll talk to you?" Clove asks.

"Of course he will," I say, despite my own doubt over the topic. "You go on, I'll find out what it's all about."

Clove rolls her eyes but nods. She leaves me in the courtyard, joining up with some of her friends from Film Club. I head over to where the Loser's End folk are playing some sort of card game. Finch sees me first and nudges Annie. Annie's eyes widen and she slaps Johanna's arm. Johanna is instantly on guard, eyes narrowed into a deep set scowl.

"What do you want, brainless?" she snarls.

"I come in peace," I say, flicking two fingers out in that gesture that means peace. "I just want to know why you stole the lettermen jacket. I'll probably have to give it back, since one of the guys needs to give it to their homecoming dates . . ."

"We didn't steal it!" Johanna exclaims. "Who told you we stole it? Was it Finnick? I bet it was Finnick." She spins around and whispers something harshly to Annie, who looks at me pleadingly, as if begging me to disagree with Johanna.

"No, it wasn't Finnick," I say.

"So you're making stuff up then?" Johanna accuses.

"No, just"-

"This is how rumours start, Everdeen! Last time you did this, Peeta got a black eye!"

I glance at Peeta, who is shaking his head in disapproval of Johanna's outrage. "Where did you get it, then?" I ask him.

He meets my eyes and my heart suddenly flutters at the way the sun reflects off the azure blue of his irises. "It was given to me."

"By who?!"

"I think you know who, Katniss."

My eyes widen. "Not . . ."

Peeta stands up and pulls the lettermen jacket out of his satchel. He thrusts it over to me and says, "Tell Cato I am not interested."

"For the billionth time," Johanna mutters.

I probably look like a dumbass, standing beside the Loser's End table staring at Peeta with wide eyes with a scrumpled up lettermen jacket in my hands. "But . . . but . . . it's Cato! He's popular! Surely you know what dating him would do to your rep!"

"Katniss, I don't care about my rep," Peeta tells me. His eyes are softer than I thought they'd be, as if he's telling me something he doesn't expect me to understand. "The only reason Cato wants to go out with me is for test answers, end of story."

"How do you know?" I challenge. "Maybe he's"-

"Genuinely interested?" Johanna scoffs. "In one of us? Per-lease. He'll do what all of you 'upper class' bastards do to us. Convince us that we're different; that he's really into us; then stab us in the back once our guard is down. He'll take Peeta to the Homecoming Dance and probably fuck off with another exchange student with washboard abs. Not before Peeta has fallen haplessly in love with him and has given him answers to tests that haven't even been written yet."

I don't have anything to say to that. Judging by the passion in which Johanna is speaking with, it would seem that maybe she has had exactly that done to her in the past. So . . . what? She's protecting Peeta from something horrid? Do they really care so much about one another?

"Just return the jacket to him, please?" Peeta asks me.

"Are you sure?" I frown, looking at the jacket clutched in my hand.

Peeta nods. "Positive."

"But what should I tell him your reasoning is?" I say.

"Just tell him that I appreciate the offer but I'm . . ." Peeta trails off and glances at me unsurely, as if he was about to say something but held back. "I'm not going to the dance."

"I still think you should just tell him that you're not attracted to him, might knock him down a few pegs," Johanna mutters.

Peeta sits back down and shakes his head. "I'm not going to be cruel to anyone. There's no benefit to cruelty other than a few moments of dirty pleasure." I look from Peeta, to Cato's jacket, back to Peeta again. This guy is so confusing, I don't know what to make of him. Yet, somehow the mystery shrouding him makes me want to draw closer to him, find out more, and solve the enigma that is Peeta Mellark, my math tutor.

Johanna looks up at me and scowls. "Are you still here?" she snaps.

I open my mouth to throw back a sour retort but my brain completely blanks. Instead I stand with my mouth hanging open. Johanna waves me away but Peeta speaks to me immediately afterward. "Want to join us?" he asks. "We're playing blackjack."

"Without gambling, of course," Annie pipes up.

My eyes flick to the cards on the table. I'm tempted. In fact, I'm just about to sit down beside Mellark to ask him how the game works when someone grabs me from behind. I scream and lash out. "Hey!" my assailant yells. "It's me!"

"Gale!" I roar. "What the fuck! You scared the shit out of me!" When he lets me down again I smack him with my crutch, forcing myself to ignore my frantically beating heart.

"I got away from Glimmer, thank God, and thought I'd come and find you." Gale looks past me to Peeta and his friends who have resumed their card game. "What are you doing here?"

"I . . . ah . . . found a jacket lying just over there. I think its Cato's," I tell him, pointing way off to the distance.

Gale takes the jacket from me and examines it. "Yeah, I think it is his. I wonder why it was over there. Do you think the guy he gave it to dumped it?"

I shrug. "Maybe," I lie. I wonder how Gale would react if I told him that the guy Cato gave his jacket to was the same guy he had been taking money off of and who's eye is still ringed with purple because of him? Would he suddenly treat Peeta different, the knowledge that one of his own was interested in him changing his perspective completely?

I won't tell him, I have figured out that much. I don't know how Gale would react to it and whatever his initial reaction may be, he will not take kindly to the knowledge that Peeta is turning Cato down. He'd probably say something about Peeta not having the right to turn Cato down since Cato was so much higher up the chain than him and it was a blatant disregard of respect. Gale can come up with a lot of bullshit like that.

"Well, we should go and return it to Cato then," Gale says. "Man, he's going to be heartbroken. Then again, I'm sure he'll get over it. There's plenty of other guys he can bang . . . I assume anyway."

I roll my eyes. Typical of Gale to think that Cato would want anything with a dick. "Whatever, let's just go." As I'm leaving with Gale, I take one last glance at Loser's End.

Peeta is looking up from his cards, watching me go.

~xXx~

"What do you mean you found it on the ground?"

"Don't ask me, man, Katniss is the one who found it."

We found Cato in the boys' locker rooms. Thankfully no one was changing so when I followed Gale in I didn't get an eyeful of something I didn't want to see. Cato's the only one in here, probably because everyone else is away off to so-and-so's house for a geg party celebrating the Colour Run. You know, even though it's Wednesday.

When Cato looks at me, I smile sheepishly and shrug. "I, uh, yeah. It was on the ground near the pitch. I don't know, the guy you gave it to mustn't want it . . ." I glance at Gale out of the corner of my eye. He's wandered off to his locker and is out of earshot. I focus back on Cato, whose eyebrows are raised in disbelief. "Peeta isn't interested," I deadpan quietly. "He's not going to the dance. He told me to give you this back. Ask someone else."

"Not interested?" Cato repeats. He sounds like he's waiting for a punchline. I shrug again.

"Look, there's plenty of fish in the sea. Plenty of other guys you can ask. Besides, do you really want to ask someone from Loser's End? They think you're only asking him out because you want math answers," I say. "Which is ridiculous. Johanna is putting ideas in their heads again, I guess."

Cato frowns at me. "What other reason is there to ask one of the Loser's End people out?"

I stare at him for a good twenty seconds, digesting what he's saying. "Cato, what the hell?!" I finally explode. "For God's sake it's the homecoming dance, not a bloody exam hall! Ask someone you want to fucking go out with, not string along someone else because you can't be assed studying!"

"It's just Mellark, what harm can it do?" Cato shrugs. He turns away from me and opens his locker, hanging his jacket up inside. "I just thought that since his tutoring seems to be helping you that I could try and get a piece of it too."

"Why didn't you just ask then?" I ask tiredly. "There's a study programme. If you wanted help, why didn't you get someone assigned to you?"

"Because you've got Mellark and if I'm going to be tutored I might as well have a semi- pretty face to look at," Cato mutters. His head is inside the locker and his voice echoes a little because of this. "It must be true what they say about Mellark, if he's crazy enough to turn me down."

"What do they say about him?" I frown. I've heard a lot in the past about the Loser's End freaks-especially Peeta-but none of it really connects to why he would turn Cato down.

"The kid's unstable. Never mind you being on meds for suicide, Mellark should be on twenty four hour watch. If I were him, I'd want to top myself too," says Cato.

"You don't mean that," I say.

"Why don't I?"

I have to sit down. My leg is starting to kill me and I can't hold it up off the ground anymore. Cato's head reappears out of his locker and he smirks at me. "Don't tell me you've grown at soft spot for the nerds," he says. "Has the extra lessons with Mellark been changing your view? Or is it like in one of those porn movies where extra crediting means something else?"

"Fuck off Cato, you know he's tutoring me and I'm not extra crediting," I snap.

Cato holds his hands up. "Whoa, chill out babe, I'm just pointing out what everyone else is thinking. Besides, we all know Marvel fucked you at Cash's party." Jeez, am I ever going to live that down? "You eat through men like a wood chipper and Mellark is probably the last person on earth you'd even think about giving the time of day to."

I look at my feet. At my black converse sneaker and my bulky cast. Cato's name isn't on it because he didn't turn up at Cashmere's party. I was going to ask him if he wanted to sign when I saw him next but I've decided that I don't want to anymore. The guy's an ass, I don't want his name on my cast. "Marvel is a dick, he spread stuff that wasn't true," I mutter. "Next time I see the fucker I'm going to deck him."

"That'll be interesting." Gale has re-joined us, a towel around his neck to soak up the Colour Run sweat. "Although I don't know if your tiny lady fists could handle it."

"Do you want to be my practice asshole?" I challenge. For once, I'm not flirty. Gale's constant smugness has actually plucked a nerve in me. For a split second I actually do want to punch him in the face.

Gale holds his hands up in mock surrender. "Oooh, look at you Everdeen," he teases, "full of fire, you are."

"Go suck a dick, Gale," I fire back.

"I'll save that for my man Cato here," says Gale, slapping Cato's shoulder. Cato rolls his eyes and pushes Gale into one of the closed lockers.

"That's for the stereotyping," Cato says. "Besides, I don't suck dicks, I'm the one who gets his dick sucked."

Gale rubs his eyes irritably, pushing away from the locker he banged into begrudgingly. "Well aren't you a true alpha," he says sarcastically.

"Quit with the dick measuring!" I snap at them both. "You're one more cock joke away from whipping your own out for me to judge!" Gale opens his mouth but I cut him off. "Don't even think about it!"

Cato smirks and shakes his head. Giving Gale a final push, he shuts his locker and leaves the room. I'm still a little unnerved by how willing he was to fuck around with Peeta's emotions. In fact, how did he even know that Peeta had the sort of emotions he could fuck around with in the first place? I mean, obviously Peeta has emotions but he has never came out in the extravagant way that Cato did, hence why nobody knows that he bats for both teams. So where did he find out about Peeta's sexuality? Certainly wasn't from me . . .

Gale turns to me, his lip curled in that small, mysteriously sexy smirk of his. "So," he says, "did Cato say who he'd given his jacket to?"

I shake my head. "No," I lie.

"I know when you're lying Everdeen." Gale wiggles his fingers at me and I pretend to bite his hand. "Come on, tell me, who's the dick I have to beat?"

"You don't have to beat anyone!" I deadpan sourly. "Leave the sod alone. Cato's okay with it, so should you."

Gale sits beside me and slings his arm over my shoulders. I cline my head towards him, curious as to what he's about to say. God, even after running for miles he smells manly. "It's a simple matter of the food chain," he says. "Here we have us. The footballers and the cheerleaders." He holds his hand up to his forehead. "And here we have the losers like Polar Bear or Fatboy Mellark." He leans forward and drops his hand to the floor. "If losers start turning down the footballers and the cheerleaders then what will become of the food chain?"

"It'll break?" I frown.

"Hence why people like you and me need to keep the lower class in order," Gale explains.

My mind casts back to all the people I've bullied. The disgust I've always felt when in their presence or forced to go near them. Why did I act like that? What convinced me that people like Peeta or Johanna deserved this treatment? People like Gale, I'm guessing . . . Sometimes I wonder what Prim or my mother would think if they saw me. How my dad would react if he could see how I treat others if he were still alive . . .

"Anyway, I got to go." Gale smirks at me and says, "I'm meeting Glimmer at Taco Bell."

I roll my eyes and mutter, "Have fun," sarcastically.

Gale draws me so close that I hold my breath. His lips tickle my ear as he murmurs in a low purr, "Oh, I intend to."

When he gets up and leaves, the entire left side of my body goes cold. My heart is pounding in my chest and I have to sit there in the locker room for a good fifteen minutes to calm myself back down. Once my pulse has lowered to something more serene and normal, a grin grows on my face. Everything is going according to plan. Perfect.

I kick the door open with my crutches and jump at the loud "thwack!" that immediately comes in response. When I pop my head around the door, I see Johanna on the floor. Her books are sprawled around her and she's holding her head and groaning. "Shit, sorry Mason," I quickly say. "Are you alright?"

"Do I look fucking alright, brainless?" Johanna spits back, heaving herself to sitting position and gathering her books. "God, can't you people just look where you're damn going?"

"I wouldn't have kicked the door so hard if I'd known you were there," I say defensively.

"That's debateable," Johanna scoffs.

I hold my hand out to her and she stares at it like I'm offering a knife instead of a hand. "Come on," I say to her, wiggling my fingers, "I'm not poisonous." Johanna sighs and rolls her eyes. She takes my hand however and uses the leverage to heave herself up. While she's dusting off her clothes, I ask, "What exactly is your problem with me, anyway? I don't recall ever doing anything to you."

This is true. I know what I've done to Annie and Finch in the past (I've been pranking on them with Clove and Glimmer ever since Middle School) and I've done more than I'm prepared to admit to Peeta. I don't recall doing anything to Johanna though. I've always known that the fact that she's bi-polar isn't her fault and she shouldn't be judged for that. Yet she's always loathed me for some reason I can't explain.

"You have done things to my friends, Everdeen," Johanna mutters. "And I'm not okay with that. An enemy of my friends is an enemy of mine."

I don't know how to respond to that. I've never really thought about what other people think of my friends. They've always said Glimmer is a slut and Clove has anger issues but I never confronted them because I knew that on some level they were true and sometimes a little funny. Although, the things that are said about Johanna's friends aren't true. Or funny.

"Peeta can't tutor you this afternoon, by the way," Johanna says as she brushes past me.

"Wait." I grab her jacket sleeve to stop her. She exhales and looks at me with a clenched jaw. "Why not?"

"He's went home. There's a personal issue at home," Johanna says. She yanks her sleeve out of my hand and disappears out the door.

Personal issues? What sort of personal issues can you be sent home for? I find myself annoyed, irked by the fact that I have to go straight home instead of stopping off at the library to meet Peeta for an hour. How odd. It seems I've become quite dependent on our daily mathematical meetings, even if the guy does confuse the hell out of me.

A/N: So, quick re-cap: Gale's a douche; Cato's an asshole; Glimmer is still annoying; Clove is nonplussed; Johanna's pissed off, Annie and Finch are steering clear of the drama; Peeta's not interested in Cato; and Katniss is confused as ever.

Next chapter there's a major plot point so make sure to check back next week! ;)