Panem High School {COMPLETED}

Chapter 14 - Clove

(Clove's POV)

Nothing worse happens until Friday. Friday morning, everyone avoids me. And I mean everyone. Even the people who normally try to trip me in the hall or make fun of me. It's like I have a deadly disease. I'm not sure what to think, but it can't mean anything good.

I'm walking to biology, when suddenly someone shoves me. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground. My books are scattered all over the place.

"Ok, that's it," I hear someone say. Then the boy that pushed me is on the floor next to me. "I have had enough of you all pushing her around! Just leave her alone! Get out of here!" Everyone who had been watching scrambles to get away.

A hand reaches down to help me up. I look at Johanna Mason's smug smile. "That should teach him," she says, and kicks the boy's books across the hall. Quickly, we gather my books.

"Why did you help me...?" I ask suspiciously. Johanna isn't exactly the kind of person to have an ulterior motive, but you never know.

"Why wouldn't I help you?" She smiles smugly. "Nothing to be suspicious of. You just look like you need a friend right now." That is a very shocking statement coming from Johanna. She is the kind of person who everyone likes, or in a few cases completely despises, but people don't like her enough to seek her out, and she doesn't seek anyone out. She sits with whoever's around her. She doesn't have any true friends, as far as I can tell, and she hasn't ever seemed to want any.

"But... Glimmer... She won't like it."

"Let's be honest, is there really anything Glimmer can do to me? I get detention a lot anyway, and people can't help but like me." She smiles, a genuine smile this time. "You do need a friend though. I can tell."

"But..." I'm so confused right now. Johanna can tell, I think.

"But I've never been anyone's friend before? Honestly, I'm mostly surrounded by idiots, brats, or teacher's pets most of the time. I can't stand any of them. It's not that I'm against having friends, Clove. It's just, until now, no one has met my expectations."

I raise an eyebrow. "No one?"

"Nope. Not even you. Last year, you were in the brat category, no offense. Now, well, I guess you're a loner like me. Might as well team up, right?"

I smile. "Are you sure?"

"I'm always sure of everything!" she says indignantly.

I laugh. "Well, thank you. What class do you have next? Biology, right?"

"Yeah, same as you. Let's go." Looks like I don't have to be alone after all.

We walk to class, and Mrs. Culwell has everyone choose lab partners. Johanna makes loud, funny comments during the lab, making the class laugh, but not immature enough to make Mrs. Culwell upset. Marvel manages to get himself in trouble, which makes me smile. Maybe that's a bad thing, but I can't help it. He's always annoyed me. At least he doesn't flirt with me anymore.

Johanna has most of my classes with me, so we stick together all day. She makes of point of laughing and acting really happy whenever we pass Glimmer. If she's trying to make Glimmer mad, it's working.

After school, she catches up to me. "Hey, want to come hang out at my house?"

I frown. "Um... We only just became friends... And your parents-"

"Oh please, my parents wouldn't care. Anyway, you've been there before. All my middle school birthday parties?"

"Well, ok. Sure."

Johanna smiles. "Need to call your parents?"

My smile fades. I don't like talking about my parents. My dad left when he found out my mom was pregnant. And my mom... Well, she's not the most concerned parent ever. I shake my head. "She won't mind."

Johanna frowns for a minute, then shrugs. "Ok. Let's go."

We leave the school and start walking towards Johanna's house. She keeps glancing at me, and I have a feeling she wants to ask about my parents.

"Clove? I'm sorry, about earlier, I assumed you had a dad, and-"

"It's ok. I'm fine, really." I smile. She doesn't look convinced.

"If you want to talk about anything, I know how to listen, surprising as it may seem. I mean, that's what friends do, right?"

I nod. "Ok, thank you." I don't say anything after that. I probably should tell Johanna about my parents, but I'm not ready to talk about it. The only one who knows anything is Cato, if he even remembers.

Johanna seems to sense that Im going to talk, at least not right now, she starts talking about her parents. "They hate each other. Always screaming at each other. I'm pretty sure they want a divorce, except they don't want to mess things up for me. I couldn't care less. Whenever they spend time with me, they're always trying to make the other one look bad. And they're trying to make me like them more than the other. So, I'm spoiled rotten."

"I couldn't tell," I say.

She smiles. "I don't let it get to my head, unlike a certain blondie."

Johanna's house is huge. She acts like its nothing, but my house could fit in her living room. Her mom is really nice, and makes us a snack. Johanna leads me upstairs to her room.

We hang out all afternoon, and really all we do is talk about the most random things. Johanna is in drama, and she sings her audition song for me. The class is doing "Into The Woods" this year. I don't know much about it, so Johanna looks up some of the songs on YouTube and shows them to me.

Johanna's mom offers to drive me home, and Johanna won't let me say no. Johanna ends up driving, since she recently got her permit, and manages to almost give her mom a heart attack by speeding and not using her blinker and making really sharp turns.

I have them stop at the edge of my neighborhood. "Thank you! See you Monday!"

"Bye!" Johanna does a U-turn and drives off.

I quickly run home. My neighborhood has an alarming lack of streetlights, and I don't like being outside at night. When I get inside, I lock the door behind me.

Mom is waiting in the kitchen. "Where have you been?" she asks sourly. Must have been a bad day at work. Oh dear.

"A friend's house," I say quietly.

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, right. I better not catch you hanging out at a boy's house."

"I wasn't."

"Don't let me catch you, you hear me?"

I nod.

"Good." She pulls a beer out of the fridge, pops it open, then heads to her room. I make a sandwich and retreat to my room to do my homework and go to bed.