Panem High School {COMPLETED}

Chapter 21 - Clove

(Clove's POV)

Johanna is the best friend anyone's ever had. She's the last person I would have thought would be like this, but here she is, comforting me and trying to cheer me up.

At school on Monday, she finds me as soon as she can. She's more caring and concerned than usual, but otherwise she treats me the same, which is nice. I know some people would act like I had some disease, or like I needed pity.

During history, Mr. Flickerman gives us a new seating chart, which no one is happy about. Johanna gets seated next to me, which is good, and Madge and Katniss get seated behind us, which is not good.

"Madge," Katniss hisses. "What's wrong?" I glance over at Madge, and she looks annoyed.

"Nothing," she says calmly.

Johanna turns around in her chair. "Sure, sister. Don't lie. We all know you hate me." Johanna rolls her eyes and turns around again.

"What?" Katniss frowns.

Madge rolls her eyes. I didn't know she could do that. She's always been so nice. "I have no idea what she's talking about."

Johanna laughs. "Yeah, right."

"Why would you hate Johanna?" Katniss asks. She sounds more confused than anything else.

"I don't!" Madge glares at the back of Johanna's head. Very convincing.

Johanna sighs. "If you don't hate me, then why do you act annoyed whenever I say anything? And why do you have a problem sitting here?" Johanna half turns and stares at her.

"I don't. You're insane." Madge turns away from all of us.

"Ok then..." Katniss frowns at Madge.

Johanna rolls her eyes and laughs. I smile, but I think this is bothering Johanna. I don't blame her; having the nicest girl in school hate me would almost be worse than having Glimmer hate me. Madge might not doing anything, but her obvious disapproval is upsetting, at the least.

It suddenly occurs to me that Glimmer has been leaving me alone for at least a week. This either means she's moved on to another target, or she's planning something big. I hope it's the first one.

I pull out my book and hold it inside my history book. I'm reading The Selection right now. It's good, but America annoys me. One second she wants one boy, the next, the other. Unfortunately, I finish it in class.

After school, Johanna catches me. "Wanna come over and hang out?"

I hold up my book. "I need to go get the next book from the library."

She thinks for a minute. "Ok, I'll come with you then. Libraries are boring, but maybe all those words won't penetrate my mind."

I laugh at that. "Come on, books are amazing."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Do you mind if we stop by my house first?" I shake my head. "Ok, come on!"

When we get to her house, Johanna throws her backpack into the living room and opens the fridge. She tosses me a banana and pulls out one for herself. "Sorry, my mom is on a health food craze right now. No junk food." I shrug.

I follow her put to her garage. She surveys the room, then turns to me. "Want to bike there?"

I bite my lip. It's always embarrassing to have to explain this. "I don't have a bike."

She stares at me, shocked. "You don't have a bike?"

I shake my head, and look down at my clasped hands. "Bikes are expensive..."

Johanna claps her hand over her mouth, but quickly removes it. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, no, it's ok." I look up and give her a little smile. "We can just ride the bus, or walk."

Johanna smirks. "That won't be necessary. If you want a bike, you can have one of mine. My parents decided to buy me a new bike about a year ago, as a surprise, but they couldn't decide on a good one together, so they just got me two." She rolls her eyes and walks over to a row of bikes. "Here," she says as she rolls one out.

I blink. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, why not? I don't use it."

I stare at the bike for a minute, then walk over and throw my arms around Johanna. "Thank you!"

She quickly shrugs me off. "Yeah, whatever." But I can see her smiling.

After an initial lesson how to ride a bike, which I get through pretty quickly, it takes about twenty minutes to bike there from Johanna's house. I try to stick to the bike lane. Johanna scares me to death by constantly swerving into the street, laughing at the cars, but staying out of danger's way.

Johanna seems a bit awed by the library once we arrive. As I return my book, she stares at everything. I don't blame her. Apparently, it's her first time here. I can't even remember the first time Mom brought me here, but I'm sure I acted the same way.

I sigh. When I was little, Mom was different. She was optimistic, I guess, that my dad might still have come back. All that optimism is gone now. And with it went her parenting skills.

Johanna regains her ability to speak by the time we reach the third floor. I lead her directly to the 'C' section, and pulled the next two books off the shelf.

"Can we go now? I think the books are infecting me," Johanna states.

"Are you sure?" I ask. I normally like to browse a bit when I come here.

She makes a huge show of sighing. "Fiiiiiiine. Browse away."

Johanna follows me and comments on random things ("The books! They're killing me!" "Why is there a parrot in here? Oh wait, that's a kid with dyed hair." "Hmm, what's this? Oh, another freaking book.") as I look around.

We leave after about twenty minutes of Johanna debating herself about which color she'd like to dye her hair. I think she finally decides on red, but honestly, she could change her mind fifty times before tomorrow morning.

Johanna bikes with me to my house, then waves and rides off to hers. I wave until she's out of sight, then walk up the steps. I've just opened the door when I hear loud arguing inside.