Panem High School {COMPLETED}

Chapter 42 - Clove

(Clove's POV)

"What's your deepest secret?"

I can feel the blood drain from my face. Why did she have to ask me that? I feel Cato's hand on my shoulder, and Madge looks a bit worried. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I..." I trail off. I have no idea how to even say this. No, I can't do it. They might laugh. They might hate me. Maybe they'll be disgusted. They might be- No, Clove, stop. They'll be supportive and kind because that's how friends are. I glance down at my sleeve and decide to just go with the easiest way to tell them. I slowly lift my arm and pull my sleeve up to my elbow.

I hear Madge's gasp. I don't look up. "How...?" Madge whispers.

"I...it was a few months ago..." I glance up to see everyone, even Katniss, looking worried. "I was feeling lonelier than usual. But don't worry. I haven't cut for a month, thanks to Johanna."

Madge puts her arm around me. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I shrug. "It never came up. I'm sorry..." I guess I've ruined the mood.

Cato puts an arm around my shoulder. "You don't need to be." I lean against him.

Everyone nods, except Katniss. She's staring intently at me. I lock eyes with her, and she points to herself. Was it her fault? I shake my head a little, and she looks down. I sincerely doubt she believed me, but she didn't have anything to do with this, besides being the pebble that accidentally caused the landslide. I don't know why she cares, though. She hates me.

Madge breaks the uncomfortable silence. "Well...I guess it's Gale's turn." I slowly pull my sleeve down as Gale scans the room.

"Johanna, truth or dare?"

"Dare." She smirks at him. "Give me your best."

Gale raises his eyebrows. "There are so many places I could go with this..." He glances at Madge to see her disapproving frown. "But I think I'll keep it appropriate, for now."

"Oh, that's reassuring," Johanna says, rolling her eyes. "Just go already."

"I'm thinking!" We all stare at Gale as he thinks. After a few minutes, he smiles. "I dare you to go outside and yell as loud as you can 'I've been shot!' Then act like you're dying dramatically for ten minutes."

"All right," Johanna says casually, and hops up. We follow her to the street.

There are only a few kids out now, but Johanna staggers out to the middle of the road. This is going to be good. "I've been shot!" she yells, getting the attention of the kids around. She staggers around for about a minute, then falls over backwards. "Tell my f-family I love...love them," she gasps. "And...and tell m-my dog, he's the reason I'm s-still here." Several kids run and up see if she's serious, so Johanna turns it up a notch, groaning and dramatically trashing around. A witch and princess almost get knocked over, and jump back. After about five minutes, Johanna goes limp. Her unfocused eyes stare up at the night sky, the witch and a zombie scream, and the princess starts crying.

After about a minute, Gale calls, "Time!" Johanna sits up, smiling sweetly at the kids, who all scream again. The witch and the zombie run away to hide behind a mailbox, but the princess just sits down, crying harder. Johanna rolls her eyes and awkwardly pats the princess's back until she calms down. Then, we head back inside.

"Katniss's turn!" Madge calls out as we sit down.

Katniss doesn't think for more than three seconds before asking, "Peeta, um, chair, truth or dare?"

Peeta laughs. "Um...truth."

Katniss smiles triumphantly. "All right. Who do you like?"

Peeta blinks, and looks down. He mumbles something unintelligible.

"What?" Katniss and Johanna say at the same time, then glare at each other.

Peeta mumbles a little louder, and Katniss sighs in exasperation. "Peeta! Who do you like?"

"You!" he says, loudly. He bites his lip and looks down as Katniss processes this.

"What...?" Katniss stares at him in confusion.

"I like you..." he whispers.

"Oh," is all Katniss can say. "Oh."

Johanna quickly cuts in. "Peeta, your turn."

"Can we skip me...?"

Johanna nods quickly. "Sure. I'll go." She glances around quickly. "Cato, truth or dare?"

Cato shrugs. "Dare, I guess."

"I dare you to go eat a spoon full of flour."

"Flour?" Cato frowns at her.

"Flour." Johanna smirks, then stands up. "Come on! To the kitchen!"

"Wherever it is!" Gale says in the same tone Johanna was using.

Cato rolls his eyes. "This way."

The group follows him to the kitchen, and Johanna watches him like a hawk while he pulls out a spoon and the container of flour. Johanna carefully measures it, then dramatically presents it to Cato, who shakes his head, laughing. "You are going to have a career acting."

"Broadway, of course," Johanna says. "Now take it."

"Ok, ok!" Cato takes the spoon, and quickly shoves the contents in his mouth, and swallows it. After a minute, he runs for a glass of water. Every except Johanna, who manages to maintain her composure, cracks up. A poof of white comes out when he opens his mouth. After he gags into the sink a few times, we head back to the game room.

"Ok, now it's my turn," Cato says once we're all seated. "Gale, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Gale says quickly.

"I dare you to toilet paper Glimmer's house with Johanna. Now."

Gale chuckles. "Now? All right. Where does she live?"

"Just down the street." Johanna hops up and throws a blanket off a pile I hadn't noticed earlier. She uncovers five Sam's-size toilet paper packages. "Let's go!"

"You guys planned this, didn't you?" Madge rolls her eyes.

I put my hands up. "I knew nothing!"

Gale laughs and grabs a package. "Peeta, Cato, give us a hand?"

In ten minutes, we're standing outside Glimmer's house. There aren't any trick-or-treaters out now. Somehow, Johanna got a few cartons of eggs as well. Mall the lights in the front of the house are off, so while we rest of us retire to behind the bushes of the house across the street, Johanna and Gale get to work. A few drops of rain fall, and soon, the first floor of the house and all the trees are covered with dripping strings of toilet paper. Johanna takes the eggs out and manages to get at least one on every first-floor window, and all over the side of the house. Once they run out of ammunition, they run back to where we are.

"Now, let's take a moment and relish the masterpiece," Johamna says, plopping down next to me on the wet grass.

"It's raining!" Katniss complains. "Can we please hurry?"

"Really, I don't want to get that wet," Madge says.

"Ok, on the count of three, we run for it," Gale suggests. "Ready? 3!" He takes off into the darkness, toward Cato's house, and after a stunned second, we all jump up and run after him. By the time we reach the door, we're all out of breath and laughing, which doesn't help.

"I wish I could see her face when she discovers it!" Johanna says breathlessly.

"I'm sure you'll hear all about it at school," Gale says. That's true. Glimmer does a good job of getting every injustice committed against her to be widely known. She'll probably figure out who it was eventually, but I don't care. There's too many of us. If she targets one person, we'll stand together. If she targets us all, people won't take her seriously. Maybe being on your own isn't as great as I thought on that first day.