Social Casualty

Chapter 8

Classes don't finish until 3 in the afternoon, and detention is afterward. Eventhough it's supposed to be bad, detention was probably the best part of my day.

Katniss, who was supposed to stay with me during the whole period, got to go to the cheerleading practice, which proves the point that this school really does find the jocks extremely valueble. All Katniss had to do was swiftly raise her arm, and ask Cray (the teacher watching over us during detention) to let her go, because she was the head cheerleader and extremely needed during practice. Cray immediatly released her. What he didn't know, was that Katniss only intended to go to the practice to cause disturbance and annoy the pretty girls.

In this moment I'm sat in the detention room, in the table next to the window, which has the perfect view to the field where the cheerleading and football practice occur. Katniss has been there for a while, and I'm pretty sure the girls, and the jocks too, were pretty impressed with her having the nerve to go there. I've been witnessing the whole scene from my place, and although I can't hear what they're saying, or can see everyone's expressions. i can only assume half of what's going in there. What I did see, was Katniss screaming throught the megaphone to Glimmer's face, almost shoving it over her head. Even the school mascot, our beloved eagle (note the sarcasm), that was specially chosen by our beloved Principal Snow as a symbol of power (how original), was particularly taken aback by Katniss's behaviour. Glimmer is already gesturing violently and flipping her hair angrily, just like the rest of the cheerleading squad. Katniss is bent over laughing like crazy, while everyone is staring at her. Even the guys in the football training have stopped to look at the scene. I chuckle.

"Mr. Mellark." Cray calls me. I turn my attention towards him, half expecting him to say that I can't stare out the window during detention. "You were called to the counselor's office." he says.

I nod,  my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Today I'm not supposed to see Haymitch on Tuesdays and Fridays. Is he really that foccused on me to he point of even knowing when I am in detention?

I pick up my backpack and head to his office, not bothering to knock. He is comfortably lounged over his chair, his feet resting on his desk.

"New look, huh?" Haymitch asks me, the moment I enter the office.

"Yeah, it's called waking up in the car ten minutes late to classes." I say.

Haymitch guffaws, eventhough what I said isn't all that funny. "Did you take vacations? You missed the last few days of school." he asks me.

I nod, but don't say anything else. Although Haymitch is a teacher, I would also consider him a friend. I know I can tell him whatever I want, because he won't judge me, or put me in trouble, the same way I don't go tell anyone that he gets drunk during the sessions. "Why am I here today?" I ask.

"Well, that's rude. You should be thanking me, I just saved you from detention." Haymitch pipes up, pretending to be hurt." I chuckle.

"Care to explain why did the principal ask me to have you here immeditly?" Haymitch asks. To my susprise, this time he was extremely frontal with me, unlike all the other times, that he only sent me mixed signs to why I was seeing him every weeks.

"I really have no idea." I state.

"Okay. Let me tell you then, Snow is not liking the way you've been behaving lately. Whether you like it or not, he is watching you everywhere. And that girl you've been hanging out with, what's her name-"

"Katniss." I interrupt him, trying to understand why is Haymitch telling me all this. Is he trying to warn me that Principal Snow know everything that I do, that I completely despise him, and want to throw him and his reign down? Maybe he does.