Beauty and The Geek

A Little Problem

***
Marvel

I sit at the breakfast table, across from my mother and hear a sound of rushing feet down the stairs, then see Cato round the corner, backpack slung lazily over one shoulder and his tennis shoes untied, jogging toward the table.

"Well," Mom chuckles. "Good morning, Prince Charming, nice of you to join us." She says and he grabs a piece of burnt toast from the top of the scrap pile on the kitchen counter. Mom makes a disgusted face. "I'll never understand how you and your father like burnt toast." She shakes her head.

"No time to talk," Cato says, stuffing the toast in his mouth.

"Woke up late again?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Yeah."

"You see why I don't ride the bus?" I chuckle.

"Yeah," he smiles. "If I had my own car, I wouldn't-"

Mom crosses her arms. "I told you that we can't afford another car."

Cato stares out the window then runs out the door towards the bus, toast stuffed his mouth.

I laugh. I hear Glimmer's car horn blow and kiss Mom on the top of her head. "Bye, Mom." I walk out to Glimmer's car.

"Bye, hon." She waves as I get in the car.

"Hey," she smiles.

"Hey," I say, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. "Glim?" I say to the girl sitting next to me.

She raises her eyebrows, looking over at me. "Yeah, Marvel?" She asks timidly.

"I was wondering if you would like to go play laser-tag with me this weekend," I say.

"Like... a date?"

"No," I say. "L-Like two friends having fun."

"But, what if I want it to be a date?" She grabs my hand. Her hands are small and they feel so warm in my hand.

"Then, it's a date." I smile at her.

"Marvel?"

"Hm?"

"What are we?" She asks.

I narrow my eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, are we girlfriend, boyfriend? or friends?"

I laugh. "What do you want me to be?"

"I'm not sure." She replies.

"How about you think about it and get back to me, okay?"

She smiles in reply as we pull into the school parking lot.

  ***

"You're a jerk," Johanna says to Gale as they both approach our table.

"How is that, Jo?" Gale asks.

"I was cold." Is all she replies.

"So?"

"I was hinting that I wanted you to lend me your coat."

"But, then I'd be cold."

"You're a real wuss, Gale, you know that?" She purses her lips together in a hard line.

"What?" He almost shouts and she walks off. "What?" He repeats, sitting down.

"Well that happened." Peeta says, taking a bite of macaroni and making a disgusted face. "Yuck! This macaroni is like rubber." He shutters.

"Not mine," Annie says, picking the whole thing up with her hands and banging it on the table. "Mine's like a big, cheesy rock."

"Why can't we have something good to eat for once?" Katniss says and Finnick comes over with pizza.

"Hey, guys." Finnick says with a smile.

"Pizza!" We all shout and lunge toward the pizza.

"Guys," Finnick says. "Guys, share!" He looks around. "Katniss, we only get one piece each!"

"Screw you!" She shouts and takes a bite of pizza.

"Katniss!" Cato shouts. "Get your ass out of my face!"

"Get your face out of my ass!" She shouts back at the blond boy.

Cato purses his lips together, one of his many quirks when he gets angry or frustrated. "Can I have a—" –Katniss takes a bite of the other slice of pizza– "piece?"

"Here, babe." Clove hands him a slice of pizza.

"Thank you." The boy thanks her and tips an a imaginary hat with a wink.

"I love when you do that." Clove says softly and smiles.

Cato just smiles and takes a bite of his slice of pizza.

  ***

Mom and I walk into the kitchen and see the chocolate cake she made for dessert missing. "Where's the..." Mom starts but looks on the counter. "Sweetheart," she starts, looking at Cato sitting on the countertop with icing on his face. "What are you doing on the counter?"

"You said cake wasn't good!" He shouts. "You liar!" He growls a low growl and stuffs his mouth full of cake.

"Cato, please get off the counter." Mom says gingerly.

"No!" He snaps.

Mom grabs the cardboard under the cake and pulls. "Baby, please." He grabs the cardboard also and pulls so now they're playing tug-of-war. "Cato! Give me the cake!"

"No!" He jerks the cake toward him.

"Cato!" Mom shouts one more time and Cato lets go, making Mom fall backwards, bringing the cake with her. "Thank you."

I walk over to my brother and get some icing on my finger and taste it. "Delicious."

Cato slaps my hand. "Keep your hands off me," he says, his brows furrowed. I stare at him; he's still handsome, even with icing on his face.

My mother says that Cato looks a lot like his father. Apparently, Brutus used to be handsome. It turns out that Brutus had hair at once, blond hair. But no one could ever have hair like Cato's, his is sandy blond with a golden glow. They both have sparkling blue eyes. But Cato's eyes are his own. Icy-blue eyes that always seem to be gleaming with kindness and laughing happy laughs. Every girl adores him, throwing themselves at him like fools. Many people say that he has movie star good looks.

"Um... why don't you go get cleaned up?" Mom asks him, kisses his cheek. "Or lick yourself clean." She licks the icing off of her lips.

"Okay, Mama." He says, hopping off the counter and walking upstairs.

"Thank you!" She starts cleaning the mess up. "I should go get cleaned up as well." She walks to hers and Brutus's bedroom and I chuckle, shaking my head.

My family is so weird, but I love them... as much I'd hate to admit.