Panem High: Freshman Year

Chapter 2

Clove scowled as Cato picked on her endlessly about her height as they walked a little behind the rest of the group to the main office to get their homerooms.

"How, though?" Cato marvelled. "You're fourteen, and have been since January, only three days after me, so it's not like you're any younger than the rest of us, but you're like four foot ten!"

"I'm five foot three!" she shouted angrily, getting questioning stares from the rest of the group.

"I'm almost six feet," Cato boasted. Clove smacked him across the face. "OW!" he hollered, clutching his cheek. When he dropped his hand, Clove saw there was a faint red mark from the strike.

"Maybe you should shut up because I might slap you again," she said casually.

"Wouldn't want that," he grimaced.

"Besides, you've just always been tall. And you used to be disgustingly skinny too. How would you like it if I uploaded some of your middle school pictures on Instagram?"

"I wouldn't," he scowled.

When they reached the office, the secretary, Cashmere, smiled warmly at them, handing all but Clove ninth-grade homeroom lists. She caught Cato chuckling and shot him a threatening glare. "How can I help you, honey?" she asked.

"I'll take the ninth-grade class list, please," she asked politely, swallowing her anger and pride. When they walked into the hall, Clove angrily smacked the back of Cato's head before nominating herself the announcer.

"Nine-A, Wiress. Katniss Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, Peeta Mellark." The three exchanged brief high fives before Clove sent them a withering glare to let her continue. "Nine-B, Cressida. Glimmer Belcourt, Cato Hadley, Clove Kentwell, Johanna Mason, Marvel Sanford. Awesome. Mostly," she added, as an afterthought, glaring at Cato. Glimmer squeezed Clove's hand excitedly. "Nine-C, Seneca. Annie Cresta, Madge Undersee." The two smiled at each other but let Clove go on uninterrupted. "Nine-D, Plutarch. Delly Cartwright, Thresh Morrowson. Nine-E, Effie. Finch Crossley, Finnick Odair. No one from this group in Nine-F with Antonio."

The group consulted their lists to see if there was anyone else they knew of in their homeroom classes, then went their separate ways to get to class on time. In 9B, Clove sat down in between Glimmer and Johanna, making sure Cato sat beside Marvel, in front of Glimmer, so she could be far away from him without causing an inconvenience to the group conversation.

"This class is gonna be rad," Cato said, clearly already scheming ways to get the teacher pissed, but when Cressida walked in the class fell silent, and Cato didn't try anything. Wouldn't want detention on the first day, Clove thought sourly.

"Alright, everyone, I'm Cressida. It's my second year teaching-" Cato looked back at Clove and smirked- "but I won't be taking crap from anyone-" Clove returned the smirk- "so don't even start with me. However, homeroom is your only class of the day where you aren't learning, so I promise to make my fifteen minutes with you each day unless you choose to take my film elective fun. Today you'll just be getting your schedules and choosing electives, and hopefully, you'll get time to talk to the people in your other classes. For the most part, your classes will be split between the Nine-B group and the Nine-E group, but Phys Ed, any art classes, any advanced classes you sign up for and, of course, your electives will be mixed with all the other ninth grade homerooms."

Cressida picked up a pile of laminated square pages on her desk. "Schedules," she announced. She called out names until all the papers had been collected, and gave students a few minutes to look at their schedules. "Remember," she noted, "this is your schedule for first semester, so although homeroom will stay the same, and you will continue to take Math and English next semester, your other three classes will change. As you'll see, last period slot is blank. Once you choose your elective, you may take your schedule to the library to have the librarian print it on."