Panem High: Freshman Year

Chapter 19

"I can't believe this is our last day before the break," Annie sighed. The group was sitting in the library during their lunch hour, as they'd all finished early. They had moved the tables into a giant hexagon so they could all sit together for the rest of their break. 

"I know," Madge said. "I'm so excited for Christmas."

"Same," Gale said. 

Delly smiled but didn't say anything. She looked around at her friends. Their school was having an holiday sweater day to get in the Christmas spirit, and everyone looked so silly. She had almost a dozen shirts and sweaters, and eventually decided on a red one with a classic "ugly sweater" pattern, and it had a graphic of Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman dancing around a Christmas tree on the back. 

She lent a red, brown and white one to Annie, and everyone else had one as well. (Clove wouldn't have, nor Johanna, but they'd both lost a bet to Cato.) Delly especially liked Johanna's (it was red, with a big brown cross, and it said Happy Birthday Jesus!) and Thresh's green one, which had a graphic of Santa Claus in a tailored red business suit and Mrs. Claus in a red evening gown. 

"We should have a Secret Santa!" Madge exclaimed suddenly. 

"Nonononononono," Clove whined. Cato elbowed her in the ribs. "OW!" she groaned loudly. The librarian looked over and shushed her. Clove moved to smack Cato, but he caught her hand and glared at her. She rolled her eyes and folded her hands on the table, but judging by the quiet groan that followed from Cato, Delly guessed that she kicked him under the table.

"Come on, it would be fun!" Glimmer grinned. 

Clove sighed. 

"If you don't want to participate, you don't have to," Delly quipped. 

"Here," Madge said, tearing a page out of her notebook. She folded and tore it into equal pieces. "Anyone who wants to be in the Secret Santa exchange can write their name on a piece of paper. If not, that's fine." She rifled through her pencil case and pulled out two felt tipped pens in red and green. "In the spirit of Christmas," she winked. 

Delly grabbed the green one and one of the pieces of paper and wrote her name in neat handwriting. 

She passed the pen around, and Gale passed around the red one after signing his name on a slip of paper. 

The pens made their way around the table, most people writing their names eagerly on a piece of paper, and Johanna somewhat reluctantly ("Ayyy, one of us is getting something nice," Gale had grinned, and Johanna had promised that if she got his name, she would not be spending any more than thirty cents) until the markers ended up with Cato and Clove. He wrote his name down and looked at her, and she sighed and, somewhat hesitantly, wrote her name on one of the slips. 

He grinned at her and she chuckled. 

"Look at those two," Madge whispered in Delly's ear, and she giggled. 

"GAAAH, you idiot!" Clove exclaimed suddenly. Delly looked up, surprised, and saw a somewhat short boy with creamy coffee-coloured skin and short dark curls bent over, nearly choking on his laughter. 

"Clove Kentwell!" the librarian scolded sharply. 

"Sorry, Mrs. Whittaker," Clove said sheepishly, but the moment she was out of sight and earshot, Clove began smacking the boy. 

"Who's that?" Delly mumbled to Madge. 

"Josiah Skylar," Madge replied under her breath. "He's in Octavia's photography class with Clove. He's cute, isn't he?"