Panem High: Freshman Year

Chapter 20

"GLIMMER! GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWNSTAIRS!" Gabriel hollered.

"I'm almost ready, you asshat," she called back.

"Bullshit."

"Hey now," said Amie. "You two want to watch your language there?"

"Sorry, Momma," Glimmer sighed as she came down the stairs. The Kentwells were having a massive Christmas party that evening, and by massive, that entailed all four kids' friends and their families. This year was set to be the biggest one yet, Clove had said to Glimmer, with a whopping twenty-six families on the guest list. (One hundred and four guests total!)

Amie gasped. "Oh my goodness, Glimmer, you look beautiful!"

Glimmer smiled bashfully. Annie had helped her pick out her Christmas dress, and she'd kept it well hidden from everyone else so it would be a surprise. It was silky and light pink with a darker pink trim. The hem was embellished with sequins and the three-quarter-length sleeves flared out into a bell sleeve at her elbow. On her feet were glittery silver flats, and she had accessorized with a necklace with a three-dimensional silver heart pendant, tiny silver earrings and a charm bracelet with multiple small silver hearts dangling from it. She had put extra time into applying a light layer of glittery light pink eyeshadow and some sparkly lip gloss.

"Gabe, doesn't your baby sister look wonderful?" Amie gushed.

"Uh, yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You, uh, look pretty nice, I guess."

She laughed. "Thank you. You don't look terrible either." He fiddled with the top button of his dark green collared shirt until it popped open.

"You two," Amie sighed. "Gabe, you could've left that done up. It looked very fancy."

"I needed some breathing room," he grumbled, picking at his khakis.

"Glim, where did you get that hair clip?" she asked of the big silver heart pinning up her daughter's curled hair.

"Rosa gave it to me for my twelfth birthday back in Palm Springs," she explained. "I love it; I just never had an occasion for it until now."

"I see. Well, it looks lovely."

"Thank you."

"Well, we had better get going. Lauren sent me the address for the party and I want to help her get set up as much as I can."

"It isn't at the Kentwells' house?" Glimmer asked.

"No, the location is a surprise to everyone. Even her kids didn't know until they got there about twenty minutes ago."

"Oh, okay."

"Gabe, go into the kitchen and grab the plastic shopping bin. Glimmer, in the chest freezer in the basement there's a big clear container filled with some of the galettes Grandmama and I made last weekend. And there's a round tin that's labelled Matrimonial Bliss if you could bring that up as well."

"Sure," she replied.

"Matrimonial Bliss?" Gabe snorted.

"It's a galette!" Amie snapped.

"I still don't know why you call them that," he sighed. "They're just squares."

"That's what we always called them growing up," she smiled.

"'Cause you were all français," he chuckled.

"Just go get my shopping bin," she huffed, and he complied. Glimmer ran downstairs and came back up with the galettes.

"Gifts!" Amie exclaimed suddenly, rushing upstairs. Glimmer and Gabe followed, but went into their own rooms instead of their mom's, and finally, after a ten-minute scramble, they had everything they needed.