Panem High: Freshman Year

Chapter 7

The girls eventually figured there was no way to get Clove to admit to anything, at least for the night, and decided their energy could be put to much better use.

"Let's go downstairs," Glimmer said, and the girls followed her down the carpeted steps to the basement. "Make yourselves comfortable," she said. "I'm going to go get some mats and blankets and pillows and all that. Clove, can you help?" She nodded. The rest of the girls settled into the plush grey couches and armchairs that surrounded the mahogany coffee table in front of the large-screen plasma television, which sat in a large white TV unit. There were multiple doors leading out of the space. "Oh, before I go up-" Glimmer said, "that's the bathroom, behind the first door. Spare bedroom is behind the second, and behind the third is my craft room. You guys can look around if you want, but it's not much." She smiled and ran up the stairs, Clove following close behind.

Madge stood up and opened the third door. "Guys, come see this!" she said excitedly. The others followed her into the room. There was a round white table in the corner of the room, with a banquette pressed against the two walls and a cushioned chair on the other side. There was a large white cabinet standing in the opposite corner, and upon opening the doors, Foxface discovered it was filled with craft supplies of all kinds- pencils, paint, hot glue, cardstock, glass Mason jars, small boxes, decorative flowers, scrapbook paper, etc. The outside of the cabinet was covered in old posters, photos and some of Glimmer's own artwork. On the same wall as the cabinet were four shelves, each with about a foot and a half between them. Three of the four walls were painted the lightest possible shade of blue that could still be considered blue, but the wall the door was on was covered with chalkboard paint and had chalk doodles all over it in pastel letters. "Look, Clove and Cato wrote here," Madge smiled. "And Marvel," she grinned, wiggling her eyebrows.

"I found the chalk," Katniss said, holding up a white paper cup filled with the narrow cylinders. The girls each took a piece and scribbled a quick message, spreading their notes across the black expanse. They returned to the main part of the basement, Finch closing the door behind them, and flopped back onto the couches.

A few moments later, the girls' phones chimed with a message from their group chat. Send help.

"I got it," FoxfFinchace said with a sigh. Her friends laughed. She hurried up the basement stairs and around the corner up the stairs to the top floor. 

"Thank God," Glimmer said from the floor when Finch appeared beside the linen closet, eyes wide at the sight of Glimmer and Clove buried under pillows and blankets.

"Oh my," she said. "How did this even-"

"Just get us out!" Clove exclaimed, cutting her off forcefully. Finch began rifling through the bedding until her friends were able to scramble out. Glimmer wrapped her arms around Finch briefly and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you," she stated gratefully. Finch only laughed and winked at Clove, who scrunched her freckled nose and smiled a little.

"So I figure two people can sleep on the sectional, and one on the couch," Glimmer calculated, "so we need five other arrangements." Clove rolled her eyes. "I have this twin size air mattress in the spare bedroom closet, so someone can take that. It pumps up by hand, I think, but if not the pump is in the box. Oh! We have a queen size air mattress!" Glimmer exclaimed, pulling a white box with green letters out of the storage bin she had pulled out from under the bottom shelf. "Clove, can you look for the pump, please? It's about this big," she gestured with her hands, "and black, and there's this green spout thingy that comes out one side, and the little cap should be over it." Clove nodded and began searching through the abundance of boxes and containers. "Anyway," Glimmer continued, "two people can sleep on that air mattress, and I can take the double mattress off of the spare bed downstairs. I'm gonna find some sets of sheets and pillows and stuff. Finch, can you look for some blankets? There should be four or five comforters and two duvets, I think, probably white or grey, but there may be some blue ones too. Oh, and also when you find them you can put them in the laundry basket down under that shelf," she instructed, and the two girls moved the boxes carefully on and off the shelves as they searched through them for their assigned items. After two or three minutes, Clove produced the small black pump for the air mattress, and Finch had finally recovered the comforters and duvets (a grand array of colours, despite what Glimmer had said; one was blush pink, another yellow, another navy blue, another army green, the last comforter red and the two duvets white). For some time after that, Glimmer huffed and puffed in exasperation while looking for the pillows. She had found a set of sheets for the air mattress which she had placed in the laundry basket, but she had only found two of eight necessary pillows.