Hi! Sorry for how long this took, I just get distracted and I suck at updates. This chapter is pretty lengthy to make up for the lack of update. I had an issue where I was basically writing verbatim what happens in the show and I don't want that to be the case, so it took a lot of drafts to come up with something that takes this story in the direction I want. This chapter works through the first day of school for Kit, and ends at the end of that week. We're introduced to her English teacher (Max for those of you who watch the show), and her new "enemy" at school. Read the notes at the end to see what will happen next, and as always there are quotes from the show but I don't own anything!

"I can't believe we're running late." Kit lamented for what felt like the ten thousandth time that morning from the passenger side of the Jeep.

"Give it a rest kid, I told you I was sorry. It's not like I knew my phone was going to kill itself in the middle of the night." Katniss exhaled with a pointed look at her daughter.

The morning of Kit's first day at Capitol hadn't gone to plan, that much was for certain. When Katniss's ancient flip phone didn't go off with the preset alarm, it had thrown both mother and daughter for a loop; Kit into a fit of hysterics and Katniss into a whorl of anger, anxiety, and snappiness.

It didn't help that all of her clothing was at the dry cleaners so now she was dressed in jeans, a tie die t-shirt and cowboy boots to drop her daughter off at the fancy prep school. They were both a little snarky on the way as a result.

"Mom you know what happens when someone is late for the first day of school!" Kit exclaimed and Katniss tried to not roll her eyes.

"Um it's shorter?" Katniss said, trying to joke but Kit's face indicated she was having none of it.

"No. They're labeled the late girl for the rest of their lives." She huffed and Katniss tried to not laugh.

"You're so dramatic. Maybe you should go out for theater instead of the school paper." Katniss said as she turned the car into the massive gates housing the draconian looking institution.

After the car was parked, they both sat silently taking in the enormity of the building in front of them.

"Wow." Kit offered and Katniss nodded her head.

"Yeah. It's been a long time since I've been to a place like this. I forget how small it makes you feel." She almost whispered, and she could feel Kit's anger towards her dissipate at the revelation.

"Yeah being back at a school like this is probably fun for you huh?" Kit asked, looking down at her skirt and smoothing it with her hand.

Katniss turned and looked at Kit, tucking a wayward piece of hair behind her daughter's ear.

"Actually it is kind of fun, especially since this time I'm not the one going to school. Come on, we've got to go do this thing." Kit nodded at Katniss's words, and Katniss took a deep breath preparing herself for whatever the school in front of them was about to hurl their way.

"Okay, so we just take a left here right?" Katniss asked Kit over her shoulder as they tried to navigate their way to the Headmaster's office.

"Uh I think so?" Kit responded, not sounding confident about it at all, and Katniss sighed.

She began to walk forward again, her eyes searching for any kind of signage that would help them when she ran right into a mass in front of her.

"Oh my god I am so sorry!" She exclaimed as she tried to regain her balance after plowing down the stranger in front of her. When she raised her eyes to the man's she could feel her cheeks flush.

My, he was attractive.

"No, trust me, you have nothing to be sorry for. Name's Gloss." The man with the stunning Hazel eyes and great jaw said, holding out his hand for her to take.

"Katniss. Nice to meet you." She replied placing her hand in his. For a moment they stood like idiots, beaming at each other, until Kit impatiently cleared her throat behind them, shaking Katniss out of her reverie.

"Oh! Oh sorry! If you don't mind, do you know where the headmasters office is?" She asked the man, who still held onto her hand.

"To your left, through those doors actually." He told her with a brilliant smile, pointing in the correct direction. "Are you new here?" He asked and Katniss felt herself blush.

"Um kind of? My daughter is I mean. I'm just a new parent here." She replied and Gloss lit up.

"Oh really? Wow you're a parent, wow that's great to hear. Is your husband here? I'd love to meet him." He said eagerly and Katniss smiled again despite herself.

"No, no husband. What about your wife?" She asked, playing his game right back.

"Never married." He said, finally letting go of her hand reluctantly.

"Shame." Katniss said with nothing but sarcasm in her tone causing the man to laugh.

"I suppose. Tell me Katniss, what do you do?" He asked, and Katniss readied herself to answer, but the feeling of Kit poking her side snapped her back to reality.

"Um I work at an Inn, The Hob, in Panem City actually. I wish I could talk more but we unfortunately have to get going." She said in a rush and the man chuckled.

"Well it was nice to meet you Katniss. I'm sure I'll be running into you again." He told her, walking smoothly away.

For a moment Katniss stood smiling, watching as he left, before Kit saddled up to her.

"Feeling pretty good about yourself right now aren't you?" Kit asked, and Katniss nodded her head dreamily.

"Would you like a mirror?" Kit asked again, and Katniss turned to her with a scowl.

"Right. I'm back. Let's go smart ass." She told her daughter, and like that, the man was forgotten as they made their way to the office.

After what could only be described as a contentious first meeting (thanks entirely to her mother's surprise appearance) with Capitol's headmaster, Katniss felt a sigh of relief in her chest as she pulled her car up in front of Mellarks.

Easing herself out of her car she walked into the diner and sat herself down at the counter, where Peeta was fiddling with some tools, in deep concentration.

"Well, don't greet your customers when they come in, or they might think you actually want them here." She said to gain his attention, and he grunted in response.

"Fine. Can I have some coffee? Today has been the longest day of my life already and it's not even ten." She huffed, bringing her elbows up onto the counter and placing her head in her hands as she tried to figure out what he was doing.

"Why such a bad morning?" He asked when he finally glanced up at her, making no move towards the coffee pot.

"I was late to drop Kit off at Capitol, and when we got there my mom was waiting for us like some deranged stalker." Katniss said, taking the time to point very slowly to the coffee pot behind where Peeta stood. He rolled his eyes but finally turned around and poured her a cup.

"And that's what you wore? I mean, that's a fancy school." He said as he handed her her coffee. Katniss scoffed.

"Yes this is what I wore. My phone kicked the dust so I couldn't go to the dry cleaners. It's not exactly fair for you to judge my outfit by the way. Do you own any thing other than flannel?" She asked as she took a sip and inhaled deeply.

"I'm not the one who had to drop my daughter off at some overpriced snobby school today, so I don't really need to own fancy clothes." He snapped and Katniss tried to not smile at the way the fire sizzled in his blue eyes.

"True. Didn't stop a Dad from hitting on me though." She offered nonchalantly, but it didn't go unnoticed the way Peeta's hands stopped their task completely for a few moments at her admission.

"Oh yeah? What did you say?" He asked, his eyes darting up to glance at her.

"I mean it's not like he asked me out, he just did the thing, you know, asked me where I worked, if I was married." Katniss shrugged and tried to hide her smirk behind her coffee cup as Peeta tried to maintain his cool. He hated when she told him about the guys who hit on her, therefore she made sure to tell him every time.

"Yeah? And what did you tell him?" He asked, bringing his hand up to adjust the hat on his head. Katniss watched him for a moment before answering.

"What do you mean? I told him I wasn't married and that I worked at The Hob. Hardly ground breaking stuff." She told him, trying to keep her smile in check even more fervently than before as he continued to glance at her and look away.

"Well I mean, would you go out with him if he asked? Sounds like he probably wanted to." He offered as he slid a pastry in front of where she sat.

"No probably not. I mean, he's a Capitol Dad and that wouldn't really be fair to Kit." She reasoned as she tore into the Danish with her fingers.

"Here use a fork, you look like an animal. And that's good. I mean, especially since you know, he's a dad with a kid in high school. He's probably old." Peeta reasoned as he handed her a fork and looked everywhere but at her face.

"Uh, I have a kid in high school Peeta." She reminded him as she tried to stab his lingering hand with her fork.

"You know that's not what I meant. Most people don't have kids as young as you. So you're not old but…." He trailed off and once again adjusted his baseball cap.

"But he is. Old, I mean." She finished for him with amusement in her tone.

"Yeah." He said, finally meeting her eyes and holding her gaze.

"So you would say no." He said with a lilt of something Katniss didn't catch.

"Yeah. I'd say no." She told him with a small smile, not breaking his stare.

"Good." He finally said, not turning away from her until the bell behind them sounded out that an order was ready.

As he walked away, Katniss smiled and shook her head.

Kit knew this school was where she needed to be in order to eventually make her way to the Ivy League, but she hadn't expected everyone at the place to be so…. Awful.

First the whole thing with her grandmother and mom with the headmaster this morning had been utterly unpleasant, and when they had both finally left the white haired man had basically called her a kiss ass and told her that wouldn't work for her at Captiol.

Now as she sat in her last period she could feel the stare of the blond girl – Glimmer she thought was her name – and her "posse" boring into her head every time she answered a question.

She had no idea what she had done to earn the blonde girls ire, other than sign up in the hallway for the school newspaper and have some boy offer to lend her his notes, but she could already tell it wasn't going to be fun having three enemies and no friends.

The true topping on the cake had been when she had walked into the very class she sat in to find the tall gorgeous man who had hit on her mother sitting at the front behind the desk. He had smiled at her knowingly, kindly even, when she walked in, but despite that Kit was afraid he would ask her about her mother now, forever marking her as some sort of pariah.

The girls around her were eating up everything he had to say about Shakespeare, making it clear he was a student (or at least, female) favorite around campus, but she found it hard to find him "dreamy" when he had already hit on her mom.

He was a really great teacher though, and funny in a dry way that she appreciated.

"Now, this is a little bit of trivia, but since the life of Shakespeare will be a part of the test, it's something you should know regardless. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write during his lifetime?" Gloss…. Or Mr. Markem asked the class.

"154." Kit answered easily, at which Mr. Markem beamed at her.

"Very good Kit. It's great to have a new student who is already fairly up to date on what we're learning about." He told her with a genuine smile that she returned.

When he turned his back, Kit felt a sharp kick to the back of her desk and whipped around to see Glimmer staring at her in a way that made her skin prickle.

"Looks like Mr. Markem likes you. How nice. Too bad everyone knows I'm his favorite student." Glimmer snarled and Kit resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

This wasn't the first confrontation she and the girl had been in today, and like the others they were all initiated by Glimmer out of some weird sort of jealously. The first had been signing up for the paper, where Glimmer had told her, no if ands or buts, that she planned on being the editor and eventually the Valedictorian and that if Kit had any plans to interrupt that she would make school a living hell for her.

The second had been when some boy named Cato had offered Kit his notes for their History class so she could catch up (calling her Mary the entire time much to Kit's bafflement), and Glimmer had told her to back off "her man."

Katniss had warned her that the kids at schools like these were not like the kids back at Panem high, but Kit had no idea just how drastic the differences would be. While at Panem most kids got in fights over stealing boyfriends or girlfriends, here kids got angry when someone tried to outdo them academically, or offered help to a new student trying to catch up.

She wasn't seen as the "new girl" to these kids. She was a threat. It was strange, and as pathetic as it was, she couldn't wait for school to end so she could be back with her Mom.

When the bell finally – miraculously – rang, Kit shot out of her seat, lugging her backpack and stack of books with her out to where she knew her mom would be waiting.

Katniss stood outside of the Jeep, leaning against the bumper as she waited for Kit to find her. Something about the scene of the kids milling around the courtyard had sent her back 16 years to a time where she would wait for Gale in a similar place so they could go home and escape the horrors school held. She watched a tall blonde boy with a smirk on his face stroll up to his girlfriend and plant a kiss on her lips and swore any moment Gale would be rounding the same corner, with the same look to come and ride home with her.

When she saw Kit instead of Gale (even though there was a lot of Gale in Kit) she felt herself relax, a genuine smile planted on her lips.

"Hey kid, how was school?" Katniss asked when Kit was a few feet away. Kit dropped her books and bag on the ground and buried herself in Katniss's arms as a way of response and Katniss chuckled.

"That bad huh?" She asked as she placed a kiss on the top of her daughter's head. Kit nodded against her collarbone.

"This is a weird place." Kit said and Katniss laughed, releasing her hold on her and bending over to pick up the discarded backpack.

"Holy shit, what's in here? Weapons?" Katniss asked as she tossed the bag into the back of the Jeep. Kit just shrugged her shoulders and got in on the passengers side.

They rode in silence for a few moments; Katniss content to let Kit enjoy some peace before the younger girl spoke up.

"So that man Gloss that hit on you today was my English teacher." She told her Mom and tried to not laugh when Katniss startled.

"What? He was a teacher? God I thought he was a parent! That's mortifying." Katniss said, ignoring the twinge of relief she felt at the news he wasn't a Dad of one of Kit's new classmates.

"Yep. He's really good too. Girls were practically sighing as he read Shakespeare to us." Kit said, looking out the window as she did so.

"Anything else interesting?" Katniss asked, desperate to get the conversation away from the attractive man.

"Uh, some girl already hates me because she thinks I'm going to try to knock her out of her standing and some guy kept calling me Mary all day." Kit said, looking at Katniss quizzically as she laughed. "What?" She demanded.

"Sorry, just… Mary. I can't believe kids still use that." Katniss said as she chuckled.

"What's it mean?" Kit asked, genuinely curious.

"Like the Virgin Mary. It means they think you're pure." Katniss said as she glanced at Kit and patted her forearm.

"Well what would they have said if they thought I was a slut?" Kit asked and Katniss laughed harder.

"Well they probably would have added a 'Magdalene' to it." Katniss told her with a smirk.

"Wow. Biblical insults. This is a smart school." Kit said sarcastically causing both she and Katniss to break out laughing once again.

The week passed by fairly quickly, much to both Katniss's and Kit's relief. Friday afternoon came around and Katniss stood at the Inn, watching in amusement as Johanna tried to refrain herself from kicking their piano player Haymitch in the ass when he accidently bumped into her, when her (new) cell buzzed in her pocket.

She pulled it out and glanced at the name, and seeing it was Kit quickly answered.

"Hello daughter of mine, how was school?" Katniss asked as she moved to sit in the dining room away from all the noise.

"It was alright. I have a lot of homework, but I was able to get a good amount of reading done on the bus." Kit told her, and Katniss could hear the door to the house opening in the background.

"That's good. Did you want to come to the Inn and earn some cash?" Katniss asked, somewhat hopeful the answer would be yes. They hadn't been able to spend as much time together since Kit had started Capitol and she missed her mini me.

"Actually I was wondering if I could go and see Sara? I haven't seen her since last weekend and her mom is out of town on some Jesus retreat so I figured I could feed her proper food. You know some pizza or ice cream." Kit asked and Katniss felt guilty for her prior thoughts. Kit lived with her and saw her every day, while Sara probably felt left out.

"Yeah of course. Tell her I said hey. Maybe ask her if she wants to start doing something on Thursday nights with us every week so you guys have some guaranteed time?" Katniss offered, watching Johanna stomp back to the desk out of the corner of her eye.

"That would be great Mom! Thanks!" Kit said and Katniss smiled.

"Okay kiddo. Have fun, but be ready to go see your grandparents tonight for dinner. 6:30." Katniss told her before they exchanged their goodbyes. She sat at the table for a moment longer, lost in her dread for the rest of her night when Johanna tapped her on the shoulder.

"What?" Katniss asked as she took in the shit-eating grin Johanna was wearing.

"Your mother is here." Johanna said. Katniss started and quickly peered around where Johanna stood to see that Gloss was standing at the reception desk, peering around and taking the place in. Her eyes widened.

"That is not my mother you asshole." Katniss said through clenched teeth, but Johanna ignored her.

"I knew you had game Everdeen, but damn that guy….." Johanna trailed off, enhancing her grin when Katniss scowled at her.

"Thanks Jo. I'll go talk to him now." Katniss told her, standing up to make her way over, trying to figure out what on earth he was doing here.

"Gloss." She said as she approached, and watched as he whirled around to face her, a grin plastered on his features.

"Katniss. I'm glad I have the right place. That front desk clerk made it sound like she had no idea who you were." He told her, and she tried to keep her eyes from drinking in how he looked in his slacks and button up shirt.

"Yeah sorry about that, Johanna is getting fired. Good help is hard to find." Katniss told him, hoping Johanna would over hear her from where she was undoubtedly eavesdropping.

"Oh well I'm glad you're here. I was hoping I could see you." He said, a smile on his face that she returned easily.

"Oh? Is Kit doing alright in school?" She asked, letting him know she knew who he was, satisfied when a slight blush crossed his cheeks.

"Yes of course! You know we don't get a lot of new students at Capitol, but Kit's really amazing. We're lucky to have her. Her presence is really forcing kids to step their game up – academically of course. Sometimes it feels like she already knows everything I'm telling her." He said, a genuine smile on his face that spoke of affection towards Kit. "She leaves an impression, much like her mother." He finished, and Katniss felt herself blush.

"That's a smooth line Mr. Markem." She said with an eyebrow raised, and he had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you I was a teacher when we met. You just seemed so flustered and then I caught sight of your eyes and I was equally as flustered. I also had no idea your daughter would be in my class or else I wouldn't have…. Uh flirted with you so shamelessly in front of her." He told her, bringing his hand up to scratch behind his neck.

"Ah so you figured you'd come find me at work so you could do it without her present." Katniss said, trying hard to not sound playful – the man was her daughter's teacher for shits sake – but failing in the process.

"Yep, you found me out. I haven't really been able to get you off of my mind since Monday morning truthfully." He told her, his eyes meeting her own. She lost herself in his gaze for a moment before forcing herself to gain control on the situation.

"That's nice to hear Mr. Markem, but don't you think it's kind of inappropriate for you to be here? You're Kit's teacher." She reminded him, excepting his face to fall, but he smirked at her instead.

"Trust me, I poured over the handbook before I made the trip. There's nothing wrong with a teacher asking a parent of a student out on a date." He said confidently, causing Katniss to sputter.

"A… a date? Seriously?" She asked aghast. The guy had balls, she had to give him that.

"Yes. I would really enjoy it if I could get to know you Katniss. You don't have to give me an answer right now, but I would really like for you to at least consider it. Talk it over with Kit. There's a festival coming up at the school in a few weeks and I saw you have a booth you're running. You can give me your answer then." He said with a wink at the end, and Katniss felt her mouth drop open.

"You…. want me to think about going on a date with you for the next three weeks?" She asked in disbelief, so thrown she didn't back away when he stepped up closer to her, leaning down towards her ear.

"Yes. Or just think about me however you want, and decide from there." He whispered in a low voice that sent chills down her spine. Before she had a chance to respond or push him away, he stood up and adjusted the tie on his shirt.

"I'll be seeing you Katniss Everdeen. Sweet dreams." He said with a wink before sauntering away.

Sweet dreams indeed, Katniss thought.

So in the show, Max Medina is just... yum. Really, he just is. That's how Gloss is too, and why he gets under Katniss's skin so easily. If you can't tell neither she nor Peeta are really "clued" in, but I promise he will become a more prominent character as the story progresses. Next chapter we'll meet Sara, see more of Marvel and Gloss, there will be another Friday Night Dinner (because those are the best) and there will be a major "bump" in the road for Katniss.