She was furioius. Absolutelu furious. She couldn't believe that those jerks were coming to destroy her trip.
Katniss had always dreamt of being a teacher for kids with behaviour and learning difficulties, and now she had been granted the opportunity to travel to Finland for a year to study as an exchange student in one of Finlands top universitys, The University of Tampere. She didin't really know that much about Finland or Finns, or the language, or anything really, but she had heard that Finland had one of the best schooling systems in the world, despite being a small country in Northern Europe. She had applied for the exchange program a couple months back, and today she had heard that she had been accepted. But while she had been extremely happy, she had learnt that also a couple other students from her class were coming. The worst possible students. Peeta and Finnick. They were best friends and known for being womanizers and she didn't know any other girls from her class that hadn't slept with at least one of them. Except for Katniss of course. She was quite proud of herself, since she had been asked to go on a date with Peeta early in their first year of uni, but she had turned him down quite forcefully. Her cheecks would still turn slightly pink thinking of the way Peeta had smiled at her when he had approached her in the library, where she would spend most of her time after calsses. Peeta was handsome, blond and had the most beautiful blue eyes Katniss had ever seen. Finnick had copper hair and seagreen eyes and he could be only phrased as hot. His cheeky, flirting smile left half of the girls in school speechless and to think that they were all over 20 years old. Katniss hated the idea of them coming to Finland, because she was sure that no one would want to get to know the mousy, darkhaired girl when there were two hondsome fun men coming too. And to think of the embarrasment if the guys kept their rate with girls abroad. Usually Katniss was quiet and reserved, but she had thought about trying extra hard in Finland to make at least one friend. But what mostly annoyed her about the guys coming too, was the fact, that this had been her adventure and now she had to share it with two of the most arrogant, self-centered guys she had ever met.
The summer was coming to an end, and she would be leaving her home tomorrow. She didn't like the idea of leaving Prim, her little sister (okay, not so little anymore, she was a senior in high school) home with her slightly unreliable mother, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. So she had already packed most of her clothes to a huge bag and was going through her stuff to see if anything important had been forgotten. She found a photo of her and Prim, and decided to leave it for Prim. She didn't want to risk it getting broken during the trip. She and Prim had the last night for themselves when their mother was working the night shift in the hospital as a nurse. The watched a movie that was ment for kids, but that they both loved. Then Prim dissapeared to her room and when she came back, she had a medium sized packet in her hands. "What is that, prim?" Katniss asked and Prim gave it to her. "Your going away gift" she explained smiling. "I made them myself" she continued and as Katniss opened the papers around the gift, she found knitted hat, scarf and mittens. All a beautiful forest green shade and so soft you'd think they were made of angels' hair. "Thank you so much" Katniss said and could feel a rouge tear rolling down her cheeck. "You're welcome. I heard it's cold in Finland" Prim said and they both laughed. Katniss smiled, but thought to herself that she would probably buy a lot of warm clothes once she got to Finland.
The next day she said teary goodbyes to her sister and cried a little bit during the taxi ride. She really wasn't the crying kind of girl, but this was the first time she would be away from Prim longer than a couple of days. When she finally saw the airport, her chest filled with anticipation and excitement and she wiped the last tears from her face. She stepped out of the cap, gave the driver his fee and then clumsily walked to the airport with her huge bag on her shoulder and her passport in her other hand. She walked to the big screen where you could find all the departuring flights and gates and where to check-in. Just as she was leaving the screen, someone bumped into her and she almost lost balance. "Oh God, I'm so sorry!" said an nice male voice and as Katniss looked from under her dark bangs, she saw Peeta hurriedly come from behind his trolley he had been pushing and grabbed something from the floor next to Katniss' feet. "I think you dropped this. I'm so sorry. I was looking up to the screen and.." Peeta kept talking while Katniss took her passport that had fell when she almost had fallen from the push. She waved his apologies aside and smiled to him nervously. He was looking even hotter than usual in his blue sweater and he smiled when she said that she was to blame too. Katniss started walking to the check-in counter when Peeta appeared next to her. "Seems like we'll be on the same flight" Peeta said, what wasn't really that surprising. There was only one flight leaving to Finland today. They stood in a very short line where everybody seemed to be ether Scandinavian of Japanese. Apparently Finland wasn't really popular among Americans.
Soon it was Katniss' turn and she handed her passport to the lady behind the counter who wished her a nice flight. Then she went through security control and then to a café to kill time untill her plane started boarding. When she arrived to the gate most of the people were already in the plane and she didn't see Peeta or Finnick. She took her boarding pass from her backpack and then walked to the short line of people going into the palne. She tried not to scowl while her passport was checked and then walked to the plane. It was quite a small plane. Only two seats on each side. She found her seat and when she sat down, she ralised she had been seated next to Peeta. "Great, just my luck" she whispered under her breath and she scowled when Peeta smiled at her. She sat down and for once she was happy to be quite small. The seat was comfortable enough and when she saw how Finnick was sitting a couple rows before her, it looked like he was trying to eat his own knees. He was really tall and that totally backfired on him in these tiny airplanes. Peeta seemed to be comfortable enough. "So, how do you think you are going to handle the cold?" Peeta asked her as she had found a good position and she rolled her eyes. She had always lived in California and was used to warm weather, but seriously she thought she could handle the cold well. "I think I'll live." she said, annoyed. The flight would thake over 14 hours from LAX to Helsinki. With Peeta sitting next to her, she could feel his closness and smell his scent. It was warm and a tad sweet. And there was something she couldn't really put her finger on. She could practically feel his breath, as he started to ask his next question, but the cabin crew started the safety instructions and thankfully Peeta was silenced. Soon enough they were in the air and Peeta looked at her again and asked the question he hadn't had the chance to ask. "Are you going to live in a host family or rent your own apartment?" This was going to be a long flight.
