Chapter 1

"That's impossible. Every girl in Panem wishes that he would notice or even talk to them. You must be sick." My best friend Melva places her hand on my forehead, obviously teasing me. Ugh. Finnick Odair. Why is everyone so obsessed with him? He is just some self-absorbed, vile, and untrustworthy 18 year old.

"Trust me", I say, "I feel fine". I smirk at her as she sarcastically scowls at me.

"And you shouldn't judge, Annie. You don't even know him."

"Well neither do you, yet, you love anything to do with him!", I spit back at her, impressed with my comeback. "And I have enough information to judge him with!"

"Ok", she says smiling strangely at me. "Do tell me this "information". I'm interested to hear this", she says, that smile remaining on her face.

"Fine", I mumble under my breath. Here goes nothing. "He is always checking girls out in the hallways at school, using that seductive smile that bugs the hell out of me. Every day he is flirting with girls, probably not even knowing, or caring for that matter, who they are. All he cares about are the looks and the bodies of the girls he lures into his trap. I don't think he has ever even thought about looking in my direction, but every boy in school ignores me so that doesn't bug me too much." HA! I wonder what she has to say about that information! "And the rumors", I quickly add, almost forgetting.

"Rumors?", she asks. Hmm, I thought she would have known them by now.

"Apparently", I say in a hushed voice, "he has a whole bunch of "girlfriends" in the capitol, if you know what I mean."

I watch the look on her face, unchanged. WHAT! I thought that bucket of juicy info would totally end her obsession over him. But no, she still pushed on, loyally defending Finnick Odair like a true fan girl. I hate that.

"Still", she says, undeterred," you shouldn't judge him. You don't know him." She says, even though she doesn't know him either.

I don't even bother having huge obsessions with boys that I know would never have the slightest interest in me. Especially Finnick Odair. He is strong, tall and attractive. He is a victor. He has wavy goldenish hair and bulging muscles. He is richer than anyone in district 4. And I am Annie Cresta, the girl with almost black hair, pale skin and a body with barely any meat on it. All the other 17 year olds I know have amazing bodies. Not me. And let's not forget that I live in a boat. It isn't tiny, but it isn't huge. The only things I actually like about myself are my eyes. They are a dark sea green colour. People have told that they are mesmerizing, but I wouldn't go that far.

The school bell rings, interrupting my train of thought. Melva isn't here. She probably left to get her things ready for class when I was lost in thought. Oh no! Class! If I am late for it one more time I get detention.

I race to my locker, and fail to unlock it three times in a row. I'm panicking now and it doesn't make it easier. When I get the stupid locker open I pull out my books and binders and start running down the hallway. I don't even care that my locker is still wide open. The only thing going through my head right now is "MUST GET TO CLASS, MUST GET TO CLASS". As I run down the nearly empty hallway I look down at my feet for one split second and smash into some other idiot rushing to class like me. As I quickly try to gather my things off the floor, not really knowing if they were the other kids stuff, I don't bother to see who I smashed into. As I am about to stand up I hear a familiar voice that I hate say to me "Hey! Wait up!".

I turn around slowly hoping that it is not the person I think it is.

"You almost forgot your pencil" he says with a seducing smile. I have never actually looked into his eyes before. They're amazing.

When I come back to my senses I realize who I have been staring creepily at.

Great. It just had to be Finnick didn't it.