A/N: I enjoyed writing a story for Johanna so much that I want to do one for Annie now. However, unlike the story I wrote for Johanna, this one will deal with more than her Hunger Games. Her Hunger Games is not the complete focus of the story. This chapter is mainly background on Annie's life. I'm not sure if I'll make any changes to canon events yet, but we'll see (I really did not like Mockingjay, so anything during that book is completely up in the air for me). The story doesn't really get going until the next chapter.

Disclaimer: In case you weren't already aware, I don't own the Hunger Games.

I've decided that reflection is the best way to come to terms with my emotions. My life hasn't always turned out the way I wanted it to, and sometimes it's been difficult to deal with everything that's happened. But I think this will help. I'm going to document my story, show how I got where I am, and hopefully come to terms with everything that's happened. I need this. I need closure. So, I'm going to start at the beginning:

As a child, I didn't consider myself to be anything more than ordinary. And sometimes, I considered myself to be less than ordinary. I didn't feel like I possessed any positive trait that made me stand out, I just had a bunch of quirks. Whenever I got scared, I hid and closed my eyes. If there was a loud noise or if someone was saying something mean to me, I covered my ears and closed my eyes. I was socially awkward. I wasn't very comfortable around strangers. I was shy and I didn't make friends very easily, so I usually just didn't try to make friends. Some people considered me an outcast, but I liked the term "loner" better. I didn't really have friends, but that was partially my choice.

My parents were pretty important people in District Four, my dad was considered one of the best fishermen ever and my mom owned a successful bait store. I had two older brothers and an older sister. My oldest brother, Alan, was 25, and was turning out to be just as good a fisherman as my father was. My other brother, Andrew, was 23, and was probably one of the smartest people District Four had ever seen. And my older sister Allie, who was 19, was basically a carbon copy of my mother: smart, witty, friendly, popular, beautiful...So as if I didn't already feel ordinary enough, my family was always there to make sure I never felt too special. Not that they tried to belittle me or anything, they were all just special. Something I wasn't.

Later, people told me that I was special in different ways, but at the time, I couldn't see it. I spent a lot of my time outside, usually swimming. My parents were on the wealthier side and we had our own little lake outside of our house that I spent a lot of time in. I was a pretty good swimmer; if I had to name the most special quality I had, I'd probably say swimming. When I wasn't swimming, I was admiring the nature around the lake: the flowers, the trees, the animals, and everything else. I kept a journal of everything I found back there. I had drawings, and I wrote down descriptions and possible uses. It kept me busy. There wasn't always much to do in District Four.

Alan was already starting out as a fisherman and was probably going to do that for the rest of his life. Andrew was working on a study to increase fishing productivity and was probably going to get hired by the mayor to help improve the district. Allie was probably going to take over the bait store after my mom retired. Allie and I already worked at the store, but I didn't want to keep doing that for the rest of my life. I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I was seventeen and finished with school, but I was basically just taking the days as they came. Allie, the only one in my family I was particularly close to, had tried to help me figure out what I wanted to do. But her efforts, while well-intended, didn't get anywhere. And like my mother, she eventually gave up on me.

My father already had two perfect sons and my mother had the perfect daughter, so they didn't really notice me. In fact, sometimes they just seemed to disregard me. I didn't see my dad very much and I only saw my mom as often as I did because I worked at her store, but we hardly ever talked aside from when she was giving me a job to do. I didn't really see my brothers either. Alan never really seemed to want to get to know me and Andrew was always away working on some sort of project. To Andrew's credit, when he was around he was nice to me and took an interest in me. But like I said, he wasn't around much. The only member of my family I established a connection with was my sister Allie. Allie had been my only friend as a child, and while she wasn't always around with me (she had her own friends), she seemed to at least enjoy being with me and actually seemed to care about what happened to me. That's why she had been the only one to try to help me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. She had eventually given up, but it was mostly because I was being incredibly difficult. I didn't like a single one of the possibilities she had outlined for me. But that wasn't her fault. To most other people, half of the options she gave me would've been more than acceptable. But for some reason, despite the fact that I was utterly ordinary, I didn't want to do anything ordinary. And all of Allie's options seemed a bit boring to me. Of course, that was because there were only about ten different jobs to be had in District Twelve because of our specialized economy.

Just because I was ordinary doesn't mean I wanted to live an ordinary life. I didn't want to keep being ordinary. I wanted to be special like my siblings. But I was probably going to have to resign to my fate sooner or later. I didn't have any unique abilities, so I wasn't going to be able to do anything new and exciting like Andrew. So I was probably just going to have to keep working at the bait store. Despite the fact that I wanted to be special, I really couldn't help it if I wasn't. And I was beginning to think that maybe being ordinary wasn't such a bad thing. It meant that life wouldn't get hard. When I did see Andrew, he would always talk about all the challenges there were in whatever project he happened to be working on. And my mom was always complaining about how hard it was to run a business. I wouldn't have to deal with any of that the way my life was turning out. And I was a bit glad for it. I wasn't very good under pressure. I didn't want to have to face any challenges. But life seemed to have other plans...

A/N: What did you think? This chapter was just some background, but hopefully it wasn't too boring. Warning, I did not edit this. Sorry for any mistakes. Please review!