Hello everyone! I am a sucker for high school AU's so I decided to do a little high school camping adventure for some of my favorite characters. Please enjoy!
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The Camping Games
Chapter 1: The Plans
Finnick's POV
It's obvious that I have many friends, I'm the most popular student at Capitol High for gods sake, but there's one nemesis that has always managed to ruin my days since the the day I turned fifteen: My alarm clock.
I groggily let my hand grope around in the dark for a few minuets as they attempt to find the beeping contraption. The smell of saltwater makes my nostrils wake up as my palm slams down on the alarms "snooze" button. My eyes open slightly so the tiny bit of midmorning light shines through the slits in the closed blinds and I rub my green orbs until I see swirls and patterns.
I hate Tuesday mornings, along with every other weekday when we have school.
"Finnick!" My father calls from downstairs. "You better get up soon or your going to be late!"
My old man is a bit too uptight for my liking. He owns Odair's Boat Fairs on the expensive docking boardwalk in District 4 where I live and our large boat is in one of the largest and most convenient slots, right in front of Cresta Nets. Annie and I spent a lot of time on the docks when we were younger and now we're both using the profits we make at our jobs to save up for our own boat so we won't have to be supervised by our fathers whenever we step onto a boat. I think my father just hates the fact that I'm a flirt even though I have a girlfriend and that I go to parties constantly, the complete opposite of him but I can't be him and he fails to realize this.
I climb out of bed and open my window so I can see the boardwalk and all the chicks walking along it. After stretching a bit, I take a large gray t-shirt that hangs rather loosely from my muscles and slip it over my head. I hop into a pair of faded blue jeans and button them up quickly so I don't fall over due to standing on one leg for too long. My tousled dirty blond hair looks perfect as I take a quick glimpse in the mirror before heading downstairs where my father is sitting at the kitchen table trying to calculate his profits from last week and the week before. His smooth brown hair doesn't have a strand out of place and his black eyeglasses rest comfortably on the tip of his nose but his serious face doesn't change when I jog down the stairs and snatch an apple from the fruit bowl on the granite countertop.
"Good morning father dearest!" I chirp.
"Finnick..." He only looks my way for only a split second before returning to his papers.
"How'd the shop do last week?"
"Well since summer will be creeping back up on us in only a month or so, people want to get a head start on their boating inspections and purchases. Lervy down at the shop has been up to his neck in inspections lately."
My dad explains.
Lervy, our store's clerk, is a immigrant of sorts from District 10 who was a close friend of my mother's back when they were children. He's scrappy, messy, and rather poor but he's a whiz with machinery due to his work with tractors back in 10. After my mother's death, he decided to stay and take her place at the store and help out my father who's never gotten over her death. I remember when my mom was still alive and my dad was much more relaxed and chill. He taught me how to fish, swim and drive boats around the ages of 4 and 7 years old. It pains me to think of how wise and fun he used to be...
"That's great! Just wait, the profits'll be especially high during my shifts!" I say confidently.
"And why is that, son?"
"Because if any of those girls from the beach parties wanna buy a new pontoon I can show them the best "port" to dock in."
My father looks up with a hard-as-stone look cemented on his face, it drags down his features and he looks unpleasant.
"What?" I tease.
"Cresta." He replies sternly.
My eyes roll as I suck in a deep breath and sway backwards, clearly annoyed. The constant fantasy that I'm gonna leave my Annie for the first pretty beach blond surfer girl that crosses my path lives and nothing could come up more often in the conversations with my dad. He just doesn't get that Annie is the only one I love, no matter how many girls I look at or talk about.
"Goodbye dad." I sigh as I dramatically sling my backpack over my left shoulder and walk out the door. He doesn't bother to send me off with a loving gesture or anything so I don't even think of looking back as I stroll down the boardwalk, watching the fisherman dock, unload, and then take off again. I know all their names and they know mine.
"Hey there, Odair!" Carlver Cresta, Annie's uncle, calls from where he's unpacking a new set of lures in his boat.
"Morning sir!" I wave.
"You headin' to school this muggy almost-summer morning?"
"Yes I am."
"Well say hi to my little Annie this morning! She was pretty quiet this morning..."
Annie's parents died when their boat sunk about three months after she was born so her Uncle Carlver and Aunt Sylvera take care of her now. Sylvera runs Cresta Nets while Carlver usually fishes 24/7 but they both care about their niece even if she's a little different, they still treat her like a daughter. Over the years, I've grown close to all three of those Crestas, close enough to know that they depend on me to look after Annie when they can't.
"I'll make sure that she's all good." I smile again.
"Okay." Carlver sits down to count his lures. "Have a good day, Finnick!"
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I instantly become myself again when I walk through the doors to Capitol High School. All female heads turn and deep sighs full the air as I walk down the hall, winking and nodding at the appropriate times, all the way to Ms. Trinket's English/health classroom. Yes, she teaches both, but this morning I have English first.
About ten minuets before class officially starts, I slide into a desk near my friends Cato Morgan, Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne, and Marvel Quaid who have their blank notepads already out on their desks. This is the only class I have with my best friends and I want to take advantage of it, even if Annie and the girls aren't here,
we'll see them at lunch.
"Where have you been, man?" Cato exclaims as I set my backpack down on the floor so it's easier to reach my books.
"My alarm went off late, then my father and I had a "chat", and then I was stopped by Carlver Cresta who was carefully counting every last one of his fishing lures. Now I will eat this apple that I've been carrying around for about forty-five minuets." I immediately sink my straight, white teeth into the crisp, red apple.
"Well it sounds like an interesting morning." Gale says.
"It was!"
"Dude you spit on me with a mouthful of apple chunks!" Peeta cries.
"Your such a girl." Cato laughs along with Marvel, Gale and I.
Peeta sighs as he takes a tissue from a shelf near his desk and wipes his face off with it. Ms. Trinket is somewhat of a clean freak and has about five stations for tissues and hand sanitizer around the room along with posters about how to wash your hands properly and cough into your sleeve but, what do you really expect from a health teacher from the Capitol? It's only normal for Effie, but she's still insane.
"So dudes, school is almost over and summers coming up quick. What should we do to celebrate?" Marvel asks.
"We could have a party at my extremely large mansion." Cato smirks as he leans back in his chair. Gale and Peeta, who both live in dinky little District 12 apartments, scowl at their cocky friend.
"We could go swimming at my pool." I suggest.
"Nah guys, I was thinking about something big, something we've never done before!" Marvel looks up dramatically as the options multiply in his imaginative, yet tiny, brain.
"Bungee jumping!" Peeta hollers.
"No." Gale immediately cuts him off. He's always been the serious and down-to-earth one.
"Well all those options are out, and it has to be something the girls like, so now out options are even more limited."
"We could go see a horror movie!" Cato suggests with a big smile.
"Annie doesn't like horror movies." I quickly shoot him down, it makes me feel like Gale.
The one time I took Annie to a horror movie didn't exactly end badly for me, she just got really freaked out and did that thing where she clamps her hands over her ears in an attempt to block out the world, but she was snuggled up extremely close to me the entire time. I felt bad for putting her through that so I took her to the beach afterwards where the lapping waves and my stories soothed her panicked soul. All in all, not a bad night. For me.
"We could go bungee jumping!"
"Drop it, Peeta." Gale sighs as if he's exasperated.
"Well what do you have in mind, Gale?" The boy with the bread asks.
The darker haired hunter looks around at our anxious faces, Peeta's is rather smug. They've always had this friendly rivalry for some reason but none of us really know why, except Jackie, but she knows a lot of things.
"We could go camping?" Gale says almost jokingly.
"I love it!" Marvel exclaims.
"Wait your serious?" The snare-maker looks confused.
"Of course I am!" The District 1 boy cries.
Cato and I smile and nod at each other, signaling that we agree, but Peeta looks rather annoyed that Gale got to pick the event. He'll lighten up once Katniss says she wants to go. Gale used to go camping with Katniss and their siblings a lot when they were littler to get away from 12 and the tough lives they lead at home, in their old apartments. Their favorite spot was Woodbarrow Forest in the outskirts of District 7, where they don't cut any of the trees down because it's "sacred land" or something. We all agree that while in 7, we're gonna try not to run into Johanna.
"So we'll propose the ideas to the ladies at lunch?" I ask.
"Yup. Like they'll have a choice though, we're all really hyped up about this." Cato says.
"Children! Children!" A familiar and shrill voice rings out. "Time to start class!"
We all groan and open our books.
Lunch seems like a world and a half away.
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"Well that only took FOREVER!" Marvel hollers as he throws the lunchroom doors open and screaming students begin to run by and we plunge into the normal cafeteria chaos.
"I mean really, who wants to do an extra credit project at the end of the year?" Peeta says.
"Cato. We all know his grades are in the toilet." I joke.
"Yeah. They smell as bad as the "chili surprise" that Mrs. Frenk is dishing out in the second lunch line" Cato laughs along with us. He's not proud of his grades but it's not like he cares.
"Hey, losers." Clove says as she slides next to us in line, giving Cato a quick and subtle peck on the cheek.
"Nice to see you too, Clove." Gale rolls his eyes.
"Where's the others? Like Katniss?" Peeta asks.
"They all brought their lunches and are sitting at our table as we speak." The knife wielding female tells us.
"Well we have something to announce to you guys." I wink at Clove.
"No I will not-"
"Clove seriously. I'm not all about that." I cut her off.
We slowly but surely make our way through the lunch line and walk down the various array of lunch tables. We pass Cashmere's table, where Glimmer, Gloss, and other populars sit. We pass the oddball table where Johanna, Blight, the Leeg twins, and Molly and Mergs the creepy kids from District 6. We finally arrive at the end table where Katniss, Jackie, Annie, and a couple other kids are just starting to eat the lunches that they packed. I know I'm a popular guy, but these are my friends and I wouldn't trade them for any of the others.
"Finny!" Annie cries and I'm greeted with her little arms wrapping around me and her head hitting my chest.
"Hi Annie!" I smile as the kiss her forehead.
Once we've all greeted each other and have sat down, the guys and I decide that it's a good time to break the news about the alleged camping trip to the girls.
"So ladies." I begin. "The school year is almost coming to it's highly anticipated close. Any plans for celebration slip into your mind?"
Jackie gives me a look of disdain, she's never been one for my slick way of wording things, but I just playfully batt my eyelashes and smile cheekily back at her.
"What did you have in mind?" The fox-faced girl asks.
"We wanna go camping!" Marvel smiles.
At the mention of this, Katniss nearly spits the turkey in her mouth across the table and into Peeta's face but she controls herself. She must realize by the noticeable smile on Gale's face that he came up with the idea especially for her because everything is always especially for Katniss. We all laugh at her as she smiles, which is kind of rare.
"Something tells me this was Gale's idea." The brunette says.
"You guessed correctly, Catnip." Her hunting friend nods.
Catnip is one of Katniss's many nicknames given to her by us. Peeta and the rest of us call her "Mockingjay" because of the way she sings and the fact that her father used to love those birds. The teachers and other students like to call her "Girl On Fire" or "Fire Girl" because of her fiery personality. Catnip is strictly off limits for everyone but Gale, he owns that nickname and takes great pride in it.
"What do you guys think?" Peeta asks. "I suggested bungee jumping but campings alright."
"I think it sounds really fun! We should definitely do it!" Clove chortles as Jackie nods her head from beside her.
"Count me in." Katniss announces.
The entire group turns their heads and looks towards Annie who's parked directly across from me, eating a strawberry. She's the final one we need an approval from.
"I'll go...but only if we take safety precautions. I really wanna go swimming in a lake or something!" Her tone gets more excited as she goes until her sea-green eyes are bubbling with excitement.
"Then it's settled! We'll all come over to my place to pack Friday afternoon, and then we can ride in my two jeeps to Woodbarrow Forest, District 7!" Cato slams his hands on the table like a judge.
For the rest of the day, from the end of lunch until the we all part ways, all anyone can think of is our amazing camping trip. We're all in agreement that Gale will later on tonight, book two nights in the forest so we'll have plenty of time to do anything we feel like doing and more. With my charming smile plastered on my face, I walk in the front door of my house and head right upstairs to pack for the camping trip, even though we're not even going until Friday night.
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Okay so there's the first chapter! Things will pick up next chapter when they are all loading everything up and packing and all that. Until then, please review! Even if your anonymous! ~PurpleKittyFangirl