Annie Cresta-Reaping of the 70th Hunger games

I woke up that morning the way I woke up every morning, with no recollection of my dreams. I remembered what day it was and decided to find Finnick. As I walked the path into Victor's Village, I had this feeling, the feeling that something was different today. I decided that it was nothing and I dismissed it; today was the reaping after all. I walked up to Finnick's door and rang the bell, he answered almost immediately. "Hey! What are you doing up this early?" I suddenly realized it was only 7 am "I couldn't sleep." He simply smiles "Come in" He turns around and walks into his kitchen, and I follow.

We sit down across from one another and Finnick passes me a mug of hot chocolate. After four years I still cannot believe how good hot chocolate is. We sit and drink in silence. Soon it is 9, and we have to go to the reaping. I hate this time of the year, Finnick being gone makes watching the games even harder than they were before he was reaped.

In 4 there is no fear of being reaped, there is always a volunteer to take your place if you're called, so nobody really cares, and the poorer children take out tessare as much as they need. When we arrive, Finnick gives me a quick hug before heading up to the reaping stage. I take my place among the other 18 year-olds. I think about all of the children in the outer districts who are always so nervous on this day, if they are called, nobody takes their place, and if they enter the games, they aren't trained on how to kill the other tributes. Our smiling capitol escort climbs the stage, and there is a spatter of applause, this is the woman that takes our tributes to glory each and every year. She smiles wider and puts a handout, calling for silence. She speaks into the mic, "a special presentation, straight from the Capitol!" The video plays, and afterward, she smiles again and walks over to the bowl "Ladies First!" She reaches in, pulls out a slip and reads aloud "Annie Cresta" I am caught by surprise, but I walk to the stage quickly. I look at Finnick, and he looks a little worried, even though a volunteer will come forth soon enough. "Any Volunteers?" I look in the front row, one of my friends from school, Ariel, has a worried look on her face, but nobody comes forward. I look out and just stand there, in shock. The escort, taken aback walks over to the boy's bowl and pulls out a slip "Conner B-" A well-built kid from the 18-year-old section steps forward and yells "I volunteer!" The escort welcomes him and asks his name "Mason Coy" He states with obvious pride in his voice. We shake hands, and soon we are off to the Justice building. I sit in the velvet room and try to process exactly what just happened to me. Suddenly my friend bursts in "Oh, Annie! I'm so sorry, I had no idea it would be you!" She gives me the tightest hug I have ever received, I pull her away from me and look her in the eyes "What are you talking about?" She pulls me once again and rattles on "I was bribed, by your partner's father, to not volunteer. He wanted his son to have better chances of winning, so he paid me a lot of money to not volunteer, I took it, and he said that if I volunteered anyway, he would disgrace my whole family, and we would lose all of our honor!" She collapses further into my shoulder and sobs harder.

On the car ride to the train, I think. I knew my partner's father, he was the head peacekeeper in 4, and he had close connections with President Snow. At first, I thought about what if they rigged it, so I had to go into the games, but then again why would they want me dead? I have done nothing against the Capitol, so that didn't make any sense. When we arrive at the station, Finnick runs at me from the platform and wraps me in a tighter hug than Ariel had. "I'm so sorry Annie, I'm so sorry." I look at him, "this isn't your fault Finnick, how could this possibly be your fault?" He looks at me with a sad look in his eyes, like he wants to tell me something, but he doesn't. We board the train, and I get a good look at my partner. He's tall and has the muscular build careers cherish. His eyes are an unforgiving icy blue. He looks back at me, sizing me up. I know he's unimpressed, I'm short, with a slight build. And my red hair and my soft green eyes only add to my weak appearance. He grunts and walks away, he thinks that I'm no competition, and he's right, I wouldn't hurt anybody, much less kill.

At dinner, Finnick tells the other mentor that he will be my primary mentor, my mentor, Mags, looks at him with a sad look in her eyes and puts a hand on my partner's shoulder as she nods. I'm slightly confused as to what she means, but Finnick seems to understand, and they go back to eating. After dinner we sit on a velvet couch, I curled up next to Finnick and my partner sitting on one side, with Mags on the other. "Strategy, let's hear ideas" Finnick looks at me like I can come up with a way to survive, to win. The boy shrugs "I don't know, I'll probably join up with the other careers, and we can talk strategy then." Finnick's eyes flash with a mischievous look "Ok, so tomorrow you guys will figure out your strategy with the other careers, sounds good." My partner is completely taken aback "No I will talk strategy with the careers, and she can figure out how to survive until we find her." Finnick looks at him, incredulous "So you will abandon your district partner just because she didn't get the standard training you got?" Me and Mags exchange a look, a look that agrees to let the men figure this out. "Are you kidding? Looks at her, she just a small child, she can't win, she will be lucky if she makes it out of the bloodbath. Much less make it to the final 6." Finnick is clearly upset, and I chose to step in "Do you even know how old I am?" He gives a blank stare "Your like 15 right?" I laugh, guess I'm smaller than I thought "No, I'm 18, just like you are, and I have been with Finnick since we were 12, I picked up some things along the way." At this, he is totally caught off guard "So you guys are together, like together, together?" I look at Finnick, we had never made it official, but why not now, especially when it can save my life? He gives a small nod "Of course we are together, and I'm going to win these games, no matter if I'm in the career alliance or not." My partner shakes his head, and gets up and walks to his room. I look at Finnick "Goodnight."

I wake up in the middle of the night, and I remember my nightmare, I remember Mason standing over me, knife in hand smiling wickedly and me waking up right before he killed me. I lay back down and try to get more sleep, but sleep never comes.