Annie POV
The Major was reading a text I had heard fourteen times in my life. Now it was fifteen and this would be the last time. I closed my eyes just for a brief moment, not more than a normal blink so the cameras wouldn't catch it. I was exhausted. The burning high sun did the rest to make me feel faint. I could barely see my sister Clara in the last row of girls she was holding up her head and her smile. I wondered if it was easier for her now. This was her last reaping after all. We had been joking around that maybe it would be mine too. I never would have guessed it could actually be though.
I turned around at the end of the speech and shook Matthew's hand. His palm was dry while mine felt awfully sweaty. We turned again to face the square and the anthem played before the Peacekeeper led us into the justice building. I turned around to look into the square of District 4 again and caught a glance at Finnick Odair. I looked away quickly. I couldn't help it, he was intimidating. He used to be in Clara's class in school. She had a crush on him and when the reaping was coming closer she couldn't stop talking about him. He was attractive yes, but all I could remember was how he killed that little girl from 12. I couldn't look at him without seeing those scenes over and over again.
I was led into a room without Matthew. It was the first time I was alone since I had gotten up this morning and it was going to be one of the last times. I closed my eyes for real now and tried to let it all sink in but no matter how often I repeated it in my head, I couldn't believe it. I was going to be in the Hunger Games. A joke. A dream. This couldn't be true. Not me. I was fifteen and I wasn't one of those poor kids you saw in other parts of town. My name had been in that bowl four times. I knew girls who trained for the Games and those who had to sign up more often. Names that were in that bowl up to a hundred times. And District 4 wasn't small. There were so many girls. I couldn't be in the games.
The door opened - my mother was the first to enter. She was holding back tears - that made the thing just more surreal to me. My father smiled which was startling me and reached me first, to swing me through the air the way he used to when I was still small enough to sit on his shoulders. "You're going to make us proud Annie. You will make the name Cresta famous through all Panem." I nodded completely dumbfounded. My mother brushed away her tears and then Clara reached me. "I can't believe you are going to the Capitol with Finnick Odair. How cool is that?" She squealed and I forced up a smile. "Super cool," I answered the uneasy feeling starting to fill me. I was going to be in the Capitol with Finnick Odair, and my life would depend on him. "You're so lucky," she said and sounded jealous. That was the moment it sank in – at least partly. I would die. I would go into the Hunger Games and die. And my older sister wasn't sad to lose me, she was jealous that I got to spend time with a bunch of killers. "I guess I won the big prize," I said not even fake chipper anymore. "Can you ask him if he remembers me? From history class. Or… no tell him to visit me when he is back, okay?" "Yeah sure." I was suddenly very angry which was a new feeling for me. I never had been angry with my family before. They gave me everything I wanted. I should be grateful that I didn't have to work after school, that I could go fishing for fun and not because my life depended on it. But now I was so angry. I wanted to scream at Clara and Dad. If she wanted to spend time with him why had my name been picked? Why hadn't she volunteered to save me? Why was no one but my mother crying for me? And why was she afraid to show her tears?
"Your time is up." I felt oddly happy when a Peacekeeper led my family away. "Make us proud Annie!" My father shouted again and then the door closed and I fell on the couch. The door opened again and an old woman entered. Mags. "You don't have any other visitors," she said which didn't really surprise me. And it didn't hurt me either. I didn't want to see my friends and hear again how lucky I was to spend time with Finnick. If there was no person sad about my coming death then there was no one I had to see before I left the district. "Are you alright?" "Yes." The word came out automatically but the old woman looked at me and I shook my head. "I'm scared." "That's good," she said. "It means you value your life." She left me with those words and I stayed on the couch waiting for Matthew to finish with his visitors, he probably had plenty, and for the cameras to set up at the train station to catch our goodbye on tape. And maybe I was still waiting for the moment I would wake up from this nightmare.
I had no idea what to do. I probably should have had a plan by now. Every undecided move from my side would be a weakness now. But I couldn't seem to switch into the game mood. I had no strategy and no plan how I wanted to sell myself to win anyone over or intimidate the other tributes. I had nothing but a week to figure out how I wanted to survive because the old woman had been right. I valued my life. Maybe I had to think about the people that used to be in it but I wasn't ready to give it up. I had one week and four mentors and I already knew one of my enemies.
I couldn't help but glance over at Matthew all the time. Would he form an alliance with me – could they force him to do so? Or would he kill me before someone else could even reach me, so he had the sponsors all for himself? Would we get sponsors at all? So many questions I hadn't been prepared for. And again I had to ask why. Why me? What on earth had I done to the Capitol to deserve to die?
I glanced around at the station trying to find answers to all my questions, trying to ignore the cameras and be cold and distant, maybe smart and thoughtful but not scared. My eyes locked on a screen that was showing live pictures from the cameras. My face looked too big. My eyes were wide, not red because I hadn't cried yet, but confused and unfocused. My expression was telling them one thing: I don't have a clue what I am doing here. I knew what this meant. I marked myself as easy pray. My first mistake. How many more would I make until it was too late? A slender hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the train, out of the camera shot. "Fresud move your ass!" Matthew turned away from the cameras obviously not pleased that he couldn't keep on bathing in their attention. I spun around to face my hero and froze in spot. Finnick Odair. He let go of my wrist and pulled the door shut. He seemed unnerved and his perfectly styled hair was messed up already.
"What's next?" "Meeting in the dinning room," a familiar yet always strange accent answered. May Jynn - the Capitol woman who worked together with our victors. She is a short delicate young woman, the way I imagined the fairies from my childhood stories to look like, with her short blue hair spiked around her head. I think one year she actually wore wings but maybe that had just been my imagination. "After that we let them rest some and then we meet for dinner and watch the other reapings together." She was awfully chipper and I felt sick, but maybe I should blame the speed of the train for that. I followed the others into the dinning room, trying hard not to stumble over my own feet while the ground seemed to be moving constantly. I was glad to sit down on a chair close to Mags and not too close to Finnick.
"Are you wearing socks?" I turned around startled looking at Hoodge, who eyed me suspiciously. I brushed down my green dress and lifted one of my feet showing the matching green shoes with no socks in them. He seemed relieved and held out his hand to me. "Mason Hoodge." "I know," I said which must have been a mistake because his eyes widened and he looked at me in panic. "Who told you?" I heard a chuckle from Finnick. "You are famous Hoodge." "Oh… yeah." And he relaxed again. May Jynn started with a speech that I paid no attention to. I was focused on Mason Hoodge, wondering what had happened in his games that he was like this now. Wondering if I might have to face something similar.
