IMPORTANT NOTE 3/11/12: Make sure you've read all of Chapter I! It wasn't all posted at the same time!

Here's the next chapter, folks. I was hoping to make it longer, but any of you out there who have read my other fics on this cite know that my attention span would impress a goldfish in its nonexistance.

Shout out to TeamGlimmer who StoryAlerted and Account Currently on Hiatus, Oisin55, and Pasdoll who reviewed. (Just in case any of you enjoy seeing your names dropped in other people's stories as much as I do.)

Chapter II

Tumultuous clouds hovered in the sky, heavy with the promise of rain. The bright sun of yesterday was trapped somewhere behind them, banging against them with its shining fists and turning them a pearly grey. Walking to the town center with her hand tightly grasping Max's – much to his embarrassment and relief – Annie could taste the birth of the rainy season in the air. Beside her, Max was idly turning and twisting the wrist he had broken two years ago when he had fallen badly on the docks; this year would be particularly stormy.

As the Cresta family entered the town square and Annie took in the thin bodies of the worse-off District Four children, she sent out a silent prayer that one of the District Four tributes would win this year. The rainy season was never a great time for the district, when the boats sometimes couldn't leave the harbor without being tossed asunder by the hungry, monstrous waves. And this year promised to be a bad one. If this three-month rainy season had too many stormy days, then the catch-rate of the fishing boats would plummet, and if that happened, then the poor would go hungry.

"It's going to be a stormy season," Annie said, mostly in an attempt to lift the heavy tension that had settled over them.

Max nodded but was otherwise unresponsive. The lines of his soft jaw were hardened – as if he were clenching his teeth behind closed lips – and two lines had formed between his dark brows.

They walked in silence until it was time for them to go their separate ways. Gilbert Cresta squeezed his two children's shoulders and disappeared into the crowd of parents, leaving Annie and Max standing together alone.

"Max…"

Turning to face her full on, Max pulled Annie into his arms, briefly resting his forehead against her shoulder. "Four's a big district," he mumbled, and Annie had to wonder whether he said it to comfort her or himself.

"And you've only got one slip of paper in that fishbowl," she finished. Everyone in District Four called those great glass globes fishbowls, and Annie couldn't help but sometimes wonder what the other districts – the ones that didn't revolve around fish and seaweed and seashells – called them. "We're as safe as we could be."

The two parted, walking in opposite directions as Max shouldered as far from the makeshift stage as possible and Annie drew closer. Soon enough, she found Nautia, a Career girl she had been at least friendly with since the two of them had begun their training. They were friends, Annie supposed, if only in the sense that they spoke to each other whenever they saw each other, but they never really sought out one another. Nautia had an older sister and had somehow monopolized all of her friends. And as far as Annie was concerned, her best friend was Max.

"Hey," Nautia said, lending Annie a soft smile. Her face held a spattering of freckles, interrupted only where auburn corkscrews framed her face. "How's your little brother holding up?"

"He's fine. A little nervous, but it's his first reaping, so he's got a good enough excuse as any."

"Guess so. My sister's nineteen now, so now it's just me."

"Trust me, Nautia." Standing tiptoe, Annie scanned the crowd of younger boys for a dark, disheveled head of hair. "It's better when you're alone in the reaping. So," she met Nautia's eyes again. "Am I the only one hoping that District Four will be bringing home a victor this year? With the way the weather's looking, people could really use the winnings."

Taking a moment to glance at the pregnant clouds above them, Nautia nodded. "I think everyone's hopes for a win every year. Especially," she said, her eyes now lingering on the platform where District Four's mentors were gathering behind the mayor and Capitol escort, "One as sexy as Finnick Odair."

"Nautia!" Even as she chided her acquaintance, Annie couldn't help but scrape her eyes over Finnick Odair, who had apparently decided that reaping day was shirt-optional. No one could say that the sixty-fifth Hunger Games' victor wasn't attractive, and he was known for being exceptionally promiscuous whenever he made an appearance in the Capitol, but it didn't seem right to say that about someone with such sad eyes.

They were District Four green, typical enough to ignore – especially when surrounded by the sculpted features of his face. Annie wouldn't be surprised if no one noticed the agony in them, but she saw. Those eyes were the eyes of a man who had killed not out of heartlessness but necessity. Those were eyes that Annie would never want to see when she looked in the mirror but couldn't look away from on his face.

Those eyes met hers for a moment – confusion scrunching together the brows above them – before they were ripped away by the sound of the mayor's voice.

"So many years in the past," the mayor – a portly man who had no signs of ever working on a fishing boat – began. "Natural disasters and war tore apart the world, leaving North America to fight for what was left of the world's resources. In order to prevent the public from descending into chaos –"

As disrespectful as she felt it was, Annie stopped listening as soon as the mayor his the word "chaos." She would have paid further attention if he varied his speech from year to year, but every single word was exactly the same as it had always been. Like a famous poem, she knew each phrase well enough to perform the speech herself.

Instead, she focused her gaze on the two victors who would be mentoring this year – Finnick Odair and Mags, a victor who had been around long enough that no one could remember what her last name actually was. Mags' eyes weren't classic emerald but instead a common-but not-unheard-of electric blue color. All the same, she had that same haunted look that Finnick Odair had.

It was a look all the victors had as soon as they left the arena and realized exactly what they had done when they were inside.

Annie was so caught in Mags' eyes that it wasn't until they snapped to hers that she realized that everyone was looking at her. Nautia was jabbing her ribs with a bony elbow and whispering something about being called and climbing onstage.

"Huh?"

"Annie Cresta?" Eros Coastas – the District Four escort with a ridiculous name and hair an equally ridiculous shade of blue – called out. There was an impatient edge to his tone that suggested that this wasn't the first time he had called her name.

A jolt of shock – tremulous and cold – ran up Annie's spine. She'd been paying such little attention that she hadn't even heard him call her own name.

Elbowing her way up to the platform where Eros Coastas had started tapping his pointy-toed shoe against the ground, Annie tried to align her features into the face of all the Careers she had seen mounting these steps before her. Confident, self-assured, and even a little bit excited. There was no way that she was going to be a nervous mess like she'd seen some tributes in the past act.

Now she was on the stage, standing beside Eros Coastas as he called out – to no avail – for volunteers from the crowd. Annie could feel both mentors staring at her from behind, both probably thinking of the split seconds where they had met their eyes and probably cursing themselves for jinxing her. And when no one came forward to "steal Annie's thunder," Eros drew another slip from the other fishbowl.

"Nicolas Abyssal!"

Annie's stomach dropped. Nicolas Abyssal was almost as well known in District Four as Finnick Odair was. With horror, she watched him step onto the stage, the toothy grin on his elfin face revealing what everyone in the district already knew.

Nicolas Abyssal had no clue what was going on.

In the few short encounters with him that Annie had had, she knew that he was a nice enough boy, but something was off about him and had been since he was little. He was friendly, but a little too friendly. His low nose and wide mouth and low forehead only validated that there was something not right. He acted years younger than he really was and had to say hello to everyone in town he passed by.

"Any volunteers," Eros Coastas asked, obviously disappointed with the name he had pulled this year. Those with disabilities never made good television in the Games.

The crowd was silent until a "sure," rang out, and Terrence Littoral was shoving Nicolas Abyssal off stage.

Annie shook Terrence's hand when she was told to, and they shared a meaningful look.

Although District Four was a Career district, it was far enough from the Capitol's immediate favor to know that being reaped for the Games was never quite the honor it was made out to be. The wealthy were given the opportunity to train their children as Careers in the unlikely chance that their names were pulled, but no one ever voluntarily entered the madness that was the Hunger Games.

Volunteering rarely happened, unless someone arrogant enough to think they could win came around. And as much as Annie would have believed that Terrence Littoral – who acted self centered and confident enough – was one of those people, the fact that she had seen him helping the poor just yesterday had her mind veering elsewhere.

Had anyone else's name been picked – anyone's other than slow Nicolas Abyssal's – Terrence Littoral would not have volunteered.

Annie wished she could use words to express that she understood completely, but all she had were her eyes and the gentle squeeze of her hand in his before she was yanked away and dumped into the Justice Building to wait for her family to say goodbye.

We got some Finnick in there, right? Some of these chapters will be in his POV (maybe the chapter after next?), so prepare yourself, folks.

Also, just a wondering, pondering question: What do you Finnick/Annie fans believe in? Do you believe they met/fell in love pre- or post-Annie's Games? My opinion's obvious, but I'd be interested in knowing what you guys think and why.

Drop a review, if you want.