Chapter Six


Name: Finnick Odair
Age: 14
Year: 3098
District: 4
Current Hunger Games Year: 65


My experience throughout the Hunger Games can always be described through one word:

Annie.

Now, I know you're probably thinking: "Finnick, this makes no sense! Annie is the love of your life, not a feeling or emotion or anything like that!"

Well, yes. That's because you can't comprehend any form of understanding as to why that word is Annie.

Let me tell you:

Throughout training, I only thought of scoring high. Only for sponsors, and I only wanted those for one reason: to win. And why did I want to win?

To get home to Annie.

Throughout my time in the Arena, as I stayed in the shadows and clung to my life with both hands, desperately trying to survive- in the beginning, of course- I only thought of one thing to keep me going: Annie.

Annie was everywhere. She was all around me, and she was the only thing that kept me going throughout the games. If she wasn't with me, I would have given up.

She was one of my most popular sponsors, sending me flowers, food, pictures, and she even went as far as sending me full sea urchins.

Memories flooded back to me while I was in that Arena, and it only kept me going even longer.

And then it came down to me and James.

_l::l_

After my sponsors sent me my trident, I remembered the time Annie and I sat on the docks when we were eleven, and she had picked up a large amount of seaweed and started weaving it.

"It makes good rope," she explained, as I watched her slender white fingers weave themselves in and out of the weed. "You can use it for most anything! I've made necklaces, bracelets, belts, rope, even bowls and plates, and I made a net for my father just last year for his birthday." I watched as she beamed, and thought of how smart and clever she was, and how much I wanted her to show me to make a net. I asked, and she did, and I never let that piece of information.

I used Annie's way of making a net, and I improvised and used vines instead of seaweed.

I still thank her everyday for teaching me that.

_l::l_

We stood about fifty feet away from each other in the meadow we were in. Trees surrounded us, birds squawking noisily in them. Flowers hung from the trees. Large flowers, about the size of my face. I saw one actually eat one of the kids… It wasn't pretty…

James stood a moment, his sword raised as if he was about to hack into me. He was a Career; that much was obvious. He had trained back in One, and had muscles up to high-Heaven. But it was fine, because I had my trident, and my wits.

And I had Annie.

I stood, leaning on my trident, gazing lazily at one of the flowers near me, as if he wasn't there. I stroked the stem of the plant, and it seemed to make a noise that sounded much like the purring of a cat. I glanced at James, and acted as if I hadn't known he was there at all.

"Oh, I'm sorry, have you been standing there the entire time?" I laughed, flashing a smile, and flipping my head so my long hair fell to the right.

"Yeah right, Odair. You've known I was standing there the entire time. Don't even lie." James growled, and took a step forward.

The birds in the trees silenced.

"Oh, you're funny James. You truly are."

"You're such a dumbass." James said.

"Oh… I'm the dumbass here? Okay… Then you must be President." I laughed bitterly.

"Why don't you just shut the fuck up, Odair." James growled again, and took another step forward. I didn't move.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. President. Would you like me to extract my last statement from the records?"

"I'm warning you, Odair. If you don't shut up, I'll shut you up myself."

I smirked.

"I'd like to see you try."

"Really? Because I can show you."

"How, exactly? With your big pointy stick? Oh, dear. I'm just terrified."

"Shut up, Odair."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll shut you up myself."

I made like I was holding a remote, and pressed my thumb down, as if I was hitting a button.

"What are you doing?" James asked, and I smirked.

"I'm trying to find the mute button. It doesn't seem to be working."

"Odair, you just made yourself look like the biggest fool in the Games."

"Tockerman, you cannot even begin to fathom the amount of fuck that I do not give."

James took another step towards me. I didn't move.

"Oh, goodness, James. You're getting awful close. What are you gonna do? Poke me?" I smirked again, and James took another step forward.

"You're an ass, Odair. It's too bad I'll have to kill you. But that's okay, because you won't be missed."

"Oh, contraire, Tockerman. You will not be missed when I kill you." I smiled, and pulled the net I had woven from off of my trident and wrapped it around his legs, yanking his legs out from under him in one fluid movement, jabbing my trident into his chest, and I heard his cannon sound.

_l::l_

My mind flashed back to the time when Annie and I had been playing when we were eleven, the day after she showed me how to make a net. She jumped at me, kicking up sand behind her, and I grabbed her around the waist and threw her behind me, rotating 180 degrees and watched her stand after she got up from a somersault. She turned to me, and smiled again as she picked up a gutting knife and lunged at me again, swiping it through the air with deadly precision, and I grabbed her by the wrist and twisted, so she dropped the knife and squealed.

Of course, I immediately felt bad, so I dropped her wrist and grabbed her by the waist, asking if she was okay, only to receive a swift scissor kick to the gut.

"Don't ever under-estimate your opponent. No matter how weak, don't stop. Go for the jugular, Odair." She smiled down at me as I lay on my back, staring up at her with awe.

She helped me up, and while her back was turned, I grabbed the net next to me, and attempted to wrap it around her legs. But she turned before it even reached her, and snatched it, tangling her fingers in it and yanking, flinging me towards her. Our lips ended up inches apart, and she smiled wickedly at me. She moved closer to me, my lips brushing the tip of her nose, and she moved her body up, standing on her tip-toes, and brushed her lips along my law-line, brushing my cheek with her nose, and stopping at my ear.

My breathing hitched, and she pulled me closer to her. I closed my eyes, and waited…

Instead of the kiss I was hoping for, I received a jab in the ribs.

"Bam. You're dead. Pathetic. Just pathetic, Odair. You need to learn how to throw a net properly if you're going to be worth something someday." She shoved me off of her, and took the net from me. "Like this." She said, and threw the net in a fluid motion, wrapping it around my legs and pulling them out from under me. I fell hard, the wind knocked out of me, and she sat on my chest and poked me again.

"Dead… dead… dead… dead… dead…" She chanted as she jabbed my chest with the hilt of her knife, smiling.

_l::l_

I realized then, as I listened to Claudius Templesmith's voice ring out over the arena announcing my victory, that Annie had been training me. Everything I had used in that Arena had been done using something Anniehad taught me.

Annie kept me alive.

Annie was there.


I thought that might be a good place to stop?

Review? :)

~Maddy