Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Day One: Reaping Day

Annie's heart was beating faster than anything before. She was extremely scared of what she was going to face. Nothing had ever been such a threat to her. Her future, so clear earlier that day, suddenly seemed...blank. As if she honestly had no chance at living. But this was a punishment for Finnick. They lied to the Capitol, and they 'had' to pay.. The best way was for Finnick to watch her die while he desperately tried to save her.

She sat in the room, with velvet curtains and a tiny window of light. This was where she was supposed to say goodbye to her family and friends. This was it. He knew that she would see Finnick on the train. He had already been moved there, and she had gotten a glimpse of his horrified expression. He was most likely blaming himself for it. It was as much her fault as it had been his. When he showed his fear for the Capitol, she hadn't really expected it to be this...eccentric.

Annie paced the room back and forth, and she swallowed, trying to figure out what to do. Then the door opened, and she felt two pairs of arms wrap around her legs.

Her three little sisters, Vinny, Jamie, and Aven, were wrapped around her. The youngest, at five, cried the most. She knew that Annie was leaving, but she didn't exactly understand why.

"Annie, please don't go!" she yelled, distressed. She was crying the most out of all four of them. How was she supposed to say goodbye to them? Three minutes was barely enough time to tell them all that she wanted to.

Annie felt a stinging in her eyes, and she kneeled down on the floor. She looked between all of them and gave them all a kiss on the forehead. Then, she wrapped her arms around her baby sisters. She was hoping that they would remember that moment, if that was all they had left.

"You guys, you have to keep studying. D-Don't take tessarae, because if anything happens to me, Finn will take care of you. B-But I'm gonna make it back, I promise," she explained, and she saw tears in Jamie's eyes. Quickly, she kissed all their heads again and sighed. Annie couldn't hold back her tears. She was already choking on them. It would be hard for them to understand why she was saying this, but one day they would.

As Annie pulled away, Vinny picked Aven into her arms and nodded, holdng back her own tears. In a year, her name would be in that bowl for the first time. Annie hoped that she would be able to help her get through it.

Then, Annie moved onto her parents.

Her mother was bawling at that point, and her father was crying as well. Annie had never seen them cry in front of her, and this was the first time that she saw them so hurt by that. It was hard for Annie.

Her own tears soon joined theirs.

She embraced them and began sobbing quietly into her mother's shoulder. Her father wrapped her arms around both his wife and his oldest child, kissing Annie's head. "You're gonna come back," her father told her and kissed her hair. Annie only kept crying.

Between her sobs, Annie managed to speak a few words. "I-I'm so scared," she said so softly, it was barely heard. Her mother took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. She felt that she had to be strong for her daughter.

"Finnick will protect you, Annie," her mother whispered. Her father immediately scoffed, surely blaming him for his daughter's imminent death. Annie would usually argue with him about it, but now wasn't the time or the place.

Her mother chose to ignore him. Instead, she opened Annie's palm and put her ring into it. Annie's palm closed, tightly. Her engagement ring. She couldn't believe her mom had gotten it. Trying to compose herself, Annie quickly kissed her parents, and her sisters, one last time, and with their screaming voices in the distance, she was once again alone in the dark room.

Next, was her best friend. She came alone, with no one with her.

At that point, Annie had sat down in the lone chair. She was staring at the metal table, swallowing. It was getting worse, in all honesty. The fear was getting worse. Every minute seemed like a million years.

She stopped for a moment, looked at Annie, before swallowing. "Let's fix your hair," Marlene whispered softly and went to stand behind Annie, beginning to knead her hands through her friend's dark hair. It was as if she was braiding the girl's hair for the last time. Like a funeral. "You're going to the Capitol, after all. You have to make an impression."

Annie swallowed and hung her head. Her friend hummed a sweet song, a familiar song, as she let loose Annie's ribbon and let her hair flow down. Marlene had been wearing her flower pin, and she unhooked it, putting it in Annie's hair. When she finished, after thirty seconds, she sighed.

"You're going to win, Annie," Marlene told her quietly and sighed. Annie was holding back her goodbyes. She was trying to ignore the fact that she had to say goodbye, to everyone.

"How do you know, Lenna? Finn can't protect me in the arena, he can only try," Annie told her the greatest fear. "Hell, I can make nets and carve, but I don't know anything about surviving. My father made sure of that." Annie sighed and shook her head.

Marlene tusked at her, and made Annie stand up, and she hugged her. Annie hugged back just as tight. "You have to be brave. Annie. You're a survivor, you always have been. You never give up, and never have. And you won't give up now."

Annie took in her words, and nodded. That was what she needed to hear. She needed that encouragement, because she was walking into her death in about three days.

Then, the three minutes were up. With a spur of courage, they said goodbye without tears.

"I'll see you in a few weeks," Marlene said, smiling.

Words of encouragement.

"The leisure of the Capitol is something we enjoy displaying to the tributes. It's an honor to share our home with such selfless people as yourselves," Katerina said in the crowded car. Annie looked out the window as they passed through the market, watching the solemn faces of her fellow citizens. When they passed by her house, her mother's hand was raised in goodbye. Annie barely had any time to wave back.

"And wh-what about the train? We never get to see the inside," the other boy, Cole, said as he looked towards the train station. It was only ever busy when it was shipment day, and the day of the Reaping.

"Oh, its a taste of home! It is honestly the only thing that gives me comfort when I come out to the Districts," she said, in a tone that Annie didn't like. How could she prefer the industrial, concentrated Capitol to the sandy beaches and sunny days of District Four? Annie considered herself lucky to live there, seeing how..barren other Districts seemed.

Cole's face also twisted into displeasure, and he looked back to the coast, preferring not to keep up the conversation with the careless Capitol drone.

When they got there, Annie got out of the car to some expectant Peacekeepers escorting her up the train station, and onto the train. They lead them there, both her and Cole, and pushed them into the train, closing the doors behind them and locking it from the outside.

There, in the little waiting room, sat Finnick Odair, wiping away something on his face with his hand, and tapping his foot quickly on the ground.

As soon as he heard the door close, he stood and quickly looked between the both of them. He had been crying. Annie swallowed.

Very quietly, he let out a very low 'Annie', before moving forward to go hug her. Thankfully, Mags held him back.

Katerina caught it, and looked slyly between the both of them. "You two know each other, don't you?" she asked Finnick. Finnick's jaw tightened, and he gently shrugged Mags's hand off. He pursed his lips and swallowed, not taking his eyes off of Annie.

"Yes, we do," Annie softly answered and moved forward, seeing as Cole had already gone to get some food. He was from the shipyard, like Finnick had been. He was probably hungry.

"Damn, this stuff is good," he said to himself and tore the bread apart, eating it slowly as he went to sit down. Annie shuffled over to the seat between Mags and Finnick and Finnick quickly followed, leaning closer to Annie. She could tell that he was dying to be alone with her, again.

Katerina looked at Annie, and then to Finnick as she went to sit in front of them. "And how did you two meet?"

Finnick swallowed, and said very softly. "She crept up on me."