The Ocean Rolls Us Away

Chapter 10: Finnick

I woke up the next morning in the bed of a stranger. Her name was Birdie Noe. She had bright blue hair and pink tinted skin.

Birdie had paid quite a lot for a night with me, but that didn't entitle me to stick around long enough to have breakfast with her. I had fallen for that before and there was no way in hell that I was going to let my self get trapped in her bedroom again.

As Birdie slept, I crept out of her bed, and pulled on my suit. Then I snuck out of her lavish apartment and headed back to my own.

I knew that Mitchlin and Mags would be waiting for me since training started that morning, so I walked faster than I normally would have. In the end it only took me about five minuets to get back to the suite because it was just a block away from Birdies apartment.

I walked into the building and stepped inside the shiny silver elevator. I reached out my hand, and pressed the fifth button. Then the elevator started to move. When it reached District Fours floor, the thick doors opened and I stepped into the suite.

Mags, Mitchlin, Martin, and Annie were all seated at the dining table and they were eating their breakfast. I could tell that they were almost finished, so when I sat down at my seat I didn't pile up my plate with food

"How nice of you to finally show up, Finnick." Mitchlin didn't look at me as he frowned about my late arrival.

"Sorry," I looked around the table and saw that Mags and Martin were looking at me awkwardly. "I had a meeting last night." I finally said with a hint of annoyance and they seemed to accept my explanation. The only one who hadn't been looking at me awkwardly was Annie. In fact she hadn't been looking at me at all.

"Well you are forgiven." Mitchlin chimed in as he layered his last bit of toast with jam.

"Thanks." I muttered, serving some cantaloupe onto my plate. I then ate it so fast that it was almost hard to swallow down.

While I was finished eating I turned to Annie, "Are you ready?"

"Ready?" She asked as she looked up at me timidly. When she looked up I saw that she had tucked the little white flower into her hair. For some reason I had a feeling it was the same one that I had left for her in the note.

"For training." I continued as I tried not to stare at the flower.

"Oh, right." She mumbled embarrassedly, looking back down at her empty plate.

"Well then let's go." I set my napkin down on the table and stood up from my chair.

"Now?" She looked back up at me and her eyes widened with fear.

"It's okay, you'll be fine." I smiled encouragingly at her, but she seemed stiff. Still she nodded her head, and slowly stood up from her seat. Then we both left for the training center.

We got onto the elevator and rode down in silence. When we reached the right floor, Annie and I stepped out of the elevator and into the training center. I crossed my arms as I watched one of the tributes spear a dummy in the gut. It fell over instantly as if it really was a human. I glanced over at Annie and saw the fear in her eyes as the dummy fell over.

"So where do you want to start?" I asked her. She looked up at me timidly, and I could see her lips quivering.

"I…I don't…" She stuttered as she clenched her hands into fists.

I could see right away that standing there watching the other tributes wasn't going to accomplish anything, so when I spotted some empty chairs off to my right I said, "Come on let's sit over there." I lightly pulled Annie along as her dazed eyes watched the same tribute from before slice another dummy in half.

"They're going to slaughter me." She whispered to her self as we sat down.

"No they're not," I tried to reassure her, "we just have to find your strengths."

"What if I don't have any" She replied without looking over at me. It was like her eyes were permanently glued to the tribute. I could understand her fear though. He was tall, no let me rephrase that, he was extremely tall. I would say about 6 foot 9. He was also strong. You could almost see his muscles nearly ripping through his shirt.

I looked back at Annie and saw her whole body was quivering now. I knew I had to find some way to get her to tell me what she could do, but I had a feeling as long as she was watching the guy from one, she was never going to open up.

"Don't look at him. It's only going to make things worse."

She looked over at me and swallowed down what I guessed was her fear. The only problem was that when she took a breath, it was like she sucked all of it back into her lungs.

I thought maybe if I got her to talk about something, like the things that made her happy or her life back home; she'd be less resistant. So I asked her, "What would you do with your brothers when you were little?"

"What?" She looked confused and her hands stopped shaking with the distraction.

"Just tell me what you did." I nodded at her to continue.

"Well we," She paused and looked around like she was trying to find her words. "We swam in the ocean and made nets for my father." She smiled as she mentioned her father and I could tell that she was starting to forget about the guy from one. "Sometimes we would play darts and Bress and I would-" She smiled and started to laugh quietly to her self when I stopped her.

"Wait, you said you played darts?" I asked her almost excitedly. I had found her strength.

"Yes." She replied as she again looked at me with confusion in her eyes.

"Were you any good?" I asked her right on top of her response.

"Well yes, but I don't see-" She started to speak again but I cut her off.

"Go get a knife." I gestured towards the tables of knives but she wasn't even looking at me.

Then her head whipped around, and she looked at me like I was insane. "I don't-"

"Just go get a knife." I nodded my head towards the table.

Annie got up and slowly walked over to the weapons table. Then she turned back to look at me I'm sure for some sort of guidance, but I just nodded for her to go on. She looked back at the table and grabbed a small knife that she could easily lift and throw. Then she walked back over to our seats.

"Now, go over to that dummy" I reached my hand out and pointed towards one of the target dummies on the wall. "And throw the knife."

Her eyes widened, "You want me to throw this?" She held up the knife. "I could kill someone!"

"That's the general idea." I muttered under my breath sarcastically. Then I looked back at her and nodded my head towards the dummy. "Now go throw the knife."

Annie looked at me nervously and then slowly walked over towards the throwing range. When she reached the line, her feet stopped. She slowly lowered her head, with her eyes squinted shut, and clenched her hands into fists. Then she shakily took her stance, lifted the knife, and threw it. The knife flew through the air and stopped when it stuck right in the dummy's heart. Instantly I started smiling.

I stood up from my seat and walked over to her, "Wow, you weren't joking when you said you were good." I laughed under my breath and shook my head with a smile on my face.

It took Annie a little longer to respond because she didn't look directly at the target until after I came over. Finally she slowly turned her head. When she saw the knife, her eyes widened and then a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"You didn't think you could do it, but look at that." I smiled at her and gestured towards the dummy.

Annie turned her head towards me and smiled. When our eyes met, I could see her sea green eyes sparkling. They were so beautiful it was shocking.

Suddenly my smile faded from my face as I stared at her in awe.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Her question snapped me back into reality and I tried to make it look like I hadn't just been staring at her.

"I was just…I was just thinking about what we should do next." I smiled at her nervously.

"And that is?" She asked with a playful smile.

"Actually I don't know." I admitted to her. I had been so impressed by her knife throwing that I really hadn't thought about what to do next. That had just been my excuse for staring at her.

"Well maybe I should throw a few more knives," She laughed lightly and gestured towards her self. "Since I seem to have a talent for that." Then a grin lit up her face.

"Yes you do." I smiled back at her and we started walking back towards the weapons table. Finally she seemed comfortable around me.