Hello, hello! So I've already gotten one request for the music I mentioned before; I've only got about a minute of it, so it's gonna be awhile before it goes up on YouTube. So here's chapter 21! Over 3,000 words!
Jamie? Jamie Odair? Trident boy's sister? I'm so confused! And Finnick's looking at me like he's seen a ghost!
Oh... Realization crashes down on me like a tidal wave. The small letters on the inside of the dress make sense now. JC-O. Before I had though the JC was my mother's initials, Janice Cresta, size zero; but now I know they stood for Jamie Clair Odair. I had thought the O in Odair stood for the size number. So much for being smart.
That also explains that strange look he gave me on reaping day, when I first wore her dress. I shouldn't have ever worn the dress. It was probably one of the gifts he gives us every year, along with the necklace. I wonder if that too was hers and how many of her things he's given me, that now lay at the bottom of the ocean. Yes, now that I think of it, her token was a pearl necklace; I remember Trident boy taking it off her dead body. I turn my attention towards Finnick, who has composed himself for now. He walks over to me and has me spin around.
"Beautiful, Annie, as usual," he says, running his ringer down the thin gold chain of my necklace. I don't bring up Jamie right now. I don't think he wants me to. I do, however, thank the mysterious man with the gold eye-liner. He slips away out into the hall, with a friendly wave goodbye.
"Shall we go then, Annie," Finnick says, ushering me out of the door. "There're some sponsors I'd like you to meet."
I try to get a good look at my mentor as we walk down the hall, but he seems to have flicked the switch that turns off his emotions again. I hate how he can do that; it's unnatural. We quickly step into the elevator and Finnick presses the ground floor button. There are about 5 people waiting for us to get out. All of them look ridiculous and too colorful. They stare at me like I'm just a piece of meat.
"Annie, this is Mr. Anody," says Finnick, pointing to a small, chubby man with a black suit and silver highlights. "Mr. Anody, Annie," he introduces us.
"Hello," I say, with I slight curtsey. My. Anody beams at me.
"Well, I'll decide for sure after the interviews, Mr. Odair, but she seems the best bet by far!" he says, shaking my hand.
"She is, I assure you," Finnick says to him, before he hurries out the door.
The next lady is decked out in dozens of different shades of blue. Even her hair is blue, died of course. She speaks in a deep voice and I zone out, just paying enough attention to know whether or not to smile or curtsey or wave. She keeps talking about how District 12's mentor, Haymitch, tried to get her as a sponsor, and about how she absolutely refused to have anything to do with the deaf girl. I don't want this woman's money; if I win, I don't want her to have anything to do with it.
After a couple more of these monstrous people, Trident boy steers me out of the building and into the place for the interviews.
Caesar Flickman scares me. His annual color is green this year. It's like he's gotten a horrible case of sea-belly. It's hard not to stare at him because he looks so strange.
First, the District 1 girl goes first, Emerald. She and Flickman look like a matching set. The green beans, them. I can easily tell her angle; it's so obvious. She's trying to be provocative. And it's gross. I can't watch anymore because she's trying to jump into Caesar's lap. I find Finnick in the crowd and he gives me a sad smile. The boy from 1 acts all blood-thirsty. He even says that he is looking forward to tomorrow with bated breath. I hope he dies first; a bloodthirsty tribute won't raise sympathy for us. He isn't humane at all.
Savis and Olitup are nice enough. Savis' know-it-all-but-nice-guy thing works well for him, perhaps because that is him. Olitup tries, and fails, to get sympathy. At least with the live audience; the lower districts will want to be sponsors, if only they had any money.
Everest, from 3, goes for funny. She asks to borrow Caesar's suit for camouflage, if the arena has trees, of course. Garett is charming; he didn't have to reach far for that one. He reminds me slightly of Finnick, in looks and the part of him that likes to kid around. His time is almost gone. I will have to go next. I might throw up… I walk onto the stage, give Caesar a good-natured hug, and sit down. He's asking me something.
"So, Annie, how do you like the Capitol?" he says. Great, I hate this question.
"Very well, the architecture is amazing, really," I say, using the answer me and Mags agreed upon. This gets me a round of applause from the audience.
"What do you miss about home, Annie?" he asks next, with his disgusting green lips.
"All of it really, my family, the ocean, going to school, fishing on our boat." I say. I sound like a nerd, but don't really care.
"What's so great about school, Annie?" Caesar asks, mystified. I want to answer, There are no green freaks, but that probably wouldn't sit too well with him.
"Swimming classes," I answer, smiling. Flickman nods.
"So, what do you think you are best at? What will help you most in the games?" he asks, switching to a different topic so quickly that I wasn't ready for it.
"Well…" I want to say a spear and a knife, but if I do, the other tributes will be careful not to let me near those weapons. I decide on something they can't take from me, something that would attribute to my angle. "My best weapon would probably be my head; I'm quite smart, you know, Caesar," I say, then flash the audience a smile. They laugh; I have no idea why, what I said wasn't supposed to be funny. Caesar turn the conversation to my dress.
"So, Annie, I have to ask. Where have I seen this dress before?" he asks, gesturing to me. "It's absolutely gorgeous!"
"Thank you," I say, "I actually wore it to the reaping, except that it didn't have the sleeves and it was shorter."
"Really? But no, that's not it. I've seen this dress somewhere else," he strokes his chin, apparently in deep thought. I hope he doesn't mention Jamie. Please don't mention Jamie.
"Was it on Jamie Odair?" he asks me. Stupid Caesar. I don't know whether or not to lie. I could say that it was my mother's; that's what I told Marie before the reaping. Or I could say that it was indeed Jamie's, but that would tie me to Trident boy, making me a target because I would get in the way of his "duties" as a victor. I glance at the audience before answering. I see Finnick almost violently shaking his head no, while trying to stay still.
"No, it was my mother's, she gave it to me right before the reaping," I lie gracefully. I don't care if it's to Caesar; I don't really count him as a person, looks more like foliage anyway.
"Okay," he says, as the buzzer goes off. "Good luck, Miss Cresta." I wave bye as it walk off the stage and into my seat.
David goes next. His angle is mature. He's ripped, smart, and he's far stronger, physically and emotionally, than the rest of us. I might believe it if I hadn't heard him having a break-down in Mags room the other day. Oh, the lies we victors tell.
After David go Drew and Clayton. I couldn't really tell their angles, but they seem to have a sense of self that most of us didn't. I always thought that they were too proud to play this game.
Sky from 6 seems like an insubstantial wisp of smoke, like the wispy clouds in the sky for which she was named. The audience was very taken with her frailness. But they've never seen her wrestle a boy twice her size and win.
Titus, her partner, makes the blood-thirsty guy from 1, Chivel, look sweet. Titus makes me want to gag because of how brutish he is. I wonder how sane he is really. He doesn't have good aim, but he could have been faking in training. He only answers some of Caesar's questions.
I lose interest in the rest after I realize that learning about them will make it so much harder to watch them die. I just don't pay attention at all to Melanie's interview because I know that I might start tearing up, I do gather that she has a little brother though.
Sam has to interpret for Carney because she can't hear and he's the only one that is really good at the sign language. Caesar is extra nice to her though. She looks good in her black dress, almost like the coal that her district makes. Sam interpreting makes them seem sweet, they are. I hate that they will die. It's a sure thing. District 12 hasn't survived since the last Quell, when Haymitch Abernathy won.
Finally the interviews are over. Our whole District 4 team walks back to the training building. I really am sick of it. It seems like the whole building is just a cage, not that I can't escape, but that they are watching me, whatever I do. We have to stop and rest because Mags can't keep going much longer. Finnick cracks a joke about her needing a wheel chair, and she playfully slaps his arm. Trident boy acts like it really hurt and Mags smiles affectionately at him. These people are funny. After about three stops, Finnick just scoops her up and carries her the rest of the way to the tribute building. I smile at David, as if he was Caleb and Mags was my grandmother and Finnick a family friend. But Caleb is dead and David will be too. This wipes the smile right off my face.
We take the elevator ride up to floor 4 and then go to our rooms without a word. Over the last few days we've become a family. I wonder if it's like this with every pair of tributes that come through.
I look at myself in the mirror. In the blue dress and gold necklace, I look nothing like myself. I shouldn't be wearing this. I feel as if I'm invading Finnick' s life by wearing his sister's clothes. I should be in my old, worn, and slightly damp from swimming, clothes; not the Capitol's luxurious dress.
Slowly, I strip it off my body. I neatly fold it and leave it on a dresser with a note that says, Give to my mother. She'll know what to do with it should I not make it back to give it to CeCe. I don't think Finnick wants it. I would just remind him of the people that wore it. Jamie and me…
Will he miss me when I'm gone? Yes… Probably… I hope so… Why do I hope though? I don't know where we would be if it wasn't for these games. Games. Games of love, games of death, games of hunger. I want to stop playing games. I just want everything to be simple. Certain. Perfect. Life isn't perfect. I wonder if death is. Peaceful I hope, because that's where I'm headed. I should probably take the necklace off, so CeCe can have it. It will probably get broken in the arena. Its chain is so delicate that it might break. But I can't take it off. It's been with me since the morning I was reaped, I can't take it off now, just before the actual games start.
I get into the shower and prepare to take the last one. I press some buttons, trying each and every one of them. Finally, the different smells and aromas make me a bit lightheaded, so I just pick a soap and lather it on. It smells minty, like some kind of herb. I notice its green color, like Caesar and I immediately rinse it off. I search for something different to put on. I find something labeled Cherry Almond and I try it. It is just plain white, so I put that on. It smells amazing and leaves my body feeling soft. I then press the Done button and the heat comes on, drying me in a matter of seconds. I then see a button labeled Detangle and I press it. A wave of some sort goes through my hair, taking out all of the tangles. Dozens of hidden pearls come out as well. I laugh.
After taking that shower, I don't think that I could ever sleep, so I just get dressed in some pink shirt and some brown pants and I go out to the roof. It's empty. For some reason I expected Finnick to be there. I expected him to be staring at the city, his back to me. But he's not here. I find that the roof isn't nearly as inviting as I had thought it was. It's so high up and, even though I know there's a force field, I want to just fling myself off the roof. No, this isn't a way for me to think. Finnick wouldn't like it.
Since when do I care what he thinks anyway? I find that instead of hating him like I did just a few days ago, I can't stop worrying about him. I decide that I don't hate him. This confuses me because I know I still love Caleb and I miss him like crazy, but no one worries about how the people you hate will handle your death. There can only be one explanation for this, but I can't bring myself to acknowledge it. It's hidden somewhere in my mind; I might bring out the strange sensation out later. The sensation that includes watermelon and pearl necklaces and beautiful blue dresses and a trident that belongs there somewhere, tucked in between the folds of the dress. And the fountain. The fountain is halfway dipped in the strange sensation, and I realize that the fountain is where I want to be, not the roof. The roof is someone else's place, not mine.
Quietly, I slip down the many stairs and run out of the building, barefoot. I don't attract the attention of any guards tonight. I walk slowly and deliberately to the fountain. I remember the way perfectly and soon I find that I'm looking at its pool. The way the water splashes down on it is amazing because it's like a thin veil between the outside world and the inside of the fountain, where there are no games to play and, more importantly, no tridents.
I hike my pant legs up and put my feet into the clear, warm water, wiggling my toes. They aren't painted because the shoes that my secret stylist gave me covered them. I hate nail polish, it is artificial.
Soon, I get the feeling that someone is watching me. I turn around, fully knowing who it is because I can hear the distinguishing way he breathes. He too sits on the edge of the fountain and puts his feet in.
"Don't even tell me to go back to bed," I say, before he can even open his mouth.
"I wasn't planning on it," he smiles. "Couldn't sleep?" I nod and we don't talk for a while. I'm thinking about how I've always wanted to jump into a fountain. The moment was never right. I wonder now if there ever is a perfect moment to do anything; I guess I won't ever find out because this is probably going to be the last fountain I will ever see. I doubt there will be any in the arena. That's when I make up my mind.
"I'm getting in, you coming?" I ask him, determined to get in this fountain.
He shrugs, "Sure," and then takes his shirt off. Finnick stands on the edge of the fountain and prepares to dive, rubbing his hands together and bending his knees.
"You can't dive in! It's only four feet deep!" I say, but he pays me no heed. He just gracefully pushes off the edge and into the water, at an extreme angle, so as to not hit the bottom. I wade in after him, lifting my arms slightly to savor the moment because I haven't swum in so long, almost a whole week.
We both just splash around in the fountain. In District 4 we have a huge fountain that everybody throws coins in. I know this because at night, all the poor kids, Caleb and I included, would bend in over the edge to pick up the coins that meant dinner that night.
But this is different. There is no threat of angry Peacekeepers trying shoo us away. We are free here, just us two. Well, as free as you can be as a mentor and a tribute in the games. The water is clean and pure, instead of having nasty green slime the color of Caesar Flickman's lipstick coating the edges.
Together, Finnick and I splash at each other. After being dunked under the water by Finnick, I place my hands above his head and press down, laughing as he grabs my waist and then stands up, with me lifted in the air above him.
"You can't dunk me, Annie!" he says, spraying fountain water everywhere as he flicks his hair. I don't say anything, just smile mischievously. "What?" he says, lowering me back into the water. I just grin, and then carefully I make my lips into a circle, as if I was going to whistle. Finnick realizes what I'm doing right before I do it and he ducks his head some while I squirt water into his face. He laughs like he's genuinely happy, like he does with Mags, but with more enthusiasm. We play in the fountain until we hear the clock ringing. We count twelve dongs. It's midnight.