A True Pearl
Rating: T
Summary-Set a year before the 65th Hunger Games, right before Finnick went in. The story is in Annie's POV. It is how I believe how her life and she was before she went 'crazy'. Taking constructive criticism but please no flames.
Author's Note- In the last chapter I said Annie was 13 well I changed that because I was thinking about it during class and I realized that since she went in 5 years later after him she was younger than that age. I am going to change her to 12, a year younger than Finnick. Because I looked nothing says her age or what age she went into the Hunger Games. I know it's stupid to realize this now but I have been having a lot going on lately so please don't judge me.
Disclaimer-I do not own the Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does and if I did I would be rich and not live in George County.
Thank You to Marie for beta-ing.(sorry forgot to put this up.)
Thank you to everyone who favored/alerted me and my story. To the people who reviewed thank you even more, you guys really do not know how happy they made me.
PeetaMyLove- Thank you for reviewing and you can get as many batches as you want =)
Cookieb123- Thank you for reviewing.
All I need 22- Thank you for reviewing. I will write more chapters but I'm about to get very busy.
Marie- Marie...Marie yes you did force me to put it up and I forced you to review back haha. Made you get off your lazy butt =P
Y'all all get Peeta made cookie and a special smoothie made by me, they're amazing XD
Chapter 2
The next few weeks I avoided Finnick. I didn't want to be questioned anymore. I had enough going on at home. For more that it seemed that winter kept getting closer my mother only got sicker and sicker. We wouldn't say it but we knew she was close, close to….
"Annie." Delaney was poking at me trying to get my attention.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just thinking about Mom." I told the girls. "How much longer till the bell?" I quickly asked before they started with their sympathy.
"About 15 more minutes I think." Harper told me.
"Well I got to go talk to Mr. Pater about my report." They nodded and went on with their conversation.
While I was turning a corner I ran into someone. Guess who?
"Dang it, I'm sorry." Finnick said. Then he looked at who he ran over. "Annie." He said breathlessly.
"Hey Finnick, bye Finnick," I shortly told him.
"Wait, please talk to me, it's important. I have been trying to hunt you down and talk to you since that day, but you keep running away. Why?" He looked distressed.
"Well I've been really busy, like I am now." I tried to turn around, but he grabbed my arm.
"Please meet me on the beach after school." He pleaded.
I thought about it for a moment. Spending time with Finnick couldn't be that bad. Could it? "Okay, I'll give it a try." I promised him and he grinned from ear to ear.
"Great!" He said and turned around and started for the cafeteria.
'Oh great. What I have I got myself into?'
While on my walk home I paced myself. I didn't feel the need to hurry and I didn't know if I was quite ready to face him. Once I got to the beach he was already there waiting for me. I walked down the hill and quietly sat down by him. We just sat quietly for awhile and listened to the waves crashing and watched the sunset. Finnick finally broke the comfortable silence. "How have you been?"
"What did you want to talk to me about that was just so important?"
"Right to the subject then?" He chuckled.
"Well if there isn't anything to talk about then..." I let on while standing up to leave.
"No...Wait!" He stopped me."I had some questions for you." He looked at me desperately.
My heartbeat stopped." Like what kind of questions exactly?" I croaked.
"I…" He stopped in mid-sentence. We heard some shrill voices headed our way.
"Finnick! Finnick!" Some girls were screeching. My eyeballs went wide all of a sudden.
Finnick was frantically searching around the beach till he spotted something. "C'mon." He said gruffly then ran towards a hidden cave a little off in the distance. We ran as fast and swift as we could. Once we got there we were out of breath.
"Why did you want to run?" I asked him.
"Well for starters I know you are not the type of person that likes attention." I smirked a little. "Two I rather not hang around those sluts right now." Okay, so he is aware the type of people that he hangs around.
He took a peek outside to make sure they didn't follow us. "Now, can you please answer my questions?" He said while turning back around.
"It depends." I countered.
"How did you know that nickname?" He asked me sternly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I crossed my arms.
"Yes, you do and I want to know how and where you heard it from." He sounded stern yet so vulnerable.
I sighed. He knew he was going to get the answer so he sat down on a rock in a corner. "Years ago we use to be best friends. It was a long time ago and things were so different back then. I mean your mom…"
He stopped me there. "Please don't continue that last part." He took a long pause. "It can't be though I would remember someone like you. Why can't I remember?" He looked like he was in pain.
"Look, Finnick, all I know is that when your mom..." He tensed at that. "Umm sorry...But anyway after that a lot just changed. A lot of people went their own way and everyone had a lot of problems going on. That is all I know."
He didn't say anything for awhile and I didn't make him. The silence wasn't harming anybody. We just sat there listening to the 'drip drop drip' from the water leaking from the cave ceiling.
"There was so much going on back then during that time that I barely remember much. I tried to block out as much as I could to ease the pain, I'm sorry" He voice was barely above a whisper.
"It wasn't your entire fault, you were just a kid. Why would you blame all that on you?" I asked, not really helping the situation.
"I don't know, but I just feel like I should take the blame. Who else?"
"It doesn't matter, it's in the past. Over and done with. Do you understand? We can start anew." I told him.
"So we could start hanging out again? I would really enjoy it and also…" He started rambling.
"Stop right there!" He looked hurt. "I am not going to be a part of 'that' crowd. I don't want to be labeled one of your little whores!" I yelled.
The look on his face made me instantly want to backtrack. "Finnick, look, we can be friends, but I would prefer for it to be more like this, secluded." I requested from him.
He swallowed hard, but he nodded in reply. "Okay, that's fine with me."
"I really am sorry for blurting out like that."
"Well it's what people think about me and I know it. I can't really fix that. It's a reputation here to stay."
"You can always change their mind. It is always fun to prove people wrong." I told him.
"Maybe, and by the way, I have never touched any of those girls like that. My mom taught me courtesy and I'm not going to do her wrong." What he said shocked me but I didn't doubt what he said one bit.
"Oh, Finnick, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been listening to people's gossip." I truly felt guilty.
"Please, I don't want sympathy." Then I saw that he had his cocky smirk plastered on his face. "You listen to gossip about me. See, I knew you cared." He then grabbed my head and rubbed it and messed up my hair.
That got a laugh out of me. "Goodnight, Finnick. I'll see you another day." I started to leave, but he stopped me.
"Can we do this again tomorrow? I really enjoyed your company." He says with a smile.
"Of course, I enjoyed it to." "More than I thought I would. " I say under my breath.
He smiles and takes my hand and kisses the palm. "Till tomorrow Annie."
"Annie." It was the girl with the olive skin.
"Huh?" I said the scene coming into focus. It was the same as before. The only difference I wasn't at the altar. I was still in the white frilly wedding dress. I didn't complain it was a gorgeous dress. The color was a soft white and the beads seemed liked they were put there so ever delicately. I brought my hand down and I brushed the beads with my fingertips, they seemed ever so fragile just like a…
"Annie." The girl said more insistently.
"Yes." I said, putting my attention on here interested on what seemed so important.
"He's waiting for you. Why are you just standing here?" She asked me quite rudely. Not knowing who she is talking about I decided to play along.
"Who is waiting for me?" I asked curiously. This seemed liked a lot of fun.
"Your husband, duh! Both of you guys have been waiting for this for years and you are acting like you have never met this guy before. What is wrong with you?" She hounded me. Maybe this was a bad idea.
"Katniss." Another woman came by with close-cropped hair. "Leave her the hell alone, you of all people should understand, with what is going on with you know who." That seemed to have struck a nerve with her.
"But he's…" The girl, Katniss, tried to reproach.
"Doesn't matter don't start anything with her, you know how he will get and I don't want to deal with him acting like a pansy." Did I suddenly become invisible to them? "Look he is coming over here now. Let's go I said my good wishes to him and now I would really like to get the hell away from all this sappy love stuff."
Katniss agreed and they walked away to someplace I couldn't see them. A few seconds later the familiar man came by.
"Were they bothering you?" He gave me a cheeky grin.
"Umm…no not really." I gave a weak answer not really knowing what was going on.
"Okay, well I came to get you. It's time for our dance." He told me.
"What dance?" I asked getting self-conscious knowing how bad I am.
"The bride and groom's first dance together." He held out his hand for mine. I took it and looked up at his eyes. I gave a sharp gasp.
They announced our names and everyone cheered. But, it was too late I have already found out who my groom was.
Finnick Odair.
Author's Note- Please review I turned the thing off so anonymous people can review now. I would really like to hear from all of y'all.
This is important. I do not know the next time I can update. My schedule is fixing to get even busier. I have parade, ACT, finish Christmas shopping, finals, and pack for Wisconsin. We will be there for about 2 weeks (how long our Christmas break is). My mom lets no electronics pretty much, but my dad might let me sneak in something. So like I said I may get something in before but I do not. This all starts next week.
