Chapter 1

I stare at the waves in the distance, blue with foamy topping surrounding the dock and my feet.

I ran here after the announcement, ignoring Finnick and Mag's yells for me to come back.

I hear someone calling my name in the distance, but I ignore them, staring at the waves and the mountains.

A beautiful mixture of purples and oranges, pinks and yellows, show around the mountains.

I've always wondered what it's like at the top of our mountains.

My hair, dark amber in color, blows around in tangles and snarls around my face, my hair smelling of salt water.

My eyes, emerald green, stare pointlessly at the horizon now.

My dress tangles around my body and feet, blowing around in the salty sea air.

I've gone back to the place where no one can hurt me or make me do anything they want.

The deck creaks as someone else walks on its grimy, salt eroded wood.

"Hey Annie." Finnick sighs, his golden legs drop into the sea beside mine.

I don't answer, just keep replaying the announcement President Snow said.

"The male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."

"Finnick?" I breathe, turning to face his beautiful sea green eyes, "Are we going to be in the reaping for this Hunger Games?"

Finnick nods sadly, breaking our gaze and turning to look at the sea.

He breathes in deeply and sighs loudly, the tension in his shoulders relaxing a bit.

Finnick reaches out his arm and catches my shoulders in his arm, bringing me close to his chest.

I listen to his heartbeat, sure and strong, not at all like how my mind is right now.

Finnick is the only thing that keeps me from going completely insane.

And if I or he goes into the Quarter Quell, who's going to keep me sane?

I sigh, snuggling close to Finnick, breathing deeply.

After a while, Finnick shifts and let's go of me.

I whimper and Finnick laughs, ruffling my hair.

"C'mon Annie, we have to go have the prep team fancy you up." He stands up and holds a hand out to me to take.

I gladly take his hand and he gently pulls me up to my feet.

I shriek as I trip on a loose board and Finnick catches me.

"Let's go before you get even more hurt." Finnick jokes, placing a hand on my waist and leading me away from the taunting seas, inviting me to jump in their icy grip and leave this torture kingdom.

But I turn my back to them and let Finnick guide me home.

"Annie!" Sandra shrieks, pulling me into a hug.

I smile against her orange hair and breathe in the Capitol smells.

Cars oil, exhaust, and floral smells over power her perfume she put on.

"I see you're still attached to Finnick." She whispers into my ear.

I nod, feeling my face growing warm.

She pulls back and pats my cheek, tears in her eyes.

"I heard the bad news." She sighs, turning to go grab her tweezers.

I stiffen, and when she turns back to see my expression, I relax, nodding my head sadly.

"It's so great to see you Annie." Sandra declares.

I smile and nod, telling her that I feel the same way.

I'm not really in the talkative mood.

"So what do you have planned for me this time?" I lean forward in my plush seat to see what's in the black bag.

Sandra shakes her head, pulling the bag closed so I can't see what's in it.

"No, no, no Annie. You know the procedure." She wags a finger at me, and I sink down in my seat, a mischievous smile on my face.

I nod, sitting up again, bouncing in my seat for her.

"Roman, Hymra, Sophie?!" Sandra yells. She sighs, setting down her tweezers to shake her head.

"Where is the help when you need it?" She inquires.

I shrug, glancing at my reflection in the mirror.

My dark amber hair is a rat's nest from the salty sea breeze, my cheeks flushed from the biting wind, and my eyes are wide and childish.

A foolish, evil smile twists my normally calm, gentle lips into a smile that doesn't even look like mine.

"What's up with you?" Sandra shakes her head, noticing my expression.

I shrug, making faces at my reflection.

I hear the door open and a flash of pink, bright yellow, and dark blue block my vision.

Three crazed faces are in my sight.

Roman has a crazed expression on his face, which makes his golden tattoos look like scars on his face against his neon pink hair, that's in curls this time.

Hymra his golden eyes this time, with her golden hair and golden eye shadow and lipstick, she looks like she's been doused in gold.

And Sophie has all dark blue on. Dark blue eyes, dark blue close cropped hair, and dark blue lips and eye shadow.

It's an improvement over the last time I saw her.

Last time she had on all blood red colors on, which made her look like she was bleeding from the inside out.

"How you doing Annie?"

"You should have seen my party!"

"I haven't heard anything about you in a while?"

All these questions come at me at once and I try to answer all of them, but when I do, more questions get pounded on me.

I look helplessly at Sandra, and she rolls her eyes in a exaggerated gesture.

"Alright you guys, you'll have more time to converse after the reaping! Get to your spots." Sandra orders.

The team loses its peppy attitude and nods somberly, walking drearily to their spots.

Sandra shakes her head, and I mouth thanks.

She nods, turning to tell Roman where to go.

"Alright Annie, shaving time!" Sophie bubbly says, her dark blue eyes gazing at me.

I sigh, getting out of the comfort of my bathroom chair and walk over to Sophie, who's standing by the bathtub/shower.

"Lay down!" She points at the tub, and I nod glumly, stripping off my clothes.

Once all my clothes are off I lay down the in bathtub, bending my knees so she can shave them.

Sophie kneels down to the bathtub, and I can hear her knees crack.

I inwardly cringe and I close my eyes, trying to find my happy place.

"OUCH!" I yelp, my eyes flying open.

Sophie winces, sending an apologetic glance towards me before turning back to my legs.

"I thought you said you were going to shave only!" I whine, rubbing my leg where she ripped off one section of my leg hair.

Sophie gently takes off my hand from my leg, placing it back in the water, making a little plop.

"Yes, but that would take forever so I thought I would switch to ripping it off, you know we have a busy, busy, busy schedule!" She points out bubbly again.

I sigh, dropping my head in the water making it thunk against the surface, crating ripples in the water.

"Annie, stay still." Sophie says irritably.

I close my eyes, my eyelashes tickling my cheeks.

A song that Finnick had made for me comes back into my mind, and before I know it, I start to hum it:

Raindrops rollin' off my brim
Streetlights got the pavement glistenin'
Touchdown, I fall into Your arms
Right where I belong
Your everlasting arms

"Alright Annie!" Sophie's voice breaks me out of my stupor, and my eyes fly open, staring at her in confusion.

She gestures to Roman who's holding a robe and towel.

She points to him again and says gently, "You're up here, onto Roman and Hymra."

I nod, and get out of the luke warm water and onto the fuzzy rug.

I nod thanks and carefully walk over to Roman.

He hands me the towel and I quickly cover up.

While I'm drying off, I glance out of the window and look into Finnick's house that's right next to mine, and see he's being prepped up by his prep team too.

My face turns red when I see Finnick glance out his window and see me looking at him.

I turn back to Roman, handing him the towel, shivering from the cold.

He quickly hands me the robe, and I slip my arms into the silky robe, that's tight in all the right places.

Roman and Hymra direct me to t a chair that they placed in front of my mirror.

I sit down in the plush chair and lean back, my eyes closing, my head leaning over the top of the chair.

"Stay still." Roman commands.

I nod through my closed eyes, and I feel something cool hit my forehead and a second later, a sharp pain shoots through my head.

I jump, and Hymra places a hand on my shoulder.

"We only have a couple of eyebrow hairs to pluck this time. Good job Annie!" Hymra pats my arm.

I nod through closed eyes.

What are they talking about? I never touch my eyebrows, much less care about what they look like.

Once they're done with my eyebrows, thank god, they move to my fingernails and toenails.

"Why do we have to do my toenails?" I inquire. "Nobody's going to see them."

Roman and Hymra glance at each other for a second, before laughing.

"Just in case you're picked for the Quell, then they might see your nails. And what would they say if they saw nasty toenails that need a manicure?" Hymra giggles.

I sigh and close my eyes again.

They file and clip my nails, making them turn from jagged, uneven nails from my nervous chewing into professional nails.

They put a clear coat on the nails, making them glow gold.

They instruct me to lean back and close my eyes.

I oblige and they get to work on my eyelids, blemishes, color, and lips.

Roman does my eyelids while Hymra does my blemishes, and Sophie comes over and does my lips.

My prep team after a while tells me to stand up and keep my eyes closed.

I stand up with my eyes still closed, and almost trip on the footstool. Roman catches me and gently takes off my robe.

I jump at the coldness, but still keep my eyes closed.

I feel a pad slap against my skin, and dusty, powdery smells waft up to my nose, making me sneeze.

Roman wipes my nose, while the pad slaps against my legs.

I turn around so they can get the back side.

I open my eyes, because I'm facing the window, and my eyes go wide.

Finnick's staring at me.

I gasp, shutting the blinds as quickly as possible.

"Annie!" Hymra yells at me.

"Sorry." I mumble, my face turning red again.

Finnick had been staring at me.

Can you spell embarrassing?

"Annie turn back, with your eyes closed." Roman commands.

I turn around again, closing my eyes, and I feel some stencils trace patterns into my arms.

"Okay, Annie." Hymra whispers after a while, "Raise your arms above your head and stand still."

I raise my arms up, and I feel a silky substance slid like liquid over my body.

"Okay Annie." Sandra squeals, and she must have slipped in while they were putting my clothes on, "You've done a great job Roman, Hymra, and Sophie, you're free to go downstairs. But stay in the house, we might need you still."

I hear them say some things and I hear the door click shut.

"Can't get rid of them fast enough." Sandra sighs.

A ghost of a smile tugs at my lips, then go back to a flat line.

"Finnick!" I hear a muffled Hymra scream.

"Yikes." Sandra sighs again as she makes some last minute adjustments to my makeup and such. "I feel bad for him."

"He's a survivor." I say through closed eyes, and I can hear the smile on my voice.

"That he is." Sandra tugs at my dress, then adjusts my hair and pulls back.

"Okay Annie." Sandra murmurs "Open your eyes."

And when I do, the creature isn't the crazed, innocent Annie.

No, this is the Victor Annie.

The one that was lost after the games.

My hair falls down in soft, cascading waves with blonde highlights, with a pearl headband in the middle of my head.

My lips are bright pink, but not too obnoxious, and my smoky eye shadow makes my eyes look ten times larger and much greener.

My dress is the best part. If you've seen dome mythology goddesses, and their dresses were just like mine.

It's tight in the chest, a light blue and it billows out, like the foam of the sea is covering my body.

It tangles down to my ankles and I'm not wearing any shoes.

My skin is glowing a soft gold, and I have golden tattoos traced on my arms like I have bracelets up to the biceps of my arms.

"Let's go show that Finnick," Sandra winks at me, "What you can look like."

I laugh, and link my arm through hers as we walk out of the bathroom.

All along the hallways are pictures of me as a little kid, sitting on my father's strong shoulders, dancing with my mother, chasing my younger brothers.

When you get closer to the stairs, there are more recent pictures of myself.

Me at my parent's funeral, me in the games, me at my brother's funeral, and the last one, me with Finnick.

The memory comes back to me.

"Hey Annie." Finnick ruffles my hair.

"Finn!" I growl, throwing down my net I was working on, "The wind can fix my hair just fine, but when YOU touch it, it looks disastrous!"

"Bet you can't catch me!" He calls, already running away.

"Chicken!" I yell, flinging my sandals off and chasing after him.

My brothers had been in the bushes taking pictures the entire time, and I did not know about them.

Let me tell once I found out that they were there, I killed them.

Not literally.

That would be bad.

So the picture that's at the edge of the stairs is one of me smiling crazily as I chasing a laughing Finnick, who's flinging sand at me.

I gently run my fingers over the picture, which is cool to the touch and sigh, starting my decent down the stairs.

My prep team squeals as I start walking down the stairs, and Roman turns Finnick around to face me.

My breath hitches in my throat.

His golden hair is swept back lazily, like the wind ran its fingers through his hair.

He has a tight white shirt on that's open at the top, showing off his bronze abs.

And he has some faded jeans on, with some sandals.

He grins when he sees me, and I remind myself to breathe.

I reach the bottom of the stairs and Finnick holds out his arm for me to take.

"Shall we?" He whispers in my ear.

My face turns scarlet and I nod a shy smile on my face.

I place my arm in the crook of his and he leads me out of the house, and Sandra winks at me.

I shake my head.

When we're far enough away from the team, Finnick whispers to me, "You stared at me?"

I gasp, punching him in the chest, Finnick chuckling, "You did too!"

"Yes," Finnick slips his other hand around my waist, twirling me around, "I did, and you looked beautiful. You should wear that outfit more often." He winks at me.

I punch him harder in the chest, "It's called, I need to dress like everyone else here."

Finnick sighs, going somber, "No you don't, and you can be different."

I pull away, now very angry, "Like I'm not already MUCH more different than everyone else?!"

Finnick turns to me, his cool green eyes, now dark and blazing with anger, "Don't SAY that."

"Like I'm not!" I shout, tears starting to well up behind my eyes, "YOU KNOW I AM!"

I turn on my heel and start to walk stiffly to the Town Center, Finnick walking five feet away from me, also walking stiffly.

We don't talk the entire way there, but when we get into line to sign in, Finnick sighs, running a hand through his golden locks, "Listen Annie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

I don't answer him, staring stiffly at the Justice Building, gleaming white in the bright sunlight, the grey marble lined with black veins.

I've been to that place so many times.

I might go in there again today.

"Annie?" Finnick gently grabs my elbow.

I pull away and storm up to the table.

"Give me your hand." The Peacekeeper orders, holding out her hand.

I stiffly give her my hand and I jump a bit when she takes my blood.

"Annie Cresta, " I nod, "You are free to go."

"Annie!" Finnick calls.

I stiffly walk up to the Peacekeeper and he directs me to the pen where I am to stand.

I nod at my fellow woman Victors and some don't even look at me.

They are in shock.

We all thought we would be safe, but that backfired in our faces.

Mags walks up next to me and I smile sadly at the elderly woman.

She takes my hand, and I look down shocked to find that I'm shaking.

I nod gratefully to her and she nods.

Agnes walks up to the microphone and I cringe at the feedback.

Her wig glares brightly in the sunlight that I can't even tell what color it is.

Her dress is a blaze orange that glares painfully bright.

"Welcome, Welcome!" She squeals, the feedback coming back.

She frowns, and then her smile is back, "This year is going to be very interesting for you all! The Quarter Quell!"

Scattered applause runs through the audience, and Agnes sighs, "WE have a very special video brought to you all the way from the Capitol!"

The music starts booming and I tune it out.

"No you don't, and you can be different."

What was Finnick trying to say?

I'm already different, the oddball out of the group. I'm the one in a million that has gone so far over that cliff that I can't be retrieved.

But Finnick helps me with that.

But it's like he wants me to be different, but I don't want to be different.

I want to stay the same.

The music ends and Agnes laughs excitedly, "As usual, Ladies first!"

She walks over to the first ball, and I can fully see what she's wearing now that she's in the shade.

And I wish that she'd go back into the sunlight.

Her hair, skin, eye shadow, eyes, lips, well…basically everything is blaze orange.

And it's the weirdest, freakiest thing that I have ever seen.

She slips back and unfolds the slip of paper slowly, my heart beating like crazy.

I glance over to see Finnick watching.

It'll be okay. He whispers.

I smile slightly, and turn my head back when Agnes breathes inward.

"Mags Hernandez!"

Hello my pretties!

Just kidding...

Anyhoo, I made this new story, and frankly, I'm not sure about it.

Feedback would be nice.

If I don't get a lot of reviews, I'll just delete it.

So please review!

I'll update ASAP,

when I'm not sick...:P