I don't own The Hunger Games.
Annie jogged steadily ahead of Parker, who was coughing and wheezing as he gasped for a break.
"Fine, but you're totally killing the whole idea of a run, Parks." Annie said, raising an eyebrow at him as he crouched over with his hands on his knees.
"It's been six miles." He panted, before taking a swig from his water bottle.
"Yeah, I know. We have another two to go." Annie said, also sipping at her water. Her breathing was heavier than usual and her face was shiny, but compared to Parker she looked like she'd driven the whole way to their rest stop as opposed to running and sprinting up hills. It was eight o'clock in the morning and Annie had invited Parker on her daily early morning eight mile run. She hadn't counted on him being, for a cheerleader, so out of shape.
"You know, you're pretty unfit considering you've spent the last six years training to become a cheerleader." She shrugged.
"Yeah, well, for some reason my bass instructors never had me go on eight mile runs." Parker glared up at her unforgivingly.
"Suck it up buttercup. Come on, I have training at ten and if I'm late I'll get gym clean up duty." Annie patted him on the back and took off running again. Groaning, Parker ran after her.
"I really hate you sometimes, Angel." Parker said, using her nickname from the academy. She a flown through the air at high speeds and was more innocent than the others, so she received the name willingly.
"I'm not so much of an angel anymore." Annie snorted.
"Yeah, what gives? You've definitely changed. Not necessarily in a bad way, but still…" Parker trailed off as they hit a downhill track.
"Cheering for Panem is different than cheering at the academy. I put in extra training hours, Johanna and Clove toughen me up; I get my face screamed in by coach. I'm still way too nice, but crashing a few Texas and Miami parties don't exactly leave you with the 'innocent' feeling." Annie explained. It was true, she had changed. She was till nice- she smiled at old people, she carried her parents' shopping bags, she tied her little brother's shoes- and her innocence hadn't completely faded but the changes were becoming obvious and it only been seven weeks since she joined the squad.
"You're still little Angel cake Annie. Don't forget that." Parker warned as they ran into an area that he recognized.
"I wouldn't dream of it." She flashed him a grin before taking off in a sprint, daring him to race her.
…
"That was the most hideous reception I've ever seen!" Coach Brutus barked at the wide receiver. His name was Devon, a good friend of Finnick's despite the thirteen year age gap. He had been with Panem for nine years, the longest of all the players.
"Who cares?" Gale mumbled from Finnick's right. "Caught it, didn't he?"
"You know what Brutie's like. He's all about the aesthetics." Cato shrugged, tossing Finnick a ball. He caught it and almost effortlessly sent it spiralling back.
"Whatever." Gale grumbled. They'd already been on the field for an hour, but their game against Pittsburgh didn't start for another two.
"Cheer up. The cheerleaders will be here soon and that always gets you happy." Cato smirked, throwing the ball back to Finnick again.
"Well, yeah." Gale grinned, leaning back on the grass.
"Dude." Finnick frowned. "Have some respect. What they do is tough."
"You've been talking to Glimmer too much, man." Gale shrugged it off.
"Nah, he's right. It's tough shit." Cato shrugged.
"Alright you three worthless sacks of meat!" Brutus snapped, blowing his whistle at them. "Do something productive!"
Izabelle, however, saved Finnick from getting roped into whatever gruesome drill Brutus had planned for them.
"Can I talk to you, please?" She called to him from the side-lines. Her reading glasses were pushed back into her dark brown hair and she clutched a clipboard.
"Course." Finnick jogged over to her and planted a kiss on her right cheek.
"We, um, should do something after the game. If you're not hurting, that is." She said, blushing slightly.
"Is the great Izabelle Barnes asking me out on a date?" Finnick grinned mischievously at her as he slumped down into the bleachers.
"Oh, do try and be serious for once please Finnick." She scolded him.
"Right. Yeah, okay." He raked a hand over his face. He looked exhausted- he could never sleep properly before a game. Training had really been taking a toll on him and he couldn't wait for the break he knew he would be getting tomorrow.
"I'm sorry. I'm stressed, it's a habit." Izabelle sighed and sat down next to him, crossing one leg over the other. The word Finnick always ended up using to describe how she looked was expensive. He wasn't saying she looked like a hooker or anything like that, but her black, grey and white pencil skirts paired with pinstriped suit jackets always made her look like the wealthy daddy's girl that she was.
"I get it, I do. It just seems like you're always stressed nowadays. You work yourself too hard and I worry about you." Finnick took her hand and pressed it to his lips.
"We're okay, right? I mean, I know I get annoyed a lot of the time and take it out on you…But we're good, right? You still feel the same way about me?" She asked nervously. Sometimes Finnick forgot how young she actually was. The power she had and the way she carried herself tricked him into thinking she was decade older than she was. In reality, she was nineteen and studying business. To her, the Panem Allstars were just a side project.
"Iz, how could you even ask that? I like being with you." He smiled warmly at her before dropping her hand.
"That's a relief. I don't tell you very often how much I mean to you. Hey, maybe tomorrow we can spend the day on my daddy's yacht or something." She looked up at him, and Finnick could practically see the hope in her eyes. She threw words like 'yacht' and 'caviar' and 'island just off the Hawaiian coasts' around like they meant nothing. Finnick was rich, sure, but Izabelle could probably buy New England she was so rich.
"That would be great." Finnick grinned. He wanted to love her, he really did. But she had changed and so had he, and this wasn't high school anymore. It was the real world and people were bound to get hurt, but how was he supposed to leave the girl who had set him free only to accidentally cage him again?
…
"This is such BS. It's hot, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, and I'm pretty sure I've pulled every muscle in my left arm. Oh, and Michael was totally groping me at the pre-game show." Cassidy grumbled from the side-lines. She had her head thrown back to soak up the sun rays that hit her face.
"I'm gay." Michael shrugged.
"Even fucking better! I'm so repulsive that only the gay guys want to come near me! The only eligible guy on this damn squad is Marvel, but he's…You know…Marvel." Cassidy shuddered at the thought of adding Marvel to her list of conquests.
"Newsflash for you Cass- I don't care." Johanna snapped.
"Maybe if you weren't such a whore you'd actually be able to land a guy." Clove added as an afterthought.
"Oh please, I've landed more guys that you've landed triple front flips into splits!" Cassidy sneered.
"So shut up complaining then!" Glimmer sighed.
"They're obviously going to win, it's already 23-3 to us. Why can't we just go home?" She whined.
"Dammit Cassidy I will tackle you my goddamn self if you don't shut. The. Hell. Up." Johanna warned her through gritted teeth.
Annie smirked to herself, thinking the teammates that she gotten to know recently. Johanna was harsh, but fierce. Clove was scary, but gave great cheer tips. Glimmer was appearance oriented, but super nice. Cassidy was a whiny bitch, but she was great for a party.
"Shit." Clove muttered as the ref blew his whistle for a foul against Panem. One of the players, Annie thought that it was Gale under the helmet, was protesting that his tackle was perfectly legal. The referee shook his head, and sent him off as the Pittsburgh player got to his feet. He threw his helmet down as he stormed off of the field and Annie saw that it was actually Finnick, not Gale. There was blood trickling down his right arm from his elbow to his wrist.
"Crap." Johanna hissed at least thirty times as the home crowds starting booing and throwing things onto the field.
"Alright squad, code B!" Johanna yelled, and they all stood up from the bench.
"What the hell is code B?" Annie asked Glimmer as the other cheerleaders started running into the bleachers of fans.
"We have to get the fans thinking positively so that they don't, like, riot." Glimmer answered before running off after Cassidy. Annie grabbed her pompoms and ran in the opposite direction.
"Alright crowd!" One of the older cheerleaders yelled from three rows above Annie. Her name was Ashlee, or Amy, or something else that started with an A.
"We're gonna win! We're gonna win!" She chanted, and the row of Panem fans chanted with her. Their negativity was fuelled into positivity and soon they were jumping up and down and cheering instead of throwing hotdogs and nachos at the linesmen and refs.
"Hold that V, dot that I, rock that C-T-O-R-Y!" Annie yelled to the row that she had run to. She repeated it until they were cheering with her for Panem.
"Hey there, pretty." A man old enough to be her dad grinned at Annie. She raised her eyebrows in greeting and ran down the row, but not before he pinched her behind. The man's friends all laughed, and Annie blushed furiously.
"Hey Steve!" The guy yelled to someone at the end of the row. "Get her! She likes it!"
Annie glanced to the end of the row at the man named Steve, who grinned back and nodded to his piggish friend. She had to pass one of them to get off of the row, so she decided to go for the one that hadn't already assaulted her. However, she couldn't get past without him patting her on the behind and laughing. Tears stung Annie's eyes as she ran down the steps. She tripped on the last one and slipped. Pain shot up her ankle and she hobbled towards the inside area. She ran through the pain down the team's tunnel and decided that stopping at the medical room would be her best bet. She burst through the doors, her tears starting to fall, and realized that no one was there except for a guy with a bandaged arm.
"Hey." Finnick Odair greeted her as she pulled herself onto the closest bed and stretched her leg out in front of her.
"Um, hey." She greeted awkwardly, and sniffed.
"Hey, what's up?" He crossed the room to stand next to her. He looked too concerned for somebody that didn't even really know her.
"Nothing. I'm fine." She shrugged, but her voice cracked.
"No you're not." Finnick rested a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched away from his touch.
"I'm fine." Annie insisted.
"Who was it?" Finnick asked. Sighing, he sat at the foot of her bed.
"Excuse me?"
"My sister, she's a year older than me, used to cheer with her squad at my high school games. When she came home crying I knew that some guy had tried to feel her up in the stands. I always used to beat the living crap out of them. So, who was it?" Finnick asked again. His sea green eyes were staring so intense that Annie felt exposed.
"Why do you care?" She asked, determined to be stubborn.
"Because you're one of Panem's now. So tell me." Finnick said carefully. He looked worried, and Annie wasn't quite sure why.
"The…The guys at the start of row six, to the left of the squad's benches. And the guy at the very end." She stopped crying, but she bent her good leg up so that she could hide her face behind it.
"Hey." Finnick said softly, but she didn't respond. "Hey, look at me. It's Annie Cresta, right?"
She nodded, still not looking him in the eye.
"What happened to your ankle, Annie? It's looking pretty banged up." She glanced down at it; Bruising had already started to form and it ached.
"I tripped." She looked up, catching Finnick's gaze. The look of protectiveness in his eyes made her want to die of embarrassment. I tripped. How lame.
"Mind if I have a look? The doctor's not gonna be back for a while." Finnick asked.
"Knock yourself out." Annie shrugged, but it was almost her that got knocked out when she felt Finnick run his hand over her ankle. He was gentle, gentler than she thought someone of his build could be, as he felt for the damage. His hand was cool and smooth and Annie craved more of his touch once he pulled his hand away. It was strange feeling. After all, she barely knew the guy.
"You've got one hell of a bruise forming there Annie, but I think it's just a sprain." He walked across the room and pulled an icepack from the freezer before wrapping it in cloth and pressing it against her ankle.
"When can I cheer again?" She asked, biting down on her bottom lip.
"Few days probably, if you take it easy. I'd say four or five." Finnick ran the pack over her ankle and Annie exhaled softly as it cooled the hot skin.
"Thanks. You didn't have to do this." She smiled a small smile at him.
"Not a problem." Finnick's own smile was warm. They sat in silence for a few moments as he ran the ice pack over her ankle before he broke it with a question. "What made you want to become an NFL cheerleader? It doesn't exactly pay well."
"I was an academy girl." Annie shrugged. She glanced at Finnick, and he nodded at her to carry on. "We're all trained up and at the end of our time there we get specially selected by a squad, no audition required. That is, if you're good enough. I barely got in. The idea is that we start out in the NFL and then go on to pursue other entertainment careers or join professional Allstar squads that travel the world."
"But what made you wake up every day and think 'yeah, I want to be a cheerleader!'?" Finnick asked. It was the kind of question that would make Izabelle purse her lips and frown at him, and he would know that he was inevitably going to receive a scolding after asking.
"When I'm flying through the air or dancing as crowds cheer, I just feel alive. It sets me free. That sounds stupid, but knowing that what I do inspires people to win games hypes people so much that a smile splits their faces just gives me the ultimate feeling of satisfaction and freedom." Annie answered honestly.
"What about you? Why did you want to play football?"
"Well, I used to hate it. I sucked when I was fourteen and the other kids laughed at me. Then I met my old high school coach, Boggs, and everything changed. He put in the hours and we discovered that I had a gift for football. I just didn't know how to use it. By my sophomore year I was the starting quarterback and the most popular guy in my grade. It was ridiculous. As soon as I realized that I was actually good at it, I let myself love football. The feeling as the ball leaves your hands, the wind rushing in through your helmet as you make a run, knowing that you scored a touchdown that helped win the game…There's nothing quite like it." Finnick explained as he continued to run the ice pack over her ankle. Seconds after he finished speaking, the doors to the infirmary were flung open and Cato and Gale walked in.
"Johanna's going to kill me." Annie groaned when she realized it was half time.
"Don't worry, we'll say it was my fault." Finnick winked at her.
"She'll kill you too." Annie laughed.
"Hey man, coach wants to see you." Cato clapped Finnick's hand in a high five.
"Aw, crap. He's gonna kill me." Finnick rubbed his forehead and frowned.
"That tackle was totally legal, we all know it. He is gonna chew you out for sounding off at the ref, though." Gale said as he wrapped gauze around his right knee.
"Alright, fine. Let me just get Annie sorted." Finnick rammed the ice pack into one of the drawers next to her hospital bed that also contained the things he needed to bandage her ankle.
"Cato, grab her some crutches." He ordered as he carefully bandaged her ankle.
"Thank you, Finnick. You honestly didn't have to this for me." Annie smile at him again, this time a genuine smile.
"Of course I did." Finnick winked at her again as he handed her the crutches. "You take it easy now, Cresta."
"You too, Odair." She laughed and stood to test her crutches out as Finnick and the others left the room, stopping to hold the door for her before going the opposite way down the tunnel.
Spraining her ankle had never been so interesting before.