A/N : I got positive feed back on the last one so I am so very happy for all of you who reviewed, or alerted means quite a bit to me. I might not update again till after I get back from Jamaica but I'll try and cram one more in on either Monday or Tuesday.
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Chapter 2.
I must have dozed off in the chair because when I woke up, I was in a big white bed. I stretched out my fingers and ran it over the cool fabric and smiled. I sat slowly and ran my fingers through my tangled curls. My hands dropped to my sides and I looked at the clock. I was only asleep for two hours, dinner would still be on. As if on queue my stomach rumbled. I threw of the blankets and swung my legs over. My feet squished into the carpet and I ventured over to the dresser.
I opened the top drawer and there was a variety of shirts. I looked through them all and the only one that interested me was a purple t-shirt. I opened the next one and saw pants, I grabbed the first pair of jeans I could. I unzipped the back of my dress and let it fall into a heap at my feet. I pulled on the shirt and jeans and left my room.
The hallway was long and I could hear faint voices discuss something important. They were rapid but in a hushed tone, I walked up farther and pressed my ear to the door to listen.
"They have a good chance."
"I am not sure, she seems like she couldn't hurt anything." Finnick says in a hushed tone.
"I think when it comes down to it, she will do what she has to." Mags said back.
I didn't want to hear anymore about the games so I made my presence noticed by opening the door. Finnick sat back looking up and around and Mags smiled at me behind a book.
"Are you hungry?" Finnick asks and I nod sitting down beside him. The food was lounged across the table, it was so many different colours and dfferent scents filled my nose, making my stomach growl again. Finnick laughs then puts a plate in front of me, and he doesn't have to tell me whats on it.
"Crab." I say.
"Have you ever had it?" He asks and I shake my head.
"Never could afford it." I say.
"Well go on, try it." And I do, I take a bite and my mouth swells at the taste. I can feel myself smile as I chew, I swallow and look at Finnick who is giving me a small smile.
"Did you like it?"
"Did I ever!" I go to take another bite. Finnick lets out a small laugh and takes a sip of his coffee, putting in sugar cubes. I eat the crab quickly and I sit back smiling.
Mags puts her finger on a word in the book shes reading and looks up at me.
"Finnick will mentor you, I will Marcus."
"Isn't it gender usually.."
"This is upon request." She says and I look up at Finnick who is preoccupied with building a sugar cube tower. What a kid. Why would Finnick request to be my mentor? It's not like he knew me. I already knew I wasn't going to make it home, I didn't want to disappoint him. It was bad enough disappointing Ariella.
Ariella.
My eyes filled with tears at the thought of her and Hannah laying in our small room wating for me to get home. I put my hands over my face to try and block my tears but it didn't work. My sobs were silent and only my shoulders shook. If anything you would think I'm laughing. I took in a deep breath and then more tears came.
"Annie?" Finnick asks. "Annie, talk to me." He tried to grab my hands but I fought to keep them to my face, to embarrassed.
"It's okay to cry Annie." Finnick soothes and now he is rubbig my back. I stay silent and shake my head violently. "It is."
A few more moments later, I dropped my hands from my face, Finnick hands me a napkin and I wipe my eyes and my nose. I sniffle and then turn to him.
"I am really sorry." I whisper.
"Its fine really, its okay to cry." He gives me a small smile.
"Maybe you two should go for a walk, I think I hear Marcus coming, I'd like to have a word with him." Mags suggests and here comes Marcus down the hall.
"Lets go." Finnick nudges my side a bit and I slide out of my chair, he takes my hand and leads me through a door. I can feel my palm getting sweaty and my hand lights up where he touched, sending flames throughout my body. Why does he have this affect on me. He is just a friend, a mentor.
We walk through another compartment and then he opens a door for me and I go to step through but he stops me.
"Do you trust me?" He asks and I nod.
He goes behind me and covers my eyes up, I giggle a bit and my hands fly up to his. "Okay walk straight." I do as I am told and I walk straight but then bump into something.
"Ouch." I rub my knee with my hand.
"Sorry, I was distracted." He turns me the right way, and then stops. "Cover your eyes and stay here." I cover his hands and they leave, I press my palms to my eyes and I hear a door open then a cool breeze. He puts his hands over mine so I drop mine to my sides.
"Walk four steps straight." I do as I am told and I walk four steps then stop. His lips are near my ear and his hot breath leaves my hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
"On three." He whispers sending shivers down my spine. "1,2,3." His hands drop from my face and I open my eyes and gasp. Infront of me I see a bright moon shining down on us and just empty fields went on for what seemed like miles.
The wind of the train travelling at high speed made my hair fan out around me and I smiled. I walked over to the railing and grabbed it.
I looked up at the moon and said, "Its the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."
"It comes second." I could feel his eyes on me and a blush rolls up on my cheeks. He's a player. A Capitol pawn. He hits on women for money. But the other part of me says that he isn't getting paid for this.
I sigh and take in the sight around me.
"This is where I come, to think." He walks up beside me and grabs the railing. "Its free, nobody's around." I smile again.
"I like it." I lift my arms up and close my eyes, the wind wiping around me, it makes me feel like I am flying. The train jolted and I almost lost my balance. Finnick wrapped his arms around my waist and my heart beat quickened. I kept my arms up and my eyes closed. Finnick was taller then me so I could feel his chin resting on my shoulder.
This moment, I want to last forever.
With my hands in the sky I look up and I laugh. My laughter rings through the night sky. I could feel Finnick smile and I stop laughing bring my hands back down to the railing.
Despite the fact I was safely holding onto the railing Finnick still held onto me.
"Out of every single girl I have been with, it had to be you." He says and my heart beats at a mile per minute.
"Pardon?" I squeak.
"You're so different, so fun, I can be myself around you, like I've known you forever." I turn around and his arms drop from me and I am looking into his green eyes, I now see the imperfections on his face. He has a couple of scars, no doubt from his games, his eyes brows are a little uneven, and his nose tips up. His eyes, bright green with specks of brown in them. These were the things I found most attractive about him.
"It's weird." I agree. I turn back around and watch as the train goes by, and the wind whips us. We stand there for hours, being silent.
Finnick finally stands up straight and stretches his arms, "We should go in." I nod but didn't actually want to move. I followed him into the seating area. I dropped onto the blue couch and brought my knees to my chest, hugging them. Finnick hands me a mug and I take it looking at the brown liquid.
"Hot Chocolate." He sits down beside me and takes a sip of his, when he puts the cup down, there's a brown streak across his upper lip. I giggled and leaned over to wipe it off. He smiles at me.
I look down at my mug and hesitantly raise it to my lips, I let the warm liquid fill my mouth and slither down my throat and the sweet taste lingers in my mouth.
"I love it!" I smile.
"Its good." Finnick nods. I sip the hot liquid and I close my eyes. "We should get you to bed, long day tomorrow." My eyes snap open and I nod. Fear is in my stomach again. He grabs the mugs and hands it to a person walking by, dressed in white. Avox's.
He stands up and reaches out for my hand, I take it and he pulls me up. I smile at him and walk down the long hall way again. We stop outside of my door and I turn to him.
"Thank you." I say.
"For what?" He leans against the door way.
"Being there, showing me your balcony, for believing in me." He smiles.
"Annie, I will always believe in you, now go get some rest." I smile at him and watch as he turns and walks away. My knees feel like jelly as I walk over to my bed and I strip off my clothes, pulling on a over sized t-shirt and crawling under the covers. I let out a deep breath.
My mind was racing and the only thought I could see was Finnick. I don't get it. He could make a thousand girls fall in love with him, but he had to waste his time on me. The one that was going to die. I tried to tell myself it was only because he was my mentor and he had to do this, a part of me, hoped this was wrong.
Morning came faster then I would like it too. I woke up to Lucinda pounding her fists on the door.
"Wake up tribute, its time to go!" Clearly she didn't want to take the time to know my name. I threw the covers off and walked over to the shower, I turned it on and was out as quick as I got in. I dressed in what I wore yesterday, no point in getting a new outfit when my stylist will just say what I wear.
There was a knock on my door and I wrapped my hair in a towel rushing answering it, Finnick.
"Good morning." He says with a smile. And I stare grimly at him. "Not a morning person?" He winks and my heart leaps, but I stay angry.
"You tell me you felt wonderful the first morning you were in the Capitol." I said harshly. He frowned and looked away from me.
"You know, you seemed alot nicer last night."
"Yeah well.." I strolled off to the bed and I pull the locket that I left there on the night table. I was afraid no doubt about that, my hands shook as I lifted the locket it up.
I managed to unclasp it in my shaky hands and I pulled it around my neck trying to close it.
"Do you want some help?" Finnick asks walking over to me.
"I can do it." I said in a shaky voice.
"Are you sure?"
"I said I can do it!" I screamed at him, dropping the locket. I fell to my knees and tangled my fingers in my hair, threatning to rip it out. My eyes stung with tears and I didn't care. I let them leaked over.
"I can't do it, I can't I want to go home." I cried. Finnick walked over and wrapped his arms around me, holding him close to me. "I can't do this." I cried, my tears staining his shirt, I let go of my hair and gripped his shirt tightly.
"You can do this Annie, you can." He smooths out my hair. Sobs racked my body until there was a knock on the door.
"We'll be out in a minute!" Finnick calls then pulls my chin up to face him. "We have to go, we don't have a choice okay?" I nodded and sat up leaning against the bed. Finnick picks up the locket and fastens it around my neck.
"I look like hell don't I?" I laugh wiping at my face.
"Never looked more beautiful ever." He whispered.
"I have a favor to ask." He looks at me and I continue, "Take the dress home to my family please." He nods and scoops the dress up and then opens the door for me. I journeyed out of my room. We met up with Mags and Marcus and then we were rushed into two different cars. Finnick and I sat alone in a car.
"Are you okay?" He asks and I ignore him, leaning my head on the window. He sighs, and the car moves. There were crowds all along the road, there were screaming. I looked at all the different styles and colours, these people looked ridiculous. Not to long after the car stopped. I stepped out of the car and people came rushing at me, I turned to look at Finnick desperately, but he had crowds of girls around him.
His face turned into a cocky grin and he was winking. Flirting. My heart dropped. He looked over at me, and his smile faded, but then returned again. I was pulled by three people who were insulting my nails or my hair.
Before I knew it I laid on a bed, in nothing but a robe.
"I am Claudia, this is Sully and Poral." A women dressed in all purple point to a man in green, then a woman in pink.
"We are your prep team!" Sully claps and I stare at his bright green hair.
"We will start this may be a bit uncomfortable."
Uncomfortable was an understatement. They stripped my body of any hair then scrubbed my body with a wax that left it tingling and red. They painted my nails a bright green colour. My hair was cut a bit, to cut off the dead bits, as Poral said. It was put up in a bun that let curly hair fall across my face. My eyes were outlined with a blue eyeliner and they put sea green eye shadow on me, the painted a design at the edge of both eyes, no doubt trying to resemble waves. My lips were a bright green. I looked in the mirror and almost didn't recognize myself.
I looked funny. A good funny. I had that Capitol beauty. If I wasn't covered in crazy bright colours, I'd look beautiful.
"You look fabulous!" Claudia exclaims, clearly amused with her work.
"Stunning!" Poral agrees.
"Simply magnificent!" Sully cries. It took everything I had not to laugh.
"You're not very talkative." Poral points out, she was right, I stayed silent the whole time.
"One last touch before we take you to Jarrod." Sully clips a flower in my hair and I reach up to touch it.
"That only took us 3 hours!" Claudia says glancing at her watch.
"Oh really?" Poral asks stunned. Three hours? Already.
"When are the ceremonies?" I ask in a hoarse voice and all three heads snapped to look at me.
"She speaks!"
"I always have." I laughed a bit.
"Not to us!" Claudia points out and I shrug. The door opens and a man dressed in a black suit strolls in. He is carrying a big black bag accompanied by a shoe box.
"Jarrod!" Poral squeals.
"Ah, lovely to see you all again!" He says in his thick accent, he looked normal, well as normal as you can for Capitol people. He was dressed in a normal suit and his hair was normal, but he had designs all over his face in different colours.
"Annie Cresta am I right?" He asks me holding out his hand, I shake it and nod. "You look fantastic!" The other three swoon at hearing this compliment. "You three, give us some privacy?" He asks and they bow out of the room.
"Put your robe back on and we will eat we only have an hour." I nod and pull my robe over my naked body. We sit down at a small table provided in the room.
"You're probably wondering why you look like this right?" I nodded again. "We are dressing you up as a mermaid." I grinned. Mermaids were mythical creatures, I used to tell Ariella and Hannah stories about them when they were younger.
We ate in silence and I found it was comfortable and not awkward. When finished an avox came and collected our plates and he looked at me.
"Lets get you in your dress." I smiled and followed him over to where the black bag hung. "Go on , unzip it." I stepped forward and I took a shaky hand to the zipper. I pulled it down gently and my eyes were filled with the colours of greens and blues.
"See this part, is the tail." He pulls the bottom part, "This is the top." He pulls the whole dress out and it reveals a tourquoise top connected by a band of pearls to a straight skirt that is made up out of different coloured patches. I let the robe fall to the ground and I slipped into the dress, it fit, perfectly.
I stared at myself in the long mirror for a while. I looked taller. Jarrod walks up to me.
"Every mermaid needs a tiara." He places a tiara in my hair and then steps back taking a look at me. "Perfect." I smile. The door opens again and Finnick walks in.
"Its time to go to the chari-" He stops dead once I turn around and smile at him. "Fantastic job Jarrod! You look fantastic Annie!" A blush rises up to my cheeks and Jarrod pats me on the back.
"Good we needed some natural colour, Finnick will you take her down?" He walks by me opening the shoe box, taking out a pair of pearl white flats.
"Yeah sure not a problem." I slip my feet into the shoes.
"I have some , um, business to take care of." He winks at Finnick and he grins back, then hes out of the room.
"I feel stupid." I admit brushing the dress.
"You look like a princess."
"I feel like one."
"Lets go, you shouldn't be late." He takes my arm and I walks as quickly as I can in this tight dress. We reach a place where there are tributes going into their chariots, I look around frantically, but Finnick pulls me along.
We see Mags and Marcus already where our chariot is.
"Lets go one already left!" Mags hoists me up into the Chariot and then it moves. My heart is beating faster then ever and I wonder what am I supposed to do? I look at Marcus and he is smiling and waving, I guess I should do the same. I put on a smile and I wave to the crowd and they go nuts screaming out names.
The people are all staring at us and it makes me feel un-welcome. I feel on edge and my breathing picks up, I clutch the side of the chariot to keep myself balanced. The chariots all pull into a circle around a podium. President Snow himself stands up on the podium and locks his gaze with mine.
"Tributes welcome to the 70th Annual Hunger Games! We appreciate your honor and bravery! May the odds be ever in your favor!" He sits back down and the chariots move again, pulling us into the training center. We stop and Finnick and Mags rush to us.
"Good job Marcus!" He jumps out of the chariot and grins, I stand there still holding the side.
"Annie are you okay?" Finnick asks and his face blurs from me and my ears are ringing, the next thing I see is the tiara falling out of my hair as I fall to the ground, in the welcoming darkness.
A/N :Oh snap Annie fainted. Lol. I get to into this.