Guess who's updating early? It's me! I had some free time this weekend so here I am. I hope you enjoy the chapter!
BTW Johanna talks to herself a bit in that chapter. Please tell me if that's too weird.
Johanna's POV
I wait a good twenty minutes after Finnick and Annie leave for work before sprinting up the stairs and into their bedroom. I swear, they haven't both been gone from the house since the whole unknown debacle. Now, I only have an hour to find out whatever's going on and get ready for Remy's cousin's wedding.
I start by searching through their drawers. People always hide things in their underwear drawer, right? After looking through it, I conclude that is a lie.
"Under the bed?" I mutter to myself, dropping on my knees and lifting up the comforter falling off Finnick's bed.
Nothing. Annie's has the same result.
Finnick's computer? That must have something. I open it up and notice - much to my dismay - it's password protected.
I start with the ridiculously common ones like "1234" and "password," which unfortunately don't work. Then I move onto the sappy ones like "AnnieCresta," "Annick4ever," and "FuckMeAnnie." Thankfully, none of those work.
I continue on like this for another ten minutes, but the computer continues telling me "your password is incorrect."
"Wait a second," I murmur, typing nine letters into the keyboard. The computer opens to a picture of a beach with waves crashing down onto the shore.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me, Finnick," I mutter, annoyed. "Your password actually is 'incorrect'."
Annie's POV
"Finnick?" I say nervously.
"Yeah," he replies, glancing over at me from the driver's seat. "Is everything okay?"
"Fine," I tell him. "I was just thinking . . . you know, about the baby." He nods, silently telling me to continue, though I detect a bit of worry in his nod. "Don't worry, I'm still not getting an abortion, but I've been thinking about our families."
I notice Finnick tense at that. "What about them?"
"First, I want to tell my parents in person. Do you think anyone would mind if I invited them up for a couple days?"
His expression softens. "Of course not. Is there anything else?"
"Well, you see, I've been thinking about how the baby's life will be after he or she is born, and, well, I want them to grow up in a happy family. A complete family."
"You want me to make up with my family," he says in understanding.
"I was thinking if you could get your parents to come to L.A. sometime next week while my parents are here, and we could tell them together," I tell him.
He looks at me sadly. "Annie, they're not answering any of my calls. Also, I hardly think telling them I knocked up my girlfriend would help patch up our relationship."
"Get your sister to talk to them for you. And I was thinking maybe if I talked to them about the everything they might be willing to try to fix their relationship with their son."
"Annie, I don't want to get you involved in all of my family's shit. It isn't something you need to be dealing with."
"Please, Finnick," I plead. "Just let me try."
Finnick sighs in defeat. "Fine. I'll see if I can get them to come."
Peeta's POV
"Hey, Peeta," Katniss says from to doorway of the kitchen. "I have I pretty big favor to ask of you."
"What is it?" I ask, curious.
"I was wondering if you had any money you could give me," she says, biting the inside of her cheek nervously.
"Sure," I say, pulling out my wallet. "How much do you need?"
She bites her lip. "Three-thousand dollars."
I look up at her, surprised. "I'm a baker, Katniss. I don't have that kind of money on hand. I could give you a twenty, though, if you want."
She shrugs. "It's better than nothing," she says, taking the bill from my hand. She turns to leave the room, but I stop her.
"Do you mind if I ask why you need so much money?" I raise an eyebrow at her.
She sighs. "It's kind of a family matter," she tells me. I nod in understanding, thinking of how Prim was acting a few weeks ago. "I shouldn't have even asked you."
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm always going to be the best person to ask these thing. In this household, anyway."
The corners of her mouth twitch upward.
"I'll tell you what," I begin, "I'll talk to some friends of mine - see how much money they can put together."
"Really?" she asks, her eyes wide in surprise. "You'd do that for me?"
"Of course," I tell her. "I'm glad to help."
Gale's POV
Katniss, Peeta, and I are sitting on the couch, watching TV when Johanna walks in. She's wearing a red-and-black mesh dress that stops at her mid-thigh, very high black heels, and she's carrying a black clutch. Her hair is spiked up carefully and her lips are bright red, complimenting her outfit.
"Good, everyone's here," she says, immediately turning off the television.
"Annie and Finnick aren't," Peeta tells her.
"I know, now back to my news," she snaps at him. "So, you know how Annie and Finnick have been acting really weird since Tuesday?" We all nod. "Well, I hacked into Finnick's computer and he's been searching for the weirdest thing, like 'low death rate hospitals in Los Angeles' and 'the basics of female anatomy,' so at first I was really concerned about whatever the hell was going on but then I saw that he'd searched some stuff about pregnancy and maternity leave, so I ran into their bathroom and I found this -" She pulls a positive pregnancy test out of her bag. "- in their thrash can.
"So, Annie's pregnant?" Peeta asks.
"How'd you get past Finnick's password? I've tried and I couldn't!" I say.
"You've been carrying that around in your purse all day?" Katniss questions.
Johanna decides to take our questions in the order they were said. "It appears so. A lot of trial and error." Johanna laughs before answering Katniss's question. "And yes, I have. It actually fell out of my clutch while I was in the ladies' room and Remy's sister saw it, so I told her I was pregnant. Remy's gonna be so pissed when he finds out."
Katniss rolls her eyes subtly. "To get back on topic, what are they going to do? Is Annie going to keep the baby. Are they gonna give it up for adoption? Will they raise it?"
"I don't know," Johanna snaps. "I did my snooping. Now, it's your turn."
"No, no, no, no, no," Peeta says, standing up. "I'm not doing this. It's none of my business."
"Well, I'm definitely in," I say. "I want to know more about this, and they don't seem to want to share."
We all turn to Katniss. She chews the inside of her lip, thinking. "I'm in," she says finally. "I'll do some snooping."
As she finishes her sentence the front door swings open. Annie and Finnick step through, and we all turn around, Johanna still holding the test.
"Where'd you get that?" Finnick asks her.
In response, she smiles rather awkwardly and says, "Congratulations?"
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