Finding Finnick

Meeting the Mockingjay

After Finnick and I announce our engagement to President Coin, she has people get started with the planning. She seems reluctant to have any celebration at all, and Plutarch is upset that she won't allow an extravagant wedding. Plutarch tells me that Katniss has volunteered to take me back to her house in District 12 to find a dress to wear for the wedding. Apparently her designer, Cinna, left tons of gowns behind in Katniss's house.

The morning Katniss and I are set to leave, I unexpectedly become nervous. After all, she is the Mockingjay, the girl every rebel in the country looks up to. What if she doesn't like me, or treats me like I'm mad? Am I mad? However, I don't tell my insecurities to anyone because I know they're misdirected.

Plutarch and Finnick escort me out to where the hovercraft is waiting. Plutarch climbs inside the hovercraft while Finnick gives me a kiss goodbye and wishes me a safe flight. I climb inside the craft and am greeted by Katniss and a group of people that look so out of place they must be from the Capitol.

Katniss comes forward and says, "Hello Annie. I'm Katniss and this-" she gestures to the Capitol people, "-this is my prep team." They shyly smile and wave at me, and I return the favor.

"It's nice to meet you all, I'm grateful for what you're doing for me," I say graciously.

"We're happy to help," Katniss says. She begins to strike up conversation by asking, "So, how long have you known Finnick?"

Before I can answer though, I hear the hovercraft start up, and before I know it, I'm being pulled back in time again.

I am weaponless, hungry and alone. My mind is rambling words, so many I can't keep track of what it's saying. Somewhere among the sanity I have left, I decide that I must be going mad. Letters, words, sentences, all jumbled together in a big mess inside my head. Faces scroll through my head along with images I want to forget. My partner's head getting cut off. The thud it made when it hit the ground. The blood spattered in every direction. The days blur together and I don't even know how many of us are left. I faintly remember seeing six faces in the sky one night. Last night? A week ago? I've been hiding for so long.

Now I stumble through the woods looking for something, anything to keep me alive. Food, water, weapons. I need it to survive. Don't I? I stop for a moment, calming myself. Crashing through the forest like this is not going to do me any favors in the end. And I ask myself how I am still alive.

Through the fogginess of my mind, I hear the familiar boom of the cannon, signaling another dead tribute. The birds fall silent and I hear the hovercraft. It's so close, possibly just yards away from me. I run towards the sound. I see the body; the face is so mutilated that I can't even tell what gender it was. An animal surely did this. Then I notice that the dead tribute has a backpack clutched in his or her hand. I look up quickly, judging whether or not I'll have time to retrieve it. The prospect of food finally wins me over and I grab the backpack from the tribute's death grip. I run away just as the claw of the hovercraft descends upon the body.

"Annie, are you okay?" Katniss asks as I am pulled back to the present.

"I'm okay. Sorry," I say distractedly, thinking about what I just saw.

"You must be excited about the wedding," Katniss blurts out awkwardly, trying to change the subject.

We talk the rest of the way, Katniss being careful not to bring up anything that could upset me. I can tell she's trying so hard. I laugh more than I normally would at an attempt to diffuse the stress so obviously upon both of us. The stress that we won't like each other. I almost have flashbacks several more times-it's the sound of the hovercraft bringing back the memories- and I have to cover my ears to remain here and now.

When we finally arrive in District 12, I relax a little bit more. The sound of the hovercraft goes away and I find it much easier to talk to Katniss. I decide that I like her, and I hope she won't judge me too harshly for the way I am. After seeing how caring she could be in the Hunger Games, to Peeta and Rue, I don't think she will.

We walk to Katniss's house in the Victor's Village, her prep team following like a pack of puppies. It is eerily silent and empty there, but Katniss doesn't hesitate to open the door to her former home. She leads me to a storage closet in the basement and opens it. The prep team falls silent when the doors open, then the one I think is named Octavia drops down to her knees and starts rubbing the clothes against her cheek and crying.

After much controversy, a green silk dress is finally selected for me to take back. It brings out my pretty green eyes, the prep team tells me. I can't help but like them as they give me compliment after compliment. I can see why Katniss cares about them so much now. They are some of the kindest people I've ever met. They make me wonder how there are people like them in the Capitol, giving out compliments to a mad girl, and then there are the people who subject children to killing each other.