Shades of Gold and Blue | Finnick Odair

Twenty Three

The afternoon sun dances on my back as I lay, my arms dangling off the edge of the boat and into the gentle waves. A school of tiny fish dance around my fingertips and I can't help but watch in amazement as their fluorescent scales glimmer below the water. I giggle as one of them brushes against my skin and darts away as if I would catch it at any moment.

I turn my head towards the island and look on at Finnick as he stands – waist deep in water, net over his bare shoulder, trident firm in his grip – and watches for fish swimming in the crystal depths beneath him. He doesn't move, and for a moment I think I could actually believe that he was some kind of permanent fixture in the water, part of the ocean its self. The only sign that he is not, is the flicker of his eyes every now and then to something moving near him.

"So, Cassia," I turn and look at Nerissa who is sat beside me, leaning against the rail as her legs hang from the side of the boat, "Do you like it in Four?"

I smile at her, "What's not to like? You guys have it so lucky here, I'd spend every single day like this if I could."

She chuckles and hums in approval, "That would be heavenly, but other than Mr Sixty-Fifth Hunger Games over there – we all work most days."

"What do you do?"

"Bee and I work in the net factory on the docks – it's pretty self-explanatory, we just repair the nets that the boys bring in but we sometimes make new ones from scratch. A crew has to be doing pretty well to afford that though."

I squint up at her as the sun radiates behind her like a halo, "And do you like it?"

She shrugs, "It's alright – we have it a lot better than the boys out on the boats and I sure wouldn't like to work in the fish market. I don't think they can ever get rid of the smell." I scrunch my nose at the thought as Nerissa sighs and turns to me once more, "We'll end up there one day though – you get the good jobs whilst you're young and only if you're considered attractive, as soon as you're not they move you along to the market."

I sit up and gawp at her, "That's horrible! Surely that's discrimination, they can't do that?"

"Well, no one's stopped them yet." She smiles fondly at me and shakes her head, "Don't worry Cassia, it's the way it's always been around here."

I frown, "That doesn't make it right."

"No," her voice is quiet but doesn't lose it's sweet tone, "it doesn't."

My shoulders deflate and I take up the same position as Nerissa. I had always been aware of the injustice of the systems working across Panem, but seeing it in person, talking to the people that were impacted had chipped away at me day by day and I couldn't stop myself from getting angry. Did my parents know about this? They had visited the districts before and so one would assume they were aware, but perhaps they had been too busy cutting ribbons and visiting the sick to be able to take it in properly. Barnabas would have had me doing the same if he had his way.

A thought comes into my head before I can stop it: Grandfather knows. Whether my parents know or not is one thing, but there's no hiding from the fact that my grandfather certainly knows – a man who has cared for me, educated me and loved me. I don't know what my head expects me to do with the information, throwing a thought like that into my head. We were a team, my family and I – and the one thing I had always known was that personal agendas came behind family image.

I'm brought out of my thoughts by a bright gleam of gold ahead, and I see Finnick carefully waving his trident to get my attention. I sit up straight so that he knows I'm watching and he makes a gesture towards his feet. He holds up three fingers and begins to count down silently, keeping eye contact as his smirk grows. As he reaches zero, he simultaneously throws the net towards the ocean bed with his left hand and strikes with his trident in the right hand. I watch in awe as he bends down towards where his trident is and emerges with a large fish in his hands.