kill for your love - the hunger games

(059) i need to call finnick odair

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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act three.

(chapter fifty-nine, i need to call finnick odair)

capitol train / victor's village, 73 ADD.

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SHE WAS GOING TO call Finnick Odair. Juniper had made a mental note in her head last night at the party to call him. The man from Four had decided to not go to the event that concluded Wade Rankine's Victory Tour and Juniper was slightly annoyed that he hadn't. He was the only person she had met that she considerably liked, the only person who, to some extent, could understand her and he wasn't there. 

Juniper Hale, nineteen-years-old, had met Finnick Odair last year when she was set to mentor for Ten. She was eighteen, he was twenty-one and whether it was because they had briefly seen each other after the Seventy-Second, they instantly clicked. She understood him to an extent, he understood her to an extent. They did not leave each other's sides for the rest of the Seventy-Third. Finnick Odair showed her the ropes of mentoring and in return, she clung onto him like he was an anchor. 

"Well... this year was a success!" 

The Hale girl snapped her head to the side to see Brent Higgins sauntering into the living area. He had a flask and glass in both hands, arms splayed out as he plopped himself down into one of the armchairs across from Juniper. He was drunk. She could see it in his eyes and she could practically smell it off of him. 

"How?" Juniper rolled her eyes. 

She couldn't, for the life of her, remember the tributes' names for the Seventy-Third. She could see their faces, she could remember every detail about them, but not their names. What were the names? 

Juniper knew the girl wasn't as important. She was a ditsy brat who spent her time insulting everyone around her and died during the bloodbath because she didn't listen. But the boy. What was his name? She couldn't remember. But what she did remember was that she had never seen him around Ten before. He was sixteen. He had two sisters, both younger. His father worked at the Milking Station. He liked oranges. He switched from holding his knife in his left hand to his right every meal. He tied a double-knot in one pair of laces, but not the other. And he looked exactly like— 

"Well, the boy came second!" Brent slurred as he leaned back into the armchair. He took turns from drinking from his flask and then his glass. "He was a runner-up... that is a win in my book." 

"He's still dead." 

"Oh, don't be so negative." Brent waved her away like a mere puff of smoke in the air. "It's good he came second. You won last year, that kid came second this year. That's never happened to an outlier district."

"But he's still dead." Juniper looked out of the window, seeing the rotting trees of District Ten roll into view. 

Everyone would be just waking up in the district. Orion Hale would be awake early, however. He would be the first one to console her about the loss of the two kids. He would try and do something to make her feel better. And then Lucy Stevens, she would probably clap her on the back for doing a good job because Brent was right. No district had won the previous year and got a runner-up the next. It was a massive accomplishment in Ten and was rarely celebrated. But even if it happened, which it never did, Juniper couldn't imagine anyone partying about it. Those two kids were dead and that was that.