𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 | Finnick Odair

𝐱𝐢. the dominoes cascaded in a line

Caspian, Haven, Daffodil and Finnick were all there sitting at the table, ladling various different foods onto their plates. Genevieve walked over to them and took her seat next to Haven rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Finnick looked up from his meal, eyes wide in surprise. "Oh my goodness. Genevieve Coppergrove has decided to grace us with her presence at long last. Isn't this unbelievable." He declared with an annoying smirk on his face as his voice practically dripped with sarcasm.

Genevieve scowled and poked her tongue out at him. Finnick chuckled lightly and ladeled some more fish onto his plate. She wasn't sure why she had done it. She always seemed to act differently around Finnick. He made her stomach tingle with nerves and she wasn't sure why.

The conversation at the dinner table focused on only one topic; the upcoming interviews.

"Genevieve, sweetheart, are you ready for your interview tomorrow?" Daffodil chirpped snapping Genevieve out of her food related trance.

She swallowed her mouthful of meat before answering. "Yes it should be fun but I'm more excited about the actual games."

"Of course you are! You're a career after all." Daffodil clapped her hands together and Genevieve zoned out again.

"Do you two want to prepare separately or together?" Finnick asked leaning back on his chair.

"Separately." She and Caspian said at the exact same time causing Haven to snort loudly.

"Right, well I suppose that's it then. Let's go see if they've released the scores for the individual assessments yet."

The score announcements flooded onto the screen only a moment later. Everyone settled down on the sofa as Claudius Templesmith appeared on the screen. Genevieve silently prayed that she would get a good score but not too good she didn't want a target on her back. Maybe an eight or a nine would do; any higher and she was sure that the girl from district one wouldn't hesitate to slit her throat while she was asleep.

"Welcome citizens of Panem to the annual score review!" Claudius announced pulling a piece of paper from his desk.

"Let's get straight to it! From district one, Rex with a score of 9" Genevieve swore under her breath and Finnick gave her a look of mock horror from where he was sitting next to her. She laughed and he leaned over to whisper in her ear "I'm sure you can do better than that, you're definitely good enough for a ten." His hot breath fanned over her face and she nearly started blushing, taking a moment to make sure to look unaffected she muttered a small thank you back to him.

"Seraphina" was the next name Claudius called out. With the announcement Caspian and Genevieve sat up a little straighter, they both seemed to have a mutual hatred for the girl, something about her just rubbed everyone the wrong way and Genevieve definitely didn't want to be outdone by the district one girl who looked like she could slice someone's head open in seconds and then fail to start a simple fire. While she was having her internal rant Claudius had pulled out Seraphina's score card. "with a score of 10." Genevieve stifled a groan at that information and she belatedly heard Caspian swear from across the couch. This absolutely horrified Daffodil who yelled "Language!" like she had been personally offended by the annoyed muttering he was doing.

Finnick laughed at the look on Daffodil's face which only seemed to remind Genevieve of how close he was to her. She didn't mind though, it was comforting the way his arm was casually slung around her shoulders.

"Next we have our district two tributes Marla and Pertan who both received the same score of ... eight." Caspian snorted at this and Genevieve shot him a fierce glare. She'd grown pretty attached to Marla the female tribute, not enough to spare her life when it came down to it but the district two girl made good company.

The district three tributes scored a five and six respectively and then came the moment they'd all been waiting for; district four.

"From district four, Caspian," continued Claudius and everyone seemed to lean towards the screen in anticipation. "With a score of nine." Caspian cursed as Finnick attempted to congratulate him. The younger boy just brushed him off and slammed his drink on the table so hard that it smashed sending shards of glass and hot tea onto the table and carpet. Caspian however did not move to clean anything up simply letting the avoxes scurry in to try and help.

It was a good score but it was not the best. Genevieve almost laughed as she realises Caspian had been beaten by a district one girl.

And then the moment she'd been training for all her life. "Genevieve." Declared Claudius and Genevieve leaned so far forward she almost fell of her seat. "With a score of ten!"

"Yes!" She shouted, jumping off the sofa as Haven pulled her into a hug. Finnick flashed her his signature charming smile and replies "I told you so." In a singsong voice that makes her heart flutter.

What did you two do in the training?" Haven asks them, a little surprised.

"Trident and spears," Caspian grunted, looking vaguely annoyed.

"Target practice blindfolded," Genevieve replied bashfully as Finnick whistled impressed.

"Ugh I should have done that," Caspian groaned, "In all honesty you're usually better than me at that anyway."

Finnick looked momentarily confused "Blindfolded?" he asked "Is that what you do in the academy?"

"For two months, they make the top five students train without a sense," Haven added and Finnick's eyes shot towards her in surprise. Haven had trained at the academy but only briefly because she volunteered young. "It enhances your other senses, It's also good practice in case the arena cuts one for you." Genevieve explained turning to face her mentor who was now sitting quite close to her.