Brooke Langston, a determined and resourceful young woman, volunteers as tribute to spare a sickly little girl who holds a special place in her heart. Little does she anticipate that her closest friend, Ray Adhira, would also be chosen, forcing them...
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TW: Sexual Assault
2 years ago
It had been two years since the 65th Hunger Games and Finnick Odair had come home. He knew nothing would be the same since those horrendous days in the arena. But somehow that didn't matter to him now that he knew his family would never have to work a day in their lives again.
Mother and Father, his two sisters little Cassidy and Marin, Grandma and Grandpa in their ailing health, they could all stay cozied up in their fancy Victor Village in their large mansion-like house.
Finnick anticipated the nightmares, he was ready for the regrets, the flashbacks, the treatment of people he once knew, acting as if he was fragile and would break like ice.
Mags, that lovely woman had helped him through it all, prepared him for it. After all, he had only been fourteen then, and soon he would be sixteen, a big age in Panem.
The one thing Finnick Odair was not prepared for, was the backfire of using his charm and his appearance to win the hearts of the Capitol, to rely on their sponsorship, which in the end, had indeed been key to winning his games.
Mags had whispered silently that she had once been a beautiful young lady, that she had weeded her way into the hearts of the exotic creatures in the Capitol and had thus become a fan favorite. Folks spent all their money on her, not wanting to watch her die.
Mags had grasped his arm tight when she told him of this tactic as he had sat on the tribute train for the first time, not knowing what to do next. It was a warning he didn't understand until he got the call two years later.
Since his Hunger Games, Finnick has isolated himself from his District. He didn't like being ogled as he walked into town, he hated the gentle words spoken to him like he was a lost child, he was tired of the girls fawning for his attention. He had survived the games, he didn't want to play in them anymore. It was bad enough he had to mentor each year, that he had to play the part once again until the Hunger Games was finished for its annual time.
If only he had accepted that life, it was way better than the promotion he got weeks leading up to his sixteenth birthday.
Finnick was scared when he walked into his house after walking the length of the beach that morning, bright and early since it was the only time he could get some privacy in public. His hair was windblown, his cheeks red, winter was coming. But the freshness of the air and the girl he had talked to that morning left a smile on his face.
Brooke, the daughter of a hardworking fisherman and a shop owner, a girl who was always laughing, always smiling, always helping the poor, and talking to his cousin Susie who lived with his Aunt and Uncle still by the seashore in their homely house. Brooke who sometimes came by his house to pick up Cass and Marin on behalf of the sister of that boy she always ran around with.
The Odairs were in great debt to the Langstons, Finnick had been told by his parents that while they were worrying for his survival in the arena, sick with grief, the Langstons had sheltered the Odairs in their much nicer home at the time and offered them neighborly support for their troubles. The families were well acquainted and now in return, with the Odair's living in luxury, they would often look out for the Langstons.
