Finnick and Annie

The Bracelets

 I kept true to my word... sort of.

Andrew rode to my house on his bike next morning. We lived further apart after I moved, but he was my best friend, and I hadn't seen him in weeks, so the twenty-minute bike ride was worth it.

He knocked on my door at ten, and my mother let him in. I was in the kitchen eating breakfast, but I left everything on the table and rushed to hug him when he walked in.

"Hi, Finnick! Ready to go?" he asked, pulling my arm and dragged me out of my house towards the shore.

"Want to go swimming?" he panted.

"Sure!" I laughed and pushed him into the water. He fell on his butt and glared then stood up and pulled me in with him. We laughed and played around and then sat on the sand to chat until my mother called us to lunch.

When we were nearly done with lunch, the phone rang and my mother picked up. She talked for a while and then came back to the table.

"Andrew, your mother wants you back home when you're done eating," she told us, clearing the table.

"But, Mom! He just got here!" I whined.

"I know, Finnick, but if he doesn't go home when his mom asks him to then she won't let him come over anymore, will she?" I frowned and crossed my arms and Andrew sighed.

"Sorry, Finn," he told me, "I'll try to be back next Saturday. My mother's making me work in the bait shop and I only have Saturdays free."

"Fine," I grumbled, "See you soon."

Andrew hugged me and then rode away. I was very bored after that. I turned on the TV but it was all reruns of the past Hunger Games, and I'd already watched most of them so I turned it off. I went to my backyard and found a tree branch to pretend it was a trident but that was pretty lame so I went back inside.

I went back to the beach after a while and decided to go swimming. I loved swimming, I was also really good at it, in fact, I was one of the best in my grade, and it was really relaxing when I was upset. I was halfway down the beach when I spotted her near the water. I saw her blue dress, the one she had worn the day before, and a couple of days earlier. It was pretty worn out, and her hair was wild and tangled. She was sitting in a hole on the ground, burying her legs, like I sometimes did with Andrew.

"How are you going to bury your arms?" I teased, a few feet away from her.

"I don't suppose you're going to do it," she said. Her face was fixed on a frown and she refused to look at me.

"Annie, we built one sand castle together, we're not even friends, I just played with you once," I rolled my eyes at her.

"Well then why did you say I'd see you again? You were avoiding me, Finnick, I'm not dumb," she snapped.

"I was being polite! And I'm older than you, anyways, and you're a girl so you can't be my friend because that would be weird." I told her. It was so obvious, why couldn't she understand.

"Well, that's just stupid, you know?" she asked, looked away from me and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. She was really starting to annoy me.

"Just go play with your other friends, Annie! I had Andrew over today, and we had a lot of fun because he's my best friend." I snapped. She pulled her legs out from the sand and hugged them to her chest. She looked smaller like that. "What did I say now?" I asked, exasperated.

"Nothing! If you don't want to be my friend then that's fine! I'm used to it, just leave me alone," she said.

"You must have some other friends," I said more kindly.

"They say I'm weird," she whispered bitterly. "Just because I'm quiet. I'm not shy, I just think they're all idiots so I don't need to waste my breath on any of them."

"Well maybe they hate you because you say they're all idiots," I told her, shrugging.

"But they are!" she exclaimed. "The kids in my grade are all dumb and the girls are very mean, and they say my bracelets are dumb!" Her eyes watered and a tear slipped from her eye.

"Well if you like making them, then don't listen to them," I said, sitting down in front of her.

"My mother tells me it's a waste of time too, I can only make them here because my mom says that I'm useless around the house and that I'm not going to get anywhere making ugly bracelets, and my dad says he likes them but he's working all the time!" She whimpered and hid her face between her knees, crying.

I didn't know what to do in that situation. I'd never had a crying ten -year-old girl to comfort before, and I felt very awkward. I felt bad for her because my mother was not like that at all. She was always so nice, and she let me do the things I liked and she didn't call me useless.

"Can I see your bracelets?" I asked her. She stopped crying for a moment and looked up at me. Her eyes were red and there were tear tracks on her cheeks.

"You really want to see them?" she sniffled.

"Yes," I said, "and my mom's birthday is next week, maybe I can get my dad to give me some money and I can buy one from you and that way you can show your mom that it's not useless..." Annie looked at me hopefully and wiped the tears away with the back of her hand.

"Really?" she whispered.

"Yeah... you can go get them now if you want," I told her. Her face brightened and she stood up.

"I'll be right back," she said, and then she turned around and ran away.

I waited on the sand for a while, but Annie didn't come back. It had been almost thirty minutes and there was still no sign of her. I walked the short distance to my house and stood on the porch, taking a last look at the beach but Annie was still nowhere to be seen. I went inside and wondered what had happened to her.