Skimming Stars (Hunger Games fan fic)

Chapter 3- Noughts and Crosses

Prologue- Sorry if the tenses are a bit messed up. Ooops. Vote, comment, enjoy, sleep well, play noughts and crosses, punch idiots in the face (if anyone asks it wasn't me who told you to do that).

Em xxx 

I wake up sweating. For a second I think it was all been a nightmare but I am still on the train. I rap my blanket around myself. I think I might go to the room in the end of the train that I found yesterday but I quickly change my plans when I hear the screaming. The doors are so thick I only hear it when I am right outside. I try the door and find it unlocked. I step in quickly and close it behind me trying not to wake anyone else. Finnick is lying on his bed thrashing around.  I watch him for a second. I want to wake him up but I hesitate. All of a sudden he goes still and lets out a whimper. I can’t stand him to be so upset and scared. I cross the room and sit on the edge of his bed and shake his shoulder. “Finnick, Finnick wake up, Finnick?” I say softly. His eyes fly open and he sits bolt upright so fast it makes me jump backwards. He stares at me for a second and then dose the thing I least expect. Finnick Odair bursts in to tears.

I do the only thing I can think of. I hug him. “Shhhhh, shhhhh. Its ok, it’s ok. Shhhhh” I stroke his hair softly and rock him back and forth trying to calm him down. We sit like this for a few minutes. Eventual he calms down and pulls away. His eyes are red and his face is streaked with tears. “I’ve made you shoulder all teary, Annie.”  

“Doesn’t matter, there not my pyjamas.” I shrugged. Finnick grinned.

"Do you want to talk about it? It can help” I ask. He shook his head.

“Do you want me to leave so you can go back to sleep?” I ask.

“No” he said grabbing my hand like he was worried that I might go. “I don’t think I could get back to sleep anyway.”

“So what do you want to do?” Finnick shrugs. I slide of the bed but he won’t let go of my hand. “Don’t go” he says quietly. “Don’t worry, you’re not getting rid of me that easily” that makes Finnick grin. I dig around for a while in his room until I find a packet of tissues which I chuck over my shoulder at him. Then I find a packet of pens and a notepad. “Do you know how to play noughts and crosses?” I ask. He nods. For the next half an hour we sit almost in silence playing noughts and crosses.

“I was back in the arena, in the dream I mean, except I was being chased by mutts. The mutts, they… they were mutts like giant bears but they were white and they smelled of roses and they were mutts but they were President Snow at the same time. Like he was the mutts.”   

“Why the President?” I would have thought that there were plenty more scary people he could dream about. Like Drake.  Or Colie. Or Donner. Or any of the other opponents in his games. When I pictured the president I thought of an old white haired man. Small in stature. Not strong. But then again he was powerful. There is a big difference between strong and powerful.  Why Snow? 

“He is worse than you might think.”

                                                                 *

I wake up to a knocking on the door. Light is streaming through my bedroom window. I close my eyes. My pillow is warm. I’m sure that the pillows from the capitol are a lot softer than this. In fact this feels like something hard under my duvet which is not on top of me like normal but I am lying on it.

“Mags sent me to get you up. Oh and we’re not sure where Annie’s got to, we can’t seem to find her. I’m sure she’s here somewhere. She is probably in the last place we’ll expect” chirps Fliss. My mind feels foggy and it takes me a second to understand the words. What? I’m right here in my room where I am supposed to be. Are you so wrapped up in yourself that you forget to check in my room for me? But then if you didn’t think to check in my room then why are you talking in to my door like you know that someone is in here? It takes me a while to work through it. I can almost feel the cogs in my brain rotating slowly as my mind wakes up. I groan.

“Finnick?”

Finnick!?  My eyes fly open. I instantly focus on the door handle that is slowly turning. Before I can move the door flies open and Fliss stands frozen in the doorways. If I didn’t know how much trouble I’m in it would have been comical the way her mouth drops open. I sit up and realise that what my head was resting on the side of Finnick’s stomach. He was until a second ago slumped in a sitting position leaning on the headboard of the bed still clutching the pen in his hand. For some reason my mind wanders to the pen. The ink from 4. The plastic of the pen was probably made in the factories in 3. Or maybe by one which makes luxuries for the capitol. Is a pen a luxury? Maybe not for the people in the capitol.

Fliss gasps, turns on her heel and flees up the corridor. I stare at the empty doorway for a minute before turning to Finnick. He looks slightly shocked. I suppose my face mirrors his. Then he smirks. My lips twitch up.

“Did you see her face?” I ask him. He does an impression of her, mouth hanging open and eyes popping out. Before I could stop myself we burst out laughing.

“This isn’t funny. It’s very irrespirable of both of you”

I turn around slowly to see Mags standing in the door way with Fliss hovering behind her. I can only think of three words that completely summed up the entire situation.

We’re done for.

*

“I can’t believe it. You are her mentor. She’s seventeen. She’s a tribute. She’s going in to the games. It is completely irresponsible and unimaginable inappropriate.” Mags screams at us.

“Well it would be if we had done something, but we didn’t.” Finnick replies angrily.

“Well what was she doing in your room? I say you shouldn’t be allowed to see her alone ever again” Fliss chips in. She’s stood behind Mags looking grumpy. This is the first time she has contributed to the conversation.

“What? Are you going to monitor us for the rest of our lives” I snap. She is obviously jealous. I wouldn’t be so annoyed if there was actually something to be jealous about. 

“Well that would be easy in your case. I wouldn’t need to monitor you for long”

I gasp. It feels like someone has physically just punched me in the chest.

“It’s true. There is no way you can win. The odds are definitely not in your favour. I bet Cyan wins. Or one of the others from one or two. You are small and weak and untrained. You’re so sentimental that you couldn’t even kill a worm never mind one of your other tributes. It’ll be so entertaining watching you die. I hope-” before she can continue I run forwards and punch her in the face.