Finnick's Story - By Aaliyah McLean

Meeting You

Finnick's POV.

This is the standard routine that all of us in district four follow every year around this time. In one week, the peacekeepers will float through our town gathering everyone and dump them in the square for the public 'Reaping'. I hate this week, it is the week when everyone is sad about the possibility of their children and friends leaving them to go die in an arena. My parents couldn't care a less about whether or not I was shipped off to an arena to fight to the death, most likely to be killed

Last year, a 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were reaped and sent to the capitol. The girl's name was Elena and the boys were Kale. The expression on their faces as they walked through the crowd to the stage was priceless. I must admit, even though I would hate being reaped, I always find comfort in watching other people being pushed towards the stage. I'm sorry but it's true. They both ended up dying, Elena was killed by an 18-year-old boy from district 1 and Kale was killed by tracker-jackers. Honestly, I hate watching people die, it isn't a very entertaining view, but I just wish that one day I could kill like the victors. Be an experienced killer and win the games.

This morning, I walked down to the fish market to buy some fish to feed my family for a few days. I don't have any siblings, I wish I did, even though I would only have to push more boundaries to feed all of them. I hate going to the fish market. Even though I live in district four and we supply fish, I will never get used to the smell. It's horrible. I am standing at the front of a stall labeled 'Fish by Joe'. What a name! I thought. I grabbed to salmon and three flatheads and paid for them with thirty blueberries that I found in the forest earlier. And yes, before you ask, they are blueberries I tried them myself and they are one hundred percent safe to eat. Anyway, I turn around to walk back home when a young girl about my age with long, glossy red hair trips over my leg. I use the hand that is not covered in fish juice to help her up.

"Thank you." She says, but I am distracted by the deep blue eyes that are blinding me from reality. She has a strange but cute expression on her face, she's looking at me as though we've known each other our whole lives, "Annie." she says and sticks out her hand towards me. I take it and reply,

"Finnick." She smiles sweetly it makes me smile as well.

"See you 'round Finnick!" She states enthusiastically and skips off to the nearest fish stall. I am left staring, I have never been much of a person to like a girl but how could you not like her. She is beautiful!

I walk back to my house slowly with my fish in my right hand, people walk past me in the streets crying and holding the hands of their children. "You'll be fine, my darling." One of the parents says to their bawling child. Ughh! Did I mention that I hate this week? I walk up to the front of my run-down house. My house has a wood and stone exterior and it is very old. I am pretty sure that about eleven different families have lived in this house without fixing or renovating it, so as you can imagine, it is pretty disgusting. There are little vines weaving there way through the planks of wood on the outside of my house and even in the small time that I have been standing here, I have seen about three mice crawling around the base of the house. There are two windows that I can see from the front of the house, both of them cracked and discoloring. Now they are white, yellow color and completely foggy. I don't even know if we ever had an actual door on our house. For as long as I have lived here there has just been a piece of wood leaning against the door hole. Its good enough for me. I take a few more steps towards our make-do door and push it out of my way to get into the house. I slide the wood back into place and walk into our kitchen.

"I'm home!" I call out bluntly to anyone who bothers to hear me.

"Bedroom!" My mother calls back to me. Is it possible for her to sound so grumpy? I walk slowly to our bedroom. And yes, we all share a bedroom because this house was originally designed for a couple so my mother and father sleep on the big bed and I sleep in the rickety sofa-bed in the corner.

"I brought the fish," I inform them when I get to the doorway.

"Good." She replies simply. "Okay, well I'm going out, I'll be back by dinner," I say and start towards the door. She stops me a second later

"No," I turn back around to face her. "How many times is your name in the reaping jar this time?" This surprises me, as she has never shown an interest in whether or not I will be reaped. I sigh and reply coolly,

"32 times." She sucks in a short breath and avoids eye contact with me. I wait another minute or two before I finally talk again. "Mum? What's wrong?" I ask. She suddenly jumps up from the bed and throws her arms around me, embracing me in a tight hug. I am startled at first but seconds later I realize that I probably won't ever have this act of affection again.

"I am so sorry, Finnick. I never meant for you to have to sacrifice this much to keep our family running." She says.

"It's fine I... don't really mind." I reply and try to wriggle myself from her 'loving' arms. "I'm going out Mum, I need to clear my head some more. I'll be back by dinner." I say and this time I manage to get further than the doorway before she stops me again.

"Sweetheart, remember I love you!" I stop in my tracks. Not once has she ever admitted that she loves me.

"Love you too mum."

I walk out of my house and back down the street that I came from, I go down to the fish market and look around for something to do. I see a little shop in the distance with the label 'Nature Jewellery' pinned to the front on the little house. I walk to the shop and open the door. The shop looks like it could have been a little house for one person. The insides are covered in wood planks and posters of jewelry. There are three tables in front of me with jewelry made out of leaves and bark displayed all over them. I walk up to the table that is closest to the right and pick up a bracelet made out of berries. It is really nice. I wonder if Annie would like it, I could buy it for her.

Within seconds I am being tackled to the floor. I drop the bracelet and try to fight back; this person is very strong. I finally get a glance at the person and see long red hair. I am being pinned to the ground with my arms above my head. "Stop, Stop!" I yell at the person currently on top of me,

"Why are you stealing the bracelets?" the voice shouts at me, I notice that the voice sounds vaguely familiar, and it is the voice of a young girl. Annie! She swivels and jumps back on top of me this time straddling me. She finally looks up at my face and gasps. Her deep blue eyes flying open upon realizing who I am. "Finnick!" I smile,

"Hey, nice to see you too," I say and look into her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She says, still straddling me.

"I was bored, I came down to see the jewelry and well, here we are," I say looking back to see the bracelet destroyed, berries all over the place. She follows my gaze and sees the bracelet in the corner.

"Sorry about that, that really was a lovely bracelet, who were you going to buy it for?" She asks and looks back down at me. I stare at her for a few seconds before replying.

"I was going to buy it for you." She stares at me in disbelief for a few seconds before smiling her beautiful smile and jumping off of me. She reaches out her left hand to help me up from the ground. I grab it and am lifted off the floor. "Thanks. See you 'round." I say and begin walking towards the front of the shop door.

"Wait!" She stops me and a turn around to face her, shyly holding her hands together in front of her. "What are you doing now?" She asks quietly, barely audible.

"Not much, probably gonna go back home, why?" I reply taking a few steps back towards her.

"D-do you... want to go do s-something together?" She stammers as she fiddles with her skirt and avoids eye contact.

"Yeah!"