Finnick Odair "All in the Lust of a Trident" | Teen Ink

Finnick Odair "All in the Lust of a Trident"

September 26, 2012
By ziallnator, Greenwhich, Ohio
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ziallnator, Greenwhich, Ohio
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Favorite Quote:
Okay? Okay.


Rescele wakes me.

"Finnick! Time to get up, we're going back to shore for the reaping!" she softly kisses my cheek.

"Rescele!" I yell wiping it off.

"What?" she asks.

"Nothing, come here, Ive got something for you" I say sitting up. She crawls onto my lap and I pull a wooden box with little flowers painted on it from under my pillow. I hand it to her and she opens it. Her green eyes light up two shades.

"Thanks Finnick, Im glad your my brother!" she wraps her arms around my neck in a hug.

"Wanna swim?" I ask pulling her off me. She nods and we change. Running off the deck jumping into the beautiful sea below.

After about 20 minutes my father comes out. "What do you two intend on wearing?" he asks pulling us in and wrapping us in a towel.

"I dont know, dont really plan that stuff" I sarcastically say.

My father takes me by my shoulders and pulls me away from Rescele. He looks me dead in the eye and says "Finnick this may be your..."

"Year, I know, I know, but we barely go to shore for Capitol reasons, I dont have any tesserea, MY odds are completely in MY favor" I say cutting him off.

We didnt look alike at all, well maybe for the eyes, but thats because all District 4 had sea-green eyes. I got my looks from my mother, who died due to a plague when I was 9. Her auburn waves gave me my bronze locks. According to my father, my mother was the most beautiful woman there was. That only certain women could fit in the catagory of being called beautiful. That was my mother. I dont remember much about her, shes been gone for about 5 years now.

"Get ready" my father says pushing clothing into my arms.

Ok, yeah, dads old hand me downs, great. I bet Ill look good though. Girls say I look good in anything.

"Its not fair!" Rescele yells plopping down on her bed ruffling the green skirt she had on.

"Whats not fair June bug?" I ask her. She smiles at me

"Your too pretty!" she yells again. I sit down next to her.

"Im not pretty, only girls are pretty" I laugh

"well if they reap you they will surely reap someone else" she says

"It doesn’t work like that June bug" I say ruffling her straight bronze hair.

"Wear this at the reaping" she says climbing behind me buckling the necklace I gave her this morning behind my neck.

"Thank you" I whisper.

"Are you scared?" she asks me.

I wanna say yes but then what kinda brother would I be?

"Nah" I say shrugging.

She knows Im lying, she could always tell those things about me.

"Docking! Finnick take your sister and get signed in" my father yells down.

She grabs my hand and pulls me up the ladder. We hurry through town to the square.

I have this certain kinda mind trick that I use on Reaping day. Ive taught it to Rescele too. Keep a smile on your face no matter what happens and it don't seem as scary. Its worked every other year so I stick with it. We are stopped at a gate where girls keep staring at me and talking about the Odairs. So I flash them a smile and send them a wink and they start giggling and go off to find they're friends.

"Age?" a lady dressed in white asks Rescele.

She just smiles and says "nine" they lead her to a "Before Reaping Age" area.

"Age?" the lady asks me.

"Fourteen" I say with a smile. She sends me to the Reaping check in. They prick my finger and press the blood into a ledger. I watch as the scanner information pops up. ODAIR,FINNICK14YO they release me and I go to find my friends.

"Look at the mer-man now!" Foster Chilli says as I walk up.

The sight of me makes Kimmie Refegre and this blond start giggling.

"Not a mer-man, I'm more of a...a...an awesome looking sea star" This brightens the mood.

"Whatever Odair, I heard there was a new escort, so if one of us gets put on the train some major pranking has to happen" Foster jokes.

I look at the stage, looks as if they're about to start. Trinity Everglass is the escort and he bounds on stage looking bright and colorful.

"WELCOME!" he yells with enthusiasm. "You know how this goes, so lets play the clip now!" he excitedly yells. The video starts and I tune it out. Ive learned to do that in two years.

About 10 minutes later Trinity's voice calls out and I tune back in "Pepper Featherstone!" She comes from the 18 year old kids. She’s tall, she had what looked like shimmering gold hair, her eyes were like an emerald green which really threw me off. She was crying. "Now let’s go select the male, shall we?" he skips over to the boys globe. His arm jitterly falls into the globe. He pulls it out but instead of one paper, he pulls three. "Oh looks like Ive pulled too many!" I look to see if there’s any careers. Nope. Trinity select the middle name and opens the it. Who’s it gonna be?

"Finnick Odair!"

My smile quickly fades. I look around and half the girls are crying loudly and the other half gently sobbing. The women are making comments and I’m pretty sure I can hear Rescele's voice over everyone’s. I make my way to the stage.

For support I reach up to my neck and grab Rescele's necklace. Everyone looks up at me and I put my smile back on. Even harder to force when you’re scared. "Looks like we have some fighters here!" Trinity yells as he lays a hand on my shoulder. "Well shake hands" he says. Pepper holds out her hand I grab it, give a quick shake and let go. A Peacekeeper leads us to separate rooms next to each other. I go in and see a giant window. I look out it and it overlooks the sea. I wish I was there now. The salty air, the water, the swaying of the boat, and my family.

Arms find their way around my waist. I look down and see it's Rescele.

"Don’t worry Rescele, your gonna be fine" I tell her stroking her hair. She’s crying loudly and my father walks in.

"Finnick..." he says as he lays a hand on my shoulder. I let go of Rescele and turn to my father. "Nothing is more important than coming?" he asks

"Home" I reply.

"Get to a trident, make a net, the other tribute are what?"

"sharks" I say looking him dead in the eye.

"What do we do with sharks?" he asks

"We kill them."

"His looks will get him sponsors, I mean every girl and woman in District 4 loves him, so Capitol women will be drooling over him." Rescele say.

I ruffle her hair. "Sure they will, I plan on using every ounce of it, so I can come home" I tell her.

My father hugs me and leaves. I crouch down to Rescele's level.

"You’re coming home right?" she asks with tears coming to her eyes.

"Of course I am June bug" I tell her wiping her tears. I lean forward and kiss her forehead. She blushes.

"Your gonna win, the girls will be falling head over heels for you" she kisses my cheek, hugs me and leaves. My next visitor is Foster.

"Trinity is overwhelmed, he doesn't know what girls to let in" we both laugh at this. "Are you scared?" he asks.

"Nah" I tell him. I smile and he hugs me.

"Good Luck, and when you come back, you better tell us the pranks you pulled" I laugh at him and he turns to leave.

"Tell Trinity to let Kimmie and her friend in" I say to him.

"Will do sea-star" he opens the door, gives me one last smile and leaves.

I go back to the window. Moments later I hear weeping outside the door. I know Kimmie and her friend is here.

They enter the room. Kimmie hugs me, but there's another girl, who is just standing there, no emotion on her face. She’s gotta be like 12, but she’s pretty cute. Long brown hair, green eyes. Pretty.

"I'm Marie Cresta that's my sister Annie" the blond says. I nod.

"Come back please" Kimmie says crying.

"I am, don't worry" I tell her still debating on my fate. I lean forward and kiss her forehead. It's not a real kiss but it's the only one that I haven't given to my sister. She starts to giggle uncontrollably. Marie goes to Annie.

"Why aren't you crying? That's Finnick Odair the cutest boy in the entire world!" she cries.

I laugh and she looks up and starts to blush. I walk over and kiss Marie's cheek. Then I bend down to Annie's level.

"Thanks" I say.

"What for?" she asks.

"Not acting like them, for not completely freaking out" I say back and sincerely kiss her forehead, just like I would Rescele.

"Your welcome" she says and all three of them leave. I wait a half an hour before Trinity comes in.

"Let's go! We are on a schedule!" he tugs on my arm. So I jerk away. "Touchy aren't you?" he asks. No, not really, I just don't want you touching me I think.

I just put a smile on and follow Trinity to the car. I'm sitting next to Pepper. Our mentors are going to ride with us also. Mags and Clara. Mags is about 70 years old and she won when she was 18. Clara is 24 she won when she was 18 also.

The ride to the train takes about fifteen minutes from the Square.

When we get on the train we are told to explore. I go from car to car and without noticing I run straight into Pepper, falling back hitting my head.

"Sorry" I say rubbing the place where my head hit.

"It's ok, my fault, you say that sea star thing at school don't you?" she asks me.

I think for a moment. How did a senior know my 8th grade sea star joke?

"Yeah but I don't see how it got to the high school." I tell her as we stand.

"Are you kidding?" she asks. I just stare at her. "Your Finnick Odair, EVERYONE talks about you, they love to mock you, even GUYS they wanna look like you" she tells me.

"Whatever" I say under my breath.

"Well we haven't officially met…Pepper Featherstone" she says holding out her hand. I grab it and shake softly.

"Finnick Odair."

She smiles. I flash my big white smile at her and send her a wink. She starts laughing. I go to the dining car. Trinity, Mags, Clara and two new faces surround the table.

"I can definitely work with you!" the unknown male says excitedly. He goes to this other room and I stare at his empty place.

"What?" I ask quietly.

He comes back out. "Finnick this is your stylist," Mags says motioning to him.

"Finnick Odair," I say.

"We all know who you are, the handsome boy from District four with a heart if gold and a love for his little sister." The man says leaving the room again.

I smile because I'm truly flattered by being called handsome, and somewhat disgusted. He looks like he's thirty and he's a dude, ewe.

"Well you two should get to know your mentors" Trinity says as Pepper walks in gently sobbing. "Usually we have a male and a female mentor to mentor the male and female tributes but as you know, we only have female victors living, so Mags and Clara will select their tributes" Trinity smiles.

"I want Finnick, but I think I can make a breakthrough with Pepper," Clara whispers. I think I'm the only one who can hear. "I choose Pepper!" Clara yells. Shoot, she was cute, I get Mags, great.

Mags stands up and leads me to an empty car.

"You’ve got a chance in there, sponsors will be drooling over you, make them like you!" I look at her, wow; she just gave me helpful advice.

"Already done, mostly" I smirk.

"Your looks will get you half way, they also look for skills, what are you good at?" Mags asks.

I think for a moment. "I'm pretty good with knives, but I work best with nets and tridents" she gives me a smile.

"Well pretty boy, there probably won't be a trident, possibly a net, but not a trident" she pulls out a little pocket book. "We should be arriving soon, go greet, win over sponsors," she tells me.

No problem. Anyone who watches the reaping recap will know how incredibly gorgeous I am. I go to the window and see the Capitol women yelling "Finnick!" so I flash a smile and give about a dozen winks, they all love it. I'm tired of this crap, but if it will get me home I'll do anything.

The train jerks to a stop. Mags puts her hand on my shoulder and leads me to the exit car. I see Pepper and Clara standing there. I can see a few tears running down her face. I turn back to the door, put on the best looking smile I can muster and the door starts to open.

Mags pushes me out and I almost fall flat on my face. One of the Capitol women break my fall though. I stand back up and wink at her. I take her hand and give it a soft kiss.

"Thank you" I say with the most seductive purr I can get to at fourteen. She giggles. I look back at Mags.

Sponsor Number one! I scream in my head. She leads me into the remake center and leaves me in the hands of three pale skinned girls with gold tattoos.

"Oh! We can definitely work with you!" one of them squeals.

I let the words hit me and then I strike a ridiculous pose and give them each a smile. They start to smile and wave at me. Then an older man, with orange skin and purple hair comes in, his beard is pink. Another fashion failure. Not that it matters. I don’t pay attention anyway.

"Let’s get you cleaned up. Yes?" he asks me. I don’t respond and the triplets (that’s what I call the girls) attack me with their hands stripping me naked. They drape a green robe over me, push me into the bathroom and start the water. They leave and I take off the robe and get in. I close my eyes and let the water soothe me. These showers are weird. They don’t have freshwater, you would assume so, I mean District four has freshwater showers. It’s saltwater. The shower shuts off as I hit the side of the shower.

I’m really homesick. I step out and the triplets pour in draping a deep blue robe over me.

"What’s with the saltwater?" I ask. They giggle.

"Rast wants you to smell like the sea" they say in unison.

I nod and think; well you made me miss my family and my father, most of all Rescele. They laugh more and more until they lead me to the man I talked to earlier.

“Hello my name is Rast" he holds out his hand for me to shake.

"The names Finnick, Finnick Odair" I shake his hand.

He doesn’t look too pleased to my stylist. He pulls my robe off me, circling me like a shark. "District four..." he mumbles to himself. I look at him and he looks me straight in the eyes as my father would, but instead of finding my father’s sea-green eyes staring back at me, another color occupies them, more of a brown.

“Grenia told me something that the female tribute told her, something about a sea-star? Yes” He pulls the robe back over me again and goes over to a closet. He looks at me with a smile. “Well that’s not going to happen, we have a very impressive costume for you” he says sending a smirk my way.

I wander what he’s going to do with me. Then he pulls out a fish tail. Great, Mer-man. I can see Foster laughing now. He hands me a pair of boxers that looks as if it has the same golden scales the tail has. I pull them on.

“Lipha, Triy, Callie get in here!” The triplets rush in. They giggle as they put me in the tail. I sit down and they start to mess with my face. When their done, I have a ton of make-up on so I look like a man of the sea. They’ve spiked my hair up so the normal dark bronze it usually is looks lighter.

They lead me to the Chariot.

Her costume looks like mine except she has a shell bikini top, I’ve seen one on Rescele before. It shows off how skinny she is and quite frankly how cute she is. Her long golden hair flows over her shoulders. She’s crying again. I hop up on the chariot the best I can with a tail. Mags and Clara meet us.

“This is gonna sound odd, but I need you to listen,” she says as serious as she can get at 24. “We are giving you a trident to use in your costume,” she points to me. We are draping you with pearls,” she points to Pepper.

My prep team hands me a gold, jewel encrusted trident. Pepper’s team has about a ton of pearls that they drape over her body and twist around her head. I admire the trident as Mags takes my hand joining it with Peppers.

“Hold um high!” she says giving a gaped toothed smile.

Pepper starts to cry and I wrap her in a one armed hug. Her sniffles start to shorten and the chariot starts moving. I let go of her and grab the trident again. We exit the building and start our 20 minute trek down the avenue. I see people screaming. I’m gonna win a ton of sponsors here. I give about a dozen women a million smiles, and winks. I think of just giving up, but I need to get sponsors so I can go home to my father and Rescele. Without thinking I pull our hands high in the air. Pepper immediately looks up and holds the pearls in her hands. I thrust the trident into the air and the crowd goes wild.

“Look at the District four tributes! They are so talented and that District four male, Finnick Odair, the glint in his eyes, definitely one to look out for in the arena!” Caesar’s voice echoes. My thoughts trail off.

“Thank you tributes and May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor” Snow says departing the balcony. We are led into another building where Ill finally be able to sleep.

We are led to the fourth floor. The walls are blue and the couches and chairs are covered with nets. I don’t see anything remotely dangerous, except a picture of a trident. Mags puts her hands on my shoulders.

“I’d ditch the tail you look stupid.” She tells it to me straight.
I drop the tail and realize I’m standing in front of a 70 year old lady in my underclothes. She starts to laugh.

“Your fine” she laughs again. I throw the ridiculous tail away and turn to Mags.

“Well?” I ask.

“Go, get some rest, you have training first thing in the morning” she pushes me towards a room. When I enter I see a large bed with blue comforters and pillows. I lay down on the bed and slowly sleep finds me, carrying me softly into the dreamland of the sea. Mags pokes me with a knitting needle which instantly wakes me.

“Training pretty-boy” she laughs with sarcasm. I nod and pull on the red and black elastic suit with a four on the sleeve as Mags continues to talk. “Don’t show your strengths or the careers could use it against you, stay away from knives and tridents and act as helpless as possible when your tying knots” she tells me. I look away and she turns my head back to her gaze. “Spend at least an hour at survival and the food booth” she says and pulls me out. I nod behind her.

“I’m a great actor” I say as she stops and turns to me. I give her a half smirk and she just laughs.

She pushes me into the elevator with Pepper.

“Stick Together!” Mags whispers as the door blissfully shuts.

When we reach the Training hall I immediately see District one. They are both blond and have the same green eyes. They look a lot alike. I walk over to the station where they were at.

“Hi” the girl laughs as she injects an arrow into the heart of a dummy.

“Hey, I’m Finnick Odair” I say as she nods turning her head toward us.

“Granite Barnes, that’s my brother Chapman, call him Chap it makes him mad” she laughs and we watch Chapman throw this huge medicine ball thing.

“I’d rather not” Pepper whispers.

“Are you guy’s careers?” Granite asks us. We could appear better if so.

“Yup, and by the way that’s Pepper Featherstone” I say and Granite nods in understanding as she releases an arrow not even looking at the target.

“You might want to get some practice in weaponry” I whisper to Pepper as I pull her to the side.

“I couldn’t kill anybody Finnick” she whispers.

“They think we’re careers, that we’ve trained our ENTIRE lives for this, we’ve got a chance if we can convince them we’re Careers” I softly yell at her. She has tears come to her eyes. Oh no.

I pull Pepper to the knives booth. I was told to stay away from here but Pepper needs this. I pick up a knife and take Pepper’s hand. I open her fingers, press the knife to her palm and close them around it.

“Throw it” I whisper.

She wipes away her tears and I step back. She stands like a killer would and swiftly releases a knife into the heart of a dummy. She does this a few more times and they land in the same place every time. I should be worried but I don’t think Pepper would try to kill me. We spend an hour at survival and another hour at shelter and then we get back on the elevator.

“You didn’t tell me you were good with knives!” Clara yells as we walk in.

“She didn’t know either, just a natural talent” I say giving her a smirk. Clara buys my “story.”

“Ok, tomorrow spend another hour at shelter and another hour at survival, you might want to look into archery and knot-tying also” Mags tells us. I nod and go to my room where Mags follows. “Want a sugar cube?” she asks. I take a few and pop them into my mouth. She sits down on the couch. I fall on my bed and the clacking of her knitting needles slowly puts me to sleep.

Two more days of training pass. I’ve probably spent a total of eight hours at survival and another eight hours at shelter. I’ve spent a decent amount of time at archery and knot-tying. I acted as helpless as possible tying knots. I actually tied Granite and I together once.

The careers welcomed us in and have no idea that I’m the one that has to get home. Granite and Chapman are the best at archery. Kasey and Clay, the District Two tributes are great with everything, but if you had to give them a weapon of choice, Clay’s would be a sword and Kasey’s would be knives. Granite sticks to archery as Chapman sticks to his huge medicine ball type thing.

District appearances are very different. Like District One, Chapman and Granite both had blond hair and emerald green eyes like Pepper. District Two, Clay had dark hair and a lot of freckles as well did Kasey, but she was a red head and they both had the same deep dark brown eyes. We laugh and dodge jokes but when individual training comes, we’re on our own.

Granite’s first, then Chapman, Kasey and Clay, District Three, Pepper and finally me. When I walk in I see a stack of tridents. I grab one and I see a net. I set a weight triggered snare using the net. I grab a dummy and a knife. I place the dummy on the weight trigger. When the net falls I aim for the waistline and let the trident fly. It lands smoothly and my knife finds a new home in the dummy’s chest. I bow and leave the room.

I go back to our floor and Mags holds out a cup of coffee to me.

“How’d ya do?” she asks. I shrug.

“I set a weighted snare, dropped a net, threw a trident and a knife, just wait to see the score” she laughs at me.

“Ok, Pretty Boy”

We sit around talking and after about two hours the TV comes on and Caesar Flickerman starts announcing the scores.

“Granite Barnes…” he looks at the page in front of him. “Nine” I watch as Chapman gets a ten, Kasey gets a ten and Clay a nine. I tune out District Three completely, but then I hear “District Four, Pepper Featherstone…eight” we all congratulate Pepper; no one thought she could do it. “District Four, Finnick Odair…” he looks down and I hold my breath. “Ten,” everyone congratulates me, even Pepper. We head to bed because interviews are tomorrow night.

“What’s your image?” Mags asks me as soon as I wake up.

“I don’t know, I think most women like my image” I point to my face. She laughs.

“Ok, then we will use your looks as your secret weapon” I give her a ridiculous pose and a gigantic smile. “Save it for the cameras” so I return to my normal state.

My prep team dresses me in a black tux with a light green dress shirt and a dark green tie. When they leave I turn to find Mags.

“I’m ditching this,” I say flicking the jacket. She laughs and helps me go over some Q and A’s that Caesar might ask. My image is good looking/bad boy/heart breaker. I think I could play the role effortlessly. After about thirty-five minutes, it’s my turn.

“Give a warm Capitol welcome to District four’s bad boy, Finnick Odair!” Caesar’s voice booms and I walk onstage throwing my jacket into the crowd.

“So Finnick, what’s it like back in District four?” he asks. This was one of the questions I practiced over.

“Well every day, my sister and I jump into the ocean off the side of our small fishing vessel” I send a wink towards a whole row of teenagers. They love it. Mags stares up at me.

“Whats this about siblings?” Caesar asks with his eyebrow arched slightly.

“Yeah, I only have one, my nine year old sister, Rescele, she looks a lot like my mother and I” I get as serious as I can. Ive never had to act like this before.

“Then she must be quite the looker,” Caesar says getting a laugh from the audience. I untie my tie and neatly fold it in my lap. “So, any girl waiting for ya back home?” I look at Mags.

“If ya count the girls that want to be…” my eyes turn up and my hand goes to my chin like I’m thinking “Then the whole District, but other than that nope.”

“Oh I don’t believe that!” Caesar says.

“Ive left more than my fair share of broken hearts,” I smile. Caesar shakes my hand and the buzzer rings. I throw my tie next to the edge of the stage and a NORMAL looking Capitol girl grabs it.

“Great! They loved you!” Mags laughs walking into my room hours later.

“Sure, but I lied, I’ve never had a girlfriend” Mags pats my back.

“Don’t worry about it, You’ll have plenty to choose from.”

I’m up at six o’clock that morning. I’m able to scoop up Rescele’s necklace before Rast and the triplets whisk me away to dress. It’s finally time and Mags takes me down.

“Meet up with the Careers, Finnick I know you can do this,” she tells me.

“What about Pepper?” I ask.

“If she makes it, convince them she’s a Career too,” Mags says. She hugs me and hands me a few sugar cubes that I pop into my mouth. Then she pushes me onto the hovercraft that will take me to the secret location that I will fight for my life in.

I’m strapped to a seat, and then the Peacekeepers come around and start shoving needles into the kid’s arms

“Give me your arm.” The one says to me. I smile at her and hold at my arm. She shoves the needle in and pulls it out.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Your tracker” she replies and goes off to inflict more pain to the other tributes. My eyes gaze upon the other twenty-three children on this thing as I rub my right hand over the tracker in my left arm. I can do this, I’m gonna get home.

The hovercraft lifts and the windows darken. I have Rescele’s necklace still in my clutches. This is my District token.

When the hovercraft lands we are thrown into the launch room, in what seems like thirty seconds Rast is there, he’s actually got tears in his eyes.

“I have a District token” I say holding up the necklace. His old calloused hands take it from me and he runs it under a scanner. It flashes green and he slips it on my neck. He puts a jacket on me.

“Be brave boy, Mags says you can win” he pats my back and leads me to a glass tube.

The author's comments:
Thanks to all you guys who have stuick through to now! I love you all and hope you like this...

I step inside. It starts to close around me and I feel my body start to rise. I get a good look at the arena. It’s a desert. Great, not much water around here, that’s all I’m use to. I look around at the tributes, Granite’s beside me. She looks ready to dart in, so I take up the stance.

“Eighteen, seventeen, sixteen…” I finally here the countdown. I watch the holographic letters and soon “Three, two, one…GO! I take off sprinting. I’m the first one there, so I grab a knife.

“Finnick!” Granite yells, so I turn and the eighteen year old boy from District nine is standing within striking distance from me.

My killer instinct takes over and as he raises an ax, I puncture his chest with my knife; I hear a very distinct slurping sound as I pull out the knife. Granite has a bow now. Back to back we circle the cornucopia.

“Find the rest!” I yell. I grab a spear and some more knives and we spiral around the cornucopia. Kasey is beating this twelve year old kid to a pulp. Clay is guarding her. Chapman, Granite found. This isn’t gonna be easy on them. Brother and Sister going to their deaths. Oh well. I scan the place for Pepper. She’s still standing on the pedalstool. I grab a knife and walk towards her.

“What are you doing?” I ask her.

“Waiting for my death, there’s no way Im gonna get outta this, so Id like to get it over with!” she hisses. I hand her a knife and tug at her. Us careers take off towards the rocks. It’s hot out here so most of us tie our jackets around our waists. We sit and rest for sometime. Then the first parachute falls into Pepper’s grasps. Shes in shock as she opens it.

It’s a knife vest. It’s full of throwing knives. She puts it on and a spark goes through her eyes. I now consider her as a threat. Ive never seen her like that. The bloodbath cannons go off. Ten, not as much as I thought. Clara must want us all dead if she sends something that sparks up Pepper like that.

“Cool knives,” I say trying to register if she is still friendly towards me

“Clara must wanna see me kill people,” she says back.

Definite threat.

My ears perk up before my eyes and before I know it my spear is in a little girl’s stomach. She reminds me of Rescele. I go over and brush her hair away.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. Its night time everyone else is asleep since I was keeping watch.

“I don’t wanna die…” the girl says as she pulls out the spear.

“Shhh, your safe now, It’s time to sleep,” she closes her eyes and I look at her token. District seven. I killed the twelve year old girl from District seven! I quietly speak “I’m sorry District seven, I’m sorry.” I have the little girls hand in mine, a tear falls. I wipe my eyes before the cannon sounds. I walk back to camp and the cannon booms. It’s freezing and Granite wakes and decides to stay up. She’s cold so I hold her close to me. This is odd, she’s like eight-teen.

“Who died?” she asks.

“The girl from seven,” I say back. She says she’ll take over, so I go to sleep wearily. That morning a parachute hits my head. ‘Good Work Pretty Boy –Mags’ the note says. I open it and see it’s sugar cubes and bread. I chuckle.

“Breakfast anyone?” I ask. They all nod and we divide up the food. We eat and Clay talks.

“We should go back to the cornucopia, theres thirteen left and we get some decent supplies there,” we all nod, clear our exsistence here and start back to the cornucopia. We all settle inside. It starts a light drizzle and all six of us have buckets collecting the water. We drag it back inside and drink one just sitting there.

We hear laughter, Pepper and I stay behind as the others go for todays kills.

“Wonder how Clara got these,” Pepper says situating the knives.

“Guys think your hot,” I smile and she starts to blush.

“Your only fourteen, what do you know?” she says back. I act offended.

“I know more about girls than you do about guys!” I laugh.

“Who knows what will happen…” she says and stops like its trailing into something that she doesn’t wanna talk about. “If I win, Clara told me about the stuff she does, she says it started with the victor from the fiftieth games, Haymitch Abernathy, he’s from twelve…” Im confused, she gets cut off by Kasey’s screams. Granite and Chapman come running with Clay on their trails.

“He’s lost it!” they yell. A cannon booms and Pepper has out a knife. She throws it. It barely misses Clay.

“What do you think Granite? Kasey’s dead and your next!” Clay yells. Wow HE killed his District mate.

Granite is trying to load her bow as Chapman is running. Pepper is trying to grab another knife but it’s stuck in her pocket, so I pull mine out of my belt quickly, lunge forward and release.

Another Cannon sounds. Conforming he’s dead. Clay drops to the ground. Granite and Chapman are in the cornucopia.

“Why haven’t those cannons went off yet!” Chapman yells.

“It takes time for the poison to set in Chap!” Granite yells back. He’s at his boiling point. I pull Granite away.

“Granite, what are you talking about?” I ask her.

“Poison darts, we set off a trap before Clay went crazy and six people got hit.” She says back. The cannons sound. “Told ya Chapman!” she spits.

“Your right little sister, Im gonna miss you when I go home as victor.” Man this guys cocky. Pepper tugs on my arm.

“He’s gonna kill me, he’s planning on it,” she whispers.

“No, he’s not,” I say back. Then a rock fall starts.

Pepper, Granite and I take off towards the rocks away from the fall, then Chapman stops us.

“Here’s your death Odair!” he yells trying to pick me up. I squirm. He must be strong because I am tall and about one hundred-twenty seven pounds. I struggle against him, and finally I break loose and keep running. Chapman’s running the other way. The girls are following me, how did I not see that one coming.

We finally get to a spot with enough covering where we can’t get crushed by the rock fall. Three cannons go off, hopefully one of those is Chapman’s.

“My brother probably died in that,” Granite cries. I hug her and she stops crying. Funny how I have that effect on people. Pepper hears something and has a knife out. She is in her ready position and a mutt jumps from the rocks. It attacks and decapitates her instantly.

“Pepper!” I yell. She’s dead. Granite releases an arrow into them. One knocks her over. I spear it and they take off. I look at her.

“Granite?” I ask getting to my knees.

“Yeah?” she asks back.

“Are you ok?”

“No, what do you think, Im dying,” she spits back, that’s Granite for ya. The color of the ground is turning a blood red color.

“Shhh, your safe now,” I whisper putting her head in my lap as well as taking one of her hands.

“Win,” she stutters.

“I’ll try,” I cry. Good Show. I notice my own arm, one of those things got me. I talk Granite into her death and she gives me her weapons. She tears her jacket pocket and gives me a picture.

“Don’t forget me Odair,” she whispers as the life leaves her body.

“I wont,” I say as I close those beautiful green eyes of hers. I cross her hands over her chest and kiss her forehead. I start walking but now the full impact of my injury hits me and it overwhelms my body. I sink down beside a tree.

Chapman could be my enemy. Or anyone else for that matter. I mess with my arm but now its bleeding terribly. Then a parachute falls. I open it. ‘Get it together –Mags’ its ointment. I put it on my arm and instantly it starts to feel better and it lulls me to sleep.

Something hits my head. It’s another parachute. ‘win this –Mags’ I open it and see it’s a trident. I find some thick vines and weave a net. Then I start walking. My arm doesn’t hurt anymore. I wind up at the cornucopia. I see Chapman, he has that huge medicine ball type thing, great. I have my trident in my right hand and my net in my left. I slowly make it over.

“So Odair, see the fourteen year old kid made it, instead of my sister!” he yells.

“Well at least I was there for her!” I yell back. He swings that big thing and it knocks me off my feet. Im out of air. He starts walking over to me, so I recollect myself as much as I can and I quickly stand, and throw my net. He’s trying to cut himself out, but I lunge forward and release the trident. I hear a scream and Claudious Templesmith “Ladies and Gentlemen, the victor of the sixty-fifth Hunger Games, Finnick Odair!” I just won the Hunger Games.



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