Chapter 11
Annie Pov.
Finnick, Mrs. Odair, and myself start walking to school. Mrs. Odair says that she is an English teacher for our grade. Finnick and I are in 6th grade. Mrs. Odair sees one of the other teachers and goes to talk to her. Finnick and I sit in front of our first class.
"So who do you hang out with?" I ask. "Are you one of the popular kids?" I ask sarcastically.
"Whatever, I hang out with those kids." Finnick says pointing to a group of kids. They have to be the popular group. The girls are all pretty, the guys are all strong. At my old school I had about five friends and we were not popular. We weren't the bottom of the school popularity chart, but we weren't at the top. Something tells me Finnick is at the top.
"Come on, I'll introduce you." Finnick says, standing close to me as if he is like my body guard or something.
"Ok..." I say nervously.
"Hey guys." Finnick says.
"Hey Finnick happy birthday." One of the girls says. She's pretty, she has golden colored hair, brown eyes, and freckles.
"Thanks Bethany" Finnick says.
"So whose your friend Finnick?" She asks rudely.
"Annie this is Bethany, Bethany this is Annie."
"Nice to meet you." I say trying to be nice.
"It's always nice to meet me." She says cockily.
"Meow!" One of Finnick's friends says.
"Anyways we probably should head to math but we'll see you guys later okay?" Finnick says.
"Okay bye Finnick." Bethany says.
We walk towards math and I tell the teacher that I'm the girl from 6 who got transferred to 4. We sit down and class goes by pretty fast. We go to our next three classes which were English, science, and history. And then it's time for lunch. Finnick and I share the lunch that we packed together before school. His friends come over and sit with us.
"You guys share a lunch?" Bethany asked with an annoyed tone in her voice.
Finnick nods his head.
"Why? Poor girl from 6 doesn't have any money?" Bethany asks.
I put my head down and stop eating my food.
"Bethany will you shut up?!" Finnick yells.
"Aww how sweet" Bethany smirks. "Finnick is protecting his girlfriend." She starts laughing.
Finnick stands up. "Go" he says.
"Excuse me?!" Bethany asks with a surprised tone in her voice.
"You heard me, when you can be a good friend to Annie and I, you can join us for lunch. Annie and I sat here first so you're the one that needs to move." Finnick says sternly.
"You know Finnick, I never thought you would give up me, a true friend for some poor girl from 6 that you just met." Bethany says as she walks away.
I don't know what to do now. If Finnick and I were at home or alone I would hug him or something to say thanks. But we're in school and Bethany already called me his girlfriend and I don't want Finnick to be embarrassed.
"Thank you." I whisper when his friends are distracted.
When lunch is over, it's time for training. This is when the careers get to train. When we walk over, Finnick passes me a note. I open it up and read the letters that he had to write quickly. 'I got your back' is what it says. The crowd has gotten big and I lost sight of Finnick. I finally see him and I show him the note to tell him I read it. He winks at me and smiles. I turn away before I can blush.
The training is kind of intense. There is different stations of things we might need to learn for the hunger games. They have weapons, snare making, camouflage, edible and non edible plants, and shelter building courses. I'm not bad at knife throwing, but I could never throw a knife at someone. After the class is over I sit in front of the training gym and wait for Finnick. He comes out and he looks mad.
"Finn are you okay?" I ask.
"Yea just got into a little... Disagreement." He says mysteriously. I know he's hiding something I'm going to try to find out.
"What were you in a disagreement about?" I ask.
"You know people can just be annoying." He says still not giving me a complete answer.
"Finn, you have to tell me what goes on. Please just tell me what happened." I beg for an answer.
"Jerry, one of my friends, he made a comment about you, and I um Annie I don't want to talk about it." He says.
"Finnick, you can tell me." I tell him.
"I just got mad and I punched him in the face." He finally tells me the truth.
"Finnick why did you... You're going to lose all your friends because of-" I can't complete my sentence because he interrupts me.
"Annie, I'd give up any of my friends for you." He says softly.
"I don't want you to though. Don't do something you'll regret because of me." I tell him.
"You still don't get it do you? I'll protect you from anyone and anything." He reminds me.
"I don't want you to get hurt because your protecting me." I say.
"Annie, you're worth it." He says. Forgetting that we are at school I hug him. He hugs me back. Before I can stop him, he gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.
A million feelings rush towards me. We walk in silence and meet his mom by the lunch harbor.
"Ready to go to the beach?" Mrs. Odair asks.
"Yea I was just wondering if you had an extra bathing suite." I tell her.
"None in your size but we can go down to the store and buy you one." Mrs. Odair offers.
"It's okay, I can go in my shorts and tank top." I tell her.
"Nonsense, you need a bathing suite." She says. "We go to the beach a lot."
We walk over to a little clothing shop. I try on a two piece bathing suite that is baby blue it fits fine so I tell Mrs. Odair that the baby blue bathing suite is fine. We start walking to the beach where Finnick's dad is going to meet us. We get to the beach and change in the public bathrooms. When I come out I notice Finnick staring at me. I slowly walk towards the water and sit in the damp sand. Finnick comes up and sits next to me.
"Can you teach me how to swim?" I ask.
"Sure." He says.
We go out to the water. Finnick tells me to make circles with my arms at the same time and kick my feet quickly. Before I know it I'm swimming. If only I could do that when I fell off my boat. But then again if I could swim, I probably wouldn't have met Finnick. So I don't regret not knowing how to swim. Finnick and I swim around and splash each other. Neither one of us has mentioned him kissing me. I wonder what he was thinking when he did that. Maybe his dad was right. Maybe he does have a crush on me.
"Hey Finnick?" I ask before I can stop myself. I'm so noisy.
"Yes Annie?" he says in his usual tone of voice that always makes me laugh.
"What were you and your dad talking about this morning?" I ask like I don't know I guess I just want to know how he felt when his dad was talking to him about me.
"He basically asked about you." he says secretively, not wanting to reveal what was really said.
"What did he ask?" I ask pretending to be completely clueless.
"If I lie you'll probably figure it out eventually knowing you." he says with a smirk.
"Aw, you know me so well." I laugh "but tell me what you guys were talking about." I demand.
"He told me he thinks that I have a crush on 'you." he says.
"Do you?" I say with a smile.
"Hmm I don't know... you're kind of noisy." he says laughing.
"Changing the subject are we?" I ask with a laugh.
"Ok Ms. detective Annie." he says. "I want to wait before we rush things you know?" he asks.
"What do you mean by rush things?" I ask curiously.
"I mean we've been you know... Rushing a little." he says awkwardly.
"We have been rushing?" I ask "says the boy who kissed me." I laugh.
"Says the girl who liked it." he laughs.
"Not uh!" I yell.
We both laugh and walk up to shore with his parents. They bring fish to cook over a bonfire that Finnick's dad caught. We eat the fish and chit chat. After that we eat the cake that Finnick's parents bought him this morning and we sing him happy birthday. We eat the vanilla cake and I think to myself 'I've never ate cake before.' But I act as if I have ate it before because Finnick's parents think I'm from 4 like them.
We start walking home. Finnick and I walk behind so we can talk.
"So did you like when I kissed you?" Finnick asks curiously.
"Maybe I did... Maybe I didn't." I say mysteriously. I'm not going to admit it to him, but I didn't mind it.
"Do you really have a crush on me?" I ask him.
"Maybe I do... Maybe I don't." he mimics me.
We walk the rest of the way home. Finnick's parents tell us goodnight and we walk to our rooms. I decide to do something so crazy and without thinking when Finnick walks me to my room, before he talks I kiss him on his cheek like he did to me and say "like me now?" and I go in my room and fall asleep.