Liberosis - The Hunger Games

11

Sheer dread fills me the next day, it's the day of the interviews. This is the most important part of the games, where we convince the sponsors we're worth their money. So much anxiety is going through my head that I barely notice Finnick creeping up behind me. "I caught you," I sing to the boy who lets out a groan at my words. I see his green eyes sink as he flops onto the bed beside me.

"I'm still winning," He responds defensively, referring to the number of times that he's scared me off my feet by sneaking up behind me. It's almost embarrassing that it's happened enough times to have become a game to him. I flopped down beside him and let him wrap his arms around my waist, "What's going through your head, Rory?" He asks me as I feel the warm light from the rising sun creep onto my skin.

"The interviews, how do I get people to like me?" I complain.

Finnick shuffled up to sit upright, I sit across from him cross-legged, "Are you kidding me? Everyone's going to love you, you've got me as leverage," He exclaims, I giggle as Sylvia brings in two trays, claiming that she thought we might like to spend breakfast by ourselves, we both thank her as she leaves the room. Finick dives into eating some kind of flaky pastry and I begin to nibble on a sweet piece of pineapple.

My face sinks when I go back to my conversation with President Snow yesterday, "Yeah, about that," I sigh, "President Snow has asked me to refrain from pretending to be in love with you," I explain, biting on another piece of fruit. Finnick's pastry drops from his mouth as his face visibly pales, I would be concerned at the expression but the way that his mouth is stuffed full of food reminds me of a chipmunk and I begin to laugh, he laughs alongside me, even though it's clear he has no idea why I'm laughing. We regain composure a little while later and I bring back the conversation we were just having, "So I guess I'll have to make myself more likeable, huh," I sigh.

Finnick shakes his head, "You're plenty likeable, I've liked you since the day I met you,"

I blush at his comment, I know I shouldn't, he didn't mean it like that "And you proved that by hitting a guy over the head for me?" I raised my eyebrow.

Finnick shrugged shamelessly, "He deserved it,"

He's right, while we were seven at the time, I don't think either of us regrets the several detentions that both of us got when Finnick hit that kid over the head. It was our first day of training, none of us had ever touched a weapon before, I went for the trident because to a seven-year-old it looked like a really big fork. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, I just assumed it was for a really big bowl of spaghetti or something.

I took one of the weapons of the rack when another boy walked up to me and started making fun of my dress. He said that pretty girls weren't allowed to fight with tridents because they were too weak. He kept making fun of me to the point where I felt like crying when a clang of metal sounded, there stood seven-year-old Finnick holding a trident, the other kid crying on the floor. "Don't listen to him, pretty girls can use tridents if they want to," He said to me as a teacher ordered both of us to the detention room, we linked arms and pranced off into the classroom. We've both been fighting with tridents ever since, inseparable in both detention and combat.

And now, I was about to be separated from him for good, I'd had this fear before Finnick won his games. I was overjoyed when he came back to me and here, he is, about to lose me. The only thing holding me back is him but then I think of Thorn, who I owe so much to for protecting my brother. It has to be me to go, so I decide to spend the rest of my days of freedom with Finnick, every waking and sleeping second of it.

Finnick was ok with that, whenever I went anywhere, he was the first to escort me, we had trained with tridents, learned about plants, painted each other (Finnick wasn't the best but he still gave it a go) and even danced. I loved to dance, we'd both learned together for school when a strange lady from the Capitol wearing a swan feather dress taught us. We both like the District Four dances better, the ones that we have traditionally done in the shallows of the water, waves splashing around our ankles.