Puzzle Pieces • Finnick Odair

C H A P T E R 1

As the 18 year old girl woke up, rays of golden sunlight flying around her room, the comforting smell of saltwater filled her nose as the sounds of waves crashing against the golden shore entered her ears. Despite what she new would be occurring that day, a familiar smile reached her mouth as she dragged her tired legs out of bed and into her little brothers room.

"Ky," the childhood name of her younger sibling fell easily from her mouth, "time to get up, come on."

She pulled out his best clothes, Jacobs old clothes that were still in acceptable condition, out of the drawers, she figured she wouldn't attempt to trick the boy into a bath, he couldn't be reaped anyhow.

"Why? I don't get reaped." The young boy complained, pulling the thin sheets over his eyes as the sun threatened to blind him.

"Because we have to show support to the unfortunate two who are picked, little man."

"Fine. On one condition." A playful smile adorned his lips, making his sister smile back, "okay. What's the condition?"

"We bake cookies tomorrow."

He was grinning like a madman. This was his favourite activity to do with Jess, "alright then, you have a deal," the shook on it before Jess left the room.

She walked towards her older brothers room, which used to belong to their parents, knocking gently, "Jake, you up?" He answered with a muffled 'yeah'. "Ok, get changed and help Kylo, I'm getting a bath."

"Already on it," he says seconds before exiting his room in some of dads old 'good' clothes: a sailor shirt and clean pants with his only pair of shoes that weren't scuffed and scratched everywhere before wondering into Kylo's room. As she got in the bath and began to clean herself off, she heard giggles coming from down the hall and couldn't help but let the worry consume her now she was alone. Her brothers were both safe from the reaping, Jake being too old and Kylo too young so at least she didn't need to worry for them.

She, however, had been lucky enough to avoid the games til now which she tried to think as a positive. Maybe she's got good luck. But she couldn't help but notice the pit in the bottom of her stomach along with the bile in her throat threatening to rise.

Once satisfied she was clean enough, she wandered over to her bed looking at her mothers old dress. It used to be pristine white but had turned to a slight cream with age. She sighed before stepping into it. The dress was simple and reached just above her knees, tight enough to accentuate her slim figure due to their limited diet of free fish she and her brother would hunt. She smiled sadly as she looked at herself; she was the spitting image of her mother with the exception of her deep blue eyes which mirrored those of her dads.

The three siblings walked, hand in hand, with Kylo in the middle holding onto his older siblings. As they walked, Kylo mindlessly hummed their district song, just the way mum used to, as Jacob glanced over at his sister, eyes filled with concern to which she replied with a simple, fake but believable, smile. Though her brother knew her well enough to see straight through her strong front, he figured it was best not to push and let her stay strong for, little did he know, there was a hurricane of emotions whirling around her head behind that simple smile.

As they reached their destination, Jessica gave them both a quick hug and reassuring smile as she went to line up with the others. Her brothers stayed out at the back, watching all the 12-18 year olds gather together.

Jacob worried for his sister, he had gotten lucky and, even though she had been lucky up until this point, there was nothing saying this time, her last reaping, could be the time her name comes out of the bowl. She had too big of a heart to kill another human and he couldn't help but wonder, if it came down to it, could she do it?

AN: I've been trying to work on my writing technique, yk I'm trying to add more detail and stuff, I hope you can actually tell😭. Anyways, enjoy chapter 1.