If You Dare (Finnick O'Dair)

Chapter 20

Sunday

Our train was due to leave the station at 7am, which didn't give us much time to get ready and stuff but we made it anyway. We said our goodbyes to Haymitch and Mrs Everdeen and thanked them for everything. I probably won't actually get to see Haymitch again until the 75th Hunger Games which is quite depressing. We made a sharp exit from district 12 and made ourselves comfortable on the train.

"Want a game of sudoku?" Finnick asked as he pulled two puzzle books and two pens from his bag

"Is sudoku not a one person game?"

"Yeah but I have two books- one for you and one for me"

"Okay then" I replied, "I'm gonna whoop your ass at this sudoku stuff"

"Oh so you want to make it competitive?" He raised an eyebrow

"You bet I do" I smirked

"Bring it on, Hawthrone" he got quite excited, "first person to complete the puzzle wins"

"Okay, cool. So what am I going to win"

"Don't get overly confident, Renae. I'm the sudoku puzzle champion" finnick bragged

"We'll see" I smirked

Finnick handed me a puzzle book and we began doing the sudoku. To be honest, I had never played this game before. I had no idea what I was doing! I was just putting random numbers into random places. I just really wanted to see Finnick get all competitive and stuff. He's really cute when he's like that. I looked over to Finnick; he had his tongue stuck out slightly and his eyes fixed on the piece of paper. A few moments later, he shouted- to the whole train- that he had won. He was really happy and that made me really happy.

"I told you I would win, Renae" he smiled, poking me in the arm with his pen

"Yup, you did. Congratulations" I shook his hand

"So" he started, "because I won, and winners always get a prize, I'd like to take you to dinner tomorrow night when we get back in the Capitol. And because I won, you can't reject my offer"

"I wasn't going to" I smiled, "I'd love to go to dinner with you, finnick"

"You would?" he gasped

"Of course I would" I cheesed. Wow. I was going to dinner with Finnick O'Dair. My stomach filled with butterflies just at the thought of that.

For the first time in forever, I was actually genuinely nervous about going out somewhere with someone. What will I wear? How will I do my hair? How will I do my makeup? Okay, let's be honest- I'll probably wear something black, straighten my hair and wear all the same dark makeup that I normally wear. Nothing really changes for me, which is sort of a good thing because you should never change for other people just because they've got a problem with you. It's also not a very good thing because change is good- to a certain extent. Did that even make sense?

"Renae" finnick waved his hand in front of my blank face, "hellooooooo"

"What are you doing?" I scrunched up my face and pushed his arm away from my face

"Do you want something from the snack bar?"

"Sure. Get me something chocolate"

"Any particular preference?"

"Snickers are my favourite"

"Aw so you like the nuts, do you?" Finnick laughed at his terrible joke

"Just go get the chocolate, finnick" I scoffed but secretly smiling inside

When the train left district 12, an ounce of sadness trailed through my heart. I don't know why I was unhappy- I hate that place. It's so boring, there's nothing to do, it's always cold and it always smells of ash and coal. But that's my family's home. I can easily leave that place but they're stuck there forever.