Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 1

Taiya sighed as she woke up. It was Reaping Day. She was only 14, her name was only in there 3 times, but the day still struck fear into her heart. She rolled over and checked her clock to see it was 6 am and smiled as she crept out of bed and got dressed. She quietly snuck out of her room and tiptoed down the stairs of her house and ran out the door and down to the docks. "Finnick," she smiled as she saw him already there.

"Should've known you'd be late," he smirked.

"Shut up, I'm not that late," she groaned, shoving him as she sat down next to him on the docks.

"No," he smiled. "Not that late. You nervous?"

"Finn... do we have to talk about that?"

"I think it'd be good to get it off your chest," he shrugged. "Your mom can be..."

"Yeah I know," she agreed. She didn't have the best relationship with her mom. "I don't need tesserae's though so my name's only in there three times, same as you. I doubt we'll get picked."

"Yeah well if there's anyone in four who doesn't need a tesserae it's you."

"Being the Mayor's daughter isn't all it's hyped up to be you know that," she muttered.

"I know," he nodded before they fell silent. "Theo's name is in there 6 times," Finnick said, bringing up their other friend.

"He shouldn't have taken those tesserae's," Taiya sighed. "I could've gotten his family food."

"He's too proud for that Tay, it's not your fault."

"He won't get picked," Taiya resolved. "There are so many names in there."

"Do you remember when we met?" Finnick asked his best friend, changing the subject so they could both cheer up.

"Duh," she said rolling her eyes. "I was so mad at you," she said looking over at him and seeing an evil glint in his eyes. "No, no, Finnick!" she laughed as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her from the edge of the pier into the water. As soon as they hit the water, he released his hold on her and they both kicked their way up to the surface laughing. "You're such an ass," Taiya said between the laughter. "It wasn't funny when you knocked me in the water then and it's not funny now," she giggled.

"Excuse you, it was very funny," Finnick smirked and she rolled her eyes and splashed him. "Well now you're in trouble," he said as he went to splash her back, but she dived underwater and started swimming away. "Slow down, truce?" he called as she popped back up.

"Fine," she said as she swam back, she could tell something was bothering him. "What is it?" she asked.

"Real talk?" he said and she nodded. "Say I do get reaped..."

"Finnick."

"Let me finish. Say I do get reaped, or even if you or Theo get reaped, what would we do? I mean when we have classes at the academy all we three do is play around, we don't concentrate like the others. Doesn't that put us at a disadvantage?"

"Maybe," Taiya nodded, there was no point lying. "But Finnick, reapings are going to happen every year, and we'll be in it until we're 18. I know we should probably focus more on training but you and Theo are always top of the class. There's no point making ourselves miserable until we're 18, time is precious Finn, we need to enjoy life while we have it."

Finnick gave her a small smile before his demeanor changed to joking and he said, "well if I do get reaped I'll have no problem getting sponsors, I'm overloaded with charm," he said with a wink.

Taiya rolled her eyes, "yeah right Odair," she laughed. "We should probably head home, my mom will be mad if I'm late. Race you to the pier," she challenged before lunging and shoving him underwater so she could take off with a head start.