if you just smile.

annie

( insanity at its sanest )

disclaimer: not mine.

Smile though your heart is aching,
Smile even though it's breaking.
-Smile, Charlie Chaplin

Annie Cresta was determined. Determined to not let these games change her.

Because when Finnick Odair, the boy she thought she loved, came back from the 65th Hunger Games, he was different.

She had run up to him eagerly, thrown her arms around his neck, and expected him to hug her back. Instead he pushed her away gently, patted her on the head, and said, "Save some for the others, sweetheart." Then he turned and winked at one of the reporters.

The following days were no better. He ignored her completely, ridiculed her even.

She was crushed. Heartbroken. This was not the same person that had left District 4 nearly a month ago.

The Games had changed Finnick. He was no longer the goofy, carefree boy that she had befriended on her first day of school all those years ago. No longer her best friend.

All that he did after his homecoming damaged her beyond repair.

But she kept up her smile. She kept it up. For him. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much he had hurt her.

She tried to ignore all the whispers about her in the hallways at school. She shrugged off all the sympathetic smiles and words of encouragement. It only made her hurt more.

But still she smiled.

She tried not to think about the times when she was leaving Mags' house in the Victor's Village, and had heard sobs drifting out of Finnick's window next door.

She didn't think about them because she didn't want any false hope.

She smiled to forget.

The year Finnick won the Hunger Games was the year she made the decision to become a Career. She knew it was despicable. District 4 didn't have many Careers. The ones that they did have were arrogant morons, looking for fame and fortune.

But she needed to prove this to Finnick. She needed to show him that you can make it through the horrors of the Hunger Games and not be changed.

She was thirteen years old.

Oh, how naïve she was.

But still her smile stayed.

Five years later, she had not forgotten her promise to herself. So when they called the girl's name at the reaping for the 70th Hunger Games, Annie found herself leaping forward, waving her hand frantically in the air. "I volunteer! I volunteer as a tribute!"

She strode proudly onto the stage and took her place.

When she turned to face Finnick, she hoped to see admiration.

Instead she saw fear.

It took all her energy to screw her face up into a smile.