-Santana Villanueva, co-Head Gamemaker-
I collapse into a seat of a small study cramped with books. It's the first I've sat down all day.
I put my head down on a table, savoring each second of quietness I can get.
"Er… Miss Villanueva…?" I hear a familiar voice in the doorway, one that I can stand to listen to. He owns this office and I'm sure he's wondering what I'm doing here when there's still piles and piles of work to be done. He's a friend of mine, but we keep formality in the workplace. I met him in university, he edited all my papers for me (and he's a very critical editor). "…Are you alright?" he asks, grabbing a book of Games History from 35-45 and sitting by me.
His eyes, naturally brown but now a soft pink, look at me and sparkle with concern.
"I'm fine."
"I'm speaking to you now as a friend. Santana. Are you really alright?"
I sigh. "I'm fine, Ross. Just tired. Exhausted. I had to get away from all that noise and chaos. It reminds me so much of-"
"Eeeyyyy, there you are!" comes a loud voice from the doorway, that makes my head pound. I look up and see my co-Head Gamemaker standing there, flipping dark black hair out of bright blue eyes. "Been lookin' for ya!"
I groan. Looks like the sweet moments of silence have come to an end.
"How are things looking?" I ask, standing up and grabbing a clipboard. I like to keep thinks strictly professional when at work.
"Fine. Had about twenty people asking questions at a time. But what can you do?" he shrugs with a grin.
"Mr. Bundren, sir," my friend and associate starts, "Please try to be quiet. This is a room of study."
"Oh, Ross. You can call me Diesel!" This guy has no sense of professionalism at all. Sometimes I can't believe that he even got this job at all. "Now hurry, my dear Santana, we have an interview very soon and you look like a rat that just crawled out of the sewer!" He leaves, laughing loudly.
"Sorry for him," I sigh.
My associate and working Games theorist Ross McCafferty pats me on the shoulder, gently. "Just be patient. Surely President Snow will soon see that putting Diesel in charge was a horrible idea."
"He won't." I cross my arms. "You could see him behind that computer, Ross. He's very smart and a technology whiz. He has stage presence. He's loud and a bully and gets people to do what he says. He's creative. He served as a Peacekeeper. He's flirty and attractive, and everyone wants him to fuck them. He's everything a Head Gamemaker should be. It doesn't matter to Snow if he's an asshole." I twist a ring around my finger idly, without even noticing that I'm doing it.
"Well, you should go get ready for your interview," Ross says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You can do this. You're Santana Villanueva, remember? You can do anything."
I nod a bit, trying to believe that he's right. I walk to my dressing room to prepare for my interview.
My tan skin is covered by concealer and my prep team puts huge fake eyelashes on me that have gems on them. My mostly bkac, red-streaked hair is pulled up into a long, wavy, silky ponytail, and black and red extensions are put in to make it fuller.
I continue to twist the ruby-diamond ring around my finger (it's become a bad habit) as I change into a red and black dress that shows my curves. A dark metal tiara with red gemstones is put on my head.
I hold tight to a small golden locket, a last memory, as color is put on my lips and my eyebrows are done. My prep team complains that the dull gold locket doesn't match the rest of the outfit, but I refuse to take it off no matter how they may try to force me. I'll fight them off if it comes down to it. I'm a fighter, always have been.
When I'm ready, I'm escorted back out to meet my co-Head Gamemaker as the interviewer, Blaine Buchanan, gets the crowd excited for the 84th annual Hunger Games.
Diesel Bundren takes my arm. "Now just smile and pretend you actually like me. Remember, Mommy and Daddy are watching." He grins at me.
"I hate you," I spit at him, scowling. He puts strong arm around my waist, securing me tight to his side.
"You're repulsive," I say, crossing my arms.
He laughs. "I love you too." He sighs, smiling dreamily (though mockingly). "Santana, my dearest fiancé."
~.~.
It's a great thing when I'm able to crawl into bed after the big spectacle is over.
I'm able to sit in bed, in silence, in my own neat, organized place, silent, peaceful. My own place, though, is soon to be surrendered with a heavy heart to Diesel's disgusting mansion, all because my parents have wanted me to marry him since we were 11. I have no other choice.
I sit on my bed, and smoke a cigarette, on a phone call with Ross.
"Are you alright? For sure?" he asks.
"Yeah. Just… The chaos, all those people fighting past each other to ask me questions… It just reminded me so much of that day…" I open the locket, look into the dark navy eyes of a face that is just smiling because he has to.
I know how it is, really. My opinion doesn't matter. Reputation is all to my parents, after all. He escaped, though, left all of us and now he's in the ground, buried in a coffin, never to submit to our parents again. He never said a word to me about anything, I thought he was fine.
He obviously wasn't. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.
A huge crowd gathered to see the spectacle of my brother ready to jump from the window. Press and interviewers tripped over themselves to find me and ask me ten thousand intrusive questions, all while I was trying to get to him, go up to his room (my parents said they were going, but I was a fool to believe them) to stop him.
Now, being a Head Gamemaker (co-Head Gamemaker, of course), it does nothing but bring that time back. I have my hologram of the Arena out on my lap, seeing every nook and cranny of my creation, trying to forget my thoughts.
Ross is still there on the other end of our call, and we sit in a familiar, comfortable silence.
It's just crazy to think that in less than a week, we meet our tributes for the first time. My stomach turns.
I turn off the lights, yawning.
I should really just try to sleep…
.
A/N: Welcome, one and all to this open, full 24/24 SYOT! The rules and information to know is on my profile, so if you're interested in submitting please check that out! This is an AU where Katniss was one year too old to volunteer, so the Games went on as normal, no rebellion included.
No guests, please. I'd prefer for you to submit by PM only. Sorry about that.
Alright, so the rules are on my profile so I'm not going to put them all on here. Please, read them before you submit. The form is also on my profile.
Alright, so this sponsor system WILL tie in to the series of sponsor systems I have for 1, 41, and 36, so if you read Voices, Instinctive Travels, and/or ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH!, then you're already ahead in terms of points. If not, and you want to build up points, you can still go and check out those stories and get lots and lots of points!
So here's how the sponsoring will work, if you're not familiar with my sponsor stories:
A favorite for this story will be 4 points.
A follow for this story will get you 2 points.
Any review you leave on this story will get you 5 points immediately.
Also, every chapter, I'm going to ask a question. There are no right/wrong answers, I just really want to know what you think. Answer the question in your review and I'll give you 5 additional points.
A review on one of my others stories will be 5 points per story from now on. However, if you read/answer chapter questions for Voices, Instinctive Travels, or ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH! you can boost your score for this story.
Also, everyone that submits a tribute gets 10 points. Anyone that submits a mentor or escort gets 5 points per character submitted. If I get lots of them I may let people submit Head Stylists too, but we'll see.
So, our first chapter question! What do you think of the three Capitolites in this chapter (Santana, Ross, Diesel)? Which one was your favorite and why?
Here are the people that have points on the board already:
Kate: 193
Dreamer: 156
Jess: 251
magicharity: 163
hopefuldreamer1991: 60
Sinfonian Legend: 225
xQueen-of-Applesx: 40
Lady Lysa Arryn: 56
rising-balloons: 75
superneet1214: 6
: 5
Coolgal02: 61
epictomguy: 34
Medium-Indigo (Guest): 60
AbbyCorabby123: 10
falyn. oliver: 43
seaotter99: 22
ThisWorldWeHate: 17
Blonde4ever: 62
Beauty. Is. Strange: 61
Ibbonray: 35
That's all I have! Check my profile for the rules, tribute list, and the like! Thanks for reading!
