"Back straight, Katniss. Don't slouch, it makes you seem lazy."
Katniss grits her teeth and stops slouching. Her feet hurt from having to stand all day and Effie's overly cheerful-yet-exasperated voice is driving her crazy.
"Oh, give her a break, Effie. Day's almost over anyway."
Katniss lets out a breath and mouths thank you to Cinna, who's standing in the doorway.
"She's supposed to be evaluated in day after tomorrow, Cinna," Effie snaps. "She's nowhere near ready."
"She's perfect," Cinna says, rolling his eyes at Effie. "The men will be falling all over themselves to get her."
Katniss smiles. She's not good at this, she's aware of that, but Cinna manages to make her feel better, and that's why she likes Cinna so much. He makes her feel welcome, and like she's worth all the effort. "Go on," he tells her. "Grab some food and get to sleep early as you can, hear? You've got a big day tomorrow."
Effie starts to protest, so Katniss nods and makes her way out of the room as quickly as possible. She heads to her room and steps inside. She closes the door, shutting out any light from the corridor, and stands in the darkness of her room, breathing in the musty smell. It takes her a moment, but she reminds herself to go through the motions.
Change. Go to the dining room. Eat. Make sure your back is straight. Wipe your mouth with a napkin. Go to your room. Brush your teeth. Change into pajamas. Go to sleep.
And only when she's in bed, with the lights off and her face buried into her pillow, she lets herself think it.
I'm going to be married.
They pay a lot for mail order brides. It's why she signed up in the first place. There never was enough game. She would stay from dawn till dusk, sometimes even longer, and she still wouldn't have enough to trade for all the things her family needed.
The new buildings, the construction everywhere, the stifling smell of burning coal, was what scared away the game. She had to do this, for Prim, for Gale and his family. Because they needed the money, and they paid a lot for mail order brides.
It's almost like a mantra that she repeats in her head, just to get through the day.
"Katniss, keep your back straight," Effie's voice is strained this time. They're both tired, even though it's barely noon. They've been at table etiquette for almost two hours now. The worst part, Katniss thinks, is that she doesn't get to eat any of the food.
"Yes, ma'am," Katniss says, and she straightens up.
Effie sighs. "Let's move onto something else. You're decent at this now."
Cooking's next, and Katniss suffers through it. She is not a good cook. She knows how to throw everything into a pot, let it simmer, and make stew, but there is little else she knows how to do. Effie is suffering too, and Katniss can see that Effie doesn't have any hope for her. It stings, just a little bit, but Katniss doesn't have any hope for herself either, so she brushes it off.
"Back straight, Katniss." Effie's voice is weary.
"Yes, ma'am." Katniss's voice is too.
"Remember to always smile," Effie instructs. She straightens Katniss's dress. "Keep your back straight."
"Back straight," Katniss repeats in monotone. "Yes ma'am."
"Come on, Katniss, put a smile on." Cinna says, giving her a winning smile. "Like mine. Please? Just for me?"
And Cinna looks so pouty and sad that Katniss smiles. He sees Katniss's smile, and grins like he's won a marathon. "Break a leg," Cinna says. "Go on, then."
"She'll be fine." Effie says determinedly. "She can do this. Right, Katniss?"
Katniss stares at Effie, surprised. Effie wasn't what Katniss thought she was. "Yeah," Katniss says. "Yes, ma'am."
Effie smiles at her, then pushes her into the room.
She can do anything she wants, the camera crew tells her. They're just going to film her doing it. They won't get in the way, won't say anything, she just has to do whatever her instructor taught her to do for thirty minutes.
Just thirty minutes. She can't believe it. Her sessions with Effie drag on from seven to six thirty.
So Katniss gets to work, chopping up vegetables that she'll put in her stew, the only somewhat edible thing she can make. She remembers to keep a smile on, and to keep her back straight. While the stew is simmering, she cleans the cutting board, rinses the knives she used, finds a broom and starts to sweep the floor. The stew is done not too long afterward, so she puts the broom away, and ladles out the stew into some bowls.
She pauses. Katniss isn't sure what to do next. So she looks at the camera man, the one that's just standing by the tripod, and asks, "Would you like some?"
She can see it's a first for any of them, and they laugh a little bit. He accepts it, and cameras swing toward him while he eats. "It's good," He tells her. "Really good."
"I'm glad you liked it," she says, taking the bowl back. "I hope you don't get food poisoning from it, if you're lying for my sake."
The crew laughs again. She likes making them laugh, so she starts up a small conversation with them while she washes the dishes. Before she knows it, the thirty minutes are over. She leaves the room, and Effie and Cinna are waiting for her.
"How did it go?" Cinna asks, standing up.
"I think it went well," Katniss says, smiling.
"I knew you could do it!" Effie trills, hurrying to hug Katniss. Katniss wraps her arms around the smaller woman awkwardly.
"Look at that smile," Cinna says. "You should glue it on permanently."
Katniss tries to glower at Cinna, but she can't. She thinks she might pull through.
A/N: This story is inspired by PoppedTheP's Love You Long Time. Go check it out! It's amazing! Unfortunately, Fanfiction's a bit weird where it won't let me put in a link, so you'll have to look it up on Google manually. It's usually the first result though, if you use their username and story title together.
Also, since I just know there's going to be questions about this, Katniss is currently going through a one-week training program on how to be a good wife, kind of like a boarding school for women and how they have the etiquette lessons and such. At the end of the week, she's filmed doing the things she learned, which will be put up on the mail order bride site as sort of her profile.
Is it obvious that I didn't do any research about mail order brides? Because I didn't. Sorry, guys. I'm pretty sure they don't have this whole training program-filming contraption I made up. I just wanted to put this in.