I'm thinking this will be two, possibly three chapters. So it's gonna be very short. =]
Their tributes are doomed. Effie Trinket always knows this from the very start. She looks into their terrified faces and knows that there is no hope. It's always the same. Huge, gray eyes. Shadows cast on their faces in places that should not be hollow. She has learned to keep the tears back.
She watches the stylists, shallow, flawed people, throw together outfits, costumes really, that in their Capitol minds are brilliant. She knows as soon as she sees the coal miner headpieces and black soot that no sponsor will bat an eye at these poor children. They won't be getting any help in the Arena.
So she does the best she can before she has to send them into the Arena to die. She keeps them on schedule, so they at least get as much training as possible before they actually have to use it. She drags them to every meal, not that they would skip one anyway, to ensure that they get strong and healthy. And she tries her best to make Haymitch Abernathy do his job.
She hated him at first. For several years, she hated him because he was making her look bad, and she was never going to be promoted to a better District when she couldn't even control her own mentor. And then she hated him for several more years because he was refusing to even try helping these poor children.
And then she started to realize that he is bitter. And the reason she is able to acknowledge this is because she is bitter too. She stops rolling her eyes when he reaches for the alcohol, because if it weren't for keeping up appearances, she would be reaching for it too. Hell, she would be fighting him for it, and she would win despite him having the advantage of being a Victor.
But she knows that someone needs to be strong for the kids. And since he obviously isn't going to be the one, she will have to take charge.
She she works harder. She makes the schedule tighter. She forces her smile more and more. And inside, she breaks. But she won't show it.
She will stay strong. Because she knows that no matter what, it will always hurt them more than it hurts her.