Everyone wants to come to tea with her. It's as if they think somehow that this one thing makes her into a lady rather than a killer, like trading in a knife for a teaspoon means she's one of them.
Funny, it's a thing that used to earn her the scorn of the other trainees in the center; they called her a girl like it wasn't true about half of them too. It used to earn her scorn, because they couldn't quite realize that maybe there's a certain precision to the thing, or maybe there's a particular reason the civility of taking tea sounds so very Capitol.
The Capitol loves her, like it loves any pretty young victor.
And she smiles for them, because she's good at it.
She's used to it.
The length of ribbon twines between her fingers, tucked away from prying eyes under the table. It's a comfort, a relic from times past, and it's not as if at this party of hers she can go and get her knife. Some party, anyway.
Smile.
That's what they want from her anyway.
Galleries, interviews, pictures with her family at the gates of Victor Village back in Two, everything's a bloody photo op. But it's what they ask of her. She's at tea, it's worth the little courtesy of pretending they are asking.
Smile.
If it's too big, it's too fake. If it's too small, it's not there.
She smiled for the victory tour posters, for real, back before she realized what it actually meant.
It's the days she really wants to start throwing knives at the one on the wall when they all disappear from her kitchen, and the sharpest thing she can find in her supposedly impenetrable apartment is a toothpick.
She hates that damn smile.
A/N: So, that's the introduction of Turning Right to Look Left, which as you may have guessed is an attempt to tell two sets of Hunger Games at once; the 54th games, and the 60th.
The point of view character is Ressa Valora; the victor of the 54th. We're running two sets of games at once, one which we know the ending to, and the other which is still up in the air. SYOT is open to both games; 54th tributes are already dead but will get perhaps a more personal look, and 60th will mean a chance to live, but they'll probably be seen from a more outside perspective. Not to say Ressa is telling the entire story; we will feature tributes, but she is responsible for a large portion.
SYOT rules and other information, along with form, are on my profile. I hope you enjoy Turning Right to Look Left, thus far I have no intention of abandoning it (of course, who does from the first chapter?) and that you'll submit, if you'd like, review, and follow~
-Celtic.