Solitaire Chiarella, Head Gamemaker

I sit up in my bed, shuffling a deck of cards in my hands idly. It's been a long day at work, meeting with imbeciles I don't like and putting together the arrangements for the 36th annual Hunger Games. Sometimes a girl just needs time to relax, and night time is that time for me.

Now, after a nice relaxing bath, I take a seat in my beautiful, satiny, canopy bed. My bedroom is quite large, as is my house in general. I went to school and put in a lot of work to get to where I am, so I don't feel very bad about treating myself every now and again.

I deal out my cards for the game I was named after. One of the only card games you can play alone, drifting off into my deep pool of thoughts.

I love my house. The parlor is perfect for parties, though I never have them because I'm always out working. There are a good number of bedrooms and guest bedrooms, and I have my very own bedroom (the largest of them all) and master bathroom. The kitchen is large and always squeaky clean, not to mention always stocked full of good food. The living room is full of comfortable couches, and the porch is the perfect place to relax and drink lemonade on a warm summer day. The balcony overlooks the most beautiful part of the Capitol and is a great place for drinking red wine on a warm summer night with a gentle breeze. I've definitely enjoyed my time here so far, and I hope to enjoy many times to come.

But, you never know how soon your job: or life: will end as a Head Gamemaker.

I hear a small knock on the door to my bedroom, which snaps me out of my thoughts. Here's living proof that being a Gamemaker's pretty serious. I look up, and when I see who it is, I nod at my Avox.

"Come on in, Kelley."

The boy walks in and hands me a saucer and cup of tea, standing obediently and waiting for another command.

My mind goes into thinking before I give him another command, though.

I've heard of: and seen: people that badly mistreat their Avoxes. And I've especially dealt with people that have much more than just five. But that's not really how I work.

Each of my Avoxes goes by their name. They get two bedrooms: one for boys and one for girls. They have access to my bathrooms and select cabinets in my kitchen. I don't hurt them or abuse them, though sometimes I will have to reprimand them. Honestly, treating them as humans gets you some much higher-quality work. Seeing thin, bleeding, begging Avoxes makes me upset.

After all, that's what the Arena is for.

Kelley O'Callaghan was quite the rebellious young Avox. His older brother Edward was the Head Gamemaker for a while, the longest that one single person has held the position. He made the cleverest Arenas, and his Games were always entertaining. But, after successfully screwing everything over, his whole family was punished. I think it had something to do with the election of President Frederick Milonious, who rules with an even stricter hand than President Augustus.

They called it the biggest scandal to ever come to light. Turns out Edward was messing around on the side with some die-hard radicals. Though they never had evidence that he was doing any kind of planning or treason, that's what they convicted him of. Sentenced him to death. Then, on the down-low, they turned the rest of his relatives into Avoxes. Kelley was an angry little Avox, but over time he's come to accept his fate.

As for me, I got to replace Edward's replacer's replacer's replacer as Head Gamemaker.

Last year's Games was one of the most successful of all time. This year, 36, is my first year at the job. Last year I did a lot of shadowing and Training, so I feel very prepared to take the initiative. It's going to be hard to rival last year's excitement. Even with another O'Callaghan Arena, the 26th Games were horribly less exciting than the first ever Quarter Quell, where the Districts had to vote away their tributes.

I have a list of my Arena ideas in my notebook, but I just can't decide. I just keep going back and forth. I have to have a design and concept in by the end of next week, though, and at least an angle by Saturday, which will be my first interview.

Finally, I glance at Kelley's dark, green eyes and remember that he's been standing here while I got lost in thought.

Sighing, I collect the cards and pat the spot on the foot of my bed, across from me. "Sit." He obediently lowers and takes a seat as if he's never had a fine bed like this one of his own.

"Let's play a game." He nods a bit. I deal out the cards mindlessly without even figuring out what I want to play. He watches me silently.

He takes a notepad and a pencil from his pocket and scribbles down, What do you want to play? After a pause, he takes it back and adds, Mistress?

I think for a second, biting my lip and realizing how nice it is to be without crazy make-up all over my face all the time. Finally, I shrug.

"War?"

He nods, scribbling down quickly, Terrible war.

I laugh at his joke and shuffle my cards thoughtfully. My eyes soon shift over to the maroon notebook sitting on my nightstand, filled with eight different concepts and sketches and ideas. Suddenly, an idea pops into my head and I gasp a little bit.

Why do I have to decide? I'll just leave it up to fate!

I feel enormously relieved now that I at least have an angle for my interview, and I finally allow myself to relax and play war with Kelley for the rest of the night.

~.~.

"Ms. Chiarella." Yin looks just about as unhappy to be here as I am to have him here. But, he is the interviewer, and I have to be civil with him.

"Good morning, Mr. Kozart," I greet him curtly.

"So, uh, we should rehearse for our Games interview?" I nod a bit and let him into my living room.

Yin Kozart is someone who I dislike as a person and as a stage presence, but I can't do anything to change the fact that both of us need these jobs. Besides the fact that neither of us ever cared for the other, I beat him out for the promotion to Head Gamemaker, and that pissed him off.

"Please, have a seat. Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please." This is the most awkward part of my job. I'd be perfectly content if I never appeared in front of the Capitol people, and could work all by myself, but there are no Games jobs out there that you can get away with solitude.

"Claire," I look up at my youngest Avox, who is also an expecting mother. "Go make some tea for two. Please." She nods obediently and goes off to the kitchen.

Yin raises an eyebrow at me, pushing the glasses up his nose. "Ms. Chiarella, dare I say that you treat your Avoxes remarkably well."

"Mr. Kozart, why don't you keep your nose out of other peoples' business?"

"I'm an interviewer," he says, lounging back and making himself right at home, flashing me a snotty smirk, "It's my job."

I sigh. "Yeah, because you didn't get that promotion…" His stupid smirk dissolves quickly into a scowl.

"Right."

Now I feel the smirk dancing across my features, and I don't stop it. After all, I am the Head Gamemaker.

I lounge back, letting myself feel at home, "Fire away your questions."

He nods, trying to compose himself and maybe getting some metaphorical Aloe-Vera for that sick-ass burn. Then he gets into his stage-personality and starts the "interview."

"Well, today we have with us, the Head Gamemaker. Yes, Solitaire Chiarella is here, today, and what an honor and a pleasure it is to have her." He makes a face. I roll my eyes, aghast at his immaturity and his pure resemblance of a giant twat.

Claire comes back with the tea just then and hands each of us a cup. I nod and whisper a "Thanks," before she nods and waits for me to give more orders.

"That's all for now, thank you."

Yin scowls and glances over. "Y'know, Solitaire-"

"You are a subordinate and you will call me Ms. Chiarella until I tell you that you can call me anything different."

He groans but doesn't dare call me by my first name again. "It's quite a scandal, if it were to be released that you thank Avoxes and feed them well… And that you haven't aborted that one."

"It'd also be one if I would bring up that affair you had with-"

"Oh, fine!" he says, throwing up his hands, "Forget I said anything."

After a long and awkward silence, I decide to break it with a laugh.

"Some interview," I remark, laughing, "We just both got each other fired."

"I need this job," huffs Yin, "Or else my family will disown me for losing it." He takes a deep breath.

I nod a bit, trying to drop the hatred and annoyance I have with him. "I need this job, too."

"Then, let's start over with this?" He glances over and holds out a hand to me. I'm not sure what this is, but I figure I can try to start over and maybe we can both be more civil to each other.

I shake his hand and he starts over, with his flashy Capitol smile that I personally am not a fan of (but wins over the masses remarkably well), "Thank you everyone, for your kind applause, and what a spectacle we have for you tonight!"

~.~.

"Thank you so much for joining us, Ms. Chiarella, it is such an honor!"

"It's really an honor to be here, Yin." I smile dazzlingly as I can as the bright lights hit my face and make me uncomfortably warm and practically blind. The applause hurts my ears and the crowd is naught but a black abyss that makes a lot of noise.

Yin holds my hand lightly and lets it go as I take a seat, and he sits in a chair next to mine.

We sit and wait for the noise to die out, like teachers in a busy, bustling school room. Eventually the applause stops and the crowd listens to us, and Yin starts the interview.

"So, Ms. Chiarella-"

I smile wryly. "Oh, please, do call me Solitaire."

I know it's unconventional, but I'm a bit of an unconventional Head Gamemaker. People like unconventional, and as long as I stay out of shady situations and give a rousing show of a Games, there's nothing wrong with unconventional.

"Oh, yes, of course…" Yin says, clearly surprised but with a good-willed smile. Finally, the crowd goes completely silent, and I can suddenly feel the excitement in the air. My stomach tightens with nerves as I prepare to give my idea to the world. I can only sit and hope that they like it.

"So, year 36. And I hear it's going to be a big one, no?"

"It might be hard to beat last year, but I can promise that this is also going to be a year not easily forgotten." I don't try to stop the smirkish smile that plays on my lips.

When I first got the position, I was the opposite of a crowd pleaser. I abhorred big crowds, and was much more snarky and sarcastic. I had to go through a crash course in crowd-pleasing with Yin, and it was definitely an interesting spectacle to see. I'm still not very good at having a stage presence, though Yin is excellent, which is probably why he was made an interviewer. I'm just a quiet, snarky girl with a lot of mechanical and creative vision, which is an angle I can go off of, as well.

But, for a Games as big as this one, quiet and shy is definitely not the angle that will sell the idea. Besides, the Capitol's still recovering from the O'Callaghan scandal though it was at least five years ago, and Edward was the quiet, mysterious type.

"So, what's it going to be?" he asks. The anticipation is palpable by now and I smile as charmingly as I can… Hopefully it's good enough….

I pull the deck of cards out from my pocket and shuffle them idly. There are only eight of them, old-fashioned playing cards that I got for a dollar fifty at the store.

"Pick a card, Yin." I say quietly into the microphone, allowing the words to slither out of my mouth deviously.

There are assorted exclamations from the crowd that suggest which one to choose, whether it be left or middle or right or sixth one…

Yin glances up, in a split second asking me with his eyes if there's one he should pick. I smile and shake my head the tiniest bit, winking for show, which causes some shouts and whistles from the crowd.

Finally, Yin decides and chooses a card out of the eight. I pluck it out of his hand with a squeak of delight. I think this one will really go over well.

"Well?" he asks, leaning in closer. I put the card back in my pocket.

"A good Gamemaker doesn't give away secrets too quickly," I muse quietly. "But I will say this. The fates of the tributes will all be up to the deck. They're going to be playing quite the game of chance… This year, I'm bringing the Games back to the Hunger Games!"

After a split second of terrifying and nervous silence, the crowd soon bursts into cheering and applause. I smile pointedly at Yin, I just can't help it.

"Well, there you have it folks! Straight from the Head Gamemaker herself!"

They applaud some more, so Yin takes my hand and we stand, hands high in the air. "Everyone, Your Head Gamemaker, Solitaire Chiarella!"

The crowd cheers and applauds and I breathe a small sigh of relief, a nervous laugh escaping my lips before I can stop it. "Thank you!" I shout, but it's not more than mouthing the words in the enormous noise. When the applause starts to die out slightly, I smile gracefully, turn, and walk off the stage, glancing at the card with my handwriting on it that says what the Arena is going to be.

I just hope that everyone likes the Arena, the concept, and the Games so I can stay alive and in the position for more years to come.

A/N: Hello, and welcome to the 36th Games! As you probably read in the summary, this Games is going to be a partial SYOT. The rules, form, and guidelines are on my profile, so please, I encourage you to check them out and shoot me a PM with your tribute. I will have eight tributes but six points of view. The only one left is the boy from District 7.

If you've already submitted a tribute, I'm already super excited about writing with them but please don't send another until I open it up. If I end up having to open it up to two (if I don't get enough submissions by a certain date), one of them must be a Day One death.

There will also be a sponsor system that is still being figured out because last time it was just too easy to get a ton of points. I do know that you can get points by answering each chapter question, which will be below.

Also, this Games is really going to be up to the cards in terms of fates, and everyone to submit will get at least one drawing of their character, to be posted on my Tumblr blog, so that's something to look forward to… If you want to see what I've done with it so far, go on my Tumblr, pomp-angrily-eating-turkey-legs, or just go to and search either the title of the story or the tag #celtic's syot

Anyways, thanks for reading this chapter and Author's note, and as soon as I get the girl from 3 you can expect the next chapter to be up!

CHAPTER QUESTION: How did you like Solitaire and her POV?