"Okay, now I'm getting worried. You've been in there for days. What the Hell is wrong?"
Three months had passed since the initial arena design had been submitted, and five were remaining. Then the Fifty-Seventh Hunger Games would begin. Adona was ecstatic at this prospect, while, as usual, her sister was not.
She had taken up the habit of sulking around their mansion, playing with her jeweled facial piercings or styling her hair yet another time. Unlike the majority of the other Capitolites, however, she considered vanity to be foolish.
But now doing nothing productive was her only option while her sister became a celebrity.
Even her parents were now convincing her to apply for a job managing the Games themselves, or at least do something with the intelligence she was said to possess. She knew she was bright, she always had. However, being outdone by her sister was humiliating, especially when she was four years younger. Of course she didn't feel envy. How undignified would that be?
Odessa did find obscurity peculiar. Yes, people would nod to her on the streets, but that was nothing compared to the reactions her sister got when she finally pulled her nose out of a book. Their roles had been reversed, maybe permanently. After all, once you were an important Gamemaker, you were considered one forever. When you scored the best in your elementary classes, that was a brief fling with fame.
And only then did the older girl realize what the younger had to live with.
Adona spent most of her days cooped up in an office, but that didn't prevent her from emerging bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. How she did it, nobody knew. It could have easily been all fake. The only common knowledge about how she managed to do it was that every morning she would slip away into her room and emerge in the night.
The weight on her shoulders seemingly was not enough to stop her steady determination.
"No, nothing is wrong." She turned around, making sure to hide the devices and papers stacked on her desk from prying eyes, even if they were her sister's. "The others are working on construction and later we'll do mutts..." Her smile seemed unnaturally wide.
"Are you okay, though?" The older sister was completely willing to take the job, but didn't intend to form a bad reputation for herself. Cheating was considered a horrid act among these professionals, especially when pushed to the point of petty sabotage.
"Completely." She muttered under her breath. Was she annoyed? With attention?
How unlike her.
Adona waved. Surely her ever-so-brilliant sister would take a hint and leave. Odessa made intense eye contact with the assistant Gamemaker and nodded, before turning around and vanishing behind the door. After waiting a few minutes for Odessa to get out of earshot, she pulled out a small cubic device and tapped it several times, repeating a code.
"President Augustus?" She asked as her face was illuminated by the eerie artifical light of the device. The rest of the room was pitch black.
His face appeared before her, floating in the air. A hologram of his sneering expression lit up the area.
"You don't look well at all."
Adona bit back a snarky comment, one concerning the hideous state of his violet hair braided with gold. Even if she didn't sleep for a month, she wouldn't be able to achieve the ugliness he currently had. "I've been busy. Still able to keep up the persona, though."
He nodded, seeming briefly concerned. This faded away in an instant. "You're just the assistant. You know the primary focus will be on Amore."
Amore Glishade was perhaps the last person you would ever choose to become Head Gamemaker. She was in her forties, perhaps fifties, and had a fiery passion for killing the tributes. Amore had studied genetics for decades on end, perfecting her craft with horrific accuracy. This would make one think that she would be bitter and lethal.
Alas, she was a silent woman who was obsessed with cosmetics and alcohol. Rumor had it that the one reason she was promoted to the leader was because of that awful Gamemaker from last year, Antro something-or-other, who decided to kill off every Capitol favorite. The winner was the pesky Seven brat.
"I know, but, I mean..." She stuttered, "I'm the second-in-command. I deserve spotlight. I designed most of it while Amore, she didn't."
"Right." Augustus snapped, his face flickering for a moment. "But you need to learn."
"Yeah, but-" She protested.
"You're what, twenty, twenty-one?"
"Twenty..." Adona glared at her superior in frustration. Who ever said that mattered?
"With the appearance of a fourteen-year-old, the maturity of a twelve-year-old, and the exprience of a newborn baby." Adona balled her fists, but she couldn't do any true damage to him as a projection.
"Not fucking true..." Adona cracked her knuckles out of pure instinct.
Augustus held a cup of tea to his lips and sipped from it quietly. "Fine. Now, back to the Games."
"Okay," Adona said, pleased to be discussing something relevant. She hadn't made it this far on the path to her ambition to engage in mindless teasing, if you could even call it that. "The arena is under construction, but the genetic code of the mutts is still being figured out."
After a short pause during which Augustus lost all patience, he replied sternly, "Carry on."
"The mutts should be done in two months, and the arena in a tiny bit over four."
He nodded genuinely. This would work out. "So, it'll all be finished around," he hesitated, "Reaping day?"
"Yes, sir." Adona's hazel eyes narrowed as she analyzed the dates and figured out that the arena would indeed be completed in that general timeframe.
"Perfect." He smiled a toothy grin that was truly grotesque, and would still be even if he didn't wear a huge amount of makeup. "Let the 57th Annual Hunger Games begin."
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Hey, anyone-who-is-actually-reading. So, I've been busy with school lately and you may not get many updates. However, please keep submitting tributes so I can begin to write the Reapings. Thanks. :)