Thanks for the reviews, people, but I'd just LOVE more of them!
…That sounded creepy. Anyway, you deserve a nice long chapter, so heeeeere it is:
"Ready to see your interview outfit?" The hipster asks me, smiling. I just watched him warily.
He carries out this bag on a hanger, like the ones they use for wedding dresses. Oh, God, he's not going to put me in a wedding dress, is he? I think, and watch him unzip the bag.
Oh, it's not a dress. But it's not a mutation outfit, either.
Nope, The Hipster is putting me in black legging, brown lace-up boots, a white button-down with a dark green and silver tie loosely fitted in it, and (of course) geek glasses. It's like he just stole my outfit from today and added a tie and boots. Wow.
"Do you like it?" He sweeps his black hair out of his eyes and smiles.
"Not too creative, is it?" My tone is dripping sarcasm. His face falls. Woops.
"Well, I just thought- You'd feel… More comfortable, is all. I mean, I didn't think you liked the chariot outfit…. But…" He said, at a loss for words.
"I mean, I really like it. Thanks Hip-Alnodo." I almost call him Hipster. That wouldn't have been too good.
"I knew you would!" He beams at me, and then orders me to undress. Awkward. But, anyway, I take off all my clothes until I'm down to just my underclothes and put on his outfit.
Then he puts on makeup.
Augh. Makeup. It's like this gross goop that they slather on your face. What's the freaking point of it? There's no point. There. I said it.
Alnodo and my prep team carefully apply the stuff, while Ameliana just croons at me. "Oh, you're so pretty Amber! Oh, I love your hair, Amber!" I hate that woman. I end up getting off easy, with only some mascara to highlight my long eyelashes, a light bit of gold eyeliner, and some blush, which I don't understand, because it makes the pink oddly stand out on my pale face. Huh.
Finally, I am standing in front of the full-length mirror in my outfit and full makeup. My hair has just been put back in its usual tail, but different parts have been straightened and curled and dyed to make it look almost exactly like a fox tail. How embarrassing. But, I have to admit, The Hipster and his team of idiots haven't done a bad job. My face looks highlighted and nice, but they really extenuated the "foxish" look. The outfit is fit exactly for me, so it tightens and hangs in all the right places. And you know what? Suddenly, I'm really not nervous for the interviews or anything. Which is good, because next I find myself lining up in the correct order with all the other tributes.
"Hey," I get tapped on the shoulder. I turn quickly, and there's Josh, in a nice black suit and brown tie.
"Oh. Hey!" I smile at him. He looks nice. Actually, most of the tributes look a whole lot fancier than I do. Great. They probably don't have hipsters for stylists.
"You look… interesting." He says, rubbing his chin.
"Thanks," I say hesitantly, but then there's a buzzer sound, and Josh runs back to his proper place in the line as the District One girl walks out, followed by the boy. We all follow in suit, and my heart starts to beat faster.
I walk into the interview stadium, and am temporarily blinded. When my vision adjusts, I find myself in a big, sparkling blue room. Everything is a nice shade of royal blue, covered with sparkles. I smile a little at all the sparkle, and then I see the crowd.
Seriously, there are so many of them it's a little scary. They're all cheering like crazy, screaming different tribute's names. I hear shouts of "Glimmer", "Cato", "Katniss", and "Marvel", among a few others. I don't hear any shouts of my name, though. Expected. They'll learn to love me in the arena, don't you worry.
"Hello, Panem!" A man walks up to the stage as soon as we're all seated in our sparkling blue chairs. I have a sudden random urge to spin around like a 6-year-old, because I'm so nervous.
I don't spin.
"Welcome to the seventy-fourth Hunger Games Interviews!" The man, Caesar Flickerman, shouts to the crowd. He has perfectly porcelain skin and dark eyes. His lips, eyelids, and hair have all been painted light blue for this year. He always turns them a different colour.
The crowd is deafening, screaming for their favourite tributes.
Somehow, Caesar quiets the crowd. All of the tributes are fidgeting in their chairs nervously. The boy from District eight is actually crying. Only the Careers look composed. Well, I don't really know if I do, but I'm trying my best. Maybe I just look constipated.
"First of all, I'd like Glimmer Radina from District One to take the stage please!" Caesar calls. The District One girl comes up to the stage. She has creamy blond curls and a see-through gold dress. I try to look like I'm calculating her every word, but most of it gets lost, except for the important things.
Like, why am I supposed to care if she owns a dog at home? Or has a boyfriend named Tuxedo? I do make a mental note that she plans to work with the other careers (Obviously) and that she's good with a knife. Huh.
Then her buzzer sounds and Marvel, the boy from their district, takes the stage. He's wearing a sparkling white tuxedo and a gold tie. His black hair is slicked back, and he pretty much looks like a gay rapist. I have to smother my laughter.
But he doesn't drop any hints about what he's planning for in the arena, but he seems like a really annoying guy. I hope he dies soon.
The girl from District Two is called Clove, and her brown hair drapes over her shoulders and halfway down her back lazily. Her black dress is short and evil-looking, and same with her personality, she's not really a crowd pleaser. I've seen her in training though, and she can throw knives like no other.
I'll keep an eye out for her.
The boy from her district is this giant named Cato. He looks like he's never missed a meal, or a trip to the gym. You can tell that he already has sponsors lined up, because of his ferocious personality and "killer instincts". He's really stupid though, you can tell. This guy is a total Career, through and through.
The girl from District Three is this 14 year old girl with dark skin and two braids, and she doesn't give anything away to anyone. I don't even know if she knows how to hold a knife correctly.
Probably not. I can kind of tell that she was trying for the "cute little girl" angle, but it didn't really work, seeing as she's much taller than anybody, except for maybe Cato.
Her partner looks like a total geek, with the glasses and everything. He's trying some sort of "sexy geek" approach, but it's not working, seeing as he's not sexy one little bit, and he's just about soaked through his black tux with sweat. Ew.
District four's girl has pretty dark brown hair that goes almost to her waist, and she's in a light green flowy dress that reaches the floor. She is light and bubbly, cute and silly, and a bunch of guys from the crowd are wolf-whistling at her by the end of her interview. Funny, she doesn't say anything career-ish like "I'm going to kill everyone that gets in my way" or "Don't worry Panem, I'll be back in about two weeks." She actually appears quite kind.
Not that I believe that at all.
I'm embarrassed to say that I missed District Four's boy's interview completely, because I was trying to get my body to stop twitching. My interview is coming up, and I'm completely unprepared. What if there's a question that I don't know how to answer? What if the whole country hates me? Stay calm, I tell myself while envisioning Jesse's face in my mind. Calm.
Then Caesar is shouting "Okay, let's hear from Amber Kwanee all the way here from District Five!" and I'm walking up to him, and we're shaking hands, and I'm trying not to shake visibly in front of the crowd.
"So, Amber, how do you like the Capitol?" He asks me. A typical easy question. I'm about to answer
"It's great and pretty" when I think, No, Foxes wouldn't say it's great. Think like a fox. No, be a fox.
So instead, I say "It's alright, but I'm not really a fan of big cities." I'm like a fox, slinking through this interview.
"So what are you a fan of?" Caesar asks with a smile on his blue lips.
"Forests. Big forests, ones that I can run in and slink around quietly, hunting." I reply. It's mostly true, anyway, but I've never hunted before.
"Do you get much of that at home in District Five, though?" The interviewer asks me, skeptical.
"Not if you play by the law," I smile sideways at him. He looks startled. There. Now they'll all think I'm some big unruly gangster fox back at home. I wonder if Jesse is watching me. I wonder what he'll think of this.
"I see…" Caesar checks the timer. Two minutes, 30 seconds left. "I like your outfit. What do you think of it?"
I snort. Woops. "It's okay, I guess."
"How do you like your stylist, Alnodo?"
"Uhh… He's…. an interesting person." Make that total hipster, but whatever.
Caesar is getting bored with this topic. "So, tell us about your home life so far away from here."
Oh, boy. "Well," I begin, not sure where to start. "I've got foster parents, but they don't like me much. Uh, I am in all the mutation classes at school, because I plan to be a mutation engineer when I'm older."
"So you're planning to come back?"
"Aren't we all?"
That shut him up. "How about a boyfriend? Got a nice northern love story for us?" Ugh.
"Not really. I mean, I have a boyfriend and stuff, but it's nothing special." Hearing the words out of my mouth, I really hope Jesse is smart enough to realize that that's not what I really mean.
"Oh? Then what's this?" He points to my ring.
I don't answer. Just glare at him, with still a minute to go.
"Do you have a strategy for the arena?" He changes the subject smartly.
"Uh huh." I reply nonchalantly.
"Care to share?"
"Oh, well, it's just kind of playing the Games how they're supposed to be played. Secretly, smartly, evilly, trickily. It's all up in my book, ready to be played out."
"Are you good with any particular weapons?"
"I guess I'm pretty good with a knife. My real weapon is my brain, though." I reply.
"I see. So are you going to set traps or what?"
"Oh, you can bet on that."
"I can't wait to see you in the arena." He says finally as the buzzer sounds. The crowd cheers for me. It actually cheers. How nice! Whatever.
Then Tommy's up. His interview goes nicely, and when Caesar asks him if he's afraid of me, he looks right at me and says "not really." And that kind of sends a shiver up my spine.
The District Six kids are really sad, and not to mention kinda ugly. No offense to them, but when they get killed, I hope it's quick, for their sake.
I sigh. The rest of the night is going to be really long.
District Seven has a 16 year old with spiky black hair and gothic makeup on. She is going all-out on the emo perspective, and so I guess that means she'll be dead at the Cornucopia.
Josh's interview goes nicely, he's charming toward the crowd, and they all love him. I really hope I don't have to kill him. That would be really awkward.
I would have told you about all the other tributes, but I'm sorry to say that I fell asleep. Yep. That's right. I did just about the worst thing you can do at the interviews. I fell asleep. I woke up just as the boy from District eleven was walking back to his seat. Oh, crap, I think as the girl from District Twelve shakes up to the stage. You can tell she's super scared, and when she shakes hands with Caesar, he wipes his hand on his suit with a grimace.
Poor guy.
The girl, called Katniss, actually ends up being an okay crowd-pleaser, which is weird, because she's usually all sullen and stuff. She starts spinning in her fancy dress, and starts giggling.
Ugh. So much cuteness.
It's not like she does much to make the crowd remember her, no matter about her flaming costume. Then the boy from her district takes the stage. He's one that makes people remember him. He tells a joke, talks with Caesar, is funny, and everything. All of the Capitol freaks love him. Then Caesar's all like, "Do you have a girlfriend?" And this boy, Peeta, is like "Uh, well, there's this one girl…" And I'm about to fall asleep again when he says "She came here with me."
The crowd explodes, and he's walking back to his seat with a triumphant smile. None of it's real, most likely. It was probably just an idea to get sponsors.
It's crazy what people do for the Games.