Chapter 7
I hit the elevators running what felt like 100 mph. The Avox barely had time to open the doors before I was already inside. The adrenaline surged through my veins, setting my fingers into a fit of tapping against the glass before the doors opened on my floor.
Blythe was standing at the doors, and I hadn't even stepped out of the elevator before she asked me how my session went. I told her in vivid detail how I had swung and thrown and shot. She seemed to be pleased, but I couldn't be sure because she was so good at hiding emotion.
We ate dinner early that night. I was given one chicken drumstick with the skin removed, ten carrots, a slice of tomato, and a glass of milk. When I asked for seconds, I was denied except for milk. I was allowed to drink as much of it as I wanted.
I spent a while in my room lying down. I was so exhausted, and I so anxious to see my score, I was totally drained. When I couldn't take it anymore, I decided to go into the T.V. room to wait.
I hopped on the couch and grabbed the sleek remote from the spindle-legged table next to my arm rest. I found the button labeled power, and the T.V. glowed to life.
The channel that came on was, surprisingly, talking about the Hunger Games. They kept running scenes from last year's games while the announcers talked about how this years games would stack up. They seemed to think that there was no way such an intense scenario could be repeated.
The subject then switched to betting odds. Since scores hadn't been posted yet, they were based on things like size, age, district, and opening ceremony costume. I saw that I had the third best odds at that point. Undin was first with odds of 1 to 8. He was followed by Adonnis with 1 to 11. I came then – my odds were 1 to 13. We three were followed by Bane, then Tara, then Lyliss.
Obviously, our training was not as secret as we thought.
It also surprised me to see that Tzarro followed Lyliss and that Tellee came third to last. Her cow-herder costume had not been as endearing as it had been on Tzarro and she had been in tears almost every time she was in public.
When the betting odds had been thoroughly dissected for each tribute, they went on to talking about how certain district's trades could help their tributes: District 1 valued beauty almost as much as the capitol, so their tributes were beautiful and got sponsors easily. District 4's tributes knew how to swim. District 7's all knew how to swing axes.
Blythe and Undin joined me on the couch just as the attention was turned to the scores which were all posted. They showed a picture of the tribute, and his or her score flashed beneath. The first picture I saw was Adonnis. He scored a nine. Lyliss scored an eight, Bane got a ten, Tara got a nine. The pair from District 3 scored a four and a five. Finally, Undin's picture popped up. Beneath it, the number ten flashed. My picture followed, and under my picture flashed the number eleven.
I was so happy that I screamed. This was great. I would now surely have the best odds of any tribute, and the one's with good odds were more likely to pull sponsors.
My joy was so flowing that I hardly paid attention to the other tributes that flashed up on the screen. I only noticed when they scored high. The boy from 5 pulled an eight, the girl from 6 pulled a seven, and the pair from eight got matching nines.
I paid full attention when District 10 came up. Tzarro, I was happy to see, somehow got a nine. Tellee, on the other hand, scored a dismal four. Finally seeing that all from Districts 11 and 12 scored moderately low scores, I let my joy encompass me.
I took a long hot shower, singing the words of songs I hadn't sung in years at the top of my lungs. I was on top of the world. Nothing could pull me down.
When I was finished and electronically dried, I dressed in my pajamas and went into the kitchen. Blythe was there eating a bowl of purple berries in ice cream.
"Please, Blythe," I begged, considering whether or not getting down on my knees was overkill. "may I have something more to eat?" She considered this for a while, then nodded.
She then turned her attention to the attendant. "Get another one of these for her," she said, motioning to her bowl. "Only switch out my drizzle berries for some slices of banana and cubes of apple."
Today was going so well for me. I got my eleven, and now I was going to be allowed to eat ice cream. ICE CREAM! This was a rare treat at home, and I never thought I'd be allowed to eat it on my diet. Blythe must have been more pleased with my score than she let on.
When the attendant returned with my treat, I dug in immediately. It was delicious, and I soon emptied the whole bowl. I looked up from the empty dish and saw that Blythe had left me. I handed the attendant the dish, then headed to bed.
The next morning, I wasn't roused; instead, I was allowed to sleep as late as I wanted. I was finally shaken from unconsciousness by the sun. High in the sky, it had slowly crept through my window, along the floor, and had finally slid over my eyes. I looked at the clock – it was eleven o'clock.
Groggily, my feet carried me to the bathroom, then, having finished, to the dresser where my hands dressed me. I didn't do anything especially fancy, just some khaki short shorts and a navy tank top. I pulled my hair up in a sleek ponytail, and headed for the dining room.
I was the last one there, and as I pulled out my chair, I was immediately stood up again and escorted into another room by Lillianna. "We've got to make sure you don't embarrass yourself in public," was all she told me.
It turned out that "not embarrassing myself in public" meant walking in six inch heels and keeping my head up with a mountain of hair and clips on it.
It really wasn't that hard. Sure, the heels got the best of my equilibrium at first, but they didn't take long to conquer. Lillianna told me that I naturally had good posture, so that was one hurdle we wouldn't have to jump. Finally, when she pronounced my smile capable to live T.V., I walked back into the dining room where Blythe was reading Undin questions from a gargantuan stack of note cards.
When they caught notice of me, Blythe shooed Undin towards Lillianna's room so that she and I could begin. As Undin's stepped through the door, Blythe looked at me and began talking.
"You need a strategy for your interview. With your body, we could try sexy, seductive, or perverted. But with your score, we might want to try something with more grip, something that will have the capitol thinking about more than your curves."
"Well," I started. "Can't I just be myself?"
"Are you serious?!" spat Blythe. "You are far too innocent. That would completely… perfect!" she exclaimed after a slight pause. I could almost see the light bulb ignite over her head. "Here is the plan…" she told me. "You are going to start the interview by being innocent. Act as though you are a little girl from District 4 who has no idea how she got that eleven and wouldn't ever hurt a fly. Then, during the last minute, turn it around. You are a sexy dominatrix that will kill without a second glance."
"Wow, that would certainly catch my attention." I told her. We spent the next hour and a half going through three minute interviews. I knew how to play both parts perfectly, but finding a transition was often difficult. It was very difficult to spin the question, 'So you live with your father? What does he do?' I hoped they would give me something I could work with.
As soon as Blythe gave me a passing grade, I was whisked off to get dressed. The prep team had me take another shower, then began doing my nails and hair. I noticed that on my nails, they added about an inch to them, then coated them with a paint that made them look as if they were made of ice.
Heebee then came in, holding not one, but two costumes in his hands. He made me close my eyes as he put the first one on, then the second. When I opened my eyes, I was dressed in an ice blue jacket that zipped up to my neck. It was beautiful, but not sexy in the slightest.
I also had on a matching skirt that went down to my knees. When I examined carefully up close, I saw that the skirt was attached to the jacket.
"When you reach the turning point in your interview, take this jacket off. The skirt will come with it, and you'll be in your real costume."
I was curious, but I resisted the urge to look at my second costume in the hour before we went down to the interview. Finally, we all piled into the elevator and made our way down.
Undin and I joined the mob of tributes in the lobby, and our stylists, Blythe, and Lillianna all followed the cue flooding to join the crowd. We made small talk with each other, but when all Districts were present, we were led out the doors to a small area behind the stage.
After a few minutes, we heard the crowd roar. On the small television set up for us so that we could watch each other's interviews, we saw that our host, Julius Avery, had just walked onto the stage.
Julius spent a couple minutes amping up the crowd. They were very excited when Lyliss joined Julius on the stage. Her approach was very predictable – sexy and seductive. If she had more time, I am convinced she would have found a way to make out with Julius.
Adonnis, surprisingly, tried the sexy approach too, but his was more directed at the audience than at Julius (thank god.). The women in the crowd seemed to like it, the men didn't.
Tara tried hostel, and was a very convincing actress. Bane went for the bloodthirsty killer approach, and he seemed to be a crowd favorite by the end. I started to prepare myself as the District 3 girl went on stage, followed by her partner. I zoned out most of their interviews. Finally, they called my name, and I walked out onstage to a large round of applause and yelling.
"So, Ariella, being from District 4, what do you do in your free time?" Julius asked me. This was good, I was hoping that he would start with the info about my home life first.
"I like to go swimming with my friends a lot of the time," I told him coyly. "I also like to read and cook with my dad."
"What does your dad do for a living?" he asked me.
"He is a fisherman, most people are in District 4." I answered. The crowd seemed to be caught off guard by my innocence. They had quieted down, and I saw on the large screen as they panned around to faces through the crowd the looks of shock and disbelief.
"So can you tell us anything about your very impressive score in training Ariella?" Julius prompted, obviously hoping for something he could work with. The truth was, I was hoping for something I could work with.
"Well, I can't tell you really. It would give too much away." I told him, crossing my fingers he would answer in some way that I could manipulate to make the personality switch.
"Oh, come on, give us a little hint!" he prompted. It wasn't the perfect question, but It would have to do – I was running out of time.
"Well if you really want to know," I said, my shaking fingers fingering the zipper at the top of my jacket. "I can tell you that I'm dangerous…" At this point, I slowly pulled down the zipper on my jacket. "And my competitors had better…" the zipper reached the bottom of the jacket, and I let it fall to the ground. "Be on their guard." I finished.
The audience gasped. I dared not look down at myself; instead, I looked up at the large screen, and I saw that I was dressed in a provocative mini-skirt and ice blue tank top that did wonders for my curvy figure. I was sexy all the way.
The guttural hollers coming from the crowd told me that the male members of the audience were pleased with my change of dress. I had done the hard part, and I figured I had about a minute left.
"Wow," Julius said, trying to rope the audience back in. "That was interesting. Any particular reason for that delicious change of costume?"
"I just wanted to show everyone, you and my competitors, that there are two sides of me. It's up to you which one you want to believe." I almost purred as I said this. The crowd were screaming, the volume reaching above and beyond what it had reached for anyone else.
Julius tried to contain them again, but before he could do so, my buzzer went off. Walking with my back to the crowd, I swung my hips from side to side, giving them a view. And just before I went through the door, I turned and gave them one final wink over my shoulder.
I watched the rest of the interviews with the rest of the tributes. Undin worked sullen and hostile to great affects. The boy from 5 was aloof, but kept hinting at some underlying talent that everyone was overlooking. The girl from 6 was trying for the dangerous angle, but it was awfully hard to take her seriously when she was only 15.
The pair from 8 both kept hinting at something, but were very very secretive about their high scored. Tzarro was funny and likable. He told jokes to great affect, the crowd loved him. Tellee, on the other hand, broke down into tears half way through the interview, and was unable to get another word out. It was minorly pathetic.
As the boy from 12 finished it up, we walked back to the training center. I heard Julius give the crowd one final warning to tune in tomorrow promptly at 10 o'clock for the start of the games, and with that, the doors closed behind us and all noise ceased.
Hey guys!! Sorry this chapter took so long! Honestly, it gets easier from here. I'm much better at writing the actual games. They will start next chapter, I promise! I really really really hope you liked this chapter, please please please review!!! Next chapter should be up within a week. I'm gonna eat breakfast then start on it lol. Thanks Guys.
Keep reading,
Emmdog1994
