It may be late until I get another Chapter Out tomorrow, so I thought I'd post this one tonight! No more tributes needed, thanks to everyone that submitted! I hope you like the chapter! Read and Review :)
I do not own the hunger games!
I can honestly tell you I have never been so nervous before in my entire life. My prep team is currently yelling at me because I am shaking so much, as they're trying to do my nails. I'm not nervous for my interview, which is what they are prepping me for, but for what's happening after. It's a huge party, and guess who will be there? My favorite man ever, President Snow! If you can't tell, I'm ecstatic! (I hope you can since the sarcasm.)
I don't know what he's going to tell me, it could be anything. "Gemma! Stop! We only have a half hour left and your nails aren't even finished!" Judith shrieks.
"Oh, calm down will you, Gemma. It's an interview, you've done plenty before!" Corbin adds.
I just sigh. They eventually finish, and Violet comes to dress me. She suits me in a dress that reaches my knees, that is a deep green on the bottom, but morphs into a sea blue at the top. It's strapless, of course, and there are purple bruises all along my chest with my scars.
"Um... Vi… Can we cover this today?" I ask pointing to my chest. A black eye is bad and a few cuts on my face is bad enough. Showing all of this is just going to make it worse.
Her face drops, and she looks like she's going to cry. "No! Definitely not! You got to show the people of the Capitol how they treat you!"
I don't even bother to argue with her, because I know I won't win. On the plus side, Trixie and Esmeralda will be with me for half of it. She puts the last few touches onto me, and then pushes me out of the door. I take a few deep breathes trying to calm myself before I walk onto the stage.
I must be taking too long, because a peacekeeper pushes me. It stead of walking onto the stage like a normal person, I fall flat on my face. I slowly stand up, holding my nose. It hurts like hell. I look around, the audience is silence; all cameras are on me; Caesar has his hand over his mouth, gasping. He suddenly rushes to my side to help me along.
"Oh, Ms. Stone, are you okay?"
I sit down in a chair next to him, still clutching my nose; I can feel blood gushing out of it, obviously ruining my dress. "Just peachy, Caesar. Can I maybe get some ice for this, please?" I ask in a girly voice.
"Definitely!" He says happily, while snapping his fingers. An Avox runs out with a bag of ice and a towel. I put the towel across my lap so it can soak up the blood, and place the ice on my nose. "I see you have a lot of… erm… unfortunate injuries?" He asks, nodding to the bruises, scars, and cast on my arm.
"Yeah… well… I'm-" A peacekeeper makes a fist and glares at me off stage, so I catch myself. "I'm very clumsy. " It's so obvious I'm lying, it's ridiculous.
He nods and gives me a very sad smile. "So…. How is your life as a victor so far?"
I snort, and then wince. "It sucks, Caesar."
He gasps, "And Whys that?"
"Being a victor has made me a lot more… clumsy, shall I say." I say very sarcastically so everyone knows I'm lying. His eyes flicker to the many peacekeepers around the stage and he nods.
"Well, at least now you have more free time to spend with your daughter, and to work on your talent. How is Trixie by the way?"
I smile through the pain, "She's great. She loves meeting all the victors. Would you like to see her?"
He smiles brightly, "Sure! That would be wonderful! Would you all like that?" He asks the crowd. They all go nuts.
The same Avox carries Trixie out, and I take her from him and thank him. He just scurries away, afraid. "Hi Mama!" Trixie says in her cute little voice.
"Hi baby, say hi to Caesar." She looks at Caesar, who's smiling from pure joy. He mustn't see many little children up here.
"Seezaw?" She looks up at me and asks. His name is way too hard for her to say. The crowd is adoring this.
"Yes, this is Caesar. Are you going to say hi?" I push one of her cute curls out of her face. She puts half of her face into my bruised chest, trying to hide, while mumbling out a little hi. I try my hardest not to wince but it doesn't work. Caesar laughs.
"Hello Trixie." He says, she smiles.
"Wha dat Mama?" She asks me, pointing to the bag of ice.
"Oh, nothing, Trix. Now Sh, Mommy's talking to Caesar, ok?"
"Otay!" She says, and starts tracing my scars to keep herself busy. She seems to do that a lot.
"You're a great mother, Gemma!" Caesar says, still watching Trixie.
"Yeah, well…"
"Let's move on, shall we?" I nod. "Many of our viewers are dying to know, how are you coping without Ky?"
I was hoping, praying, he wouldn't bring him up. After all that's been going on, one little thing can set me off for a breakdown. I can feel it coming on. I don't even notice I've been crying when he hands me a tissue.
"Oh, thank you." I say, taking it. "Well… it's… it's really hard. I think about him every day. I-" My voice breaks and I can't continue.
"It's fine, you can have a minute." He says. He takes this time to ask Trixie about her mommy's scars. "So, you touch them a lot, hm?"
She doesn't understand him, she just cocks her head to the side and stares at him. He laughs. "Your hair Pwink!" She exclaims. That's the color of him this year, Pink. Pink suit, pink hair, pink eye shadow.
"Yes, Yes it is." He says.
"I wike pwink!" He smiles, and she starts to hop up and down on my lap. "Twixee have pwink hair wike Seezaw!"
I calm her down, and the crowd and Caesar are laughing loudly at her. I smile.
"I'm sure you will one day, Trixie, if your mother allows it!"
I laugh this time, "Yeah, I don't think so! No daughter of mine is dying her hair pink." Trixie starts to pout and the crowd laughs again. I answer a few more questions, and finally its over. I didn't have a breakdown, luckily.
We make our way to the huge party, afterwards. Tons and tons of people come to talk to me, and a lot of them look at me weirdly. I've never seen that look on someone before, besides from Finnick when he was joking that night before we left when he was using his seductive- NO!
No. Just no. Half of these men are as old as my father, that's disgusting! They must just be joking around like Finnick was.
We continue on through the night, and one of the nice capitol women hands me a glace of something and tell me to drink it in the bathroom. I'm thinking it must be alcohol and she doesn't want to get caught giving someone underage a drink. So I go on, and once I get to the bathroom I chug it down. It tastes disgusting, and suddenly I'm vomiting. I race to the toilet, and dunk my head over just in time.
I've never thrown up so much before in my life. But the weirdest thing is after it's over. I shrug it off and rinse my mouth before walking back out.
As soon as I walk out the door, guess who I bump into?
President Snow!
He was looking for me, obviously. I bump into him and fall to the floor, wincing from the pain. He offers me his hand to help me up, I don't know what else to do besides take it. "Ah, Ms Stone. There you are. I've been looking for you all night." Yeah, and I've been avoiding you all night. "Come, come. Let's go somewhere more private to talk, hm?"
"No, it's okay. I think we should stay here, I got to get back to Trixie and-"
"It wasn't a question, Mr Stone. Now come along." He cuts me off as he walks away. I curse under my breath but follow him into a room. He sits in a chair, and offers me one.
"It's okay, Sir. I'm fine standing, thanks."
"Suit yourself." He looks at me strangely. "Now, my my. Where to begin with you?"
I glare at him, "Why don't you tell me about my surprise awaiting me at home?"
"Actually, I have a few surprises. We'll talk about them in a minute. Why don't you go ahead and tell me your measly excuse for all the rebellion talk?"
"I wasn't in my right mind then, sir." Is all I can say.
"You better have not been in your right mind. You must realize my dear, that one more wrong move will make you a childless woman."
My jaw drops. "You wouldn't… You wouldn't kill her? Not Trixie! Please! She's so young and-"
"Oh calm down. Like I said, you be on your best behavior and we should be fine."
"Okay, I promise. Just don't hurt her. Please."
"Perfect. Now that that's settled, let's move onto you're surprises. Your surprise waiting for you at home will be a package. You will open it after your party, are we clear?"
I nod. It can't be that bad if it's just a package. I worried for nothing.
"And the second thing, is when your daughter reaches the fine age of 3, in a year and a half. You will provide your services here at the capitol, whenever you come."
"Wait a second? What services? I don't have a job?" I'm so clueless.
He laughs and rolls his eyes. "You do now. You will be a courtesan here at the capitol, for any capitol man that may want you."
I finally get it, and what do I do? Snort. "Ha! Yeah right am I going to be a capitol bimbo and sell my body to people old enough to be my father, especially when I have a daughter! I do believe you are the mentally ill one here, sir!" I scream in his face.
He gets up and slaps me across the face. I trip in my dress and crash to the floor. I look up at the evil man standing above me. "Well, perhaps after you receive your little present you will change your mind. I will give you till the day after you return home to decide. You will call me here at the Capitol to tell me your answer. And just remember when you're thinking: You're all my toys to be played with, Ms Stone, and I might just want to play with Carter and Trixie next."
Sorry about the length! And to anyone that may ask, I'm not quite sure if career victors are usually sold into prostitution or not, but Gemma is. Because She's special and rebellious. ;) Anyways I hope you liked it!
