WizardTributeTimelord- Thank you! Well, here's the next chapter!
RtheAwesome- I thought Cato was the most misunderstood character in the book and wanted to showcase why he seemed so cold. And I can't promise you an alliance, but they will cross paths in the Arena.
A.N- This chapter is mainly about the interviews and growing relationships between Gwen and Sam and Gwen and Peeta. Next chapter will be based in the Arena. Tell me what you think folks! Enjoy reading!
Chapter 8
What a jerk! I can't believe I thought he was actually human once! Thankfully, my throat wouldn't bruise. What would I do in the Arena when I come across his burly strength? I'd have to sometime. It was inevitable. I shuddered when I remembered seeing him stab and slice through those dummies with his sword. In the Arena, the dummies would be replaced by children. To calm my thoughts, I thought of the forests of my home and was instantly comforted. Closing my eyes, I entered the foggy realms of sleep.
When I woke up, I took a quick shower and went to the dining room. Everyone was in a happy mood today due to the high scores we'd received last night. After a long time, there was hope that our District could win. Johanna was sipping coffee whereas Blight was pushing some scrambled eggs around his plate.
"Good morning folks" I said.
"Good morning, Gwen." Johanna said.
"First, you are going to have etiquette lessons with Pepper and Johanna while Sam is going to have etiquette lessons with me and Leontes. And then we'll both train you for your interviews." Blight said.
"What do you mean by etiquette lessons?" Sam asked walking into the room.
"You'll see soon enough." Blight answered.
After we ate our breakfast, we were ushered off into our rooms. I found Pepper sitting on my bed. She had laid out a long gown and some high heels to wear. The gown was beautiful whereas the heels were deadly. They were five inches high and by the end of an hour, my feet hurt like a bitch. I swear to god, I could use them as a weapon.
"Oh well, atleast you won't fall flat on your face." Johanna said.
"Don't worry, Gwen. I'll make the heels shorter for your dress tomorrow. Now try these." Pepper said and handed me some shorter heels. These were better and at the end of the session, Pepper deemed me decent. I changed out of my gown into a ruby red blouse and white jeans and made my way towards the dining table to have lunch.
"Well, Guinevere, how did you receive a 10 in your training score?" Johanna asked. They were quizzing Sam and me to train us for the interviews. So far, they'd tried the fierce, sexy and deadly angle on me which all turned out to be epic failures. Sam was good playing the charming angle. He lay back on the couch and amusedly watched my failure to find an angle.
"It's for you to know and for me to show off. You'll have to wait a little longer for that." I answered.
"There! Finally we have an angle!" Blight said.
"Praise the god and his miracles." Johanna said sarcastically.
After being pounded by another arsenal of questions which I tried to answer mysteriously, they'd decided I was ready. We made our way back towards the dining table and ate dinner.
I went to bed only to dream of Cato snapping my neck with ease. I shuddered and woke up with a start. I decided I needed some fresh air and went into the elevator and pressed the roof button. I hoped Cato wasn't there. He'd probably just try to kill me before the games even begin by throwing me off the building or something of the sort.
Thankfully, when I walked out of the elevator, Cato wasn't there. Peeta was sitting on the ledge gazing at the stars. He still hadn't sensed my arrival. Even if he did, he made no action of it.
"The brightest one out there is the North Star, Polaris." I told him pointing towards the star.
"Hey Gwen" he said sounding downcast and gloomy.
"Hey, what happened? You sound dejected." I asked him.
"Katniss probably hates me right now." He said depressedly.
"Oh yeah! What's the deal between you and Katniss?" I asked suspiciously.
"What do you mean?" He asked trying to cover up his blush.
"Oh please! I saw the way you look at her. It's the way my dad looks at my mum after he comes back from work." I said as a matter of factedly.
"I've been in love with her since I was a kid." He said turning beet red.
"Aw! That's so romantic! Why would she hate you for that?" I asked gushing.
"Because I asked to be trained separately." He said turning his head away from me.
"Peeta, please enlighten me as to foolish you are! How can you expect her to love you too when you act like you're her enemy! You stupid idiot!" I admonished him.
"I'm going to reveal that I love her tomorrow. It's probably my only chance to." He said.
"If you tell it during the interviews, she'll probably think you're doing it for the publicity. How dense can you men be?" I scolded him.
"I know. I'll go sleep. Goodnight, Gwen"
"Goodnight, Peeta bread" I joked, hoping to help his moods up.
"That's not the first time I've been called that." He chuckled and walked away.
I gazed at the North Star remembering the time father first showed it to me. I slowly smiled to myself and walked back to the elevator and made my way towards my room. I collapsed onto my bed with a light thud and feel into deep, dreamless sleep.
"It's the big day!" Leontes screeched and knocked on my door.
I followed the now familiar ritual of bathing and clothing myself. I walked into the dining room and Saw Johanna and Blight discussing something heatedly. As soon as I entered the room, they fell quiet. Soon, Sam came in and we began to eat breakfast.
"You have time off until the afternoon when your stylist teams doll you up for the interviews." Johanna said.
Sam and I spent the rest of the morning playing a warfare videogame in the recreation room. We competed against each other trying to outshine the other. In the end, he won by a small margin.
"Ha! In your face, Gwen! Whoop whoop!" Sam said and began dancing in front of me.
"Grow up, Sam!" I said and rolled my eyes amusedly.
"Care to join me, my lady?" he asked and held out his hand. We began cracking some crazy moves and hummed many songs from home.
"There's no way I'll be able to kill you, Sam. You're like a brother to me" I said looking into his eyes.
"And I can't kill you too, sister." He said smiling warmly at me. He then kissed my forehead as tears involuntarily streamed down my face. That's when I decided I would do everything in my power to get him back home to his family. My family had Perseus, his didn't have anyone. They needed him. And I couldn't lose him.
Soon, we were broken apart by our gushing stylist teams who thought we were some sort of a couple. Even the idea of it made my skin crawl. How on earth could they think I was dating Sam whom I thought of as a brother?
Pepper walked into the room with another dress bag. She asked Mixu to close my eyes while Xiao and Kuku helped me into the dress. It felt smooth on my skin. When Mixu let go of my eyes, I was dumbfounded. The simplicity of the dress was what made it beautiful. It was pale violet in colour, almost the colour of the dress I'd worn during the day of the reaping. It felt like years had passed between then and now. The neckline was wavy and two straps on my shoulders firmly held the gown. A white sash with a satiny bow was on my waist. Kuku helped me wear high heels which were quite short to the ones I had trained in to my relief.
Pepper instructed Mixu to put my hair into a bun leaving a few strands framing my face. Xiao applied light makeup on my face and Kuku painted my nails transparent. We then headed out of the Training Centre and into a car. They drove us to the town square where I saw a huge stage set up. We were lead backstage where the stylist team left me to find their seats.
Pepper saw me fidgeting and said, "Gwen, you are the best tribute I have had the honour of dressing. I know you'll be spectacular. Stop fidgeting. I believe in you." She kissed my forehead and walked away too.
Sam walked in wearing a brown suit over black pants. He had a white shirt on underneath and several of the top buttons were open revealing his muscular chest. He walked towards me muttering under his breath. I overhead the words "dressed me up like a stupid doll" and "itchy suit" and chuckled lightly to myself. Sam heard me chuckling and sent a death glare towards me.
"I'm glad you find my discomfort amusing" he said darkly.
"Hey! I'm just chuckling at your obscure attitude tonight. You look quite smart in that suit might I add." I said holding my hands up in surrender.
"Nice save" he said and turned toward the television in front of us where I saw that the interviews had begun.
Cato P.O.V-
The next day I spent with Brutus whom immediately assigned me the angle of deadly, killing machine. If people thought I was violent, they really ought to meet Brutus. While I only covered my real identity with the viciousness and coldness, this man truly was malicious and spiteful. He enjoyed killing those children during his games and loved reliving the experience year in year out mentoring trained tributes that were lethal with a wide array of weapons. He bragged about how he would boast about my skills to the other mentors once I'd won the games.
Lunch and dinner was mostly spent with me trying to ignore Clove looking at me longingly. She usually was short-tempered and rude to everyone but me.
After dinner, I had an urge to go to the roof again. I ignored that urge as I didn't want to confront Gwen about my actions last night. I knew my behaviour was unacceptable but my guilt and anger had clouded my senses. I wanted to apologize but I knew that in order to win the games for my mother, I would have to turn off my emotions and become the cold-hearted killer that Brutus wanted me to be. If I didn't have my mother and sister to save from my monster of a father, I would have rather died then kill little innocent children. But for them, I'd have to think selfishly. I just hope I won't have to kill Gwen.
The next morning I spent lazing around the floor. By the afternoon, the stylist teams had arrived. I was dressed in a silver suit and pants with a black shirt underneath. Several of the buttons were unbuttoned revealing my heavily muscled chest. We were then lead into a car and were driven into the town square where a huge stage had been set up. The stylist team and Tyron left me backstage and went to find their seats.
Soon, most of the tributes had arrived. I couldn't ignore the urge to turn back and look at Gwen who was laughing at her district partner. She was wearing a violet gown which was simple and sophisticated. Her skin seemed to glow. She looked absolutely radiant.
Soon, the interviews began. Glimmer was wearing a see-through gown and played the sexy angle. Marvel played the cool, deadly, laughable angle whereas Clove's interview was just miserably tense. Soon, it was my chance.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing Cato Stone!" Cesar Flickerman called out. Wearing a fake smirk on my face, I walked towards the stage.
"So, Cato, tell me, what do you like the most in the Capitol?" he asked me.
"The training centre and its wide array of weapons." I said. I hate your stupid Capitol and your disgusting Games.
"So tell me, how did you get that 10?" he asked.
"Let's just say, I'm lethal with weapons. I don't even need weapons as a matter of fact. I can kill anyone with just my bare hands" I said cracking my knuckles menacingly. I don't want to hurt a fly.
"So are you anxious to enter the Arena?" he asked with excitement.
"I'm shaking in my boots with excitement. Give me the crown right now and save yourselves some time! You know I'm going to win anyway." I said cockily. If there's one thing I don't want to do, It's go into the arena. You can keep your stupid crowns as long as I get a house away from my father.
"So tell me, Cato, is there anyone special back home?"
"Love is for weaklings. Emotions make you puny." I said seriously. I do like someone here who probably hates me.
The gong went off and I was relieved I wouldn't have to put on this act anymore. I zoned out of the rest of the interviews until it was Gwen's turn. She walked on the stage so gracefully, her gown being blown back by the wind making her look dainty and fairylike.
"Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Guinevere Mormont" Cesar said bringing her hand to hip lips and kissing her knuckles.
"Please, call me Gwen" she said smiling warmly at the crowd.
"So tell me, Gwen, what do like the most about the Capitol?" he asked.
"It's got to be the beautiful architecture! Just this other day, I saw a minaret which was totally out of this world!" she said excitedly. I knew by the expression on her face, she was telling the truth.
"Now, according to the rumour mill, you're quite close to your district partner, Samuel. Anything romantic?" he asked winking at the crowd. The crowd was hanging onto her words. I was too. I wanted to know if my suspicions were right.
"Me and Sam? Ew, no! He's like a big brother to me." She said. A part of me was strangely pleased by this. I didn't have to worry about competition. She wasn't with her district partner.
"We've all wanted to know this, how did you get that 10?" he asked gushingly.
"It's for you to know and for me to show off. You'll have to wait a little longer to know folks!" she said winking at the crowd.
"Is there any special boy back home?" he asked her.
"Well, there's my brother Perseus who is the most obnoxious, overprotective brother you will ever meet." She said giggling.
The gong went off and she walked off the stage blowing kisses and waving at the crowd.
Only a few interviews after her made an impression on me. Her district partner vowed to protect her during the Games. The little girl from 11 reminded me of my sister Lila back home. I really hope someone else kills her. The boy from District 11 gave one-word answers to Cesar. Fire girl twirled around in her stupid dress and talked about how she promised her sister she'd make it back and Fire Boy proclaimed his love for fire girl on national television. If only I could too.
