Whew! And, I'm back... It seems like I was gone forever (a victim of MAJOR writer's block, EXAMS, a broken computer, etc...), so you know, new chapter. I have an idea where this chapter is going (for once) so I don't think this chapter will be as rambly as the other chapters, and it's about 1,000 words longer than most of the other chapters... So, here goes... Oh, and if you want a song to listen to while you are reading this chapter, here is a suggestion: THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS CHAPTER... (Kiss Me, by Sixpence None the Richer, or Total Eclipse of the Heart by Glee Cast) END SPOILERS... ENJOY!
I woke up the next morning to see the moon and stars still shining off the glass buildings around the training centre and in through my window. I sat up slowly and surveyed the room. My alarm clock flashed a large red 5:45, at least an hour before anyone else would be up. Fully awake now, I swung my legs out of the bed and headed toward the closet. After getting dressed I snuck into the hall to go for a walk.
As I walked down the corridor I passed Haymitch's door, then backtracked, pausing to lay my hand on the door knob. As I turned to walk away the door swung open behind me and Haymitch, still half asleep, peered out at me from the room.
"What? How? Everyone was supposed to still be asleep." I stared back at him. "What are you doing awake anyway. It's 5:45."
"I could ask you the same thing."
"That still doesn't answer my question, Haymitch." I replied.
"I heard you walking around. At least I thought it was you. And, obviously I was right." He smiled at me.
"Oh. Were you asleep?" I was honestly curious. I could see why he wouldn't be sleeping well, but-
Haymitch interrupted my thoughts. "No, it's kind of hard, you know." I nodded at him. "Do you want to come in?" He pushed the door open wider, revealing a room that looked surprisingly identical to mine.
"I- Sure." I walked in past him and sat down on his bed.
"The room isn't very impressive, is it? I kind of expected more, what with this being the Capitol and all." Haymitch told me as he pushed his door closed. "I'm guessing it's the exact same as yours, right? Helena's room looked exactly like this too."
An unfamiliar feeling settled in my stomach as all the muscles in my body clenched. "Oh," I tried to keep my voice light, "were you in Helena's room?"
"No, I just saw inside her room while I was walking by it yesterday." He stopped and smirked. "Why, were you jealous?" He taunted me.
I picked up a pillow and through it at him, then rolled my eyes. "No, of course not. But, since we are allies, and this IS the Hunger Games, I do kind of have a reason to be a bit suspicious."
He looked a bit disappointed and opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the sound of footsteps in the hall. They stopped for a moment, the picked up again, seemingly getting closer.
"Shit!" Haymitch hissed. "It's got to be Effie. She told me she was going to wake us up around now if we weren't already up." He looked around quickly. "Quick. Get under the bed."
I crawled under the bed and peeked around Haymitch's feet just in time to see Effie open the door.
"Oh good, you're up." She sounded a bit worried. "Have you seen Maysilee around? I just went to wake her up, but she wasn't there. Everyone has to be on the go early today, since there is so much prep that has to go into getting ready for the interviews."
"Yeah, actually, I thought I heard someone walking around outside about 10 minutes ago. It was probably her. You should go wake up Red and Helena, and she'll probably be back when you're done, ok?"
She sighed what I could only assume was a sigh of relief. "Sure." The footsteps started up again and the door closed. I crawled out from under the bed and, without a word to Haymitch, crept back to my room.
I had only been in my room for a few minutes when Effie poked her head in the door. "Oh, good, you're back." I tried to keep a blank look on my face as she smile blandly at me. "You have to be down with Jade and Emma in 15 minutes, ok? You'll eat down there. The interviews air at 9:00, and there is going to be a special banquet for tributes and mentors and all the teams that starts at 6:00. Will you be down in 15?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes Mom."
Effie blushed and opened her mouth to say something, before changing her mind and heading out of the room. I collapsed onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. There were so many thing that I had to sort out, but I knew there was no time. Reluctantly, I left the safety of my room and headed down to the basement of the training centre, where Emma and Jade were waiting.
Hours later I sat with Helena, after spending a good chunk of the day being poked and prodded by our prep team, in contrasting dresses.
"So," I mused, "it's interesting what they chose to do this year for us. You know, like the whole contrasting thing. Good and bad."
"Dark and light." Helena added.
"White and black." I looked down at the dress I had been forced into a few short minutes before. It was long and white, with shimmering straps criss-crossing down the open back before ending in a sweeping skirt. In contrast, Helena had been squeezed into a tight fitting black dress, all lines and angles that made her look like the warrior that she was.
That morning, when the four of us had gathered in the prep room, Emma and Jade had announced our District's theme for the interviews: good vs. evil. One of each of us was to be good (hence the white), and one would be evil (black). Which was how we all ended up in formal attire, standing uncomfortably in a hall.
"So," Helena murmured, "who do you think is going to be evil for the guys?"
I looked at her and at the same time we both said "Haymitch!" and burst out laughing. As we were bent over laughing the guys walked out of their dressing room, staring at us in total confusion. Sure enough, Haymitch was dressed in a black tux, while Red was in a white one, which caused us to double over in another fit of laughter.
"What happened?" Haymitch asked us. "Did we miss something?"
I shook my head as Helena straightened up to look at them. Red's hair was slicked back over his head, while Haymitch's had been left in its usual state. "Nothing at all. We really should get going though."
Red shrugged. "Meh. Since we're going to die tomorrow, we might as well take one last chance to torment Effie."
We looked at each other and smiled before heading off to be late for the ball.
An hour later the banquet was over, and we were left to mingle among the other tributes, mentors, Gamemakers, and victors. No one was making any particular effort to socialize, so the District 12 tributes hadn't made any effort to walk around either. Haymitch, Helena and I were still sitting at our table talking, while Red was flirting with some of the girls from Districts 6 and 7. I was getting distracted from our conversation, however, by the sight of the girl from District 11 girl, who had saved me from the axe during training, sitting by herself at her table after the rest of the District 11 tributes had disappeared to various place. I rose from the table and, after promising I would be back in a minute, I headed toward her table.
I sat down beside her and she looked up at me warily. "Hi! I'm Maysilee." I smiled at her, hoping that she would warm up a little bit.
"Seraphine." She replied, still uncertain.
"I never got a chance to thank you for what you did for me during practice. You know, pushing me out of the way of the axe like that? It was brave." I still smiled at her, and she seemed to relax a little bit.
"It was no problem. After all, Hunger Games or not, no one deserves to die like that." She smiled at me. "Except maybe the girl who threw the axe." She lowered her voice. "I heard her talking to the other careers about whether they would be able to pick off some tributes before we got in the arena, and make it look like an accident."
We chatted easily for a few more minutes before I glanced back to see Helena and Haymitch staring at me. "Seraphine?" I asked "Do you want to come sit with us?"
She looked genuinely surprised at the question, but still accepted, and returned to the table with us. After returning to the table the four of us, and eventually Red too, continued talking until it was time to go to the interviews.
It was two hours into the interviews and I was dying of boredom. The tributes from Districts 1-10 had already gone, leaving only District 11 and 12 left to finish their interviews. Seraphine was on the stand now, being interviewed by Caesar Flickman, who was dressed in his usual midnight suit, and had his hair and eyebrows died dark green this year. I really wanted to listen to her, but found myself drifting in and out of reality as the boredom started to take hold of me again. Some interviews past more quickly than others, and I couldn`t even bring myself to pay attention to Helena. But, when Haymitch stepped up to the podium I snapped back into focus.
"So, Haymitch, you`re from District 12, huh?"
"From District 12 and proud of it." He smirked as the audience laughed.
"So, Haymitch, what do you think of the Games having one hundred percent more competitors than usual?" asked Caesar.
Haymitch shrugged. "I don't see that it makes much difference. They'll still be one hundred percent as stupid as usual, so I figure my odds will be roughly the same."
The audience burst out laughing and Haymitch gave them a half smile. Sitting in the back I smiled, before settling down in my seat to listen to the rest of the interview.
When it came time for my interview, I wasn`t surprised the Caesar asked me only the most basic questions. Only one question and answer stuck in my mind from the entire experience.
"´So, Maysilee, did you leave anyone special back in District 12?" Caesar smiled at me.
Before I could think about it, a smile crossed my face, and Caesar leaned forward a bit. "Yes." The word flew out of my mouth before I could think about it.
Caesar's dyed eyebrows rose as his lips curled. "Any names?"
Realizing what I had done I shook my head and pretended to play coy. The rest of the interview flew by, and as I went to sit back down, the only thing I noticed was the strange look on Haymitch's face.
Later that night I was shaken awake by Haymitch, and before I was fully awake he dragged he up to the roof, claiming he wanted to "discuss strategy" for tomorrow.
"Come on Maysilee, wake up!" I just glared at him.
"Those interviews were enough to put me to sleep, and I certainly didn`t want to be woken up. Besides, shouldn`t we be sleeping for tomorrow?"
"NO!" He shouted, then seemed to calm down a little. "I mean, we really need to figure out what's going to happen in the arena."
I narrowed my eyes at him as my body tensed. "Really?"
"Yeah." He replied lamely, then mumbled, "And I thought you might want to have one last night to relax a bit before the arena."
I relaxed then, and smiled at him. "Well, I guess you were right." I lay back and looked up at the stars. "They're so beautiful. I'm going to miss them. You know..." My voice trailed off and I looked at Haymitch, who had lain down beside me.
"I sure do." He whispered.
"And the moon." I whispered. "I can't remember the last time it was that full. It's like the heart of the night." A tear started to roll down my face as I realized I might never see it this full again.
"Hey, whoa, are you crying?" Haymitch had rolled up onto one arm and was looking at me worriedly.
I sniffled and wiped my eyes. "Of course not."
He rolled his eyes and sat up. I sat up too and looked at him. His face hardened a bit and he looked away.
"What's wrong, Haymitch?" I leaned a bit closer to him and he looked back at me.
"Oh, nothing. I'm just going to miss you."
Tears welled up in my eyes again as I leaned on his shoulder. "I'm going to miss you too."
We sat in silence for what seemed like forever before he spoke again. "May? Who was the someone special that Caesar asked about today?"
My head snapped up and I looked at Haymitch, who had an odd, intense expression on his face.
"Maysilee?"
"Haymitch."
"Who was it?" He said it a bit more forcefully now.
"Why? Are you jealous?" I repeated his words from earlier back to him.
He snorted. "No."
A couple seconds passed before he asked again. "Seriously though, who was it?"
I turned to look at him, completely serious now. "Haymitch. It was you."
A million expressions passed over his face. "Really?"
"Really."
Finally, after a few minutes of just staring at each other, he leaned in and kissed me.
I couldn't tell how long we kissed for, but when we broke apart he just looked at me, and I looked back.
"Haymitch-" My voice cracked a little bit, and I could tell from the serious expression on his face that he was thinking the exact thing that I was.
"Maysilee, I don't think we can be allies anymore." His voice was low.
I just nodded.
"I'm sorry." He said bluntly.
I hugged him for a minute, and whispered, "I know. Me too." in his ear before leaping up and running back down to my room. As I settled in bed it truly hit me for the first time how much I was about to lose. Then, finally, the tears came.
Once again, sorry for the HUGE delay. Also, please don't kill me, but, the next update probably won't be up for a while since it is almost time for my exams, though I will try to finish as fast as possible! :( Thanks for all the reviews from last chapter, and hope you liked the chapter. OH! Also, to clear it up, the reason this story is in past tense is because Maysilee is telling it from an as of yet unspecified time in the future, looking back on her Hunger Games. (Kind of like in To Kill a Mockingbird)... So, please review! Flames will be used to burn my textbooks when my exams are over!
