Chapter 11
"Mum, Hazelle, Vick, Rory, Posy! It's starting!" Shouts the apprentice, and from all entrances into the room come all the Hawthorne's and one Everdeen. The television bursts into life, and the ever-colourful Caesar introduces all 24 tributes, seating them on plump red seats in a semi-circle encasing the stage. District one start on the left, first male, then female, the continuing around the circle to six, then through to district twelve.
The sight of Gale, alive and well in the Capitol, eases me and makes my heart jump. He's wearing a coal-black suit, with a bright white shirt, and a tie that resembles a flickering flame. He's wearing no make-up, unlike most of the other male tributes with him, and his usually shaven jaw is dotted with stubble. He doesn't look like the eighteen year old that left a poor district, but a suave twenty-odd year old from a rich district, or even the Capitol. He looks at the cameras, and I feel his silver stormy gaze lock onto me, smiling like he does in the woods, although it looks a little artificial.
Charlie looks stunning. She's wearing a dress which hugs her curves, emphasises her chest, and is relatively plain next to Glimmer's dress - well what there is of it. The dress that Charlie's wearing is red, fading into orange like a flame, cuts off just above her knees, and a veil ripples behind it, creating opaque orange waves similar to her brown hair. Instead of her fringe covering her face, it falls with the rest behind her head, and opposed to Effie Trinket's stomping motion with her heels, Charlie glides silently across the stage. She smiles into the camera, but this time her smile is real, but I suspect not because she's glad to be there.
The interviews start, first with Marvel, who's not that interesting, then Glimmer who tries to be sexy and flirts across the room at Gale, then Cato and Clove who are both fierce, threatening death to the other tributes, and my ears prick up at the mention of district twelve, but only because of a fight that happened between Glimmer and Clove and Gale and Charlie. Clove is just about to finish when she says how handsome Gale is and how he should join the careers, and how he shouldn't be carrying 'dead weight' around with him.
The anger builds up in both their faces, and as Gale calms down Charlie stands up from her chair.
"I'm not dead weight, if I was, how do you explain my eleven in training?" She then smirks into the camera, one I know was meant for me, and sits down as if nothing ever happened. Clove blushes through the makeup, and takes her place as the buzzer goes off.
The other tributes all put on brave faces, but some start crying at the mention of the games, which is not likely to win them sponsors. The fox-faced girl from five hints at being intelligent, and despite her six in training, she is still to be watched. The limping boy from ten plays intelligent also, saying he has survival skills that could win him the games, waiting it out until the others have fought and killed eachother.
Then Thresh comes on and replies to Caesar's questions with hostility and as little words as he can get away with. Poor Caesar, he has to make these boring interviews somewhat watchable, and with the tributes not careers or district twelve, he's having a hard time.
Then comes on sweet little Rue, who boasts at being agile and nimble, telling small stories about hopping from tree to tree at home, and of her smaller siblings, her mother and father, and friends. Her three minutes goes really quickly, and I have no doubt about sponsors for her: an unexpected ending goes down well with the plasticky Capitol. They also have a knack for an interesting story, and as Caesar points out, we have one from our district twelve tributes. He welcomes Gale to the stage, and contrasting to usual, he walks with a spring in his step.
"Gale Hawthorne! The boy on fire! You have a lot of female fans in the audience, and on stage!" Clove and Glimmer blush and look away from the camera. Gale looks like Finnick Odair, appealing and smiling pleasantly. "How are you finding the Capitol?"
"Caesar, I'm loving it! The food, the showers, and of course the people." The audience break into applause.
"Showers eh? We have different showers?" Caesar enquires.
"Also I have one every day, back home it's not that often." The crowd falls silent at the news of the lack of supplies in our district. "Tell me Caesar, do I smell like roses to you?" Caesar looks unsure, but then leans over Gale's armchair.
"Do I smell like…" And Gale smells him.
"Even more so than me." He replies
"Well I've lived here longer." And both break out into laughter with the audience.
"Now Gale, tell me. A handsome man like you, there must be a special girl."
"Ah Caesar, she's honestly the most beautiful girl in the whole of Panem. She has an enlightening personality, she can make the birds fall silent and her laugh brightens up the dullest of days." This speech is met by awes – both because what he said was cute and because that means that he's not single.
"And tell me, what's her name?" Caesar looks like Vick when he was younger when Gale bought sweets home one day.
Gale lifts himself from his chair and strides across the stage to Charlie's chair. "Charlotte Prior." He holds out his hand to her and plants a long kiss on her lips, his hands on her waist and her arms wrapped around his neck. She looked surprised at the kiss, and when they break apart, he holds her hand, bows to her and returns to his chair opposite Caesar.
Hey there, sorry for the break, I had performances and exams and all sorts going on so I didn't really write much, so I didn't put this up. Also I'm writing the games and having trouble with one scene so I was trying to write that but still, I hope you have a good day and please review and follow/favourite!
Abi :)