Disclaimer: I do not own the hunger games series, nor characters portrayed in it, all credit goes to Suzanne Collins.
Chapter 11: The Interviews
(Finnick P.O.V.)
When I'm woken, I find it's not Annie that wakes me from a nap on the beach, nor my mother telling me it's time for school or work. It's my brightly colored prep team. Ready and eager to throw me in whatever outfit my stylist Ophelia has chosen.
Together, my prep team works on my hair and skin. I'm a bit disoriented since they dragged me out of bed without breakfast, and went to work on me. I wasn't even sure about half of the things that they were doing, but I just let them, it was their job, surely they knew what they were doing. They put makeup on my face, but surprisingly nothing obnoxious like they did for the opening ceremony. After fussing over me for a bit, eventually Ophelia walks in with my suit. My prep team walk away from me and stand to the side as they watch Ophelia's every move, as though she was their God.
I put on my suit. At first glance, I saw it as the most tacky shiny thing I have ever seen in my life. I put it on anyways. Once it's on, and Ophelia guides me to a long tall mirror to look at myself, I notice all the dark blue sequins on my suit don't only shimmer, but they reflect the light. It looks almost exactly like the ocean. My prep team look at me in the mirror with awe, telling Ophelia that she has outdone herself yet again.
"It looks just like the Ocean." I comment, and Ophelia nods at me.
"Yes, that's what I had intended, you are from District Four after all." She says as a matter of factly. She may be just another snooty capital citizen, but she has captured the ocean perfectly in my blazer.
Ophelia eventually dismisses my prep team, and has me walk around in the suit, watching how the light reflects off of the dark blue sequins. After that, she decides to make conversation with me.
"So, you think you'll do good in the interviews?" She asks me with a raised eyebrow. I take my gaze off the suit to look up at her.
"Well, yeah, at least I think so...I mean, I know how to act. Charming, sexy, romantic, blah blah blah." I said, counting the traits on my fingers. I wasn't sure if I would remember how to be all of those things, or if I even knew how to be charming by the capital's standards at least. Ophelia laughs at me, and I wonder why. It seemed as though whenever I said anything in the capitol, people just laughed at me.
"Oh, Darling, you don't have to ACT those things, you ARE those things." I look at her like she was nuts. I wasn't any of those things. Sure Annie has told me I was charming many times, but I always just assumed she meant it as a joke. Was I ACTUALLY charming at all?
"No." I decided. "No, Ophelia, I'm not any of those things." When I say this, Ophelia makes me sit on the couch. She tells me how I've acted different from all the other tributes so far, how I wasn't arrogant like the careers, despite I could be with ease had I wanted to. How I wasn't pathetic or useless like the other sad tributes who so clearly didn't want to be here and would die in the blood bath. I was different from all of them, and I had a special charm about me that made the capital crazy for me already.
Mags has told me this, and now Ophelia too, was it really true? If the both of them thought so, maybe it was. Eventually, it was time for the interviews. I and the other tributes are escorted to where the interviews will take place. Zeium straightens my tie before we go backstage. He tells me how my suit is marvelous, and how everyone will want one just like it in the capital once they see me.
The 24 tributes all line up, and wait for their turn. As we line up, Isabell is in front of me, and her dress is a light blue, and it looks like a waterfall. It makes me thirsty. District five's girl stands behind me in line, and then behind her is a familiar face. August. I hadn't seen him since training, when I told him I couldn't be allies with him, I didn't want to get to know him to only have to kill him later. I still stand by that decision, but it feels weird to ignore him, with only one person acting as a wall between us.
In a few minutes, we are taken to our seats. I was thankful, because I didn't want to stand for twenty four interviews. The bad news about being taken to our seats, is we're still on stage, in the very back, but still in view of ALL of Panem, and these blazing lights shining down on us, making me sweat.
I know the show will start, as soon as I see a man, named Caesar Flickerman walks out. He has hot pink hair, and a suit to match. Even his eyebrows are pink. He's hosted the interviews for as long as I can remember, probably long before I was born. Now that I can see him in person, I try to guess how old he could be, but his face looked completely stiff, and not a wrinkle on it. He must have had surgery to make himself look younger, or at least the same age. I watch his pink hair as he greets the audience. That was when I realized he must have dyed his hair different each year, for each games.
Eventually, he gets on with the show, and they start with district one's girl tribute. Her name was Crystal. Her gown looks like it was made out of diamonds...well, most of it. Diamonds covered her more...intimate parts, And a cheer material was the rest of the dress, which left little to nothing for one's imagination. She had bright blue eyes that looked like crystals themselves, and short shoulder length hair, that was styled with diamonds. She only has three minutes to speak, and her voice annoys me.
District one's boy is next, then district two. I notice the both tributes of district two are matching, and both in blood red clothes and makeup. After them, District three is next. Caesar helps puts them at ease, since they were so clearly nervous. Next is Isabell. I watch her get up as District three's boy tribute sits down. She's a bit wobbly in high heels. I could tell she had never worn any until now.
My palms are sweating. In three minutes, I would be next. In three minutes, I had to remember to be charming, and sexy, and all these things I didn't believe I was. I was nervous. I look around, and I see the camera crew spread out here and there. All of Panem would be watching me...Not just Panem… Annie too. Annie would be watching...Maybe I can indirectly, give her some sort of message. To, somehow tell her that I love her, something I had never gotten to do, not really.
I'm pulled out of my thoughts when I hear the buzzer, indicating Isabell's turn was over, and it was my turn. I had no time to plan out what I would say, that would be of any significance to Annie. What could I say even?
I stand up when Isabell sit's down next to me, fidgeting in her waterfall like dress. I feel like my head is fuzzy, and the bright lights shining down on me didn't help either. As soon as I reach the stage, I walk on with as much confidence as I could muster up. Strong, sexy, and charming. Strong, sexy, and charming. I repeated in my head. Once I'm in view of the cameras,I wave to them with a small smirk. Caesar puts out his hand, and I take it in a firm shake.
We sit down in our seats. The audience cheers for much longer than they did the other tributes surprisingly. Once the timer for three minutes starts, Caesar hushes them, then directs his attention to me. Now that I'm closer to Cesar, I notice that his lips and eyes are also painted the same color as his hair. I couldn't notice before since I was far away, but close up, it was clear just how much makeup he had caked on his face.
"Finnick Odair!" He says with a grin that was so white, it was almost blinding. He then looks at a camera and fake whispers. "THE Finnick Odair!" He says, as though I was some celebrity he has been so eager to meet. "So, Finn, buddy. You made QUITE the splash at the opening ceremony, did you not?" He raises both of his hot pink eyebrows at me. I open my mouth to speak but the audience cheers in response to me.
Once they quieted down, I chuckled lightly, running my fingers through my hair, hoping that I didn't ruin the hard work my prep team did on my hair. "Yeah, at least that's what I've heard." I look off at the audience and wink, which leads them to go wild again. This charming thing was...a lot easier than I had ever thought it would have been.
Caesar laughs hysterically. "Did you like your whole, mermaid get up your stylists created for you?" He asks, and I take only a few seconds to think of what to say.
"Well, I make any outfit look good, so the matter of liking it wasn't a concern." I say with another smirk, and Caesar laughs again.
"And I'm sure you make all your outfits back home look just as good as well?" He asks me, and I nodded.
"Oh yeah. I make everything look good. My stylists are pretty lucky this year to have a model that's as good looking as I am." I flash a smile to the audience. It was working, this charming act, it was actually working, It felt so incredibly cheesey, but it worked. Caesar didn't bring up my score, which was a good thing, he seemed to only bring up things that benefited me.
The pink man settles down the crowd yet again, then looks at me. He looks me up and down. "So, I think it's safe to say, back home you swim often?" Yes! I think, a swimming question! I nodded quickly.
"Yeah, I go swimming every day." I almost forgot I was on television for a moment, and almost said how I went swimming with Annie every morning before school, that's when I remember that I decided I wouldn't share Annie with the capital, she was just for me, the one piece of me that the capital couldn't touch.
"I bet you're pretty toned under that suit as well? Which is not only good for your sponsors." He motions to the audience. "But also good for in the arena?" He said, and I nod with a small chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah I suppose so." I grinned. We end up talking about fish for only a small bit, I talk about how my father and I are fishermen of a sort.
"So, it's safe to say you're hoping for an arena with a lot of water?" Caesar asks and puts the microphone up to my face. I nod again. I seemed to be nodding a lot.
"Yeah, yeah I am actually, but what district four tribute doesn't?" I say, and that earns me some chuckles. My time was wearing thin, and I still hadn't said anything about home to let Annie know that I'm thinking about her. I then wonder if Caesar could read my mind because of what he asks next.
"So, Finn. The Capital is DYING to know. Is Finnick Odair taken?" He asks, and the audience is completely silent, waiting for the answer. I debate on mentioning Annie. I decide against it though, but only partly.
"Well, I've got plenty of girls barking up my tree, so to speak, Caesar." I say with a laugh, and Caesar shakes his head with a smile.
"So is that a no, Finnick Odair is single and ready to mingle?" He asks and I chuckle only a bit in response. I look into the camera for a bit too long, I open my mouth about to say 'I'm single, but my heart isn't.' Right when the buzzer rings in my ears. I missed it. I missed my chance to let Annie know that I loved her.
I hear agonized cries from the audience, they were so wanting to know if I was free for the taking or not. I wondered why that bit of information would make any difference to them anyways.
"Aw! It would seem that we are out of time! And such a shame. Looks like we're gonna have to wait to see where your heart lies, huh?" His eyes bore into mine, and I only nod, unable to form words. I let the rush of the crowd get to me, and I almost told them about Annie. Which would only lead to interviews with her if I got into the final eight, as well as the rest of my friends and family. I didn't want that. Annie was mine, not the capitals. I smiled lightly and Shake Caesar's hand again.
"It's been a pleasure, Caesar." He smiles and shakes my hand as well.
"Best of luck." He tells me with the most genuine smile I have ever seen on a capitol person. "Well there you have it ladies and gentlemen! Finnick Odair of District Four!" The applause and cheers kept going even once I'm seated and the next tribute is up.
The next tribute, district five's girl tribute. I glance over at August, and give him a small smile, to be a little friendly, but not enough to say I'm sorry I was rude before...Not enough to say, I'm sorry, but I'm going to kill you…
I don't pay attention to any of the other tributes when it's their interview. Especially August. I didn't want to get to know him anymore than I already did since I'd have to watch him die. Same with the rest of the tributes. I look at my hands as I wait for the interviews to be over. Wishing so badly that I could have a rope in my hand to tie knots in and fidget with until the interviews are over.
Author's note: Thanks for reading guys! (when you think about it, a rope to Finnick is equivalent to us with fidget spinners XD haha.)