Chapter 12: Second Time Lucky

I spend the last few training days with all the other tributes, all of them, and that just makes this whole thing a little bit harder because some of these people I actually really like. According to Adric, a lot of them want me as an ally now. Probably got something to do with the fact I tried out the shooting station which ended with the rest of the room staring at me with everything from envy to hatred.

Adric said we should be as memorable as we can when the time comes to impress the Gamemakers. The problem is that I have no idea what to do. I wish Illiana luck, it must be terrible for her, she's never done this and doesn't know what its like and just to top it all off she has to go last. They call Adric, I can't help but wonder what he'll do, I'm not even sure what his talents are save for his technological knowledge. It just shows how little I actually knew about him. After what felt like an eternity, they called my name.

The Gamemakers looked different, they're not just sitting up there laughing and drinking like last year, they're whispering and looking a little bit annoyed. I'm not sure if that annoyance is from whatever Adric did or what one of the other tributes did.

I know what to do now, I'm going to showcase skills that I'll probably never use again. I move to the mess that the morphlings have no doubt made of the camouflage station. I pick out the paints I need, which is a harder task than painting the actual picture, and get started. It takes a while to get it just right but I'm sort of proud at the outcome, it looks pretty real, if a little disturbing. I move out-of-the-way so that the Gamemakers can see my work.

It looks just like I remember it, the skin half peeled off his face between the teeth of a mutt. Thresh was in the middle of a scream of pain at the moment I'd captured with the paint, the Gamemakers don't look particularly pleased with my work, one of them is physically sick when they see it. When I leave all I really want to do is run to tell Adric, ask him what he did but I figure it's probably better if I showered first, I was covered in paints. After I'd finished I headed for dinner. Tonight would be the first night Adric's stylist, Tilia, came to dinner with us. She was young and very new and enthusiastic. She was tall, a lot taller than me and had huge heels that gave her an extra ten inches, she wore silk and so many different colours it hurt to look at her. Her hair was black and shiny and her skin was a kind of chocolate brown. She looked tame compared to most Capitol people, until you notice her fashion sense at least. Despite her terrible taste when it came to herself, the ideas for fashion for tributes that I'd seen her show Honeyman weren't that bad. I walked into Adric on the way there, he has a gold bangle on with little wings around it.

"What's with the jewellery?" I asked,

"A little message, recognize the wings?" He replied,

"Mockingjay." I answered, he nodded his head as he sat down.

"So, how did your scoring go?" Pansy asked piling a selection of fancy foods onto her plate.

"Fine," Adric and I mumbled simultaneously,

"What did you do, Adric? Do you think you'll get a decent score?" Pansy clearly wanted conversation, she'd got lucky with Adric and I winning but even then Adric was independent and I'd had him helping from the outside but now she'd be doing all the legwork, if there was anything we needed in the arena she'd need to act as our mentor. I'm not even sure if she's allowed to do that but Adric's talked her into helping.

"Isn't it supposed to be a secret?" he snapped in reply,

"Not between us if you want to say." Pansy glared at him,

"Maybe I don't want to say." he glared right back,

"Maybe now isn't the best time to mention I painted a picture of Thresh dying?" I said, the room went silent as the eyes of Adric, Pansy, Honeyman and Tilia fell on me.

"What exactly were you trying to achieve by doing that?" Pansy growled,

"I'm not sure, I just wanted them to know they were responsible, if only for a second, for his death. I just wanted them to know what it felt like to have that image haunt you for so long."

"That... You can't... That sort of thinking is forbidden! You'll have the rage of the Gamemakers on your back the whole way through the games!" Tilia yelled

"As if it isn't on her already." Adric mutters, the eyes turned to him now.

"What's that supposed to mean!" I exclaimed,

"Had you ever considered that all this is your fault? You're little 'speech' at the end of your games is Snow's way of getting revenge. You've made the rest of the victors think they're invincible and now Snow's wiping us all out to get to you and prove he's still the one in charge." He said,

"How can you possibly know that?" I snapped, I didn't want to believe it, that I would be responsible for twenty-three deaths.

"I-I" He faltered and looked away, "I have my sources."

"Why don't we all just watch the training scores?" Honeyman suggests, trying to defuse the tension building in the room. We gather around the TV, the faces of each tribute comes up. There's a variety of different scores, the ones like Brutus and Finnick get pretty good scores but people like the morphlings have much lower scores. Adric appears on the screen, we look eagerly (we meaning everyone save for Adric who can barely keep his eyes open) as the score comes up and no one can really believe what shows up, not even the people announcing it. Adric's eyes fly open as he leans forward to stare at the screen, it's the first time I've ever seen him genuinely surprised. Then my face comes up and shows the very same score, I don't get it. Why would they give us such high scores? No ones gotten a twelve before, not in the entire history of the games. We go to bed in shock, Adric clearly knew why they'd done this, you could see the realization on his face the second I'd gotten the same score but either he didn't want to share or thought the rest of us already understood aswell. Two days until the televised interviews, I could feel my stomach doing a flip at the thought of going out there again which really, really should be biologically impossible and yet somehow I continuously managed it.

-o-O-o-

The day of the interviews and because of the tour and Adric's personality, our coaching sessions had been cancelled and how does Adric choose to spend his last day of freedom? By sleeping all day. I mean, I'm terrible when it comes to getting up in the morning or basically any time after waking up but he didn't get out of his bed the whole day, I tried getting him up but he just threw things at me. Sure, they weren't well-aimed but some were just too big to avoid so I gave up. The day after that had my prep team forcing me out of bed to get ready for the interviews. They fixed my hair and make-up quickly before Honeyman came in with my dress. It's long and red and made entirely of roses and I'm almost positive it was Snow's idea, after all everyone knows he loves his roses. It's his way of saying that I belong to him, that he's in charge and the world will bend over backwards to make sure he gets what he wants.

We meet up with Pansy, Tilia and Adric at the lifts. The suit Adric has on is identical to the one he wore for the interview in his own games, something I'm sure is Snow's fault. It's no secret that Adric can't stand his games. When we reach the other tributes Johanna immediately started to talk to Adric with a dark tone in her voice. The interviews begin and the tributes are practically throwing subtle insults at Snow and the Capitol, I don't know how I'm going to compete with Finnick's poem to his one true love or Johanna asking the situation to be changed. I'm called out, I guess I'm having to wing this interview. The audience is a wreck, there are people crying and yelling and Caesar has to try to calm them so I can speak.

"Clearly this is a very emotional night, how are you feeling about this?" he asked and for a moment I feel like I could tell him exactly how I feel about this, tell them all but I know that wouldn't help. I may not be as smart as Adric when it comes to things like this but I know when the time comes to be smart and play along with their rules.

"I feel sorry that you'll all be loosing your victors, I know you all must have become so attached. I think that all the emotion we have here tonight is something we'll never forget." I told him,

"And it's such a shame that we didn't get very much time with you, right Aria?"

"Yes, it's a shame I haven't got to spend as much time here or with the people I care about after my games. I didn't really see much of my brother or my dad because of the tour."

"Add that to the little time you've had to spend with Adric, I'm sure you two must have been looking forward to a future together." I blush furiously at the comment, I'd never even thought about what would happen after the excitement of us had died down. I'm sure Adric has, he always thinks everything through a hundred times to make sure it's perfect.

"Yeah, I just... I wish we'd had more time together. I haven't thought much about the future, I thought we'd have a long time to think about it. I guess not." I managed to make my eyes a little glassy, as if I'm going to cry, and then blinked them back. Caesar held my hand comfortingly and a few more members of the audience burst into tears at my confession.

"It's alright Aria, it's alright, you might still come out of this." he tried to comfort me further but I know when to really play up the role of a girl in love.

"But you see, that's the thing. I don't want to come out of this if I can't bring Adric with me." I whispered, it's almost exactly the same thing Adric told Mile and from the crowd's reaction, I'm guessing they remember that too. I'm not sure how to feel about it, Adric said those words to Mile and he meant every one and here I am, plagiarizing them to try and keep myself alive.

"You love him so much that you would die in the games before leaving without him." Caesar said, it doesn't sound like a question, it's more a statement he's making to the audience.

"I do," I answered "I can't imagine life without him now, he's become such a big part of it. I don't want to imagine life without him." and just like that my three minutes were over. Adric was up next and I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as I passed him. A few members of the crowed let out little gasps, they clearly recognized the suit as the one he'd had for his original interviews.

"So, Adric, what was it like when, after... all you've been through, you found out about the Quell?" Caesar asked once the crowd calms enough for him to be heard.

"I was..." Adric thought for a moment, I'm not sure if he was honestly trying to remember what it was like or if he was making something up but the selflessness of his answer shows the crowd a side of him that not even I have seen. "I was worried, I didn't want Aria to be in them again. Not now." He genuinely looked like he was in love. I couldn't help the thought of that look being sent to Leo flying through my mind.

"It must have been hard for you, knowing that the woman you love could die just like," Caesar had to stop to phrase it right, "In you're own games."

"She could die, they could both die." Adric said, a pained sort of look coming across his face, "Aria and the baby." The whole place goes silent in shock, even Caesar can't process it. Heck, I can't process it. Did Adric really just tell the world that I was... No, I must've miss heard him but then the crowd lets out a roar of outrage and Caesar can't calm them, even as Adric walks off the stage, and going straight through the District 10 female's interview and only calming a little near the end of the District 10 male and I know he did say it. I was going to murder him. He's certainly good at manipulating the Capitol, clearly his little charmer personality he had during his first interview was an act just like tonight. I take his hand, deciding to destroy his very existence later. The rest of the interviews go by in a flash while I sit in shock, wondering why he would say something like that. Then Haymitch came back, I noticed him looked to Adric and then he took Illiana's hand and she wrapped her other hand around Chaff's stump and then up and down the row, the victors begin to join hands. All twenty-four of us stand in one unbroken line in what must be the first public display of unity among the districts since the dark days. The screens go dark but it's too late, the world has seen. As usual, Adric always has a plan.