Okay. Finals are over, it's Chinese New Year break, and yeah, I have time again. YAY! I think I passed all the subjects… maybe I failed Chinese…
So. Here's Fourteen.
Chapter Fourteen
Seven.
I stare at the number below my picture. Seven. I had expected either a zero or a twelve. But Katniss Everdeen gives me a seven, a perfectly normal score. As if she wanted things to be different from what has just happened...
Lorenzo gets a nine. I admit, I'm impressed. But his skills with the sword is utterly amazing. Of course, coming from a Gamemaker, he must have some heritage. It looks like not all Capitol people are defenseless.
"Who'd you get as your Gamemaker?" I ask Lorenzo quietly.
"The Mellark boy," he whispers back. "For the whole... berries thing."
I nod. In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark cheated themselves out of the arena with the berries - and Seneca Crane didn't stop them.
"Well... we have interviews in two days, right?" I say.
Lorenzo confirms it. I head back to my room in despair, because the interviews will be public and I can't yell out a whole speech about unfairness. Plus, the interviewer's identity will be kept secret... I only feel bad for Julius Flickerman, sitting in the tribute seat, watching what used to be his father's spot be taken by someone else.
My dreams are not any better that night.
Preparations for interview night passes quickly, and soon the morning of the interviews are here. I open my eyes to the bright sunlight streaming from my window, and to Cinna's warm eyes.
"Hi," I whisper nervously. I raise myself out of bed and glare at the clock hanging on the opposite wall. It's ten in the morning. Interviews begin at six.
"Hello," Cinna says, in his calming voice.
"What am I wearing tonight?" I ask weakly. Nervous spasms quickly overcome me and I collapse back in bed.
"Come and see," says Cinna, reaching down to help me up. I feel slightly embarrassed but go with him anyways.
Breakfast is the usual - rolls, eggs, pancakes, that kind of thing. I don't know what I'm eating, cannot taste the food in my mouth, even the sweet aroma of sausages do not make way to my brain. I cannot absorb anything, can only think about my angle for the interviews tonight. This is it. This is the final showdown, my only chance to convince the audience - the rebels - to vote for me. The chances of that are next to zero, very minimal, because I am the granddaughter of the one who thwarted them with the Hunger Games, the very reason why I'm heading into one right now. I remember yesterday, explaining all this to Cinna, why this whole interview is making me nervous.
"I can't do it, Cinna," I whisper. "Can't."
"Why not?" he asks, patting my shoulder, half-wrapping me in a hug.
"I just can't," I whisper.
"Tell me why." He puts himself at shoulder's distance from me. I have to force myself to get the truth out.
"Because I'm Snow's granddaughter," I whisper. "I'm the one they loathe most, because I'm directly related to Snow, the one who murdered them out of cold blood. Tortured them, hurt them, controlled their very lives. They think it's my fault. It's not my fault!" I force myself to not cry. Now isn't the time. "I'm his granddaughter. Every single person knows my name, the only living Snow left in this world. Soon I'll be slaughtered - along with twenty-three others. The only surviving one will be left in a period of despair in which they will reflect all the murders committed - just like real victors. We're like the tributes too, punished for our parents' crimes. Punished for crimes we didn't do! That's what I told Katniss..."
I explain to Cinna about my training period.
"But this time, it'll be different. I can't exactly throw those words into the crowd. I can't do that, Cinna! They'll never listen to me! They think... they think... they think I'm the beast that Snow provided himself! They hate me! Hate me! HATE ME!"
Cinna doesn't say anything for a while. Then he speaks in a calm voice, sounding quiet and solemn to me pained ears.
"That's exactly what Katniss Everdeen felt like, you know," he says. "She felt the same thing. But she still managed through the interviews. You can, too, Angel. Master your fears. Master the crowd. Turn their hate into love." He leans in closer. "Angel, make them like you."
Make them like me. Today I have to appear likable. Yeah, right. Like I can do that. I can't. I'm the granddaughter of a CRIMINAL. How can I act likable? I am not Peeta Mellark, I am Katniss Everdeen, a fierce determined girl. I can't be likable.
But I must. If I'm to survive these Games, then I have to overpower the crowd. Turn their hate into love for me, the one relative of Coriolanus Snow. I have to control them and make their hate mine.
Tonight is the time to do it.
Okay, just laying it out here so you can have some head start, Chinese New Year is coming up fast, and I'm leaving on February 4th and coming back on February 12th, hopefully get an update on February 13th. Just saying.