Sorry, short chapter! And I convinced myself I'd finish the interviews this chapter so the games could maybe start in chapter 16 but no such luck! I only got up to district four before I ran out of steam and the chapter was an acceptable length to put up! Ah well, you shall read about Indi and Zap in the next chapter... when I can be bpthered to write it! ;) Enjoy reading, well, I hope you do, and since I am very obsessed with reviews I will happily accept them!
"It's show time!" Hercules states and presses the enter key on the keyboard in front of him after a succession of tapping. The huge screen in the middle in front of us fixes to life, broadcasting Panem's channel and I hear the voice of Caesar Flickerman burst out of the television and I remember what it was like as if it was yesterday. I turn around and see Lumina the other side of Hercules, shocked that she entered without me noticing. I brush it off and see the screen fizzle to life. I swoop down past Caesar's buttery words to liven up the audience and flicker through them with my eyes until I finally sight the tributes. As fast as I can I suck in everything about them; their physical appearance, their posture, their outfits and manners.
"What theme are Zen and Indi going for again?" I ask Lumina who coached them both through themes to choose from for their styles.
"Indigo is being the innocent little girl with some spice and survival and Zen is trying to make virtually no impression, if any a bad one. So he's going to go for weak but appear so weak that no-one will sponsor him anyway. He's a relatively healthy fourteen year-old boy with no family problems we can fork out of him, that's pretty much it." Hercules answers for Lumina simply.
"What did he say when you asked him about his family?" I ask Lumina.
"He said it was none of my business and if I wanted to know I was just going to have to accept the fate that I'm not going to." Lumina replies.
"Oh." Is all I can murmur before Hercules breaks us out of it.
"Right, Lumina, Kara, anything about the outfits that strike out to you, hint a theme?"
"Girl from six is sexy." I immediately say without a doubt at her bright magenta pink short dress which rivals even my interview outfit in length, or lack of it. With just one glance at her matching lipstick and dazzling smile to contrast with her primped brown hair Hercules nods in agreement while Lumina analyses slightly better than me.
"The careers; romantic, motivated to win, ruthless leader, ruthless sidekick, likeable and joking, follow in her brother's footsteps."
"You can tell all that from their outfits?" I ask Lumina as the first tribute; the girl from one steps up to join Caesar at the stage.
"And more; think about it Kara. The boy's shirt from one is too see-through and his trousers are too tight, the girl from there's hair has been left down wildly and her make-up has been done so she looks about as natural as possible; both from two are barely blinking and all those metal studs can't be a good thing. Boy from four is wearing vibrant colours and Juniper's outfit is similar to Dral's interview outfit."
When Lumina says that I notice it and nod slightly then try to sit back and enjoy the show, scanning the tributes for reactions every now and then.
"It looks like Indigo's going to have her work cut out. I think the female tributes from nine, ten and twelve are aiming for similar views as well as the boy from seven. She's sandwiched in between other innocent with a spark's." Hercules sighs.
I nod reluctantly and see the boy from two go off after a particularly nasty death threat to anyone who gets on his bad side in the arena or out of the arena. He's two years older than me and I feel the raw feeling of fear rise in my gut when I see his scowling face. I barely glance at the tributes from three. I recall their names from training, Zen mentioned them once, said they spent virtually all of their time failing at the weapons stations until the boy from one tried to sort them about. Apparently it almost resulted in a fight between him and the girl from two who said to let them be since they weren't worth the trouble. Disc and Essence, that's their names. I doubt they'll make it far, especially after those perfectly mandatory interviews. I find myself ignoring the boy from four's sarcastic comments and rather pathetic attempt at humour and then Juniper steps up and takes a seat opposite Caesar. They greet each other formally and start talking normally, about the arena and her training score alongside her age. But then Dral gets mentioned. Caesar has to mention him, doesn't he? But he does, it'll give her an edge in the arena, or I hope at least.
"Your brother was in the hunger games, was he not?" Caesar asks and Juniper stiffens.
"Yes." She says, blocking out anything else apart from her pounding heart and the steady beat of Caesar's voice to go alongside it.
"But he didn't win, he died. Do you think that will mean you won't be able to win therefore because he didn't?" Juniper gulps and I know she's been anticipating this, the whole way through since her name was plucked out of the reaping ball and she stares up at the camera, straight into its beady lens.
"My brother, my brother was a great tribute and would have been a great victor if it hadn't been for one tribute in the arena; one victor in the arena." Her voice beats with steady venom and I can almost feel the Capitol being enticed into her way of thinking. I feel my stomach twist and my heart tighten and my breathing just stop, my lungs unable to bring in another breath.
"She said she loved him and she killed him. This has been done before; this is part of the hunger games. This is what some tributes might call necessary. But what is different about this girl, this victor, is that she went past necessary, in fact she blew it up and trampled on its little shards, burying them deep into the ground. Not only did she say she loved him before she murdered my brother, she says she still loves him. She has the nerve and the importance to say she still loves my brother, even after she murdered him with cold steel to match her cold heart. This girl; this girl my friends is no hero. This girl; this girl my friends is pure evil. This girl has a name. This girl's name is the girl who murdered my brother and doesn't have enough respect to stop lying about her staged love to him. This girl is Kara Jaymond."
I didn't think she'd say it. I didn't think she'd say my name. But she did, and that name, those two simple words shatter my reality, they shatter my heart into such tiny pieces even the largest of the miniscule fragments could not be caught by the bare eye. She blames me; me for the death of Dral. She says it is my fault, my fault that he is dead. She says I meant it and I mean it and I am one liar to say that I love him when the true feeling I feel for him is hate. They're lies, all lies. Just lies, lies, LIES! But Panem believes her.