Chapter 6

Always look on the bright side of life... yeah...

Apollo and I had our final show last night and now my life consists of eating, sleeping, and working in a busy hospital.

Apollo will be a stylist in next year's games if all goes well. He will probably get District 11, but he's fine with that. "A little dirt never hurt anyone." Strange guy, Apollo is. He's a princess, there's no doubt about that, but he's also pretty strong. Not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. He's gotten into trouble by doing that at school, but he's smart enough not to get himself killed.

He's finally out of his bitchy stage. Unfortunately for me, that means I have to be his model for his fashion class. I'm not at all close to being a model. I'm five-foot seven, a little bit on the larger side (to quote Aemelia "You have curves, Hera. Very large, squishy curves."), and my legs are kind of shortish. Oh well. Blame genetics.

I get every other Monday off from work now. And for my first day off, I will be standing on a platform in Apollo's bedroom while he pins the fabric for a dress around me.

"Hera, if you don't stand still you might get stuck," he says to me. Of course, I get stuck with a pin. "I told you."

"How come I got stuck with the nickname Mister Magnificent?" I say to Apollo.

"That was random."

"Sorry. Just thinking."

"Because according our previous female classmates, you are the ideal boyfriend," he says, tightening the fabric around my back and chest. Very tight.

"Oh yeah." I gasped for breath. Apollo loosened the fabric with a apologetic smile, "Thank you."

"No problem," more silence while he adjusts things around me.

"So why are you making this dress?" must break silence. Bored.

"I'm supposed to make a silk evening dress for my class. The person who gets the highest grade will be first on the list for the districts next year."

"Well that's nice."

"It's more than nice, Hera. It will be the start of my career if I do well on this project..." and here we go. Talking about how he really enjoys design school and how he is really looking forward to working with the tributes and the prep teams and whatnot. Time for mind wandering. I need to clean out Prince's ears. They are starting to make him itch. That activity is probably the most disgusting thing I have ever done in my life, including caring for people with flesh eating bacteria. I glance out his bedroom for a second. Out side of the Justice building is a massive group of people just standing there. Not moving, not shouting, just standing. What the hell? Whatever. Apollo sticks me again in the boob.

"Would you stop that? I hate you," I say as I jerk and slap the side of his head.

"Sorry." I can tell that he's trying his hardest not to laugh. Men...

I must say, being a dress form is awful. I am covered in about a hundred tiny little prick marks. It probably looks like I was attacked by a porcupine. The dress looks nice though, and that's all that really matters to Apollo.

"Okay, now I have to math," Apollo says to me after I get out of the dress and get dressed my self.

"You have to math? Really?" I say, looking over his shoulder. "You weren't supposed to carry the one there."

"I never said I was good at it. It's calculating the cost of dress."

"Sucks for you. I'm gonna go do something out of the house," I pat him on the head and walk out of his room and down the stairs and out of the house. Now what should I do? I haven't really had the chance to go anywhere... but it's my day off and I still have a few more hours of sunlight before dinner. You know who I haven't seen in a while? Clarisse Autry. We went to grade school together but when high school came around, she went to some fancy musical school. We used to say that if I was a guy, she would definitely date me. That's probably why I was voted the manliest person in the class. I pull my mobile phone out of my pocket and text her.

Hey Clar. You want to come over? It takes her a few minutes to respond.

Ya sure.

Yay. Bring cards. We can play speed.

Great :) See u soon.

I put my phone away and sit on the curb. Clarisse can drive, and she's a pretty crazy driver, so really don't have to wait that long. Fifteen minutes maybe. So that's what I do. I sit on the curb and text my other friends. Fifteen minutes goes by and Clarisse finally arrives in her awesome neon green sports car. She prances out of her car in her happy trot.

"Hey mister Magnificent!" She attacks me in a giant hug. I laugh and hug her back.

"Hi Clar. Come on in, we can get started on our tournament."

"Okay." Clarisse is a lot like me thought wise. We both think that excessive surgery is gross and we both dress in more comfortable clothing. But look wise, she's about three inches shorter than me, with olive skin and dark brown hair. She almost looks like someone from District 12.

"Apollo!" I call to him from downstairs.

"What?"

"Say hi to Clarisse."

"Oh my god! I haven't seen you in forever, Clarisse!" he looks over the railing from the second story, "How are you?"

"I'm okay, just dying in medical school. What about you?"

"I'm in design school, actually."

"That's awesome."

"Hey are you hungry?" I interrupt their conversation. She shakes her head, but follows me into the kitchen anyway. She pulls a pack of cards out of her pocket and sets it on the table. I sit down while she shuffles the cards.

"Don't you think that Peeta is the hottest tribute that they've had so far?" she says. Not this again. She does this every freakin' year. I'm not kidding.

"No. Finnick is the hottest. End of story."

"Are you kidding?" she puts her hand of cards face down on the table and stares at me, "You are insane. Peeta is way more attractive than Finnick. On the slight chance that you become someone or meet someone super famous, please try to set me up with Peeta. He can't be that much older than me..."

"Keep dreaming." She glares at me good heartedly and we continue our game. Prince saunters into the kitchen happily, which makes Clarisse jump about a foot out of her seat.

"Ohmygod do not let him touch me!" she says to me. Clarisse is allergic to canine saliva. And most animal hair.

"Oh please. He's afraid of you," I shake my head and finish placing my cards in the piles, "Speed."

"You cheated."

"You lie."

"As much as I would... love to stand here and listen to you two fight like a married couple," Apollo says from the doorway, making us both turn to see him, "I just found some old recordings that I took. Want to watch?" Clarisse and I look at each other, shrug, and follow him into the den.

The Finnick vs. Peeta argument actually happened to me once. It was one of the most pathetic bus conversations ever. And violently worded. Annie... ;)

Anyway... my biggest test of my life is OVER. My afternoons are now devoted to this... kind of.

Lots of love. Rate and review.

Johanna