"Welcome back to the interviews! Now, let's welcome on stage the family and friend of Fallen and Leia Dean!"
Fallen's mother and father came on stage. Both were dressed very plainly, a contrast to the glitz and glamour of the earlier, Career district families.
"Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Dean, and Devon. It is so good to have you all here."
"It's good to be here. It is so much fancier here than it is in District 6," said Leia's father. "And please, call me George and my wife Sola."
"Of course. From what I've been told, you are all very close, correct?"
"Fallen and Leia have a very special bond," answered Sola. "George and I were really blessed to have two kids that get along so well. Our job as parents was simply to care for them; we didn't really have to do anything else for them."
"Devon, how did you fit into the picture?"
"I was Fallen's best friend. We are in the same grade at school. I was his reprieve from Leia."
"From Leia?" Caesar inquired.
"Leia is a great little girl. She is sweet, understanding, and sensitive. But she is also very shy and introverted. So she would hang around Fallen a lot, and hide behind his leg whenever anyone or anything scary came. Now, Leia was pretty comfortable around me, even though I wasn't a member of her family, because I was around so much. During school hours when the two were separated, Fallen would lament to me about his sister. He felt that she was dependent on him. I kept telling him, she will grow out of it. But then..."
"George, Fallen and Leia are seven years apart. How do you think that affected the relationship of the two?"
"I think that Leia looked up to Fallen. She was emotionally connected to him in many ways, as siblings are. The problem is, if you feel too much of a connection to someone, you will do anything to be with them.
"So I see that we are all chomping at the bit. Let's talk about the reaping. Now, I think that we can all agree that nobody expected Leia to volunteer."
"I just do not understand the logic of that 9-year-old girl. WHY do you volunteer as a 9-year-old when you have your whole life ahead of you?" exclaimed George. "And even worse, why do you volunteer with no training whatsoever? I can sort of understand the logic of Goldstar, that little girl from One. She has training. Leia has no training. Nothing. Zip. Zap. Nada. To put it simply, she was an idiot."
"So you don't see a motive for Leia at all, George. Sola?"
She sighed. "Leia. I had a bad feeling about her once Fallen was reaped. She is so devoted to him. I know that she would give her life for him, Games or no Games. The problem is, little girls like Leia don't always understand that you sometimes have to put your own life and safety ahead of the lives of the people you care about. If she hadn't volunteered, she would have been miserable, but her life would have gone on. Now, I don't know if her life will."
"Devon?"
"I don't know Leia as well as her parents. So I can't say, oh, this is definitely what would have happened if things had gone differently. What I can say is that I know how devoted Leia is to Fallen. If there was ever an example of unconditional love, it is the way that she looks up to and respects, if not worships, him. For someone to lose something that they hold so dear, it's hard."
"What have you thought of their Games so far?"
"Well, the biggest thing was that sibling challenge thing. It was weird," said Sola.
George agreed: "I don't understand what the point of that was. But in terms of the Gamemakers knowing the tributes, they hit the nail on the head for Fallen and Leia's punishment."
"Is there anything else you would like to add?"
"If I could send them a message," offered George, "it would keep shelter in mind. Stay together, because you have an alliance, and don't challenge the Careers. It never ends well."
"Thank you three so much for being here. It was a pleasure."
"Now, please welcome the family and friend of District 7's lone representative, Shine Scott."
Three men came onto the stage. The cheers from the audience wavered - all three looked very imposing, but were very hot!
"Welcome, Dezz, Mr. and Mr. Scott."
"Please," said Shine's father, "call me Marble, and call my son Scott."
"Really?! Your name is Scott Scott?"
"Yes," replied Scott. "My parents thought that it would be cute to name me Scott Scott. My friends at school... Not so much."
"So let's talk about Shine, Marble. She was born in One, correct?"
"Yes. We moved from One to Seven 6 years ago, when Shine was 12."
"Did she train?"
"Yeah. Shine was doing surprisingly well in the Academy. Better than average - a girl that would have been intensely training for the Games when she turned 12 or 13."
"And, if I'm not mistaken, you have a connection to the families of both District 1 female tributes."
"That is correct. Sparkle DeFontaine's older sister, Emerald, was Shine's first training partner. They were so cute! When they were about 6, their trainer gave them foam swords with which to practice sword fighting. The result was Shine chasing Emerald around the room, bopping her on her head with a sword." The audience laughed. "At age 9, Shine began a second training course, this one a bit more intense. She was paired up with Tyranny Bomber, who was 8 at the time. She still trained with Emerald in her other course, though."
"Scott, did you train?"
"Naturally," Scott scoffed. "Only in extreme cases would someone from One not train."
"Why did you guys move to Seven? It sounds like you had a good life in One."
"I was relocated as a Peacekeeper to Seven six years ago. I had the option to leave my kids in One and go to Seven, but I wanted to keep my eye on them. So we moved when Shine was 12 and Scott was 16."
"Did Shine continue to train?"
"Yes. I tried to train Shine and Scott at the same time, but it really didn't work. I was too stressed and having too much trouble trying to train two of them at once. So, in the interest of getting a Victor in our family, Scott and I decided to join forces to train Shine."
"Dezz, what was your relationship with Shine?"
"I became friends with Shine after she moved here. We are both fearless, so neither of us is really scared of anything. It's fun. She sometimes would invite me to train with her, but I was PAINFULLY behind. She could kick my butt."
"Let's switch gears now and talk about the Games. Shine has done pretty well so far."
"Yes. I was a little bit underwhelmed by her training score - she should have had a 10," said Marble. "But other than that, I am very proud of my daughter."
"Scott? What surprised you most about these Games?"
"That little brat from 5. Cyei All. How the hell did he manage to get 12 kills? I mean, Shine had.. 8, 9 kills? Cyei had 12. And he wasn't even trained."
Scott looked like he was about to explode. Thankfully, the buzzer sounded at that point.
"Thank you, Dezz, Scott, and Marble!"
The three left the stage. Caesar could not have been more relieved.
"Now, we welcome the parents of the Brown siblings. Please welcome Juile and Ray Brown!"
The two came on stage. There was some confusion on the crowd - where was adorable little Holly?
Caesar sensed the audience's confusion, and explained, "Because Holly is still technically in the Games, she is not allowed to see her parents. So, her parents alone will be at this interview. Plus, we've already heard from her in the interview we held a few days ago! Now, onto the parents. Juile, Ray, how are you?"
"Good," Juile sighed. "A little stressed, but good."
"So let's talk about your kids. I'm going to venture that there is a positive relationship?"
"Yes," said Ray. "We are very lucky that all of our kids have a positive relationship with each other. Especially when Holly was born. They all pitched in to help out with her. She was unplanned, but we were excited at the prospect of having another child."
"Were you surprised that they were all reaped?"
"Yes. I honestly expected one, or maybe two. But all four? Only Alex even took out any tesserae ever."
"But," interjected Juile, "I knew that they would all help protect each other. Alex is a great big brother in that regard. And Holly is so adorable and innocent that I knew her siblings would do everything in their power to get her out."
"So you must have been thrilled that she was the first tribute to be saved from the Games."
"Yes, we were absolutely thrilled. We honestly weren't sure if any of our kids would get out, but the fact that she did makes us so happy and grateful. I can't wait to see her in a few days."
"It's going to be hard to explain things to her if one her siblings passes," mused Ray.
"Now, Holly will not be counted as a Victor. And she still has the prospect of being reaped once she turns 14. Does this worry you?"
"It's too far in advance to think about that," said Juile firmly, clearly refusing to discuss the subject further.
"What do you think has been the biggest advantage your kids have had?"
"I think," said Juile, looking at her husband, "the idea of teamwork. Growing up in such a big house makes it a requirement to be able to work together, so joining with four other people wasn't a big problem."
Ray added, "Remember that none of the kids on the brown team were Careers. So they really had to work together to stay alive for as long as they could. And they didn't do too badly!"
"If there is one piece of advice that you could give your kids as a whole, what would it be?"
"Just keep doing what you're doing, I think," said Juile. "Whatever their strategy has been, it's clearly working."
"And remember," finished Ray, "that all of your friends are rooting for you back home, and we all want you to come back soon!"
"That's great. Thank you, Ray and Juile!"
"Our next interview is a bit of an atypical one, which combines two families from separate districts. So please welcome the families of Trinity and Marianne Belle!"
A crowd of people come on stage - Trinity's mother and siblings, and Marianne's parents and brother.
"Welcome, everyone. Can you all squeeze onto the couch? No? Ok, I guess the little ones are ok on the floor. Thank you all for making the schlep. I'm sure you're glad to see your family, though."
"Yes. Delilah and I don't get to see each other that much," said Cady. "So even in these not-so-great circumstances, it's great to see my sister."
"So your little ones are probably just meeting each other for the first time, right?"
"Correct," said Delilah. "Marianne and Trinity had met each other once before the Games, when my husband passed away. Cady brought Mari to 8 to grieve with me. That was about 7 years ago. I was pregnant with Cobalt when my husband died. And so Cobalt and Jack have never actually met. But they have seen pictures of each other. I make sure to send pictures of my family to 11 for Jack to see, and Cady sends pictures to me."
"And Paris, you have a little girl, right"
"Yes. She is very good friends with her auntie Trinity."
"Let's talk a bit about the Reapings. So Marianne found out that Trinity would be in the Games right after her reaping, correct?"
"Yes," said Milo, Marianne's father. "She told us during her goodbyes."
"So Delilah, you didn't find out until later on, during the reaping recap later that night."
"Correct."
"Honestly," Cady interjected, "it's kind of good that they ended up in the Games together. Because they have been really good about protecting each other. Alone, they would have been lost. But together they are stronger."
"Now, they had a fairly young team, in terms of the younger half. Darren, Dek, Trinity and Marianne."
"That's not so bad, though," said Milo. "It keeps them all comfortable."
"And your kids were in the blue-white alliance. Do you think that was a good idea, or a bad one?"
"I don't think it was a bad idea, especially because white was a stronger team. But sometimes an alliance can be problematic."
"So let's move to the sibling challenge. Their challenge wasn't inherently hard, but it did cause some problems. Agree?"
"Agree," confirmed Cady. "We were really nervous for Mari when she pulled her hamstring. But she pulled through."
"And then there was the five-team alliance."
"Now that might not have been smart. I think that was just a disaster waiting to happen. With so many people coming from so many different circumstances and so many different strategies, if they had kept going for any longer, things could have gone very badly."
"Last question. If you could give any advice to your girls, what would it be?"
"Be careful and stay safe," said Delilah.
"Look out for each other," answered Cady.
"Stay alive," said Milo.
"That is great. Thanks so much to you all for coming!"
The Belle clan trooped offstage.
"Coming up," said Caesar, "our final set of interviews. Join us after the break!"
I hope you guys liked this chapter, because it was long overdue! I'm so sorry that I've kept you waiting for so long, but as I've said many times, interviews are not my favorite thing to write. Thankfully, we only have one more interview chapter to go, and then we go back into Games action! And I have quite a plot planned for you guys! I'm so excited for you to read it.
Anyway, please reread the rest of the story, and review this chapter! There are discrepancies that I'm going to work on, but I only have so much time to do so. Also, if you guys could check out my other story, The Capitol Games, I'd really appreciate it! I need a lot of tributes for that SYOT.
Again, I'm so sorry about the long wait, but I can't wait to work on this story more!
-goldie031
