Chapter 26: 74th Hunger Games: Presentations

[Summer of 74th Hunger Games]

In the morning of the next day, mandatory viewing showed a summary of the reaping events in all districts. The reaping reviews did not really provide any surprise, at least not in the first part with the usual volunteers in Districts One and Two. In general, training for the Games was not allowed, but for some reason it seemed to be tolerated in some districts on a regular basis, and those who got reaped there could always expect some older and well trained young men and women to step in for them.

The tributes from the first two districts indeed looked quite strong and well trained, and of course Prim got concerned by that:

"How can my poor sister compete against those strong guys? Even some of the girls look like fighting machines. This is so unfair!"

Wheat added: "Yes, specifically that boy from District Two looks like a dangerous opponent."

"Why does the Capitol even allow people to train for the games in those districts?" Prim wanted to know.

My father replied: "I am not sure, but I assume that this is a sign of good will honoring those districts which are specifically important for the Capitol, with One for luxury and Two for defense – the Capitol may want to make sure to assure their loyalty."

"Isn't District Four also usually sending Careers to the Games?" I asked around.

My father nodded: "Yes, most of the time they do. For some reason, they apparently don't this year. Look at their male tribute – he is barely twelve years old; there's no way that he is trained."

"Maybe the Capitol people weren't happy with the quality of the fish from Four this year?" Wheat tried to joke.

"Or maybe he's got some very special skills other than strength," my father speculated, "but this would surprise me."

When District Eleven was shown later on, we saw a tall and very athletic older male called Thresh and a very young looking female tribute called Rue, about Prim՚s size; both of them had rather dark skin. My father said:

"Look at that young girl; she almost looks too young to be in the Games!"

"But she looks so sweet!" Prim replied. "If she lived here in our district, I'd love to have her as a friend. I bet that she would like that, too."

Wheat mused: "If you compare Thresh here from Eleven to Cato from Two, they are both quite tall and strong. Who do you think will win if they meet and fight each other in the Games?"

I replied: "Thresh may be stronger, but Cato has certainly trained for years. There's no doubt Cato would win."

In the evening of the same day, there was a broadcast of the tributes being presented to the Capitol. Normally, few of the citizens in the district watched that and it was not mandatory viewing, but of course we here at the bakery wouldn't want to miss a minute this year.

The narrator explained that the tributes would be soon entering the long and wide street on chariots, so that the audience could get a feeling on what to expect from the competitors in each district. That was important to entice rich Capitol citizens to sponsor gifts during the games, and those gifts could turn out to be very important or even life saving to the tributes. The chariots and the tributes were decorated in a way to represent their district and that district's main industry, and the tributes did their best to impress the viewers, by smiling, waving, and showing off. The tributes always presented themselves in numerical orders related to their districts, starting with District One and ending with District Twelve, our one.

Soon we saw the first chariot approaching in the camera view, and the tributes – Glimmer and Marvel from District One – were dressed mostly in pink and glitter, with some feathers around for the female, showing off the luxury orientation of the district.

When she saw that, Prim snorted:

"I am so glad that nobody asks me to walk around dressed like that!"

"Why not, my dear?" I teased her. "Maybe pink is not really your color, but the feathers might look quite nice on you, I think."

Prim smirked at me, and the next chariot came along, with the tributes from District Two – Cato and Glove – dressed in gladiator like costumes.

My girlfriend used this opportunity to get back at me:

"Any you might look quite handsome wearing one of those gladiator costumes, I believe!"

The tributes from District Three wore glittering silver outfits, like some tiny electronics their district was known for. When looking at them, one could imagine tiny particles of electricity flowing through their clothes.

Prim particularly liked the outfits from District Four; they had a light blue color and symbolized the ocean their district was close to, with swimming and fishing.

The following chariots failed to catch our interest, but when the District Eight tributes had their turn, Prim almost laughed:

"Look at what they are wearing – are those carnival costumes?"

Indeed, the tributes from Eight – a tall boy whose name I forgot, 14 years old, and a pale 13 year old girl – wore costumes mostly in pink and blue, with different colors on each side, and with very colorful caps and decorations.

My father explained:

"District Eight handles textiles and clothing, and they need to show off with that. For us, it looks funny, but for the Capitol residents, it might be real nice and fancy. Do you recall the odd clothes Effie Trinket usually wears?"

"Yes, sure, but are you serious?" Wheat asked. "I agree with Prim; they look like court jesters in one of the old books I have read."

While the tributes from District Nine and Ten passed the cameras, we got ourselves a quick snack, and we were back in time to see the cute little girl and the big boy from District Eleven dressed as farmers, of course, with silver branches on their heads; their costumes were full of plaid and puffs, and nicely done, though not quite as extravagant as those of some other districts.

Finally our own district was due, with Katniss and Peeta approaching in their chariot, dressed in coal black outfits with flaming red capes. We were prejudiced, of course, but in my eyes the way they showed themselves was the most elaborate and impressive one. Somehow whoever had designed that managed to convey the impression that they looked like they were on fire, and Prim was in awe:

"Look at my sister – I have never ever seen her like that! If she makes it, I hope that she can bring that costume home."

"And my brother looks like a coal miner," Wheat said, "but that costume out there would be torn into pieces after one day in the real mines, I guess."

Prim suddenly asked with some concern in her voice: "They are not going to wear those costumes in the Games, or are they?"

I assured her: "No, they are not. For the Games, as far as I know, they all get identical and somewhat practical outfits, just in different sizes."

After that event, we needed to wait a few days until the tribute interviews were to be shown on the day before the actual Games started. During that time, the tributes could train, but what they could train for and potentially learn was mostly hidden from us.

In order to distract ourselves, we did some baking and kept the bakery open for a few hours at least, as citizens needed to eat, but nevertheless we were tense most of the time. For Prim and me, were were only able to find peace when cuddling with each other; feeling the other one close and touching each other helped a lot. A couple of times we also walked around and spent some time on our meadow, and once Wheat and his girlfriend Leevy even joined us. We found it difficult to find topics to talk about and avoid discussing the games too much, but the beautiful nature with birds singing and bees humming helped somewhat. At one time we even managed to doze off after lunch for an hour or two.

On the day before the interviews were due Prim asked me:

"What are the tributes doing during training? Are they fighting or so?"

"We do not know much about that" I replied. "Haymitch has dropped a few hints, though, and I think that they have a few stations educating them about various aspects of the game. They can practice fighting, of course, but they can also learn about how to survive in the wilderness, like which plants are edible and which are poisonous."

"But you cannot learn all of that in just a few days?"

"No, of course not" I responded. "But, you can at least pick up a few hints, I guess."

On the day when the tribute interviews were going to be on, Gale Hawthorne stopped by at the bakery in the early morning, offering a turkey and a couple of squirrels for trade. While I handed out a few loaves of bread, I asked him how Prim՚s mother was doing, and he said:

"Oh, Mrs. Everdeen is doing all right; my mother spends a lot of time with her. And, before I forget, she sends her greetings to Prim."

I called Prim down, and she exchanged a few words with Gale as well.

Then I also asked Gale:

"And how do you feel with your hunting partner of many years being out there?"

"I would have never expected how much I miss her" he replied and sighed. "She is one of the few people in the District I am fully comfortable with, and now, with her being gone, I have realized how deeply I feel for her."

He did not elaborate further, but he did not have to. We had seen indications before that Gale had feelings for Katniss, and Prim had told me about that, but Katniss had always claimed that she would never marry and never have children of her own, and at least as far as I knew, Gale was fully aware of her attitude.

For the evening viewing on that same day, Wheat had invited Leevy over to the bakery, and when she saw that Prim was already seated on my lap, she shyly asked Wheat if she could also sit on his lap. My brother smiled and nodded, and I could not resist the temptation to warn him:

"My dear brother, I hope that you know how to behave with a lady on your lap!"

He scowled, but Leevy asked:

"I am not sure if I qualify as a lady, but is there a problem?"

"Well, in the past there had been a few incidents at school..." I hinted.

"But, I assume," Leevy asked her boyfriend, "all of those happened before you knew me, right?"

He was very quick to confirm. Well, we'd see how he behaved.

Meanwhile, on the screen, the show started and the moderator was introduced:

"Ladies and gentlemen, our master of ceremonies, Caesar Flickerman!"

The man turned around in his rotating chair and was illuminated by a spotlight. This year, his hair had a blue color, different from the odd crimson color last year. The auditorium cheered after almost all of his sentences and seemed to enjoy the show, which was evident by the amount of cheering and applauding.

"How can they be so enthusiastic about something so cruel?" Prim asked.

"You need to understand," I tried to explain, "that for the citizens in the Capitol this is really just like a big game. They cannot be reaped and there is nothing they need to be afraid of. It does not matter who wins and who loses, for them it's only a big game and lots of fun and entertainment, maybe the one big highlight of the year."

In one of the old books I had found there was a long historical report on an ancient civilization called the 'Romans', and some of their smart leaders had apparently already found out that 'panem et circenses' – bread and games – were critical to keep citizens happy. Maybe President Snow had read that book as well and followed the same guidelines to ensure that the Capitol citizens were always loyal.

Meanwhile, the moderator had completed his words of introduction and went on:

"Our first tribute is from District One!"

Leevy, who was still on my brother's lap and seemed to be quite happy there – as far as I could tell, Wheat had behaved so far and had not allowed his hands to move to places they should not be – was curious: "Aren't they always in numerical order?"

"Of course they are, but sometimes they seem to like to highlight the obvious."

When the Career tributes had been interviewed, there were not really any surprises. They all seemed to be looking forward to prove themselves, and Cato, the big boy from Two, even said something like:

"Anyone who hates the games is unintelligent."

Prim was shocked: "How can they say something like that? How can they actually like the games and look forward to being in the arena?"

My father replied carefully: "Primrose, the Career tributes have been educated and trained that way. For them it is probably an honor to volunteer and to participate. Even knowing that only one of them can make it, it's still a good thing for them."

I added: "Maybe it also helps to know that, as a tribute who had volunteered, the other kids in your district don't have to fear being reaped, and that you are safekeeping them. Just imagine that you are a young teenager, and you know that even if your name is read, somebody will take your place – isn't that a good thing, too?"

The interviews afterwards were not really interesting for us and we used the opportunity to get something to eat, but we paid attention when Rue, the little girl from Eleven, was on stage much later during the show. She was dressed in a gossamer gown complete with wings, and she looked very cute and almost magical. Caesar first congratulated her on her training score of 7 – how had this petite girl been able to achieve that? – and then asked:

"Tell me, Rue, are you a hunter, a gatherer, a scavenger, or what?"

"Well, I can find food" she replied. Yeah, that would certainly be a great help when she was found by the Careers.

The girl was asked about weaponry she could handle, and after some hesitation she mentioned the slingshot. Then Caesar said something about a catchphrase he had heard from her earlier, and she stated it clearly:

"Well, if they can't catch me, they can't kill me. So don't count me out."

Caesar smiled at her and ended that interview with the remark: "Rue, I think that the other tributes are going to rue the day they met you!"

And Prim commented again: "She is really is so cute! But she's not really having a chance, right?"

I shook my head: "No, with a slingshot and trying to hide, she's not likely to win – sorry."

Now, with all districts except ours done, only Prim՚s sister and my brother were left. Caesar announced Katniss with a training score of 11 – how was that possible? Even Cato only had a 10! – and the 'Girl on Fire' was called on the stage. She was clearly nervous, and Prim on my lap started to tremble. The tribute's first almost stuttered words made the audience laugh a few times, but Caesar actually found some phrases of admiration:

"When you came out of that chariot a few days ago, I have to say, my heart stopped."

Katniss bluntly responded to that: "So did mine."

Caesar also asked about the flames which had been around Katniss during the chariot ride, and she asked smugly if he wanted to see them. Flickerman asked:

"Is it safe?"

Katniss confirmed that, and for the first time during that interview, she actually started to smile.

"Oh my," Prim chuckled, "is my sister going to be on fire again now?"

On the stage, Katniss stood up and started to turn around in her red dress, and it actually looked like flames were coming out of the wider bottom part. The audience cheered loudly when this was shown, and Prim smiled, too, for a moment at least.

After Katniss was back on her seat, Caesar took one of her hands and said:

"Of course I need to ask how you got your very high training score; care to explain that?"

We'd like to learn about that, too, of course, but Prim՚s sister had the only possible answer to that: "Caesar, if I told you, I'd give away my advantage, wouldn't I? Let's just say that there's a reason for that score."

The moderator had to accept that and continued: "One more question, Katniss – this is about your sister."

Prim squealed: "How does he know about me?"

My father explained: "Primrose, you were the one who was originally reaped, and everybody noticed that your sister volunteered for you!"

Meanwhile, the question on stage was: "Did she come and say 'Good Bye' to you?"

"Of course I did!" Prim stated, almost outraged.

On the stage, Katniss simply responded "Yes, she did".

Caesar continued to dig: "And what did you say to her, in the end?"

"I told her that I'd try to win and come back to her" was Katniss' straight answer, and Prim nodded, confirming that to us.

With that conversation, a buzzer went of to indicate that the three minutes dedicated for each tribute were over; the girl's interview was done, and Peeta came up. The first question for him was how he regarded the Capitol, and he said:

"It's different."

That was of course not good enough, and when he was asked to elaborate, he said:

"The showers are very different. Tell me, do I still smell like roses?"

Some chuckles were heard from the auditorium in the Capitol, and they talked about smells for some time, in particular the rose smell from some showers. The audience liked it; that was certainly an approach they were not used to, and they clearly appreciated it.

Caesar went on: "Pete, tell us..."

He called my brother 'Pete'? Really? They could not even pronounce our names properly?

"Do you have a special girl at home?"

Oh gosh, Peeta wouldn't say it, or would he? Prim now suddenly paid attention again, too, and started to wiggle on my lap.

And no, he denied: "No, not really."

Caesar, though, objected: "I don't believe it for a second! Look at that face, a handsome man like you! Peeta, come on, tell me!"

Peeta seemed to ponder this for a few seconds, and finally admitted with some hesitation:

"Well, there is this one girl… I've had a crush on her forever, but I don't think that she even recognized me before the reaping."

"Yes, I knew it!" Prim shouted.

Before I could ask her what she meant, Caesar continued:

"I tell you what, Peeta: You go out there and you win this game, and when you get home, she'll have to go out with you!"

Prim looked unhappy now again, and I suspected that she actually knew about Peeta՚s crush on Katniss, and Peeta now provided the response, very slowly articulating the words:

"I don't think that's going to work for me at all."

"But why not?"

Peeta visibly hesitated to tell, but finally sighed and said:

"Because she came here with me."

"Well, that's really bad luck" Caesar replied, after a moment of stunned silence. However, the crowd almost erupted, and the audience seemed to embrace this love statement and the situation with lots of applause, which took a long time to subside.

We all wondered if Peeta might have told Katniss about his feelings for her on the train, during the training session, or at some other time they had been forced to be together recently, but we would probably never learn. Prim was now jumping up and down excitedly, and finally she said: "Yes, it is really true!"

When I asked her how she had known, she looked at me and said:

"Silly, do you think I would not notice when somebody looks like that at my sister for years? But you knew, too, right?"

"Yes, we all knew here in the family."

"And yet you did not say a word to me?" she almost looked offended now.

"We all had to promise Peeta not to tell. Be honest, Prim, if I had told you, would you have been able to keep if from Katniss over all the years?"

"No, probably not" she admitted.

The show had ended after Peeta՚s interview, and later on, we all found it hard to get to sleep, knowing that the Games were starting tomorrow and 23 of the tributes were not going to survive the next couple of weeks.

When Prim and I finally got into bed, it was quite hot in the room. Today had been a real hot summer day, and the bakery building had heated up some. Even with some cooler air during the night, the walls were still quite warm from the day, and the heat from the bakery ovens did not help, even though my room was not directly above the ovens. Naturally, we did not have anything like air conditioning; I was not sure if even the houses in the Victors' Village had that.

Anyway, I did not bother with a shirt or PJ top and just wore my usual boxers to bed, waiting for Prim to do her chores in the bathroom. The curtains were already drawn, and the window was wide open behind the curtain. For me, being used to sleep in a rather cool environment, the summer months were always challenging, but at least the summer wasn't that long around here.

My girlfriend came back from the bathroom, and when she saw my uncovered chest, also removed her top and joined me in the bed. I had not expected that and was speechless for the moment, but she did not stop there. She placed herself in front of me into one of our favorite positions, with me spooning her from behind, and pulled my arms around her. Not only that, but she also firmly placed both of my hands on her upper chest, where her boobs had started to grow.

That made me squeal and squirm, but Prim had apparently expected that and held my hands tightly in place. She whispered so that I could barely understand it:

"Let me guess, you feel uncomfortable because you have been told that this is not how a gentleman behaves?"

I recalled that I had used phrases like that once or twice before, and I nodded and whispered back: "Yes."

"We have done this before, you know, and this not really different. But, just tell me, did my mother define any rules when we are together in bed?" I was now asked.

She was right, we had done this before, like when we had been sick, and I had had my hands on her upper chest several times, but this was the first time her chest was not completely flat any longer. I thought about my girlfriend's question for a moment and replied truthfully:

"Yes, she did; I think that she mentioned a couple of times that I'd better keep my hands above your waist."

"Yes," Prim confirmed, "this is also what she told me. Now, where exactly are your hands now – above or below my waist?"

"Well, above your waist" I had to admit.

"So," she continued, "we are not violating the rules, are we?"

I hated it when her logic was better defined than mine. Well, in this situation, this was not really correct. I certainly did not hate the place where I had my hands, and based on her behavior – she had pulled them there, after all – she seemed to like it.

"Prim, is this really what you want?"

"Rye, look, I fully understand and agree to the limits below the waist. The pregnant girl in the games a few years ago is something I will probably never forget, and recent events, with my name being read on Reaping Day, have reminded me again how grave the danger is. However, hands above the waist is a different story. Feeling your hands right where they are now is very enjoyable for me and makes me feel totally at ease and relaxed, and please keep them there so that I can fall asleep and have nice dreams, thinking more about you than about my poor sister."

It worked like that? Indeed, it kind of did, for both of us. Not only could I hear by her breathing that she went to sleep soon, but I also did not take very long. Our position made me very aware of a girl in my arms who needed a lot of comfort, and knowing that I was able to provide that for her made me happy, too. How did my girlfriend get so smart? Sometimes I had the feeling that she dictated the way our relationship developed, but that was more than all right for me.

[Author's Notes: Naturally, with this being from Rye's and Prim՚s perspective, we don't learn what's happening on the train and during training, but it's assumed to be quite like in the book, and those parts have also been retold in multiple variations in other stories. Also, I do not really know which events are mandatory viewing and which are not, I am just guessing.

Like in the chapter before, regarding what Rye and Prim do together in his room, this is fiction, and I do not claim at all that this is a reflection of what real life is or should be.]