Are you lacking balance in your life? What is stopping you from succeeding?


Iris Agua, Intern
Easter Lily
's Apartment, Capitol


Colours, from the darkest of red to the light shades of purple still fill her mind from the events of last night. The lights flashing, cameras taking thousands upon thousands of pictures. The Tribute Parade had been a great success once again, and this time she had front-row seats to all the action. She could never go back to sitting so far away from the tributes in the next Hunger Games. Her dream of being a fashion designer had been reignited as she watched the tributes.

Last night felt like a blur of vibrancy colours, flooding her eyes and filling her mind full of ideas as she continues to pursue a field in fashion. Her love of the subject is on the show as she recognises the subtle touches of each of the tribute stylists as the tributes were featured on the big screen. Her highlights were the Four pair, their extravagant gown, like flowing jellyfish colours of oranges and purples mixing, it made them look like they were underwater. Although the Tens, Nines and Ones also caught her attention that night.

The group of interns all went to the after-party last night, and all somehow ended up in Easter's apartment. A small one-bed apartment with her sleeping in her room, and the rest of them crashing in the living room. She didn't sleep much, and by the looks of all the others now just stirring awake, they didn't either.

"What time is it?" Anisa yawns as she gets up, her dress still on, and her make-up slightly smudged.

"It's just a little past seven." Michael, who was in the kitchen pipes up drinking some coffee, his suit jacket off.

"Oh. I guess Easter isn't up yet." Anisa sighs as she sits up beside Iris.

"No," They hear a voice emerging from her room as Easter, already dressed for the day in a pale blue suit jacket and skirt combo, a white shirt freshly ironed under neat her jacket. "I have been ready for an hour now, I suggest you all get ready too."

"Only you would be actively sabotaging us," Leo says finally getting up from the ground. "I expected that from Anisa, but you?"

Easter just scoffs as Anisa kicks the boy on the ground. Leo raises his arms in defeat as she reaches for the television remote turning on the morning news. The screen blinks to life at Capitol News Today, the news anchor dressed in a marvellous jade green two-piece suit with a white shirt and similar green tie.

"Good Morning Panem! Bill Turnbull here with the latest headlines." The news anchor fixes his desk as the music blares preparing for his headlines. Everyone seems to sit up as the image of Leroy Ramnes, the first victor of Panem is displayed.

"Leroy Ramnes, the first ever victor of the Hunger Games will be released from prison today following an investigation into the death of the District Nine victor, Adlay Durum, three years prior.

The Two victor had spent roughly six months in the Capitol under arrest whilst investigations were pending, and today we have confirmations from Head Peacekeeper, Jerome O'Neal, that Mr Ramnes would be released today."

He takes a small break as he prepares for the other headline.

"The killer of well-known businessman, Jovian Basani, is still at large. There have been no sightings since that day but reports state that the killer is considered to be residing in the Capitol.

Speaking with Head Peacekeeper, Jerome O'Neal, he states that security has been increased as the Hunger Games continues and that he is putting his best efforts to catch this killer. More news to follow as it arises."

He takes a sip of water as the man smiles now, videos appear behind him of the Tribute Parade as each tribute's outfits appear behind him caught on camera. He shifts to one side as he begins to speak.

"In other, more lighthearted news. The Tribute Parade for the Thirty-third Hunger Games was in full swing last night, this year's tributes broke a record for the number of volunteers totalling up to nine! I for one am eager to see the competition this year.

Today will mark their first day of training, in which they would conduct such activities for the next three days. We spoke with the Master of Ceremonies, Phineus Keenzest, yesterday who had stated how excited he was to meet the tributes."

"Has it been six months already since the day that Leroy Ramnes was arrested?" Anisa says after the headlines, trying to think in her head the last time he was on the news. "I knew he was innocent, the autopsy reports for Adaly Durum were alcohol poisoning I'm pretty sure."

"Some were saying that Leroy encouraged the other to drink from a young age which led to people blaming him," Peter says taking a sip of the coffee he was handed earlier.

Iris is sure that the victors have their own problems brewing, and it seems to only increase as more victors are added to the pool. She feels sorry for Adlay, in a way she feels sorry for all of them, stuck to a life of trauma. Whilst others have found a way to make their victor status rise such as Sibyl Hawkes who seems to model from time to time for Capitol billboards, there are others that she has not heard of in a while such as Thorium Cole from Twelve, or from the similar district to Sibyl, Vermillion Voltaire from One.

The news now shifts to the weather, the woman in charge seems to be some ditzy girl wearing hot pink as she smiles directly at her viewers. She's a little too enthusiastic for Iris in the morning as she laughs and jokes about everything. She smiles as Michael goes to sit beside her on the sofa handing her a mug of coffee, she appreciates the smell and the taste as she takes a sip.

"So the killer for Jovian is still at large, should we be worried?" Iris finally says as her thoughts go to the man they were talking about when they all met up so many weeks ago now, everyone seems to look at her as if she had said something untoward, and she feels herself shy away.

"The security has been beefed up it seems, so I don't think we have anything to worry about." Leo seems to scoff at Iris, standing up to stretch. His light grey trousers and white shirt all crumpled from the night of stirring he had done.

Iris had a right to be worried, in recent years there seems to be a lot of violence in the Capitol. She doesn't know if everyone had forgotten about former Head Gamemaker, Rexton Price and his friend, Elbert Korando disappearing. Not to mention the former's apartment was set on fire, to this day no one knew why that happened.

Whomever the killer is they are still out there and that scares her. She can feel Michael place a calming hand on her shoulder. She looks at his dark brown eyes reassuring her that he'll protect her. She just smiles, feeling herself blush as she takes another sip of her coffee.

There was a knock on the door and they all look at each other, Iris' worry coming back almost immediately as she grips onto her mug closely. Easter eventually moves to her front door opening them to find no one. She returns with a note in her hand going back to where she was standing only a few seconds ago.

"What is it?" Anisa chimes standing up to look.

"It's a note," Easter says looking at the front and then the back to see if there's an address or any names. "I don't see where it's from though."

"What does it say?" Peter says as he goes to stand beside her trying to read.

"It reads: 'I know who killed Jovian Basani, they are a prominent figure in the Capitol, especially now.'" Easter says as she hands the note to Peter. "What does that mean?"

"Is it a Gamemaker?" Leo says stretching again and then his eyes widen. "Maybe it's a victor?"

"That's impossible," Anisa says looking at Leo. "There's no way that a victor would do that, they are being watched constantly by the Capitol."

"Well they do win by killing other tributes, who knows what they're really up to, the victors we see on the screen are not necessarily the same ones that are off the screen," Iris says this time and Leo points at her agreeing and Anisa just rolls her eyes at him.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Anisa says with furrowed eyebrows. "Do we report this?"

"Or we can investigate," Easter says. "Think about it, if we find the killer then this can catapult all of our careers moving forward."

"I don't know," Iris says and Easter goes to sit beside her.

"We won't find the killer and confront them, we'll instead compile our investigations and present them."

"I'm still not sure." She says to her and Easter smiles.

"Don't worry about it, I'll protect you." She says and Iris smiles at that.

"So where do we start?" Leo says.

"Well, we're thirty minutes late for work now." She says and everyone scrambles to get ready, not one of them wanting to face the wrath of Magnolia.


A/N - An update!

We are taking a wee break from tributes to have intern shenanigans again. Honestly, I love them all.

In this chapter/interlude we introduce a mystery, we will see if they will eventually figure out the killer for Jovian. Easter is right in that it will catapult their careers to new heights. It's very hard to make a name for yourself in the Capitol.

Also, Leroy is out of prison! Yay for him I guess.

Well that's it I guess! See you in training.

Cheers!
~Alec