A/N: The tribute list for The Hardest Choice is closed, thanks to everyone who submitted!
Angeline Clerville
Capitol, 23, Female
I layer my pancakes with honey and rush over to sit on my couch.
"Where's the remote?" Nitha, my best friend, asks in an ungrateful voice.
"Don't give me that sas when I've agreed to let you watch the family interviews on my 72 inch TV!" She glares at me and kneels to find the remote under my velvet red sofa.
I press a couple of buttons and the TV flicks onto Medea, she is presenting the show and doing a few recaps. I dig into my pancake as she finishes up.
"Today we will be hearing from our 5 remaining tributes' family members. Friday Evans, Sapphire Richmonne, Vidia Ciele, Eoghan Coutts, and Lex Cole."
"I bet Lex's brother is as cute as him!" Nitha blushes and I scowl.
"The only reason you're rooting for him is that you want to buy a night with him after he gets out of there." Nitha made me want to vomit, sometimes. The victors aren't toys, they have been through enough.
"Duh!" She giggles and I roll my eyes.
"Firstly, we will be hearing from Sapphire Richmonne's godfather, unfortunately, we couldn't get any real family but oh well!" The TV changes to a live broadcast of Medea and Sapphire's godfather talking.
"How confident are you that your-" She pauses and looks thoughtful. "-that Sapphire will be our new victor?" This woman... She's his goddaughter, goddamn you.
"We're not going to start with an introduction?" He asks and scowls, now this is my kind of man.
"Uh, sure. Go ahead!"
"I'm Quinius Diamté, Sapphire's guardian." Quinius looks good for his age, his skin is full of makeup, making it tan and natural. His hair is bleached blonde and his blue eyes shimmer as he says his daughter's name.
"Okay, now answer my question."
"Yes, I think she will win. I mean her only competition is that mental girl from 2." I wouldn't go as far as to say Vidia is mental...but she's pretty crazy.
"Why do you say that, what about the boy from 10?"
"I just can't see him being able to kill my girl. As for the other 2, that's self-explanatory."
"What do you think of Sapphire's 2 kills?"
"Those boys shouldn't have messed with her, simple as that."
"What did you 2 do back home, together?"
"Um, nothing. We rarely talked and when we did, it didn't go so well but I think we fixed that up in the goodbyes. I can't wait for her to get home so we can further our relationship."
"Well, let's hope she doesn't die so you won't be remembered as the abusive and piece of shit she thought you were." I hear some crashing noises as Quinius stands from his seat and the screen quickly slides back to the pre-recorded presentation.
"That was interesting...I hope Medea's okay." Nitha says, she actually looks worried.
"I hope he beat the shit out of her!" I laugh and turn back to the TV.
"Next up are Friday's parents, Jeanie and Carter!"
Jeanie sits on her sofa chair in hysterics, she looks as if she'd been crying for years. Her makeup is running down from all the tears and a stylist frantically tries to fix it and gives up, handing her a tissue. Carter sits on the arm wrest with one hand on Jeanie and one on his lap, it's clear who will be doing the talking.
"Let's start then!" Medea giggles and Carter shoots her a glare, causing her to regain a straight face. I'm guessing she doesn't want another black eye. "How do you feel about Friday murdering that innocent girl?"
"If it's what he has to do to win, so be it."
"So, you don't mind that your son is a murderer."
"Not by choice." He states and Jeanie begins to scream.
"You did this! We were going to be happy! I fucking hate you, I fucking hate you!" She charges at Medea and right before her hands reach the neck of Medea, a Peacekeeper grabs her. It's a shame, I would've liked to see that. The screen goes black and it takes a couple of minutes but it switches to the smiling face of Medea, with no black eye.
"Aren't they lovely?" Oh yes, yes they are.
"She's crazy." Nitha sighs.
"I, personally, love her." I don't know how Nitha ended up being my best friend, we are total opposites.
"Next, is Lex's 2 siblings and Mom."
"I'm so excited!" Nitha screeches.
A young girl appears on the screen in a light teal dress, her blonde hair is wavy and her face is chubby and cute you could almost mistake her for a district 1 girl. Next to her is Lex's brother, he looks similar to Lex except less scrawny, blue eyes instead of hazel, and older. Nitha screeches from beside me and grips my wrist. The mom looks like an almost identical version of her daughter, except with stress lines and wrinkles.
"How about we start with you Mae?"
"Okay." She says and I see her tears fighting to stay back.
"Lex has eliminated two of the strongest threats in this game, making him a very high contender to win but do you think he'll win?"
"Well, of course, he's going to win. I teach my children to be not only fighters but survivors."
"Now, I must move onto you, Lanny. Why do you look so much more physically fit than the rest of your family?"
"I must admit, Medea, I haven't been the best help to my family. After this tragedy, I have promised myself to help out as much as I can."
"So, you already count your brother as dead?"
"That's not what I said." He snaps back and I laugh, hoping Medea gets the 3rd assault of tonight. Unfortunately, Lanny does nothing and stays sat on his white, plastic, chair.
"Now, dear little Sophie-"
"I'm 13." She squeaks, interrupting Medea. I can barely hear what she says, she's so quiet.
"Sorry. Well, what do you think of your brother's ruthless attacks at these innocent people."
"They're not innocent."
"Sorry, I didn't hear you."
"I said they're not innocent." She says, speaking up. "They volunteered to do that, my brother didn't. They brought this on themselves." She cries and the tears flood down.
The interview ends there.
"The first family to hold back," I say and finish the remains of my pancake.
"Next we have the Coutts family, Sal, and Trey with their son and Eoghan's twin brother Oaken."
2 middle-aged adults sit on a sofa chair and their son sits in front of them, on the floor. Oaken is in tears but I can see a resemblance between the 2, most likely because they're twins. Sal and Trey have stern and stoic expressions, they look uninterested in the whole thing.
"What do you guys think of Eoghan volunteering for the love of his life."
"Disgusting."
"Highly." Sal finishes and they remain within eye contact with Medea.
"I take it Samara was your family slave."
"Yes."
"2 pieces of bread wasted if I say so myself." 2 pieces of bread? They got Samara for 2 pieces of bread?
"Don't even mention the amount of food we, also, wasted on her," Trey says, breaking eye contact by rolling his eyes.
"Okay then. How about you Oaky? How did you feel about Samara?"
"His name is Oaken and he felt like we all did, except that son of a bitch Eoghan, she was just a slave."
"Eoghan, my brother!" He cries and raises a fist at his dad. "Do not speak him like that."
"Oh, a rebel!" Medea laughs and in reply, gets 2 scowls. "How did you feel about Samara, Oaken?" Medea asks again, this time with a reply.
"I loved her. She really sweet and caring."
"But now she's dead." Sal snaps at her son and he looks back in fright, suddenly the boy bursts into tears and the tv cuts back to the presentation.
"Poor, Eoghan. He hasn't got anything to come home to."
"Neither does Vidia." I remind her, I had been trying to persuade her to chip in to help get Vidia a sponsor. I know she doesn't like happy endings and this was the right moment to try to get her to help.
"We'll see." She says.
"Next up is Vidia's two parents! You may have seen them before as they have been here once before for their daughter."
"Hello, Mrs. and Mr. Ciele!" Two figures sit side by side on metal chairs, Vidia's mom looks exactly like her with her long black hair and pale blue eyes. Her dad looks similar, except with brown eyes and short hair.
"Nice to see you again, Medea." Mrs. Ciele replies.
"I understand the both of you are trainers at the academy."
"You understand correctly."
"This means you probably don't get enough time for your children!"
"Well, we see Vidia here and there at the academy but not really at home."
"Ah. So, unlike your other children, do you think Vidia can do this?"
"Meh, I don't have too high expectations for them, anymore."
"I see. Well, we do thank you for letting your children participate."
"Of course, Medea."
"Maybe we'll have another." At that, the three laughs like old friends and the interview ends.
"How disappointing." Nitha tuts and I groan at my failure of getting her to help me sponsor Vidia. I hope we find out the victor tomorrow.
A/N: And there we have our family interviews!
Did you like them?
What do you think of Angeline?
Will the finale be the next chapter?
See you on Day 5.
-James