Katniss and Clove: Chapter Nine
I was just checking out the competition then I was checking out her. Her outfit is no longer on fire, her mentors are patting her and the boy on their backs. I think I see their stylist and there are other people milling around them waiting for introductions. They are Capitol types and she looks scared to death. What did they do to get Capitol types lining up to meet them right after the parade? They could be drinking with President Snow.
When we are finally through meeting and greeting Capitol types ourselves, greasing palms for sponsorship, none of us can wait to get back. We switch on the monitor and watch and re watch the parade. Cato and I look fine from what little I saw of us - all of our eyes are watching the District 12 Tributes come out of the tunnel. After they pass the first section of people, the back of their outfits are suddenly consumed with fire - nothing is actually burning but there are what look to be real flames leaping about their backs.
We stare, open mouthed and as silent as the crowds they pass. It takes us the same amount of time as it takes the crowd to understand what we are seeing. District 12 are coal miners, this pair are two black pieces of coal who are quite literally on fire. Caesar Flickerman coins the phrase 'girl on fire' and that's all anyone can think of or say for the rest of the evening.
I would have had to have been naked to compete with her but even then I am not certain it would have been my name people would have been repeating. Name? She is called 'girl on fire' so much that I still don't know her name. Katniss Everdeen. People don't even remember that the boy exists let alone that he too might have a name.
They put on a show, those two. While every eye in the place was on them, they joined hands and raised them like they had just won the Hunger Games. A sucker punch to the rest of us. Everyone is talking about the value of the impression District 12 has made on Panem, how likely they are to have already secured a great many sponsors, and from unexpected quarters. Sponsors that would very likely have been ours before their big splash.
And all of this is important, very important, but all I can think about is her. I am sure I have seen prettier girls but not any with such spunk - I mean it's hard to say what it is, I've seen as much or as little of her as the rest of Panem. There is a certain vulnerability about her and an irrepressible defiance too. One moment she looks unsure, scared even, the next she looks like she has been coming for us for as long as I have been. It has an intriguing, mesmerizing effect - I take it to bed and I think about her while I touch myself.