Chapter Forty: Peaks and Valleys
Still Interviews
Zinnia Goldfinch, Capitol Citizen
These commercials are taking forever. I get that this is among the biggest advertising possibilities of the year (as Burton has mentioned before) but come on. How long do you possibly need? I'll be old and blind by the time these things are done!
Thankfully, neither of those is true by the time the commercials end, although Daria and Janice are starting to get tired and Burton looks absolutely miserable. Maybe I should have just let him sleep. The interviews and their highlights always hang around online well after their corresponding Games has been completed.
A few witty remarks from Julius later, the girl from Seven is perched in the chair opposite him, wearing a relatively simplistic outfit of a deep green dress with a brown undershirt and brown heels.
"With the friends I've made here, we'll be unstoppable," she says. "No one else will see it coming."
"Certainly an optimistic way of seeing things," Julius says, struggling to keep his face expressionless.
"Don't worry, I'm far from the first thirteen-year-old to enter the Games," she says, "but I am one of the few who's considered a threat. I think I can handle this."
They jump ahead to near the end of her interview, where she's smiling for the camera as she says one last thing. "And finally, to my surrogate family, thank you for taking me in. I hope I'll see you again soon."
Then she's gone, replaced by her male counterpart, a fairly well-built boy (probably a lumberjack or something- I know that's a bit stereotypical, but it's District Seven, what else is he going to be?) wearing a simplistic-looking suit and tie and an unreadable expression. He's really twitchy as well- even as Julius is asking questions to him he can't sit still.
When he's asked about why he's volunteered, he doesn't answer. Thankfully, Julius takes that as a sign to move on, instead asking, "So, what do you like about the Capitol?"
"The place is everything I imagined," he says. "And honestly? Despite everything I'd heard back home, the people aren't so bad either."
They jump-cut forward to right before his time runs out, where he stands up, cutting Julius off mid-sentence (although that probably wasn't intentional, based on his expression), and stares directly into the camera in a manner that's almost kind of creepy. "So, before I go, I just have to say something. I didn't really know how to casually fit this into a conversation, but to Fletcher, sorry about the whole 'accidentally breaking your arm' thing. Hopefully it'll be fixed by the time I get back."
No reaction is shown for that one, with them moving onto the petite girl from Eight, whose legs barely make it to the floor from her chair. The first question she gets asked on camera is "How do you feel about having a score that high?"
"I feel proud," the girl says. "It means I'm one to watch. And trust me, folks, I've got more tricks up my sleeve for when the time comes."
"Well, you seem confident," Julius says. "Aren't you nervous that the Careers might think of you as a target now?"
"They've got seventeen- sorry, eighteen other tributes to choose from," the girl replies. "Sure, the score works into it, but I just think I have to play smart and get lucky. I can do both those things, I should be fine."
Next, they jump to near the end of her interview, which surprisingly enough doesn't ask about why she volunteered, instead going for the question of "do you have anyone cheering you on back home?"
The girl sighs. "My parents. Maybe my friend Taffeta. Small family, don't have much time to meet anyone. They'll do plenty for me, I know it."
Boy from Eight fades onto the screen right after that, looking quite impressive in his gray tuxedo. He also sports a white bow tie and matching gloves, which really accentuate the look. For him, the first question Julius asks is, "How do you think you can overcome your low score?"
"Hate to be this self-deprecating, but I don't think I'm supposed to," he replies. "I'm supposed to get lucky and survive by the skin of my teeth somehow. That's how this all works, right?"
"Well, that's definitely an interesting mindset," Julius says. "How'd you end up there?"
"I found out the hard way that life is cruel and frustrating sometimes," he says. "Expecting anything other than what seems pretty obvious tends to lead to disappointment."
That managed to kill my mood pretty quickly. I hope that the next few interviews will perk me back up. And the girl seems that way, with a simplistic outfit (a simple-looking navy dress and a pretty necklace), as well as her seeming quite determined. At the very least, she probably won't be as despair-inducing as the last guy.
Julius cuts right to the chase with her, saying, "I've heard rumors that some sparks are flying between you and your District partner. How true is that?"
The girl pauses and takes a deep breath. "Sorry, Julius, but not really. It's kind of one-way, and honestly, it's better that way. We all remember how love worked out in the 74th Hunger Games. Only one of us can leave no matter what happens, the best thing we can do is not get attached like that."
"Oh, that isn't what I expected," Julius says. "Did he know about that?"
"Hopefully," the girl says. "If not, I know you were into me, Marius, but I'd prefer if we just stayed friends."
I certainly wasn't expecting that, either. Here in the Capitol, the move over-the-top a couple is, the better their odds are. However, if the numerous bad soap operas that crashed and burned recently is any indication, there's nothing people hate more than romance that's oh-so-obviously forced.
Then, the Marius she was talking about appears, dressed in a deep red suit that looks way too much like blood. He looks downcast, although whether he heard what his District partner had to say or not is unclear. Once more, Julius goes right for the jugular, saying, "Do you think you and your District partner are compatible with each other?"
"Of course," Marius says. "Don't worry about me, even if I did hear what she had to say. We'll just stay on friendly terms. It's worked so far, it can't be that hard."
For the first time in a while, they cut to a later question in the same interview, with Marius being asked the semi-obvious question of, "The person in this position last year won. Do you think you can live up to his example?"
"Yes," Marius says. "I just need to hope that things go right. And that's definitely something that's been happening so far."
Just like that, his highlights end, and it's time for all the anti-Careers to interview in a row. That's definitely going to be interesting, and after that, let's be honest, District Twelve doesn't have any contenders this year. They'll probably be a joke.
But for now, it's time to focus on the first anti-Career in the girl from Ten. She's got flowers braided in her hair and flower-shaped earrings to match, adding onto that with a flowing green dress with fringe around the ankles that hides her feet.
Surprisingly, the girl starts talking first, saying, "This looks really pretty. Even if I die now, I'll die happy knowing I got to wear this."
"Wow, you seem upbeat," Julius says. "Any reason in particular?"
"Well, I know I have a chance to go home, and this has been the best week of my life so far. Even the Hunger Games aren't going to dampen that."
They pan to the audience's reaction: mostly sweet, sympathetic looks with a bit of pity mixed in. Sure, she's an anti-Career, but just like the girl from Seven before her, she sounds sweet and innocent and not in any way prepared for the Games. Maybe there's a hardened killer in there somewhere, but it sure didn't look like it there.
Her interview finishes off with her speaking directly to the audience, saying, "Thank you guys for being here. With any luck, I'll be seeing you all again in a few weeks."
Next up is the farmhand from Ten, looking just as big as he has the other few times I've seen him. He's got a dark green suit and tie on with black pants and shoes, and they all seem to be straining at the seams. Either he's so big the stylists had trouble creating something that fit or they just did a terrible job creating his outfit. The sizing problem could even be on purpose, I have no idea.
Julius goes for the easy question first, saying, "How do you think your alliance is working so far?"
The boy takes a deep breath before speaking. "Well, Julius, I've spent way more time around animals than other people, but I get along with my allies just fine. We'll work great together."
"That sounds excellent," Julius says. "However… what if it comes down to just you and your allies?"
While I think that's a little pressing of a question to be asked in front of such a gigantic audience, the boy takes it surprisingly well. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's hope more than one of us makes it to the finale."
They smash-cut to later in the interview, where he's being asked, "So, is there anyone you want to say anything to before you go?"
"Well, my family," the boy says, "hopefully they wish me luck. And my friends, obviously. I hope that I'll see you again."
Just as standard as the rest of him. That might not stick out too much, but not every tribute needs to be especially showy for the Games to be interesting. He'll do fine.
Four interviews left to go, with the girl from Eleven being the first of those. She looks quite calm right now, and her outfit, which is a frilly-looking white dress and pointy shoes I really don't recognize as belonging to anything. She got the lowest score of the anti-Careers, but it doesn't really show on her face, which is always a good thing.
She even points it out as the first thing the highlight shows. "Well, I guess I'll be this year's hanger-on for the anti-Careers. I'm not too worried, though- they all seem like really nice people."
"That's nice," Julius says. "Any favorites in particular?"
"Not really," Odysea says. "I don't want to take sides here. The last thing we need right now is to start arguments amongst ourselves. Let's stick together, am I right?"
From there, they jump ahead to a section at the end of her interview, where she says, "I'm ready to support my District. Them, my friends, and my family. That's all I'm thinking about right now."
Her District partner suddenly fills the screen, and I do mean that literally. He's definitely the biggest non-Career there, and he looks it. However, much unlike the Careers, he has a warm smile on and looks like the kind of person who'd give hugs to everyone he saw just because he could.
Julius' first question to him, once more, is something easy. "How do you feel about having the highest non-Career score?"
"A little nervous, but pretty excited too," he says. "Does that mean I'll be a target? Yes, but you guys-" he gestures to the crowd here- "will see me as enough of a threat that I can't be counted out."
Another person, another jump cut. He's still smiling, and happiness being contagious seems to be more than just an urban myth as now Julius is smiling widely as well. However, Julius doesn't let the smile go to his head, because he goes right to asking another question. "Anything you want to say before your interview ends?"
The boy actually stands up for this part, once more gesturing to the crowd. "I'd like to thank all of you for sticking around long enough to see me, and I'm ready to take this bull by the horns. Good night, everybody!"
The crowd starts cheering, which is something you rarely see in the interviews. If nothing else, this guy knows how to rally a crowd.
Time for District Twelve to shine, even if the anti-Career stretch is over. As always, the girl goes first, and this one looks downright puny compared to the last interviewee and even by the standards of these tributes. She's got on a dark, brooding outfit, the thickest pair of glasses I've ever seen, and a necklace so small it's a miracle she's not choking. On closer inspection, I can also see that her wrists are bound together with a pair of silver handcuffs.
Julius asks her several questions, but she doesn't answer any of them. She doesn't even say something unrelated. For question after question, she remains silent, and then even Julius gives up and waits out the timer to start his last interview. The last I see of the girl is her striding off the stage, still not saying a thing.
Wow. After the last guy got everyone up, he was followed up by a hell of a downer.
The last guy of the day also looks small by comparison to the others, and wearing so much black it looks like it's sucking in the lights from the interview. If anything, he looks even darker and more brooding than his District partner, if such a thing was even possible. His expression, one I can only describe as being of resignation, really adds to the look.
"So," Julius asks him, "how'd you like the Capitol?"
"It was fine," the boy says in a monotone voice. "Had its ups and downs. Wasn't that unlike home."
Julius tries to smile at him, but it looks forced. "Anything else you'd like to say?"
"I hope everyone's doing fine back home," the boy says, "and I might see you soon, might not. Depends on how things work out."
They skip the rest of his interview, so I assume nothing about it was that interesting. Thus, since everyone's done, Julius makes a few closing remarks, and that's that. Burton staggers back towards the bedroom, and both Daria and Janice have left the room to go do something else. School's out for the summer, so there's nothing else for me to get them to do, and honestly, I need some sleep myself.
I follow Burton back to bed, bringing glasses of water for both of us from the kitchen. He looks asleep already, and I'm about two seconds away from joining him. After all, tomorrow's the big day, meaning it's smart to make sure I'm at my best to see it. It's late, and Daria and Janice are both old enough to know how to put themselves to bed, anyway.
It only takes a second after my head hits the pillow. Then, blackness consumes me and I fall into oblivion.
Author's Notes:
-To be honest, this was one of the most boring things I've ever had to write in my life. However, I plan to make it up by adding three chapters (including the Bloodbath) at once. Hope you enjoy, and see you for the Launch chapter!