Chapter Twelve; Training Fiasco

(Haymitch's POV)

The next morning at breakfast Stephanie was sending daggers at Haymitch over the table.

"Sleep well, darling?" he asked, biting into a piece of toast.

She viciously stabbed the butter before answering. "You know I didn't," she replied quietly.

He frowned. Where was the snarky reply? The kick under the table?

Isa appeared suddenly, eyes glued to a compact mirror as she viewed her face, obviously distressed.

"There was so much noise last night that poor Isa woke up and now look…look! Look at that! I have bags!" she whined, collapsing defeated into one of the chairs.

Haymitch glanced over at Stephanie. She was in the process of mutilating a piece of bread. Jeez…now what's her problem? If anyone has a reason to be out of sorts this morning it's me! Haymitch thought sourly.

...

(Stephanie's POV)

Ficen appeared promptly much to Stephanie's disappointment, and she was whisked away and into one of the many rooms on their floor that she had no idea existed. The idea that the whole floor was theirs had been a little overwhelming to say the least.

Lashes, Bright and Silver where waiting and Stephanie was a little miffed when she noticed that Silver was now sporting a lime green nail polish making his nickname a little redundant. However dismissing it she decided that she would still call him Silver, in her mind anyway.

As she passed them she noticed a flash of red material behind them and she gave a small brief smile when she came to the conclusion that it must be her outfit. Red was her favourite colour; it was the colour of a warm fire, a ripe apple, blushing cheeks and what was it they always said?...Ah yes, red was the colour of love.

As the morning wore on though, Stephanie's patience grew thin and her mood only got fouler. All the free time standing about doing nothing had allowed her mind to dwell on things it would rather not.

Stephanie barely reacted when Ficen 'accidently' stuck a pin into her leg when adjusting the dress.

Contrary to Haymitch's suspicions that she had given the kiss no more thought it was the one thing that refused to leave her mind.

It had been a spur of the moment thing…hadn't it? She sighed again coming back to the same question that had, unknown to her, been plaguing Haymitch also.

Why did I kiss Haymitch?

At the time it had seemed natural. Was it a thank-you for his encouragement? Maybe. But no.

It wasn't even a kiss, more of a quick peck really, Stephanie reasoned. She clenched her fists together in annoyance.

Today was not a good day. The kiss dilemma with Haymitch refused to leave her be and she felt she couldn't bring it up with Haymitch because he seemed to have completely forgotten about it.

Then Ficen was enjoying using her as a pin-cushion and seemed to have made everything a size too small, just so she could have the joy of watching Stephanie turn a shade of red that rivalled that of the dress, as she squeezed painfully into it.

Then she had the 'classes' to look forward to on how to act like a Capitol doll. Isa had dropped by to announce that she would be teaching Frenkin and Haymitch would be taking her. So, great! She had a whole lot of alone time with Haymitch and she still didn't know why she had kissed him.

And just to round it off she had the 'event' tonight where she would have to spend the whole time fawning over Capitol people so she could get sponsors. Why didn't she just get down on her knees and beg? Would that be demeaning enough for the Capitol, she thought angrily.

Oh and of course, was it mentioned that it was most likely she was going to die in a few weeks, horribly and for her family to witness and she could do absolutely nothing about it.

Yes; today was not a good day.

Stephanie glanced down as Ficen stuck another pin in her. Ficen had ceased trying to conceal it and was now openly just stabbing her with pins, since Stephanie had stopped reacting after the twentieth time.

Finally after the most tedious few hours of Stephanie's life Ficen had finished amending the dress and she was allowed to change back into her green shirt and black trousers. She wondered absent-mindedly where Haymitch had got them from.

Gingerly entering the kitchen Stephanie nearly did a double take when her eyes landed on Haymitch sitting there in the exact same spot where she had kissed him last night.

Haymitch's head snapped around when she entered, swigging from a bottle of clear liquid. He motioned for her to sit.

She groaned in frustration before grudgingly taking the exact same seat she had sat in last night facing him.

Squirming uncomfortably for a few moments she finally broke the silence. "So, what is it you are going to teach me about?"

"How to behave…properly."

"Should Isa not be teaching me this on the account of her being a Capitol woman?" Stephanie replied crossing her arms defiantly.

Haymitch took a swig and then leaned forward. This whole scene was becoming annoyingly familiar.

"Capitol people live to please others," Haymitch stated, ignoring her question much to her displeasure.

Stephanie looked at him in confusion. "I find that hard to believe," she stated dryly.

"If we were back home in District 3 and a girl told you that the dress, or whatever a person like you wears, was awful, would you blow a fuse?" he said.

Stephanie ignored the pull of her heartstrings at the mention of home.

"No," Stephanie scoffed. "Why would I? I don't care what she thinks of it."

"You see; that is the main difference between us and them. They do; they live by others," Haymitch said.

"So…?" Stephanie prompted impatiently.

"You must appeal to them. Flatter them and flirt with them if needs be. Look sweetheart, I can't stress enough to you how important this whole things is," Haymitch emphasised his words painfully upon beholding her expression grow more incredulous as he continued.

"Then why isn't Isa teaching me how to do these things? It's not as if I can learn how to behave from you."

"You can't be taught how to do this stuff."

"Then why did you say you were going to teach me?"

"I meant figuratively."

"Fine."

"Are you going to argue with me over every point?"

"I wasn't arguing. I said fine!"

Haymitch paused, taking a generous swig from the bottle.

"People pleasing is a skill you must practice…a lot in your case. In short sweetheart, Frenkin ain't the strong type so he won't appeal to sponsors. But he can appeal with his … boyish charm to female sponsors, etcetera."

A tender smile crossed her lips as she thought of Frenkin, little serious Frenkin with his oversized glasses trying to charm someone like Isa.

"And you, well you ain't too strong either by the looks of it." Stephanie glared at him but he continued, "But with your…well, if you can be nice to someone for more than five minutes then maybe you can appeal to someone. Then of course Ficen will dress you up to look the part, fancy dress to attract the men primarily." And then realisation dawned as Stephanie finally cottoned on.

"It's a lot more primitive than I thought," she finally said.

"Yeah well, the Capitol isn't the pristine society it claims to be," Haymitch replied.

"Fine then. How do I practice these oh so great people pleasing skills?" she asked sarcastically.

"Flirt with me."

Stephanie landed on the ground with a heavy thump and a long curse. She hadn't exactly fainted, more along the lines of falling from the chair in shock.

"Well sweetheart, you really have a most inventive way of catching a man's attention. However I'm afraid that the Capitol men don't really do the whole 'damsel in distress' thing," Haymitch said as he looked down at her, smirking.

She peeled herself off the floor and crawled back onto her chair, rubbing her back and scowling at him. She pitied Frenkin wherever he was with Isa.

"I'm not doing this with you," she said angrily. "Or anyone!" she added hurriedly.

He looked at her frankly; grey eyes boring into her. Oh no, Stephanie thought, you are not going to get the chance. And she leapt from her chair, practically sprinting for the door.

But it was too late. He had the words out before she could reach it.

"Why did you kiss me?"