Review/Favorite/Follow! Because I love you! 3
When I jumped off that horse, the only thing I wanted was a glass of water. A nice, cold glass of water, and maybe a bathroom break so I didn't piss myself out of sheer fright in front of millions of people.
I made my way past crowds of people until I was at the back of the huge room everyone had emptied into. Down to my left, I could see the open stage with Nero and Kit sitting in their chairs, talking to each other in hushed tones. To the right, I saw what looked like a promising hallway with a water fountain. I drank some water, and then went to the bathroom.
On my way out of the bathroom (which was totally ridiculous, by the way. Who needs gold toilet seats, honestly?), I ended up walking straight into someone's chest. I staggered backwards and nearly fell over, already apologizing.
"No, no," a voice said, and firm hands steadied me on my feet. "It was all my faul – Rosa?" I looked up into the face of who I had just run into, and saw a vaguely familiar face. He was tall, and he had a square jaw and a big smile with dimples. His gray eyes and dark hair made me remember him as Ty, the District Two tribute.
"Oh," I said, stepping backwards and letting his hands fall back to his sides. "Uh, hi." His smile faltered for a moment.
"Don't you remember me?" he asked, and for a moment his sad puppy-dog eyes made me feel bad for not remembering this boy, even though there was no real reason I should have.
"Have we met?" I asked, taking another half step backwards.
"Ah, I forgot!" He smacked his forehead dramatically. "You were only... what, six or seven at the time? Would have been a stretch for you to remember. I was eight... your mom came to visit my dad? We spent a day playing by the beach, and then a week up by my house? We played Rebels and Capitol, with toy bows?"
"Uh..." I started, just staring at him. Then, the faintest inkling of a memory started coming back to me. On the same trip that we had gone by the ocean, we had stayed for a week or two in district two. While we were there, I played with this scrawny little boy with a greasy black mess for hair, and we pretended that twigs tied with fishing line were bows. "Oh my god," I said, realizing that this large and very cute boy standing in front of me was the tiny little boy I had played with years before. "Yes! I remember!"
I let a smile break out on my face, but I wasn't really happy that I remembered him. It was going to make killing him that much more difficult.
"I still think about that a lot," Ty said, his grin returning and showing off his pearly white teeth. "One of the best summers of my life, you know. Although, I seem to recall your hair being black..." he picked up a lock of my recently flame-dyed hair.
"Yeah," I replied, glancing down at it. "My stylist's idea. To make me look like the girl on fire and all that..."
"Totally get it," he said, his smile never ending. The smile was starting to get on my nerves a little bit; he was going to win the Capitol's hearts over with that kind of a smile! A bell rang out, and he glanced up. "That would be telling us to go back to the stage. Uh, I'm going to get some water." He pointed to the fountain that we had run into each other in front of. "Good luck, though!"
I nodded, and he skirted around past me. I walked down along the hallway, following the other tributes onto the stage.
He was very cute, though. I'd give him that.
Luckily, the chairs lined up across the stage were labeled with our district number and our name, otherwise I would have been too terrified to logically determine where I was supposed to sit. I was shaking from my hands to my toes to my hair, and I had no idea if I was even going to be able to speak coherent English in my interview, much less win over the crowd.
Well enough for me, 45 people were going to be interviewed before myself, so hopefully that meant I would have my nerves under control by the time my own interview rolled around.
I was so terrified that I wasn't even really aware when the District One tributes came up for their interview. The shaky girl with the white hair and the dark eyes, Crystal, didn't have much interesting to say, either. The other girl, who also had pale hair that was just a shade darker than Crystal's and had blue eyes, whose name was Dianna, ended up being blind out of one eye. I stored that away for future reference, but that was all I manged to remember from her interview.
By the time the second girl in District Two was done talking, though, I was calm enough to at least pay attention to the interviews of others. Just in time for Ty's interview.
He stood up very calmly, smoothed out his armor-like costume, and walked to the front of the stage. His shoulders were back and at ease and not even a smidgen of worry seemed to be on his face, which in and of itself made me a little bit worried. Anyone who was so confident was either a great threat or an arrogant buffoon, and he didn't strike me as the latter.
"Ty!" Nero said, grinning and sitting back in his own seat. Ty sat down in the seat beside Nero, offering another grin.
"Nero!" Ty said, copying Nero's tone in greeting him, eliciting a small laugh from the audience.
"So, you are the first District Two male tribute," Nero said. "Is there anything particular you'd like to tell us about yourself?"
"What would you like to know?" Ty said. From my angle on the far side of the stage, I could see that Ty wasn't quite as calm as he appeared; he had his hand clenched in his lap on the side opposite the cameras.
"Well," Nero said, giving him a mock-thoughtful look, even though everyone knew that Nero had already prepared questions for each tribute. "How about you tell us, what was going through your mind at the reaping?"
"Mostly, I was just grateful they called me Ty rather than my full name," Ty said, shrugging.
"Oh really?" Nero asked. "What is your real name? Tyler? I was thinking it was a rather odd name for District Two..."
"Actually, it's Typhoon. My mother thought it would be a hilarious play on words, because my dad's name is Gale."
"Ah!" Nero said, chuckling. "I would understand your appreciation, then. What are your parents like, then?"
"Well... uh," Ty said, apparently looking uncomfortable. "I just live with my dad, actually. My mom was never really in the picture. She gave birth to me, named me, and left me on my dad's doorstep, saying that I was his. He took it pretty well, though."
"Ah ha," Nero said. "Then is there a step-mom in the picture?"
"No, no," Ty said, shaking his head. "He fell in love with a girl once, and he always tells me about her. He still loves her, I think. But she married someone else."
"So you're all he has," Nero said, looking a little sad for Ty. "Did he tell you to win it for him?"
"Yeah," Ty said, nodding.
"Do you think you can take everyone else here down?" Nero said, looking genuinely curious.
"Yeah, but there's two that I'm not allowed to," Ty said, faltering as though he wasn't sure if he should say it or not.
"Really? Why?" Nero leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees.
Ty looked up and made eye contact with me over Nero's head. "Well, my dad said that I shouldn't hurt these two. It's because the girl he was in love with had two kids, and they're both here tonight."
The cameras all swiveled to stare at me then. My face was broadcast over the walls and the audience started murmuring to one another, and I just sat there, completely shocked. The boy that I had just remembered all of ten minutes ago had been ordered by his father to spare my life.
"Your father was in love with Katniss Everdeen?!" Nero said, putting two and two together immediately. Nero threw a look back over his shoulder at me, and I felt my cheeks flush bright red underneath the makeup.
"Yes, he was," Ty said. "He didn't stand much of a chance, though. Not really. Katniss left District 12 to go to the Hunger Games with Peeta Mellark, as most of you know. And they fell in love, and Dad wasn't there, and couldn't talk to her. He just had to watch them fall in love..."
"Tragic." Nero shook his head, with something very similar to regret on his face. "The true star-crossed lovers of District 12. But aren't you from District 2?"
"Yeah," Ty said, nodding. "Dad didn't want to live in District 12, not where he would have to be reminded every day of Katniss. So he went just about as far away as he could. Katniss did visit once, and she brought Rosa and Ash with her. Ash was too small to do much then, but Rosa and I were the best of friends for that little while. It was the best week of my childhood."
I couldn't decide if he was making up everything just to make an impression on the members of the Capitol or if he really meant what he said, but either way it amazed me. And considering that the average Capitol citizen had about half as many IQ points as a brain dead walrus, they were all certainly amazed as well.
"Can we expect an alliance, then, do you think?" Nero asked, looking back at me once more over his shoulder.
"I hope so, with all of my heart," Ty said, looking at me as well. "I really do." His last three words were as if they were spoken only to me, and for some reason I couldn't fully explain I found myself nodding. The audience was in an uproar.
The boy that I had just met a matter of minutes ago was winning my heart already, in a staged bit for the Capitol... what was wrong with me?
"Ladies and gentlemen," Nero said, trying to calm down the audience so that he can be heard. "As much as I'm sure we'd love to hear from Primrose, we have to wait." Ty nodded and returned to his seat, to be replaced by Otaco, the second male tribute.
I was distracted after that, though. And so was the rest of the audience, which was rather unfortunate for Otaco because no one really paid him much mind. Kit interviewed all the odd districts and Nero interviewed all the even districts, allowing for them to each have a break and drink some water in between.
The tributes in district 3 blurred past me. A girl from District 4 caught my attention for the same reason Dianna did, which was because she had something about her I hadn't noticed before. She had scars evenly spaced going up her arms, from an abusive father.
"My mum died when I was six," the girl said. "Dad didn't like me much after that. He didn't start with the knives until I was thirteen, though. That was when my older brother drowned. Honestly, I was glad my name was drawn. Now no matter the outcome, I'll be free of him."
The District Five tributes whirled by, and while I tried my best to pay attention to the little girl, Kiki, from District Five, I didn't learn much about her except that she had two younger brothers, and her mother had been one of the commanding officers in the Rebellion.
Six passed, too, without me paying any attention to them at all. When seven came around, the one girl I paid attention to was Mirabella.
"So, tell me," Kit began. "Were your parents involved in the rebellion, or were you just unlucky in the draw?"
"My mother was involved," Mirabella said, raising her chin high. "Johanna Mason, she was one of the victors in the Hunger Games, just like I will be in the Graveyard Games."
"Ah, I see! Johanna, I remember her. I was just a little girl when she won, you know. Anyway, tell us about yourself," Kit continued. "What do you like to do for fun?"
"I do ballet," Mirabella said, looking somewhat embarrassed. "I know it doesn't sound very threatening..."
"So that's where you got that exquisite grace that we saw when you were coming in," Kit said, obviously trying to help Mirabella.
"I suppose." Mirabella nodded, her hands fidgeting with long fingers in her lap. "I also play piano, and I paint."
"Very artistic," Kit said. "I don't remember your mother being like that, do you get it from your Dad?"
"Yeah," she said, softly. "He died in the war, though. He was a musician, he liked to make violins out of the lumber we produced."
"That is very sad indeed," Kit said. "Do you think you can win this, to keep his legacy strong?"
"Yes," Mirabella answered, her voice firm.
And so in a very similar manner, each tribute went up, sat on that chair, and then returned to their own seat.
Then they called me.