AN- So here's chapter 13! We are not responsible for any spelling mistakes.
Disclaimer and enjoy!
Chapter 13:
The stage crew ushers us into a line, girls preceding boys, in our Districts starting from One to Twelve. A woman with bright pink hair and light pink skin wearing a headset stands in front of us and counts down from five. Ugh, Capitol people.
"Five, four, three, two, one." In a moment the national anthem begins to play and the line of Tributes begins to move. We make our way up the small cascade of steps leading onto the stage and stand in front of our chairs, not sitting down.
The anthem ends and Caesar Flickerman walks onto stage, blood red crimson suit and all. I can't take my eyes off of his ridiculous color for this year; it looks like he's bleeding from head to toe.
He motions for us to be seated and starts with some joke that gets the crowd laughing. After cracking out a few jokes, he calls up Pladia.
She flounces up to the chair, wearing a beautiful golden silk dress and her hair curled. She flips her curled hair and bats her mascara-caked eyelashes a few times before saying, "Oh, hello Mr. Flickerman."
"Please, call me Caesar."
"Alright then."
Her three minute interview has the crowd eating her every answer. No need to work on a angle for her, with her too friendly attitude and occasional winks at both Caesar and the crowd.
The District 1 boy, Lucretius, takes a seat in the chair and surprises me, by actually answering Caesar's questions in a nice manner; being the intimidating seventeen year old I made out to be in the Training Center.
The both of them were praised highly of their training scores.
District 2's outfits, Nelly and Bedros, are plain as Nelly steps out in a dress that looks like granite, which wasn't as bad as the disaster at the Chariots, but is still pretty bad. Those stylists, I presume, will suffer a lot under District 2.
She strides up to the stage and takes a seat as she smirks to the crowd.
"Hello, Nelly," Caesar greets, starting the interview. "And how do you do on this evening?"
"Wonderful, Caesar," she beams. "I already know that I'll be the one going home with that crown. These weaklings won't have a chance against me."
The confident angle, huh? I'm wondering how hard she's acting to keep up that confident air while wearing that silly dress. I doubt District Two will get some sponsors this year, which is actually extremely rare.
I would sympathize with her, but her cockiness is just plain irritating after three minutes.
I can tell Bedros seems to have the same instructions Nelly got during his interview: be cocky to make up for our stylists screw ups.
District Three's outfit is dazzling: both Tributes are wearing black satin covered with a fine web of thin, color changing fiber optic cable. The crowd oohs and aahs over them, and I do too until their interviews take place.
I learn they are as bland as a rock.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that rock could beat them in terms of entertainment. Both Tributes answer in blunt, one word answers, and when they reached a troubling question, they remained silent and blank faced. The crowd appears to be snoring, which I can assume is very overdramatic, but still the right reaction.
The buzzer finally sounds off and the District Three boy quietly takes his seat. It's my turn now.
I take a deep breath and walk over to the chair. "Remember Lance Welshe, everyone? Well this is his daughter, Aura, everyone!"
Okay, is he trying to get me killed?
"So Aura, how do you like your time in the Capitol?" he asks me after the crowd stops murmuring.
"It's nice," I say with a smile. "I've learned a lot."
"Aw, a polite young lady," Caesar says as he turns to the crowd. The crowd awes in response. Polite? Not really, but compared to my dad I'm the sweetest person in Panem.
I choose to go along with the polite act since the crowd is smiling. A smiling crowd most likely means nice sponsors.
"How 'bout that training score, eh? A ten is pretty hard to get." he croons.
"Oh, a ten is nothing..." I say waving my hand at the compliment. "I'm sure there are people who did better than me. I guess the Gamemakers must like me since I'm not that great."
Lies... all lies... This sugarcoated act is making me nauseous. But I need to do it for my life. For Lachlan's, too.
But... we can't both survive the Games. It's impossible. So... who am I doing this for?
Caesar chuckles and says, "Oh, Aura, you're very modest."
My thoughts are immediately cleared out as I focus on coming up with yet another lie to Caesar's upcoming questions. This is going to be a long 3 minutes.
"So Aura, if you don't mind me asking, do you have anyone special waiting for you back in Four?" Caesar asks.
"Um..." What do I do because really all I have Lark and Dad. And Lachlan. "Yes," I say shyly.
I realize my mistake and my eyes go wide. Breathe, Aura, breathe. Maybe you can fix this. But how can I? There's not much I can do to take that back.
The audience oohs as I blush. Finnick and Marlene will so chew me out when I get back.
I steal a glance at Lachlan whose jaws is hanging wide enough to catch a trout in, and widened eyes that's grown as much as his open mouth. He immediately changes to an irritated face.
'No you idiot.' I want to yell at him as I clench my fists in my lap. 'I think I've fallen in love with you.'
"I mean-" My time is cut short when the buzzer goes off before I can take it back.
"And that gives everyone a chance to figure out this mystery guy! Thank you Aura! Good luck!"
"I-uh, thanks..." I slowly make my way back to my seat. 'Idiot, idiot, idiot.' I think all the way back. Lachlan glares at me for a split second before putting on a smile and shaking hands with Caesar.
I can feel his uncertainty even from here. Does she actually love me? Was that kiss for nothing? Is this mystery guy real? I even feel the words go around in his head.
I inwardly slap myself. 'I'll just have to sort things out after,' I think to myself.
Lachlan seems to be holding up well in his interview. The ladies in the crowd are swooning over his new hairstyle. From this angle, I get a much better view. His ponytail has been mostly chopped off and trimmed to leave only a few inches left, which were gelled and spiked in the back. He now has a middle, and existent, part in his hair. The remaining un-gelled strands hang on the sides of his face, framing it.
He really does look handsome tonight.
Too bad I just ruined what could've been a better relationship between us.
His three minutes go by fast and he retakes his seat next to me.
"I hope you're happy," he sneers.
"What?" I whisper as District Five walks up.
"That guy, I hope you're happy with that guy back home. I'm sure I never had a chance against him."
He turns to me with an enraged face. "Who is he anyway? Did he go to our school?"
"What? No!" I whisper back as Caesar starts to interview District 5.
"I don't even know you anymore, Aura" he whispers in a harsh but pain filled voice.
"Lachlan let me explain-"
"If you guys are done with your lovers' quarrel" Nelly scolds us. "I'd like to watch the rest of the interviews, please."
We both glare at her, but fall silent. Guess it'll have to wait till after interviews.
My initial excitement and alertness of the other Tributes fall into a boredom as each one takes their turn. Only a few catch my eye.
District Six looked hilarious in their white outfits. They both had a red cross over their heart as if to say to the Career Pack, "Shoot me, here!"
District Eight was just as funny too, with much more random fabric sewn into their outfits as they had in the Chariots.
District Ten looked like what our textbooks at school called "cowboys", and they even look exactly like the illustrations! Only the boy got a good training score; making him someone to look out for.
District Eleven is dressed in some brown, rough material and grapevine made into jewelry and hair accessories. It looks nice actually. They received well enough training scores to start off getting them a few sponsors. Although the District eleven girl begins crying half way through her interview when asked about her life back home. Whether they're real or fake, it's annoying after awhile.
It's District Twelve's turn, and I'm hoping there's some sort of delay in their interviews because I don't want to face everyone's wrath back at our living quarters.
Unfortunately, that doesn't happen, and as soon as the buzzer ends, the national anthem plays again and we file back down the steps.
I dash toward the elevator in the lobby, jump inside and press the button for floor four for what seems like a thousand times. 'C'mon, c'mon, c'mon,' I think repeatedly.
"Aura!" A hand grabs my arm as the elevator door are about to close.
AN- Please review! So the interviews were going well until Aura let something slip. Now, Lachlan's mad at her and Aura might have just ruined her and Lachlan's relationship.