Hello humans! Just want to thank all those who are in support of this story!
CatchingtheDrift, Hermione Sparkle, IzzyTheNinja ShikaaaXxx Smuzzie, TheZombieWolf, and paristraveler22 for following.
AND
Hermione Sparkle, Loveteenwolfxo, maangel09, and smiling steph for favoriting!
Thank you guys! And hey I'm on time with this update! Yay me!
-Miche
Chapter 10: interviews
I screamed feeling the blood trickle down my face, but soon woke to feel it as sweat. It was three in the morning and I was still in the capitol. The games had not begun, and I wasn't dead or injured. My eyes were still tired but my body was tense and alert. Someone barged in my room just as my cries could be heard and I felt two arms holding me. I clung to the warm arms not caring who it was, just that I was safe.
"Don't let me die, don't let me die!" I whispered through hiccups.
"I promise I won't… I won't. You're safe now, okay? You're safe now…" it was Finnick, and he held me like I was slipping away.
"Finnick, what happened? I just heard screaming." Grey entered the room.
"I think she had another nightmare." and I left for the living area. I hated crying in front of people and preferred my own silent tears than dramatic sobs.
There were few places I could go where I could be alone, and because of our floors massive size, it was easy to find yourself that way when wandering at night. My eyes throbbed with my head, and my nose wouldn't stop running. It was red and puffy like my eyes always were when crying, and I had trouble catching my breath.
Whatever that dream had been, I'd never been more scared before when waking up. My body had been rattling and I couldn't control any of my arms or legs. I didn't want to die this way... I didn't want to die.
"I see we are all already together," we had all met up in the living room, breakfast not quite ready. "...so I'll just start with the announcements first, as always." Deary interrupted. Today she had a poke-a-dot theme with her red hair, orange and yellow polka dot dress, Green mini coat, blue poke-a-dot tights, and bright neon purple shoes. Her skin was died pink and she had purple eye shadow with orange tinted cheeks. "So, for today, we are very very busy!"
"Aren't the interviews today?"
"Why don't you just ruin it for me Finnick?" she yelled, obviously frustrated about him ruining her only job for the day.
"Okay, we are heading down to meet the stylists again, having lunch and then coming back here for another hour before going back down to where your stylists will be, and then we'll-"
"We'll be getting you ready for the final interviews." It always amazed me how Finnick found new ways to frustrate her every day.
"W-where you will be interviewed one last time before you go into the games-"
"And you have to impress people or you won't get any sponsors-"
"FINNICK!"
I met with LEO down in his studio where he would be designing my outfit. Luckily he was a designer who cared about my input with what I would be wearing. Finnick complained multiple times about his torturous stylist making him basically dress nude in his chariot ride. We discussed the patterns and such that I would be wearing but only came to a decision that I would be wearing a dress.
"It's just a simple question! Do you want sheer around your waist or not?"
"No!"
"Thank you! Now then what type of dress do you want? Personally, you would be gorgeous and very sexy if you wore a low rising mermaid dress."
"I don't know if it would look okay-" he groaned before sketching out a simple but intricate figure displaying the type of dress. It was form fitting from my bust to my knees before flowing outward in an almost rose petal effect. "Never mind. That's really pretty."
"So a yes then?" I nodded in response. "Now, we're going to keep up the mermaid idea and put more scales on you."
"Oh please no!" I protested but was quickly drown out.
"Hear me out. If we create the same type of look with the scales without using actual fish, we can make you look like a beautiful mermaid goddess. How does that sound?"
"It sounds good I guess but…"
"What is your favorite colour?"
"Blue."
"Good ocean colours…" it went like this for the rest of the meeting then he then spent the next few minutes just sketching out what the dress would look like. After he finished, he looked at it, then me, and had another breakthrough. "Oi! I've had another thought! A waterfall!" When he finished with his new and adapted drawing, the design and myself were both whisked away to be measured and size for fitting reasons.
Not soon enough, lunch rolled around and I was glad to be away from the stressful people that made up my styling team.
"Hey." I said sitting next to Grey at the table. For lunch we had fish, ironically from our district.
"Hey." he stirred his food around, sickened by the thought of home, I guessed.
"So… fish…" he smiled taking another bite.
"Fish. It's not as good cooked here as it is back home when my mom would. She's always use her special ingredient when cooking it up."
"A peppermint leaf, right?"
"Yeah… Just one. Do you miss your dad?"
"Yes… before I left, he came in to say goodbye and asked me to forgive him for bad thing he's done. And he said I look like my mother now."
"You've got his eyes though. And smile."
"I know… I use to hate it but now it's all I have left of him."
"You'll make it back."
"No. I'm going to die and I'll just end up like all the other forgotten faces in the games-"
"Stop putting yourself down like that!"
"Well it's true! I don't stand a chance against any of them if it's down to our group! Diamonde, Zyre, Solar, All of them! At least you have talents… maybe the sponsors will send you a ticket home."
"Just shut up!" a clank from his knife hitting the plate snapped me from my anger. He stabbed his piece of fish with his fork, like he would stab an octopus to kill it. Lunch was finished in silence. "I'm not hungry anymore, thank you." He said just as the avoxes brought in more food. I watched him walk back to his room, slamming the door as he went.
"Excuse me." I said leaving Deary, Pierah, and Leo at the table. I really needed to talk to him about what I had said. Maybe I was being a little dramatic but only because I'm scared that I will die in the arena and never see my family ever again.
"Grey?" I knocked on his door.
"Go away, Troute." He yelled.
"Grey, please open the door. I really want to talk." I heard movement behind his door before he swung it open, obviously furious.
"Then talk."
"I'm sorry for making you feel bad or angry. I'm just nervous of losing you."
"We're in the career group! We'll last more than a few days to come up with a plan to get out."
"But even then, we can't both get out."
"If it comes down to it, then we know what will happen." He sighed and I knew what he would do.
"No-!"
"It's not like you didn't expect me to. I volunteered, Rain." He looked firm in his thought, but still a contemplating look came across his eyes.
"Why would you ever in your right mind think that doing that was smart?"
"At least I could say I went out for a reason..." he closed his door. I scoffed and went back to where I had left my plate. Abby was sitting across from me and looked up more than once. Finnick was who knows where, and with grey now sulking, lunch wasn't in the best mood.
"So," she spoke up finally, "what's going on between you two?" She chewed her fish and took a sip of lemonade. Was she really that blind to not see the scene unfold in front of her and everyone else?
"Grey's pissed at me for stating the truth, and I think he's-"
"Not you and Grey..." her eyes met mine and I knew who she meant. Finnick and me.
"Nothing, we're just becoming good friends. He's really helped me in my training-"
"You got the famous Finnick Odair to chase you down, after admitting he lied to you mind this, and finish with him begging you to forgive him." She smirked, trying to hide her amusement and smile.
"What is your point?" Really, where was she going in mentioning our private conversations? They should have been more private…
"You've changed him. I don't know how or why you seem to do it, but he's different now."
"I don't see how I've changed him."
"Finnick never apologizes. To anyone. And he never admits to lying." I looked at her in disbelief, hoping she was lying I knew liars, and she wasn't one of them. "You changed him." It was a statement. "I hope you win these games, I'm starting to like nice and honest Odair-"
"Pardon me, I'm finished." I stood and left finally for my room until it was Deary who came to get me for our interviews. Meeting in the lobby, both Grey and I followed our stylists back down to where they had us design the outfits for tonight's interviews.
"Alright now pretty girl, we're going to make you dazzle." Leo smiled, his sharp teeth glittering, they literally had painted glitter on them. It matched his glittering cheetah print suit and slicked back sparkled hair.
He unzipped a garment bag, and revealed my outfit for tonight. It was amazing. Keeping up with the waterfall idea he spoke of before, he had a shimmering water effect on the body of my dress. It faded from blues to green sequins to imitate the image of water falling off me. Once it met my knees in length, the 'water' stopped and was replaced by a skirt made of tool-like, white, silver material that sparkled as bright as Leo's teeth. It represented the mist and foam at the foot of said natural occurrence.
My face, specifically near my eyes, was painted on with a variety of colours so intricate that they had to redo it twice because of the symmetry and complexity. Enough diamond dust to pay for a new house surrounded my eyes and eyelashes making my eyes really stand out. I also had a shimmery red lipstick on, and a bit of blush while the rest of my skin was covered in a thin layer of glitter. The hairstyle the team gave me reminded me once again of mermaids, but this time it had shimmered, diamond covered shells.
Unfortunately he didn't let me wear my home token, the dolphin necklace Saxon had made me, on stage. He replaced it with more glitter spray and a gold trident that slip just above my forced cleavage.
"You look very beautiful." Finnick came in and saw me when finished I was still on shaky terms with him, not speaking about our last conversation since. I was worried he wouldn't show tonight, but to my surprise he was the first to arrive. "Now all you need to do is act like yourself-" Finnick remarked one more time.
"You mean sexy me."
"Exactly, but you're in love with me, okay?" I smiled, hitting him.
"And just answer the questions given honestly." This time Abby comment on her way to Grey. I was thankful. Finnick said good bye with a kiss to my hand, Leo threatening to cut him when he went first for my head. He was worried Finnick would mess up my make up again.
We lined up with the girl-boy in order of our district number. Being four, I could leave early and not suffer through wearing this dress any longer. It was like wearing a plastic bag the way it clung to me and made it almost impossible to breathe.
The talk show host was named Trey Van Gypsum. Every year he would sport a different type of rock theme, given his name had gypsum in it, in his wardrobe and look. This year he represented the rock pyrite. So he had a sparkly gold suit with a matching tie and a dark green shirt underneath. His face was fairly normal, given the fade to gold in his hair and eyes and it looked as if he painted his nails as well. A giant rock was on his right finger and was probably made of pyrite.
All in all he was a walking representation of fool's gold.
"Alright why don't we start out the night with one of our feistier and glamorous tributes, tonight she is shining like the object he was named for, Diamonde Serever from district one!" people cheered for her. Of course they would since she was the classic career.
Diamonde walked out all excited and before sitting signaled the audience to get louder, obviously playing that she was energetic and bubbly. The dress she wore looked to be a nude fabric, but was so encrusted with crystal and diamonds everywhere. Her red opaque leggings also had a few gems along them, leading to her heels which matched her dress, if not took away from it. Her dark hair was tamed from its normal frizz and used to its advantage to create a volumized, complicated, side braid, which also had a few crystal pennants in it.
"Quite a crowd pleaser!" she giggled with the audience. "Now, as everyone's wondering, how has your stay in the capitol been?"
"It's been great, Trey. Just fantastic."
"Care to explain?"
"Well the other night we had a delicious meal of trout and potatoes, which were so buttery and yummy, oh! I thought I was gonna pass out from eating them."
The conversation continued like this for another three minutes or so, the audience laughing delighted with Diamonde, before things turned a bit more serious.
"So, do you think you have a shot at winning the games and the prize for your district this year?"
"I definitely think so. My mom told me to stay strong and confident in any situation so I will do just that and win for her." The people cheered for her dedication, falling for her obviously fake emotions. It made me sick to my stomach that these people believed her. She was, in truth, a conniving, rude, arrogant, selfish, vicious animal, much like the other careers. She only looked out for herself.
"Thank you for your time. DIAMONDE! Ladies and gentlemen!" Trey shouted over the cheers once the lying girl stood, flashing her white smile at everyone. The second she stepped being stage, the smile dropped and she walked away like it was an everyday thing that annoyed her to have to do.
Her dress clinked and jingled as she strut past Grey and me.
"She made it look easy to lie like that." Grey whispered in my ear. I agreed verbally, but in my head I knew it was easier than it looked. All you had to do was believe what you're saying to be the truth, and your reactions and tone will follow through.
Zyre came out and played it like the funny guy, joking around and also pulling "attractive" off rather nicely. Too bad he was a total jerk.
Next was Ginger who acted flirty. She wore a simple flow-like, steel coloured dress that was similar to a tight cocktail dress and stopped about mid-thigh, and Lockwood in a matching suit who took it easy. Then, Cassi, the jittery and giggly girl, walked on in a high-low peacock dress followed by Orion, the calm one who seemed to have a winning plan in his deck.
"Okay, now that we've seen a few of our more popular tributes, let's see the one who stole the show! Ladies and Gentlemen, May I introduce to you, the musically trained, mermaid girl, Rain Troute!" I took a deep breath before walking on stage in my high heels.