A/N: I was originally thinking about splitting this into two chapters, but I decided to wrap things up and post it in one. This is the last chapter before they get into the arena. Once again, please review if you like it! And even review if you don't, I like getting feedback, positive or negative.
I probably should've been eating more, some of the most extravagant food I've ever seen was sitting in front of me, but I wasn't stuffing my face like Wyatt was. I was too nervous for that. "What's the matter dear? You should be eating more. It's a big day! You don't want to be hungry during your evaluation." Puff chided. Ugh...Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch! Like you possibly know anything about what I'm going through! If only I could vocalize that, instead I muttered, "I'm just really nervous." Puff looked at me with the oddest expression, "Well, not eating won't help," she commented before returning her attention to her own breakfast. Truth is, I was nervous. Not about the evaluation (it was getting really easy for me to appear pathetic in front of other people), but about the possible backlash from Mara and Clay. Hopefully my poor score didn't get me kicked out of the alliance we made.
A few short hours later, we were in the waiting room. Because of the way we were lined up, I sat in between Wyatt and Clay, with Mara on the other side of Clay and Elodie on the other side of Wyatt. The Careers had already went, and I could only imagine what high marks they received. They had each given us condescending glances before entering. Except for Mud, I don't think he entirely understood that part of being a Career was intimidating people. Cinder was inside the room right now getting evaluated, then the boy from District Six (a small twig of a kid who Clay had told me was named Ash) would go, then Elodie would go, then Wyatt would go, then I would go. But as I looked over, Ash had disappeared, Cinder must've finished. A few minutes later, Elodie had entered. Geez, Ash must've really sucked, he couldn't have been in there for more than ten minutes! Somehow, I had to do worse than him. Elodie and Wyatt were both in the room for around twenty minutes, and then it was my turn. I stood and headed into the room, with Mara flashing me a quick smile before the door closed behind me.
The Gamemakers all sat at a table waiting, they looked bored. First I went and grabbed some knives. I looked at them as if I didn't even know what they were. Taking one in hand, I made sure to hold it as incorrectly as possible. I lined my self up with the target, and threw it poorly. To my surprise, the knife actually hit the lower end of the target. Damn. I didn't want that to happen. I took four more knives and took extra care to make sure that my throws missed the target. I sobbed a bit at my failure, but the Gamemakers still looked at me expectantly, as if they wanted to see more. Perplexed, I looked at the weapons to see what else I could use. My eyes wondered a bit before they fell on a spear. Perfect! I hadn't even tried throwing a spear before! Taking the spear, I walked back to the throwing station. I gripped the spear close to the tip, which was probably horribly wrong, but I didn't care. I lifted my arm and chucked the spear at the target as hard as I could. But instead of flying forward, the spear flipped over and landed in front of me. I guess you can't throw spears the same way you throw knives. I heard some of the people behind the table and snicker, and at this I burst into tears. I sat on the ground and just stayed there, crying. Finally, a woman stood up and looked at me sadly, "I think we've seen everything we need to see." I nodded my head lazily before standing up and somberly walking out, sobbing occasionally. As soon as I stepped out I smiled, that went well.
Puff, Brittany, Flip, and Wyatt sat around me as we waited for Caesar to read our scores. Wyatt seemed pleased with how he had done, which made Flip happy too. When Brittany asked me how I had done, I just shook my head and cried. I caught Flip roll his eyes as Brittany comforted me, asshole. "And now, for the scores..." began Caesar. We all sat up in rapt attention as Caesar continued, "From District One, Gram, with a score of...nine. And Siren, with a score of...nine. From District Two, Jett, with a score of...ten. And Iris, with a score of...ten. From District Three, Gage, with a score of...five. And Mallory, with a score of...six. From District Four, Hatch, with a score of...eight. And Aloe, with a score of...five. From District Five, Crimson, with a score of...seven. And Cinder, with a score of...seven. From District Six, Ash, with a score of...two. And Elodie, with a score of...seven. From District Seven, Wyatt, with a score of...eight. And Johanna, with a score of...two. From District Eight, Clay, with a score of...three. And Mara, with a score of...six. From District Nine, Brisk, with a score of...eight. And Tawny, with a score of...three. From District Ten, Cael, with a score of...four. And Leigh, with a score of...two. From District Eleven, Noel, with a score of...three. And Sepia, with a score of... five. From District Twelve, Lane, with a score of...two. And Reina, with a score of...two."
A two, that would do. Four other people had gotten twos, though. So she wasn't really set apart from the others. I made a quick mental note of who else got twos: Lane and Reina (D12), Leigh (D10), and Ash (D6). Flip pulled Wyatt into another room to talk privately and Puff left to chat up potential sponsors, leaving Brittany and I alone. "You need to make sure to mess your interview up tomorrow," she said, "four other kids got twos as well as you, you need to find a way to set yourself apart in a bad way." I nodded in agreement. "You couldn't have gotten a one?" she asked me jokingly. "Yeah," I scoffed, "one of my knife throws accidentally hit the bottom of a target. That was probably what did it." "Brittany!" shouted Flip as he poked his head out of the door, "We need to discuss some things with you!" Brittany looked at me awkwardly, "Can it wait a few minutes? I was talking to Johanna about..." "Who cares!" he cut her off, "She got a two. Wyatt got an eight. Now come here!" Brittany sighed heavily before complying, getting off of the couch and leaving me for Wyatt and Flip. Wow, Flip was an asshole. He was getting to be worse than Puff. If Puff didn't have so much history on her side, I might've said that Flip was worse. He had certainly been worse than her the past couple of days. I got up and went to my room.
Because of some sort of scheduling problem, the interviews were going to be on the same night as the evaluations. So in an hour, I was going to have to get torn apart again by the drones in an attempt to 'make me look pretty'. Great.
I had endured the drones and was currently enduring the awful dress that Drek was having me wear. The dress wasn't ugly, it was actually sort of nice, it was just a pain in the ass to wear. The dress fell down past my feet because Drek had wanted to hide my 'hideous feet'. On top of that, I was wearing high heels. I had tried to get Drek to give me a good reason as to why I was wearing heels despite the fact that no one would be able to see my feet. His response: "People won't see the heel, but they'll hear them as you walk, and then they'll know you're fashionable." I didn't bother arguing it further, he had made it clear he wasn't going to concede. I didn't even want to look at what he'd done with my hair.
Wyatt and I stood with Flip, Brittany, and Puff waiting to be interviewed. The Careers had all interviewed well, so had Gage and Mallory from District Three. Aloe, from District Four, was getting interviewed. Despite being from the fishing district, she was surprisingly pale. She had black hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders, and was wearing a salmon colored dress. I couldn't quite hear the interview over Puff's constant babbling. She was trying to give us advice on how to give a good interview, but most of her advice was common knowledge, "...and don't forget to smile! Always smile! The crowd loves a good smile!" she quipped. Aloe left the stage and it was Mud's turn. I knew his name was Hatch, but I was still going to call him mud. I needed I figure out how I was going to blow this. It wouldn't be enough to just dumbly answer questions during the interview, I needed to look spectacularly stupid. I had to somehow look worse than the other four tributes who had gotten twos. Cinder and Crimson both finished there interviews, and then it was Elodie's turn. She interviewed well, as I expected her to. And then Ash went. He was one of the four others who had managed to get twos. He didn't interview well, unfortunately. He was slow to answer, disengaged, and mumbled everything he said. Caesar almost looked sorry for the kid when he left the stage.
"And now, from District Seven, please welcome...Johanna Mason!" Shit. It was my turn and I still didn't have a plan! Puff gave me a little nudge in the back, "Go on, it's your turn now." Of course it was my turn. I trudged forward, suddenly remembering how difficult it was to walk in this dress with heels. And that's when I plan came to me. I walked on stage and waved warmly to the crowd as they applauded. Caesar held out his hand to help me the rest of the way to the chair. I reached out to take it. Our fingers were inches apart, when I tripped over my dress. I could hear the front of my dress tear as I fell forward, falling into Caesar. Caesar, unprepared for my fall, was knocked backward and fell on his back. I ended up hitting my face on the hard floor. Sure it hurt, but it was worth it. I could see some accessories that must've been in my hair scattered in front of me. The crowd gasped at the sight in front of them, and a flurry of whispers followed as Caesar groaned and pulled himself off of the floor. I looked backstage as I began to pull myself off of the ground. Wyatt was dumbfounded, Flip was laughing his ass off, Puff stood exasperated with her hand over her mouth, and Brittany was fighting a smirk. Caesar came over to me and helped me up before sitting me down in the interview chair. "Well, that was quite an entrance!" began Caesar, obviously trying to lighten the mood. A few people in the crowd laughed, but the undercurrent of whispers remained. I pretended to be embarrassed by what had happened. I sobbed gently and wouldn't meet Caesar's eyes. I looked down and saw that I had effectively ruined the bottom half of my dress and had lost my heels during the fall (they were still lying on the left side of the stage), exposing my 'hideous feet' to the world. This was going well. "Don't be to embarrassed, Johanna," said Caesar, "You can still walk in heels better than I can!" This got the crowd laughing, dispelling the awkwardness of the moment. "So tell us, Johanna," continued Caesar, "Is there anybody back home you'd like to say hello to now that you're on TV?" I looked up at him sadly and sighed, "No, not really. I don't really have any friends back home." I heard the crowd let out a slight "Aww..." in pity. Not good. I can't have them pity me, that means they might like me a little. "So what do you think of the Capitol?" asked Caesar, "It's probably quite different from your district." I decided to develop a stutter, "I-I-It's overwhelming," I said exasperated." Caesar looked at me, as if hoping for more, but said "Well, I can only imagine. Let's talk about your training score, shall we? You got a two, do you think they got it right, or do you think you've should've been give a higher score?" "I-I-I..." I stuttered before stopping and staring off into the crowd. Caesar sensed my trouble and wrapped things up, "Well, regardless of your score, we all look forward to seeing what you'll do in the arena." "Thank you," I politely whimpered before shaking his hand. I let a few tears slide down my face. I began to walk offstage, deciding to leave my shoes out there. "Ladies and gentlemen, Johanna Mason!" shouted Caesar again as I walked off. As the crowd cheered I stumbled slightly, getting another nice gasp from the crowd, before I disappeared backstage. Wyatt had already gone onstage, Flip had disappeared, and Puff stood behind Brittany shaking her head. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead she just turned and walked away.
With no one else around, Brittany and I both smiled widely. "That was amazing," she said, "You should've seen the faces on everybody in the crowd." We stayed and watched Wyatt's interview (he did well), but I really wanted to see Mara and Clay's interviews. Mara had a few awkward moments where she just sat there trying to think of her answers. Clay seemed to have all of his answers memorized and rehearsed, but he exerted no personality on stage. Puff joined us again after all the interviews were over and went with Brittany and I back to the room. She didn't say anything, but she occasionally shot me some strange glares. Wyatt and Flip weren't in the room when we got back. "Well I hope you're happy with yourself!" Puff finally exploded, "You've lost all hope of picking up even a single sponsor! I'm so infuriated and embarrassed, I could...!" But she didn't finish, instead she stormed off. "Well, I think you did an excellent job," commented Brittany, "You should probably go to sleep now, the Games begin tomorrow. I think you actually have a good shot at winning this, so get some rest. It's been a long day."
I nodded my head and went to my room. The Games were tomorrow, so I did need my rest. The other tributes weren't going to know what hit them.
A/N: Hope everyone liked it. I might be able to finish another chapter tonight, but if not, I'll definitely have one up tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and please review!