The next morning is full of surprises. I walk out into the balcony to see Romulus and Jada already seated at the table, talking in whispered voices and looking over papers.
"What are you doing?" I ask as I sit down, grabbing a cup of orange juice that is immediately placed in front of me.
"Planning for tonight," says Romulus without even bothering to look at me.
"Tonight?" I ask, confused, "What's ton-Oh!"
The interviews. In the rush of the past week, I had totally forgotten about them. But something comes up that worries me.
"Wait, what are we supposed to do for the interview?" Being in front of cameras makes me nervous. Smiling and waving is one thing, actually talking is another.
"That's where me and Briar come in," says a voice behind me.
I turn around to see Gregor walking in with Alix, who sits beside me.
"To do what?" I ask.
"You know, basic things. Manners, posture, how to respond to questions, that sort of thing," Gregor replies.
"Wait, you're telling me that Briar is going to teach us about manners?" That just seems ironic.
Gregor smiles slightly. "Oh, you'd be surprised at what she knows."
"And what does she know?" Calls a drawling voice, and a second later, Briar walks into the room.
"I was just telling them that you'll be teaching them manners for a few hours today. You did agree to do that, right?"
Briar nods and sits down, resting her feet on the table and right in front of my face. I hold back the urge to yell at her.
"If anyone needs a lesson in manners, it's these two tramps," she says, waving her hand at us vaguely.
I look at Alix, who grimaces. Gregor leans over to Romulus.
"How are you two doing? Everything ready?"
For the first time all morning, Romulus looks up. His hair is unkempt and he needs to shave.
"We've been working on it for ages." Romulus says. He leans in and whispers something in Gregor's ear.
Gregor nods. "Clever…and you're sure it will work?"
Romulus shrugs but does not elaborate.
Briar stands up. "Well, better get started, these two need all the help they can get." She looks at us distastefully. "Follow me."
I follow her out of the room. Alix pushes aside his half-eaten pastry and follows suit.
She takes us to the rooftop of the Training Center. It is covered with flowers and smells amazing. I would have liked sometime to browse, but Briar pushes me away.
"Throw this on over your clothes," she says, "Then put these on."
She hands me a frilly pink dress and shoes with foot long heels. She gives Alix an expensive looking suit and black shoes shined so well I can see my reflection in them. He pulls a face, but I roll my eyes. He's not the one wearing heels, now is he?
After we change, Briar makes us stand, roughly pulling our arms and legs into what she called 'suitable posture'.
She makes me walk with the heels on, and more then once I fall over after taking a few steps.
"Careful you idiot, you'll rip that dress!"
Thank you for caring about my safety.
She tells us how to hold ourselves. Head up, straight back, smile at every moment. Not sure if she would know this, but it's somewhat hard to smile convincingly when your body is aching.
Alix looks more embarrassed then I feel. For one who doesn't smile a lot, Briar is making him hold a grin for an hour. When she finally tells us we can leave, saying: "Well, you'll never be as perfect as me, but I did my best," I waste no time pulling the dress off and running down the stairs.
"Hey, wait up!" Calls Alix, grabbing onto my arm so he can catch up. Laughing, I slow down so we can walk side-by-side. He rubs his cheeks vigorously.
"They hurt?"
"You have no idea."
We go back to our room, where Gregor tells us he's going to take us one at a time, and instruct us on responses to the interview questions.
I go first. We walk into my room and sit on the couch overlooking the window.
"Now," Gregor instructs, "as an interviewer, I will want to know all about you. The crowd loves stories from home. What you need to do is decide how you want to come off. Cute? Aggressive? Sly? It's your choice, you just have to stick with it the entire games."
I think about it. Aggressive is definitely out, I can't even yell at our neighbor's dog when he's trying to use the restroom on our porch. I don't want to be cute, or sly, but what else is there to choose?
I push the hair out of my eyes. "I think I want to appear, sensitive."
"Well that's a new one. Where did you come up with that?"
"I don't know, I just mean…none of the other things really seemed, me. I want to be who I really am. I want to show the Capitol that I'm not a killer, and they're not going to make me one. I'm be thoughtful and caring, maybe sarcastic. I think they'll like that."
"We'll just have to see."
He begins asking me questions. About my past, what I think of the capitol, and even of my outfit, which I pretend is a gorgeous dress instead of jeans and a plain shirt. At the end of the session, I'm feeling confident about myself.
"Well, you did good," Gregor says. "Tell Alix to come in, will you?"
"Yeah, sure no problem. Thanks, by the way."
"Hey, I'm just doing my job."
A few hours later, I find myself once more in the hands of my prep team.
They paint my nails neon green, and paint vines up my arms, finishing the ivy with flowers on my shoulders. Then comes the makeup, which I guess Romulus finally let them do. They are all grinning as they cover my lips with pink lipstick, put blush on my face, and green eye shadow on my eyelids.
After they're done, Romulus walks into the room, holding a dress that is covered by a paper lining. He looks better, at least he got a chance to shave and brush his hair.
"Can I see it?" I ask, pointing at the covered up dress.
He smiles. "Not until you're wearing it. Close your eyes."
Anxious to see what he's come up with, I do as he says, and feel the softness of velvet around my body. I run my hands down the side and gasp. The outside is nothing like the inside, it feels as though it's made out of snake scales. Smooth, but hard.
I Romulus zips up the back.
"Okay, open your eyes."
Cautiously, I do, and when I get a look at myself, I throw my arms around Romulus's neck. He laughs.
"Careful now, don't want to ruin any of your makeup, do we?"
The dress is sleeveless, and looks like the screen we have in our room. It's made out of tiny scale-like chips, colored sky blue, the bottom green and feinting the color of grass.
"It's lovely," I whisper, rubbing the fabric between two fingers.
"And you haven't even seen the best part!" Romulus says. "Look, walk over here, but keep your eyes on the mirror.
I step over to my left, and my mouth drops open. The dress shifts with my body, the clouds on the sky pattern seem to move, and the grass ripples in the simulated wind.
"Now, spin a little," Romulus says.
When I do, the grass seems to fold downward, and a small sprout begins blooming, as I finish a complete spin, the stem is curled around my body, and fully blossomed at the top. There seems to be a fake sun shining.
"How in the world did you come up with this?" I ask.
He leans casually against the wall. "Well, it took ages, but we finally figured out a way to make it work. Holographic," he says when I look at him questionably.
A capitol assistant comes in. She's gathering all of the tributes into the main hall.
"Show them what you're made of!" Romulus says as I leave.
The woman takes me to one of the doors right outside the stage. Alix, Gregor, Petra, and Briar are already standing there.
Petra absolutely fawns over my outfit as I twirl. Gregor claps respectfully and Briar raises her eyebrow and mutters, "Not bad." Which is the best complement she's given me since I met her.
Alix nods. He is dressed almost like before, with black pants. But this time he has a green button up shirt. I guess flowers are too girly, but he looks very impressive.
Petra ushers us into our seats, where we sit in a semi-circle along with the other 22 tributes. She leaves, and the interviews begin. Quirinus Spiro, with his purple skin and hair, looks comical in a yellow suit, but he has a humorous attitude and years of experience. He knows how to play the crowd just right.
One by one, the tributes go up. Like always, the Careers from 1 and 2 come off fearless and ferocious, the girl from 2 almost comical with her gorgeous looks and a fierce nature. The kids from 3 stutter often. The boy and girl from 4 have very different personalities. Hers is usual Career, his is charming and funny. No one else is very impressive, though the muscular boy from 6 throws off everyone with his kind nature.
7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
With shaking hands, I stand up as they call my name. The lights are even brighter as I get closer to center stage, the Capitol citizens just vague outlines. Quirinus shakes my hand as I sit down.
He beams at me, "So, Rhubarb-"
"Ruby," I intervene. Then, blushing, mutter, "Call me Ruby, please."
Like always, nothing throws off Quirinus.
"Ruby of course." He coughs before continuing. "So, District Eleven. How is the capitol compared to your home?" I feel everyone's eyes on me. I can almost tell that, all across Panem, people are staring, waiting for my response.
"Well, it's very colorful, even brighter then the flowers from back home. And, I absolutely love the outfits. I mean, I saw a woman the other day with a beautiful lilac colored dress."
I can hear the women in the crowd cheering as they argue over who that girl was.
"Yes, yes, we are very unique, aren't we?" He asks the audience, who replies with even louder cheers.
Quirinus crosses one leg over the other. "Now, your training score, that lovely ten, beating even those from one and two. Tell us, how did you accomplice that?"
"Well, I mean, I trained very hard, practicing all week." But I can tell this isn't the response the audience is looking for.
"Come on," inquires Quirinus, "Think you can explain a bit more?"
I know that it's against the rules to talk about your private session, and so does he, but I can't help but saying, "Well, let's just say, there's always a first time for everything."
Quirinus chuckles good-naturedly.
"About that dress of yours, couldn't help but seeing it as you walked in. Lovely thing that is, really brings out your good looks."
I blush slightly and nudge Quirinus' arm. The crowd eats it up.
"Come on now, lovely girl like you. Who agrees?" He calls out into the audience.
Everyone cheers loudly, and I feel my confidence growing.
"Now," says Quirinus, "Any plans for winning the Games?"
"Oh come on now," I say, "don't want to spoil the surprise now do I? All I can tell you is that it'll be something like you've never seen before." I wink at the audience.
You can barely hear the buzzer going off as they cheer.
"Aw, too bad, our time is up. Our best wishes to you Ruby!" He presses his lips against my hand as I get up. Going back to my seat, I walk as Briar instructed me, and my dress blooms in front of everyone as I turn to sit down. Even as Alix begins walking up to the center, I can see people staring at me.
As Quirinus begins talking to Alix, I can't help but marveling his attitude. The silent, stiff boy I know is gone, replaced by one who laughs easily, and is completely relaxed in front of the cameras.
He and Quirinus joke back and forth, talking about every topic from the food, to the colors of the buildings.
"A strapping young man like you, you've got to have a special girl somewhere," Quirinus says.
Alix shakes his head.
"Come on now, I don't believe it for a minute."
"Well, when you're out in the farms all day like I am, you don't have much time for girls. I mean, Ruby," he motions towards me, "and this girl back home April, we're like best friends. Nothing can get between us."
"So you and Ruby have know each other for a long time?"
"Ever since we were little kids."
"And do you ever worry about her, when you think of the upcoming games?"
"Every night. If I can't achieve victory, my main goal will be to keep her alive."
The crowd loves this, and as the buzzer goes off, you can hear their disappointment. Quirinus wishes Alix luck and Alix sits back down.
The anthem plays, and the tributes file back into the training center.
"Did you really mean it?" I whisper to Alix.
He nods. "Every single word."