A/N: I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update! I'm going to update again tomorrow to make up for it, though.
I hope you guys like this chapter. It's not the best, in my opinion. I don't like writing romance and it was required in this chapter, so... Anyway, I hope that you enjoy it! :)
The next morning when I wake up, I just kill time. All day for the next two days, I don't do much of anything. I go to the meadow with Posy, I spend time with Rory and Vick, I watch updates on the tributes, I go for walks, I clean, I play with my pets.
Finally, the night of the interviews arrives. I sit down in front of the television, snuggling close to my mother, with Buttercup in my arms. I see the man who hosts the interviews, Caesar Flickerman, opening the show, cracking jokes for the Capitol audience. I smile little. While Caesar does live in the Capitol, and he does help to host the Games, he seems nice. He always tries to help the tributes during the interviews, and that makes me like him despite the fact that he lives in the Capitol. I see the first tribute, Glimmer, walk out onto the stage.
Glimmer is ditzy and rather stupid, or at least she appears that way. It's entirely possible that she is just playing that angle for the cameras so that she will be overlooked, and then she will come out fighting in the arena. Either way, her interview whizzes by, with her playing up the "sexy" angle the entire time. She disgusts me, although she is sure to get lots of sponsors from the Capital, who loves provocative tributes. The tributes from the lower districts, mostly careers, all fly by. None of them are particularly remarkable. All of them seem evil. The girl from two, Clove, is very sarcastic and snarky. I remember from the training that she can throw knives from twenty meters away and hit the target dead center. Ever single time. I'm worried about her, because it seems like she genuinely doesn't care for the lives of her competitors.
The girl from district five is sly and elusive, rather like a fox.
I don't pay much attention to the other interviews until the girl from eleven stands up. Rue. She is my age, and she claims that she is fast and she can climb trees. And that she is hard to catch. I think that if she lived in District Twelve we would be good friends. I feel so bad that I am rooting for her to die, but it is what I want. No, I don't want her to die. I want Katniss to live. There is a significant difference between the two.
Then the boy from eleven is up. He's tall and strong, but not particularly interesting during his interview. He mostly just answer Caesar with grunts, which aren't engaging. He's impressive, though. Then, finally, Katniss's name is called. I heave a sigh of relief.
She stands, and her dress, which is made of red flame like fabric, gives her the appearance of being on fire, like she herself is a flame. She makes her way gracefully to the interviewee's chair and sits down. Her poise is perfect. I am astonished by her grace. This is not the girl who went the Capitol. She has been transformed by the people there into one of them. Well, not entirely one of them. Not a freak, but with poise and someone who wear impeccable clothing and shines with beauty. Not someone who would spend her days hunting. But I'm not worried. I know that she will have fought them every step of the way, and that as soon as she is given the chance, she will return to being her usual, plain self.
Caesar starts questioning Katniss right away. "So, Katniss, the Capitol must be quite a change from District Twelve. What's impressed you most since you've arrived here?" he inquires.
Katniss's eyebrows knit together for a moment and she looks to be on the edge of panicking. But then here face clears and she speaks. "The lamb stew," she says decisively. I can't help giggling a little at her answer, because it is so unlike my sister.
"The one with the dried plumbs?" Caesar clarifies. Katniss nods and Caesar lowers his voice to a confidential tone. "Oh, I eat it by the bucketful." Then he looks horrified and turns to the audience, desperately demanding that they tell him if it's making him fat.
The Capitol audience laughs and then Caesar turns back to my sister and changes the subject. "Now Katniss. When you came out in the opening ceremonies, my heart actually stopped," he states. "What did you think of that costume?"
"You mean after I got over my fear of being burned alive?" The entire audience guffaws, and I join in.
"Yes. Start then," Caesar says.
Katniss gushes over how wonderful her costume was for a bit, and then she says that she can't believe that she is wearing her current dress. "I mean, look at it!" she almost squeals.
And then she does something that I don't anticipate. She stands up and twirls around, letting the dress seemingly catch fire around her. She stops after one rotation, but Caesar demands that she continue spinning and she obeys, whirling around and around until I worry that she will make herself too dizzy and trip. When she sits back down, she appears to be a bit unsteady and she is also giggling like Posy. I'm slightly appalled, but also more than a little entertained. Katniss is giggling. It's astonishing.
Caesar asks her a few more questions, but I don't hear them. I'm just watching Katniss, delighting in her apparent ease in front of the Capitol audiences.
Then, suddenly, it's over. Just like that, she is wished luck and sent back to her seat and Peeta is called up. He and Caesar act like they have been working together for years, bouncing jokes of off one another, laughing together. Most of Peeta's interview is uninteresting, but at the end of it, Caesar Flickerman asks him if he has a girlfriend at home. Peeta shakes his head violently, but it's clear that he is lying. After a bit more prodding from Caesar, he opens up, saying that he has had a crush on this one girl forever, but he doesn't think she knew he existed until the reaping. Caesar tells him that he should win and then she can't refuse him.
"I don't think it's going to work out," Peeta tells him. "Winning won't help in my case."
Caesar demands to know why. Peeta blushes and, barely audible, says, "Because... because... she came here with me."
It takes a moment for it to register, but when it does, I gasp. Peeta has a crush on Katniss? That's not possible. I love my sister, but no one likes her like that! And Peeta hadn't even met Katniss until a few days ago!
Unless... I can only remember one other time that Katniss may have interacted with him. It was a few months after my father had died, and we were starving to death. Katniss went out to look for food, to see if she could trade for something, anything. She was gone for hours, but finally, she came back with two slightly burnt loaves of bread. They were wonderful, warm, and filled with raisons. We ate an entire loaf in one sitting. After, when I asked her where she had gotten them, she said that a kid at the bakery traded them to her. She said that they were burnt because she didn't have enough to trade for something better. I guess that Peeta could have been the kid that she talked about. He is the baker's son, so it would make sense. I never really thought about it. But why would that incident cause him to have a crush on Katniss?
All of this flies through my head in less than a second. On the television, Katniss's face is in a close-up. There is a slight redness to her cheeks, and she stares down at her hands, her mouth open in protest. She looks embarrassed, like she has a crush on him, too. I try to figure out what this could mean. Are they really together? I doubt it, but I guess it's possible. And now I sound like one of the crazy girls at school who fuss over hair and clothes and boys. The ones who won't let a day go by without teasing Rory and me about being friends, and will always make sly remarks when we talk to each other. They're complete idiots. But even so, I want to know what is going on between my sister and Peeta.
I look over at my mom, and see that she has a hand over her mouth, apparently covering a smirk. She tries to keep a straight face, but she finally a small laugh escapes her.
"What?" I demand. My mom isn't the type to approve of someone announcing love for her daughter on live television to the entire country.
"I somehow doubt that Katniss is with him," she laughs. "Can you imagine your sister falling for someone over the course of a few days, and then being pleased when he announces sit to the world?" she asks. I'm completely blown away by her reaction.
"Well... No, I guess not. But he never said that she liked him. Maybe it's a just a crazy thing designed to get sponsors?" I ask doubtfully.
"Well, then Peeta must be one heck of an actor. Did you see his face? He was deadly
serious," she tells me, still laughing a little.
Just then, the door sounds like it is about to be knocked down by an angry fist. I hurry to answer it before it's damaged and find Gale at the front porch, looking ready to kill someone.
"Is she really his girlfriend?!" he demands, eyes blazing.
"I-I don't know. I've never heard her talk about him before..." I answer doubtfully, taken aback and more than a little intimidated by his anger.
"She better not be with him," he spits before stalking away. I stand in the doorway, stunned.
"What's up with him?" I ask my mom, baffled.
"I'm guessing that he likes Katniss, too, and doesn't approve of Peeta's announcement. At least, that is the impression that I got," my mom tells me. I sigh.
"This doesn't feel right. Everyone involved is smarter than that, or at least Katniss and Gale are! Seriously, I can't imagine Gale falling in love with Katniss. They're just friends! And Peeta couldn't have fallen in love with Katniss in the few days since they left!" I'm babbling and I know it, but I feel like if I say it enough I can reverse the events of the last few minutes. Katniss should just focus on coming home to me and my mom. She can't afford to get distracted by romance.
My mom just laughs at me. "It'll be fine Prim. Tomorrow morning, I'm sure that Panem will have forgotten about the whole thing." She doesn't mention that they will forget because the Games start tomorrow. I shudder and try to push the thought aside, but once I've realized I can't forget it.
In around fifteen hours, Katniss could be dead. I try to swallow past the lump in my throat, but my eyes are filling with tears and my vision is getting blurred. I can barely comprehend that my sister could cease to exist tomorrow. It's impossible to grasp, so I give up.
"I'm going to bed," I squeak, hurrying from the room before my mother can question it. I flop down on my bed, despairing as I once again realize how empty it is without Katniss taking up half of it. I bury my face in my rock-hard pillow and try to muffle my tears.
Just as I am drifting towards sleep, a half formed thought jerks me back to consciousness. If she likes Peeta then he'll win.
I bolt upright and am about to tell my mother what I realized when I pause. I'm lucky to have my mom staying herself as it is. If I tell her, she might crack completely and leave me alone to watch my sister fight to her death. But it would be cruel to leave her out of the loop. I let out a long, wavering breath, gather my courage, and force myself out of bed. I give up trying to wipe my face dry after one futile attempt and hurry into the living room before I lose my nerve.
"Mom. If Katniss really does like Peeta, then she'll try to get him crowned as victor instead of her." There's no hope in my voice, and my mother picks up on it. She doesn't say anything, just gets up and wraps her arms around me. I bury my face in her shoulder and we hold each other as we mourn Katniss's almost certain loss.
A/N: Please, please, please review! The more reviews I get, the more frequently I update. :)
Also, a review from pointed out that I had been spelling 'Capitol" as "Capital". I tried to fix all of the mistakes, but I apologize for any that I missed. :)