The day passed quickly and painlessly aside from the poking and prodding of her stylist (Who's name she had never bothered to actually learn, but typically referred to with derogatory names and phrases.) and her prep team. Finnick, who had been waiting for her, looked her up and down when she approached him. "Trees? I would have never guessed," he said with the contours of an arrogant grin plastered on his face.
"Keep talking, I'll give you a pretty nasty splinter," she responded. He lifted his hands in mock surrender and took a couple steps back. "That's what I thought." She said with a grin, but something behind her had captured his attention. Furrowing her brows in confusion, she turned to see what had him so preoccupied. When she saw what it was, or who, rather, she was confident that her jaw collided with the ground. She had no idea who it was that she was looking at, the girl was strikingly beautiful, make-up and her costume highlighting her already stunning features, she found herself staring.
"You look hypnotized, Jo." Commented Finnick, she'd barely heard what he'd said through her churning thoughts.
"Who is that?" she queried, this brought Finnick's eyes immediately to her, un-filtered shock displaying on his face.
"Johanna, that's only the most talked about lady in the entire country." She shook her head in confusion, still not allowing her eyes pry away from the girl, who seemed uncomfortable with the amount of eyes on her. "That's the Victor of the 74th, from 12," he added, still without a voiced response from Johanna. "Katniss Everdeen?" he tried, that seemed to spark some recognition in the girl.
"The berry girl?" she asked, wracking her brain for recollection of the most recent Games. She remembered one of the most defiant acts she had witnessed since Haymitch's small act of rebellion against the Capitol, which she hardly remembered. She took a moment to wonder what it was that was in the water in 12, what made their Victors so gutsy.
"Yeah, the berry girl," he responded, obvious amusement playing on his features. "You should go talk to her," he offered.
"You should go talk to her," she fired back almost instantaneously.
"Okay." He shrugged and stalked away, snatching a couple sugar cubes from a stranger and tossing them into his mouth on the way, leaving her to sulk in her own thoughts.
She exhaled as her feet met the cement terrain, giving Blight a small wave before walking in the direction of 4's chariot.
"How was she?" it was the first question that escaped from her lips, he threw her an amused look.
"Surprisingly," he paused, grinning, before adding "a lot like you, you'll probably hate her." She rolled her eyes and gave him a disapproving glance; this seemed to entertain him even more. "Might be able to catch her now, if you hurry," he told her, gesturing toward the trio of 12's Victors. Seeing this as a window of opportunity that could not be passed up on, she started toward the elevator they were entering. "Don't forget, roof!" Finnick called after her. She took mental note of that before picking up her brisk pace to an almost-jog.
She slid through the closing elevator doors with no room to spare, the muted thud of her head piece hitting the floor masked by the closing of the doors. Glancing up, she was greeted by the eyes of the two most recent Victors (and Haymitch) assessing her. She assumed they were trying to place her, determine what Games she had won. This made her feel strangely self-conscious, an emotion that she very rarely was exposed to, she finger-combed her hair absentmindedly before unbuckling her bracelets. "Horrible, isn't it?" she scoffed, gesturing toward her lumber-themed costume. "My stylist, biggest idiot in the Capitol," she groaned "Trees, always trees. I'd love to put my axe in her face," she added, probably over-emphasizing the last part. Pausing for a moment, she noted that she didn't have a strong hold on their attention. "You guys look stunning," she complimented, feeling out of character the moment she had said it.
An improvised response came from Katniss, who probably hadn't been paying any sort of attention since she'd slid into the elevator. "Yeah, Cinna's great, he's been helping me design my own clothing line. You should see what he can do with velvet."
"I have," she replied, struggling to suppress a grin, "That dress you wore to 2. So gorgeous I wanted to rip it right off of you back," this seemed to make the girl squirm, which please Johanna, given that was exactly the response she was aiming for.
Throughout the rest of the ascent, she let the silence brew as she slid out of the rest of her dress, heaving a content sigh when she was finally free of the constricting material. As the elevator emitted the cliché ding, she threw a wink at the Victors and slipped back through the doors, offering a farewell of, "Thanks, let's do it again sometime," stalling outside the closing doors just long enough to hear Haymitch introduce her as "Johanna Mason, District 7."
She grinned, knowing that the girl wouldn't forget her name any time soon and strolled back to her room.
When she pried open the door to the room assigned to 7's Victors, she was met with the slack-jawed (and bruised) face of Blight. She didn't know why he was so surprised to see her without a stitch, it wasn't like it was a rare occurrence. He opened his mouth to say something but she interjected with a dismissive wave of her hand accompanied by "don't ask." She made her way to the kitchen and opened a bottle of liquid, tipping some of its contents into her mouth, but the beverage was almost immediately taken from her hands.
"You're not going to be hung over for training," he paused before adding "or interviews." She glared at him in response before sulking into the next room to pull on clothing and wash the heavily-applied make up off of her face.
Entering back into the main room, she sunk into the plush couch next to her District partner. "Hey, what's up with this Everdeen chick?" she asked, trying to force an opinion out of someone other than her District 4 companion for once. Blight shot her a puzzled look.
"Other than being the most recent Victor and the only person to defy the Capitol recently, nothing special as far as I know." He paused, trying to recollect more details. "She's also a Capitol sweetheart because of what she did to save lover boy."
"Lover boy?" she questioned, her curiosity getting the best of her.
"Her District partner in the Games, I don't buy the whole star-crossed lovers thing, though, not from her anyway." That brought the beginnings of a smile to her lips, Blight noticed this, and opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it, obliging to the un-spoken rule that forbid either of them to intrude on each others business.
Sensing his tenseness, she changed the subject, "What happened to your face?" she teased, making her way to the door. He responded with a stiff middle finger, and a light smile. "I'm going to see Finnick, I'll be back later." She informed him, and with that, she made her way to the stairwell.
A/N - First of all, thank you so much for the favorites and reviews, you're all truly amazing, thanks for sticking around so far. This one's a tad bit longer than the last, I originally planned to include a little bit more than I posted, but this was as far as my mind could take me. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it and please tell me what you have to think. Stay tuned for more updates. (: