The Girl With the Bread

Toph's Dress

As Suki turns the doorknob, Sokka stops her hand. "Suki..." He's completely overcome with stage fright.

"Remember, they already love you," she says gently. "Just be yourself."

They meet up with the rest of the District 12 crowd at the elevator. As soon as he lays his eyes on Toph, he knows Satoru has been hard at work.

The creature standing before him has come from another world. One where skin shimmers and eyes flash and apparently they make their clothes from jewels. Because Toph's dress, oh, Toph's dress is entirely covered in reflective precious gems, blue and green and turquoise with bits of white that accent the tips of the wave design. Her slightest movement gives the impression that she has been swept away by the sea.

She is breathtaking.

He knows his mouth is hanging open, but there's nothing he can do about it. Evidently, she can feel as much because her cheeks flush and she hisses, "What are you looking at?"

He blinks. "Oh. Um, er..." Before he can choke out some excuse, the elevator opens and all twenty four tributes are hustled to the stage and shoved into a wide arc. He'll be second to last, being the male from District 12. How he wishes he could be first to just get the whole thing over with! And to avoid looking at Toph, who he can't seem to take his eyes off of. Now he'll have to listen to how witty, funny, humble, fierce, and charming everybody else is before he goes up. Plus, the audience will start to get bored, just as the Gamemakers did.

Just stepping onto the stage makes his breathing rapid and shallow. He can feel his pulse pounding in his temples. It's a relief to get in his chair, because between his legs shaking and Toph's death grip on his arm, he's afraid he'll trip. An elevated seating unit has been set up for prestigious guests, with the stylists commanding the front row. The cameras will turn to them when the crowd is reacting to their handiwork. Television crews have claimed most of the other balconies.

Bato Flickerman, the man who has hosted the interviews for more than forty years, bounces to the stage. This year his hair is dyed powder blue with his lips and eyelids matching. It's a bit less freakish than last year when the theme was crimson and he appeared to be bleeding. He tells a few jokes to get the audience warmed up but then gets down to business.

The boy from District 1 is first. He's a skinny, scrawny-looking thing, named Jet. His counterpart, looking provocative in a see-through silver dress, steps up to the center of the stage to join Bato for her interview. You can tell her mentor didn't have any trouble coming up with an angle for her. With that flowing white hair, crystal blue eyes, tanned body - she's sexy all the way.

Each interview only lasts three minutes. Then a buzzer goes off and the next tribute is up. He will say this for Bato, he really does his best to make the tributes shine. He's friendly, tries to set the nervous ones at ease, laughs at lame jokes, and can turn a weak response into a memorable one by the way he reacts.

He sits up straight, the way Ty Lee taught him to, as the districts slip by. 2, 3, 4. Everyone seems to be playing up to some angle. The scar-faced boy from District 2 is a ruthless killing machine. The sly-eyes girl from District 5 is foxy and elusive. He spotted Suki as soon as she took her place, but her presence does not relax him. Even Toph, whose hand squeezes his for reassurance, does not put him at ease. 7, 8, 9. The wild-haired girl from 10 is very talkative. 11.

Aang, who is dressed in a gossamer suit complete with arrows lining his arms, flutters his way to Bato. A hush falls over the crowd at the sight of this magical wisp of a tribute. Bato is very sweet with him, complimenting his seven in training, an excellent score for one so small. When he asks him what her greatest strength will be in the arena, he doesn't hesitate. "I'm very hard to catch," he says in a tremulous voice. "And if they can't catch me, they can't kill me. So don't count me out."