𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐒 | hunger games ✓

chapter 10

━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

The next day was filled with preparations for the upcoming tribute interviews. Since nobody specifically requested to be trained separately, the four tributes were forced to endure four whole hours with Iskra going over presentation. That included how to walk, sit, smile, talk, and even make eye contact properly. Daphne had no idea everything would be so complicated.

Or painful. After earning multiple nasty bruises and embarrassing falls, Iskra decided that Daphne was a lost cause with high heels. She'd also endured several sharp slaps from Iskra across her back whenever she slouched.

Theron passed Iskra's expectations with flying colors, his natural swagger doing him favors. Azalea had an easy grace that made Daphne want to shove her over. Caelum also had a tendency to slouch, yet Daphne noticed Iskra whack him noticeably lighter than she did her. She had a feeling Iskra just enjoyed inflicting pain on her out of spite for the time Daphne snapped at her on the train.

By the time they settled down for lunch, Daphne's feet were throbbing and her back ached from being held pencil-straight for hours.

After eating, they had another four hours of preparation. This time, it was with Theia, so slightly more bearable. They went over strategies to win the crowd, build their personalities. Theia preferred to see everyone individually, an hour dedicated to each. She specifically requested to coach Daphne last, which meant Daphne had a full three hours of uninterrupted free time.

Daphne wasn't sure what to do with that time. Azalea was called in first, leaving her an hour with Caelum and Theron. She joked around with Theron for a good amount of time, swapping dry banter about everything from Iskra's extreme eyelash game to Mr. Todders back at school.

Caelum joined in a couple times, mostly when Theron brought up mutual friends, but Daphne noticed he only seemed to laugh at Theron's jokes. Whenever she would say something, he'd mutter a quick response, then fall silent. It drove her crazy, but she was used to it at this point. He was probably just suffering from reading withdrawals, since he hadn't touched a book in days.

Daphne thought back to the times when everything was normal. When Caelum would be buried in a novel every minute he could afford. When she'd watch him from afar, wishing she could sit and read beside him, both of them lost in a world of their own. Could it really have only been a week ago when she was still taking her sheep out every morning, selling plums at the market with Lysa and Tobe?

After Azalea was done, it was Caelum's turn. Daphne and Theron resumed their exchange of stupid jokes, but eventually, both of them quickly grew bored. Azalea went up to her room, locking herself in. Daphne didn't hear a sound from behind the door that suggested what she might've been up to. Perhaps she fell asleep.

Daphne was debating sneaking into Azalea's room with a pen and drawing mustaches and other crude things across her face when Theron was called. Daphne hurried into her own room before Caelum appeared, just to avoid the awkwardness of having the two of them alone in the sitting room.

She ordered herself a plate of xiǎo lóng bāo, little soup-filled dumplings that were a traditional food of the eastern continent where her family had originally hailed from. Esther used to cook them whenever Rourke made some extra coin at the market. They were Daphne's favorite.

These xiǎo lóng bāo tasted infinitely better than the cheap ones they could afford back home. Yet somehow, Daphne found herself longing for those ones instead. Those dumplings meant family, love. Life. And she would never taste Esther's cooking again.

Suddenly, her appetite vanished. She set the plate aside, then curled up in bed clutching her pendant.

Theia summoned her before long, and she must've drifted off since she awoke to a glass of water by her bedside and her abandoned plate of xiǎo lóng bāo reheated. Every morning, she'd been waking up to a fresh drink of water on her nightstand without having to ask for one. It was probably a courtesy by the Avoxes. She made a note to thank them for it later.