Brooke Langston, a determined and resourceful young woman, volunteers as tribute to spare a sickly little girl who holds a special place in her heart. Little does she anticipate that her closest friend, Ray Adhira, would also be chosen, forcing them...
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Maddox was banging on the door like a madman in the morning. Brooke's eyes felt dry from how long she had stared at the ceiling last night, and she pushed herself up to see her and Ray's hands still clasped, with Ray's face shoved into a pillow and his hair a wild tangle hovering around him.
"Are you both in there!" Maddox shouted loudly. "Get up, get up! We have to prepare you two for the interviews! You better not be doing anything in there!"
"We're just friends, you absolute madman!" Ray half yelled half groaned as he lifted his drooling face from the pillow.
Brooke snickered.
Faster than she would have liked, Brooke and Ray found themselves standing in front of Maddox, Finnick and Mags. The stylists had taken their leave, most likely planning on the outfits Brooke and Ray would wear that night.
Brooke felt confident in Azari, the woman was like a stern robot, but she followed through in her fabrics and was an expert in the craft of making Brooke look beautiful.
Beautiful enough to simply see the girl and want her to win, no talent needed.
Ray's stylist was more eccentric, however it seemed like Azari had him in her control.
Finnick let Maddox do the explaining this time around, as he lazily leaned back beside Mags and kept his roving eyes on Brooke who was trying hard to ignore him.
"You both technically have an even amount of time between training with me and your mentors for presentation and content in the interview alike, however you are a team, right?" His yellow cat eyes darted between them.
They both nodded silently.
"Hmm, so, scratch that, both of you with me first and the rest of the time with the mentors, eight hours total," he giggled delightfully.
Ray looked at Brooke with a gaze screaming he was dreading spending four hours with Maddox Madden.
"Oh god, help me," he said dramatically and looked to the ceiling, Finnick snorted.
Indeed the first four hours was torture, It took up the morning, with a sperate hour midday for lunch. Most of the training with Maddox was pointless. Brooke could walk in heels, she stood up straight, Ray was charming and could make jokes, although they did spend a long time working on his nerves. Brooke was so good at faking her love and kindness for Maddox who was pretending to be Caesar and the audience, that she actually made the man blush red under his white face paint.
When it was time to practice with Mags and Finnick, all they did was tell Brooke and Ray to be themselves.
"Both of you are already charming and intriguing, you came here together, you've stuck together since, you both won six people from all sorts of districts to your side in three days and you treat everyone in the Capitol like they're special and amazing. You're, I quote, so grateful to be here. I mean I've seen the way people look at you two when you talk to them, they want to know you. When Ray and you share a joke or laugh together, they want to laugh with you, they want to be you or be with you, keep doing what you're doing," Finnick advised. "Ray, I know you get nervous with a lot of people around, so use that, tell the crowd you're nervous in the interview, but you're so excited to meet all these people, it's been such a special experience being here, and you want to make them proud, they'll eat it up. Remember to talk about your friendship with Brooke. Caesar might ask about your relationship, tell them how Broke is like a sister to you, how you want to win for your little sister back home too, pull at their heartstrings."
