The Hunger Games: My Story

Chapter Nine

I head back to our private rooms, and eat dinner with Garnet, Leia, and Ian. I decided to work with Leia again today since I smacked the back of my head and passed out will working with her the other day. Dinner  is pasta with Parmesan cheese and a strangely good blue sauce. "Tomorrow is the night of your interviews. You will spend the day getting ready. So I advise to get try to sleep," Garnet says. And we do. For about thirty minutes before I have a nightmare of things that are my worst fears in the world...Emily dying, reliving my father's last moments, and watching my mother die as well.

I wake up at three in the morning, to be exact. The Avoxes are up. I watch Carla  take a glass of water and she puts the cup to her lips. She's about to drink it when someone hits her on the back and she chokes. She coughs up water, and blood. She falls to the ground. Someone- I think a woman- hurries off away from Carla. 

Carla is breathing slowly. Tears are falling down her cheeks. She sees me. I step over her, and run towards the woman who shoved Carla. "Excuse me?" I shout. The woman stops and turns- I now know it's a woman because of her long glossy brown hair, the powder on her face, and lipstick- and says,"Dear! What are you up so early for??" "I am inquiring about the girl you just shoved down to the ground! I was sleeping and I heard someone hit something...why the hell did you hit her?" The woman looks embarrassed. "I...I...." she stammers. "Peacekeepers!" I shout. "Someone has injured someone! Escort this woman away now!" I run to Carla. "Carla??!  CARLA!!" I see her on the floor. She smiles and someone comes and takes her away to get medical attention.
I wake up to see Leia by my bed. "What is it with you liking to watch me sleep?!?!" I demand. She laughs and turns to me. "GET UP! IT'S ALMOST LUNCHTIME!" "Ok ok ok okay I'm up." "You're lucky we let you sleep in. I was thinking of waking you up at 7:30,"  Leia says. "You're lucky I'm the kindest here. You have to be dressed by 12:45, okay?" I nod. Leia smiles. "Bye, Cassandra!!"
I am wearing a white blouse and white pants, with golden colored high heels. I have my hair in my classical bun. We'll first get our training scores and then we'll get ready for our interviews. Flint gets a ten. Amethyst gets a ten. Augustus gets a ten. Blair gets a eleven. Finally, they call my name. Caesar Flickermen smiles. "Now for our District Five Tributes, Cassandra Belcourt and Ian Armor, and their scores." Caesar clears his throat. "Ian Armor's score is....a nine." Everyone claps. They show my picture. "Cassandra Belcourt's score is......a eleven." Leia shrieks with joy. Everyone is clapping. "Congratulations Cassandra!!!!!!"I am then whisked away to my stylists, who are frantically trying to get me ready for the interviews. They paint my nails, curl my hair, and give me a teal blue dress. I also have silver high heels on. Catiline gives me a final touch, and puts red lipstick on me and makes me smell like roses. Ian is wearing a black suit with dark blue flames on the arms. He smiles at me. "Good luck." Districts  1,2,3 go by. District 4 goes by rather slowly. Sebastian stammers and Sabrina talks too fast.
They call my name. Well, Caesar does. "Cassandra Belcourt." I take a deep breath and walk up. The audience claps. "Cassandra, how are you?," Caesar asks. "Nervous," I respond. Caesar laughs. "I think we're all nervous here. Can you tell us how you got that eleven in training?" I pause. "I have trained all my life with axes, knifes, and bows. I studied plants a lot as a child." Caesar smiles. "Smart girl. Now can you tell us......what made you volunteer for your little sister? And what did you tell her before you came here?" I pause again. I try not to cry. "I...I didn't get to see her." Caesar frowns. The audience sighs, a few gasp out in horror. "But I did promise myself that I would win for her." Caesar gives me a hopeful smile. "I bet you did." Just then the buzzer goes off. "That's all the time we have for Cassandra Belcourt, so please give her a round of applause!" All the other interviews flash by. Ian's is alright, but he's a bit too quiet. Time for dinner.
We're served a banquet full of peaches, apples, green sauce covering pasta. There's fried shrimp that's covered in chocolate. Gross. I eat the stew that has meat and beans again. Yum. It's served with warm, fresh bread. I inhale it. I then go to bed, and sit in my fluffy sheets. It's obvious I won't be able to sleep. I could die tomorrow.

I feel trapped in my big room. I don't want to stay here. I want to go home. But I don't have a choice. I try to calm myself down, and I end up taking a shower. I'm assaulted by burning hot water, and icy cold water. I press a button that makes around 3 gallons of soap and practically 60 pounds of glitter gets on my body. The glitter is impossible to get off- I end up having to get a Avox to help me with it. The Avox doesn't look annoyed at all for some reason. She gets me a towel, I climb out, and get into bed. My silky soft hair is a comfort. But I still can't sleep. I am exhausted, so I put my hair into a braid, pull some pants and a shirt on, and head up to the roof. I see people celebrating all over the place. Ian is surprisingly not up here. I see a sky light, and I decide to stand on it for some reason. I can see Ian below me, and he's reading a card from the help of the moonlight. He looks up. I don't know if he screamed or not, but he's completely shocked to see me on the roof. I climbs out of bed-slowly- and comes up the stairs. He glares at me. "What on earth are you doing?" He demands. I look down, like I'm 6 again and I am in trouble. "I couldn't sleep," I say. "I mean, I could die tomorrow. And you're strangely taking the idea of the games well." It's his turn to look down. "Yeah, I know what you mean," he says. "I definitely don't want to die either. I just...want to go home. I'm sick of this place and everybody's silly accents." I nod in agreement. "I also want to go home." Ian sighs, and looks down at the city. "I should head to bed," he says. I nod. "Bye Cassandra" he leaves me, and I'm now alone. Nobody to talk to. So I decide to head to bed too. I climb into my covers, and fall into a deep sleep.
I wake up, and I realize something. Today's the Games. And I could die.