Glimmer's Story

Coaching

I woke up with the light shining in through the windows. I looked beside me, and Marvel was nowhere to be seen. He was probably at breakfast. I went to my room and took a hot shower. This time I didn't press random buttons, and I was getting pretty good with these Capitol gadgets. After I got out of the shower, I put some comfy clothes on and pulled my hair back into a high ponytail. When I got to the table, almost everyone was done eating.

"Well, good morning, sleepyhead," laughed Cordelia. I looked at the clock, and it flashed eleven. Marvel patted the seat next to him, so I sat down and grabbed a plate.

"Do you guys want to be coached together or separately?" asked Cashmere. Marvel and I looked at each other unsure. It didn't really matter much since we already knew each other's skills.

"Together," said Marvel.

"You sure about that?" asked Gloss.

"Yes," I replied.

"Okay, but just to say, you two are going to be killing each other in days," said Gloss.

"No, we're not," Marvel said.

"You have to if-" Cashmere started.

"We aren't hurting each other," I said. "End of conversation."

"What if you guys are the last two left in the arena?" asked Gloss.

"Then we'll wait until one of the Capitol's muttations comes to finish one of us off," I said.

"Have fun with that," said Gloss. I gave him a mean look and started to fill my plate.

"So, since you're being coached together," said Cordelia, "you'll spend the first four hours with me and the last four hours with your mentors."

"Four hours!?" I shouted. "What the heck do we need to learn in four hours?"

"You'll see," said Cordelia with a grin on her face. Her grin looked scary with her pale white skin. After I was done stuffing myself with as much food as I could hold, Cordelia took me and Marvel to a different room . "Ladies first!" she exclaimed. It reminded me of what she always says at the reaping, except this time it was for preparing for interviews. Cordelia held out a pair of shimmering silver high heels. The heels were 7 inches long.

"They're beautiful," I said.

"Yes they are, now put them on," she said.

"No! I'm not putting those on," I argued. "If you don't mind, I would like to go into the arena still alive."

"Very funny, now put them on!" shouted Cordelia.

"I'm not moving," I said.

"If you say so," she said. She picked my foot off the ground and yanked it up. My body flew backwards and my head slammed into the hard tile floor.

"Ow!" I screamed. Marvel immediately ran over and was about to punch Cordelia in the face when Gloss came in the room to hold him back. The last thing I remembered was Cashmere and Gloss fighting to keep Marvel away from killing Cordelia before I passed out.

___________________________________________

I woke up in my Capitol bed with a bandage wrapped around my head. An Avox was sitting next to me and was patting my hair with a damp wash cloth.

"What happened?" I asked. She never answered, and I was about to repeat myself when I remembered that she couldn't talk. She had no tongue. I got up out of bed to look in the mirror, and immediately noticed a throbbing pain on the back of my head.

"You're up," said Cashmere.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, you tripped and hit your head on the floor," she said.

"Nice try," I said. "I remember Cordelia yanking my foot off the floor, and me falling backwards. I'm asking what's wrong with my head."

"Just a couple stitches and cuts here and there," she said.

"Glimmer?!" said a voice coming in my room. It was Marvel. As soon as he saw me he rushed over and hugged me. "Are you okay? Does it hurt? What do you remember?" he asked.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa slow down. I'm fine. It doesn't hurt," I lied. I turned around to look in the mirror and realized why the Avox was patting my hair. There were patches of blood in it. Felicity walked into the room and let out a small shriek.

"You have an interview tomorrow Glimmer, and you're a mess! I can't let bloody blonde be the next new hairstyle! Clean her up!" Felicity ordered to the Avox. The Avox nodded and took about half an hour to get the blood out of my hair. When she was done, I went back out to the table for dinner.

"Glimmer!" shrieked Cordelia. "Glimmer, dear, I didn't ever mean to hurt you! I was just trying to do my job!"

"I know," I said. I sat between Marvel and Cashmere, my usual spot. I didn't really eat much for dinner. Just a couple bites of this pasta with blue sauce on it. I started to wonder if the Capitol dyed their foods different colors. I mean, blue sauce? Really?

"So, what's the plan?" asked Marvel.

"For the remainder of the day, you two will be coached by us," said Cashmere.

After dinner, Cashmere and Gloss took us to the sitting room. We decided that Cashmere would work with me and Gloss with Marvel.

"What's your plan for the interview?" asked Cashmere.

"Plan? My plan is to get through it without screwing it up," I said with a smile.

"No, who do you want to be? Fierce? Charming? Likable? What?" she asked.

"Myself?" I asked.

"That's not good enough," she said.

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"I don't mean it like that. Look, you have to have some sort of idea on who you want to be," she said.

"Charming?" I asked.

"Don't ask me. Be charming,"

"Wow, Cashmere! I really love your hair! It's so... beautiful," I said.

"Thank you, Glimmer. What do you think about the Hunger Games?" she asked.

"I think that it's such an honor to participate in them and represent my district," I said. Cashmere and I worked on interview questions and by the end of the session, I had a huge headache from talking so much. It was partly from my head, though. As soon as the session was over, I went straight to my room. I was so exhausted that as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.