Fire is Raging On (A Hunger Games Fanfic) [#Wattys 2016]

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Gale's POV

"District Twelve, Gale Hawthorne . . ." I hold my breath. I don't know why I feel so nervous for my rating; it's not like I actually care about these Games at all. I just want to get this all over with already . . . and be brought back to District Twelve . . . most likely in a casket. "Ten," Caesar say appreciatively before moving on to Madge. I released the breath I was holding when my score was announced, but now I'm holding it again while waiting for Madge's.

"District Twelve, Madge Undersee . . ." Caesar holds off announcing her score to raise the anticipation, "Eight."

I release the breath I was once again holding and turn to Madge, wrapping her in my arms. "Good job," I whisper in her ear.

A light shiver runs through her and she answers back, "Thank you, you too, honey."

"Now last and final, District Thirteen," I don't hear the rest as I keep Madge in my arms, my hand running through the hair that cascades down her back. I lean back and look into her eyes, getting lost in them. It's like we are the only two people in the world.

That is until Haymitch interrupts us, "Alright, let's get going to bed, everyone. We got a busy day tomorrow."

~FIRO~

I don't understand why we have to get up so early in the damn morning. The sun has barely started making its appearance when our wake up call of ripping off our cover commences. The sudden blast of cold air quickly wakes both Madge and I up. Breakfast is eaten in relative silence, only Effie trying to start a conversation. Even Haymitch is sitting at the table with his head drooping, practically still passed out.

"Wake up everyone," Effie says, clapping her hands. "Okay. Madge, you come with me. Gale, you stay here with Haymitch."

She leads Madge away and back towards one of the rooms in the back of the suite. Haymitch sits there, rubbing his eyes.

"Just give me a minute, son. Then, we can get out to business," he says, yawning widely.

"I feel like we could have done this a little later in the morning," I say, sitting back in my chair.

"Oh, what? You don't like waking up at the ass crack of dawn?" Haymitch asks with a crackle.

"Not really," I mutter. "Anyways, what are we supposed to be doing?"

"I'm supposed to be telling you how to behave tonight. How to sit up properly; I'm going to trust you know how to do that so actually do it. Let's see, what else? Oh, don't talk out of turn when Caesar interviewing you. Make sure you walk properly up on stage. Pretty much just follow any proper behaviors while you're up there. It is broadcasted live, so you don't have room for mistakes. I'm also going to trust that you have the questions and answers part down, so we're going to skip that part. We also don't really have to cover what you're wearing because it's just going to be a suit. I'm going to assume you know how that works."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know how a suit works," I say. I thought there would be more to this, not just me sitting around all day doing nothing. It's not like it's a bad things necessarily; I just don't like to sit around and do nothing though.

"Good glad we got that all covered," Haymitch says clapping his hands together.

"So what do we do now, then?"

"What do we do?" He muses, "We're going to go one of the back rooms for one because we want Effie to think we're actually doing something."

I let out a short laugh, even in such a shitty situation, Haymitch is still doing things to irritate Effie. We both know how angry she'd be knowing we aren't doing anything we're supposed to do. Although I'm pretty sure Haymitch was put on this earth to purposely annoy the shit out of Effie.