PEETA'S POV
"Peeta...Peeta...hello? Peeta...Peeta? Come..." a faint whisper comes into my ear. A weird blurr of bizzare colours appear before my eyes and slowly take the shape of... Effie? The faint whisper that was once flying into my ear has now grown into an angry growl beating my ear drums in the shrieking voice of Effie Trinket. "PEETA!" Her hand slaps my right cheek, in result making my eyes widen and my cheek throb. As fast as lightining, I shoot up straight in my bed to see my escort eyeing me with a furious stare. "PEETA! IT IS TEN O'CLOCK! YOU WERE MEANT TO GET UP AT EIGHT! IT IS THE INTERVIEWS TONIGHT! DO YOU KNOW HOW CRUCIAL TONIGHT IS? HUH? TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT WHERE THE AUDIENCE DECIDES IF THEY WANT YOU TO WIN OR NOT!" A shocked, blank look appears on my face. A small chuckle came into my ear, I whipped around to see Haymitch on my right with his fist in his mouth, attempting (quite badly) to keep quiet.
"HOW DARE YOU LAUGH HAYMITCH ABERNATHY! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE HELPING HIM! I'M ONLY SUPPOSED TO GET EVERYONE ON SCHEDULE! AND HERE I AM AGAIN CLEARING UP AFTER YOU! PEETA! YOU HAVE MISSED TWO WHOLE HOURS OF TRAINING! NOW QUICKLY GET CHANGED!" Furiously, she throws a bundle of clothes into my arms and shoos me into the bathroom. My eyes still as large as the moon, I quickly begin to wash my face, comb my hair and dress into the grey top and black trousers Effie bombarded me with. BANG! Effie had kicked the door with her staggering heels. "Hurry up Peeta!" her voice thundered through the door.
As soon as I exited the bathroom, my escort pushed me hurriedly through the door, into the lift and carelessly plonked me down onto the dining room table, followed by my giggling mentor. Panicked and distressed that everything was off schedule, Effie Trinket snatched my plate and served it up with random bits of breakfast. Tomato slices, chunks of pineapple, chocolate spread, a dollop of butter, half a piece of toast and three fat sausages. "Now! Quickly get that down you! Fast as a lightining! Or do I have to feed you myself?" she cried. Not wanting to be spoon fed by a demented woman, I quickly shook my head and began to shove chocolate and pineapple down my throat. Finally, Effie sighed, ironed out her neon dress with her hands and said, "Now! Excuse me I have to receive Primrose, who actually got up on time!" Looking like I'd just been electrified by lighting, I turned to Haymitch who was laughing so hard, his uncontrollable limbs knocked over a few cups and plates.
"Hahahahahahaha! Hahaha! Oooohhh! YES!" Haymitch laughed madly. "Priceless! Well done!" This went on for quite a while untill I finally cleared my throat and said, "So, interviews tonight?" My mentor's violent fit of laughter managed to slowly die out and he said,
"Er... hahaha...ooohhhh! Haven't laughed like that in AGES! Oooohh! Ok, interviews! Come on, let's go over here," His walk and posture still a bit uncontrollable from laughter, Haymitch slouched lazily down onto the jet black leather sofas and offered me a seat beside him. For a moment, he eyed me closely and eventually began to talk. "Right, so as you obviously know Caesar Flickerman will be hosting tonight's show. Now tonight is CRUCIAL. Because tonight is the night the audience will decide who is their favourite tribute, the one they are going to bet on, the one they want to win this year's games, so you HAVE to get them to like you. Like you so much, they want to give you the oppurtunity to live,"This hit me hard. the oppurtunity to live? My expression turned more serious, I think I suddenly forgot how brutal and awful these games really were for minute. Judging by the look on Haymitch's face, I think he was thinking the same as he said, "Right let's practice. Pretend I'm Caesar and I'm interviewing you. Right first let's try you being....a bit shy and nervous, ok so-" I interrupted him before he could go any further and said to him, rather puzzled, "Stop. What? So I pretend to be shy?" My mentor's eyebrows furrowed, his blue eyes darted all over the place and replied with, "Err...yeah," as if this was the ordinary thing to do. Still confused and wanting more answers, I questioned, "Why can't I just be myself and answer the questions truthfully?" Haymitch paused for a while, sighed heavily and eventually said, "Because sometimes being yourself doesn't really work, and...they won't like you. So it's important to try all different characters," I was still quite upset about this because I'm going to die soon, and when I die I want to at least die letting the world know who I really am. Not pretending to be someone I'm not. My mentor probably noticed the look on my face, due to the fact he then said- "All right, how about we practice the interview being you, after we've done all the others. Yeah? See how it goes 'cause for some people it works." This cheered me up a bit, so we continued with the training. We sat for hours on end (even past lunch which my mentor was always eager to have), trying out different personalities. Shy, arrogant, talkative, loud, funny, sexy, hunk, till we finally went on to practicing being just me. When our training session eventually came to an end, my mentor beamed brightly at me and cried, "YES! YES! Ahaha! Yes we have got it! We've got it! You are perfect being you." I was delighted, in result my face broke into a wide smile as Haymitch continued, "You are kind, sweet, loving, EXTREMELY likeable, handsome boy and funny. You are going to do well in this year's games my boy. You are going to do well." A smile painted itself on my face, untill my job to save Prim came to my head. Now I wasn't just going to do it to make Katniss content, I am also doing it for Prim. The only person who has made me feel loved and wanted for the first time in my whole life, the only one who has cared about me, worried about me. She is my real family now, my sister, my friend. I simply nodded as Prim and Effie entered the room. Looking very pleased with themselves, our escort swept herself over to the seat beside Haymitch and Prim placed herself next to me.
Still grinning, Effie said, almost in the tune of a happy song, "That went very well didn't it Primrose?" She smiled in reply. "She has a great way of speaking to people, sweet sweet girl! Good sense of humor, caring kind and innocent. Mmm," Suddenly, she shot a look at Haymitch and said in a naive tone, "Erm...how did your session with Peeta go Haymitch?" Twisting her neon curls around her index finger. "Great!" he replied in a very enthusiastic voice. "Actually!" Haymitch said that part in a louder voice, leaning in closer to Effie's angry face and smiling rather smugly afterwards. Her eyes narrowing further and further, Effie gave a heavy huff and spun around so she wasn't facing him. A few seconds later, our escort spun round again, snatched the TV remote; switched on the TV and shot our mentor and evil look. Caesar Flickerman's over-tanned face flashed onto the slim silver screen and began to talk.
"Hellooooooooooooooo! And of course welcome Panem! Right! We are very VERY sorry for the delay of this year's tribute's training scores! We...er just had a slight problem. Something going on with this year's team of gamemakers!" Instantly, I thought about Katniss. What if they found out her identity? What if she's in trouble? What if they found out what she was doing? By the look on Prim's face, I could tell she was thinking the exact same. They could be doing anything to her! The Capitol are horrific enough to torture, or even murder her. A worried look swept past both of our faces, I smiled reassuringly at her to tell her it's going to be all right. Our attention turned back to the screen where Caesar Flickerman was reading out the tribute's scores.
"Right! District one, Glimmer. A score of eight. District one, Marvel a score of nine. District two, Cato score of nine. District two, Clove with a score of nine," Our escort and mentor muttered something to each other about the careers and their scores and Caesar was already on District six. "District six, Lia score of seven. District seven, Carter with a score of eight. District seven, Erjina, seven." This went on for a few minutes untill it went onto eleven. "Disrict eleven, Thresh with a score of eight. Disrtict eleven, Rue also with a score of eight." I glanced over to Prim and found her beaming brightly at Rue on the screen as her score flashed up. "And finally District twelve," Everyone's attention was now more focused than ever, and we all leant further towards the television. "Peeta, with a score of nine! And the last tribute, but certainly not the least judging by the whopper score she has! Ha! District twelve, Primrose with a score of ten," The intense silence suddenly broke into cheers and applause. The room was filled with cries of, "Oh well done you two! Ten! Very impressive! Yay! Oh yes! Brilliant you two, just brilliant!" Haymitch was patting my back and Effie Trinket hugged Prim along with Cinna who then raised his glass of gold champange and cried happily, "To Peeta Mellark and Primrose Everdeen! The girl and boy on fire!"
